
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 25, 1990                   TAG: 9003252087
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

NIXON ADMITS ASKING CIA TO BLOCK PROBE

Former President Richard Nixon, in a new book, says he did ask the CIA to block an FBI probe of the Watergate break-in, an apparent attempt to obstruct justice that led to his resignation, but the CIA declined.

His "inexcusable error," Nixon says, was made on the recommendation of staff members who "had a personal stake in covering up the facts." And it was "mitigated" by a decision by CIA director Richard Helms and his deputy, Vernon Walters, to ignore the White House request, Nixon writes.

In addition, he later "emphatically" told FBI Director Patrick Gray to go forward with the investigation, the former president writes in "In the Arena," which is excerpted in the new issue of Time magazine.

Nixon thus discounts Watergate's "most serious myth - the one that ultimately forced me to resign:" that the CIA did obstruct the FBI probe on his specific orders.

He also writes that "the most widely believed myth was that I ordered massive illegal wiretapping and surveillance of political opponents, members of the House and Senate, and news media reporters. All of these charges are false." - Associated Press

by CNB