White House Plumbers

The White House Plumbers, sometimes simply called the Plumbers, was a covert White House Special Investigations Unit, established July 24, 1971, during the presidency of Richard Nixon. Its task was to stop the leaking of classified information, such as the Pentagon Papers, to the news media. Its members branched into illegal activities while working for the Committee to Re-elect the President, including the Watergate break-in and the ensuing Watergate scandal.

On Thanksgiving evening of 1972, David Young arrived home from his planning at the Special Investigative Unit, when his grandmother asked him, "What do you do at the White House?", to which he replied, "I am helping the president stop some leaks." She replied, with astonishment, "Oh, you're a plumber!" Young, Liddy and Hunt then put up a sign on their office with the title, "The Plumbers". Soon it was taken down, because their covert operations were supposed to be top secret, but the name stuck for the group.

The Plumbers came to include several Watergate figures. E. Howard Hunt was recommended by Charles Colson, and G. Gordon Liddy was recommended by Egil Krogh. Liddy coined his own sensitivity indicator for the group in the form of "ODESSA".

Another member of the group was its liaison to the CIA, John Paisley. In recent years, Paisley's involvement has led to speculation how the CIA had a far greater hand in the operations of the Plumbers than originally thought at the time. What is known is Paisley was assigned to the CIA's Office of Security (OS), of which Watergate burglar James McCord was once a member. On August 9, 1971, David Young's memo indicates he met with Paisley and OS Director Howard Osborn, in which Paisley provided a list of objectives for the Special Investigations Unit.

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