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ONI & the Assassination of JFK


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ONI - THE OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE (ONI)

JFKcountercoup: ONI & the Assassination of JFK

The CIA has always taken the heat for the assassination of President Kennedy, mainly because people recognize what happened at Dealey Plaza was a covert intelligence operations – the kind of thing the CIA does.

But the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) is also suspect for being somehow involved, not for any one reason but for an increasingly accumulating body evidence that implicates it in the assassination drama.

For starters, the two victims – John F. Kennedy and John Connally, as well as their alleged attacker, Lee Harvey Oswald, had Navy backgrounds.

John F. Kennedy served as an officer in the ONI during World War II before being transferred to the Pacific. Connally was the Secretary of Navy when Lee Harvey Oswald defected to the Soviet Union after serving in the Marine Corps, which comes under the Department of Navy.

From the Soviet Union, Oswald wrote Connally a letter to straighten out his undesirable discharge, but Connally had left his post as Navy Sec to become Governor of Texas, and passed the letter on to his successor Fred Korth. Korth, like Oswald, was from Fort Worth, and had represented Oswald's stepfather in thedivorce case against his mother.

The Office of Naval Intelligence is the oldest (1881), smallest, most influential and least publicized of all official U.S.government intelligence agencies. The ONI mission statement says, "Naval Intelligence is part of the 'corporate enterprise' of military intelligence agencies working within the Intelligence Community. Naval intelligence produces and services support the operating forces, the Department of the Navy, and the maritime intelligence requirements of national level agencies. The Office ofNaval Intelligence (ONI), located primarily in the National Maritime Intelligence Center in Suitland, Maryland, is the national production center for global maritime intelligence."

"ONI is the center of expertise for every major maritime issue – from the analysis of the design and construction of surface ships to the collection and analysis of acoustic information on foreign sensor systems, ocean surveillance systems, submarine platforms and undersea weapons systems. Its analysis of naval air warfare ranges from appraisals of opposition combat tactics toanalysis of rival missile signatures, making it the authorative resource formaritime air issues."

"…Naval intelligence is under the command of the Director of Naval Intelligence, who also serves as the staff advisor on intelligence matters tothe Chief of Naval Operations. The Office of Naval Intelligence is an echelon two command. The DNI also oversees the operations of the Naval Security Group (NSG), which is also an echelon two command."

"ONI's missions are established by law, serving the Secretary of the Navy by providing the intelligence needed to train and equip naval forces. The Office works closely with the Joint Intelligence Centers of the United and Specified Commands to ensure that they have the detailed background information needed to enhance their support to the joint operating forces."

RELEVANT ONI HISTORY

The Office of Naval Intelligence was established on March 23, 1882, founded by a linguist, Lieutenant Theodorus B. M. Mason. He was named the first Chief Intelligence Officer after he recommended the Navy "assign naval attaches to embassies and Negations throughout the world to collect intelligence on advances in naval science." He also recommended that a section be created in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy "to assemble, correlate, and distribute reports on the intelligence gathered."

According to the official history, "When Theodore Roosevelt became AssistantSecretary of the Navy in 1897, he quickly let it be known that he was going towork closely with office personnel. He believed Chief Intelligence Officers should provide advice and assistance to Department heads, as would AdmiraltyBoard members in England's Royal Navy."

"In 1939, Rear Admiral Walter Anderson became the DNI. Anticipating theoutbreak of war in Europe, he established a section to keep track of theworld's merchant shipping routes, a strategic information center to gather andfurnish information on request, and a secret intelligence section to handleconfidential agents….There were four different DNIs in the year prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor…The DNI and the Director of Communications disagreedover who would control the dissemination of communications – derived intelligence; the transcript of the Japanese Navy operational code was brokenby the Office of Naval Communications, but the translation work was done byintelligence linguists. The conflict was resolved in the DNI's favor."

"In January, 1944, it assumed control of the Photographic Interpretation Center from the Deputy CNO's Air IntelligenceCenter (NPIC)…Immediately after the war, the CNO was reorganized; and the DNI was titled Chief of Naval Intelligence, headingthe Office of Naval Intelligence…In August, 1946, ONI was shifted to theOperations Division of OPNAV and absorbed the Operations Chartroom, whichbecame the Operations Intelligence Branch; ONI then became formally involved inoperational intelligence. At the same time, part of ONI's organization, the Office of Naval Records and Library, was removed, combined with the Office ofNaval History and placed under the Deputy CNOfor Administration."

"The National Security Act of 1947 required unification of military servicesand provided for greater coordination between intelligence activities of thevarious armed forces…the Chief of Naval Intelligence again became the DNI inNovember, 1948….The outbreak of hostilities in Korea dramatically increased ONI's workload, resulting in authorization of new billets and the recall of Naval Reserve intelligence officers…"

"The Defense Intelligence Agency (DNI) was created in October 1961 to improve the effectiveness and responsiveness of Department of Defense intelligence products and activities…"

"Until 1963, it had been Navy policy to fill the DNI billet with anunrestricted line officer. Rear Admiral Rufus Taylor was the first IntelligenceSpecialist to hold the position of DNI…."

UNOFFICIAL HISTORY OF ONI

Other than the official history, the most authorative independently researched history of ONI is the two-volume work by Rutgers University (Camden, N.J.) professor Jeffrey M. Dorwart, "The Office of Naval Intelligence 1865-1919," and"Conflict of Duty, The U.S. Navy's Intelligence Dilemma 1919-1945," (NavalInstitute Press, Annapolis, Md., 1983).

[Note: Dorwart mentions that for interested researchers, ONI records are heldat the National Archives Records Group 38, but they are generally restricted,classified and unavailable to the public.]

According to Dorwart, ONI agents, "….broke into safes, eavesdropped, vandalizedprivate property and consorted with unsavory characters in pursuit of domesticpacifists and radicals. Still others interfered in the internal affairs ofLatin American nations, dabbed in Asian politics, and accompanied FascistsBlack Shirts into Africa. These men were not covertagents of the CIA, FBI or some eliteAmerican espionage team. They were U.S. naval and marine officers attached,between 1919 and 1945, to the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI), a relativelyobscure bureau whose primary mission was to provide strategic and technicalinformation for the U.S. Navy."

"Dorwart explains the intense rivalry that developed among the militaryintelligence agencies during the war, how President Roosevelt utilized his ownprivate espionage network outside the military and state department, and howthe British tutored Roosevelt's most important private spy, William "Wild Bill"Donovan.

Dorwart: "Successful information gathering trips for the president to Britainand to the Balkans and Middle East prepared the way, whilehis (Donovan's) appointment in June as Coordinator of Information secured hisplace. As COI, he hired brilliant, creative and controversial assistants. Hebecame close friends with (Ian) Fleming (assistant to Director, British NavalIntelligence) and Churchill superspy (Sir William) Stephenson, achievingunprecedented access to the very good British secret services. He stepped onthe toes of other intelligence agencies, bypassed regular channels, and created interdepartmental jealousies – the kind of approach understood and admired by FDR…ONI appeared most perturbed by the competition from the fast movingcivilian…"

The conclusion reached is the increasing reliance on crypto, cipher andcommunication and code intercepts and their translation, and the failure toproperly analyze it, led to the intelligence failure at Pearl Harbor.

Though ignored in the official history, Dorwart manages to give credence to theMafia connections with the U.S.intelligence community, which were first established by the ONI in New York. As Dorwart reports, "The sensational fire onthe converted ocean liner NORMANDIE in New York harbor on 17 Februaryaccelerated security measures, especially waterfront control, port security andboarding patrols to interrogate passengers and search incoming vessels. Incooperation with other agencies ONI prepared a joint survey of New York harbor, and in a less covert operation began tosend agents into the city's seamy world of prostitution, organized crime, andracketeering in search of America'senemies. Reportedly from March 1942 ONI cooperated with local crime syndicateleaders including Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Joseph "Socks" Lanza to locateleaks of convoy information along the waterfronts and infiltrate the fishingindustry with ONI agents…."

The ONI's flirtation with the Mafia, which was originallyestablished to protect the Northeast ports from Nazi saboteurs, blossomed intoa full fledged marriage when a deal was struck with the imprisoned "Lucky"Luciano to obtain Mafia assistance in preparing for the invasion of Sicily,which became known as Operation Lucky.

JFK & ONI

Navy Ensign John F. Kennedy was assigned to the ONI and was working as an ONIofficer when he met his sister's college roommate Inga Arvad of Denmark.As Miss Denmark 1931 Arvad attended the propaganda tinged 1936 Olympics inBerlin where she "charmed Adolph Hitler and his cohorts so much that she gainedaccess to their inner circle, and was Hitler's guest" at the Olympics.

As a 1940 student at the Columbia School of Journalism [which later receivedfunding from the CIA front CatherwoodFoundation], Arvad lived with JFK's sister Kathleen when they both worked forthe New York Times Herald. At the time JFK dated Arvad, she worked for theubiquitous North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA), which also employed ErnestHemingway when he liberated Paris with the OSS, Priscilla Johnson McMillan whenshe interviewed Oswald in Moscow and Virginia Prewett when she covered Alpha 66operations in Cuba.

Kennedy and Arvad spent some time together in a Charleston, South Carolina hotel that was bugged by theFBI, and when Arvad's background as a possible spy was established, Kennedy wastransferred out of ONI to the PT boat squadron in the Pacific.

We do know that the ONI played a major role in the study of assassination andvarious ways, means and methods to accomplish it. At a NATO conference in Norwayon the subject of stress in combat, U.S. Navy Lt. Commander (LCDR) Thomas Narutwas quoted in the London Sunday Times as saying that such research iscontinuous, on going and operational.

According to Narut, "…combat readiness units…include men for commando-typeoperations and….for insertion into U.S. embassies under cover,…ready to kill inthose countries should the need arise….U.S. Navy psychologists speciallyselected men for these commando tasks, from submarine crews, paratroops, andsome were convicted murderers from military prisons…Research on those givenawards for valor in battle [ie. Audie Murphy] has shown….that the best killersare men with 'passive-aggressive' personalities….Among the tests used is theMinnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. This consists of hundreds ofquestions, and rates personality on many traits including such things ashostility, depression, psychopathy…." The Times reported that, "The menselected were brought either to the Navy's neuropsychiatric laboratory in San Diego, California (which alsotrains spys in techniques to counter interrogation), or to the laboratory whereNarut works in the U.S. Naval Medical Center in Naples."

Gerald Posner's "Case Closed" (Random House, 1993, p.13), noted that when Oswald was tested by Dr. R.Hartog as a New York City delinquent, "Hartog's diagnosis [of Oswald] was thatof a 'personality pattern disturbance….and passive-aggressive tendencies," - justwhat the Navy psychs were looking for in potential assassins.

Following in the footsteps of his older brother, Lee Harvey Oswald joined theUSMC as soon as he was legally of age, and was twice stationed in San Diego, California, home of theNavy's "neuropsychiatric" lab where they taught counter-intelligence andinterrogation resistance techniques.

Trained as a radar operator, Oswald was also stationed at Atsugi, Japan, where heoccasionally stood guard duty at the U2 hanger. In 1956, Edwin P. Wilson wasassigned to a sixty man detachment responsible for U2 security, which was basedat North Las Vegas, Nevada,abut assigned overseas under cover of the Maritime Survey Associates, of 80 Boylston St., Boston, Mass.For some time Wilson served in Japanbut he also was stationed at Adana, Turkeywhen Francis Gary Powers was flying out of there. Wilsonwould later, in 1971, serve in ONI's Task Force 157, which was established byRA Rufus Taylor, who was director of ONI at the time of the assassination.

Oswald may have become involved in ONI counter-intelligence operations in Japan,(when Rufus Taylor was also there) and where he is said to have been the targetfor recruitment by KGB assets. Although the Navy has refused to even admit thatsuch a program existed, and some, like Otto Otepka of State Dept. Security,lost their jobs over it, there apparently was a Navy run defector program that includedOswald.

When Oswald left the USMC he returned to his hometown of New Orleans, from where he obtained, from a travel agencyat the World Trade Mart, passage on a tramp steamer to Europe,the first leg of his journey to Russia.On his passport was stamped his occupation: "Import-Export Agent."

In New Orleans at the same time,and the only time and place their careers and travels have thus far shown tooverlap, Col. Jose Rivera, USAR was teaching at a local medical college. WhenOswald was stationed at San Diegobefore his defection, although in the Army Reserves, Rivera was stationed at a Naval Research Centernear San Francisco, California.

After Oswald defected, his honorable discharge was changed to "undesirable,"which infuriated him once he learned of it, and indeed, how could he bedeclared "undesirable" after he had already left the service. AnotherCatch-22.

Writing a letter to the Secretary of the Navy John Connally, Oswald comparedhis trip to Minsk was "likeHemingway went to Paris." NowPriscilla Johnson McMillan, who knew Oswald in Moscow,wrote that Oswald compared his stay in Russiato when Hemingway went to Paris inthe 1920s. But Oswald didn't say the 1920s, when Hemingway lived there with theLost Generation. He could have instead been referring to Hemingway's liberationof Paris in 1944.

While working in liaison with the ONI in the Caribbean,Hemingway kept watch for Nazi subs and ships while fishing aboard his boat thePilar, the fuel for which was supplied by the ONI. After D-Day however,Hemingway went to England,where his son was a British Special Operations trained JEDBERG. He was droppedbehind the lines where he was captured and held prisoner until the war's end.After D-Day, Hemingway obtained correspondent credentials and went to France,where he hooked up with an OSScontingent led by Col. David Bruce. Bruce would later become Hemingway's bestman and serve as John F. Kennedy's ambassador to the Court of St. James (UK). Afterthe fight for Paris was mainlyover, Hemingway, Bruce and their commandos liberated the bar of the Ritz Hotel,which had been occupied by the German General command earlier that morning. Hemingwaytook a head count of his party and ordered sixty vodka martinis, shaken-not-stirred.

Oswald's letter to Connally that mentioned "Hemingway in Paris"was received by the new Secretary of the Navy, Fred Korth, a Fort Worth attorney who knew Oswald's family. Korth had toresign as Navy Sec in the weeks before the assassination because he was entwinedwith the controversial TFX jet fightercontract negotiations with General Dynamics and the Continental National Bankof Fort Worth. Korth was alsopresent at the Hotel Cortez meeting when JFK and LBJ hashed out the details ofthe Texas trip.

When Oswald returned to Texaswith his Russian wife, he met George DeMohrenschildt, who became a closefriend. One of the more bizarre incidents between Oswald and DeMohrenschildt isthe story of how DeMohrenschildt tried to get Oswald a job at Collins Radio byintroducing him to a Collins executive - retired US Navy Admiral Chester Bruton.

DeMohrenschildt came knocking atBruton's door saying that he knew the previous owners of the house, and using hiswell-honed charm, managed an invitation to use Bruton's pool, and invited Marinato use it as well. One day, while Marina and DeMohrenschildt were lounging bythe pool with Bruton, Oswald arrived unannounced and stayed for lunch. Oswalddidn't get along very well with the Admiral, an officer and "lifer" andneedless to say, he didn't get a job at Collins. DeMohrenschildt tried to sellhim on the fact that after all, Oswald did work in a radio factory in Russia. Butthe Collins Radio connections would later multiply and require closerexamination [see: The Collins Radio Connections JFKcountercoup: Collins Radio Connections ].

Bruton was a former nuclear submarine commander who was hired by Collins afterhe retired from the Navy. He was reportedly working on a new electronics systemfor communicating with nuclear submarines at sea. Operating under the codenames "Binnacle" and "Holystone," the ONI began using nuclear subs, not only fornuclear Polaris missile deterrent, but for electronic espionage. As mentionedin "Blind Man's Bluff – The Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage" (BySherry Sontag and Christopher Drew, Harper, 1998), "Congress okayed thesepopular proposals and offered up funding that caught the attention of theOffice of Naval Intelligence. The Navy might have been promising an era thatmirrored Jules Verne, but a few submarine espionage specialists now saw themeans to launch a new age of spying that would be much closer to JamesBond."

"In addition to these operations off the Soviet Coast, some diesel subs carriedRussian émigrés back to the Soviet Union to spy for the United States, andother diesel subs were landing commandos in places like Borneo, Indonesia andthe Middle East to track the expanding Soviet influence. [shortly after thefailed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961, Navy commandos useddiesel submarines to engineer the escape of prominent Cubans from Castro'sregime. Over several weeks, commandos slipped from the subs and rowed to shorein inflatable rafts. The Cubans who were piloted back to the subs often had todive 15 to 30 feet through dark waters to enter the submerged craft throughspecial pressurized compartments. May of those rescued likely would have beenjailed or executed for plotting to overthrow Castro, according to former U.S.sailors involved in the operation."

"Couriers met returning submarines at the dock, ready to whisk the intelligencedirectly to NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland," so it is interestingthat Oswald met and leafleted the crew when the USS Wasp put into port at NewOrleans.

After the shooting of Gen. Edwin Walker Lee Harvey Oswaldtook a bus from Dallas, Texasto his hometown of New Orleans,where through the efforts of an old family friend, Mrs. Myrtle Evans, heobtained an apartment on Magazine Streetand then got a job at the Riley Coffee Company.

Two weeks earlier, in Washington, D.C.,Dr./Col. Jose Rivera, USAR, gave Adele Edisen Oswald's New Orleans Magazine street phone number - that's twoweeks before Oswald himself knew where he would be living. At the time,Dr./Col. Rivera, although in the U.S. Army Reserves, was officially stationedat the U.S. Naval Biological Lab at the University of California, Berkeley.

The ONI offices in New Orleans werein the same building where Oswald kept his Post Office box, just across thestreet from 544 Camp Street,the central base of various nefarious operations run by Guy Bannister. Althoughhis record does not indicate he ever served in the Navy, Bannister is said tohave worked with the FBI in New Yorkwhen they were working with the Mafia in liaison with the ONI.

Bannister did have a friend, Guy Persac Johnson, served in ONI in the Pacific and later becameJim Garrison's law partner and for awhile, Clay Shaw's attorney. Guy P. Johnsonwas alleged to have a copy of the elusive "Homme Report" that ostensibly provesthat RFK had a contract out to kill Castro.

Garrison mentions in a footnote to On The Trail of the Assassins, that theLouisiana State Police found a book in Guy Bannister's office on NavalIntelligence, by Admiral Ellis Zacharias.

One of Zacharias' literary collaborators was Ladislas Farago,who wrote a series of articles in 1963 on the woeful state of U.S.anti-submarine warfare preparation. He said they were lacking Congressionalbacking which hampered weapon research and the improving of technology and thatthe cautious spending would also result in mechanical deficiencies. About twomonths after Farago's material was published, the Thresher went down.

From New Orleans,Lee Harvey Oswald returned to Texas,via Mexico City around the sametime that three men visited Sylvia Odio and her sister, one of whom was "LeonOswald, an ex-Marine who could kill anyone, like the Secretary of theNavy."

Around the same time, Edward Bray was visited by three men in suits who claimedto represent JFCOTT – Justice for the Crew of The Thresher, the nuclear subthat went down with all hands, ostensibly because of faulty hardware made bythe Bendix corporation, for whom Bray worked. Like Odio's visitors the JFCOTTvisiters to Bray also threatened the President and Governor Connally, the formerSecretary of the Navy. Bray even wrote to Connally to warn him of the threats.After the assassination, some people, like James Reston, Jr., son of the NYTimes reporter, speculated that Oswald actually intended to shoot Connallyrather than Kennedy.

In his book "Reasonable Doubt" Henry Hurt attributes someshady "bagman" activities in New Orleansto an unnamed former Navy man and Notre Dame alumni, while former D.A. JimGarrison recalled being approached and threatened about his investigation intothe Kennedy assassination and by Coloradooilman John Miller, who had attended the U.S. Naval Academy.

A number of Oswald's former USMC shipmates return to action in the drama, includingG.P. Hemming in San Diego, Kerry Thornley and A. Hiedell in New Orleans andRoscoe White in Dallas. Roscoe White, who sailed to Japanwith Oswld, and later worked for the Dallas Police Department, allegedly workedunder cover for ONI. According to documents obtained by his son, he receivedONI typed orders:

Navy Int.

Code A. M R C

Remark data

1666106

NRC VRC NAC

- 1963

Remarks Mandarin : Code A :

FOREIGN AFFAIRS ASSIGNMENTS HAVE BEEN CANCELED.

THE NEXT ASSIGNMENT IS TO ELIMINATE ANATIONAL

SECURITY THREAT TO WORLD WIDE PEACE.DESTINATION

WILL BE HOUSTON, AUSTIN OR DALLAS. CONTACTS ARE

BEING ARRANGED NOW. ORDERS ARESUBJECT TO CHANGE

AT ANY TIME. REPLY BACK IF NOT UNDERSTOOD.

C. Bowers

O S H A

Re-rifle Code AAA destroy / on /

While this document has been questioned by some, it is verysimilar to two other documents that I have confirmed were official ONIdocuments, without a logo or official masthead.

Two days after the assassination Det. Paul Bently of the Dallas PoliceDepartment received a letter from Robert D. Steel, Commander, USNR-R, of 7960June Lake Drive, San Diego, California. Steel wrote Bently, "Perhaps you areaware that ONI has quite a file on Oswald, which no doubt has been madeavailable on the Washingtonlevel. If not, I am certain that this information can be obtained for youthrough our resident special agent in charge of the Dallasoffice, A. C. Sullivan, who is a wonderful agent, and whom I hope you know. Asa personal friend, I congratulate you, wish you continued success, and praythat your guardian angel will remain close at hand and vigilant, always."

Paul Bentley was the chief operator of the department's polygraphunit. He and Allan Sweatt headed up the Texas Association of PolygraphExaminers. Bentley was of Oswald's arresting officers, had searched Oswald'swallet on way back to station and in his report stated, "On the way toCity Hall, I removed the subject's wallet and obtained his name." Nomention of "Hidell whatsoever. Ditto the other four cops in the car, who nevercalled to testify by Warren Commission.

As for A. C. Sullivan, his full name is Arthur Carroll Sullivan, Jr. , who wasin ONI 27 years, and also worked for the FBI and as an investigator for theDallas DA.

During its investigation the HSCA learned from a former officer that the USMCsent a special investigations team to San Diegoand Japan.According to an officer who flew on the same plane, they wrote a report onOswald's activities when he was there. The USMC investigators reportedlyconcluded that Oswald was incapable of committing the assassination alone. Butthat report has never been acknowledged let alone released, even though theofficials were supplied with the plane's tail numbers, flight data and thenames of others aboard. The Assassination Records Review Board's Final Reportmerely notes that, "the Marine Corps did not locate evidence of any internalinvestigations of Lee Harvey Oswald, other than correspondence already publishedin the Warren Report."

Oswald had used A. Hidel and J. Evans as references on adocument, and in the same page of the Warren Report they deny that eitherperson exists, yet acknowledge that Oswald served with a Heindell in the USMC who lived in New Orleans at the time. And there was a Hidel bartenderin Baton Rouge who knew theMcCurley brothers, two of the guys who helped Oswald hand out FPCCliterature. Then there was Julian - J.Evans, the husband of the women who knew the Oswald family for many years andhelped Oswald find the Magazine St.apartment.

At 1:30 a.m. on 11/24/63, Mr David Kerr Office of NavalIntelligence, contacted SAIC Rice (New Orleans) by telephone, advising that athorough search had been made of the Marine Corps records with the followingresults: There are four persons on active duty by the name of J. Evans, andtwelve on inactive duty . . . He said that there was only one officer,Lieutenant John Stewart Evans . . . who might be associated with Oswald'sreference. He further advised that there is no record of a "Hidell"either on active duty or inactive; and that the only similar name is John R. Heindel, age thirty-eight, born in Louisiana, who is not active, his recordbeing available at the Federal Records Center, St. Louis. CE." Heindel hadserved with Oswald in the Marines.

Lamar Waldron and Tom Hartmann (in Ultimate Sacrifice/Legacy of Secrecy) havenumerous confidential sources, one of whom they identify as a former ONIofficer. (Ultimate Sacrifice p. 164)

"...Our confidential Naval Intelligence source - who had helped to compilethe reports resulting from the 'tight surveillance' of Oswald since his returnto this US from Russia - said that 'on the day of the assassination,' he and acoworker 'were called back to their office in Washington.' After receiving theorders from their commander, they 'destroyed and sanitized lots of the Oswaldfile.' Confirmation for such document destruction comes from FBI memos, which describetheir own interviews with Marines who had served with Oswald. However, the FBIagents discovered that some of the Marines had earlier been interviewed by NavyIntelligence - but those Naval Intelligence reports are all missing, leading anFBI agent to say in a memo, 'Perhaps they have been destroyed.'"

The Naval Intelligence file our source handled in the fall of 1963 concernedonly the close surveillance of Oswald, not any operational duties Oswald mighthave had. Those were apparently being handled by, or coordinated with, the CIA.Our source said there was 'a note on the top of the file jacket [that] said tocontact the CIA if Oswald was arrested orgot into trouble. There was a name and some sort of code given for someone atthe CIA.' 43. The one person at the CIAwho is alleged to have been in contact with Oswald is David Atlee Phillip. Inhis later autobiographical novel outline, Phillips wrote that Oswald was partof the effort to assassinate Castro and had 'used [against JFK] precisely the planwe had devised against Castro."

"Naval Intelligence and its close counterpart, Marine Intelligence (G-2) were components of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) headed by General Joseph Carroll. A journalist told former Senate investigator Bernard Fensterwald that 'Oswald had connections to an 'intelligence service...called the Defense Intelligence Agency...The General who...supposedly made the arrangements [was] General Joe Carroll, founder of the DIA...The Arm was going nuts over Oswald's part in the assassination.' Army Intelligence destroyed its entire Oswald file in 1973."

Among the ONI records requested by the ARRB, and located in ONI files by LCDR T. Pike were ONI records on American defectors to Communist block countries. Among those records should be files on Oswald and two NSA codeclerks who had been based at Fort Meade defected to Russia.Before their joining the ranks of NSA Vernon F. Mitchell and William H. Martin served together in the Navy. Just after their defections, NSA Director Lt. Gen. John Samford retired citing health problems. He was replaced by the then Director ofNaval Intelligence, Laurence Frost.

It is also interesting to note that in the course of their defections Mitchelland Martin traveled to New Orleans and then on to Mexico and to Cuba where theyboarded a Soviet fishing boat out of Havana, all familiar locations toassassination researchers.

In his Washington Post article on the dissolution of the ARRB,George Lardner, Jr. headlined "JFK Assassination Board Closes on Critical Note." (September 29, 1998) hewrote:

"The Assassination Records Review Board, created out of abroad public conviction that the government was hiding important information,winds up its work this week after collecting and releasing thousands ofpreviously secret records about President John F. Kennedy's murder -- and concluding that aggressive efforts are needed to pursue still more."

"Required by law to close its doors Sept. 30, the small but independent agency said in a final 236-page report that its aggressive efforts frequently paid off, but that it is still worried that "critical records may have been withheld" from its scrutiny. The agency said it did not secure "all that was 'out there.' The board also scolded the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board for insisting that 'unique information' inits files was not 'assassination-related' and demanding an 'unnecessary [and] burdensome' document-by-document justification."

"The Kennedy presidential library in Bostonwas ranked as a disappointment for delays in sought-after papers from Robert F.Kennedy's files, even though they contain 'a wealth of Cubamaterial,' wrote Lardner, especially noting that, "The Office of NavalIntelligence (ONI) was described as a puzzle, if not a black hole."

"Oswald was a Marine before he defected to the Soviet Union and the board said a former naval intelligence specialistrecalled how ONI conducted a post-defection investigation that produced atleast a dozen reports about Oswald that crossed his desk. The specialist, Frank Reeves, said 'the primary concern of the reports he read on Oswald was toascertain what damage had been done to the national security by Oswald'sdefection.' The board said it was unable to locate any such documents. Apparently the only ONI document on Oswald that the board mentioned was a Sept. 21, 1964 unsigned affidavit from then-ONI Director Rufus Taylor declaring that ONI 'never utilized Lee Harvey Oswald as an agent or an informant.'" The ARRB notes this document was located among the records of Sec Def MacNamara while another document says it came from the files of Paul Fay.

But according to ARRB records, their official contact withONI had reported to them that she had located defector records, reviewed them page by page and placed them in a special box marked for the ARRB, but the ONI officer was replaced, reprimanded and the records never released to the ReviewBoard.

When the CIA director Richard Helms was asked by the HSCA about their interests in Oswald after hisdefection, Helms said that, "It would have been considered a Navy matter," and recommended they talk to Rufus Taylor, who just happened to have died two weeks previous.

In the Final Report of the Assassinations Records Review Board it is noted "for the record" that ONI couldn't locate any documents whatsoever of Admiral Taylor when he was director and that: "ONI stated that it conducted an extensive review of ONI records held at the Federal Records Centers throughout thecountry. ONI did not identify any additional assassination records. ONI was unable to find any relevant files for the Director of ONI from 1959 to 1964.ONI also acknowledged that there were additional ONI records that were not reviewed for assassination records, but these records would be reviewed under Executive Order 12958 requiring declassification of government records. TheOffice of Naval Intelligence submitted its Final Declaration of Compliance dated May 18, 1998."

Bill Kelly - bkjfk3@yahoo.com

Edited by William Kelly
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Peter Dale Scott on Oswald, Marine Corps Intelligence, and the Assault on the State Dept.

Oswald's Suppressed ONI and Marine G2 Records

jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/S Disk/Scott Peter Dale/Item 02.pdf

Also see: JFKcountercoup: ONI Navy & Military Record Groups

JFKcountercoup: Defense Department (DOD) Records Related to the Assassination of JFK

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  • 2 weeks later...

Concerning Edward F. Bray and his letter to JBC, here is a collection of documents from the John Armstrong Baylor Collection that have some pretty interesting things included in them:

http://contentdm.bay...PTR=23246&REC=1 (10 pages) including reference to an 8mm film taken of the assassination from inside the TSBD

As a way of explanation, Bray apparently worked for Bendix at one time, and Bendix, from what I understand, made the "O" rings that failed in the deep dive tests of the USS Thresher

submarine, which was lost with all hands early in the JFK administration.

Bray said that sometime after the Thresher went down, he was visited by a group of men in suits who claimed to represent a group called Justice For the Crew of the Thresher, aka JFCOTT,

who threatened to kill the President and the Secretary of the Navy, a visit that sounded to me very similar to the Odio incident with the Cubans.

Apparently there was also a court case, Bendix vs. Bray, and I believe it went to trial or at least a hearing because I know of a researcher who obtained the transcripts on microfilm, but

at the time we didn't have a way of viewing the microfilm and I don't know what became of it. Bray also threatened to show the film of the assassination at the Bendix trial.

In any case, from the information the visitors from JFCOTT gave Bray, he claims to have sent a letter to the President and Navy Sec. in August 1963 warning them of the JFCOTT threat, that an assassin

with a high powered rifle would be used and that a disgrunted ex-serviceman would be made the patsy.

Now according to the FBI Bray was an alcoholic nut-case, and he certainly sounds like one, but they also said the same thing about Sylvia Odio, and their two stories appear to jive, giving alternative

motives for the possible assassin/patsy - one JFCOTT the other Cuban.

In addition, the three documents released by Ricky White that he said were from ONI to his father, were said to have been forged by some, and by another New Orleans researcher, said to have

been traced to a US Navy teletype machine aboard the USS Thresher. Now since the typeface of this document can be traced, it should be, as it is either a forgery or a genuine teletype printout.

Then, the Rambler station wagon that Richard Bartholomew located and eventually owned, and as detailed in his essay, included a stack of Life Magazines, one of which was a copy of the edition that

had a photo feature article on the destruction of the USS Thresher.

As an aside, directly related to the patsy eventually accused of the crime, Michael Paine, his wife Ruth and his mother spent many a summer, including the one before the assassination, at the Paine family island off Massachusetts,

which happens to be adjacent to the Woods Hole nautical and acoustical research facility that closely monitored the Thresher's deep dives and assisted in attempting to retrieve evidence and determine what actually happened to it.

And finally, former Admiral Chester Brouton, an executive at Collins Radio, was introduced to Oswald by George DeMohrenschildt with the idea of getting Oswald a job a Collins. Brouton's job at Collins was in regards to devising secure communications with US nuclear submarines, which of course would have included the Thresher.

While I can't vouch for any of the above information, it gives you the background necessary to understand what those letters and reports refer to.

It would be interesting to know what became of Bray and his film, as he apparently made a number of copies of the records and films that he had, including the original August 1963 letter he says he sent to JFK and Connally/Korth.

It could also be significant to track down the microfilm record of the court documents from the Bendix v. Bray case, or obtain them from the court.

Any further information anyone obtains about Bray and his case vs Bendix would be appreciated.

BK

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  • 6 months later...
  • 7 months later...

ONI - THE OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE (ONI)

JFKcountercoup: ONI & the Assassination of JFK

[...]

Two days after the assassination Det. Paul Bently of the Dallas Police Department received a letter from Robert D. Steel, Commander, USNR-R, of 7960 June Lake Drive, San Diego, California. Steel wrote Bently, "Perhaps you are aware that ONI has quite a file on Oswald, which no doubt has been made available on the Washington level. If not, I am certain that this information can be obtained for you through our resident special agent in charge of the Dallas office, A. C. Sullivan, who is a wonderful agent, and whom I hope you know. As a personal friend, I congratulate you, wish you continued success, and pray that your guardian angel will remain close at hand and vigilant, always." (emphasis added by T. Graves)

[...]

Bill Kelly - bkjfk3@yahoo.com

Bill,

I called the San Diego Public Library's "California Room" today, where they have a bunch of old San Diego telephone books. The nice young woman tried looking up Robert D. Steel at 7960 June Lake Drive for me in both the regular and "criss-cross" 1962 and 1963 phone books. According to the librarian, 7960 June Lake Drive was "under construction" in 1962 and "vacant" in 1963. (I did a little of my own "research" and found some online real estate listing companies which say that that house was built in 1963.) She didn't have anyone by the name of "Robert D. Steel" in San Diego in those phone books, nor did she have a "Robert Steel" living anywhere on June Lake Drive. She did, however, have a "Doris E. Steel" living at 7992 June Lake Drive (which was also built in 1963 according to the internet)...

[deleted]

--Tommy :sun

P.S. Where's Tom Scully when we really need him? LOL

Edited by Thomas Graves
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ONI - THE OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE (ONI)

JFKcountercoup: ONI & the Assassination of JFK

[...]

Two days after the assassination Det. Paul Bently of the Dallas Police Department received a letter from Robert D. Steel, Commander, USNR-R, of 7960 June Lake Drive, San Diego, California. Steel wrote Bently, "Perhaps you are aware that ONI has quite a file on Oswald, which no doubt has been made available on the Washington level. If not, I am certain that this information can be obtained for you through our resident special agent in charge of the Dallas office, A. C. Sullivan, who is a wonderful agent, and whom I hope you know. As a personal friend, I congratulate you, wish you continued success, and pray that your guardian angel will remain close at hand and vigilant, always." (emphasis added by T. Graves)

[...]

Bill Kelly - bkjfk3@yahoo.com

Bill,

I called the San Diego Public Library's "California Room" today, where they have a bunch of old San Diego telephone books. The nice young woman tried looking up Robert D. Steel at 7960 June Lake Drive for me in both the regular and "criss-cross" 1962 and 1963 phone books. According to the librarian, 7960 June Lake Drive was "under construction" in 1962 and "vacant" in 1963. (I did a little of my own "research" and found some online real estate listing companies which say that that house was built in 1963.) She didn't have anyone by the name of "Robert D. Steel" in San Diego in those phone books, nor did she have a "Robert Steel" living anywhere on June Lake Drive. She did, however, have a "Doris E. Steel" living at 7992 June Lake Drive (which was also built in 1963 according to the internet)...

Perhaps someone could do some online "research" on this Doris E. Steel. From little snippets of information I got as a non-paying visitor to some background-checking/genealogical websites, I believe that she may have been the same Doris E. Steel who was born in Texas in 1929 and was living in Tyler, Texas in 1940, and that she may have been the same "Doris E. Steel" who married a "Hillel R. Kaplan" in California and later got a divorce from a "Hillel R. Kaplan" in San Diego. Interesting to note that a "Ronald T. Kaplan, 46, related to a Hillel Kaplan") has lived in both Dallas and San Diego...

--Tommy :sun

P.S. Where's Tom Scully when we really need him? LOL

Thanks Tommy, good hunting.

I think this document has been tracked down to a batch among the personal papers of a Dallas policeman, and the names of the others mentioned in it are real - Bentley is real and I think A. C. Sullivan has documents among the records, so I think R. D. Steel is probably real too.

Keep digging and maybe you'll come up with something -

and Scully should be along shortly if he can help.

BK

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ONI - THE OFFICE OF NAVAL INTELLIGENCE (ONI)

JFKcountercoup: ONI & the Assassination of JFK

[...]

Two days after the assassination Det. Paul Bently of the Dallas Police Department received a letter from Robert D. Steel, Commander, USNR-R, of 7960 June Lake Drive, San Diego, California. Steel wrote Bently, "Perhaps you are aware that ONI has quite a file on Oswald, which no doubt has been made available on the Washington level. If not, I am certain that this information can be obtained for you through our resident special agent in charge of the Dallas office, A. C. Sullivan, who is a wonderful agent, and whom I hope you know. As a personal friend, I congratulate you, wish you continued success, and pray that your guardian angel will remain close at hand and vigilant, always." (emphasis added by T. Graves)

[...]

Bill Kelly - bkjfk3@yahoo.com

Bill,

I called the San Diego Public Library's "California Room" today, where they have a bunch of old San Diego telephone books. The nice young woman tried looking up Robert D. Steel at 7960 June Lake Drive for me in both the regular and "criss-cross" 1962 and 1963 phone books. According to the librarian, 7960 June Lake Drive was "under construction" in 1962 and "vacant" in 1963. (I did a little of my own "research" and found some online real estate listing companies which say that that house was built in 1963.) She didn't have anyone by the name of "Robert D. Steel" in San Diego in those phone books, nor did she have a "Robert Steel" living anywhere on June Lake Drive. She did, however, have a "Doris E. Steel" living at 7992 June Lake Drive (which was also built in 1963 according to the internet)...

[deleted by T. Graves]

--Tommy :sun

Thanks Tommy, good hunting.

I think this document has been tracked down to a batch among the personal papers of a Dallas policeman, and the names of the others mentioned in it are real - Bentley is real and I think A. C. Sullivan has documents among the records, so I think R. D. Steel is probably real too.

Keep digging and maybe you'll come up with something -

and Scully should be along shortly if he can help.

BK

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Peter Dale Scott on Oswald, Marine Corps Intelligence, and the Assault on the State Dept.

Oswald's Suppressed ONI and Marine G2 Records

jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg Subject Index Files/S Disk/Scott Peter Dale/Item 02.pdf

Also see: JFKcountercoup: ONI Navy & Military Record Groups

JFKcountercoup: Defense Department (DOD) Records Related to the Assassination of JFK

Is it possible that ONI had two offices in Dallas - one the regular ONI office and another for their Criminal Investigative Division?

ONI Dallas – 1114 Commerce, Rm 204

MFF DB

SULLIVAN, ARTHUR C.

Sources: CD 7, p. 150

Mary's

Comments: Research Analyst in Charge, Naval Intelligence, 1114 Commerce, Rm. 204, Dallas, TX

As for A. C. Sullivan, his full name is Arthur Carroll Sullivan, Jr. , who was in ONI 27 years, and also worked for the FBI and as an investigator for the Dallas DA.

Arthur Carroll Sullivan, Jr.,

Birth: Jan. 7, 1898

Death: Feb. 4, 1973

Family links:

Parents:

Benjamin Dennis Sullivan (1864 - 1946)

Olive Allie Florida Sullivan (1875 - 1948)

Spouse:

Mable Kelly Sullivan (1901 - 1982)

Note: Card File & Blue Book info - Ledger

Burial:

Odd Fellows Cemetery

Denton (Denton County)

Denton County

Texas, USA

Plot: Section S Block 12 Grave 7 1/2

Created by: RMLeahy

Record added: Nov 29, 2006

Find A Grave Memorial# 16846646

My 3rd cousin, 1x removed.

- Steve Thomas

Added: Jan. 11, 2013

http://www.findagrav...r&GRid=16846646

Birth: Jan. 7, 1898

Death: Feb. 4, 1973

Family links:

Parents:

Benjamin Dennis Sullivan (1864 - 1946)

Olive Allie Florida Sullivan (1875 - 1948)

Spouse:

Mable Kelly Sullivan (1901 - 1982)

Note: Card File & Blue Book info - Ledger

Burial:

Odd Fellows Cemetery

Denton (Denton County)

Denton County

Texas, USA

Plot: Section S Block 12 Grave 7 1/2

Created by: RMLeahy

Record added: Nov 29, 2006

Find A Grave Memorial# 16846646

Arthur Carroll Sullivan

Texas, Deaths, 1890-1976

born 07 Jan 1898

death 04 Feb 1973 Denton, Denton, Texas

* parent

B. D. Sullivan,

Olive Flordia

https://familysearch...:"Sullivan, Jr"

Arthur Carroll Sullivan

United States, World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918

birth 07 Jan 1898 United States

draft registration Denton County, Texas, United States

Arthur Carroll Sullivan

Texas, Deaths (New Index, New Images), 1890-1976

birth 07 Jan 1898 , Texas

death 04 Feb 1973 Denton, Denton, Texas, United States

name: Arthur Carroll Sullivan

event: Death

event date: 04 Feb 1973

event place: Denton, Denton, Texas, United States

gender: Male

marital status: Married

birth date: 07 Jan 1898

birthplace: , Texas

father's name: B D Sullivan

mother's name: Olive Flordia

certificate number: 10111

film number: 2242394

digital folder number: 005145691

image number: 02077

Citing this Record

"Texas, Deaths (New Index, New Images), 1890-1976," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch...M9.1.1/K3ZT-5VY : accessed 26 Jan 2013), Arthur Carroll Sullivan, 1973; citing State Registrar Office, Austin, Texas.

MFF DB

SULLIVAN, ARTHUR C.

Sources: CD 7, p. 150CD 7 p. 150

Mary's

Comments: Research Analyst in Charge, Naval Intelligence, 1114 Commerce, Rm. 204, Dallas, TX

Edited by William Kelly
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  • 2 weeks later...

Has anyone looked into this?

JFKcountercoup: New River, NC USMC Air Facility

P.D. Scott wrote: …An even more informative source might be Oliver “Buck” Revell, the former Marine officer who after sharing information with the FBI about Oswald rose to be the number three man in the Bureau. Revell has set out his lengthy involvement with the JFK case in his own words:

I have been involved in the Kennedy assassination investigation since its inception. First as a Marine officer, I was assigned to assist the FBI while it was conducting a detailed inquiry into Lee Harvey Oswald’s military background at the Marine Corps Air Facility, New River, N.C. Many years later, as FBI assistant director in charge of criminal investigations, it was my responsibility to follow up and take appropriate action on the findings and recommendations of the House Select Committee on Assassinations…Since May 1991, I have been the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas division, nad it has been my responsibility to conduct any additional investigation warranted in the Kennedy case, as alleged evidence or new documents have been brought to light. 101

The Review Board should question Mr. Revell about whatever records he and the FBI may have consulted at the MCAF New River facility, a place whee (as far as we have been told) Oswald never served. 102.

[102 Note: Larry Haapanen has pointed out to me that, on December 11, 1963, the Secret Service reported that Captain Donovan had suggested the Secret Service tal to Sergeant Carnellias [sic] Brown, “presently stationed at New River, North Carolina,” who “should be able to furnish some information on Oswald’s background” [CD 87, p. 5]. This is presumably the Staff Sergeant “Cornelius Brown” whose name Donovan offered as a source to the Warren Commission (8 WH 297-99, 302).

It is certain that none of the Oswald Marine records we now have were stored there.

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The Office of Naval Intelligence was established on March 23, 1882, founded by a linguist, Lieutenant Theodorus B. M. Mason. He was named the first Chief Intelligence Officer after he recommended the Navy "assign naval attaches to embassies and Negations throughout the world to collect intelligence on advances in naval science." He also recommended that a section be created in the Office of the Secretary of the Navy "to assemble, correlate, and distribute reports on the intelligence gathered."

Bill when I get time. I may post about my ideas on ONI itself. BUT would you be shocked to think that Mason was working with British Naval Intell. ?? FROM THE VERY START ONI compromised ........

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Oliver Stone's Mercedes - Reconstructing the ONI Files on the Assassination

JFKcountercoup: ONI Records Revisited

ONI Records Revisited

ONI RECORDS REVISITED

The Blind Men, the Elephant and Oliver Stone’s Mercedes

When we first began the lobby effort seeking the release of the government’s records on the JFK assassination, my uncle Stephen “Skip” Haynes, a Catholic priest, gave a sermon on the subject, comparing the secret files to the story of the blind men who tried to describe an elephant, each feeling and describing a different part of the elephant. I sometimes get the feeling that's what we are doing with the JFK assassination records.

Oliver Stone, after he became the champion of the JFK Free the Files movement, was asked to testify at a Congressional hearing where he was asked what he thought he would find in the files, which it was pointed out to him, most certainly had been cleaned out, vetted, some destroyed, others hidden?

Stone replied that he did not expect there to be any “smoking guns” among the government’s records on the assassination, and they certainly will be cleaned out of any compromising documents, but he said that, (and I’m paraphrasing him here), Stone said the government's JFK assassination files were like a Mercedes-Benz automobile left in Harlem for years - decades – now going on fifty years. Stone said it will be stripped of its radio, chrome, tires and engine parts, but its frame would still be there and you would be able to recognize it as a Mercedes. And besides, it’s not necessarily what’s in the files, but the principal of the thing – these records are the history of our country, the death of our president, they were paid for by tax payers and they belong to the people and not some secret agency.....

JFKcountercoup: ONI Records Revisited

Edited by William Kelly
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I would rather post this and it turn out to be a dead-end, than not post it and there turn out to be something to it.

I think Felipe Vidal Santiago is one of those names that generates quite a bit of interest, so you can imagine a

Iran-Contra related report which lists a Larry Huff being with the former as being worth a mention. The whole

same name phenomena is old hat, but better safe than sorry.

https://www.maryferr...sPageId=1605172

A little more information.....

Idaho Spokesman-Review (Coeur d'Alene, ID) - May 23, 2003

Deceased Name: Larry Huff

ATHOL, IDAHO

Service for Larry C. Huff, 71, will be today at 3 p.m. at English Funeral Chapel in Coeur d'Alene. Burial will be Wednesday at 1 p.m. at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, Wash.

Mr. Huff, who was born in Spokane, died Tuesday.

He made a career with the Marine Corps until his retirement and then moved to North Idaho.

In 1974 he married Gloria Portrey. They lived in Pinehurst for nine years before moving to Athol 18 years ago.

He was a lifetime member of the Disable American Veterans.

Survivors include his wife; three sons, Gary Huff of Dallas, Jeffrey Huff of Honolulu and Kevin Huff of Sandpoint; two daughters, Debra Holmes of Boise and Marla Huff of Athol; two sisters, LaVonne Yount of Yuma, Ariz., and Kay Campbell of Loveland, Colo.; and 13 grandchildren.

See below

https://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=83&relPageId=547

Gloria Deane Huff of Pinehurst, Idaho

Robert: I don't know just how worked up one should be about all of this, in light of the big picture; which is

the "alleged" flight to Japan, left in its wake a document which showed what Oswald's activities were [associations, activities etc.] and a psychological profile. If true, the bottom line is ultimately another document missing. So as pathetic as the idea of trying to muddle the waters is, you have to ask the question, were the Huff's sincere in their allegations, or just another one of god only knows how many red-herrings that have taken place about the assassination. It certainly makes one understood the importance of being able to differentiate between who can be trusted and who is just spinning and dissembling. The ultimate big picture to veteran researchers is the fact that every single investigation; Warren Commission, HSCA, & even AARB, which wasn't an investigation per se, were politically correct, and always flubbed it when the chips were down.

Edited by Robert Howard
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