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Kermit Roosevelt


John Simkin

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I have never heard of anyone suggesting that Kermit "Kim" Roosevelt organized the assassination of JFK. However, he is an interesting character. The eldest son of Kermit Roosevelt, the son of Theodore Roosevelt, he was born in Buenos Aires on 16th February, 1916. After completing his university education he joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). During the Second World War Roosevelt worked in the Middle East.

After the war Roosevelt taught at Harvard University. In 1950 Frank Wisner recruited Roosevelt into the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC), the espionage and counter-intelligence branch of the Central Intelligence Agency. At this time Wisner began plotting the overthrow of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran. He had upset the US government by nationalizing Iran's oil industry. Mossadegh also abolished Iran's feudal agriculture sector and replaced with a system of collective farming and government land ownership.

On April 4, 1953, Wisner persuaded Allen W. Dulles to approve $1 million to be used "in any way that would bring about the fall of Mossadegh." Roosevelt was put in charge of what became known as Operation Ajax. According to Donald N. Wilber, who was involved in this CIA plot to remove Mossadegh from power, in early August, 1953, Iranian CIA operatives, pretending to be socialists, threatened Muslim leaders with "savage punishment if they opposed Mossadegh," thereby giving the impression that Mossadegh was cracking down on dissent. This resulted in the religious community turning against Mossadegh.

Iranians took to the streets against Mossadegh. Funded with money from the CIA and MI6, the pro-monarchy forces quickly gained the upper hand. The military now joined the opposition and Mossadegh was arrested on August 19, 1953. President Dwight Eisenhower was delighted with this result and asked Frank Wisner to arrange for Roosevelt to give him a personal briefing on Operation Ajax.

Roosevelt continued to work in the Middle East. Part of his job was to distribute money to anti-communist leaders. This included a payment of $12 million to General Bey Naguib in Egypt. However, Gamal Nasser overthrew Naguib and stole the $12 million. Some of this money was used to build the Cairo Tower. Some CIA officials have described it as "Roosevelt's Erection".

The Iranian oil industry was denationalization in 1955. The British oil monopoly was superseded by a consortium in which Anglo-Iranian received 40 percent of revenues, five U.S. corporations (Gulf Oil, Standard of New Jersey, Standard of California, Texas, and Socony-Mobil) received 40 percent, and 20 percent went to Royal Dutch Shell and a French company). John Foster Dulles and Allan Dulles, director of the CIA, were also later board members of Standard Oil.

In 1958 Roosevelt left the CIA and found employment with Gulf Oil. Two years later he was appointed vice president. According to Geoff Simons: "Later he (Roosevelt) formed the consulting firm, Downs and Roosevelt, which in the late 1960s was receiving $116,000 a year from the Iranian government. At the same time, the aerospace Northrop Corporation was paying Roosevelt $75,000 a year to aid its sales to Iran and other states in the region."

Roosevelt therefore provides a link to CIA covert operations and the oil industry.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKroosevelt.htm

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John,

I can vouch for all that. The CIA Kermit Roosevelt coup in Iran is central to any understanding of twentieth century foreign policy. The United States is still trying to return to the geo strategic situation before th Ayatollah overthrew the installed SHAH of IRAN.

The entire WAR IN IRAQ is predicated on regaining the lost stratedic middle east presence, and return to the situation pre-1979.

With the GULF OIL and IRANIAN INTELLIGENCE advisory material concerning Kermit Kim Roosevelt, you have linked the mastermind of the MOSSADEGH executive action to the secret intelligence with the greatest worlwide presence after the KGB and the CIA in the period addressed on these forums, and I am talking about the Iranian agency, SAVAK>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

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Shanet wrote:

"The entire WAR IN IRAQ is predicated on regaining the lost stratedic middle east presence, and return to the situation pre-1979."

Shanet, remember last Sunday.

The best reply comes from the renowned liberal Middle East scholar Thomas L. Friedman, writing in the Feb 3, 2005 "New York Times":

"The election has made it crystal clear that the Iraqui war is not between fascist insurgents and America, not between fascist insurgents and the Iraqui people. One hopes the French and Germans, whose newspapers often sound more like Al Jazeera than Al Jazeera, will wake up to this fact and throw their weight on to the side of history.

"It's about time, because whatever you thought about this war, it's not about Mr. Bush anymore. It's about the aspirations of the Iraqui majority to build an alternative to Saddamism. By voting the way they did, in the face of real danger, the Iraquis have earned the right to ask everyone now to put aside their squabbles and focus on what is no longer just a pipe dream but a real opportunity to implant decent, consensual government in the heart of the Arab-Muslim world." [Emphasis supplied.]

He's right!

And Shanet, I commend you for your initiative in objecting to anti-semitism on this forum. Let me remind you that nothing is more important to the state of Israel than a democratic, tolerant Moslem world in the mid-east. Friedman's column was titled: "A Day to Remember" and subutitled "Iraquis' courage may be catching."

If the war in Iraq leads to stability in the Middle East, then (WMD or not) the sacrifice of our soldiers will not have been in vain.

I dedicate this post to the Iraqui martyrs who were killed by the terrorists for exercising their right to vote on Sunday. Their names should go down in the Iraqui history books.

Edited by Tim Gratz
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On Kim Roosevelt's involvement, I agree with Tim. No. In reading about the Guatemala coup, I have come across several references to Roosevelt being offered the job and his turning it down. The reason? He felt that in Iran he was only helping to bring about what the people truly wanted and the Iranian military truly wanted. He felt that any large-scale covert op without the support of the military AND the people was a mistake. It's hard to see how he could have rationalized killing Kennedy when he couldn't Arbenz.

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I agree with both of you, and John probably is guilty of suggestion.

This shadowy Roosevelt is an important character in the history of covert ops in the Cold War, but I have never heard him linked to Dallas.

Like Audie Murphy, Kim Roosevelt was probably kept out of the loop, and

(speculating) he may have had say, an ambush triangulation or a rifle

switch and engraving plan which was used "off the shelf"

...i.e. some element of the KNOWN coup d'etat plans toward Mossagegh and Arbenz may have figured in the joint paramilitary domestic executive action committed on 11/22/63...but there is no evidence of any of this (yet)

T.Gratz-

Whether or not there are elections and a new regime in IRAQ,

the U.S. land, sea and air capabilities in the unstable and petroleum rich

Persian Gulf theater have been immeasurably improved by the

United States initiated war.

I predict the new Iraq regime will be under US military hegemony for some time.

And yes the US-IRAQ WAR is linked to the situation in Iran under the Shah,

where the US lost so much strategic ground, circa 1979.

Edited by Shanet Clark
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On Kim Roosevelt's involvement, I agree with Tim. No.  In reading about the Guatemala coup, I have come across several references to Roosevelt being offered the job and his turning it down.  The reason?  He felt that in Iran he was only helping to bring about what the people truly wanted and the Iranian military truly wanted.  He felt that any large-scale covert op without the support of the military AND the people was a mistake.  It's hard to see how he could have rationalized killing Kennedy when he couldn't Arbenz.

Allen W. Dulles asked Roosevelt to organize the overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala. Roosevelt refused, explaining that for a coup to be successful, the people had to "want what we want". He did not believe that the "Guatemalan peasants wanted what the United Fruit wanted."

That is of course true. But what about Iran? Did the people really want Mohammed Mossadegh to be overthrown? Roosevelt accepted that assignment not because it was what the people wanted, he accepted it because he was paid to do it by the American oil companies. Guatemala did not have enough on offer to persuade Roosevelt to take the job.

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You make a marvelous point John. The highest notch on the totem is money. What is expedient to that end is acceptable to anyone who has tasted gold. End justifies means. The Delano family got rich from dealing dope to the Chinese. Most in this country did some dirty dealing to get where they are. Have we learned nothing from current events? Who wins in war? In coups? Money is the driving force behind political events. Those close to the source can pick and choose.

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