JFK Assassination: The Asian Connection

[Sterling Seagrave]

Many thanks for your response. He must have been a character. Did he ever mention Ian Fleming or his meeting Burgess and MacLean in USSR after their defection?

Hughes and I had mutual friends with Ian Fleming (people who worked with him in SOE during WW2) so Hughes talked a lot about Fleming and his brother Peter Fleming who had written a deeply flawed book about the Boxer Rebellion in China. Hughes said he gave Fleming the idea for a James Bond novel set in Japan, steered Fleming to a number of sources in Japanese intelligence (which at that time was called the Cabinet Information Office), and kicked around plot ideas. I also recall that Hughes became a friend of John LeCarre and gave him a lot of ideas for THE HONORABLE SCHOOLBOY, set in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia (Thailand mostly). But we did not discuss Burgess and MacLean.

[William Kelly]

Many thanks for your response. He must have been a character. Did he ever mention Ian Fleming or his meeting Burgess and MacLean in USSR after their defection?

Hughes and I had mutual friends with Ian Fleming (people who worked with him in SOE during WW2) so Hughes talked a lot about Fleming and his brother Peter Fleming who had written a deeply flawed book about the Boxer Rebellion in China. Hughes said he gave Fleming the idea for a James Bond novel set in Japan, steered Fleming to a number of sources in Japanese intelligence (which at that time was called the Cabinet Information Office), and kicked around plot ideas. I also recall that Hughes became a friend of John LeCarre and gave him a lot of ideas for THE HONORABLE SCHOOLBOY, set in Hong Kong and Southeast Asia (Thailand mostly). But we did not discuss Burgess and MacLean.

Yes, Hughes was the London Sunday Times' Man in China and Japan, and is a character in Fleming's novel, "You Only Live Twice" - ( "Once when you are born and once when you look death in the face.")

Fleming arranged for Hughes to meet Burgress and MacLean in Moscow.

Peter was MI6.

George DeMohrneschildt's wife Jean (Fromenco?) was from that area too. Her father had something to do with the Trans-Siberian railroad.

Many thanks for your response,

Bill Kelly

[Nathaniel Heidenheimer]

I found these paragraphs interesting in connecting OSS Asian activities via Pawley-Cooke mission to Cuban policy:

Also involved in Pawlwy-Cooke escapade was M. Preston Goodfellow, former publisher of the Brooklyn Eagle and Donovan's liason with Garland Williams, to William Keswick and the British SOE in 1942. Later in the war Goodfellow managed sensitive opperations in Burma and China, and formed close ties to Generl Tai Li and drug smuggler Du Yue-sheng. According to... Bruce Cummings, Goodfellow made a fortune by combining business ties with right wing regimes in Asia, with interests in Central America" Pawley's collusion with Cooke, Donavan, Goodfellow, Bullitt, and Hunt is a textbook example of how Establishment privateers run the secret government. And naturally the mission dovetailed with Federal narcotics activites. In January 1950, Goodfellow traveled to Taipei with Cooke, and in April Bullitt's bagman arrived. Soon thereafter a "Colonel Williams introduced the bagman to Satiris Fassoulis, "who gave him $500,000 for a PR campaign on Taiwan" (p. 78, The Strength of The Wolf, Valentine)

Valentine thinks that this was Garland Williams, a top aide to FBN director Anslinger. In 1936 this Williams negotiated a treaty with Mexican President Cardenas that allowed FBN agents to cross the border, and do thier work inside Mexico. Later Valentine speculates about another link between Mexico and the old OSS connections in Asia, when writing about Hyman Ruby, Jacks utterly unconnected brother:

Klein was luckier than Ruby's next partner, Paul Roland Jones. In October, 1947, Hyman betrayed Jones to FBN agents in Chicago. According to White's diary, Hyman had been his informant since July 1946. Jack followed in big brother's footsteps and served White in 1950, when he briefed the Kefauver Committee about organized crime in Chicago-- although his attorney, Louis Kutner agreed to allow him to testify only "on the condition the the K. Comm. stay away from Dallas" That raises the question of whether the Committee investigated George White, who undoubtedly brought Ruby to Kefauver's attention. concurred with this request. If so, why would White want to keep the Committee out of Dallas? Wa it to defect attention from the Pawley-Cooke mission in Taiwan, which was funded by Ultra Texas oilmen like H.L. Hunt, and which, in 1951 was facilitating the CIA-Kuomintang drug smuggling operation that entered the US by crossing the Mexican border at Laredo, Texas? (p.309)

Valentine notes that there has been an "utter absence of references to the FBN in any official investigation of the JFK asassination, despite the fact that Bureau informer jack Ruby killed Oswald and that, as the HSCA consluded, Ruby had "direct contact" with associates of Marcello and Trafficante"

Perhaps the forum could recruit Mr. Valentine. He is certainly well qualified to fill in blanks related to drug running aspects of the investigation.

[Paul Rigby]

Also involved in Pawley-Cooke escapade was M. Preston Goodfellow, former publisher of the Brooklyn Eagle and Donovan's liason with Garland Williams, to William Keswick and the British SOE in 1942. Later in the war Goodfellow managed sensitive opperations in Burma and China, and formed close ties to Generl Tai Li and drug smuggler Du Yue-sheng. According to... Bruce Cummings, Goodfellow made a fortune by combining business ties with right wing regimes in Asia, with interests in Central America" Pawley's collusion with Cooke, Donavan, Goodfellow, Bullitt, and Hunt is a textbook example of how Establishment privateers run the secret government.

Nathaniel,

A brief glimpse of both Goodfellow in action post-war, and the clique's approach to the conduct of foreign policy:

BRUCE CUMINGS, “Korea 1: Hidden history of a war both sides lost,” The Guardian, 17 June 1988, p.?: “…M. Preston Goodfellow, the senior U.S. intelligence operative, who personally brought Syngman Rhee back into Korea in 1945 – against the wishes of the State Department…”

Quite who - or what - is running U.S. foreign policy in the post-war era remains a continuing puzzle! Or perhaps not...

Paul

[Nathaniel Heidenheimer]

Thanks Paul;will look at article.

Thought members might be interested in this informative and enthusiastc interview of Gold Warriers, a book that I have ordered and am looking forward to:

http://www.counterpunch.org/valentine09262003.html

[Sterling Seagrave]

Do you have any information on why Phil Graham and Larry Stern were "snuffed"?

Larry was a close friend of mine, and became assistant managing editor of the WashPost. He was by far their star investigative reporter, and made a lot of enemies during the LTV scandal, the Bobby Baker scandal, and many others. He knew who had been involved in the JFK assassination. It was because he was totally straight (and a true champion of the underdog) that he was not chosen to become managing editor. Eventually, it was decided to get rid of him, so the Agency (or the Enterprise – meaning the privatized part of the Agency) had Larry shot with a compressed air rifle firing a tiny dart, the same method used on Schlei, and on many others. The choice of poisons varies, depending on the objective. This almost invisible dart has a much greater range than the jeweler’s watch bearing fired by the equivalent Soviet assassination weapon, used on the Bulgarian emigres. If you find this hard to believe, look closely at the snuffing of Dr. Richard Kelly in UK. As to Phil Graham, he was up to his ears in the manipulation of JFK in behalf of LBJ and the Robber Barons – as you’ve shown. Like several other big players, he began to go bonkers with the burden of what he had been involved in, was drinking heavily, whoring around so that Kay Graham was mightily pissed, and there were many of us at the WashPost who concluded that his purported suicide did not wash. It was an assisted suicide.

[Sterling Seagrave]

Do you have any thoughts on Jack Anderson as an investigative journalist?

I've known Jack since the early 1960s, and of course I had worked with Les Whitten at The WashPost (Whitten for a while writing many of Jack's columns as a sort of co-investigator and co-columnist). I later got to know Dale VanAtta, who also was a co-investigator and co-columnist with Jack -- all of them working out of Jack's offices in a red brick townhouse next to the Carnegie Institution. In fact, Peggy and I hired (and richly paid) Jack's investigative team to help us with legwork and archival searches in Washington DC while we were living in Holland, working on THE MARCOS DYNASTY. To some extent the arrangement paid off, but most of Jack's people let us down badly. Jack himself was helpful in giving us access to his filing cabinets going back umpteen years, and Dale was helpful in other very useful ways. But in retrospect we were hugely disappointed by just about everybody we paid to help us with research on that book, not only Jack's people but people in Manila and Hong Kong. The book was a struggle, because of all the famous journalists who'd been based in Manila or worked for a while in Manila, or passed through Manila, not one had ever seriously researched all of the claims made by Ferdinand Marcos. The one exception being Al McCoy who researched Marcos's claims to being a war her, and discovered they were fraudulent. It went much farther than that, of course, because Marcos had actually been working for the Japanese, as was his putative father (who was drawn and quartered by guerrillas for what he did). Jack and his organization are essentially part of the Morman Church intelligence network, which is one of the really powerful and effective private intelligence networks in America, whose computer data base on genealogy provides cover for a vast archive of intelligence files on a great many people.

[John Simkin]

Jack Anderson with Chinese Nationalist Guerrillas in 1945.

[Robert Howard]

When I saw the mention of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics and Jack Ruby, I brushed aside my better instincts and decided to post the following, even though I may be accused of diverting the thread....At any rate. When you look at the Far East in relation to the Kennedy Assassination, I usually think of the OSS good ole boy Network, which contains a pretty good cast of characters, in itself; there may be particular area of interest in regards to the drug trafficking network that entered the United States from Mexico, with that in mind I decided the following may be of interest......My reason for doing so, is that I would think Bill, John and others who have studied the assassination of years are quite aware of how names and places, "run full circle."

Gary Underhill's comment about the conspirators is very credible in my mind, taken in account with the "discredited?" testimony [according to the Posneroligists] of Wilcott re CIA/Japan/Oswald et cetera, is I think a pretty compelling argument.

Re Mexico and The Assassination, the following names fit my definition of persons of interest, but we all have our opinions.

Record NEAL, GLEN D. ("TEX")

Sources: WC Vol 23, pp. 32-33; CD 7, pp. 618-619

Mary's

Comments: DOB: 10/26/34. Dallas Police Department patrolman since May 30, 1956. His vacation started 11/21/63. Went to Laredo, Texas, 11/22/63, with Mary Brockman, 39. Crossed the border into Mexico at Ciudad Miguel Aleman. They were detained at the border. Friend of Jack Ruby.

Also:

Record ANCIRA, GONZALO -----

Sources: CD 1066 (332-6); JFK Collection List, pp. 49-50 (AMKW 87, 88)

Mary's Comments: DOB: 12/15/29 POB: Nuevo Leon, Mexico Self-employed engineer, Rm. 1305, Hartford Bldg., Dallas, TX. (214) 747-1297. Mexican National who owns large 18,000-acre ranch near Nuevo Leon, Mexico, which he frequently visits. He planned to go to Mexico on 11/23/63, but when he was enroute to Laredo, he learned border was closed. He postponed visit until Sun., 11/24/63. On 5/20/63, Ancira rented P.O. Box 2915 and still had it on 4/22/64. (Oswald rented P.O. Box 2915 from 10/9/62 until 5/14/63.)

Also from maryferrel.org

CAMORGA, CARLOS -----

Sources: WC Vol. 14 (60, 285); WC Vol. 19 (78); CD 1409; also see CD 550 (2) Lilia Pardo Larin's mother was Sara Camorgo.

Mary's Comments: Name appeared in Jack Ruby's old memo book. George Senator was asked about him. See also "Camargo" and "Quiroga".

Other individuals who appear interesting to me as far as Mexico goes are:

Velasquez, Victor - Was contacted by Ruby's flambuoyant attorney Melvin Belli in Mexico, immediately after Ruby recieved the death penalty for shooting Oswald. Velasquez was a noted Mexican trial lawyer, whom the CIA had a file on. In the CIA Report on Velasquez, he is dexcribed as a former pro-Communist Falangist party member in Mexico, who in 1942, "directed drug smuggling for the Party, proceeds being used for Falangist propaganda". Another CIA document, quoted two agency sources saying Velasquez's "reputation among local lawyers is shabby." CIA Documents released in 1976 are CIA 616-790, 635-798 - Source Who Was Jack Ruby pgs 415-16

Cheers

Edited February 14, 2007 by Robert Howard

[Steven Gaal]

Dear Howard, you put lines ----- after GONZALO ,did you leave the name out of MONTEMAYOR ?? Cause a guy with that added name owns a place in Nuevo Leon were they do hunting.... Mae Brussell was told that the shooters came up from MEXICO with the help of the PERMARGO Corporation (GHWB operation) and EH HUNT. On WED I heard a tape (from the 70s) were Mae interviewed LOUIS TACKWOOD. Tackwood stated he was at one point selected to be the assassin of Nixon by HUNT. BTW as I sure you know DAP & HUNT were close. THANKS sg they (had to practice the shooting somewhere,how about in a very isolated area ,and this place is isolated)

Edited February 17, 2007 by Steven Gaal

[Steven Gaal]

Howard, just wanted to add that when you say FALANGE you are not talking about a NAZI or even JAPANESE connection (and there are WWII connection to these intell services in Mexico). BUT the good ol CIA //

From LOBSTER

Issue 21 - 1991]

. that it is one of the most violent and effective of all such outfits. Unlike most terrorist groups like Orlando Bosch's Omega 7 and the Falangist-inspired Movimiento Nacionalista Cubana (MNC ), which operate primarily within the U.S. and other countries outside Cuba, Alpha 66 generally initiates sabotage and paramilitary raids on the island itself. See, e.g, McColm and Maier, p. 16. Union of International Associations, vol. 1, O337. Ibid, vol. 1, G0227. For more on Butler and the Australian League

=====

Also to keep the Asian connection part of this thread = please let me add the largest Heroin importer arrested in Mexico (From The Great Heroin Coup book) in 1950s was from Taiwan. thanks sg

[Scott Deitche]

Sterling Seagrave will be answering questions on his book, Gold Warriors, here:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=9196

There is one name that is very pertinent to this thread, whether acknowledged by participants or not, and that is MacArthur's "Little Fascist," who also was part of the postwar reconstruction of Japan see the book "American Shogun," Willoughby is referenced in the book as being involved in political intrigues involving the Yakuza.....

A good book which sheds some light on post-War Japan and the yakuza is the book The Yakuza by David Kaplan and Alec Dubro. Also Tokyo Underworld by Robert Whiting.

[James Richards]

Mitchell WerBell was also a member of the OSS and saw action in Burma and China. Singlaub was in the OSS in France but moved to China in the final stages of the war. (John Simkin)

John Singlaub and Mitch WerBell.

James

[Thomas Graves]

Mitchell WerBell was also a member of the OSS and saw action in Burma and China. Singlaub was in the OSS in France but moved to China in the final stages of the war. (John Simkin)

John Singlaub and Mitch WerBell.

James

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Hi James,

I wonder at whose bookstore that photo was taken? Hopefully not the same one that Lt Col Vern Carson drank me "under the table" on that vile Greek liquid known as Metaxa... LOL

--Thomas

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Edited April 5, 2007 by Thomas Graves

[James Richards]

Mitchell WerBell was also a member of the OSS and saw action in Burma and China. Singlaub was in the OSS in France but moved to China in the final stages of the war. (John Simkin)

John Singlaub and Mitch WerBell.

James

_______________________________________

Hi James,

I wonder at whose bookstore that photo was taken? Hopefully not the same one that Lt Colonel Carson drank me under the table on that vile liquid known as Metaxa... LOL

--Thomas

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Thomas,

I think that might be WerBell's den.

Vern Carlson is one thing, imagine having a drink with WerBell? Yikes!!

Anyway, here is Vern Carlson with Norman Mailer.

James