Joseph J. Trento

[John Simkin]

Joseph J. Trento has agreed to join the forum to discuss his book The Secret History of the CIA. Maybe he will give Tim Gratz some help with his KGB did it theory.

He is also willing to discuss his new book Prelude to Terror: The Rise of the Bush Dynasty, the Rogue CIA, and the Comprising of American Intelligence (2005).

[Shanet Clark]

... MOCK "yeah"

... ING "yeah"

... BIRD "yeah"

MOCK-ING-BIRD yeah yeah

....and if this Mockingbird don't sing

I am going to buy you a diamond ring!

James Taylor, Atlantic Records, 1977

[Tim Gratz]

Shanet, I suggest you might want to listen to what other people have to say.

Sarcasm like this could drive Trento away.

I for one am interested in the specific sources for the factual assertions in his book.

Surely you would consider it sinister if a DGI member was in Dallas at the time of the assassination. To me that is almost compelling evidence of DGI involvement. I for one would like to see how strong were the sources for that information.

Perhaps you are not aware of Trento's other participatiion in the assassination story, e.g his seminal story that said Hunt may very well have been in Dallas on Nov 22nd.

Trento is, I believe, a well-respected investigative journalist who could make many valuable contributions.

And, with all due respect, to characterize him as a "mockingbird" for the CIA shows how ignorant you are about Trento. Go to "Studies in Intelligence" on the Web and see how the CIA house organ panned his book.

[Shanet Clark]

Didn't his theory come straight from the lips of J.J. Angleton?

[Tim Gratz]

Well, I guess you don't really know all of his sources and theirc reliability etc until you listen to him.

Reliable sources tell me Angleton was a firm believer that the earth was round.

Maybe you should join the flat earth society.

Kidding aside, Hems we know lied under oath.

Please cite chapter and verse that JJA ever gave false information to Congress or even to a reporter.

IMO JJA was PROVEN right about a lot of things.

Ever heard of "FEDORA"? Unless you know the Fedora story, don't dismiss JJA's concerns about Nosenko.

And what about Paisley, apparently a Soviet moile who vouched for Nosenko and died a violent death?

It pays to listen (read) and evaluate information and not dismiss it quite so flippantly, IMO.

[Shanet Clark]

Trento is a mixed bag. He broke the story of a CIA memo concerning Hunt in Dallas, and here is a bit of Mark Lane's deposition of Trento for the libel trial Howard Hunt brought against Victor Marchetti (the Trento article was similar, and excupatory, to the Marchetti piece on Hunt).

From: PLAUSIBLE DENIAL BY MARK LANE Thunder's Mouth Press, 1991.

{Under subpoena, Trento was ordered to bring certain documents to the deposition.}

June 28, 1984

LANE: This is an action brought by E. Howard Hunt against Liberty Lobby

{publisher of Marchetti article on Hunt in Dallas} in the United States

District Court, Southern district of Florida. We are going to be deposing you

today about matters relating to that. Did you bring any documents?

A. No, I have no material. I wrote this article six years ago and Isince have left the Sunday News Journal. And as far as I can tell, all the materials are gone. Most of my files were destroyed after a year or so.

Lane: Did you bring the article with you?

A. No. I have not seen the article since I wrote it.

[Trento confirmed the fact that he had written the article but was careful not to volunteer any information about how he had done so. I handed him a copy of his work. LANE]

Lane. If you would look at exhibit one or four, I am going to ask you some questions about it.

A. All right.

Q. The first paragraph of that article states, “A secret CIA memorandum says that E. Howard Hunt was in Dallas the day President John F. Kennedy was murdered and that top agency officials plotted to cover up Hunt’s presence there.” Is that correct?

A. That’s correct.

Q. Can you tell me the basis of that statement?

A. Sources within the agency and outside the agency.

Q. When you say agency, you mean the Central Intelligence Agency?

A. Right.

Q. Will you tell us who in the CIA gave you that information?

A. No, I would not.

Q. What is the reason you are not telling us that?

A. I have an agreement with my sources to protect their identity.

Q. Will you tell us who outside of the CIA gave you that information.

A. I would not.

Q. And the reason?

A. The same, to protect their identity.

Q. Can you tell us how many people within the CIA you relied upon as sources for that first paragraph?

A. No.

Q. And why is that?

A. I feel in order to protect their confidentiality that I agreed with them to protect, that to give numbers or mention numbers would endanger that confidentiality.

Q. Would you tell us how many people outside of the CIA you relied upon as sources for that first paragraph?

A. No.

Q. For the same reason?

A. For the same reason.

Q. I am going to ask you about sources throughout, and I take it that whenever you decline—let’s see if we can come to an agreement so you don’t have’to say this each time, plus confer with counsel—but whenever you decline, it will be for reasons just stated?

A. Protection of my sources, that is correct.

So if this gentleman went from a CIA inside source "leaker" to a grandiose KGB theory based on these contacts, including Angleton, then you can all draw your own conclusions.

[Tim Gratz]

Shanet,

Of course a reporter will protect his sources.

If he does not, he will have no more sources.

No sources, no job.

As you probably know, reporters will go to jail to protect their sources.

But his sources for his KGB scenario would not necessarily be the same for his sources re Hunt in Dallas.

Did you know that in Dick Russell's book, Russell, who interviewed Trento, states:

Angleton told Trento a KGB mole in the CIA probably sent Hunt to Dallas.

Later Trento concludes that perhaps it was Angleton himself who sent Hunt to Dallas (but not, of course, to kill JFK).

Perhaps you might start to conclude that Mr. Trento is a man with a lot of opinions based on a lot of informationn, much of it from confidential, inside sources (information which would never be given to the likes of you or I) and his opinions therefore merit the most careful evaluation.

Edited January 26, 2005 by Tim Gratz

[Pat Speer]

I also look forward to asking Mr. Trento a few questions. However, Tim, if you don't believe Angleton was a xxxx you should read his HSCA testimony. When asked about the supposed Hunt memo, he obfuscates and concocts that the whole thing was a misunderstanding due to Trento asking him if he'd seen Hunt or some such thing, and Angleton responding by referring affirmatively about a former assistant of his named Hunt or some such thing. You need to read it yourself to get a picture of just how far-fetched it all is. Of course, at the time, Angleton had no idea that Trento would end up having to admit in court that Angleton SHOWED HIM THE MEMO. So you can't have it both ways. Either Trento is a damned xxxx or Angleton is. My money's on Angleton. That Angleton apparently maintained his friendship with Trento after Trento's testimony tied him into the Kennedy assassination (or at least a cover-up) is indicative that Angleton knew Trento was telling the truth.

Let Joe Trento have his say.

[John Simkin]

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