Priscilla L. Johnson

[John Simkin]

Priscilla L. Johnson was one of two American reporters who interviewed Lee Harvey Oswald when he defected to the Soviet Union in October, 1959 (the other one was Arline Mosby).

I have argued on another thread that Oswald was in reality working for the CIA in 1959:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=8038

If that is the case, Mosby and Johnson would have needed to have been under the control of the CIA. In other words, part of Operation Mockingbird.

What do we know about Priscilla Johnson? She was born in Glen Cove, New York, on 19th July, 1928. As a student she was a member of the United World Federalists, an organization run by Cord Meyer. After graduating with a master's degree from Radcliffe College in 1952 she applied to join the Central Intelligence Agency.

According to CIA files she was rejected because some of her associates would require more investigation. The document was signed by Cord Meyer, who was now chief of CIA Investigations and Operational Support. On 17th March, 1953, W. A. Osborne, sent a memo to Sheffield Edwards, head of CIA security, that after checking out Johnson's associates he "recommended approval." However, on 23rd March he sent another memo saying that "in light of her activities in the United World Federalists" he now "recommended that she be disapproved".

This is very strange as under the leadership of Cord Meyer, the United World Federalists was a CIA-front organization. I would suggest that the CIA had decided that Johnson would be more useful outside rather than inside the agency.

In 1953 Johnson went to work for Senator John F. Kennedy. The following year she worked as a translator for the Digest of Soviet Press. In 1955 Johnson moved to the Soviet Union where she worked as a translator for the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. This time the CIA made no objection to Johnson having access to classified information.

Priscilla Johnson returned to the United States in April 1957. The CIA continued to take an interest in Johnson. In a CIA document dated 23rd August, 1957, Johnson was described as being born in Stockholm, Sweden, on 23rd September 1922. It also stated that during the Second World War she was "utilized by OSO (Office of Special Operations) in 1943 and 1944". John Newman has speculated that Johnson was being given a cover story of someone who, unlike her, had a "good security record".

In February 1958 Johnson traveled to Cairo. The following month she was in Paris. According to her own testimony she worked for "someone I knew either for Radio Liberty or the Congress for Cultural Freedom". Both these were CIA-front organizations. While in France she applied to the USSR consulate to go to the Soviet Union. On 6th May, 1958, the Chief of CI/OA submitted a request for operational approval on Johnson. The operation for which she was being considered is still classified.

Johnson arrived in Moscow for the third time on 4th July, 1958. She did not stay for long and returned to the United States. Soon afterwards she obtained employment as a reporter for the North American News Alliance (NANA). Johnson arrived back in Moscow just after Aline Mosby had interviewed Lee Harvey Oswald (13th November, 1959).

On her arrival Johnson checked into the same hotel as Osward. The following day she visited the American Embassy to pick up her mail (16th November, 1959). According to Johnson, John McVickar approached her and told her that "there's a guy in your hotel who wants to defect, and he won't talk to any of us here". She later told the Warren Commission: "John McVickar said she was refusing to talk to journalists. So I thought that it might be an exclusive, for one thing, and he was right in my hotel, for another." As Johnson was leaving the American Embassy McVickar told her "to remember she was an American."

Lee Harvey Oswald agreed to be interviewed by Johnson. She later testified that they talked from between nine until one or two in the morning. Oswald told her: "Once having been assured by the Russians that I would not have to return to the United States, come what may, I assumed it would be safe for me to give my side of the story." It is not known what Oswald meant by "safe".

[Wim Dankbaar]

From http://www.assassinationweb.com/scottd.htm

The Most Likely Manipulator: David Atlee Phillips

So far this discussion has focused on those "phase one" stories linking Oswald to Soviet or Cuban intelligence which at the time existed uniquely in government files, and which for a while the U.S. Government took seriously. We have not yet mentioned the veritable blizzard of similar stories which reached the FBI and CIA from external sources after the assassination. After November 24 there were still more "phase one" stories attributing a similar role to Jack Ruby. And to all these anti-Communist stories denouncing the KGB and Cuba one must add those stories with an opposite political spin, linking Oswald and/or Ruby to right-wing Texas millionaires, oilmen, anti-Castro Cubans, the mob, or the right-wing terrorist Minutemen. Most of these leads did not check out.

There were so many such false leads that one might be easily tempted to write them all off as meaningless "noise." However House Committee researcher Dan Hardway chose to look closely at all the stories that came out of Mexico City and Miami connecting Oswald with Soviet or Castro intelligence. According to his colleague Gaeton Fonzi, "Hardway's research had indicated that most of the individuals originating the reports" were assets of the Mexico City Station's Chief of Covert Action and Cuban Operations, David Phillips. (10)

Hardway had the opportunity to quiz Phillips about this at an informal Committee interview, with Fonzi present. Hardway was armed at the interview with documentation from the Agency to dispute Phillips' claim that these assets had been run by other CIA agents. After the session, Hardway told Fonzi,

I'm firmly convinced now that he ran the red-herring, disinformation aspects of the plot. The thing that got him so nervous was when I started mentioning all the anti-Castro Cubans who were in reports filed with the FBI for the Warren Commission and every one of them had a tie I could trace back to him. (11)

To date I have been unable to contact Dan Hardway, although another good source has confirmed that he did conduct this research. It is also clear that a number of the "phase one" stories linking Oswald to Cuba did come from a single milieu of anti-Castro Cubans in Miami close to, and in some cases supported by, the CIA's JM/WAVE station there. David Phillips does therefore seem a likely candidate to have coordinated the stories coming out of Mexico City and Miami. For in the second half of 1963 he was cross-posted to both stations, as Chief of Cuban Operations in Mexico City, and as Chief of Psychological Operations (i.e. propaganda) in Miami. (In fact it is possible that David Phillips held down three posts in 1963, and was doubling also as a member of the Special Affairs Staff Counterintelligence (SAS/CI) staff.)

A small intelligence-backed "press agency," the Agencia de Informaciones Periodisticas (A.I.P.), was a source for one recurring Oswald story, that he had worked on behalf of Cuban intelligence in the Miami area. (The A.I.P. attracted notice again during the wave of Chilean-financed Cuban terrorism of the mid-1970s, involving many Cuban exile veterans of the JM/WAVE operations, when the A.I.P. was revealed to be an agency by then financed by the Chilean intelligence service DINA). (12) The story was traced by the FBI to Fernando Fernandez Capada of the A.I.P., who told it to Jim Buchanan, a close ally of Frank Sturgis; the story was later publicized by Frank Sturgis and John Martino. (13)

Another A.I.P. story, traced to Dr. Fernando Carrandi, spoke of Ruby's travel to Cuba. Those involved in circulating this story included Salvador Lew, p.r. agent for the CIA-backed Comandos Mambises, and Paul Bethel, described by Fonzi as "a close friend of David Atlee Phillips." (14) Yet another Oswald-Cuban intelligence story involved Miguel "Cuco" de Leon, senior adviser to Manuel Artime in the JM/WAVE-backed Operation Second Naval Guerrilla. (15)

Any evidence for linking Phillips to these intelligence-tinged stories has not yet been made public. We have however Phillips' own statements that he was involved in the transmission of both of the key "phase one" allegations promoted in CIA cables, the Kostikov story of October, and the Alvarado story of November 25.

As mentioned above, it would appear that Phillips' claim to have signed off on the Kostikov cable of October 8 is simply not true. Phillips claimed this in sworn testimony, as part of his effort to rationalize the delay of one week in transmitting the intercepted conversation of October 1. (16) Phillips' admitted role in the transmission of the Alvarado story, that Oswald was paid money in the Mexico City Cuban Consulate to kill Kennedy, is however corroborated by the documentary record. Here too there is a difference between Phillips own account and the cables however. In his autobiography Phillips describes the story he heard from Alvarado's lips as a lie easily seen through, indeed as a "transparent operation." (17) In the cables sent after his interviews with Alvarado, however, the tone is quite different. There we hear that "This officer was impressed by Alvarado ... wealth of detail Alvarado gives is striking." (18) One cable described Alvarado as a "quiet, very serious person, who speaks with conviction;" another, the next day, called him "completely cooperative." (19)

Most revealing was the description of Alvarado as a "well-known Nicaraguan Communist underground member," whereas in fact (as he himself revealed later the same day) he was a penetration agent of the right-wing Somoza Government of Nicaragua. (20) (This revelation was quickly confirmed by CIA cables from Managua and Headquarters). (21)

[John Simkin]

On 11th December, 1962, a CIA memo written by Donald Jameson (declassified in August, 1993) reported: "I think that Miss Johnson can be encouraged to write pretty much the articles we want. It will require a little more contact and discussion, but I think she could come around... Basically, if approached with sympathy in the cause she considers most vital, I believe she would be interested in helping us in many ways. It would be important to avoid making her think that she was being used as a propaganda tool and expected to write what she is told. I don't think she would go along with that idea at all. On the other hand, she is searching for both more information and more understanding of the problem of the Soviet intellectual and is consequently subject to influence."

Another CIA document dated dated 5th February, 1964, reports on a 11 hour meeting with Johnson. The main objective of the meeting was to debrief Johnson "on her flaps with the Soviets when she was in the USSR, notably at the time of her last exit." She was also asked if she "would be interested in writing articles for Soviet publications." Gary Coit, the CIA officer who conducted the interview with Johnson reported that "no effort was made to attempt to force the issue of a debriefing on her contacts". However, Coit told her he would "probably be back to see her from time to time to see what she knows about specific persons whose names might come up, and she at least nodded assent to this."

After the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Johnson befriended Marina Oswald, and the two spent considerable time together. According to Johnson, she spent thirteen years researching Marina and Lee, before it was published in 1977.

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

[William Kelly]

John,

According to John Newman (See: Oswald and the CIA), Priscilla Johnson was a New York neighbor of Cord Meyer. Priscilla's father was also connected somehow as he was the babysitter for Svetlana Stalan when she defected from USSR, which set up Priscilla as a translater of her memoirs, which nobody was interested in (I have a copy).

While Priscilla may have been rejected as an official CIA employee, she repeatedly met with a CIA contact officer and there are documents at Jim Lesar's AARC that I've read where one contact agent reports that he is turning PJMcMillan over to a new contact agent, which suggests a long term relationship.

PJM also worked with Cord Meyer, the ex-USMC vet who founded the World Federalist, to support UN and world government. Living as a student at Haverford College on the Main Line in Philadelphia, PJM should have known fellow World Federalist - Ruth Forbes Paine Young (Michael's Mom), who organized a black tie charity ball to raise money for the World Federalists.

While she may not have officially worked for the CIA, she did work for the North American Newspaper Alliance - NANA - when she went to USSR and interviewed LHO. NANA was owned by ex-OSS officers and employed a bevy of beautiful journalist-spys.

PJM's husband, McMillan, was also a player, having interviewed George DeMohrnschildts and others.

While the Warren Commission assumed that all of the reporters LHO delt with in USSR were KGB, why be so surprised that we didn't match them, tit for tat?

I recently found a complete copy of "Bottlefed by Oswald's NANA" that I co-wrote with John Judge many years ago, that goes into all this in more detail, and will retype it when I get a chance.

BK

[Owen Parsons]

This series by Peter Whitmey is very relevant, to say the least.

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Part 1

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Part 2

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Part 3

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Update

Priscilla Johnson McMillan and the CIA

Subsequent Letters to the Editor

[Pat Speer]

PJM's husband, McMillan, was also a player, having interviewed George DeMohrnschildts and others.

I'm a bit busy right now and don't have time to look up the exact reference, but I believe DeMohrenschildt wrote that McMillan was the ONLY reporter to visit him in Haiti after Kennedy's death, and that McMillan came recommended by an old friend. I've always wondered if DeMohrenschildt's old friend wasn't Priscilla Johnson.

Edited September 29, 2006 by Pat Speer

[William Kelly]

This series by Peter Whitmey is very relevant, to say the least.

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Part 1

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Part 2

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Part 3

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Update

Priscilla Johnson McMillan and the CIA

Subsequent Letters to the Editor

Thanks for those links Owen,

I stand corrected that PJM attended Bryn Mawr College on the Main Line, rather than Haverford. Both are Quaker schools, much like Swarthmore, where Michael Paine matriculated after leaving Harvard, and all three are in the same Main Line neighborhood, within a few miles apart.

Thanks to Peter Whitmey for the details. Peter, a Canadian researcher, has also done work on Jean Aase and Larry Meyers and the Winnipeg Airport incident, which has not received the attention that it deserves.

BK

[John Simkin]

According to John Newman (See: Oswald and the CIA), Priscilla Johnson was a New York neighbor of Cord Meyer. Priscilla's father was also connected somehow as he was the babysitter for Svetlana Stalan when she defected from USSR, which set up Priscilla as a translater of her memoirs, which nobody was interested in (I have a copy).

While Priscilla may have been rejected as an official CIA employee, she repeatedly met with a CIA contact officer and there are documents at Jim Lesar's AARC that I've read where one contact agent reports that he is turning PJMcMillan over to a new contact agent, which suggests a long term relationship.

PJM also worked with Cord Meyer, the ex-USMC vet who founded the World Federalist, to support UN and world government. Living as a student at Haverford College on the Main Line in Philadelphia, PJM should have known fellow World Federalist - Ruth Forbes Paine Young (Michael's Mom), who organized a black tie charity ball to raise money for the World Federalists.

Although John Newman briefly mentions Cord Meyer’s background he does not explain the CIA relationship with his wife Mary Pinchot Meyer.

Meyer was a machine-gun platoon leader and took part in the assault on Guam. He later wrote: "As we buried our dead I swore to myself that if it was within my power I should see to it that these deaths would not be forgotten or valued lightly. No matter how small a contribution I should happen to make it would be in the right direction."

On 21st July, 1944, a Japanese grenade was thrown into his foxhole. He was so badly injured that when he was found he was initially declared to be dead. In fact, his commanding officer sent a telegram to his parents announcing he had died. Although he lost his left eye he was eventually well enough to be sent home. Soon afterwards his twin brother, Quentin, was killed at Okinawa.

While recovering in New York City Meyer met the journalist, Mary Pinchot. She was a pacifist and a member of the American Labor Party. She turned Meyer from a disillusioned soldier into a left-wing activist. They married on 19th April, 1945.

The couple then went to San Francisco to attend the conference that established the United Nations. Meyer went as an aide to Harold Stassen. Meyer told the New York Times that although the United Nations was a step in the right direction "that the veto power was just another alliance of the great powers and one that would surely lead to another war." Meyer proposed that the UN be granted authority to oversee nuclear power installations inside member countries. He also argued that the UN should be given the authority to prevent war and "the armed power to back it up."

After the war Meyer commissioned a film by Pare Lorentz called The Beginning or the End. Meyer wanted this film to be the definitive statement about the dangers of the atomic age. Cord wrote at the time: "Talked with Mary of how steadily depressing is our full realization of how little hope there is of avoiding the approaching catastrophe of atomic warfare."

The following year he published a book about his war experiences, Waves of Darkness. Meyer expressed his pacifist views in the book: "The only certain fruit of this insanity will be the rotting bodies upon which the sun will impartially shine tomorrow. Let us throw down these guns that we hate."

The Meyers were both advocates of world government. In May, 1947, Cord Meyer was elected president of the United World Federalists. Mary Meyer was also active in the organization and wrote for its journal, The United World Federalists.

Cord Meyer was considered to be a dangerous figure by the CIA and he was targeted and turned by the CIA. (Much to the disgust of Mary who retained her left-wing views for the rest of her life). From 1949 he informed on members of left-wing organizations he worked with including the Committee to Frame a World Constitution, International Cooperative Alliance, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the Congress of Peoples Against Imperialism.

Meyer did not officially join the CIA until 1951. It followed a meeting with Allen W. Dulles who told Meyer he wanted him to work on a project that was so secret that he could not be told about it until he officially joined the organization. Meyer was to work under Frank Wisner, director of the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC). This became the espionage and counter-intelligence branch of the CIA. Most importantly, he took responsibility for Operation Mockingbird.

Wisner and Meyer realized that it was very important to have control of journalists who appeared to hold “liberal” views. Priscilla Johnson was an ideal candidate. There is no doubt that she genuinely held “internationalist” views in her youth (so did Cord Meyer). She was therefore the ideal recruit. The problem was that this created problems over her security clearance with the CIA.

It also caused problems for Cord Meyer and Frank Wisner when they were named by Joe McCarthy as communists who had infiltrated the CIA. Meyer was actually suspended from duty while he was investigated by the FBI. As a result of this, the OPC unleashed Operation Mockingbird against McCarthy. That is the real reason McCarthy was destroyed. Don’t believe the Hollywood movies on McCarthyism, Ed Murrow was only one media asset brought in to deal with McCarthy.

[Greg Parker]

This series by Peter Whitmey is very relevant, to say the least.

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Part 1

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Part 2

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Part 3

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Update

Priscilla Johnson McMillan and the CIA

Subsequent Letters to the Editor

Thanks for those links Owen,

I stand corrected that PJM attended Bryn Mawr College on the Main Line, rather than Haverford. Both are Quaker schools, much like Swarthmore, where Michael Paine matriculated after leaving Harvard, and all three are in the same Main Line neighborhood, within a few miles apart.

Thanks to Peter Whitmey for the details. Peter, a Canadian researcher, has also done work on Jean Aase and Larry Meyers and the Winnipeg Airport incident, which has not received the attention that it deserves.

BK

From one of Mr Whitmey's articles: It was pointed out that, according to Mr. Butler at the "OO Office" in Boston, Priscilla was "...allowed to use the Harvard-Russian Research Center for her own work, mainly the writing of articles and a book, but that she has no other official relationship to the center."

And from: http://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/people/bio_mcmillan.html is this:

Priscilla Johnson McMillan

M.A., Harvard-Radcliffe, 1953

Independent Historian

Center Associate, Davis Center

The grad student she mentions as being present when Oswald tried to"defect" was Edward L Keenan.... from Harvard. Now a Prof of Russian History and still closely associated with Harvard.

I believe she knew Keenan, and that Keenan was present at the embassy specifically to witness what was about to go down. He had travelled to Moscow from Leningrad University at a time it was forbidden for foreign students to do so.

Namebase has an entry for a "Edward L Keenan"

KEENAN EDWARD L

* Council on Foreign Relations. Membership Roster. 1985

* House and Senate. Iran-Contra Committee Members and Staff. 1987

* Washington Post 1989-03-26 (C6)

I can't say for certain however, it is the same porson.

[William Kelly]

This series by Peter Whitmey is very relevant, to say the least.

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Part 1

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Part 2

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Part 3

Priscilla and Lee: Before and After the Assassination - Update

Priscilla Johnson McMillan and the CIA

Subsequent Letters to the Editor

Thanks for those links Owen,

I stand corrected that PJM attended Bryn Mawr College on the Main Line, rather than Haverford. Both are Quaker schools, much like Swarthmore, where Michael Paine matriculated after leaving Harvard, and all three are in the same Main Line neighborhood, within a few miles apart.

Thanks to Peter Whitmey for the details. Peter, a Canadian researcher, has also done work on Jean Aase and Larry Meyers and the Winnipeg Airport incident, which has not received the attention that it deserves.

BK

From one of Mr Whitmey's articles: It was pointed out that, according to Mr. Butler at the "OO Office" in Boston, Priscilla was "...allowed to use the Harvard-Russian Research Center for her own work, mainly the writing of articles and a book, but that she has no other official relationship to the center."

And from: http://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/people/bio_mcmillan.html is this:

Priscilla Johnson McMillan

M.A., Harvard-Radcliffe, 1953

Independent Historian

Center Associate, Davis Center

The grad student she mentions as being present when Oswald tried to"defect" was Edward L Keenan.... from Harvard. Now a Prof of Russian History and still closely associated with Harvard.

I believe she knew Keenan, and that Keenan was present at the embassy specifically to witness what was about to go down. He had travelled to Moscow from Leningrad University at a time it was forbidden for foreign students to do so.

Namebase has an entry for a "Edward L Keenan"

KEENAN EDWARD L

* Council on Foreign Relations. Membership Roster. 1985

* House and Senate. Iran-Contra Committee Members and Staff. 1987

* Washington Post 1989-03-26 (C6)

I can't say for certain however, it is the same porson.

Greg,

As you know, The Edward L. Keenan who was present at the US Embassy in Moscow when LHO "defected" is now the director of Harvard's Dumbarton Oaks museum and research center in Washington D.C. This is also the ELK who knows PJM, both Harvard Russian specialists.

Another Harvard Professor of recent interest - Dr. Ernest May, of the Miller Center Presidential Recordings Project.

Then there is the researcher's bane, a second Edward L. Keenan, a distinguished linguist from UCLA and University of Pennsylvania.

If you check the Dumbarton Oaks web site, it is a spectacular place.

If only we had an Assassinaton Archives and Research Center of equal opulance.

BK

Edited September 29, 2006 by William Kelly

[Rex Bradford]

Priscilla Johnson appears to have been one of those people on the "outside" of CIA with ongoing contacts with it. Here are a few relevant documents. The list is not complete, just things that caught my eye running a search.

1958 request for approval of use of Johnson as agent, already noted as "informant":

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=2

Jul 1962 memo regarding request to utilize Johnson as a news editor and writer for magazines subsidized by [XX]LEAFAGE under project [XX]OPERA:

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=2

Dec 1962 redacted (probably not now, couldn't find another copy) contact report noting "Priscilla Johnson was selected as a likely candidate to write an article..":

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...bsPageId=466620

May 1963 approval for clearance to use Johnson for debriefing purposes in project [XX]DINOSAUR (presumably AEDINOSAUR, as it had to do with her contacts with Soviets):

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=2

Dec 1963 note discussing Oswald contact with Johnson, "who has been of interest to this Agency in several instances."

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...bsPageId=456406

Feb 1964 contact report:

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...bsPageId=383080

Priscilla Johnson's intersections with the JFK case are interesting. Beyond her contact with Marina leading to the book Marina and Lee, there are more curious/suspicious episodes. Prime among these is the finding of the bus ticket which "proved" that Lee Oswald had been to Mexico City. After the Dallas Police and FBI had turned Ruth Paine's house upside down, Priscilla and Marina together found this ticket several months later (August 1964) in a "Spanish magazine." Commissioner Richard Russell was highly skeptical of this when he grilled Marina in the last interview the Commissioners conducted, on September 6, less than 3 weeks before the Warren Report went to print:

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...absPageId=17412

Peter Whitmey mentions this episode in Part 3 of his excellent Priscilla and Lee:

http://www.jfk-info.com/pjm-tit.htm

Rex

[John Geraghty]

I found this nugget while looking at campaign contributions, Priscilla McMillan donated $1,000 to an organisation called Democracy for America. Ironic, considering she assisted in its demise (democracy that is).

http://www.campaignmoney.com/journalists.asp

http://www.democracyforamerica.com/

She also donated to Ned Lamont's Senate run, the Democratic National Committee,Van Hollen for Congress and the Council for a Liveable World candidate fund (http://www.clw.org/).

http://www.campaignmoney.com/finance.asp?p...19&cycle=06

These donations for 2006 alone amount to $6,750

You can search other people at, http://www.campaignmoney.com . There is also an option to view the donations of journalists and celebrities etc. The records only go back to 2000. If only they went back to the 50's, that would be a real coup. An online resource like that would be invaluable.

John

Edited May 13, 2007 by John Geraghty
Including additional information

[David McLean]

Re Mr Meyer, the only disCORDant note in Saint John and E.Howard Hunt's recent revelations is the uncorroborated accusation that Meyer was a key conspirator. He had in 1963 I believe been recently appointed head of the new Domestic Operations division, but with an unreliable background and philandering ex-wife, Hunt's accusation sounds suspect and a last bit of disinformation from an unrepentant old fox who refuses to lie straight in his coffin.

[J. Raymond Carroll]

Re Mr Meyer, the only disCORDant note in Saint John and E.Howard Hunt's recent revelations is the uncorroborated accusation that Meyer was a key conspirator. He had in 1963 I believe been recently appointed head of the new Domestic Operations division, but with an unreliable background and philandering ex-wife, Hunt's accusation sounds suspect and a last bit of disinformation from an unrepentant old fox who refuses to lie straight in his coffin.

It would be very much in character for Hunt to spread misinformation, even from his deathbed. I am inclined to think that we can eliminate those CIA persons named by Hunt. Sturgis was never a CIA "agent" officially, so Hunt may be telling the truth in his case, and of course admitting his own knowledge of an assassination plot -- which he did not report to authority -- is much more important as evidence than the accusations he makes against Meyer, et al.

I would like to hear more from St. John Hunt. It may be that EHH knew that his own unmasking was inevitable since his own son could identify him in the tramp photos. Apparently some of Sturgis's relatives can see uncle Frankie in the tramp photos, according to a tantalising recent post by A.J. Weberman. I hope we will hear more on this from Mr. Weberman.

[William Kelly]

Priscilla Johnson appears to have been one of those people on the "outside" of CIA with ongoing contacts with it. Here are a few relevant documents. The list is not complete, just things that caught my eye running a search.

1958 request for approval of use of Johnson as agent, already noted as "informant":

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=2

Jul 1962 memo regarding request to utilize Johnson as a news editor and writer for magazines subsidized by [XX]LEAFAGE under project [XX]OPERA:

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=2

Dec 1962 redacted (probably not now, couldn't find another copy) contact report noting "Priscilla Johnson was selected as a likely candidate to write an article..":

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...bsPageId=466620

May 1963 approval for clearance to use Johnson for debriefing purposes in project [XX]DINOSAUR (presumably AEDINOSAUR, as it had to do with her contacts with Soviets):

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=2

Dec 1963 note discussing Oswald contact with Johnson, "who has been of interest to this Agency in several instances."

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...bsPageId=456406

Feb 1964 contact report:

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...bsPageId=383080

Priscilla Johnson's intersections with the JFK case are interesting. Beyond her contact with Marina leading to the book Marina and Lee, there are more curious/suspicious episodes. Prime among these is the finding of the bus ticket which "proved" that Lee Oswald had been to Mexico City. After the Dallas Police and FBI had turned Ruth Paine's house upside down, Priscilla and Marina together found this ticket several months later (August 1964) in a "Spanish magazine." Commissioner Richard Russell was highly skeptical of this when he grilled Marina in the last interview the Commissioners conducted, on September 6, less than 3 weeks before the Warren Report went to print:

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...absPageId=17412

Peter Whitmey mentions this episode in Part 3 of his excellent Priscilla and Lee:

http://www.jfk-info.com/pjm-tit.htm

Rex

Once again, many thanks to Rex for bringing so much to the banquet. Besides Traficante, other new additions to the MFF's collection of HSCA files include this very enlightening HSCA "interview" with PJM in which she reveals some interesting details and some new names, but holds back on the big ones.

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/....do?docId=95329HSCA Testimony of Priscilla Johnson-McMillan, 2 Feb 1978, Part 1. Priscilla Johnson-McMillan is the journalist who interviewed Oswald in 1959 in Moscow and later wrote Marina and Lee. The HSCA questioned her about many things, including CIA connections. HSCA Testimony of Priscilla Johnson-McMillan, 2 Feb 1978, Part 2