JFk & Jackie : Were They Who Their Friends Were? Which Friends Expressed Dissatisfaction over Lone Nut Assassin?

[Guest Tom Scully]

So who were John and Jacqueline Kenndy. Did they have a lot in common with their closest friends,

or did they randomly tend to be most comfortable around people who happened to have closer than average ties to the intelligence communtiy? Is there an example of any of their friends publicly objecting to the findings of the Warren Commission, or demanding a deeper investigation into the background of Jack Ruby? I have not included Bill Walton, he deserves his own thread.

Sylvia's husband, Robert O. Blake, Sr., was from Whittier and was close to Nixon. Andre Rheault was a CIA agent at the time he was an usher in their wedding.

http://news.google.c...pg=6946,2944327

1. 
   All Too Human: The Love Story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy - Page 353 - Google Books Result
   books.google.com/books?isbn=0671501917
   Edward Klein - 1997 - Biography & Autobiography - 416 pages The Love Story of Jack and Jackie Kennedy Edward Klein ...Eight: For Better, for Wordc The descriptions of the events leading up to Jack and
   Jackie's wedding, as well as their wedding day and honeymoon, come from interviews with Helene Arpels, a friend of Rose Kennedy's; Hugh Auchincloss III; James Auchincloss, Jackie's half brother, Washington society columnist Betty Beale; Marion "Oatsie" Charles (Leiter), John Kennedy's favorite Washington socialite; Taylor Chewning; Phillip and Cecilia Geyelin; Sylvia Whitehouse Blake; Evelyn Lincoln; Chauncey Parker, ...
   

Miss Sylvia Whitehouse Is Wed To Robert O. Blake in Newport...

‎

New York Times - Jul 29, 1956

Z'he ushers were Edward Freers, Eugene Phinney, AndrE; Rheault, E. Taylor Chewning Jr., J. Woodward Redmond and Charles S. Whitehouse, brother of the ..

http://select.nytime...4DA415B8089F1D3

JOSEPHINE M. BUCK BRIDE IN FAR HILLS; Finch Graduate Is Married to Charles L. Bartlett, Writer for Chattanooga Times

Special to THE NEW YORK TIMES.

December 17, 1950,

....Ushers A. Buck, brother of thebride; E. Taylor Chewning Jr., Robert S. Coleman, Casper WB Townsend and Edward Patterson.

1. 
   Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. ... - Google Books Result
   books.google.com/books?isbn=140130396X
   Caroline Kennedy - 2011 - Biography & Autobiography - 400 pages
   SYLVIA WHITEHOUSE BLAKE (1930– ) had been Jacqueline's Vassar
   classmate and one of her bridesmaids. Her husband, Robert, was an American diplomat.
   MISS EB ALDRICH, JW REDMOND WED; MARRIED YESTERDAY
   ‎
   - New York Times - Dec 15, 1946
   ...will take place the afternoon of Dec. 14 in the residence of the prospective bride's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Winthrop W. Aldrich, at 15 East Seventy-eighth Street. ...
   The bridesmaids were the Misses Sylvia Whitehouse, a cousin; Moira Redmond, sister of the bridegroom; Firestone and Frances Cheston.
   

....In 1956, career U.S. diplomat, Robert O. Gates married CIA's Charles S. Whitehouse's sister, Sylvia.

My last post here details the names of the ushers in the 1955 wedding of CIA's Albert Bradley Carter, Jr., including known CIA Thomas Devine and Andre Rheault, later named CIA Edwin Curtiss "Buff" Bohlen, as well as Charles and Sylvia Whitehouse's first cousin, Alexander Aldrich, Henry Brunie's stepson, Charles Hubbard, Henry Cabot of Boston, and best man, later linked to the CIA by PD Scott, W. Palmer Dixon.

Henry Cabot was also an usher in the Alexander Aldrich's wedding.

So, the wedding of Sylvia Whitehouse is also noteworthy because hers and her brother Charles' mother is the sister of Alexander Aldrich's mother. Besides Edward Freers and CIA's Andre Rheault and Charles Whitehouse, another usher in the Sylvia Whitehouse-Robert O. Gates wedding is J. Woodward Redmond, son-in-law of Winthrop Aldrich and brother-in-law of his son, Alexander Aldrich.

John McCloy was the Rockefeller family lawyer and he had taken the position at Chase bank formerly held by Winthrop Aldrich.

Just a month befor the 1956 Gates-Whitehouse wedding, Edward Freers was also an usher in the wedding of Stuart Wesson Rockwell, the U.S. Ambassador in Tehran in 1953, during the Mossadegh coup. Other ushers in Rockwell's wedding were Marshall Green, U.S. Ambassador in Indonesia, who reportedly took an active role in the "emergence" of General Suharto, and D. Chadwick Braggiotti, a U.S. diplomat whose sister was married to the brother of Henry Cabot Lodge.:...

A DISPATCHED DEFECTOR SENT TO - Coup d'Etat in America

http://ajweberman.co...ED DEFECTOR.htm

........................

OSWALD OFFERS INFORMATION TO THE SOVIETS

....he had voluntarily stated to unnamed Soviet Officials that as a Soviet citizen he would make known to them such information concerning the Marine Corps and his specialty as he possessed. He intimated he might know something of special interest." Richard Snyder discussed the matter with Edward Freers. On September 8, 1964, Yuri Nosenko stated that the KGB had a microphone in the office of Edward Freers (left). Yuri Nosenko: "He was not considered to be connected with the CIA." The CIA reported: "Edward L. Freers was never an employee of the CIA. He has been an employee of the Department of State since 1941....

.....Freers was contacted on a continuing basis by Stanley Richardson, Ethel Jill Holton, Wilfred Koplowitz and Cord Meyer. [NARA 1993.08.02.13:37:17:030028]

.....CORD MEYER

There's no relationship." Cord Meyer was asked about Freers: "I never

heard of him. ...... Mr. Weberman, I know of no such memorandum. What is the

Office of ....I'm finished with this, it's just not quite possible. Thank you. Goodbye." [Meyer, Cord telephone 202-785-8205]

<a name="tele">

....................................................

MISS LUCY ALDRICH MARRIED TO OFFICER; Daughter of Banker...

‎

New York Times - Nov 18, 1945

Miss Lucy Truman Aldrich, third daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Withrop W. Aldrich,

was married yesterday afternoon to Second Lieut. David Wetmore Devens, AUS, son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur L. Devens of Boston, in the chapel of the Riverside Church. The Rev. Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick per- formed the ceremony in the pres- ence of relatives and a few friends of the couple. Mr. Alldrich gave his daughter in marriage.

The bride is a granddaughter of the late United States Senator Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Island and of the late Mrs. Aldrich, and of the late Mr. and Mrs. Charles Beatty Alexander, whose home for many years was 4 West Fifty- eigth Street. She is a niece of Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Miss Lucy Aldrich, Mrs. Arnold Whit- ridge and Mrs. Sheldon Whitehouse, and through her maternal

grandmother, is a member of the Crocker family of California.

The bride wore a white satin gown, and an heirloom lace veil that had been worn by her mother and also by her sister, mrs. Edgar Bering, Jr., the former Harriet Aldrich. She was attended by her other sister, the Misses Mary

and Elizabeth Aldrich, who were at- tired in green taffeta and carried autumn flowers.

Chief Boatswain's Mate Richard Mather Devens, USNR, was best man for his

brother, whose ushers were another brother, Lieut. Comdr. Philip Cutler and Lieut. Benjamin Bradlee,

all USNR; Alexander Al- drich, brother of the bride, and Joseph Reed. A reception was given at the Aldrich home,

15 East! Seventy- Street.

http://www.nytimes.c...agewanted=print

March 1, 1981

Constance Bradlee Thayer Is Wed To David Devens

Constance Bradlee Thayer of New York, widow of Francis C. Thayer, was married yesterday to David W. Devens, also of New York, a retired vice president of Johnson & Higgins, the international insurance brokers. Bishop Paul Moore of the Episcopal Diocese of New York performed the ceremony at the Church of the Heavenly Rest.

The bride, daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Frederick J. Bradlee of Boston, was given in marriage by her son, Francis C. Thayer Jr. David W. Devens Jr. served as his father's best man.

Mr. Devens's previous marriage, to the former Lucy Aldrich, now Mrs. Francis H. Burr, ended in divorce. He is the son of Mrs. Arthur L. Devens of Boston and the late Mr. Devens. He is a graduate of Groton School and Harvard.

http://www.highbeam....P2-8223514.html

Constance Bradlee Devens, 69; former Vogue magazine editor

April 16, 1993

Constance Bradlee Devens, a former Vogue magazine fashion editor, died Saturday in New York after a long illness. She was 69.

Mrs. Devens was raised in Boston and graduated from the Beaver Country Day School. She was the daughter of Frederick J. Bradlee -- a former All-American football player at Harvard and longtime chairman of the Massachusetts Parole Board -- and Josephine (deGersdorff) Bradlee, who was awarded France's Legion of Honor for her work in facilitating the adoption of French children in America after World War II.

Mrs. Devens left Boston in 1941 and moved to New York, where she launched a career at Vogue. She married Francis C. Thayer, a documentary film maker, …Thayer Walker of Houston, and Sarah Thayer Robinson of New York; two brothers, Frederic Bradlee of New York and Benjamin C. Bradlee of Washington, DC ...

FRANCIS `HOOKS' BURR; HELPED SHAPE FUTURE OF MGH, …

‎Boston Globe - Nov 30, 2004

In 1979, he married Lucy Aldrich. ... his wife's children, Wenonah Devens of San Francisco and David W. Devens of Niantic, Conn.; nine grandchildren and three .

Now Or Then? - Page xiv

by George DeForest Lord - Non-Classifiable - 2007 - 92 pages

.....I had called Charles Bartlett, a distinguished reporter and an old friend, to see if he could lunch at the Federal City Club, but he was too busy reporting to take the time.

What he did do was to get another old friend, Cord Meyer, to meet me. Cord then was a hawk in the CIA. He arrived at the Club in a Plymouth painted matte black with a black driver in a black uniform, thus maintaining what might be called an ostentatious incognito. During lunch Cord's beeper summoned him repeatedly to the telephone, and I cannot remember anything we talked about. Since Cord and Charlie later collaborated on a nationally syndicated column, perhaps the lunch arrangement was not a joke of his. .....

http://educationforu...40

....I submit that James K. Cogswell, III falls into the DeM and Abramoff category. The man is the grandson of a Spanish_American War Admiral hero, and the nephew of a 20th century naval standout. A WWII destroyer is named after the two, and Cogswell, III serves on the ship as an officer, with distinction, through many combat perils, until after VJ day and the occupation of Japan.

His aunt, the widow of the second Cogswell, naval namesake, is a retired CIA secretary by 1954. Cogswell serve on the naval destroyer named after his family, during the final year of the war with the first US astronaut in space, and the fifth human to walk on the moon, Alan B. Shepard.

Cogswell seems to have graduated from The Gunnery School in Washington, CT in 1939, with the prominent Berkeley professor and mathematician, David Gale. In 1942, DeMohrenschildt rooms in Washington DC for a few weeks with naval officer Harry Hull, a man whose mother-in-law since 1939, was Cogswell's aunt, Bianca.

In 1954, Cogswell's first cousin on his mother's (Hennenger) side, Susan Estabrook Lewis, marries for life, the former OSS chief secretariat, Alvah Woodbury Sulloway .

In 1953, Cogswell, III marries for a second time, to Joan Farish, daughter of Stephen Power Farish, uncle of Bush friend, Will Farish III. Cogswell's best man was George O. Walbridge, 2d.

Walbridge turns up in a 1955 newspaper photo, standing in Havana, next to his boss, Lem Billings of Emerson Drug Co., and the former Cuban dictator Prio's former press secretary.

It turns out that both Lem Bilings and Walbridge are very close to, and employed by the grandson of the Emerson Drug Co. founder, who also is the nephew by the marriage of Nina McaDoo TO George DeM's late uncle, Ferdinand DeMohrenschildt.

Later reports, including by the HSCA, are that Cogswell, III worked for the CIA, raised money to finance at least one plot to assassinate Castro, knew and socialized with George DeM. and with DeM's other contact, Joseph F. Dryer, was a friend of AMRAZZ-1, aka Joaquin Godoy, and with Antonio Veciana, and had an only sister, Theodora, described in an HSCA report as being acquainted with "Livingston" aka Mitchell Werbell....

Sylvia Whitehouse Blake's son and former daughter-in-law:

(quote]http://educationforu...=90#entry256518

..I am impressed that the Rockefellers achieved every goal in '68 except Nelson winning the nomination. Gene was elimnated, Bobby was assassinated, Hubert Humphrey won the nomination and lost the election, and Rockefeller man Clark Clifford sponsored Finney and counseled LBJ not to make a public display of Nixon backdealing to sabotage the Vietnam peace talks. Kissinger was installed to represent the Rockefellers, and Bush was already perceived as a "go to" guy.

The Ford presidency was the Rockefeller presidency, Carter was scuttled by David Rockefeller and McCloy forcing the Shah on Carter, and then there was the October surprise..... The recent links between the second Priscilla Johnson and her family and friends to the Rockefellers is fact. McCloy's son said his best friend was the chief enabler of Bernie Madoff, and McCloy's son was also best man in a wedding of a guy who married into the family of Standard Oil's Walter Teagle, and then married Rockefeller ex-wife (Mrs. Robert O. blake, Jr.) who just happened to be the daughter of husband and wife CIA agents, and Blake's father married Sylvia Whitehouse, and Andre Rheault was an usher in their wedding, along with a guy or two linked to the Mossadegh coup, and Rheault was a friend of Thomas Devine and Alexander Aldrich, and the brother of Special Forces Col. Robert Rheault.

I think both Robert O. Blake, Jr. and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse should resign from their high government posts, Enough is enough! (/quote]

[David Andrews]

Quote: I am impressed that the Rockefellers achieved every goal in '68 except Nelson winning the nomination. Gene was elimnated, Bobby was assassinated, Hubert Humphrey won the nomination and lost the election, and Rockefeller man Clark Clifford sponsored Finney and counseled LBJ not to make a public display of Nixon backdealing to sabotage the Vietnam peace talks. Kissinger was installed to represent the Rockefellers, and Bush was already perceived as a "go to" guy.

It is interesting to consider Clark Clifford's ascension to Robert McNamara's chair. Not only was Clifford a longtime Rockefeller attorney, on a par with the Dulles brothers, but bringing in Clifford suggests a change in interest to the legalistic aspects of the war in Vietnam.

Clifford, a constitutional law expert, was now at Defense in place of McNamara, an organizational strategist. Clifford may have been called in to manage and protect Johnson at the end of his usefulness, with a repopularization of the war and an escalation anticipated soon under Nixon. In other words, Clifford may have been a transitional manager, and something of an advance man for Nixon, sent by Nixon's handlers.

Edited August 26, 2012 by David Andrews

[Thomas Graves]

In the title:

"There Friends Were" or "Their Friends Were"?

[Dawn Meredith]

In the title:

"There Friends Were" or "Their Friends Were"?

Tom, it's only grammar

[Guest Tom Scully]

.......

Clifford, a constitutional law expert, was now at Defense in place of McNamara, an organizational strategist. Clifford may have been called in to manage and protect Johnson at the end of his usefulness, with a repopularization of the war and an escalation anticipated soon under Nixon. In other words, Clifford may have been a transitional manager, and something of an advance man for Nixon, sent by Nixon's handlers.

David, IMO, it's about the network, the secrecy, the loyalty, and at the top, much more about the ideology (power & influence) than it is about the money. Unless these are merely coincidences, it is a thing of beauty to peek in the window and observe.:

No 25th amendment rushed through the legislative passage and state ratification system under LBJ beginning in 1965,

No Ford, and no Rockefeller vice-presidencies ..... Truman served three years with the office of VPOTUS vacant, and LBJ

served for 14 months without a V.P.

Watergate Viewed As Restoring Faith .

news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat...id...sjid...

... article how a new president might be brought into power under the 25th Amendment.' . As Clifford visualized it, Vice Presi dent Agnew would resign. President ..

Clark Clifford, a Major Adviser To Four Presidents, Is Dead at 91

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B07E4DF1F3BF932A25753C1A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=5

"...He was also the personal lawyer for Kennedy, then a young Senator from Massachusetts.

In 1960, when Kennedy won the Democratic nomination for President over Stuart Symington, whom Mr. Clifford had supported, Kennedy asked Mr. Clifford to prepare an analysis of the problems Kennedy would face in taking over the executive branch. Mr. Clifford wrote a detailed assessment and, after the election, was named to head the transition team.

At a dinner shortly after his election, Kennedy paid tribute to Mr. Clifford for all the work he had done and for asking nothing in return.....

....After the abortive invasion of Cuba at the Bay of Pigs in April 1961, an operation supported by the C.I.A., Kennedy again turned to Mr. Clifford, who in 1947 had written the legislation establishing the agency. The President asked him to become a member, and then chairman, of the newly created Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.

Kennedy also turned to Mr. Clifford a year later, when the nation's major steel companies refused to honor an agreement that the President thought he had with them not to increase prices. The companies backed down several days later, after Mr. Clifford convinced them that it would be in their best interest to rescind the increases.

President Johnson was hardly in office 24 hours when he called for Mr. Clifford. Faced with the sudden and enormous task of running the country after Kennedy's assassination, Johnson talked with Mr. Clifford for two hours, then three, then four.It was late in the evening, Mr. Clifford remembered, when Lady Bird Johnson entered the Oval Office and reminded her husband, ''Just because you're President now doesn't mean you don't have to eat dinner.'"...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Federal_Reserve_System

The executives included Frank A. Vanderlip, president of the National City Bank of New York, associated with the Rockefellers; Henry Davison, senior partner of J.P. .... Frank Vanderlip, one of the Jekyll Island attendees and the President of

74 Debutantes Introduced to Society At 33d Christmas...

‎New York Times - Dec 21, 1968

... Frank A. Vanderlip Jr. for Mr. Vanderlip's goddaughter, Miss Jill Quasha, and his niece, Miss Narcissa Cox Vanderlip 2d, who was named for .her grandmother

Rockefeller Gives Ronan Recess Seat On Port Authority

‎New York Times - Dec 6, 1967

Governor Rockefeller appointed Dr. William J. Ronan today as a commissioner of the Port of New York Authority. The appointment was con-I sidered a move to .

Rockefeller Said to Favor Ronan to Head Port Unit

‎New York Times - Mar 15, 1972

Governor Rockefeller wants Dr. William J. Ronan, chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, to be named executive director of the Port of New York ...

Ronan works free for benefactor Rocky

‎Chicago Tribune - Feb 12, 1975

Dr. William J. Ronan, who received controversial gifts totaling $625000 from Nelson A. Rockefeller, is serving as an unpaid consultant to the vice president, ...

Diana Vinade Ronan Is Married To Alan Grant Quasha, Lawyer

‎New York Times - May 22, 1977

... chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Mrs. Ronan of ... Alan Granat Quasha, son of Mr. and Mrs. William Howard Quasha of Manila.

Diana Vinade Ronan Is Engaged To Alan Grant Quasha, Lawyer

‎New York Times - Nov 21, 1976

Dr. William J. Ronan, chairman of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and ... to Alan Grant Quasha, son of Mr. and Mrs. William H. Quasha of Manila.

"leave no one behind dead or alive.^"

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/clark-clifford-charged-over-bcci-1536500.html

Thursday 30 July 1992

Clark Clifford charged over BCCI

THE SCANDAL surrounding the Bank of Credit and Commerce International claimed its highest- ranking victim to date yesterday when Clark Clifford, a confidant of every Democratic US president since Harry Truman, was charged with misleading American bank regulators and accepting as much as dollars 35m ( pounds 18.5m) in bribes.

Mr Clifford and his law partner Robert Altman, who acted as chairman and president of BCCI's main US subsidiary in the 1980s, were arraigned one year to the day after the first charges were brought against the bank, which was closed by regulators worldwide last July.

Mr Clifford and Mr Altman were simultaneously charged by the US Justice Department and the US Federal Reserve in Washington. Both said they would fight to establish their innocence.....

MISS ROGKEFELLER ED IN 6RBEqqICH; Christ uplscopa! Church...

‎New York Times - May 30, 1948

Church !s the Scene of Her Marriage to Robert Gregg Stone Jr, ... May 29--Miss Marion Rockefeller, daughter of Mr. and 1W_rs. Godfrey Stillman Rockefeller ...

Muffie Stone Plans Bridal in May

‎New York Times - Dec 15, 1974

Mr. and Mrs. Robert G. Stone Jr. of Greenwich, Conn., have announced the ... York, son of Mr. and Mrs. William HG FitzGerald of Washington, A May wedding in

MISS AR PETSGHEK WED IN CATHEDRal; Bride of Lieut. Commdr...

‎New York Times - Jul 3, 1943

Wm. G. FitzGerald of Navy in the Lady Chapel of St. Patrick's WEARS WHITE LACE GOWN ... of British General in India, as Flower Girl Miss Annelise Rosemarie Petschek, ... Lieut Ernest L. Byfield Jr., iUSA, of Chicago, was best man for! the ...

OBITUARIES;Gladys R. Tartiere, Philanthropist, Dies

- Washington Post - ProQuest Archiver - Mar 5, 1993

Gladys R. Tartiere, 100, a supporter of service and social organizations who once ... Raymond F. Tartiere, a French banker, after divorcing Ernest Byfield, (Sr.)...

Clark Clifford: The Wise Man of Washington - Google Books Result

books.google.com/books?isbn=0813125510

John Acacia - 2009 - Biography & Autobiography - 440 pages

Not to be dissuaded, Jackie asked Clifford to speak to Ms. Tartiere again, and

again. According to Clifford, he promised the owner that if the Kennedys rented

the ..http://books.google.com/books?um=1&q=sam+ervin+albert+jenner+supreme+court&btnG=Search+Books

Abe Fortas: A Biography? - Page 328

by Laura Kalman - Self-Help - 1990 - 499 pages (Clark)

Clifford offered the name of Albert Jenner, a prominent Chicago corporate ... 57

Harvard Was Unlikely Savior Of Bush Energy Firm Harken - WSJ.com

online.wsj.com/article/SB1034111592892893796.html

Oct 9, 2002 – ... Commission and elsewhere by HarvardWatch, a student and alumni ... At the time, First City was controlled by Robert Abboud, another ... held by Mr. Bush and another Harken board member, Alan Quasha. The person with the most influence over the endowment for decades has been Robert Stone Jr.,

http://www.thenation.com/article/Hillarys-Mystery-Money-Men/web-letters

................

6. The allegations about Harken Energy are demonstrably untrue from facts in the public record that your writers have intentionally ignored. After I became chairman of Harken Energy, George Soros became a major investor, followed by Harvard University. For years, Harken's largest shareholder and Harken's most influential board member was the representative from Harvard. During my tenure as nonexecutive chairman from 1983 to 1992, the major shareholders of Harken were George Soros, Harvard University and a joint venture I headed, none of whom had ties with anyone nefarious, much less "BCCI" or "a Saudi frontman, foreign dictator or figures with intelligence ties."

7. Although I cannot begin to correct the article's countless other factual errors about Harken Energy, not the least of which is your article's description of Harken's financial record, your suggestion that the Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of George W. Bush was terminated for political reasons is an insult to the commission's staff. The commission's Enforcement Division in the early 1990s was headed by William R. McLucas, a highly respected career SEC lawyer who has never been accused of partisanship or of succumbing to partisan pressures. Similarly, neither the SEC nor any other government agency ever brought an enforcement action against Harken and Harken was never sued, by a shareholder or anyone else, for any wrongdoing.

....I am neither "mysterious" nor "notorious," except in the eyes of people with a political agenda whose primary aim is to hurt others for their own political purposes. As a private citizen who enjoys his privacy, I find your article to be hurtful and shameful, and I would like to think the release of this scurrilous article is an example of poor journalism escaping the attention of The Nation's editors. Even by the low standards of Internet journalism, Russ Baker and Adam Federman's posting is a disgrace.

Very truly yours,

Alan G. Quasha

http://www.publicintegrity.org/2002/10/16/3171/brief-history-bush-harken-and-sec

SEC Investigation

According to SEC documents, investigators concluded that neither Bush nor the rest of the company's hierarchy were aware of the magnitude of the loss at the time Bush sold his stock. The investigation was criticized on several grounds, including the fact that the subject of the inquiry, Bush, was never interviewed by the SEC.

A pertinent point here is that the <a href="http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Harken-Energy-scandal">SEC Commissioner had been appointed by President George Bush Sr., and its counsel had worked for Bush Jr. negotiating the purchase of the Texas Rangers.

On Oct. 18, 1993, an SEC memo declared the investigation has been terminated as to the conduct of Mr. Bush, and that, at this time, no enforcement action is contemplated with respect to him. The letter also stated that the investigation's termination must in no way be construed as indicating that the party has been exonerated or that no action may ultimately result from the investigation.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/campaigns/wh2000/stories/bush073099.htm

....Dated Oct. 18, 1993, three weeks before Bush announced his candidacy for governor, the carefully worded letter was addressed to Jordan and said that "the investigation has been terminated as to the conduct of Mr. Bush, and that, at this time, no enforcement action is contemplated with respect to him."

Bush took that as vindication. "The SEC fully investigated the stock deal," he said in October 1994. "I was exonerated." Supporting Bush, the head of the SEC's enforcement division, William McLucas, went beyond the letter and stated publicly that "there was no case there."

Hiler, however, was more cautious. His statement said it "must in no way be construed as indicating that the party has been exonerated or that no action may ultimately result from the staff's investigation.".....

Harken Energy Had a Web Of Mideast Connections;In the Background: BCCI

This article was prepared by Wall Street Journal staff reporters Thomas Petzinger Jr., Peter Truell And Jill Abramson

12/06/1991

The Wall Street Journal

PAGE A1

(Copyright © 1991, Dow Jones & Co., Inc.)

Two years ago, Talat Othman didn't have the president's ear. But since August 1990, the Palestinian-born Chicago investor has attended three White House meetings with President Bush to discuss Middle East policy.

Mr. Othman's political access coincides with the remarkable ascendance of a little Texas oil company on whose board he serves alongside George W. Bush, the president's oldest son. That company, Harken Energy Corp. -- though it had never drilled a single well overseas or in water -- recently won the rights to drill potentially lucrative offshore wildcat wells in a contract bestowed by the government of Bahrain.

When the Harken deal was announced in January 1990, it attracted only perfunctory notice. More recently, a number of publications have written about the case, raising questions about whether Bahrain might have chosen Harken in part because a presidential son sat on its board.

Now, George W. Bush is emerging as a principal adviser to his father. He was a lead player in the campaign to oust White House Chief of Staff John Sununu, and was cited by his father yesterday as among those who will play "key roles in the reelection effort." Thus, the issues surrounding the Harken deal take on fresh importance.

The White House says there is nothing questionable in this story of petroleum, politics and the presidential son. "There is no conflict of interest, or even the appearance of conflict, in these business arrangements," says spokesman Marlin Fitzwater. The matters had been reviewed and disclosed, he said, adding, "They are legitimate business undertakings."

Indeed, an investigation by this paper has not revealed evidence of wrongdoing or influence-peddling by George W. Bush or anyone else connected to Harken. Yet what does emerge is a complex pattern of personal and financial relationships behind Harken's sudden good fortune in the Middle East, raising the question of whether Bahrainis or others in the Middle East may have hoped to ingratiate themselves with the White House. Even more intriguing, there are numerous links among Harken, Bahrain and individuals close to the discredited Bank of Credit & Commerce International, a banking empire that used Mideast oil money to seek ties to political leaders in several countries.

The mosaic of BCCI connections surrounding Harken Energy may prove nothing more than how ubiquitous the rogue bank's ties were. But the number of BCCI-connected people who had dealings with Harken -- all since George W. Bush came on board -- likewise raises the question of whether they mask an effort to cozy up to a presidential son.

Among those relationships:

-- Sheik Khalifah bin-Salman al-Khalifah, the prime minister of Bahrain and a brother of the country's ruling emir, is identified on an October 1990 shareholder list as one of the 45 investors who own parent company BCCI Holdings (Luxembourg) S.A. The emir played a role in approving the Harken transaction.

-- Sheik Abdullah Bakhsh, a major Harken shareholder represented by Mr. Othman on the company's board, has been a co-investor in Saudi Arabia with alleged BCCI front man Ghaith Pharaon, and used Khalid bin-Mahfouz, until recently a principal BCCI shareholder, as his banker.

-- Harken's investment bankers helped BCCI gain its foothold in U.S. banking, and they also arranged for a Swiss bank to help rescue Harken from its debt woes in 1987 -- a Swiss bank that was at the time a joint-venture partner with BCCI.

-- Harken's consultant on the Bahrain deal counts Kamal Adham, a principal owner of BCCI, as a close friend and has had a long acquaintance with BCCI's Mr. Pharaon.

As a candidate and later in the White House, President Bush vowed to avoid even the appearance of any conflicts of interest in his administration. He instructed Secretary of State James Baker to cable all U.S. embassies to warn against the appearance of preferential treatment for Bush family investments overseas. The president has also moved to distance himself from the BCCI scandal, denouncing a former aide who recently went to work as a lawyer for BCCI's Mr. Adham, and who resigned in the ensuing furor.

George W. Bush, a managing partner of the Texas Rangers baseball team, declined to be interviewed. He did provide brief responses to written questions through an intermediary. Asked whether his involvement with the Dallas energy company lent it added credibility in the Arab world, he said to "ask the Bahrainis."

Every individual involved denies any influence peddling. Mr. Othman, George W. Bush and people involved in setting up the White House meetings on the Mideast say the president's son had nothing to do with Mr. Othman's being included among the Arab-Americans invited. "Not by any stretch of the imagination," Mr. Othman says.

And Harken investor Mr. Bakhsh rejects any suggestion that his links, past and present, to Messrs. Pharaon and binMahfouz mean he is in any way associated with BCCI. He says through his New York lawyer that he bought Harken stock (in 1987) because it looked like a good investment in a depressed industry.

Harken officials say they resent any suggestion their company somehow has ties to BCCI. They dismiss the circumstantial links to it as purely random and say they were shocked to learn of them. And, in fact, BCCI has proved adept at insinuating itself into centers of influence without the knowledge of those occupying the seats of power.

Harken says it won the Bahrain drilling deal purely on merit, through painstaking geological research and deft negotiating. It says Mr. Bush played no role in clinching the deal.

As for Bahrain, it says it chose tiny Harken partly because it didn't believe a large company would be so fully committed to the project. Other Harken officials, while denying that the Bush name played any specific role, acknowledge that having him on their board is an asset. "You'd have to be an idiot not to say it's impressive," says Alan Quasha, former Harken chairman and its second-largest shareholder. (The largest, with 24.5%, is a Harvard University investment fund.)

Mr. Bush's affiliation with Harken came at the end of a failed attempt to follow in the footsteps of his father. Like him, George W. launched a career in the oil business in Midland, Texas, and like his father he chose a Spanish name for it: Arbusto Energy Inc. "Arbusto" is Spanish for " bush"; the president's company was Zapata Petroleum Co.

Among George W.'s investors was James R. Bath, a Houston aircraft broker who had a flourishing aviation business with sheiks of the Saudi peninsula. Mr. Bath owned a piece of a Houston bank in which Mr. Pharaon, the BCCI front man, had been a controlling shareholder.

Mr. Bath also invested money in the U.S. for Mr. bin-Mahfouz, the Saudi banker who would go on to become a leading shareholder in BCCI. According to Mr. Bath's personal financial statements, produced in unrelated litigation, Mr. Bath invested $50,000 with George W. Bush, becoming a 5% partner in Arbusto. Mr. Bush says he was aware Mr. Bath was representing Saudi investors but that at the time "had never heard of BCCI."

In the oil-patch depression of the mid1980s, Mr. Bush's company merged with another concern, becoming Spectrum 7 Energy Corp. But its fortunes didn't improve. "We lost a lot of money in the oil business," says Philip Uzielli, a director of Spectrum 7 and friend of Mr. Bush . "We had a lot of dry wells. . . . Things were terrible. It was dreadful."

Finding a buyer wasn't easy. But in September 1986, Harken Energy swapped some of its own shares for the shares of Spectrum 7. Mr. Bush's cut was worth roughly $600,000. "Getting Harken stock at that point turned out to be very good," Mr. Uzielli recalls. In addition to becoming a Harken stockholder, Mr. Bush became a director and a consultant at $120,000 a year, later reduced to $50,000. (In mid-1990, Mr. Bush sold two-thirds of his Harken holdings at a significant profit; his remaining stake could still be worth millions if Harken hits a gusher in Bahrain.)

What looked like a dull investment soon looked brighter. The company needed a cash infusion, and Mr. Bush, whose consulting contract listed "equity placements" among his duties, was there when Harken officials got together with Little Rock's Stephens Inc., one of the largest U.S. investment banks outside of Wall Street.

He needed no introduction to Jackson Stephens, having known him since the 1980 Reagan-Bush campaign. Mr. Stephens's wife, Mary Anne, would soon become Arkansas co-chairman of the Bush for President campaign, while Mr. Stephens would donate $100,000 to Team 100, a GOP group that collected money for the campaign. Stephens Inc. kicked in another $100,000 to the Bush dinner committee last May.

But on that spring day in Little Rock, cash for Harken was the topic. Ultimately, Stephens put a rescue plan in motion: Union Bank of Switzerland, which ordinarily didn't invest in small U.S. firms, would make an exception, giving Harken $25 million in exchange for a stock interest.

At the time, UBS was a joint-venture partner with BCCI in a Geneva-based bank. And although Harken officials, including Messrs. Bush and Quasha, say they were unaware of it, Mr. Stephens was also well acquainted with BCCI. In fact, he suggested to BCCI in the late 1970s that it try to take over what is now Washington, D.C.'s biggest bank company, First American Bankshares Inc., according to court records produced in connection with the takeover attempt. Mr. Stephens was among the defendants in that suit, aimed at preventing a First American takeover by BCCI founder Agha Hasan Abedi, BCCI principal Kamal Adham and Abdullah Darwaish, chief financier for the royal family of Abu Dhabi. Mr. Stephens declined to be interviewed for this article.

The Harken financing Stephens was arranging hit a last-minute snag. To comply with U.S. banking laws, the deal assumed a complex new structure, and UBS decided to unload its shares to a third party at the first chance, according to Mr. Quasha. UBS says it planned to sell the shares all along. In any case, Stephens brought in a new patron: a real-estate magnate from Jedda, Saudi Arabia, who bought most of Union Bank's Harken shares. He was Abdullah Bakhsh.

Mr. Bakhsh for several years was chairman of Saudi Finance Co., a Luxembourg-based holding company for Swiss and French financial enterprises. He sold his interest in 1983. Who bought it isn't clear, but corporation records in Geneva show that by 1989 it had come partly under the control of the Gokal family, Pakistani shipping magnates who were early BCCI shareholders and who, according to BCCI's auditors, have failed to service more than $700 million of borrowings from BCCI.

Mr. Bakhsh has had business dealings with some of the most prominent people in Saudi Arabia, including, according to a friend, former Saudi oil minister Ahmed Zaki Yamani and current oil minister Hisham Nazer. One of his co-investors in the U.S. says he believes the sheik has also invested with members of the Saudi royal family.

But Mr. Bush, Mr. Quasha and other Harken officials evidently knew little about their new partner. Mr. Quasha did a background check and says he found that Mr. Bakhsh was a very private person of great integrity who had already received regulatory approval for other U.S. investments.

Mr. Bakhsh, though listed as Harken's third largest stockholder with a 17.6% stake, has met with company officials on only a few occasions, and George W. Bush says through his intermediary he has never spoken to him. Instead, Harken officials deal with him through Mr. Othman, who sits on the Harken board.

In the wake of the company's new Persian Gulf backing came a much bigger Gulf breakthrough. It might be called the Dream Deal.

Bahrain, a small emirate with strong ties to Saudi Arabia, hadn't made a significant new oil find since 1932. But high-tech seismic surveys detailed a large geological formation under the sea, between two of the greatest oil and gas fields on the planet. The company picked to drill exploratory wells would have to put up a lot of cash -- $12.7 million just for the first of several wells. But it would get a lucrative share of any oil found. The payoff could total in the billions.

Amoco, vitally interested, started negotiating with the Bahrainis in 1987. (Three other companies also entered into talks, according to Bahrain, which didn't identify them.) As negotiations advanced, Amoco grew hopeful of a contract. Then, in January 1990, it heard startling news: The contract had just been awarded to tiny Harken. "We were disappointed," says Patricia Wright, an Amoco spokesman. "We thought we might get this one."

Why did Harken get it instead? "It was not some sort of fix," says Mr. Quasha, the former Harken chairman.

Harken says George W. Bush didn't play any role in clinching the deal, and even expressed doubts that Harken had the financial resources for it. Mr. Quasha also points out that all the connections in the world won't help Harken find oil in Bahrain, which the Bahrainis know as well as anyone. "I don't see where they gain from dealing with a relative of George Bush's who futzes up."

Bahrain says the Bush connection couldn't have been a factor. "We were not aware when Harken was chosen of any prominent American or Arab who was connected with the company," says Bahrain's oil minister, Yousuf Shirawi.

However, Monte Swetnam, Harken's exploration chief, says, "I'm sure they were aware" of Mr. Bush's involvement with the company. "I talked about our exploration advisory board and our board of directors. George's name comes up twice. It wasn't a secret."

So, then, why Harken?

Harken officials, in extensive interviews, maintain that Bahrain wanted a small company that would devote full attention to the project, a point Bahraini Oil Minister Shirawi confirms. To find one, he turned to a longtime friend, Michael Ameen, a Houston oil consultant who had worked in the Mideast for Mobil Corp. and Arabian American Oil Co. (Aramco).

Mr. Ameen represents yet another BCCI notation in the Harken story. As the head of government relations for Aramco, he says he had close-up dealings for years with the Saudi royal family and its advisers, including Mr. Adham, the BCCI principal, who is also a former Saudi intelligence chief. Mr. Ameen was close enough to the Pharaon family that he recalls meeting a young Ghaith on his graduation from college.

Mr. Ameen had been a friend for 25 years of Mr. Bakhsh, the large Harken shareholder. But he says that when faced with having to recommend to Bahrain one small oil company out of the hundreds to choose from, he chose Harken out of pure serendipity. Within 10 minutes of discussing the matter by phone with Bahrain's oil minister, Mr. Ameen says, he got a call from one of Harken's investment bankers at Stephens in Little Rock.

Before long, Mr. Ameen was leading Harken delegations to London and Bahrain, where, according to the company, Harken officials displayed keen knowledge of the region's geology and disarmed the Bahrainis with their open negotiating style.

In the midst of Harken's talks with Bahrain, Mr. Ameen -- simultaneously working as a State Department consultant -- briefed the incoming U.S. ambassador to Bahrain, Charles Hostler. Mr. Ameen ultimately received a fee of about $100,000 from Harken.

Ambassador Hostler, a San Diego real-estate investor who is a $100,000 Republican contributor, says through an embassy official that he never discussed the Harken deal with authorities in Bahrain. Harken officials say they met with him only after their contract was secured. Mr. Hostler does say that he has long known, and from time to time given financial counsel to, Mohammad Hammoud, who was described in recent Senate testimony as a "flexible front for BCCI." Mr. Hammoud is also listed as a significant BCCI shareholder.

Once negotiated, the Harken contract was reviewed and approved by several Bahraini officials, including, lastly, Sheik Isa bin-Sulman al-Khalifah, the ruling emir. His younger brother, Prime Minister Sheik Khalifah bin-Sulman al-Khalifah, appears in BCCI records as a shareholder, along with Mr. Adham, several members of Persian Gulf royalty, and others.

"His highness the emir has no personal opinions" about Harken or anyone else associated with the transaction, says Mr. Shirawi, the oil minister. "There is a possibility he's a shareholder, but we never heard of it," a Bahrain embassy spokesman says. If the prime minister does have BCCI holdings, the spokesman points out, the shareholding isn't large.

The drilling deal went through even though Harken admitted it couldn't begin to finance the exploration on its own. Bahrain agreed to let Harken bring in a partner. It was the hottest ticket in town; two dozen oil companies expressed interest in coming into the deal. Harken chose Bass Enterprises Production Co. of Fort Worth, Texas, a company controlled the politically active billionaire Bass family. Members of the Bass family have contributed more than $200,000 to the GOP in recent years. A Bass company official declines comment.

At the signing ceremony in January 1990, a celebratory delegation from Harken traveled to Bahrain, including Mr. Quasha, Mr. Othman and another Harken executive. The first well broke ground last month and is scheduled for completion by the end of January.

Within six months Mr. Othman saw his political status, as well as his company's position, enhanced. His name was added by the White House to a select list of 15 Arab-Americans chosen to meet with President Bush, Mr. Sununu and National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft in the White House two days after Iraq's August 1990 invasion of Kuwait.

Mr. Othman and others involved in setting up the White House meeting say his three invitations are explained by his membership in the Arab-American Council on the Middle East, a group of business and political leaders who are close to ousted Chief of Staff Sununu. "Talat was recommended to us by many people in the Arab-American community," says one administration official. Mr. Othman was most recently present at a White House gathering last month of President Bush and Arab-American leaders.

"George W. Bush has nothing to do with it," Mr. Othman says of the White House meetings. "This is an invitation from the White House."

--- Who's Who in the Harken Deal

AT HARKEN

ABDULLAH TAHA BAKHSH -- A Saudi investor who controls about 17% of HArken's stock, he has extensive business interests in Saudi Arabia and the U.S.

GEORGE W. BUSH -- The President's eldest son, he is a director, consultant and shareholder in Harken Energy. Runs the Texas Rangers baseball club and may play a role in father's re-election campaign.

TALAT OTHMAN -- Middle Eastern-born director and shareholder in Harken, he helps manage investments for Sheik Abdullah Bakhsh, a major Harken shareholder, and is a member of the Arab-American Council on the Middle East.

ALAN QUASHA -- A Harvard-educated lawyer and corporate restructuring expert, he controls about 20% of Harken's stock and served as chairman from 1983 until last February.

MONTE SWETNAM -- Harken's exploration chief, he led the team that developed the winning drilling program for Bahrain.

DEAL MAKERS

MICHAEL AMEEN -- A Houston oil consultant, he forged close associations with wealthy Arabs while serving as top Mideast official for Mobil Corp. and Aramco. Received a $100,000 fee from Harken.

JACKSON STEPHENS -- Arkansas-based investor whose Stephens Inc. played a critical role in fund raising for Harken. Former Stephens staffers also represented Harken in Bahrain deal, earning a $100,000 fee.

IN BAHRAIN

CHARLES HOSTLER -- The U.S. ambassador, he met with Harken officials after they clinched the drilling contract.

YOUSUF SHIRAWI -- Minister of industry and development for the island nation, he has responsibility for Bahrain's oil industry.

KHALIFAH BIN-SULMAN AL-KHALIFAH -- Prime minister of Bahrain and younger brother to the island's ruling emir, he is a BCCI shareholder.

SAUDI MONEY MEN

KAMAL ADHAM -- A shareholder in BCCI and former Saudi intelligence chief, he is also listed as a borrower from BCCI.

KHALID BIN-MAHFOUZ -- A bank owner in Saudi Arabia who previously held a significant stake in BCCI.

GHAITH PHARAON -- Alleged BCCI front man in secret dealings in U.S. and elsewhere.

[Guest Tom Scully]

(Replying to: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=14920entry247746 posted on another thread.)

So..... Robert, how many Rockefellers would have to be in close proximity to the "witnesses" in any of these salacious smears before you would be influenced not to go all in, ASAP? "Betty" Coxe, wife of Charles F. Spalding, just happened to be the sister-in-law of Judith Gratz, a close relation of the mother of Marion Rockefeller, wife and sister-in-law of the Bush and CIA connected Stone brothers, Robert Jr. and David.:

.

MISS ROGKEFELLER ED IN 6RBEqqICH; Christ uplscopa! Church...

New York Times - May 30, 1948

Church !s the Scene of Her Marriage to Robert Gregg Stone Jr, i Special to Tag Nzw ... The other attendants were Mrs. Eckley B. Coxe 4th, the Misses Nancy ...

?IIg8 C, V. HAILTOH! , x;m,Es BRINE[; Member of Philadelphia Jun}or '-League Wed in Bryn Mawr : .to"Godfrey Rockefeller ' - :_

New York Times - Sep 19, 1948

The bride, daughter of Villiam H. Hamilton of the University Club, New York, and the late Mrs. Hamilton, who was Miss Constance Vaucln, was given in ... Mrs. Robert C. Stone Jr. md Mrs. Eckley B. Coxe 4th of Greenwich; Ars. John Norris, the ...

................................

http://www.pennock.w.../nti163596.html

Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) - November 18, 1997

Deceased Name: SAMUEL M.V. HAMILTON

BROKERAGE EXECUTIVE, 73 Samuel M.V. Hamilton, 73, a senior vice president at Janney Montgomery Scott, died of cancer Sunday at his home in Wayne.

Mr. Hamilton, also executive director of 218 Enterprises and an owner of Samuels, a restaurant in Spread Eagle Village, was a partner in Montgomery Scott & Co. for many years before the firm merged with Janney, Battles & E.W. Clark in 1971.

Active in civic and cultural affairs, Mr. Hamilton was a member and former chairman of the board of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and was a former member of the board of the Franklin Institute. He was on the board of Fox Chase Cancer Center and the Hamilton Family Foundation. He was a director of the Coaching Club of America, which preserves the tradition of traveling by horse-drawn coach.

Born in New York, Mr. Hamilton was raised in Rosemont by his grandfather Samuel M. Vauclain, chairman of the board of Baldwin Locomotive Works. He graduated from the Choate School in Wallingford, Conn., and from the University of Pennsylvania. An Army lieutenant, he served with the Office of Strategic Service and the CIA during the Korean War.

Surviving are his wife, Dorrance Hill Hamilton; daughter, Margaret H. Duprey; sons, Nathaniel P. and S. Matthews V. Jr.; a sister; a brother; and nine grandchildren.

The Last Great Lady

Campbell Soup heiress Dorrance “Dodo” Hamilton has enjoyed a life of wealth and glamour: a debutante coming-out splashed in the "New York Times", summers in Newport, and years as the face (and hat!) of the Main Line.

By Amy Korman

November 2008

That’s Mrs. Hamilton for you. (When you’re a billionairess, people call you “Mrs.”) With her elegant suits and trademark wide-brimmed hats, she might look the part of the classic old-school socialite, but Dorrance Hill Hamilton (“Dodo” was a nickname inherited from her mother) puts her own stamp on everything she does.

MISS ROGKEFELLER ED IN 6RBEqqICH; Christ uplscopa! Church...

New York Times - May 30, 1948

Church !s the Scene of Her Marriage to Robert Gregg Stone Jr, i Special to Tag ... the Misses Nancy Rockefeller, a cousin of the bride; Constance Hamilton,

Miss Dorrance Hill Wed in St. Thomas' To Samuel MV Hamilton...

New York Times - Feb 26, 1950

White flowers formed a garden background yesterday afternoon in the chantry of St. Thomas Protestant Episcopal Church for the marriage of Miss Dorrance Hill, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nathaniel P. Hill of New York . ... Henriques C. Hamilton.was best man for his brother, The ushers were ... cousins of the bridegroom, and I Godfrey A. Rockefeller of Greenwich, Conn., his brother- in-law.

Judith Rockefeller Engaged

New York Times - Mar 12, 1978

Mrs. Hugh C. Wallace of Greenville, Del., and Godfrey A. Rockefeller of Gibson Island, Md., have announced the engagement of their daughter, Judith Stillman ..

Godfrey A. Rockefeller - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_A._Rockefeller

Godfrey's first marriage to Constance Hamilton Wallace ended in divorce. He was then married to Margaret "Margo" Kuhn Rockefeller for fifty three years; she ..

JUDITH GRATZ WED TO ECKLEY COXE 4TB; She Wears White ...

New York Times - Feb 20, 1944

http://query.nytimes...751C0A9649D8B63

SCHUELER, MARY COXE "TEENIE" 85

Published: February 26, 2012

she is survived by her sister, Louisa Coxe Finch, eight grandchildren, and a great-granddaughter. She was predeceased by a sister, Elizabeth Coxe Spalding and a brother, Eckley B. "Buzz" Coxe, IV......

Banker Charged With Bigamy .

‎News And Courier - Sep 6, 1968

New York Times :

http://www.dailymail...kie-lovers.html

By C. David Heymann

UPDATED: 04:55 EST, 12 July 2009

....However, things were moving fast between 38-year-old Bobby and Jackie. Over Easter 1964, Ethel took Jackie's children and her own on a ski trip, while Bobby, Jackie, Lee and JFK's friend Chuck Spalding went to Antigua.

It didn't take much to see Bobby and Jackie were developing something more than friendship. They held hands, touched, whispered into each other's ears. Every morning they took a long walk together along the shore.

At night they huddled on a veranda and gazed at the starlit sky. 'There was definitely something between them,' said Spalding. 'You had to be dumb, deaf and blind not to sense it.' ......

Private Lives/Public Consequences: Personality and Politics in ... - Page 100

books.google.com/books?isbn=067401877X

William Henry Chafe - 2005 - Preview - More editionsIt was Joe, not Rose, who visited Jack at prep school. Speculating on Jack's relationship with his mother, Betty Spalding, one of Kennedy's few female confidantes, declared: “Jack hated physical touching . . . which I assume must go back to his ...

Nemesis: the true story : Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O, and the ... - Page 30

books.google.com/books?isbn=0060580534

Peter Evans - 2004 - Preview - More editions... it ended their long friendship.17) Betty Spalding, the wife of one of Kennedy's closest friends, expressed dismay at the bedroom intimacies Jack confided to her.18 Was it with these thoughts in mind that a few days after they left Hollywood ...

http://www.edwardjay...hived/hersh.htmsersh's Dark Camelot

LOS ANGELES TIMES

December 28, 1997

.....Some 35 years later, Hersh resurrected the story, not on the basis of any witness or document to the alleged marriage but on the basis of a piece of conversation that he managed to elicit from a 79-year-old Palm Beach resident, Charles Spalding. Spalding, who, though interviewed many times before over 50 years, never before claimed a role, now told Hersh that he knew about the supposed first marriage because he had himself eliminated the record of it ! at the Palm Beach County Courthouse, saying, according to Hersh! , "I went out there and removed the papers." Presumably, in previous interviews after JFK's death, he had not remembered this extraordinary (and criminal) act. But how reliable is Spalding's new 1997 memory of this incident that supposedly happened in 1947? Before Hersh interviewed him, Spalding had problems with his ability to recall routine information, which Hersh generously describes as an "impairment of his short-term memory." Such a deficiency notwithstanding, this piece of recovered memory about JFK stands or falls on a simple test. If the 1947 marriage registry in Palm Beach County, which was then handwritten and bound, was marred or missing a page, Spalding's story could be valid. If on the other hand the registry was intact and the entries consecutive, Spalding's memory of removing the papers could not be any more valid than the forged archive of Monroe letters. As it turned out, Hersh and his investigators were unable to find any such gap in the marriage records nor, for that matter, any record of a marriage application, which had to be made three days before the ceremony. Nevertheless, on this piece of recovered memory ! from a person who Hersh knew suffered memory lapses and whose recollection was impeached by an investigation of the records, he asserts in "The Dark Side of Camelot," as established fact, that both JFK and his brother Robert "had lied in their denials to newspapermen and the public about Jack Kennedy's long-rumored first marriage to a Palm Beach socialite," that JFK's marriage to Jackie was not a legal union and that his children were born out of wedlock. ....

Mimi Alford :

Mimi discloses that the first person she unloads on, in 1991, is her dear old friend and former roommate Marnie, the daughter of Robert Douglas Stuart, Jr. :

Once Upon a Secret: My Affair With President John F. Kennedy and ... - Page 119

books.google.comMimi Alford - 2012 - 208 pages - Preview

We even went swimming in the White Ilousc pool, which is when they met the President. ... In shorl order, he had changed into a bathing suit and was floating alongside Marnie and Wendy, asking about their summer jobs, whether they were ..

Once Upon a Secret: My Affair With President John F. Kennedy and ... - Page 168

books.google.comMimi Alford - 2012 - 208 pages - Preview

Marnie didn't say a word as I played back the aI'I'air with President Kennedy. She was the best kind oI't'rien(I, ..

..................................

Marnie Pillsbury, Ann Temkin, David Rockefeller.

http://www.iwhc.org/...id=63#pillsbury

Marnie S. Pillsburyhas been the Executive Director of The David Rockefeller Fund and Philanthropic Advisor to Mr. Rockefeller since 1990. She is a Trustee of The Rockefeller University and serves on the board of the Women's Campaign Fund,Marnie Pillsbury, Ann Temkin, David Rockefeller.....

[Don Jeffries]

Tom,

I enjoy your efforts at connecting the dots between all these persons of prominence. I remember, as a youngster, reading about the Yippies first exposing the fact that most of the U.S. Presidents were related to each other in some way. Ever since, I've been fascinated with all these hidden associations, and how they contradict Jefferson's laudable notions about a meritocracy.

As far as I know, Charles Bartlett, Charles Spalding, Ben Bradlee and George Smathers were JFK's closest personal friends during his later adult years. Well, there was the unique Lem Billings, but he was more of a family friend who literally idolized JFK. Like the Kennedy family members, none of these friends ever expressed any public doubts about the lone assassin fairy tale. Certainly Bradlee's Washington Post did more than its part in covering up the truth about the assassination over the years.

I will say, however, that some of these connections, especially to the CIA, can probably be explained away as the typical assocations a powerful politician forms in Washington, D.C. Before the Bay of Pigs, I imagine JFK was favorably disposed towards the world of espionage. He loved the James Bond books, and probably thought they represented a force for good in the world.

[Guest Tom Scully]

It's time to post again here. This is the 7th most viewed thread in JFK Debate despite the quality of some of the few replies posted.....

So who were John and Jacqueline Kenndy. Did they have a lot in common with their closest friends,
or did they randomly tend to be most comfortable around people who happened to have closer than average ties to the intelligence communtiy? Is there an example of any of their friends publicly objecting to the findings of the Warren Commission, or demanding a deeper investigation into the background of Jack Ruby? I have not included Bill Walton, he deserves his own thread.

Sylvia's husband, Robert O. Blake, Sr., was from Whittier and was close to Nixon. Andre Rheault was a CIA agent at the time he was an usher in their wedding.

http://news.google.c...pg=6946,2944327

Sylvia Whitehouse Blake's son and former daughter-in-law:

(quote]http://educationforu...=90#entry256518

..I am impressed that the Rockefellers achieved every goal in '68 except Nelson winning the nomination. Gene was elimnated, Bobby was assassinated, Hubert Humphrey won the nomination and lost the election, and Rockefeller man Clark Clifford sponsored Finney and counseled LBJ not to make a public display of Nixon backdealing to sabotage the Vietnam peace talks. Kissinger was installed to represent the Rockefellers, and Bush was already perceived as a "go to" guy.

The Ford presidency was the Rockefeller presidency, Carter was scuttled by David Rockefeller and McCloy forcing the Shah on Carter, and then there was the October surprise..... The recent links between the second Priscilla Johnson and her family and friends to the Rockefellers is fact. McCloy's son said his best friend was the chief enabler of Bernie Madoff, and McCloy's son was also best man in a wedding of a guy who married into the family of Standard Oil's Walter Teagle, and then married Rockefeller ex-wife (Mrs. Robert O. blake, Jr.) who just happened to be the daughter of husband and wife CIA agents, and Blake's father married Sylvia Whitehouse, and Andre Rheault was an usher in their wedding, along with a guy or two linked to the Mossadegh coup, and Rheault was a friend of Thomas Devine and Alexander Aldrich, and the brother of Special Forces Col. Robert Rheault.

I think both Robert O. Blake, Jr. and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse should resign from their high government posts, Enough is enough! (/quote]

Here is the Yale Fencing Club published in the 1950 yearbook. How many CIA names can you spot?

We will concern ourselves here with just one name, Frank Feldher Sommers, Jr. Sommers is mentioned early in this thread because he and his wife Anne Calhoun Iglehart were CIA agents and their daughter, "Wing" married Sylvia Whitehouse Blake's son, Robert O. Blake, Jr. Later, Wing and Robert divorced and Wing married next a close friend of John McCloy, Jr.'s.

Frank F Sommers, Jr. was nearing the end of his CIA career when he served under diplomatic cover in Laos in the mid-70's. Sylvia's brother Charles Whitehouse who we are told left the CIA, was American ambassador in Laos at that time and Priscilla Johnson's friend Alan Davidson was British ambassador in Laos at that time. Priscilla had been an attendant of Davidson's wife in their 1951 wedding. Davidson's wife was the first cousin of Jock Whitney estate four decade long "fixture," Jinx Falkenburg.

Here is a bit of news mentioning Frank's wife:

Other 14 -- No Title

‎

The Sun - Aug 12, 1959

... M. _ ISS REBEKAH E. THOMAS, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph L. Thomas, of St. ... to Frankfort, Germany, where she was met by Mrs. Frank Feldher Sommers. Jr., formerly of Baltimore, and later visited Miss Mary Eyre Baldwin, daughter of...

Mrs. Ralph L. Thomas Dies Of Heart Attack At Hospital

The Sun - Mar 9, 1965

Mrs. Ralph Llewellyn Thomas, member of a prominent Maryland family died ... sister of Beverly Ober, former po- lice commissioner of Baltimore and sister-in-law of Norman Thomas, ... She graduated from Bryn Mawr School, married Mr. Thomas on April 22, ... are two children, Gustavus Ober Thomas and Miss Hebekah Eliza- beth Thomas;- two brothers, J,

RL THOMAS SERVICES SET

‎The Sun - Nov 19, 1965

Services for Ralph Llewellyn Thomas, former vice president and executive ... Mr. Thomas, who was a brother of Norman Thomas, six limes a candidate on the ... Mr. Thomas was married lo the former Rebekah Ober, who died earlierthis year....

Svetlana's Editor? None Other Than Evan Thomas, Son a Socialist!

Boston Globe - Apr 29, 1967

Three decades later there is an even more unusual sequel; his son, Evan Thomas of Harper and Row, will edit Svetlana Stalin's book. .

Evan Thomas 2d Dies at 78; Published Many Best Sellers -...

‎New York Times - Mar 5, 1999

By ALEX KUCZYNSKI Evan Welling Thomas 2d, a book editor who ... Mr. Thomas rose through the ranks to editor in chief at Harper & Brothers, ... His father was Norman Thomas, who ran for President on the Socialist Party ticket six times.

(The grandson of Norman Thomas and the grand-nephew of Ralph L. Thomas. Ralph's daughter was able to vacation in 1959 with clandestine CIA agent Anne Calhoun Iglehart Sommers while she was serving on undercover CIA assignment in W. Germany.

Journalist EVAN THOMAS : NPR

‎NPR - Oct 23, 1995

Journalist EVAN THOMAS. ... THOMAS had access to the CIA's own records about their operations, and he interviewed many of the men involved. THOMAS was ..

The author of the 1975 article in the image above should have done more research. She seems to have missed the real reason Jackie Onassis was spending so much time socializing with Paris Review's Clem Wood.

Quote

Jackie's lifelong friend, Jessie Leigh Hunt, was first married to a first cousin of OSS London Chief during WWII, David KA Bruce. She married her second husband, Clement "Clem" Biddle Wood in 1964, and they resided on Spetsai, the same carless Greek Island as CIA's "Hod" Fuller.http://archives.sps.edu/common/text.asp?Img=18803&Keyword=&Headline=&Author=&SearchMode=0
Archive Name: Alumni Horae
Volume 75, Issue 1, Page 105, Obituaries 132
Originally published: Spring 1995
Obituary: Clement Biddle Wood, Jr.

....Survivors include his wife, Jessie Leigh-Hunt Bruce, whom he married in 1964;

Two Brides Entertained
‎The Sun - Feb 11, 1951
Miss Anne Calhoun Iglehart and her brother, Mr. Iredell W. Iglehart, will give a party ... It will be
In honor of Miss Jessie Leigh Hunt and her fiance, Mr. Albert.

https://www.google.com/search?q=iglehart+leigh-hunt&tbs=nws:1,ar:1&source=newspapers#hl=en&tbo=d&tbs=ar:1&tbm=nws&sclient=psy-ab&q=%22Bouvicr%2C+bnth+of+Washington%2C+DC%3B+Miss+B.+Perkins%2C+of+Santa*%22&oq=%22Bouvicr%2C+bnth+of+Washington%2C+DC%3B+Miss+B.+Perkins%2C+of+Santa*%22&gs_l=serp.12...92419.96638.8.97599.4.3.1.0.0.0.534.1188.2-1j0j1j1.3.0...0.0...1c.1.KpATKk9r4Js&psj=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.eWU&fp=e617f1ef3d5ea6c3&bpcl=40096503&biw=1440&bih=723

Miss Leigh-Hunt Wed To Mr. Bruce
‎
The Sun - Feb 25, 1951
MISS JESSIE LEIGH-HUNT, daughter of Mr. Henry Leigh Hunt, of Las Vegas, Nev., and Countess Palffy, of
Paris, France, was married yesterday to Mr. Albert Cabell Bruce, Jr., son of Mr. and Mrs. Albert Cabell
Bruce, of Charlcote road.
The bridesmaids wore Miss ine Bridesmaids wore Mils Helena Leigh-Hunt and Miss Alexandra Leigh-Hunt,
sisters, of the bride: Miss Mary Elizabeth Le May. Miss Jacqueline Bouvicr, bnth of Washington, DC;
Miss B. Perkins, of Santa Cal., and Mrs. S. Bonsai Jr., of this city. All wore green taffeta and car-
yellow daisies. Mr. Iredell W. Iglehart was man. The ushers were Mr B. Reeves, Mr. David Mr. J. Edward
Johnston, Mr. F. ....

http://www.nytimes.com/1985/03/17/style/wendelin-slusserto-marry-in-june.html
Wendelin SlusserTo Marry in June - NYTimes.com
‎
New York Times - Mar 17, 1985
Her fiance is a son of Jessie Leigh Hunt Wood of Water Mill, LI, and Spetsai, Greece, and Albert Cabell
Bruce Jr. of Hilton Head Island, SC A June wedding is......

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1928&dat=19560728&id=pRkgAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iGYFAAAAIBAJ&pg=6946,2944327

Jessie's first husband's best man was Iredell W. Iglehart. Iglehart's sister, Anne, later became the mother-in-law of Jackie's friend, Sylvia Whitehouse's son, Robert O. Blake, Jr.:

A truly clueless headline and article:

A Role In 'Tycoon For Mrs. Onassis?: Sought After A TV News Offer VIP
By Maxine Cheshire. The Washington Post 13 July 1975: 110.

Edited May 12, 2013 by Tom Scully

[Don Jeffries]

Again, Tom- many thanks for exposing these intriguing connections.