Jim Root Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 (edited) According to the Warren Commission report on February 13, the United States Embassy received an undated letter from Oswald postmarked Minsk, February 5. The letter stated: Since I have not received a reply to my letter of December 1960, I am writing again asking that you consider my request for the return of my American passport. I desire to return to the United States, that is if we could come to some agreement concerning the dropping of any legal proceedings against me. If so, than I would be free to ask the Russian authorities to allow me to leave. If I could show them my American passport, I am of the opinion they would give me an exit They have at no time insisted that I take Russian citizenship. I am living here with non-permanent type papers for a foreigner. I cannot leave Minsk without permission, therefore I am writing rather than calling in person. I hope that in recalling the responsibility I have to america that you remember your's in doing everything you can to help me since I am an american citizen. The Warren Commission suggests that despite Oswald's reference to his letter of December 1960, there is no indication that he had written to the Embassy previously. Furthermore, his diary refers to his February 1 letter as his "first request" concerning his return to the United States. From the Diary of Lee Harvey Oswald we find this entry for February 1st, “Make my first request to American Embassy, Moscow, for reconsidering my position, I stated, ‘I would like to go back to U.S.’" Oswald does make it very clear in the second paragraph of his letter to the American Embassy that he had a “desire to return to the United States…” The Warren Commission uses the diary entry to suggest that the first paragraph of his letter had no merit…..the Warren Commission’s conclusion was that there was no letter from December 1960. Why would Oswald lie about this? As early as May 1960 Oswald writes in his diary; “… I respect Ziger; he has seen the world. He says many things and relates many things I do not know about the U.S.S.R. I begin to feel uneasy inside, it's true! In Oswald’s Aug-Sept. Entry he writes; “ As my Russian improves, I become increasingly conscious of just what sort of a society I live in. Mass gymnastics, compulsary after work meeting, usually political information meeting. Compulsary attendence at lectures and the sending of the entire shop collective (except me) to pick potatoes on a Sunday, at a State collective farm. A "patriotic duty" to bring in the harvest. The opinions of the workers (unvoiced) are that it's a great pain in the neck. They don't seem to be especially enthusiastic about any of the "collective" duties, a natural feeling. I am increasingly aware of the presence, in all things, of Lebizen, shop party secretary, fat, fortyish, and jovial on the outside. He is a no-nonsense party regular.” In his own words it seems that Lee Harvey Oswald in becoming increasing disillusioned with his life in the Soviet Union. It is true that he spends a lot of words writing about his various affairs and loves but on issues of substance Oswald, by August and September, seems to be questioning his position in life. On January 3rd Oswald again turns to his diary to say; “I am miserable about Ella. I love her but what can I do? It is the state of fear which was always in the Soviet Union.” January 4th Diary entry. “One year after I received the residence document I am called in to the passport office and asked if I want citizenship (Russian). I say no simply extend my residential passport to agree and my document is extended until Jan 4, 1962.” Oswald also writes in January (seems questionable as to when); “I am starting to reconsider my desire about staying. The work is drap, the money I get has nowhere to be spent. No nightclubs or bowling alleys, no places of recreation except the trade union dances. I have have had enough.” Has Oswald already requested that his U.S. Passport be returned? In Oswald’s own words, both via his diary and his letter to the US Embassy, without a doubt Oswald is formally requesting for the first time to return to the US but had he in December requested that his passport be returned? According to the Warren Commission, all of Oswald’s correspondence is included in the record of the Warren Commission….but the letter that he says he wrote in December…..well it doesn’t exist. Why would Oswald lie about this? And if he did write a letter in December, why did it disappear? Jim Root Edited August 27, 2015 by Jim Root Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon G. Tidd Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 It's regrettable that there is no good written portrait of Oswald the person. Norman Mailer tried to craft such a portrait, but he relied upon some unreliable sources and ignored many American sources. Oswald is an enigma. Did he drive a car? Ever? Did he speak Russian as a native speaker would? Or was he an RSL? Did he grasp English well, or not? Was he unkind and cruel to Marina, or not? Was he a Marxist or not? The list goes on. He is a man of mystery. Some attribute the mystery to the supposed fact he was an intelligence agent. As to which, I say this: intelligence officers and agents do have real, honest-to-God lives. They are real people. It is in their intelligence roles that they lead lives of lies. Oswald does not come across to me as a real person; a person who has an honest-to-God life. Nor does he come across to me as an intelligence agent who is living a lie to do his intelligence work. He comes across as a weird, not simply unusual, individual. Above all else, this is why J.A.'s two-Oswald theory attracts me. The Oswald presented to history isn't an honest-to-God individual. The Oswald presented to history is a lifeless marionette. A composite. Not a real person. Jim Root, thanks for this diary. Maybe Oswald lied. Maybe the written record is a lie. And for anyone who thinks a diary cannot be forged, please see Sirhan Sirhan's diary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Graves Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 (edited) It's regrettable that there is no good written portrait of Oswald the person. Norman Mailer tried to craft such a portrait, but he relied upon some unreliable sources and ignored many American sources. Oswald is an enigma. Did he drive a car? Ever? Did he speak Russian as a native speaker would? Or was he an RSL? Did he grasp English well, or not? Was he unkind and cruel to Marina, or not? Was he a Marxist or not? The list goes on. He is a man of mystery. Some attribute the mystery to the supposed fact he was an intelligence agent. As to which, I say this: intelligence officers and agents do have real, honest-to-God lives. They are real people. It is in their intelligence roles that they lead lives of lies. Oswald does not come across to me as a real person; a person who has an honest-to-God life. Nor does he come across to me as an intelligence agent who is living a lie to do his intelligence work. He comes across as a weird, not simply unusual, individual. Above all else, this is why J.A.'s two-Oswald theory attracts me. The Oswald presented to history isn't an honest-to-God individual. The Oswald presented to history is a lifeless marionette. A composite. Not a real person. Jim Root, thanks for this diary. Maybe Oswald lied. Maybe the written record is a lie. And for anyone who thinks a diary cannot be forged, please see Sirhan Sirhan's diary. A tape recording of Oswald speaking English (with a British dialect; joking around) was made in Minsk. When you listen to it you realize that he had an excellent command of the English language. --Tommy Edited August 27, 2015 by Thomas Graves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon G. Tidd Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 Tommy, FWIW, I believe Oswald (Marina's husband) had an excellent grasp of the English language. The question I have is, what was his grasp of the Russian language, written and spoken? I don't know. There are mixed accounts. One thing I do know is that a native American English speaker does not learn to speak Russian well unless one of his or her parents speaks Russian to the child. Defense Language Institute training in Russian was good, very good, but was no substitute for learning as a child. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Graves Posted August 27, 2015 Share Posted August 27, 2015 (edited) Tommy, FWIW, I believe Oswald (Marina's husband) had an excellent grasp of the English language. The question I have is, what was his grasp of the Russian language, written and spoken? I don't know. There are mixed accounts. One thing I do know is that a native American English speaker does not learn to speak Russian well unless one of his or her parents speaks Russian to the child. Defense Language Institute training in Russian was good, very good, but was no substitute for learning as a child. Jon. I mentioned the tape recording because you had asked, "Did he grasp English well, or not?". To which I might now reply, "Hell, no he didn't grasp English well. He had lived in the Bronx and in Texas!" LOL Apparently you think "Harvey" / "Marina's husband" spoke and wrote English quite well, but Russian not so well at all, e.g. the letter which your scholarly, Russian-speaking daughter analysed and determined was written by someone who wasn't very good at Russian. What do you think of Marina's claiming that when she first met Oswald, he spoke Russian so well that she thought he was from the Baltics area? And how about "Lee," the guy from Fort Worth who looked kinda like "Harvey" and who was hidden in safe houses the 2 1/2 years that "Harvey" was in the U.S.S.R.? Did he have a good grasp of the English language? How was his Russian? LOL Edited September 11, 2015 by Thomas Graves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernie Laverick Posted August 28, 2015 Share Posted August 28, 2015 Tommy, FWIW, I believe Oswald (Marina's husband) had an excellent grasp of the English language. The question I have is, what was his grasp of the Russian language, written and spoken? I don't know. There are mixed accounts. One thing I do know is that a native American English speaker does not learn to speak Russian well unless one of his or her parents speaks Russian to the child. Defense Language Institute training in Russian was good, very good, but was no substitute for learning as a child. Jon. I mentioned the tape recording because you had asked, "Did he grasp English well, or not?". To which I might now reply, "Hell, no he didn't grasp English well. He had lived in the Bronx and in Texas!" LOL Apparently you think "Harvey" / "Marina's husband" spoke and wrote English quite well, but Russian not so well at all, e.g. the letter which your scholarly, Russian-speaking daughter analysed and determined was written by someone who wasn't very good at Russian. What do you think of Marina's claiming that when she first met Oswald, he spoke Russian so well that she thought he was from the Baltics area? And how about "Lee," the guy from Fort Worth who looked kinda like "Harvey" and who was hidden in safe houses the 2 1/5 years that "Harvey" was in the U.S.S.R.? Did he have a good grasp of the English language? How was his Russian? LOL And how about "Lee," the guy from Fort Worth who looked kinda like "Harvey" and who was hidden in safe houses the 2 1/5 years that "Harvey" was in the U.S.S.R.? Except when he was let out to go and buy trucks in his own name... Or when he was allowed out to visit the TEC and be interviewed by the same woman, Kittrell, who had just recently interviewed 'Harvey'. (It may have been the other way round because she said they were "very very similar") Or when he breezily made his presence in front of Miss Hise, one of Ruby's employees, answering to the name "Ossie"... I guess safe houses just weren't as safe as they should have been Tommy... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Root Posted August 28, 2015 Author Share Posted August 28, 2015 (edited) While I appreciate additional comments and input about Oswald and his life my inquiry deals with thoughts about the possibility of a missing letter written by Oswald. Jefferson Morley has been able to link several notes written by FBI agents prior to the assassination of JFK to the office of Richard Helms. Yet a third note that we know was written by Agent Hosty was never given a Commission Exhibit Number and has never been identified by the CIA as having been received. Why are two Hosty notes admitted to the record and a third not? Why can the two admitted notes be tracked to the office of Richard Helms but that same office seems to have no record of the third note which Hosty's own testimony confirms was written and sent just like the other two. If Morley could track the FBI notes to Richard Helm's office could Hosty's third note be tracked beyond that office creating a reason why it remains "lost?" Hosty's third note identified exactly where Oswald was working prior to the motorcade route being decided upon. Seems that information would be an important lead to follow (ie who knew where Oswald was working prior to putting Kennedy's vehicle in front of the TSBD). Same for any note that Oswald may have written requesting a return of his US Passport. Who would want to know that Oswald may be returning to the US and what, if any, would be the repercussions of his return? Needless to say the repercussions were great when we associate Oswald in whatever manner with the assassination of JFK. Jim Root Edited August 28, 2015 by Jim Root Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Root Posted September 2, 2015 Author Share Posted September 2, 2015 (edited) When Oswald defected to the Soviet Union the passenger lists for his trip from London to Helsinki were never presented to the Warren Commission although they would have been available at the time. This does lead one to speculate on who could have been traveling on a plane with Oswald. My research has shown that Edwin Walker was traveling to Augsburg, Germany during this same time. While true there is a problem with this, Oswald went North and East from London while Walker went South and East. (Just as a coincidence the first 707 around the world flight flew into and out of London the same day Oswald left London on his way to Helsinki), it is interesting to note that a person that Oswald would later be accused of attempting to murder was traveling in Europe at the same time Oswald was traveling with a group of passengers whom the Warren Commission neglected to identify. I have done a great deal of research on this subject and have shown in past posts that Oswald could have traveled from London to Frankfort or from London to Hamburg, Germany on the same day that he arrived in Helsinki. Planes were available to make these trips from London early in the day. If Oswald did go first to Germany, as he told his Marine buddy Delgado he was going to do, Oswald still could have then made the connection to the plane that began the day in Frankfort traveled to Hamburg then Stockholm (where it picked up other London passengers) and then arrived in Helsinki in time for Oswald to check into the Torni Hotel when he did in fact check in. For Walker to get to Augsburg he would have had to travel to either Frankfurt or Hamburg. The possibility exists that they were on the same plane but the passenger lists (just as the December note that Oswald speaks of) are/is missing from the official record. My research suggests a string of missing information that may be the key to providing a better understanding of the assassination and who may have had a hand in orchestrating the events leading up to it. When Oswald arrived in Helsinki he converted his US currency to Soviet Intourist vouchers prior to applying for a visa to enter the Soviet Union. We found during the HSCA the US Ambassador to Helsinki had sent this "top secrete" information on how to get a visa into the Soviet Union to the State Department one day prior to Oswald's arrival in Helsinki. Was Oswald made aware of this information? If so who provided it to him? Could Edwin Walker, a man whom Oswald describes as a person who is the head of a bad organization that does not want to see peace between the Soviet Union and the USA, have provided it to him? Could this have been a motive for Oswald to attempt to assassinate Maj. Gen. Edwin Anderson Walker as the Warren Commission suggests? When Oswald arrived in La Harve, France in route to Helsinki he could have very easily taken a train to Paris and boarded a plane to Helsinki which would have been routed to Stockholm as well. Oswald would have arrived in Helsinki one day before he did in fact arrive and he would have spent less money doing it but the information collected by the US Ambassador in Helsinki would not have been available to be passed on to Oswald if it were in fact provided to him. It is curious that Oswald spent an extra travel day to arrive in Helsinki. Was it was Walker who provided this information to Oswald?.....it would be very easy to understand why, after the U-2 incident doomed the Paris Summit, Oswald could believe Walker was the leader of a very bad organization that did not want to see peace between the two countries. It would also explain Oswald's statement after the assassination of JFK that the reason he (Oswald) was being arrested was because he went to the Soviet Union.....and that he was a patsy. Edited September 2, 2015 by Jim Root Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Root Posted September 4, 2015 Author Share Posted September 4, 2015 (edited) During the HSCA hearings in 1978, Ann Egerter, who worked under CIA counter espionage chief James Angleton reported that her office had opened a SIG 201 file on Lee "Henry" Oswald (Egerter assured the committee that this was in fact Lee Harvey Oswald). According to the "official CIA" position, the CIA did not track defectors, the State Department was to handle that job. In Oswald's February 1961 letter to the US Embassy (ie State Department) Oswald references his letter of December 1960 requesting the return of his US Passport. Oswald's SIG 201 file was opened in December 1960. Is it possible that the State Department alerted the office of James Angleton that Oswald had in fact requested his passport be returned and that that could lead to his eventual return to the USA? Did this action lead to Ann Egerter opening Oswald's SIG 201 File? If Oswald did write a letter in December of 1960 who would want to make sure it never saw the light of day? Or is it just a coincidence that Oswald said he wrote a letter in December and Ann Egerter decided to open Oswald's SIG 201 File during December as well? Jim Root Edited September 4, 2015 by Jim Root Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Howard Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 What if Oswald's missing third letter was the one that Shanklin told Hosty to burn after the assassination? Hmmmm.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Graves Posted September 11, 2015 Share Posted September 11, 2015 (edited) During the HSCA hearings in 1978, Ann Egerter, who worked under CIA counter espionage chief James Angleton reported that her office had opened a SIG 201 file on Lee "Henry" Oswald (Egerter assured the committee that this was in fact Lee Harvey Oswald). According to the "official CIA" position, the CIA did not track defectors, the State Department was to handle that job. In Oswald's February 1961 letter to the US Embassy (ie State Department) Oswald references his letter of December 1960 requesting the return of his US Passport. Oswald's SIG 201 file was opened in December 1960. Is it possible that the State Department alerted the office of James Angleton that Oswald had in fact requested his passport be returned and that that could lead to his eventual return to the USA? Did this action lead to Ann Egerter opening Oswald's SIG 201 File? If Oswald did write a letter in December of 1960 who would want to make sure it never saw the light of day? Or is it just a coincidence that Oswald said he wrote a letter in December and Ann Egerter decided to open Oswald's SIG 201 File during December as well? Jim Root Who intercepted it, if anyone? Was it intercepted by the Ruskies, and the info was somehow shared with the CIA / State Department? Regardless, was it a logical move by the Ruskies to make sure that the U S Embassy didn't receive it? Or is it more logical to assume that it wasn't intercepted -- that the U S Embassy did receive it, and did not reply to it, but forwarded it to the CIA? --Tommy Edited September 11, 2015 by Thomas Graves Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Root Posted September 15, 2015 Author Share Posted September 15, 2015 (edited) Thomas We know that two cables from our Embassy in Moscow were entered into the CIA files in November of 1959 shortly after Oswald defected to the Soviet Union yet officially no 201 File was opened. (Oswald indicated his willingness to share U-2 secretes to the Soviets).Birch O'Neal's signature is on these documents by November 13th. "...on Monday November 9, 1959 someone in the CIA put Lee Harvey Oswald on the 'Watch List:' meaning that as of that date the CIA authorized the illegal opening of his mail." (Newman, Oswald and the CIA, See HT/LINGUAL, notecards on Oswald in NARA JFK Files, Oswald 201 file, preassassinasion folder. It is the first card dated November 9, 1959). Fact is the CIA was opening and reading ALL correspondence from Lee Harvey Oswald. Jim Root Edited September 15, 2015 by Jim Root Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Root Posted September 15, 2015 Author Share Posted September 15, 2015 Thomas You asked, "Was it intercepted by the Ruskies, and the info was somehow shared with the CIA / State Department?" According to John Newman, Oswald and the CIA pages 169 and 170, that is exactly what did happen! Newman also makes it clear, "When did Oswald first inquire about coming home?" is a haunting question! Jim Root Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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