2017 Lancer: Bill Simpich and Larry Hancock's Presentation

[Rick McTague]

Bill Simpich and Larry Hancock's excellent and detailed presentation on Harvey, Angleton and Morales' background and involvement in Staff D, ZR/RIFLE and many other topics. Very informative - especially the part with Harvey's personal notes.  Published on 12/21/2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-h0OBHM3P8

[Michaleen Kilroy]

For me, that was the most enlightening and compelling presentation of the conference.

Edited December 26, 2017 by Mike Kilroy

[Paul Brancato]

8 hours ago, Rick McTague said:

Bill Simpich and Larry Hancock's excellent and detailed presentation on Harvey, Angleton and Morales' background and involvement in Staff D, ZR/RIFLE and many other topics. Very informative - especially the part with Harvey's personal notes.  Published on 12/21/2017.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-h0OBHM3P8

Thanks for posting. I watched, and agree it is most interesting. I wish I could find some more detailed biographical info on the man most believe was QJWIN, Mankel. I’ve seen the proofs, but who he was remains a mystery to me. I don’t believe it is actually proven.

[David Boylan]

Just going through some docs and saw these notes on ZRRifle and QJWIN.

 

ZRRIFLE Project Job # 69-S-551 - No File Number ZRRIFLE/Adrninistrative Financial Folder ~T)2173 dated 13 October 1960, Att. Top Secret DEPIGRAM Interpol representative ........._ ___ __. Altman to pick his brain and pinpoint his ability to do this job for us, but once selection made, DEPIGRAM to be cut out of the operation.

Memo to C/FI from William Harvey, 27 June 1963 "As far as ZRRIFLE aspects this op, which have been covered under the QJWIN authorization for security reasons and with which Fletcher Knight is fully familiar, except for one precautionary 'lifeline', aspects of this case have been terminated and need no longer be considered part of this project."

Folder entitled Personality Sketches Tab M - Harold MELTZER Harold MELTZER with aliases was involved in the rackets  with upper echelon "hoodlums" throughout the U.S. (pg. 1 Encl. 3 dated 19 Dec 1960.) "In 1959 he furnished information to our QJWIN California office ... but has not since cooperated with us. N. B. He has the background and talent for the matter we discussed but it is not known whether he would be receptive."

Tab Y - Hanna YAZBECK YAZBECK lived in Beurit and worked for QJWIN's office intermittently during the past 10 years (dates not given- possibly 51-61). YAZBECK's chief bodyguard from 50-58 (not named) was a convicted murderer. The bodyguard was murdered. States that YAZBECK has an available pool of assassins. 

[Thomas Graves]

34 minutes ago, David Boylan said:

Just going through some docs and saw these notes on ZRRifle and QJWIN.

 

ZRRIFLE Project Job # 69-S-551 - No File Number ZRRIFLE/Adrninistrative Financial Folder ~T)2173 dated 13 October 1960, Att. Top Secret DEPIGRAM Interpol representative ........._ ___ __. Altman to pick his brain and pinpoint his ability to do this job for us, but once selection made, DEPIGRAM to be cut out of the operation.

Memo to C/FI from William Harvey, 27 June 1963 "As far as ZRRIFLE aspects this op, which have been covered under the QJWIN authorization for security reasons and with which Fletcher Knight is fully familiar, except for one precautionary 'lifeline', aspects of this case have been terminated and need no longer be considered part of this project."

Folder entitled Personality Sketches Tab M - Harold MELTZER Harold MELTZER with aliases was involved in the rackets  with upper echelon "hoodlums" throughout the U.S. (pg. 1 Encl. 3 dated 19 Dec 1960.) "In 1959 he furnished information to our QJWIN California office ... but has not since cooperated with us. N. B. He has the background and talent for the matter we discussed but it is not known whether he would be receptive."

Tab Y - Hanna YAZBECK YAZBECK lived in Beurit and worked for QJWIN's office intermittently during the past 10 years (dates not given- possibly 51-61). YAZBECK's chief bodyguard from 50-58 (not named) was a convicted murderer. The bodyguard was murdered. States that YAZBECK has an available pool of assassins. 

Regarding Yazbeck, dude's first name was Hanna.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=12277#relPageId=5&tab=page

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=12277

found in this list at MFF:  https://www.maryferrell.org/php/showlist.php?docset=1136&sort=nara&page=5

--  Tommy 

Edited January 29, 2018 by Thomas Graves

[Larry Hancock]

….Great find David, the best observations I can offer are below, sure wish I could offer more, especially on the use of the QJWIN crypt:

ZRRIFLE Project Job # 69-S-551 - No File Number ZRRIFLE/Adrninistrative Financial Folder ~T)2173 dated 13 October 1960, Att. Top Secret DEPIGRAM Interpol representative ........._ ___ __. Altman to pick his brain and pinpoint his ability to do this job for us, but once selection made, DEPIGRAM to be cut out of the operation.

……..We do know that by 1960 Harvey was hiding the ZRRIFLE program inside Staff D operations and funding activities the QJWIN personnel crypt so this makes good sense. Don’t know who DEPIGRAM was but we do know that Harvey was using spotters to select candidates for a variety of Staff D activities.

Memo to C/FI from William Harvey, 27 June 1963 "As far as ZRRIFLE aspects this op, which have been covered under the QJWIN authorization for security reasons and with which Fletcher Knight is fully familiar, except for one precautionary 'lifeline', aspects of this case have been terminated and need no longer be considered part of this project."

…….we also know that in late Spring, Harvey was officially closing out the Castro assassination element of ZR/RIFLE …whether or not Roselli is the “lifeline” being maintained is an interesting question.  This is a great example of the extent to which embedding ZR/RIFLE within Staff D operations was a beautiful and extremely confusing cover.

Folder entitled Personality Sketches Tab M - Harold MELTZER Harold MELTZER with aliases was involved in the rackets  with upper echelon "hoodlums" throughout the U.S. (pg. 1 Encl. 3 dated 19 Dec 1960.) "In 1959 he furnished information to our QJWIN California office ... but has not since cooperated with us. N. B. He has the background and talent for the matter we discussed but it is not known whether he would be receptive."

….this is particularly interesting since it is the period in which Harvey was heavily involved in recruiting for Staff D.  We know some of his activities in Europe, the question is whether he was actively recruiting in the US as well or just using “spotters” within criminal networks.  There have been reports that the QJ/WIN crypt was used for multiple Staff D assets, this appears to support that.

Tab Y - Hanna YAZBECK YAZBECK lived in Beurit and worked for QJWIN's office intermittently during the past 10 years (dates not given- possibly 51-61). YAZBECK's chief bodyguard from 50-58 (not named) was a convicted murderer. The bodyguard was murdered. States that YAZBECK has an available pool of assassins. 

…..this is the most confusing of the entries, again suggesting the QJWIN crypt was used over a lengthy period of time…even before Harvey’s time.  It appears the crypt has been used for financial authorizations, for individuals and even for offices….this particular Tab Y appears to hold information predating Harvey himself.

[David Boylan]

Thanks Larry. This is the source. Makes for very interesting reading. Even mentions Harry Dean.

 

http://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/jfk/NARA-Oct2017/NARA-Nov9-2017/104-10506-10028.pdf

[Larry Hancock]

I don't have the time to go through that in detail at the moment but I will...I had presumed this was from an actual CIA file document not from the FBI, is that not true?  If its from the FBI I may have to amend my comments because their sources including their own field offices often gave them some bad and even misleading info about CIA activities. And its always necessary to remember that the official CIA/FBI liaison was Angleton..sign.

[David Boylan]

Larry, 

CIA.  Ted Schackley, Breckinridge, George Lauder, [redacted] and William Sturbitts with a large redacted research team.

[Larry Hancock]

David, I went though that whole thing and didn't find anything similar to what  you had excerpted?   Lots of familiar but useless stuff; they could not even be bothered to put it in chronological order, no summary, no assessment, just a raw and meaningless data dump and of course totally focused on Castro/Cuba with no hint of exile motives.  Maybe you can give me a clue how far through that huge document it is...I suspect I just missed it in scanning the document..

 

[Thomas Graves]

6 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

I don't have the time to go through that in detail at the moment but I will...I had presumed this was from an actual CIA file document not from the FBI, is that not true?  If its from the FBI I may have to amend my comments because their sources including their own field offices often gave them some bad and even misleading info about CIA activities. And its always necessary to remember that the official CIA/FBI liaison was Angleton..sign.

Larry,

Was Fedora (Aleksy Kulak) still "informing" the FBI or the CIA at the time?

He's the KGB false defector (maybe triple agent is a more applicable term) who misled the FBI and CIA for 15 years until JEH finally wised up. 

For what it's worth, he's the guy who indirectly led CIA to believe that Kostikov was Department 13 ...

--  Tommy 

Edited January 30, 2018 by Thomas Graves

[David Boylan]

Sure Larry, page 103-104

[Larry Hancock]

Thanks David, I'll take a look, that should really help....Tommy, sorry but if I ever knew that I don't recall...its been a really long time since I refreshed myself on the whole Kostikov affair. 

[Thomas Graves]

1 hour ago, Larry Hancock said:

Thanks David, I'll take a look, that should really help....Tommy, sorry but if I ever knew that I don't recall...its been a really long time since I refreshed myself on the whole Kostikov affair. 

Larry,

Well, in that case just take my word for it.

Triple agent "Fedora" (Kulak) told FBI that the KGB guy with whom "Tumbleweed" (Guenter Schultz) had met at the U.N., shortly after meeting with Kostikov in Mexico City, Oleg Brykin , was Department 13.

--  Tommy 

Something Tim Gratz posted back in 2005.  I get the impression from Tim's lead-in that maybe you originally posted the excerpt?

 

FROM MR. NEWMAN'S PRESENTATION:

So you can see here. 'Kostikov,' this is the story, 'is an identified KGB officer. He was a case officer in an operation that is evidently sponsored by the KGB's 13th department that is responsible for sabotage and assassination...'

"But it gets better.

'The operation which is controlled by the FBI under the cryptonym TUMBLEWEED involved a German national resident of,' and there's the right amount of letters here for New York, 'who was recruited in Europe...'

"In other words, we doubled a KGB guy. The CIA recruited him in Europe.

'And met this year with Kostikov in Mexico City and shortly thereafter with a known 13th department officer Oleg Brykin in New York.

"And because he's doing it in New York, who's that going to involve? What federal agency? The FBI, they have jurisdiction over these things, once it's inside U.S. borders.

'The instructions given TUMBLEWEED...,' TUMBLEWEED, meaning the guy that we doubled 'by Kostikov,' by the two officers, meaning Kostikov and Brykin 'pinpointed objectives for sabotage and the circumstances of their involvement in the case left no doubt that both of them,' meaning Kostikov and Brykin, 'were working for the same KGB component, the 13th.'

"I'm going to put this in plain English. We doubled a guy that was working for the KGB. He was receiving orders from the 13th department. And the two guys that were giving him orders were Brykin and Kostikov. And it was going on in 1963. And the FBI was the U.S. agency in control of monitoring, and using, and exploiting TUMBLEWEED because it was happening in New York City. Brykin worked in the United Nations undercover as a Soviet something or other up there.

"And I found another document, that explains it even better, just a little better, that has another little paragraph. And this is what's being uncovered on the 23rd. It's not just that Kostikov is some kind of loosely, known to be associated with the KGB 13th department. WE'VE GOT HIM! There is a guy that he's instructing. HE'S OURS! And every time he (Kostikov) instructs him (TUMBLEWEED) to do something he, (TUMBLEWEED) he comes and tells us what his instructions are. SO WE ARE EXPLOITING THE WHOLE THING, through this guy TUMBLEWEED.

"So, where are we going here? It's only hours after the assassination. They just found out that that is not Oswald in the photographs, his voice isn't even on the tapes, but whoever impersonates him, whoever is on the phone saying, 'I'm Oswald' links Oswald to TUMBLEWEED, to the whole TUMBLEWEED thing that the FBI is in charge of which involves Kostikov, and through Kostikov.

"So, I want you to imagine being at the top of the FBI on Saturday when the CIA passes this along to them. Kostikov has been an active case. The TUMBLEWEED program has been an active case all year long. 'You've been watching. You've been watching Oswald. He's an active case. And that it's worse than that, you've got the two meeting. And it's in your files. And you haven't done anything.'

"This is another document I found. That's my handwriting up there because I found 3 copies of this document. This is Kostikov's 201 number up here. (201-305052) Anyway, here's the paragraph, 'Physical description of Kostikov quite accurately is...we had from a year ago in Mexico, and FBI...

"Here, 'He met in Mexico an FBI controlled double agent...' This is the rest of the story I'm telling you. 'The double agent's Soviet case officer in the U.S. has been Oleg Brykin of the 13 department KGB occupying the overt position of translator/transcriber to U.S. Secretary, New York City.

"Now this is blacked out here, you see this is actually redacted. But, I found like I told you I found 3 or 4 copies of this and guess what? I found another copy that they had neglected to redact. And it has not only TUMBLEWEED, but it has TUMBLEWEED'S CIA cryptonym that goes along with it.

"And of course it's an AE crypt. Those of you who are into collecting these cryptonyms like Nosenko, all of those guys were AE/______, whatever. And this guy is an AE crypt.

"And this here is passing, the whole, all of their stuff along. Bagley from the CIA, he passes it along to the FBI. It's on the 23rd. It's in the afternoon and it's pretty bad news.

"I'm not really certain of what's missing out here but this whole memo here, this is an FBI memo from Brennan to Sullivan referencing a call they just got from Bagley.

"This is the other copy I found. I blew it up and you can see the TUMBLEWEED,

AE/_________. Now you figure it out. What do you think? Looks like DURBILL. That's been my guess. AE/DURBILL. We just got a new crypt..

"It's the TUMBLEWEED project which is an FBI controlled program where we have got the inside line on Valery Kostikov, and had him all year, and that would be the guy that Oswald went down there and met with, and whoever impersonated him, made damn sure was inside U.S. intelligence files the day Kennedy was shot.

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

NOTE:  The problem I'm trying to point out now in January 2018 is that the "inside line" was provided  to FBI by a Soviet triple agent that the FBI, (thinking he was only a double agent) had given the code name "Fedora" to.  Whom JEH finally realized, many years later, was working for KGB all along.

--  Tommy 

Edited January 31, 2018 by Thomas Graves

[Larry Hancock]

David, I see nothing even remotely like that on page 103/104, not even in that same format?   And Tommy, certainly I will take your word on that although certainly the FBI should have known anyone in Kostikov's slot at the Cuban embassy was KGB, if not Dept 13.  Other than the Ambassador, a couple of assistants and a few clerks, virtually all personnel were KGB .   For those reading this who may not familiar with Dept 13 the following CIA documents is really pretty good background.  https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol19no3/html/v19i3a01p_0001.htm  

As far as developing an asset who would tell you exactly what Dept a particular embassy officer was actually working in, unless the asset was operationally involved with a specific sort of task I certainly would not have believed him.  Given the amount of surveillance on Kostikov in Mexico (not that you made me reboot my memory), the CIA would have had a pretty good idea what his tasking actually was and from what I remember of those reports they had a solid list of his travels, meetings, etc.