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AARC petition on Desmond Fitzgerald and Valkyrie

Anthony Thorne
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Anthony Thorne Rising Star

Anthony Thorne

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The text below was posted by Peter Dale Scott on Facebook today. I know Bill Kelly has written about this topic before.

https://aarclibrary.org/8-june-2020-update-on-aarcs-petition-for-certiorari-to-the-united-states-supreme-court/


“From the petition:


"AARC seeks documents related to a briefing of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on September 25, 1963 by CIA Cuban operations head Desmond Fitzgerald.  Fitzgerald informed the Joint Chiefs that CIA was studying in detail a parallel in history to develop an approach to dealing with Fidel Castro- the July 20, 1944 plot by German military officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler. "


In other words, on 9/25/63, Desmond Fitzgerald, a long-time suspect in the case who at the time was withholding important relevant information from the Kennedys, discussed with the Joint Chiefs a plan, parallel to Valkyrie, for assassinating a Chief of State from inside his own administration.


This is worth watching.“

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Ron Bulman Grand Master

Ron Bulman

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So through Fitzgerald the CIA was pushing the JCS for acquiescence or assistance in a plan similar to Valkyrie to eliminate the president for the good of the country.  That they had the confidence to suggest such is revealing of the Military attitudes though I guess it's not surprising after the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile crisis.  I wonder if he addressed all of the JCS.  It seems like I remember reading something about the Marine general might not have been receptive and wasn't included? 

What's even more interesting from a Devil's Chessboard perspective is Dulles.  He was involved in the development of Valkyrie somewhat and seems to have oversaw it from afar in a sense.  After his forced resignation might he and loyal former employees and associates started tweaking the plan?

I needed to refresh (and expand) my memory on Valkyrie and found this.  The circumstantial aspects of it's failure seem almost improbable.

https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/operation-valkyrie-why-20-july-hitler-stauffenberg-assassination-plot-failed.html

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Chuck Schwartz Community Regular

Chuck Schwartz

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Bill Kelly posted this on his blog (JFKCounteroup2) today (7/27/20): ( I did  not include the entire post)

The Supreme Court Takes on a JFK Case

 
THE SUPREME COURT TAKES ON A JFK CASE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 
 
While most of the government and society grounded to a virtual halt during the pandemic of 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States kept chugging along, ruling on a number of cases that will have a major impact on laws, elections, the president’s finances and how government works. The gears of justice grind slow however.

 
Eight years ago, on August 25, 2012, lawyers for the Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC) filed a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) for some specific records that are mentioned in another document that was previously released under the JFK Act of 1992.

 
The Assassination Archives and Research Center, is a privately funded, Maryland-based organization founded by Bud Fensterwald in 1984 “to provide a permanent organization which would acquire, preserve, and disseminate information on political assassinations.”  The attorney’s for AARC in this case are AARC director James Lesar and Dan Alcorn. [https://aarclibrary.org/  ]

 
Government agencies usualy drag their feet in response to all FOIA requests, and those filed by individuals often drag on until the requester loses interest or dies, but those filed by permanent organizations are not going to go away. So they get more attention.

 
The case stems from a document dated September 25, 1963 detailing a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who were briefed by CIA official Desmond FitzGerald on covert operations against Cuba.

 
Daniel Alcorn, the AARC attorney, said the document contained an intriguing reference to the CIA basing a plot to kill Fidel Castro in 1963 on an earlier plot to kill Adolph Hitler during World War II.

 
 
[Thanks to Rex Bradford at Mary Ferrell for the Origina Documents: Sept 23 memo Re: Special Group Security.

 
 
 
Known as the Higgins memo for its author, Colonel Walter Higgins, who was adjunct to General Victor “Brute” Krulak, USMC, the officer responsible for the military’s assistance to the CIA’s covert operations, especially against Cuba.

 
I listed the Higgins Memo - as the Number One Smoking Document released under the JFK Act for a number of reasons.

 
 
The meeting was chaired by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Curtis LeMay because General Maxwell Taylor was in Vietnam on a special mission for the president. The purpose of the meeting was for the Joint Chiefs of Staff to be briefed on CIA Covert Operations against Cuba by Desmond FitzGerald, who had replaced William Harvey as head of the CIA Cuban desk -Task Force W. Renamed by FitzGerald as the Special Group of the National Security Council that was responsible for approving or disapproving covert operations.

The key paragraph is bullet point # (13):

 
 "He (Desmond FitzGerald) commented that there was nothing new in the propaganda field. However, he felt that there had been great success in getting closer to the military personnel who might break with Castro, and stated that there were at least ten high-level military personnel who are talking with CIA but as yet are not talking to each other, since that degree of confidence has not yet developed. He considers it as a parallel in history, i.e., the plot to kill Hitler, and this plot is being studied in detail to develop an approach.”

 
“This was new information to us when we saw it,” Alcorn said, so the AARC filed an official Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for any documents or records of this detailed study of the German military plot to kill Hitler.

 
Over the course of a few years the CIA responded by (go to the blog to read the rest of it)
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David Boylan Rising Star

David Boylan

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I suspect that the Valkyrie discussion was related to a section of the Unconventional Warfare Program Alpha/Alfa Study written by Col Jack Hawkins. Hawkins was the Chief of Military Ops for the Cuban Invasion. I can't seem to find the complete study but only the comments and discussion about the original study.

And if you are bored and have sometime to read, here are some of my notes. 

8/26/63 Hawkins Program Alpha

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10310&search=%22Col_Hawkins%22#relPageId=1&tab=page

Alpha being looked at again. 10/8/63 from 9/11/63 submission.
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10338&search=%22agency_JCS%22#relPageId=2&tab=page
 
Program Alpha  still on the shelf. 10/15/63
https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10326&search=%22agency_JCS%22#relPageId=3&tab=page
 
Cuba Project by Lansdale
 
Lansdale is gone. Single point of contact Carroll or Krulak.
 
Shelling an oil refinery 1/64
 
Dez Fitz and navigational points 9/20/63
 
Fitzgerald briefs the JCS 9/25/63
 
Prouty as briefing officer 7/23/63 JCS and Fitzgerald
 
Lemay talking for the JCS about DOD support of CIA Cuban ops.
 
Military Support of CIA ops 12/23/63. Lemay acting as Chairman JCS. Suggestion that Eglin AB be used by Special Forces and Cubans to pilot B-26s.
 
Talking paper. Fitzgerald getting shot down by 5412 committee. Finally submits a comprehensive plan. Same as JCS SACSA plan.
 
11/8/63 Military protection of CIA ops. Capt Kurtz? By Krulak OPLAN 401-63
 
Ops given the green light from JCS. Economic sabotage missions. 8/63-12/63. All by Cubans via boat. Krulak
 
8/5/63 Fitzgeradl again meeting with JCS and SACSA (Special Asst for Counterinsurgency and Special Activities)
 
12/5/63 SABOP scheduled to blowup Matanzas transformers
 
10/10/63 OPLAN. Use of Guantanamo for support. 2 F8's for support of CIA ops.
 
Another Prouty doc 9/2/63 outlining an Op and what went and could go wrong
 
Prouty and Higgins meeting with Califano. 9/20/63. DOD support for CIA ops.
 
 
1/29/64 Krulak

 

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Anthony Thorne Rising Star

Anthony Thorne

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Not sure if this has been discussed here on this board. General Victor Krulak, noted above, is an interesting guy with an odd history. Victor Krulak later was involved in running a news service and newspapers (with a Latin American wing) for the CIA. Joseph Trento uncovered the story in the 70’s. The organisation was called Copley Press. There are a series of articles on the CIA Crest site about this. This PDF, linked from another site, is just one of them. Trento’s articles on the topic were controversial at the time.

https://tupiwire.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/copley-press-and-the-cia-article.pdf

General Krulak’s son, Charles Krulak, became a well known Marine Corp Officer. In the 80’s (again according to a document at CIA Crest) he shared discussions and meetings on Continuity of Government preparations with Richard Clarke. In 1996, Charles Krulak joined forces with Dick Cheney’s business partner Joshua Lederberg to convince the Joint Chiefs to invest in biowarfare vaccine preparations, in case future terrorists decided to hit the US with doses of anthrax.

https://books.google.com.au/books?id=4A0tBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT61&lpg=PT61&dq=charles+krulak+anthrax+lederberg&source=bl&ots=nukUDZUyNS&sig=ACfU3U2Pu2SEHaL4nRREE55oG99aDExjCg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjlw8CLq-7qAhXVH7cAHZcgA5UQ6AEwC3oECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=charles krulak anthrax lederberg&f=false

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Chuck Schwartz Community Regular

Chuck Schwartz

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Anthony, Victor Krulak  was involved in getting  Cuban fighters to kill Castro in what was called the Special Group.  Anthony Summers, in his book "Not in Your Lifetime"  (see pages 246 -247 (Chapter 8), refers to Captain Bradley Ayers... seconded by the CIA to teach such units such as the Special Group to "infiltrate Cuba, reach human targets, and assassinate them".  Ayers had been briefed at the CIA by Victor Krulak , a member of the Special Group, on getting Bobby Kennedy's approval to continue operations . Summers, in 1994 , interviewed Raphael Quintero ,Ramon Font, Eugenio Martinez, Eloy Menoy0, Segundo Borges, Erneido Oliva and Enrique Ruiz-Williams.

Separate from this  Summers book, and this Supreme Court case, it is theorized that this Special Group ,instead of killing Castro,  was used in the Big Event. Obviously, Bobby Kennedy did not approve this, but Ayers and Krulak would have received approval in their Chain of Command.

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David Butler Contributor

David Butler

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About the only thing I have come across so far that could be related is in this one here on page 65

 

Section (d) Disaffection in the Military

 

“The principal aim is to get military leaders who have become disenchanted with the Castro regime to dare to talk and plot Castro’s downfall with each other.”

 

Dates from 12 November 1963 so just after the docs that have been mentioned.

 

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10306-10024.pdf

 

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Anthony Thorne Rising Star

Anthony Thorne

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Chuck, thanks, I just found it interesting that after what you described, Krulak worked further with the CIA, and his son was involved in shadowy crisis and anti terrorism planning. The COG and anthrax prevention folk all made big bucks for themselves and various weapons corporations when the events they planned for became reality.

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Chuck Schwartz Community Regular

Chuck Schwartz

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Anthony, Victor Krulak's son (Charles) may have made money , but the designers of the Big Event and those that implemented it were motivated , rightfully or wrongfully (wrongfully, in my opinion), by anti- communism. As soon as it became known that JFK was not going to support a war in Vietnam, the line had been crossed and there was no return. In the early 60's there was strict adherence to the Domino theory (if Vietnam went Communist, the whole world go communist).  People like Lemay believed not fighting communism in Vietnam was like appeasing Hitler in the 1930's.  This belief was more like a religious belief than a political or economic belief. (though it may have been couched in political or economic terms)  There was an advertisement in the Dallas newspaper(s), at the time, showing JFK in a wanted dead or alive poster - he was wanted for treason.

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Anthony Thorne Rising Star

Anthony Thorne

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I don't disagree with any of that. But this is probably the result of me not making things explicit. I'm just observing how the networks that carried out the JFK hit continued, and strengthened, and deepened their activities for decades afterwards, through Vietnam, Iran Contra and other events where the CIA played a role or had an interest. And at a certain point, when the wind started blowing in a certain direction, their history of networking and plotting and looking towards the future paid dividends, and not just financial ones.

FWIW, later HUAC chair Richard Ichord wrote the introduction for Stefan Possony's prophetic late 70's book on international terrorism, and then chaired an important panel and report at the end of 1980 - 'The Ailing Defense Industrial Base: Unready for Crisis' - that was the progenitor of threads that led to the PNAC Rebuilding America's Defences document. And Krulak (Charles) fronted anthrax preparations for the some of the same people. But this is probably outside the scope of this thread. 

CSIS, the think tank mentioned in another thread by me which was begun with the assistance of Arleigh Burke - at loggerheads with JFK through the period Charles cited - is never far from the scene through all the stuff I've just alluded to.

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Ron Bulman Grand Master

Ron Bulman

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1 hour ago, Anthony Thorne said:

I don't disagree with any of that. But this is probably the result of me not making things explicit. I'm just observing how the networks that carried out the JFK hit continued, and strengthened, and deepened their activities for decades afterwards, through Vietnam, Iran Contra and other events where the CIA played a role or had an interest. And at a certain point, when the wind started blowing in a certain direction, their history of networking and plotting and looking towards the future paid dividends, and not just financial ones.

FWIW, later HUAC chair Richard Ichord wrote the introduction for Stefan Possony's prophetic late 70's book on international terrorism, and then chaired an important panel and report at the end of 1980 - 'The Ailing Defense Industrial Base: Unready for Crisis' - that was the progenitor of threads that led to the PNAC Rebuilding America's Defences document. And Krulak (Charles) fronted anthrax preparations for the some of the same people. But this is probably outside the scope of this thread. 

CSIS, the think tank mentioned in another thread by me which was begun with the assistance of Arleigh Burke - at loggerheads with JFK through the period Charles cited - is never far from the scene through all the stuff I've just alluded to.

Not entirely beyond the scope of the thread.  But go slower for some of us.  For example I'm familiar with the Continuity Of Government, but someone passing through might not understand what COG means.  Like I think I've seen the acronym CSIS but can't remember what it means at the moment.  House Un American Activities Committee makes me think of Nixon.

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Anthony Thorne Rising Star

Anthony Thorne

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No problem Ron. 

CSIS is discussed in this thread. You also posted in it, but it was some months back.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/26438-spy-vs-spy-the-bay-of-pigs-and-the-battle-for-the-soul-of-the-cia/

Ichord does pop up in Watergate literature (Googling 'Richard Ichord Watergate' brings up a number of links). His obituary gives more details about him. He was a fervent anticommunist.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1992/12/26/former-rep-richard-h-ichord-jr-66-dies/b916cc2b-e2b9-448d-a784-848b716e68d0/

I might start a new thread at some point making some of the connections more explicit. It's a can of worms though and some of these things only become clearer in longer posts rather than shorter ones.

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Chuck Schwartz Community Regular

Chuck Schwartz

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Anthony, A. Burke was very interesting.  Here is how he interacted with JFK on the BOP fiasco..

On the night of 16-17 April 1961, when the relatively young President needed the advice of the armed forces as the Bay of Pigs invasion was turning into an unmitigated fiasco, the tension between President Kennedy and Admiral Burke was palpable.

As told by Admiral Burke’s biographer, the late E.B. Potter, in the early-morning hours of 17 April, President Kennedy, Vice President Lyndon Johnson, Secretary of State Dean Rusk, and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, in white tie and tails, along with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Lyman Lemnitzer and Admiral Burke, in dress uniforms with medals, left the East Room, where the annual Congressional Reception had just concluded, headed for the Oval Office.

There, Richard M. Bissell of the CIA informed President Kennedy that although the situation was bad, it "could still take a favorable turn if the President would authorize sending in aircraft from the carrier."

"Burke concurred," wrote Potter. "Let me take two jets and shoot down the enemy aircraft," he urged. But President Kennedy said "No," and reminded them that he had said "over and over again" that he would not commit U.S. forces to combat. Apparently, he did not want the world to find out what it already knew, that the whole expedition had been conceived, planned, and armed by the United States.

According to Potter, "Burke suggested sending in a destroyer. Whereupon Kennedy explodes. ‘Burke.’ He snapped, ‘I don’t want the United States involved in this.’ ‘All in all, Mr. President,’ Burke snapped back, ‘but we are involved."’

All in all, not a pleasant exchange.

Admiral Burke continued as Chief of Naval Operations for three-and-a-half more months. On 1 August 1961, having completed an unprecedented third term, he relinquished his office to Admiral George W. Anderson. The change of command took place at the U.S. Naval Academy, where Admiral Burke had begun his naval service 42 years earlier.

Burke was from Michigan.

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