Philip Graham

[John Simkin]

As a result of the Frank Church investigations (Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities) in 1975 it was discovered that in the late 1940s CIA began to recruit American journalists on a wide scale. This became known as Operation Mockingbird. As I have explained on the thread below, Philip Graham, was head of this project.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2911

Philip Graham was a military intelligence officer during the Second World War. On his return he quickly gained control of the Washington Post (owned by his father in law). He also began acquiring other newspapers and radio stations. These, we must assume, was under the direction of the CIA.

Graham was close to CIA figures such as Frank Wisner, Allen Dulles and Desmond FitzGerald. It is estimated that over 400 journalists were recruited into Operation Mockingbird. Some well-known right-wing journalists have been named as part of this operation. However, for this operation to have worked, it needed liberal or even left-wing journalists in the team.

I have argued on the Jack Anderson thread that he was one of those recruited by Graham at the end of the war. He was then placed as Drew Pearson’s assistant on the Washington Post. I do not believe that Pearson was knowingly a member of Operation Mockingbird. However, I do believe he was manipulated by Anderson to produce several stories that helped maintain the status quo. This includes Owen Brewster, chairman of the Senate War Investigating Committee, who posed a serious threat to Howard Hughes, John McCone, George and Herman Brown, etc. in 1946-48. I believe Pearson was used to destroy several politicians who posed a threat to the Suite 8F Group. This included protecting LBJ in the 1950s when he came close to be exposing the key role that he played in the Military Industrial Congressional Complex.

Pearson was willing to go along with this because LBJ always offered him information and actions in return. Pearson’s diaries show that he agonised about the deals he decided to do with LBJ. Pearson behaviour towards LBJ is particularly interesting during the 1960 presidential campaign. This included laying off LBJ and using leaks from Howard Hughes to damage Nixon’s campaign – the Donald Nixon loan scandal.

Pearson retained his image as a crusading, anti-establishment, journalist. This was very important as it helped his pro-CIA stories to be believed. Therefore he was an excellent vehicle for promoting stories that on the surface appeared to be exposing the activities of the establishment, while in reality was hiding the truth of the situation.

I now want to explore the role played by Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson in the cover up of the Kennedy assassination. Like most journalists, Pearson and Anderson accepted the Warren Commission Report. However, during the Jim Garrison investigation, Pearson and Anderson began promoting what I have called “Plan B”. That is that there was indeed a conspiracy to kill Kennedy. According to “Plan B” organized crime was involved in this plot. Later, Anderson argued that these mobsters were working on behalf of Castro.

We need to look at these stories very carefully to see if they tell us anything about who was really behind the assassination.

On 7th March, 1967 Drew Pearson published an article in the Washington Post where he claimed that:

(1) that the CIA had hatched a plot to kill Castro

(2) that Robert Kennedy may have approved the assassination plot

(3) underworld figures were actually recruited to carry out the plot

(4) that Castro knew about the CIA plots to kill him

(5) pills were sent to Cuba for the assassination

(6) the assassination of Castro was discussed at a Department of State meeting

On the surface this appears to be an anti-CIA story. What would have been the motivation of the CIA to get this story into the public domain?

This was why J. D. Earman, inspector general of the CIA, was asked to investigate the truth and the source of the story.

Earman interviewed all the relevant people at the CIA and discovered that points 1, 3, 5 and 6 were true. He was unable to confirm that points 2 and 4 were accurate.

Earman then speculates who might have told Pearson. Using the system of finding out “who knew what” he concludes that only one man was in a position to have all this information. His name was William Harvey. However, he adds: “We preferred not to think that Bill Harvey was the culprit. We could find no persuasive reason why he would wish to leak the story deliberately, and we doubted that he would be so indiscreet as to leak it accidentally.”

There is a flaw in Earman’s argument. There could of course have been two people providing information to Pearson.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2835

In his book, Peace, War, And Politics (1999) Anderson explains what happened. It was Anderson who took the story to Pearson. He originally got the story from Ed Morgan, John Rosselli’s attorney. He later met Rosselli who told him the full story. Anderson claims that he was “able to verify much of Rossell’s information through other sources”. According to Anderson “he never gave me a bum steer”. (page 113). Anderson also checked the story with William Harvey and “to our surprise, Harvey obliquely confirmed everything Rosselli had said”.

However, as Earman asked when writing his report in 1967, why would Harvey do this? In doing so (in light of Anderson’s later stories) Harvey becomes implicated in the assassination of JFK. If Anderson was part of Operation Mockingbird, we have to assume that this was the long-term objective of “Plan B”. Harvey was being sacrificed. Why would he do it to himself? Or is it possible that Harvey was being sacrificed by someone else in the CIA?

Pearson appears to lose interest in this Mafia story. Maybe, he realised that he was being manipulated. Anderson, however, continues with the investigation. According to Anderson, his sources (Rosselli and other underground crime figures) reveal that “Castro instigated the Kennedy assassination, Trafficante supervised it, and Marcello allowed it to take place in his jurisdiction” (page 115)

If it is true that the reason for “Plan B” was to direct attention away from the Jim Garrison’s investigation, why was it necessary to implicate Harvey. This had a profound impact on those researching the assassination as it brought into play such things as the JM/WAVE station in Miami and Task Force W. It was not only Harvey who was being sacrificed.

Is it possible that Harvey was also a “patsy” in all this? That the real conspirators behind the assassination of JFK were not really involved with anti-Castro Cubans. That these characters were part of “Plan C”? Was this all part of a long-term plan to take researchers even further away from the people who did actually organize the assassination of JFK.

If Anderson was part of Operation Mockingbird then we have to assume that where he took us, was where the CIA wanted us to go.

[John Simkin]

I wonder if Operation Mockingbird still exists. It could explain the following article:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2950

[Ron Ecker]

John,

Related to this is the CIA memo that contained instructions on how to defend the Warren Report. I suppose this memo was supplementary or in addition to Operation Mockingbird, whose CIA assets would already have known what was expected of them.

http://www.jfklancer.com/CIA.html

Ron

[Jim Root]

John

Thought this might interest you:

"1967. Thomas H. Karamessines in 1967 started an operation to handle the antiwar press. On 8/4/67 a telegram re the new special operations group (SOG) in the counterintel section. Angleton appointed Dick Ober to coordinate SOG and expand his Ramparts investigation to encompass the entire underground press -- some 500 newspapers. SOG was designated as MHCHAOS. CIA assigned domestic political espionage the highest level of priority. SOG ops grew to sixty field agents as well as other CIA compartments. Due to the large number of reports generated computers were used for the first time to handle the traffic. CIA coordinated efforts with army agents, the local police and the FBI. Penetration of antiwar periodicals (his primary mission). John Ferrera a student was recruited to penetrate various antiwar media. details of Ferrera's successes. the FBI used its agents to create dissension within protest groups. Ober had relied on the CIA's domestic contract service (DCS) but was experiencing resistance. pp. 26-41Mackenzie, A. CIA WAGES WAR ON AMERICA from 'SECRETS: THE CIA'S WAR AT HOME', University of California Press, Berkeley, CA, 1997. Posted in a-infozine V1 #654. The A-Infos News Service."

The part about Army agents I find of particular interest when looking at domestic spying.

Jim Root

[Steve Thomas]

Jim,

The part about Army agents I find of particular interest when looking at domestic spying.

You might find this site interesting:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/NSA/Mili...ligence_LS.html

Also, do a google searches for Christopher Pyle, the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, and CONUS Intelligence.

The results might astound you.

From a site called FindLaw for Legal Professionals:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getc...=405&invol=1026

"Senator Ervin, who chaired these hearings, warns this Court in an amicus brief in another case, that "it is not an exaggeration to talk in terms of hundreds of thousands of individuals, organizations, events, and dossiers."

Steve Thomas

[Shanet Clark]

Great thread and Line of Inquiry.

I have just ordered a CD ROM of declassified Nixon Era Domestic files.

These MOCKINGBIRD programs tie in with the known domestic operations

CHAOS and COINTELPRO.

When the CIA domestic operations and armed forces intelligence

agencies come together to run highly classified programs on US soil,

that is a joint agency illegal operation.

I believe 11/22/63 was the capstone and centerpiece of

this joint agency paramilitary program, a moment

when the combined agencies of the classified secret bureaus

got the upper hand over any elected official...

Jim,

The part about Army agents I find of particular interest when looking at domestic spying.

You might find this site interesting:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/NSA/Mili...ligence_LS.html

Also, do a google searches for Christopher Pyle, the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, and CONUS Intelligence.

The results might astound you.

From a site called FindLaw for Legal Professionals:

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getc...=405&invol=1026

"Senator Ervin, who chaired these hearings, warns this Court in an amicus brief in another case, that "it is not an exaggeration to talk in terms of hundreds of thousands of individuals, organizations, events, and dossiers."

Steve Thomas

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Jim Root]

Steve

I have long considered the possibility that Major General Edwin Walker (resigned) was planted by the government to spy on Right Wing groups within America. His military backround would suggest this as a legitimate possibility. If true it gives the whole assassination story a very different twist. The fact that his move to the right and his resignation from the military coincides with Oswald's application to return to the United States from the Soviet Union is just one more piece in a large puzzle.

Jim Root

Shanet, I read with interest your posts.

[John Simkin]

In order to find out more about Philip Graham and Operation Mockingbird I have purchased a copy of Katharine Graham’s Personal History. Of course she does not acknowledge that her husband worked for the CIA. However, it includes some fascinating information for anyone who knows anything about the CIA and the JFK assassination.

Philip Graham joined the armed forces during the Second World War. His first job was as William Donovan’s communications officer. Donovan was of course head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the organization that evolved into the CIA in September, 1947.

In 1944 Graham was recruited into the “Special Branch, a super-secret part of Intelligence, run by Colonel Al McCormick”. The work was so secret that Graham never divulged what he was up to during the war. However, it did involve working with General George Kennedy, commander of the Allied Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific.

Graham left the OSS at the end of the war to run the Washington Post. However, according to his wife, he kept up a close relationship with several members of the CIA. The two key figures in this were Tracy Barnes and Frank Wisner. KG admits that the CIA did influence what went in the Washington Post. This was especially true about the reporting on Cuba. This upset several reporters who had their stories removed from the newspaper.

According to his wife, Graham became close to LBJ as early as 1953. Graham got the idea that LBJ would make a good president. KG disliked LBJ (she was a supporter of Adlai Stevenson) but PG would not be swayed.

KG claims that PG influenced LBJ’s actions. This included getting places “for liberal Northerners” onto “key committees”. However, KG did not trust LBJ. She tells the story that her husband was privately campaigning to bring an end to the corruption in Congress. LBJ agreed to help in this campaign. The Grahams used to spend time on LBJ’s ranch. She was unimpressed when LBJ got drunk one night and began talking about how he was using the money of his friends to bribe politicians and journalists. These were hardly the words of someone who was claiming to want to clean up Congress.

PG told LBJ that his main problem was that he was perceived in Washington as someone under the control of the Texas oil and gas industry. PG added that his attitude towards civil rights was also hurting him with liberals in the North. PG told him he had go a “bit beyond (Richard) Russell and yet far short of (Hubert) Humphrey”.

PG attempted to influence LBJ’s views on foreign policy. For example, he sent him a copy of Germaine Trillion’s Algeria. In fact he sent the book to several politicians, including JFK, who he did not know at the time.

PG apparently “believed devoutly in school desegregation”. KG believes that it was the events of Little Rock in 1957 that triggered his first mental breakdown.

Despite suffering from deep depression, PG continued to take action to expand his media empire. (I wonder if he was getting any help with this).

His breakdown took some strange forms. He made a speech to the American Electric Power Company in Ohio where he claimed about the “shaking loneliness that a man experiences… when he faces up to the meaning of what he is engaged in”. He added: “We say that we print the objective news in our news columns and confine our opinions to the editorial page. Yet we know that while this has some merit as an over-simplified slogan of good intentions, it also has a strong smell of pure baloney.” PG concluded by saying that “by paying attention to the broader meaning of what we are engaged in, we may be able to join our passion to our intelligence.”

Is it possible that his breakdown been caused by being forced to behave in a way that he found morally indefensible? This is what psychologists call cognitive dissonance. To remain sane we usually change our opinions to fit in with our behaviour. Did Philip Graham find this impossible to do? Does this also explain his suicide just before JFK was assassinated?

In 1960 PG did what he could to get LBJ to become the Democratic candidate for the presidency. This included trying to persuade JFK not to stand in 1960. JFK of course decided to go for the nomination and easily beat LBJ. PG used Joe Alsop to get close to JFK. Alsop is another of those figures that constantly reappears in this story. For example, it has been claimed that Alsop was a key figure in Operation Mockingbird.

PG persuaded JFK to make LBJ his running-mate. Katherine Graham tells a couple of interesting stories about this. According to Clark Clifford, who was asked by JFK to offer Stuart Symington, the job, his reaction was strange. Symington accepted the post but said: “I bet you a hundred dollars that no matter what he says, Jack will not make me his running mate. He will have to pick Lyndon”.

The second story involves Robert Kennedy. He was was furious with PG’s role in this and relations were bad between him and the Grahams. After the assassination of JFK, KG met RFK at a dinner. They both began having a go at LBJ. RFK then turned to her and said: “Phil made him president?” KG asked him what he meant. RFK told her he could not tell her but maybe he would be able to tell the full story someday in the future.

In Personal History KG explains that the Washington Post did what they could to get JFK/LBJ elected. However, Philip Graham did not want to do this openly and the Washington Post refused to advocate their election. Although KG slanted stories to help him. As well as money they attempted to persuade other newspaper editors to come out for JFK.

PG expected something in return. This included the appointment of Douglas Dillon as Secretary of the Treasury. This he agreed to do, though the appointment of a Republican caused some concern amongst his close advisers. PG also takes credit for getting Arthur Schlesinger inside the JFK camp. The third figure pushed by PG was David Bruce, who became ambassador to London. It was Bruce of course who sent a daily report to JFK about the Profumo scandal. This was a subject that JFK was very interested in because it involved two of the girls that had been part of Bobby Baker’s set-up. Girls who had been sleeping with both JFK and KGB officers.

[John Simkin]

A couple of photographs of Philip Graham. The first one was when he was in the OSS. The second is when he appeared on the front cover of Time magazine.

[Jim Root]

John

I brought up the Thomas Karamessines information that deals with 1967 intelligence involvement in the press and you now reply with the Phil Graham interest in school desegregation at Little Rock in 1957.

A footnote would show that Karamessines involvement in the Greek Civil War would overlap Edwin Walkers involvment in the same event just as Little Rock would involve General Walker as well!

"The second story involves Robert Kennedy. He was was furious with PG’s role in this and relations were bad between him and the Grahams. After the assassination of JFK, KG met RFK at a dinner. They both began having a go at LBJ. RFK then turned to her and said: “Phil made him president?” KG asked him what he meant. RFK told her he could not tell her but maybe he would be able to tell the full story someday in the future."

By "making" LBJ the vice president Graham would have placed Johnson in the position to become president upon the assassination of LBJ. Nothing sinister here. On the other hand, if Graham and others had helped JFK become president and positioned LBJ as the vice president we could have a "full story" that would be interesting to hear "someday in the future." It might also explain alot about RFK as well.

Jim Root

[John Simkin]

Here is some further information that I found out about Philip Graham:

(1) The main person involved in arranging PG’s takeover of other media companies was Fritz Beebe. He ran the law firm Cravath, Swaine, & Moore. This was the company owned by Al McCormick, who during the war was a member of OSS and head of “Special Branch, a super-secret part of Intelligence”. PG served under McCormick during the Second World War.

(2) Another figure involved in these takeovers was Averell Harriman, JFK’s Under Secretary of State. In 1963 Harriman became aware of JFK’s secret negotiations with Fidel Castro (via William Attwood).

(3) During the Bay of Pigs fiasco PG pulled articles critical of JFK and the CIA. PG wanted to sack Bob Estabrook, the man responsible for trying to get these stories published. He was eventually transferred to a less senior post in London. KG claims that Tracy Barnes and Frank Wisner was behind this censorship.

(4) Bill Rogers, general counsel to the Washington Post, became a member of JFK’s government. He was also a close friend of Fritz

(5) During the Berlin Crisis PG allowed Chip Bohlen, a member of COMSAT, to plant pro JFK stories in the Washington Post.

(6) Washington Post journalist Murrey Marder was the first to get the story on the Cuban Missile Crisis. However, Graham intervened in order to keep the story out of the newspaper.

(7) In 1962 Graham did two things that appeared to his wife irrational. He purchased a 365 acre Glen Welby farm in Hume, Virginia, without even visiting it. Katharine Graham could see no reason for buying the farm. He also purchased an expensive plane, a Gulfstream 1. Again, KG could not understand why it had bought it.

[Shanet Clark]

He bought the farm.

[John Simkin]

I have collected together the information I have obtained on Operation Mockingbird:

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

Several articles have claimed that Operation Mockingbird was exposed by Frank Church during his CIA investigations. Has anyone got a copy of this report? If so, does it include any information on Mockingbird? I have ordered a copy from the US but it usually takes about a month for it to arrive.

[Steve Thomas]

I have long considered the possibility that Major General Edwin Walker (resigned) was planted by the government to spy on Right Wing groups within America. (Jim Root)

I don't think there would have been any need to "plant" him to spy on right wing groups.

He had plenty of company in the military who shared his views.

He joined the John Birch Society in 1959, well before he "retired" from the military in 1961. You have to look at this in the context of the Fulbright Memorandum in July of 1961 alluding to a military-coup danger in the United States. It is of particular significance that Fulbright referenced "the revolt of the French generals"—which takes us into the assassination attempts against French President Charles de Gaulle.

Even though it is a Lyndon LaRouce site, you might want to read this essay: "The Enigma of the Fulbright Memorandum"

http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2002/2906fulbright.html

They do a pretty good case for outlining the problems Eisenhower and Kennedy had with right-wing military officials actively opposing their programs.

Steve Thomas

[John Simkin]

I have long considered the possibility that Major General Edwin Walker (resigned) was planted by the government to spy on Right Wing groups within America.  His military backround would suggest this as a legitimate possibility.  If true it gives the whole assassination story a very different twist.  The fact that his move to the right and his resignation from the military coincides with Oswald's application to return to the United States from the Soviet Union is just one more piece in a large puzzle.

Do you have any evidence for this view? At what stage in his career did he become a spy? Who was he actually working for? Are you saying he was right-wing but was willing to betray other right-wingers? Or are you claiming he was not really right-wing but was acting as a agent provocateur?