French Connection

[Shanet Clark]

I want to start a thread about a couple of questions I've asked elsewhere. First, what do you all know about the 1962 OAS attempt on the life of French President George DeGaulle? Was a similar plan used? Have any French Intelligence sources said anything about a tie-in with the Cabarra (sp) hit attempt?

Didn't David Ferrie fly a no-name French (OAS) sniper out of the country after Dallas? Who is Christian David? I've come across his name in connection with all this. What about Frenchy? Was he really a French OAS right-winger? On a related topic I am interested in the web story that the Mannlicher-Carcanno was not a sporting goods surplus Italian rifle, but a gun made for Mussolini's palace guard.

Basically I want to know more about the European, Algerian and Fascist links....

When HRH Diana Spencer was mysteriously killed in that Paris tunnel, there was some evidence that a similar mishap had been planned for (i believe) Milosevic in Yugoslavia, a tunnel accident was an off the shelf plan...could something similar connect the 1962 DeGaulle attempted murder to Dallas?

[John Simkin]

Didn't David Ferrie fly a no-name French (OAS) sniper out of the country after Dallas? Who is Christian David?  I've come across his name in connection with all this.  What about Frenchy? Was he really a French OAS right-winger? On a related topic I am interested in the web story that the Mannlicher-Carcanno was not a sporting goods surplus Italian rifle, but a gun made for Mussolini's palace guard.

See my biography of Stephen Rivele for this story.

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

Christian David was the leader of the Corsican network in South America. David was awaiting extradition to France to stand trial for murdering a policeman. David told Rivele that he had information on the Kennedy assassination, in return for which he wanted a deal with the U.S. government to block his extradition to France. Through Rivele's efforts, a federal judge temporarily halted David's extradition.

In return for Rivele's help, David told him that Kennedy's assassination had been organized by Antoine Guerini, the Corsican crime boss in Marseilles. David turned down the contract but was accepted by Lucien Sarti and two other members of the Marseilles mob. According to David, Sarti fired from behind the wooden fence on the grassy knoll. The first shot was fired from behind and hit Kennedy in the back. The second shot was fired from behind, and hit John Connally. The third shot was fired from in front, and hit Kennedy in the head. The fourth shot was from behind and missed.

Rivele's material was used in the 1988 television documentary, The Men Who Killed Kennedy. As well as Lucien Sarti he also named Sauveur Pironti and Roger Bocognani as being involved in the killing. However, Pironti and Bocognani both had alibis and Rivele was forced to withdraw the allegation.

I am afraid that David's story is as reliable as all those of witnesses in prison serving long sentences.

[James Richards]

For those who are interested, this is the Corsican connection below. I've thrown in Souetre for good measure.

James

[Jim Root]

Shanet

Just for some backround that may add to your workload in this area.

One of my research threads led back to the assassination of Admiral Darlan during World War II. Young idealistic assassin who died within 48 hours. international intrigue, a change in leadership (DeGaulle the benificiary), Great Britian and the United States on different sides of the French leadership question and some Americans on the scene that end up involved in the Kennedy administration. The funeral was a state affair with world leaders attending. All this occured during WWII which allowed for an easy coverup of the events.

The assassination covers the gamet of groups (fascist, right wing French, Vichy Government, business leaders, Italian OSS personel, French Military Intellengece and British Intellegence), international politics and spy organizations. Was it an "off the shelf plan" that could be followed later on.

You might find a closer look at this subject interesting.

Jim Root

[Steve Thomas]

Shanet,

Basically I want to know more about the European, Algerian and Fascist links....

I spent quite a bit of time reading about the OAS, the 1st. Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment, Algeria, Corsicans, etc. While it was facinating reading, I didn't find anything tangible that helped me answer this question.

I did find an interesting thread leading back to a Paul Mondolini of Montreal. Here are a couple of things I found:

From: Lets Roll (letsroll@meet-me-in-hell.com)

Subject: The Strength of the Wolf

This is the only article in this thread

Newsgroups: alt.politics.immigration

Date: 2004-06-20 01:02:13 PST

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/there...fm?id=698842004

THE STRENGTH OF THE WOLF

by Douglas Valentine

A warning to potential readers. If Valentine's account is compelling in its detail, the price is that the book is often close to unreadable. Try this paragraph about the Kennedy assassination for size: "It's almost as if [James Jesus] Angleton was a double agent, and if he was the 'mole' he was searching for, it's possible that SDECE agents working for the KGB may have sent an assassin into Dallas through Angleton's Brown-Castellani drug network, or through Paul Mondolini. If Angleton was a KGB mole, perhaps he used QJ/WIN (who could have been Mertz) to assassinate JFK, and programmed Lee Harvey Oswald as the unwitting patsy through the MKULTRA Program".

Here in the Education Forum, there is a biography of author Steve Rivele

A biography of Steve Rivele

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

Recently Rivele commented that: "I believe that Sarti was involved, but apparently I was wrong on the other two. If I were working on the case today, I'd look at Paul Mondoloni of Montreal... Two points I would add: I saw a documentary TV show last year about the KGB's investigation of the assassination, and was amazed to learn that they came to the same conclusion as me. Second, I was contacted two years ago by a former CIA agent (who worked in the mind control program among others), who told me that I was right about the assassination. Small comfort but better than nothing."

Earlier this year in the alt.conspiracy.jfk newsgroup, I wrote:

It seems to me that there are two trains of thought for the origin of

a plot to kill John F. Kennedy.

One line runs through the Mafia/CIA/Cuban exile connections of Santos

Trafficante. The other runs through the Corsican Mafia connections of

Antoine Guerini/Christian David as outlined be Steve Rivele and/or

William Reymond.

Lately, I have been wondering if there was some connection or

intersecting point between these two.

I got to wondering if it couldn't be found in Paul Mondolini who I

believe I read was Antoine Guerini's adopted son.

This is from a news article I read on the Internet concerning some

Montreal mobster getting married.

Remember that Michele Nicoli? told Steve Rivele that the assassins

were flown to Montral after they killed JFK.

QUEBEC AFFAIRS

PETER BLACK

"Singing for Their Supper"

http://www.tomifobia.com/hubbub.html

"Lucien Rivard was a Montreal hood who worked his way up the ranks to

become a drug-ring operator for Paul Mondolini, one of the major capos

in the city. At one point in his career Rivard ran a casino in Cuba

for Mondolini before Castro came to power, and there are stories he

ran a few guns to the island for the Cotronis.

Rivard and Mondolini, according to one account, were associated with

Santos Trafficante, the powerful mobster alleged to be involved with

the CIA in plotting to get rid of Castro. This also brings up the

possible connection between Rivard's friends and one Lee Harvey

Oswald.

Anyway, let's just say Rivard knew a lot of things that certain people

would have preferred to keep secret. So, when a Montreal couple was

busted in October, 1963, at the Texas border trying to smuggle heroin

out of Mexico, alarm bells went off in mob circles when they fingered

Rivard as their handler.

Rivard was arrested in June, 1964, in Montreal by Canadian police and

parked in Bordeaux jail awaiting extradition to the U.S."

The author of this article does not say why or how Rivard's friends

were connected to Lee Harvey Oswald.

Steve Thomas

In an interesting side note to the use of Corsican hitmen, there is this passage from William Harvey's handwritten notes on setting up the ZR/Rifle Program:

William Harvey’s handwritten notes on setting up the ZR/Rifle Program

From ajweberman’s Coup d’etat in America Nodule 0

http://www.weberman.com/nodules/nodule0.htm

8. Use nobody who has never dealt with criminals; otherwise will not be

aware of pitfalls or consider factors such as freedom to travel, wanted

lists, etc. Exclude organization criminals, those with record of

arrests, those who have engaged in several types of crime. Corsicans

recommended. Sicilians lead to Mafia.

You might want to read:

Plume, Christian and Pierre Demaret, Target De Gaulle, Corgi Books, 1974

Steve Thomas

[Wim Dankbaar]

I believe there is something to the French Connection. I don't think they actually delivered the gunman, but I think they may have been asked to.

I base that believ on this document that was sent to James Files:

http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/NSA.htm

The organized crime members that are being talked about in this letter are almost certainly members of the Corsican mob in Marseille.

Wim

[Jim Root]

Steve and Wim

The Italian OSS Operational Groups during WWII are an interesting group to follow as the OSS transformed itself into the CIA. The competition between the pro-communist factions in Italy and the right leaning anti-German groups in Italy played over into the operatives that worked for the various intellegence agencies. Those same groups had distinct ties to the American Mafia.

By the end of the war you find James Jesus Angleton and the anti-communist anti-German groups (read right wing) at the top of the OSS Italian heap. It was not unusual for the former fascist to move back into leadership roles at the end of the conflict. (Similiar to what happened in Germany under the High Commissioner John J. McCloy).

In DeGaulle you have a post WWII leader that we did not support until after the assassination of Admiral Darlan. Once the dirty dead was accomplished DeGaulle gained our support as leader of the Free French. I don't believe he ever forgave the United States for not supporting him earlier.

My note: Remember that it was Maxwell Taylor who negotiated the surrender of Italians while Italy was still occupied by Germany. Taylor's covert mission into Rome is one of the great heroic stories of WWII. It also places him in the middle of an OSS operation that ties the US to the support of many former fascists in the new Italy.

Jim Root

[Tim Gratz]

Shanet,

Basically I want to know more about the European, Algerian and Fascist links....

I spent quite a bit of time reading about the OAS, the 1st. Foreign Legion Parachute Regiment, Algeria, Corsicans, etc. While it was facinating reading, I didn't find anything tangible that helped me answer this question.

I did find an interesting thread leading back to a Paul Mondolini of Montreal. Here are a couple of things I found:

From: Lets Roll (letsroll@meet-me-in-hell.com)

Subject: The Strength of the Wolf

This is the only article in this thread

Newsgroups: alt.politics.immigration

Date: 2004-06-20 01:02:13 PST

http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/there...fm?id=698842004

THE STRENGTH OF THE WOLF

by Douglas Valentine

A warning to potential readers. If Valentine's account is compelling in its detail, the price is that the book is often close to unreadable. Try this paragraph about the Kennedy assassination for size: "It's almost as if [James Jesus] Angleton was a double agent, and if he was the 'mole' he was searching for, it's possible that SDECE agents working for the KGB may have sent an assassin into Dallas through Angleton's Brown-Castellani drug network, or through Paul Mondolini. If Angleton was a KGB mole, perhaps he used QJ/WIN (who could have been Mertz) to assassinate JFK, and programmed Lee Harvey Oswald as the unwitting patsy through the MKULTRA Program".

Here in the Education Forum, there is a biography of author Steve Rivele

A biography of Steve Rivele

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

Recently Rivele commented that: "I believe that Sarti was involved, but apparently I was wrong on the other two. If I were working on the case today, I'd look at Paul Mondoloni of Montreal... Two points I would add: I saw a documentary TV show last year about the KGB's investigation of the assassination, and was amazed to learn that they came to the same conclusion as me. Second, I was contacted two years ago by a former CIA agent (who worked in the mind control program among others), who told me that I was right about the assassination. Small comfort but better than nothing."

Earlier this year in the alt.conspiracy.jfk newsgroup, I wrote:

It seems to me that there are two trains of thought for the origin of

a plot to kill John F. Kennedy.

One line runs through the Mafia/CIA/Cuban exile connections of Santos

Trafficante. The other runs through the Corsican Mafia connections of

Antoine Guerini/Christian David as outlined be Steve Rivele and/or

William Reymond.

Lately, I have been wondering if there was some connection or

intersecting point between these two.

I got to wondering if it couldn't be found in Paul Mondolini who I

believe I read was Antoine Guerini's adopted son.

This is from a news article I read on the Internet concerning some

Montreal mobster getting married.

Remember that Michele Nicoli? told Steve Rivele that the assassins

were flown to Montral after they killed JFK.

QUEBEC AFFAIRS

PETER BLACK

"Singing for Their Supper"

http://www.tomifobia.com/hubbub.html

"Lucien Rivard was a Montreal hood who worked his way up the ranks to

become a drug-ring operator for Paul Mondolini, one of the major capos

in the city. At one point in his career Rivard ran a casino in Cuba

for Mondolini before Castro came to power, and there are stories he

ran a few guns to the island for the Cotronis.

Rivard and Mondolini, according to one account, were associated with

Santos Trafficante, the powerful mobster alleged to be involved with

the CIA in plotting to get rid of Castro. This also brings up the

possible connection between Rivard's friends and one Lee Harvey

Oswald.

Anyway, let's just say Rivard knew a lot of things that certain people

would have preferred to keep secret. So, when a Montreal couple was

busted in October, 1963, at the Texas border trying to smuggle heroin

out of Mexico, alarm bells went off in mob circles when they fingered

Rivard as their handler.

Rivard was arrested in June, 1964, in Montreal by Canadian police and

parked in Bordeaux jail awaiting extradition to the U.S."

The author of this article does not say why or how Rivard's friends

were connected to Lee Harvey Oswald.

Steve Thomas

In an interesting side note to the use of Corsican hitmen, there is this passage from William Harvey's handwritten notes on setting up the ZR/Rifle Program:

William Harvey’s handwritten notes on setting up the ZR/Rifle Program

From ajweberman’s Coup d’etat in America Nodule 0

http://www.weberman.com/nodules/nodule0.htm

8. Use nobody who has never dealt with criminals; otherwise will not be

aware of pitfalls or consider factors such as freedom to travel, wanted

lists, etc. Exclude organization criminals, those with record of

arrests, those who have engaged in several types of crime. Corsicans

recommended. Sicilians lead to Mafia.

You might want to read:

Plume, Christian and Pierre Demaret, Target De Gaulle, Corgi Books, 1974

Steve Thomas

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I believe that Rivele thought that Trafficante had engaged the Corsican hit-men through his friend the head of the Corsican mafia. Apparently Trafficante was smuggling drugs into South Florida from Corsica through Cuba.

[Steve Thomas]

Wim,

I believe there is something to the French Connection.

I do too, which makes the case of PFC. Eugene Dinkin all the more interesting.

Steve Thomas

[Steve Thomas]

Jim,

The Italian OSS Operational Groups during WWII are an interesting group to follow as the OSS transformed itself into the CIA.

I'll throw this out just for curiosity's sake. I don't know what to make of it myself. Have you ever heard of "Il Gladio?"

Usually I do a pretty good job of noting where I get stuff, but in this case, I forgot to jot down just exactly where I found this.

Likewise, the French police have been accused of cooperating within the Spanish state and of creating GAL (anti-terrorist liberation group) death squads in their war against the leftist and Basque separatists. Witnesses called upon to give evidence have stated that French police, right-wing extremists, police informers and former OAS (the French terrorist organisation opposed to Algerian independence) members assisted with GAL operations within France.19 The revelation of the OAS involvement puts another perspective upon the Algeria-related terrorist attacks within France and Algeria itself.

The OAS connection to the fundamentalists of Algeria is not new. In 1961, Senior OAS Commander Jean-Jacques Sysini discussed with the CIA's Paris station officer the possibility of a Franco-Muslim alliance.20 The outcome, according to available material, is that the CIA-OAS-Muslim republic was cut short, for President Kennedy, on the advice of his political advisers, cancelled the covert assistance program before it could begin.21 However, after the assassination of Kennedy in 1963, it is known that the CIA's use of covert operation programs increased on a dramatic scale.22 There is no reason to conclude that the CIA did not take advantage of the situation to utilise their OAS and non-governmental Muslim assets. This would ensure that neither a French republic nor a Soviet-controlled government obtained control of the Algerian oil fields. The French have long accused American oil companies of having encouraged the USA's support of the OAS and Muslim rebels.23

The OAS, though, was not the only inbred resistance organisation of the era, for during the Algerian crisis another organisation came to be known. Like the OAS, it was comprised of individuals with anti-Soviet, pro-Catholic beliefs and the same desire to rid France of Charles de Gaulle. The organisation's name is not cited in the book, Target De Gaulle. However, from its listed connections to the Vatican and pro-Nazi activists, and its possession of detailed, accurate intelligence on the very inner workings of the de Gaulle Government, it is possible to surmise that the secret society cited was in fact Il Gladio.24

In 1990, Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti briefed the Italian Parliament on a secret paramilitary organisation called Il Gladio (from the Latin, meaning "sword"). He explained that Gladio had been set up in 1956 and was run by the CIA to take precautions against Communist aggression. In particular, Gladio was tasked to reduce the influence of Communism in France and Italy (later, this would include Spain) via a "strategy of tension".25

Since this revelation, journalists have unearthed the meaning behind this term. It was Gladio's tactic to make use of right-wing mercenaries and Mafia hit-men to carry out attacks that were then blamed upon the left. These attacks include the Mafia's involvement in the Red Brigade's kidnap and murder of Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978.26 The strategy was to utilise the citizens' fear to justify the greater power of the security forces.

Gladio was also revealed to have strong ties to the former Nazi intelligence operators who, under the General Gehlen and Allen Dulles contract, were being recruited to help create America's post-war CIA.27 This would include the infamous Licio Gelli, a.k.a. "The Puppet Master" and head of the Vatican-Mafia Masonic Lodge, P2.28 It was Licio Gelli who helped to organise the "rat line" which was responsible for smuggling the Nazis out of Europe. Gelli's partner was Father Krujoslav Dragonovic, a Croatian Catholic priest and friend to Croatia's wartime leader, Dr Pavlic. While Gelli liaised with the respective intelligence agencies (which included those of America, Britain, Italy and the escaping Gestapo), Dragonovic negotiated with the Vatican for its assistance in the plan.29 For this service, Gelli and Dragonovic, as a norm, charged the fleeing Nazis 40 per cent of their wealth.30

However, Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie ("The Butcher of Lyon") was not charged, as the US Counter-Intelligence Corps picked up the tab as part of their recruitment of Barbie as an agent.31

In 1954, Gelli himself used the rat line and escaped to Argentina where he resided as a friend of Argentinian dictator General Juan Peron.32 No doubt Gelli was not lonely, for, in Argentina, Pavlic served as Peron's security adviser, while Klaus Barbie held a similar position in nearby Bolivia.33 In fact, all throughout South and Central America, the people have encountered the effects of these CIA imports. South America's legacy as home to some of the worst cases of state-induced terrorism owes much thanks to the CIA's involvement with P2.

In Europe, P2 was/is suspected of being behind Fascist attacks carried out against the left, with the design to weaken people's faith in a socialist government.34

20. Plume, Christian and Pierre Demaret, Target De Gaulle, Corgi Books, 1974, p. 94.

24. Plume and Demaret, ibid., pp. 108-114.

25. Wheelwright, ibid., p. 124.

26. Ellingsen, Peter, "Italy in the Dock: Andreotti and the Godfather's Kiss", The Sydney Morning Herald, Spectrum, 30 September 1995.

Italian PM Giulio Andreotti is currently standing trial for his involvement with the Mafia. David Yallop, in his book, In God's Name, also connects Andreotti to former Nazi and P2 Mafia boss, Licio Gelli. In his defence, Andreotti has called upon former UN Secretary-General (and believed P2 member) Javier Perez de Cuellar, and CFR member Henry Kissinger, as character witnesses.

27. The Chicago Tribune of 9 February 1945 released Walter Trohan's story of William Donovan's plans to initiate a postwar intelligence agency (the CIA), set up on the same designs and principles as the Gestapo (whom Donovan had been called upon to investigate and study)-"an agency quite willing to use psychological warfare and dirty tricks". In 1949, CIA Director Allen Dulles entered into a written contract with former German military intelligence head, General Reinhard Gehler. The contract permitted Gehler to conduct operations which included "political, economic and technological espionage" on behalf of the CIA. Gehler, in his memoirs, went so far as to say he taught the CIA all it knows. (Source: Jeffrey-Jones, Rhodri, The CIA and American Democracy, Yale University Press, Newhaven, USA, 1989, pp. 103-104.)

28. Il Gladio, BBC exposé, aired in New Zealand at 4.00 am in early June 1995.

29. Aarons, Mark and John Loftons, Ratlines, Heinemann, London, UK, 1991, p. 89.

30. Yallop, David, In God's Name, Corgi Books, London, UK, 1985 (reprinted 1993), p. 172.

31. Ibid.

32. Ibid.

33. Yallop, ibid. (in regard to Barbie); Aarons and Loftons, Ratlines, p. 85 (in regard to Pavlic).

34. Il Gladio, BBC exposé.

Steve Thomas

[Shanet Clark]

Steve, Jim and John

Thanks for the good feedback. A few thoughts on this so far: The WWII OSS Italy was linked to Maxwell Taylor, who is on my short list of Kennedy's entrenched and politically prominent killers. Also, the OSS Italy circa June 1945 is exactly where the Il Duce Mannlicher Carcannos probably came from...the oil companies, who all depended on John J. McCloy for unified legal advice, were interested in Algeria and the OAS, this ties in to the HL Hunt, Clint Murchison theories.

The tentacles of Gehlen, Licio Gelli and Allen Dulles permeate any understanding of the 1945-1965 historical period. Thanks for the Admiral Darlan lead. The Christian David information is interesting, and this whole angle (OAS, French assassins) may be disinformation, only tangential or a waste of time...it is certainly not my main theory...but the international culture of fascism and organized crime corrupting capitalist national governments (especially the intelligence and paramilitary) in the period 1945-1965 is very important to understanding the context of John Kennedy's murder. I've read Yallop's "In God's Name," and it is pretty obvious John Paul I was killed by corrupt Vatican Bank figures tied to Gelli and the Propaganda Due (P2).

In counter-intelligence nothing is what it appears to be, and the weird reversals and agent provocateur actions described above actually make sense in the world of double-agency and pre-emptive violence.

Please add more information about France, Algeria, Italy or international assassins to this thread, specifically, was DeGaulle's 1962 attempted murder linked to Dallas?

Shanet

[William Plumlee]

Jim,

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

".......OSS transformed itself into the CIA......".

Not to criticize, but the OSS did not transform itself into the CIA. Truman created the CIA for an entirely different reason in 1945. Only a few of the old OSS boys of WWII came on board with the new CIA. It is true that others came on board later but they were asked to after the Agency had been set up. In the very early days at 'Quarter Eye', (the old navy WAVE barracks, or WAVE station in Washington D.C.) there were only small number of employees at the new CIA located there. The CIA really came into its own around the late fifties and early sixties concerning Central America and Cuba. True other CIA Action Groups were operating, and some of these case officers had WWII experience with the OSS, but they had not cleared into the fold direct from the OSS. Also others from the old OSS went to ONI with naval INTEL. Perhaps this is a mute point but I felt it needed to be cleared. To me it seems to lead thought in the wrong directions. Thanks Tosh

[Jim Root]

William

Point taken (sometimes I speak in broad generalizations).

Donovan was attacked by the Drew Pearsons of the media world and the whole idea of a peace-time intellegece agency was a sticky subject at the end of the war. Things like "Plan Broiler" (plans for a potential war with Russia) were initiated on July 29, 1947 and "Plan Trojan was adopted in January of 1949. In the immediate post war period there was a major political fight raging in America and alot of it centered around the ability to gather intellegence. John J. McCloy would play a major role in this revolution (of sorts) participating in the think tank that ultimatly produced the CIA.

Jim Root

[William Plumlee]

"....In the immediate post war period there was a major political fight raging in America and alot of it centered around the ability to gather intellegence. John J. McCloy would play a major role in this revolution (of sorts) participating in the think tank that ultimatly produced the CIA. ...".

Jim Root

Good history. Truman was monitoring all this in fighting... and that prompted him to form the CIA, in hopes of bring all the foregin intelligence under one roof; therefore putting an end to the fighting of various units of intelligence gathering and their juristdictions. Some years later Truman made a statement something like.."he never intended for the CIA to have become what had had become.."" something like that... had something to do with how the CIA had got out of line annd useing its power in ways he Truman never intended. This statement was made after he had left ofice some years later. Thanks Tosh

[Jim Root]

Tosh

Perhaps you have insight on this area.....

In October of 1940 John J. McCloy was brought into the War Department to reorganize military intellegence by Henry Stimson. Stimson asked him to review the War Department's skeletal intelligence and counterintelligence capabilities and gear it up for the task ahead. (Sabotage at Black Tom, Jules Witcover pg 310)McCloy had had been a member of the firm of Cravath, deGersdorff, Swaine and Wood which represented Bethlehem Steel in there part of the case against Germany known as the Black Tom Affair. McCloy worked this case between 1931 and its successful conclusion (becomming the lead counsul for the whole case) in 1939 when the Mixed Claims Commission awarded $50 million to the American claimants.

In his position as Asst. Secretary of War it could be argued that he was in fact William Donovan's boss. His involvement in the creation of the National Security Council and the CIA, not to mention the World Bank and High Commissioner of Germany makes him, in my mind, a prime candidate to be Americas "C" (phrase used for Stuart Menzies, Great Britains head of all intellegence agencies during WWII and part of the Cold War period).

If McCloy was America's "C" the fact that he was needed on the Warren Commission elevates its importance to a degree and level that we, perhaps, have not imagined. It suggests that Lee Harvey Oswald and the assassination of JFK did reach into the highest eschelons of power.

Your thoughts,

Jim Root