Steve Rosen

The latest available picture of William 'Rip' Robertson, suggest that the pudgy man with the hat at the corner of Houston and Main is not Rip. See http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKrobertsonW.htm For further discussion of Rip Robertson and his presence in Dealey Plaza, or lack thereof, see the threads Familiar Faces in Dealey Plaza?, and Where was Rip Robertson?. Familiar Faces in Dealey Plaza? Link: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...75&start=75 Where was Rip Robertson? Link: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...c=794&st=15 - Steve

Raymond Rocca: The Trust Breaker diary entry by Edward Jay Epstein. Linked at http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/diary/rocca.htm Thanks for the picture, Stephen. Where did you find it? -- Steve

The New York Times picked up the tale of George Joannides today with a story titled C.I.A. Still Cagey About Oswald Mystery by Scott Shane. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/us/17inq...tml?_r=1&hp It's a good summary of the issues, with new quotes from Jeff Morley, Judge John R. Tunheim, G. Robert Blakey, Dan Hardway, Gerald Posner, Max Holland, and CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano. This is undoubtedly the widest publicity for the case so far. - Steve

On the JFK Lancer Forum there is a thoughtful discussion of Juan Almeida's recent death, with Larry Hancock, among others. Linked at: http://www.jfklancerforum.com/dc/dcboard.p...6&mode=full Larry propounds a few interesting ideas of what the JMWAVE report of November 28, 1963 could mean in the context of Lamar Waldron and Thomas Hartmann's theory of a December 1, 1963 plan for a coup in Cuba under the codename AMWORLD, as discussed in Legacy of Secrecy and Ultimate Sacrifice. Bill Kelly, do you have a link to the November 28, 1963 JMWAVE document on MaryFerrell.org? Thanks. Steve

On the JFK Lancer Forum there is a thoughtful discussion of Juan Almeida's recent death, with Larry Hancock, among others. Linked at: http://www.jfklancerforum.com/dc/dcboard.p...6&mode=full Larry propounds a few interesting ideas of what the JMWAVE report of November 28, 1963 could mean in the context of Lamar Waldron and Thomas Hartmann's theory of a December 1, 1963 plan for a coup in Cuba under the codename AMWORLD, as discussed in Legacy of Secrecy and Ultimate Sacrifice. Bill Kelly, do you have a link to the November 28, 1963 JMWAVE document on MaryFerrell.org? Thanks. Steve

Nathaniel, I believe Jeff Morley has shown in his articles about George Joannides and his book Our Man in Mexico that Richard Helms hand-picked Joannides to be the DRE's case officer at JM/WAVE, after contract officer Ross Crozier failed to adequately control the anti-Castro student group to the satisfaction of station chief Ted Shackley. Tom Karamessines, a fellow Greek-American patron of Joannides and close confidant of Helms, probably recommended Joannides to Helms. Shackley describes in his memoirs Spymaster: My Life in the CIA that he worked closely with his paramilitary chief / chief of staff / chief of operations at JMWAVE, David Morales (whom he also served with in Laos and Vietnam). See also David Corn's Blond Ghost. Larry Hancock's Someone Would Have Talked, among other books, suggests Morales ranked high enough to sit down with Helms. Tony Sforza is a another high-level covert operator who worked with Shackley at JM/WAVE, according to Spymaster. One of Sforza's agency codenames was Henry J. Sloman. Sforza / Sloman was one of the false-flaggers inserted into Chile in 1971 to pass money to the groups plotting the overthrow of Salvador Allende. Sforza was so deep-cover that he would meet high level officials on a Sunday at CIA headquarters, where he had been less than a dozen times in a 20-year career, according to Seymour M. Hersh's article (and later book) The Price of Power - Kissinger, Nixon, and Chile, in the December 1982 issue of the The Atlantic. Hersh states that Sloman was "well known to Helms, who awarded him at least two CIA medals". --- Jefferson Morley wrote a good article on Richard Helms titled The Gentlemanly Planner of Assassinations. Linked at http://www.slate.com/id/2073470/. jpg

Jim, Same question as Ron: How in your view does McCloy's letter neutralize Walker? Steve

Recently there was an anti-climatic coda to David Talbot's lawsuit against the CIA and Jeff Morley's lawsuit against the State Department. See Michael Doyle's Suits and Sentences blog at: http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/law/2009/09/s...ey-for-you.html As discussed in prior posts within this thread, Talbot and Morley jointly sued for passport records for David Morales and George Joannides, along with code names and pseudonyms for the two deceased covert operatives. The information was ruled properly withheld as protected "sources and methods". Talbot sought the recovery of about $400 in attorney fees. Judge Richard Leon - who currently presides over Morley's unrelated lawsuit against the CIA for Joannides service records - emphatically denied the request, using an exclamation point to underscore his decision. Judge Leon's decision: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_p...c?2007cv0277-48 - Steve

Recently there was an anti-climatic coda to David Talbot's lawsuit against the CIA and Jeff Morley's lawsuit against the State Department. See Michael Doyle's Suits and Sentences blog at: http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/law/2009/09/s...ey-for-you.html As discussed in prior posts within this thread, Talbot and Morley jointly sued for passport records for David Morales and George Joannides, along with code names and pseudonyms for the two deceased covert operatives. The information was ruled properly withheld as protected "sources and methods". Talbot sought the recovery of about $400 in attorney fees. Judge Richard Leon - who currently presides over Morley's unrelated lawsuit against the CIA for Joannides service records - emphatically denied the request, using an exclamation point to underscore his decision. Judge Leon's decision: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_p...c?2007cv0277-48 - Steve

Recently there was an anti-climatic coda to David Talbot's lawsuit against the CIA and Jeff Morley's lawsuit against the State Department. See Michael Doyle's Suits and Sentences blog at: http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/law/2009/09/s...ey-for-you.html As discussed in prior posts within this thread, Talbot and Morley jointly sued for passport records for David Morales and George Joannides, along with code names and pseudonyms for the two deceased covert operatives. The information was ruled properly withheld as protected "sources and methods". Talbot sought the recovery of about $400 in attorney fees. Judge Richard Leon - who currently presides over Morley's unrelated lawsuit against the CIA for Joannides service records - emphatically denied the request, using an exclamation point to underscore his decision. Judge Leon's decision: https://ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_p...c?2007cv0277-48 - Steve

Hear, hear! Thank you, Bill. Thank you for putting action into meaningful terms that everyone who views this forum should immediately support. If hearings aren't held soon on the JFK Act, it would be a disgraceful, damn sham indeed. - Steve

Juan Almeida, a Cuban revolutionary leader, passed away Friday, September 11. Almeida was described as a back channel to the Kennedys, in Lamar Waldron and Thomas Hartmann's books Ultimate Sacrifice and Legacy of Secrecy. http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/09/...nary/index.html - Steve

This was posted on September 11, 2009 on Jefferson Morley's Facebook page at his cause "Stop the CIA's Stonewalling on JFK Records": " CIA Due to Respond on JFK files This afternoon I am awaiting the CIA's latest filing in my lawsuit seeking JFK assassination files. The filing is due in federal court in Washington today, Friday Sept. 11. The CIA will be responding to my Aug. 7 motion calling for full disclosure of files of deceased CIA officer George Joannides. I hope that by midnight I will be pleasantly surprised to learn that the CIA has decided to comply with the spirit of President Obama's executive order on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and will announce its intention to release the long-suppressed files. But I doubt it. On related noted, I just got a link to a commentary by Jacob Hornberger, president of the libertarian Future of Freedom Foundation, who makes the case in a new Web ommentary that a special prosecutor should investigate Joannides' role in the assassination of President Kennedy. (See http://www.fff.org/comment/com0908e.asp ) Hornberger notes a key point about the Joannides story: "A common misconception regarding the law of fraud is that fraud requires an affirmative misrepresentation of a material fact. Not so. Fraud also occurs when there is an intentional failure to disclose a material fact" Thus, Hornberger reasons, the failure of the CIA to disclose to JFK investigators in 1964 and 1978 that George Joannides had a financial relationship to Oswald's anti-Castro antagonists at the time of JFK's murder, constitutes fraud and obstruction of justice. Hornberger is right. There is compelling evidence of criminal misconduct in Joannides' actions related to JFK's assassination. He is right that the Obama administration needs to take some action to clarify the record. Hornberger's commentary is welcome and deserves wider circulation. But I'm not prepared to endorse the special prosecutor remedy--at least not yet. Joannides is dead, leaving no obvious suspect for such a special prosecutor to investigate. On there other hand, there are living people who have first-hand knowledge of Joannides' covert operations in 1963. Their testimony could shed light on criminal activities related to JFK's assassination. My view that we may need a JFK "truth commission." I'll keep you posted on what the CIA says. Thanks for your support and interest. Get your friends to join this FB Cause and we will prevail. best, Jeff "

New article by Gus Russo titled The Dallas-Cuba Connection - 2009 Update on Dale Myers' blog at his JFKFiles.com site. Interesting information on Jeremy Gunn's AARB investigation of the CIA's file on Fabian Escalante, an FBI memo about Rolando Cubela (codenamed AMLASH by the CIA) that wound up in George DeMohrenschildt's 201 file at the CIA, and documents withheld by the CIA and the Kennedy Library. http://jfkfiles.blogspot.com/2009/08/dalla...009-update.html http://jfkfiles.blogspot.com/ Steve

Jacob G. Hornberger, attorney, writer, and founder of The Future of Freedom Foundation, wrote an article summarizing the Joannides case with a good-sense call to appoint a special prosecutor, along with links to the most recent articles by Jeff Morley. Linked at http://www.fff.org/comment/com0908e.asp. His bio, blog and other links: http://www.fff.org/aboutUs/bios/jgh.asp Steve

An update on Jeff Morley's lawsuit is posted on his blog: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/...y-the-law-1.php Jeff filed a 28 page sworn statement refuting the CIA's claims, including one that George Joannides didn't file monthly reports on the DRE in 1963 due to funding cutbacks. We'll see what the CIA says in 30 days. Meanwhile sign up to follow Jeff's blog on the above link, and consider joining Facebook, if only to support the Joannides records release cause. Steve

Good article on Abraham Bolden from June 12, 2009: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thom-hartman...i_b_213834.html

Good article on Abraham Bolden from June 12, 2009: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/thom-hartman...i_b_213834.html

Jeff Morley posted on his Facebook Cause "Stop the CIA's Stonewalling on JFK Records" an announcement: Judges and CIA Francesca wrote, "Surely the judges can't keep siding with the CIA forever?!" I don't think so. The Obama order will eventually force the CIA to change its FOIA position but they don't have to legally. That's because Obama's order was a statement of policy, not law. That said, I don't think I will win this case in court. I think I will win it in the court of public opinion. That is to say, I won't get the documents because some judge will tell the CIA to release the records. More likely, I think, is that reasonable people in the White House and DOJ and CIA will decide the agency's actions in Morley v. CIA are not in line with the president's FOIA order and direct the Agency lawyers to seek a settlement. If we get a big enough number of people saying Stop, I think they just might. "

New article by Jefferson Morley about the Joannides lawsuit in the age of FOIA reform: http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/...obamas_foia_or/ Good read, with a new photo of a beaming George Joannides receiving his Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the specifics of which are of course withheld. But recall that in a recent court filing, the CIA acknowledged that Joannides served "undercover" in two assignments - in 1963 at JM/WAVE and in 1978 as the Agency liason to the HSCA (!) Was his award related to this still secret service? Let's see what happens in court this summer. Also, there is a link to a Facebook Cause, which if you are member of Facebook, you should join the cause to spread the word about the outrageous stonewalling and obfuscation at the heart of this JFK - CIA mystery. [Click the "extended info" link on the Facebook Cause page for more new writing on the case by Jeff Morley].

Carlos Marcello confessed his role in killing JFK when he said that "I had the son of a bitch killed", according to this excerpt of an FBI document: http://www.legacyofsecrecy.com/documents.html As Lamar Waldron noted on this thread, that confession document is redacted. Unfortunately, the majority of the FBI's Marcello files are withheld. See Waldron's article at http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/...ns_Still_Secret and Legacy of Secrecy. Was Marcello's confession exaggerated boasting or arrogant honesty? Was he a pawn or the king on the chessboard? Who - if anyone - above him was moving the pieces? Without the Marcello and CAMTEX sting operation documents released, it's difficult if not impossible to fully evaluate Marcello's involvement.

Carlos Marcello confessed his role in killing JFK when he said that "I had the son of a bitch killed", according to this excerpt of an FBI document: http://www.legacyofsecrecy.com/documents.html As Lamar Waldron noted on this thread, that confession document is redacted. Unfortunately, the majority of the FBI's Marcello files are withheld. See Waldron's article at http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/...ns_Still_Secret and Legacy of Secrecy. Was Marcello's confession exaggerated boasting or arrogant honesty? Was he a pawn or the king on the chessboard? Who - if anyone - above him was moving the pieces? Without the Marcello and CAMTEX sting operation documents released, it's difficult if not impossible to fully evaluate Marcello's involvement.

Timely article posted on MaryFerrell.org by Lamar Waldron: Many US Government Files about JFK and King Assassinations Still Secret http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/...ns_Still_Secret

Timely article posted on MaryFerrell.org by Lamar Waldron: Many US Government Files about JFK and King Assassinations Still Secret http://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/...ns_Still_Secret

AP: Obama Can't Reform FOIA Fast Enough Contradictions Abound In Promise To Fulfill Freedom Of Information Act Requests http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/17/...in4870945.shtml This story discusses a 1960s FBI memo written from Cartha "Deke" DeLoach to Gerald Ford about a supposed $6,500 payment from the Cuban government to Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City. The CIA black-lined parts of the memo in 2008 before turning it over to the AP, even though it was released over 2 decades ago in full. Jefferson Morley discusses in Our Man in Mexico that David Atlee Phillips vouched for Gilbert Alvarado, who floated this $6,500 payoff story. Alvarado was a CIA informant, a key fact that was largely unknown to the U.S. officials who had to evaluate and act upon the payoff story's implications. Phillips later distanced himself, "theorizing" in The Night Watch that the Alvarado story was a figment of Nicaraguan intelligence - an organization created and controlled by the CIA. Why does the CIA consider the Alvarado story worthy of being censored today?