David Andrews

Indeed, some of CIA's cryptonyms seem too apt or too humorous to be machine generated. So is DECANTER someone who drank a lot? Or talked a lot? descant 1 a : a melody or counterpoint sung above the plainsong of the tenor 2 : discourse or comment on a theme

Does anyone know what the crypts GPIDEAL and GPFLOOR stand for?

JFK was quick, thoughtful, purposeful and sincere even without Ted Sorensen. As a politician, of course, the sincerity part was mutable. "...So much rhythm, grace and debonair in one man?" -- The Spinners, "Rubberband Man" *** Thanks, Joe McBride, for remembering this remarkable moment.

"I got soul...and I'm superbad!" -- James Brown

I was four, and able to see all the coverage on TV, mostly CBS. I was down with a cold the night before, and so woke up very late on Friday and came downstairs to see a revision of reality. I missed by a year the primal experience of hearing the assassination announced in school, and being sent home early. In high school, probably in December 1974, our Social Studies teacher took us to see Mark Lane give a presentation at Niagara University. Lane only spoke for the first half of the evening, giving general background on the assassination, the attempted coverup, and the struggle to get the truth out. The second half was a discussion of the mechanics of the ambush, conducted by a younger man with a mustache and long, dark hair in ponytail. That part drew more questions from the audience, and lasted longer in memory -- it certainly inspired my later reading. Does anyone know who Lane's co-presenter was? However involving was the second half, I'm sorry now that I can't source Lane's presentation for information. Does anyone know if there is a record of that speaking tour?

Thank you, Don. A nice commemoration.

Jefferson Morley on the most significant redactions: https://www.salon.com/2017/11/18/5-of-the-most-important-jfk-files-the-cia-is-still-hiding_partner/

Again, his Senate oral history interview is a corker, worth reading. Despite its length, maybe now it'll get attention like an Elvis record in 1977. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/11/sex-in-the-senate-bobby-baker-099530?o=2

Ted Shackley at JM/WAVE in the loop?

Four copies of one photo? Major cities had shops specializing in turning out passport photos in a few hours. Four prints sounds like a standard order. Surely they had such shops in tourist traps and hotbeds of international intrigue such as New Orleans and Mexico City.

Thanks, was waiting for this.

Let's play Devil's Advocate. From the article: "Worst of all, from the standpoint of the Pentagon and the CIA, President Kennedy initiated secret personal negotiations with Khrushchev and Cuba’s leader Fidel Castro to end the Cold War. While the CIA undoubtedly learned about the negotiations through wiretaps on Cuban officials at the UN in New York City, Kennedy did everything he could to keep the negotiations secret from both the CIA and the military. In fact, on the very day that Kennedy was assassinated, he had a personal emissary having lunch with Castro to discuss an end to the Cold War (and implicitly the decades-long U.S. economic embargo against the Cuban people)." But at the same time, the AMLASH program was in the works. Other Castro assassination plots as well? "Now, ask yourself a simple question: Why would the Soviets and the Cubans want to kill Kennedy? Why would they want to elevate Johnson, who was still a died-in-the-wool Cold Warrior whose mindset mirrored that of the Pentagon and the CIA and who would quickly reverse JFK’s attempts to reach out to the Russians and Cubans in a spirit of peace and friendship? That would not have been rational." Yet a Johnson reversal on Russia and Cuba didn't happen. Was it only the fear of nuclear war? If a Pentagon group wanted Kennedy out of the way over Cuba, what prevented them from connecting Oswald to Castro? The diligence of our FBI and CIA? The real action for all involved was moving to Vietnam.

Perhaps it's not for what GHWB did as president, but for what he fostered as vice-president. Interesting to speculate on who, if anyone, the building would be named for absent GHWB.

Here's an article that explores the Nixon-Helms tarantula dance: https://www.salon.com/2012/05/05/watergates_final_mystery/ Nixon and Helms met at least twice, but at the White House: in 1971, over Ehrlichman's request for the BOP papers you mention; and in 1973 when Nixon promised Helms early retirement rather than replacement (which Nixon welshed on) plus the ambassadorship to Iran.

That's a cool scene, Michael. In a 3 hour picture, with this much material, you have to combine characters. But in a series, you can have both characters playing off each other in scenes.It would shame to leave out Angleton (and his orchids), he's such a great, creepy character. Notwithstanding that Nixon never visited Helms at Langley while president. He seems to have been scared to, and sent Bob Haldeman instead (as the film later shows). This is not to say that Nixon and Helms didn't meet during the Eisenhower or even the Kennedy years, since the Haldeman errand suggests Nixon understood Helms very well. In Nixon, Nixon visits Helms to ask for all documents and copies pertaining to an SOG on Castro that Nixon ran under Ike. I have to check when (and if) that happened in history, as Haldeman's mission was to try to bully Helms into quashing the Watergate investigation at FBI.

Stone said that he was conflating the two characters. I suppose it does suggest the rarefied air in the Dulles Corridor - though Angleton kept his precious pets at home, in a hothouse. Don't get me wrong - there's still a lot to like in Nixon, which has a perverse fascination for me as filmmaking. One of Stone's problems - his response to the laws of big-budget filmmaking - is that he rushes into, and rushes through, projects before the scripts and the edits get judicious consideration for merit and appeal. (Think of Hargraves and Hemming dictating the Dealey Plaza scenes to him on the spot during JFK, and the re-writes and ad-libs that ensued.) Then his "Director's Cut" video edits wind up throwing in the kitchen sink. The Nixon DVD suffers from that - at least a half-hour of the family tuberculosis saga in black-and-white flashbacks, when there's better dramatic material in the Nixon life. But the real murder victim on DVD is Alexander, whose scenes are rearranged from the tight theatrical version, and padded with so much outtake footage that the film is now unwatchable.

I watched Oliver Stone's Nixon again the other night, with part of my mind on Jim DiEugenio's criticisms of the Ken Burns Vietnam series. I know that Nixon isn't a documentary, but in three-plus hours Stone could have been much more exact and coherent on Nixon's Vietnam strategy, which the dialogue merely makes passes at. The Paris peace talks, which consumed his and Kissinger's attention for so long, get perhaps one throwaway line. The famous October Surprise Nixon pulled in sabotaging LBJ's talks with Hanoi is left to the viewer to figure out from the context of a blackmail threat whispered in Nixon's ear. Or not. If you don't know the story, you won't get it from the film. The dialogue is much more concerned with the emotional effect of the war on the country and the president, which would be better balanced by some incisive war history. The film gives a much better picture of how the Watergate affaIr unfolded, which is a shame since Stone wastes much too much time on Nixon's childhood tragedies, and these were not as significant as his war policies. I have to fast-forward through the black-and-white toned family flashbacks, which are a waste of human life to watch. And this is a film that I like, and look at every couple of years. The best parts of those three hours are captivating and inimitable.

For all the same reasons there has been *since the very day of the attacks against deGaulle* no doubt who was attacking him, I reject that the CIA or some other mysterious cabal of US govenment related figures are deeply involved in the Kennedy assassination. There was never any doubt who was attacking deGaulle because the evidence is all over the place and undeniable. The same is true of Kennedy - the evidence exists; there is no room for so much rampant speculation. *** Yet De Gaulle speculated that Allen Dulles and CIA supported the OAS assassination plotting. I've forgotten - where do you maintain the existing JFK evidence points?

Although most of his file was filled with positive evaluations, he does receive a downgrade from “strong” to merely “proficient” due to a series of “personal and tax problems beyond his control that would dull his cutting edge just enough to be noticeable.” I know I'm lazy, but what year was Hunt downgraded? Was he later upgraded?

Fletcher M. Knight and wife departing Tehran for DC on May 11, 1975, in doc linked below. Hmm... Who do we know down there? http://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/helms/75_1503963.pdf It's nice that they remembered Dick's cognomen two years after ouster. What else did they remember?

The trailer is released, Kay Graham is deified: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/nov/08/the-post-watch-the-first-trailer-steven-spielberg-pentagon-papers-meryl-streep-tom-hanks

I forgot to start off with : The CIA lies. The CIA is built on Lies and cover-up and conspiracy... they thrive in it. Off-topic: Y'know, the CIA is also built on making money through dummy corporations set up as intelligence fronts, and other business and banking involvements that I haven't got time to detail and parse right now. How is it that a government intelligence service is allowed to make money this way? Shouldn't an accounting be deducted from its budget each year? This leaves aside what its present and "former" agents make from "consulting" and "security" work, under-the-counter arms or materiel deals, privatized endeavors, etc. Does the Agency play the market through its front companies? Does it own controlling or sizable shares in public companies? One would love some history on all this, besides the scattered, situational examples we know (BCCI, Iran-Contra, Wilson-Terpil, aviation companies, etc.).

Joe, you shouid read Jim Hougan's Secret Agenda. I'm sure Doug Caddy could recommend other books. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0394514289/?tag=mh0b-20&hvadid=7016009844&hvqmt=b&hvbmt=bb&hvdev=c&ref=pd_sl_77mjodc5bf_b

I'll see it in a year, when it's out on DVD and the public library buys it. I'd rather see Woody do something less effortful, like Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. He's always best when he throws in something great where you don't expect anybody to. I think that's why people like his work.

I'm sure he wished to hell he could leave the country and become an exile in Rebozoland in 1975, but he probably had unavoidable bagman and messenger boy duties between the Mob and the rest of the GOP. Hence the show of fealty at the golf tourney. Where were his caricature enemies, Rolling Stone magazine and Hunter S. Thompson, on the Mob angle during these years?