Paul Brancato

Matt - I really appreciate that you posted this portion of his Rogan interview. I think when you say you agree with RFK Jr on many things not all, you are expressing something almost totally lacking elsewhere. Indeed, we don’t judge anyone else like we do him. We haven’t had anyone articulate what so many of us feel in our hearts for so long, certainly not in a presidential candidate. One easily drawn extension of your basic view is that if he were to become the Democratic candidate that the rank and file Democrats would rally behind him for the same reason they rallied around Biden, which is that the alternative is unthinkable. I think he would garner some libertarian votes too. People like Steve Bannon and his ilk are clearly worried about RFK Jr’s crossover appeal, and in my opinion will continue to try to taint him in order to block his path to the Democratic Party nomination. Yes, of course they will go after him with a vengeance in a general election, like they would Biden.

Whoopie. Is that what you think too William - that he’s a fake?

Thanks for the quote. Maybe he was outsmarted. But isn’t it also possible he was the man behind the curtain? Definitely he played it like he was duped by Philby and spent the balance of his career trying to make up for that mistake, only in turn to again get played by Solie. I’m not convinced though, and the reason for that is it presumes a level of incompetence that Angleton otherwise did not demonstrate. Maybe the real idiots were the ones that didn’t fire him after the Philby defection, an inconceivable decision. McCone was in charge when Philby disappeared from Beirut in Jan 1963. He was new and perhaps not in the know. Id love to listen to his briefing when someone briefed him on Philby and Angleton. Meanwhile Angleton stays in place under LBJ and continues to work behind the scenes for Israel. I have to wonder whether Bagley felt the same as Newman does now. Does Newman give any indication what Bagley thought when Angleton survived such a horrendous scandal?

A question for you - and bravo for reading the book closely. How sure are you that Angleton was duped? Is there another possible explanation?

This connection with John Caesar Grossi, or Jack Leslie Bowen, or whatever his name was, is very interesting. I noticed in looking through the 2007 thread that the name Harold (K) Van Buren comes up twice. Grossi is mentioned as a fellow employee that Oswald used as a reference on his library card. According to an auto salesman named Reddell, who the FBI interviewed on Dec 13, 1963, the last document mentioned in Thomas Graves’ post on that thread, Grossi/Bowen lent him his library card, which listed Harold Van Buren as a reference. James Richards, on this same thread, mentions many other aliases that Grossi/Bowen used, and then identifies Van Buren as a friend of Grossi/Bowen from the 1950’s who at the tIme was spokesperson for the Dallas County supporters for General Douglas MacArthur’s presidential aspirations. Indeed, Grossi, with his long criminal record, his many aliases, his association with Oswald during a period when there are mysteries as to just what Oswald was doing with his time, is an under researched figure. The name that pops to my mind at this point is Major General Charles Willoughby, MacArthur’s chief of Intelligence. Useful to remember that Truman fired MacArthur. Generals don’t enjoy being fired by Presidents. The possible connection of Grossi to this milieu is interesting.

Matt - probably good advice. I have to say though that this kind of coverage disturbs me more than his personal beliefs. The article is clearly wrong btw about thimerosal. It is still in use. I could have saved myself the trouble I went through a year ago on the cdc website digging that info out. Just look it up on wiki. That doesn’t make it a cause of autism, but too many lazy journalists are repeating this false information without due diligence, and apparently the editors at the LA Times care more about publishing a hit piece than fact checking.

Is there a Lifton unpublished manuscript? Hoch now believes Oswald did it - is that correct? It’s possible I misremember that conversation when I asked him if Oswald was really a Marxist. Certainly no leftie, and I don’t recall him espousing right wing views. But while masquerading as a leftist for years he targeted the left - the USSR, the FPCC, and worked in coordination with the DRE, with INCA, with Bannister, and possibly with Edwin Walker, all far right. As they say, actions speak louder than words. I think the final stumbling block for me was DeM I’m a Patsy, which makes very believable reading, as it purports to be a first hand account of Oswald by his friend George. But can we believe anything coming from DeMohrenschildt, a man whose life left us with way more questions than answers. Like Oswald he seems to be masquerading as something other than how he presents himself. At the very least he is a CIA asset. His post Dallas Haiti interlude is exceedingly strange. He brings Haitian banker Clemard Charles to NY and DC, supposedly to sell his bonafides to Army Intelligence as a leader should the US overthrow Duvalier. What an obvious cover story. There was even a second cover story - sisal plantations. But he meets with Colonel Sam Kail, ACSI’s Dorothy Matlack, a crony of George Bush named Devine. So - no - we should not believe a word the George says about Oswald, to whom he was assigned by CIA’s J Walton Moore, and this goes for his WC testimony too about the rifle and ‘Hunter of fascists’ photo. We need to break away from misconceptions about Oswald if we still have them.

I fully think Ukraine should be allowed to determine their future. But the analogy to Algeria or Vietnam leaves me wanting a bit. I think the Monroe doctrine is closer. Has anyone taken LSD, or other psychedelics? Did JFK? We don’t know, but it’s likely he had the opportunity. I am refining the original argument I had with Jim. Cuban Missile Crisis - recall none of us knew how JFK got that done. Withdrawal of missiles from Turkey was kept secret for a long time. My parents were very pro Castro, but not in favor of a Russian base offshore. If I was Russian I would not be happy with western nukes on my border. So it comes down to whether it’s necessary for Ukraine to have western armies and weapons stationed there. This is where diplomacy completely failed. My understanding from reading about pre invasion negotiations was that Russia’s main point was to keep Ukraine from joining NATO. That’s just not difficult to understand.

So many posts, so many decades, books, articles. When I first started researching for my trading cards I interviewed Peter Dale Scott, and he put me in contact with Paul Hoch, who I met a few times. I once asked him if he thought Oswald was a real leftie and he said ‘no, what do you think’? I said yes. That was over 30 years ago. I’ve had ample time to figure this out, and I’ve come to agree firmly with Mr. Hoch. Why was this so hard? Because there were so many reasons to see him as a Marxist, including his own statements, DeMohrenschildt’s writings and testimony, his Russian sojourn and wife. And I’ve often said he was being set up as a patsy because he was a Marxist. Now I think it was all a show, but so convincing that whoever designated him as Patsy felt secure in doing so. When I listened to him on radio in New Orleans with Ed Butler he sounded so phony. He reminded me of two narcs I ran into as a student. All the lingo, the hip language, the posturing was there, but the delivery wasn’t convincing. Thankfully I figured both of them out before I fell for their act. Well, that’s the way Oswald sounds - like it’s an act. While he was in the service he was getting Communist periodicals sent to him, he’s learning Russian, being called Oswaldovich. All a show. Then he defects to the USSR in spectacular fashion, going to just the right place, being ushered across the border, threatening to give secrets to the Russians. He comes back, paid for by our government, no problems at all, married to a Russian Intelligence connected woman, a ‘sparrow’. He becomes friends with George DeMohrenschildt? Completely unlikely scenario. Later he goes to New Orleans and plays the part of provocateur. I could go on. This isn’t just footprints of Intelligence, this is working for US Intelligence, CIA or Military. What Communist or Marxist gets to do that? I’m probably preaching to the choir. Does anyone take any of his leftist credentials seriously? Assuming he is innocent of the crime of assassination, which I do, what’s he doing working at the TSBD? What Intelligence assignment is he on? Maybe none. But placing an Intelligence asset in that building, intending to convict him in the public eye of murdering the President? Who could ever expect his leftist credentials to hold up under scrutiny? Were the conspirators hoping that we would go into action immediately and nuke the Russians and Cubans before anyone had a chance to examine evidence? Well, perhaps that is the truth. And perhaps LBJ saved us all. I think that’s more likely than presuming him behind the whole shebang.

Good point. I always come up against what I think is a straw man argument when someone says none of this justifies Putin’s invasion. I never hear any of these facts - nukes on the border, bio labs, Azov militia, agent provocateurs shooting during the Maidan protests, used as justification. Its wrong to ignore history, to call promises made to Gorbachev meaningless because they were not formalized, call weapons systems on Russia’s border or bio labs next door trifles because NATO and or the US are peaceful and would never attack, diminish the role and history of far right Ukrainian Nationalist militias. Or on the other hand to justify any of this by pointing out Putin’s flaws. What’s the expression - remove the mote from your own eye first? War is a racket, period. Not enough was done to avoid this one. Empathy is lacking on all sides.

It is stunning. JFK perhaps felt some urgency. Or perhaps his liberal ideas, which as you point out go back at least 10 years prior, penetrated more deeply into his psyche. I know, from prior exchanges, that you don’t think LSD played any part in this, and during those exchanges certainly proved to me that he was already on board with self determination for the third world and Civil rights at home. But having undergone personal transformation through psychedelics I can say that intellectual ideas that passed the Acid test transformed into heart centered ones. There is something about these speeches - they always make me cry, especially when I try to read certain passages out loud to friends. I choke up because they really touch something deep in me.

I just started the book too. I have the same questions. Anthony - completely agree that’s what Epstein was doing, and why he is gone and the story buried.

That is fascinating. I’m going to search out that book

PBGREGALE. Google comes up with an answer. Was hard to make out the letters

Thanks David - Luce and Harvey. Hmm

Exactly - thanks for putting it so succinctly.

Jim - very interesting article and I’m glad that Mr Bleau had the patience and fortitude to read and analyze this book. Newman’s writing is so dense I find it near impossible to read and comprehend. But having read this, and other commentary on Popov’s mole, I’m left wondering how it is that Angleton could be so severely duped not once but twice. His reputation was as a master of Intel ops. Am I correct in asserting that whatever Bruce Solie was up to it was with Angleton’s knowledge? I’ve thought for a long time that Angleton was the mole. But surely his sympathies didn’t lie with the Soviets. In the past I was given to speculations about the whole Spy vs Spy Game, and the Cold War itself, being some kind of smoke and mirrors deception to keep the US on permanent war footing. In order to fit Angleton into that scenario I have to imagine that the Soviet hard liners benefitted too. But there is a wild card in this, which is Angleton’s peculiar attachment to Israel. I’m not an anti-Semite, and even have sympathy for the state of Israel itself despite misgivings about their treatment of Palestinians, within and without their borders. Why would Angleton personally help Israel gain nukes? I struggle to put this in a comprehensible framework. Is there some way that this relationship sheds light on his apparently inept handling of US Counterintelligence?

Mr Griffith - since you are so sure that Vietnam was winnable, how do you propose Ukraine wins this war?

Cliff - I find your logic totally lacking and superficial. I had no idea you were pro US Empire pro MIC. I’m with Jim D on this, and apparently he’s still waiting, as am I, for a simple response to my basic question regarding the possibility of actual peace (I think it was called the peace dividend here) Clearly the same forces who killed JFK for his efforts to end the Cold War are still in power. It’s a disgrace to the human race - as he famously said.

Cliff - are you equating the European Union with NATO? Even a cursory look at voting in the only country in your list where the vote was both for EU and NATO membership shows that the latter was less acceptable to the voters than the former. The others on your list were only about the EU. You refer to a pinky swear promise. Well, maybe you are right in the sense that history proves that it was not made in good faith. It was however made, really, and you should know that. You do don’t you? That’s why you refer to it in this derogatory fashion, because it had no legal weight. (Here’s a question for you - were you in favor of NATO’s eastward expansion the whole time? Or just since Putin’s invasion?) Did it have moral weight? Or were our statesmen lying? Well, to hear them tell it they thought they were telling the truth, but later on of course the neocon crowd went about making Eastern Europe safe for American weapons. PINKY SWEAR? Have you signed on to the neocon Pax Americana? I am absolutely shocked at the lack of deep thought here. The issue is not how we feel about Russia, anymore than it was how the American public and its 1963 president felt about the Soviet Union. (Remember Krushchev banging his shoe? Or the Hungary invasion) It’s about being aware enough to see things from both sides, to recognize the futility and horrors of war (wake up) and choose economic and social battlefields instead of military ones. Of course - duh - he would not have allowed NATO expansion. If you think otherwise you are ill informed and under-read, and I wonder why you even care to participate here. Of course you wouldn’t support Bobby Jr, you’d vote Biden all the way.

The research paper from Ukraine doesn’t presume anything. The Yahoo story says ‘many’ presume it’s military because it’s in a war zone. Remember Foo fighters from WW 2? So far no earthly military craft has demonstrated maneuverability like many sighting have reported for so many decades. But sightings near military installations - that’s nothing new.

Why? Because it’s your opinion I’m trying to elicit in the matter. Not your opinion of Putin or your lectures on Russian history, just your opinion of NATO’s expansion. My opinion is that NATO should have ended after the Warsaw pact was dissolved. Russia had good reasons for believing that their good faith actions would end the Cold War, and many diplomats here agreed. Instead we’ve added 15 mostly former Warsaw Pact members. What is NATO? A MILITARY ALLIANCE. Qui Bono?

So - fear of Putin and Russia has been the driving force for NATO expansion east? Nonsense.

So why can’t you view this conflict with clearer eyes? What happened? Russia was a dictatorship under Stalin, and continued under Krushchev, yet JFK could hold contradictory ideas, as expressed in the American University Speech, and still come down on the side of peace, and he could put things in historical context. He took our missiles out of Turkey. He was able to view the world not just through his eyes but others too, including enemies. Empathy is pretty great, yet sorely lacking these days. Tell me, we’re you in favor of NATO’s eastern expansion?

Thank you for that. Pretty convincing that Sturgis was mistaken.