Steve Thomas

Gene, Apparently in 1975 Dinkin filed a civil suit against the Department of Defense and the CIA disputing the facts as presented to the Warren Commission in CD 943. You can see a reference to this civil suit in a letter he wrote to William Colby here: REQUEST RE CIVIL SUIT, DINKIN V. U.S https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=8940#relPageId=1&tab=page I don't know the outcome of this civil suit. More than anything else, the Dinkin story reminds me of the Robert Redford movie, "Three Days of the Condor". Steve Thomas

David, CIA cable 22-531 is an interesting one. You can see a copy here: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=50238&search="Michael_K.+Bowers"#relPageId=2&tab=page Someone using Michael Bowers name was traveling in Switzerland. The person using Bowers' name did not match the physical description of Eugene Dinkin as provided by newsmen and ODIBEX. In other sources, ODIBEX appears to be the U.S. Army. It seems Dinkin had a heavy black mustache and horn-rimmed glasses. CIA station in Bern wonders who this person could be. Steve Thomas

David, Among the list of documents in 104-10067-10403 are: CIA 19-530 and CIA 20-532. See: CIA DOCUMENT DIPOSITIONINDEX 16 OCT 58 - 20 OCT 75 https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=77401&relPageId=8&search=CIA_"20-532" documents concern the "identity of an American serviceman temporarily mistaken for Eugene Dinkin". I hadn't heard of Michael Bowers before. I'll have to research him. The cables seem to indicate he was assigned to the Army Security Agency. Steve Thomas

From Harlan Brown to SAC, Dallas: https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32113185.pdf "Informant determined that Joe Landin and Augustin Estrada had lunch together on 11/26/63". Yawn. I think I''ll go watch Stranger Things 2. Steve Thomas

"No one will remember in years to come where they were when they heard about the JFK assassination classified document dump of 2017. " http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/27/politics/trump-jfk-documents-analysis/index.html Steve Thomas

Larry, Lousy scholarship. My bad. If I see one picture of Bill Harvey dressed like this after his transfer to Rome, I'm going to run screaming into the night. Steve

Damnit. ITALY 1947 Origins of Gladio "As early as 1947, the United States was constructing a clandestine network in Northern Italy to act in the event of a communist insurrection or electoral victory." (Wolfgang Achtner, Sunday Independent, 11/11/90) "The network, run by secret-services of Nato members, was apparently set-up in the 1950's at US instigation to create a guerrilla resistance organisation in the event of a Soviet invasion or communist takeover in NATO countries." (John Palmer, Guardian, 10/11/90) "The Venetian judges [Casson & Mastelloni] came across Gladio when working on a document of 1959 that referred to the militia's "internal subversion"... The duty of Gladio is a double one, says the document. The first is objective" and concerns the "defense of the Italian territory and population". The second is defined cryptically as "subjective" and is "concerned with the legitimate authority of the state, and with the eventuality of any serious offenses against its integrity." Gladio should be ready "to adopt, with timely readiness, preemptive action to assure the state's prestige, capacity for action and for government". (Ed Vulliamy, Guardian, 10/12/90)” “Preemptive action”... Ah – now enters the “strategy of tension”; and then the allusion to the “gladius” sword made sense. Centurions: The second thread in this scenario is the use of the term “Centurions”. I've seen several references to “Centurions” in my various readings.

Hmmmmm A part of my posting seems to have been cut off. Here's what got left out. It should be in that big gap after Operation Gladio by John Fleming. (I think I was supposed to have posted it as plain text). Steve Thomas

Here's a conspiracy theory you've probably never heard of. This is not a solution, but more of an observation. And; I'm writing this partly tongue-in-cheek, but then again, partly not. In reading through the literature concerning JFK's assassination, I have, at times, been struck by images that seem to evoke a time and place of an ancient glory. Two threads that seem to weave through this narrative are Gladio and Centurions. Gladio: Terrorism in Western Europe: An Approach to NATO’s Secret Stay-Behind Armies. by Daniele Ganser http://www.php.isn.ethz.ch/kms2.isn.ethz.ch/serviceengine/Files/PHP/18583/ipublicationdocument_singledocument/f4e652a3-cad7-4284-9aae-243b630f3440/en/Terrorism_Western_Europe.pdf “The existence of these clandestine NATO armies remained a closely guarded secret throughout the Cold War until 1990, when the first branch of the international network was discovered in Italy. It was code-named “Gladio, ” the Latin word for a short double-edged sword. Italy insisted identical clandestine armies had also existed in all other countries of Western Europe. This allegation proved correct and subsequent research found that in Belgium, the secret NATO army was code-named SDRA8, in Denmark Absalon , in Germany TD BDJ, in Greece LOK, in Luxemburg Stay-Behind, in the Netherlands I&O, in Norway ROC, in Portugal Aginter, in Switzerland P26, in Turkey Counter-Guerrilla, and in Austria OWSGV. However, the code names of the secret armies in France, Finland, Spain, and Sweden remain unknown.” For an introduction in the American formation of the Gladio network in Scandanavia, see: William Colby,"ChapterThree: A Scandinavian Spy," in Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA, (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), pp. 78-107. https://www.vipr-bg.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Parallel-History-Project-on-NATO-and-the-Warsaw-Pact-Collection.pdf I wondered why this informal network of “stay-behinds”would have adopted the generic name of Gladio, and then I ran across a reference in in a work by a researcher/writer named, John Fleming. (date unknown, but I believe it was in the early 1990's) OPERATION GLADIO http://www.thejohnfleming.com/gladio.html http://linformationnationaliste.hautetfort.com/archive/2013/03/20/22-avril-1961-derniere-revolte-des-centurions-avant-qu-ils-n.html “22 avril 1961 : dernière révolte des centurions avant qu'ils ne deviennent gendarmes.” 20/03/2013 René BLANC. RIVAROL 22 AVRIL 2011 April 22,1961: The last revolt of the centurions before they become gendarmes. (This article is about the Putsch of the Generals in April, 1961). “Or si la vocation du gendarme n'a jamais été de sacrifier sa vie, c'est souvent cela le destin du centurion.” If the gendarme's vocation has never been to sacrifice his life, it is often the fate of the centurion.” They were often referred to as “hommes léopards”. “Leapard men” - because of their camouflage uniforms. Le Capitaine Souètre refusant sa mutation en métropole, déserta, le 8 février 1961, avec un groupe d'une vingtaine d'officiers, de sous-officiers et de simples soldats ainsi que des civils pour fonder un maquis dans l'arrière-pays de Mostaganem. Baptisé France Résurrection, celui-ci espérait soulever les populations contre le pouvoir. Souètre — un personnage charismatique, avec un mélange assez prononcé de panache et d'immaturité — faisait distribuer à grande échelle des tracts où il affirmait : « Voici venue l'heure des centurions. Il est temps de franchir le Rubicon. » Following his desertion in December of 1960, or January of 1961, while he was hiding out in the Martel farm in Mostaganem in February, Souetre issued a missive or tract which read, “Now is the hour of the Centurions. It is time to cross the Rubicon.” In the late 1960's, African mercenary, Bob Denard referred to them as the “praetorian guard of a failed republic”. http://www.buergerwelle.de/assets/files/secret_warfare_and_natos_stay_behind_armies.htm?cultureKey=&q=pdf/secret_warfare_and_natos_stay_behind_armies.htm Italian General Gerardo Serravalle, who commanded the Italian Gladio stay-behind from 1971 to 1974, said that the document "’Directive of SHAPE’ was the official reference, if not even the proper Allied Stay-Behind doctrine". This document is not yet available to researchers. According to the testimony of General Serravalle, the members of the CPC were the officers responsible for the secret stay-behind structures of the various European countries. "At the stay-behind meetings representatives of the CIA were always present”, Serravalle explained, as well as “members of the US Forces Europe Command”.[7] Serravalle said the recordings of the CPC, which he had seen but which are not yet publicly available, above all "relate to the training of Gladiators in Europe, how to activate them from the secret headquarters in case of complete occupation of the national territory and other technical questions such as, to quote the most important one, the unification of the different communication systems between the stay-behind bases.”[8] [7] Gerardo Serravalle, Gladio (Roma: Edizioni Associate, 1991), p. 79. [8] Serravalle, Gladio, p. 78. “Centurions” see p. 4 of this April 26, 1963 CIA report on the current status of activist groups. See p. 4. https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=64993#relPageId=4&tab=page A periodical of the C.N.R. Circulated among the military. Les Centurions. Here's a copy: Like I said, these are just observations that I've picked up along the way. But some of the people who seem to have been involved in one way or another cloaked themselves in imagery that was designed to evoke a long-ago past. Steve Thomas

I think I owe Jim DiEugenio an apology. I pooh-pood his statement that the OAS were around as late as 1964 or 5, but I ran across (again) an article from LeMonde that's dated July 8, 1963 about a communique issued in the name of the C.N.R. and the OAS. The thrust of the article is that the communique was posted using the National Assembly's own fracking machine! That's like saying that someone snuck into our own House of Representatives and posted a nationwide press release using the House's postal machine. Le Monde, Paris July 8, 1963 http://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1963/07/08/un-tract-de-l-o-a-s-c-n-r-est-poste-au-palais-bourbon_2208937_1819218.html?xtmc=souetre&xtcr=10 UN TRACT DE L'O.A.S.-C.N.R. est posté au Palais-Bourbon Steve Thomas

I think we are all missing the point. The JFK files and Stranger Things 2 are being released only a day apart. So there. Steve Thomas

I had a thought. If the documents' release puts the CIA in a bad light, do you think Trump will use the release as a way of undermining the CIA (an other intelligence agencies)' credibility ala Russia meddling? Steve Thomas

I don't know what to make of this because I am not an expert, but 76710292 is an eight digit number. According to this same website: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_number_(United_States_Armed_Forces) eight digit numbers between 70,000,000 and 90,000,000 were not issued. Steve Thomas

On 10/20/17 I asked if RA-76710292 was a valid ID number. According to this web site: Service number (United States Armed Forces) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_number_(United_States_Armed_Forces) The RA is a prefix " Used by Regular Army enlisted personnel ". Steve Thomas

Tom, Thank you. I don't suppose you have foot note number 32 do you? You can see the FBI report in CD 788 here: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11186#relPageId=4&tab=page It's interesting that these are memorandums of Dinkins' FBI interview, and not the interview itself, which is on a Form 302 isn't it? It says that on April 1st, Dinkin told "agents" of the FBI that... We don't know who those "agents" were. The reason I bring that up is that according to Lippincott (as told to Russell supposedly,) Dinkin was assigned to the 529th Ordnance Company; but according to the FBI (as told to them by Dinkin supposedly), he was assigned to the 599th Ordnance Group. Different animals altogether. I don't suppose you have a copy of the New Orleans research conference transcript as cited in footnote 34 do you? I'd like to know where that OAS business came from. One minute, Dinkin is intercepting NATO cable traffic (according to Redmon), and the next he's deciphering OAS "telegraph traffic" (according to Nagell). The inconsistencies abound. Steve Thomas

Paul, Thanks, Steve

Request for info: Could someone please reproduce page 555 of the book The Man Who Knew Too Much? or, reproduce CIA Cable No. 56631," dated November 7, 1963 from the Geneva Station to Washington? This is supposed to be the first alert on Dinkin. I tried searching the MFF by that cable number, but that didn't work for me. Thanks, Steve Thomas

Ray, In researching this topic, it was kind of fascinating to read the descriptions of the ordnance missions of the Civil War and WWI evolving to include the chemical weapons and nuclear weapons of the Cold War. It made me shudder. Steve Thomas

Gene, I agree. The writer could have meant the 599th Ordnance Company, or the 599th Field Artillery Battalion, or... Who knows? But were any units you ran across based in Metz, and had a cryptography or communication intercept component? More than anything else, the Dinkin story makes me think of a certain poster on this Forum who takes peoples' names and turns them into anagrams from which he spins all kinds of conspiracy ideas and goes on and on for pages on end. Steve Thomas

Gene, I hate you. Thank you for the picturesque backdrop of Metz. The rivers' wine country you paint of NE France sounds really beautiful. PS: I spent my teenage years, and a couple of years after college in Harrisburg. Steve Thomas

Mathias, I said, "Just as an aside, have you ever read any of Guerin Serac's writings? Some scary stuff there." And you said, "No, I haven't. Where can I find them?" Mostly what I've read is in references such as L'Orchestre Noir and in researching the "Strategy of Tension", Aginter Presse, and the Portugese P.I.D.E. You might be interested in this page: http://gmic.co.uk/topic/47128-yves-guillou-aka-yves-guerin-serac/ Somehow this guy was supposed to have obtained Serac's combat medals. See also this reference: http://libcom.org/book/export/html/36251 https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=n0uRAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA117&dq=%22The+others+have+laid+down+their+weapons#v=onepage&q=%22The%20others%20have%20laid%20down%20their%20weapons&f=false page 118. Steve Thomas

Jim, This may be a case of splitting fine hairs, but the O.A.S. was dissolved by Salan in 1962 and its remnants were folded into the C.N.R. (the Consèil de Resistance National). You might be interested in this document: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=64993#relPageId=3&tab=page It's case of; you say tomato and I say tomato, I think. Steve Thomas

Gene, I'm not trying to belabor the point, but an Armored Field Artillery Battalion and an Ordnance Group are horses of a different color - different missions, different chains of command. Again, I can find no record of, not any mention of a 599th Ordnance Group in any place I have looked outside of these references to Dinkin which repeat the same line in his "biography" over and over again. From what I can gather, during the Cold War, Metz was a gigantic supply depot. Steve Thomas

Gene, Boy do I envy you. I'll concede the point, although grudgingly. That whole French/German frontier has been fluid for hundreds of years. I still think it's kind of sloppy to refer to Metz as being German in a scholarly paper though. Metz had been French for over 300 years before the end of the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. Steve Thomas

Jim, Thank you for taking the time to respond. I see where the 599th Field Artillery Battalion was part of the 18th Artillery Group, but not the 599th Ordnance Group. I'm pretty sure these are different altogether. https://www.usarmygermany.com/Sont.htm?https&&&www.usarmygermany.com/Units/FieldArtillery/USAREUR_18th Arty Group.htm Steve Thomas