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Mark Lawson

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  1. Since a criminal organization called the CIA continues to figure prominently in this discussion, I will here throw a name against the wall, to see if it sticks. I did not know James O. Deiser personally, but a good friend of mine did. Deiser claimed to have served in various capacities as a low-level CIA asset, and was in the process of writing a book about his experiences; but in a suspicious burglary of his home, the only item taken was the computer on which the lone copy of his manuscript was contained. Deiser attributed the break-in and theft to the CIA. In any event, sometime prior to Deiser's death in 2012, he penned a note to a mutual friend of my friend, regarding four DVDs that Deiser had passed along to him, containing thinly veiled "fiction" describing some of Deiser's past exploits. I do not know what became of the DVDs, but their original hand-written cover note is still in the possession of my good friend. My scan of the document is too large to post here in its entirety, but here is a snippet of it, followed by my textual transcription of the entire note: D----, More than I care to say I was offered to bid on a contract to take out people the (Company) wanted dead. I never bid on even one, but others must have because the people ended up dead shortly after the bid notice was made. Now Our government admits to "training" and "planning" hits, but [denies] any were carried out. Every one of these four DVDs are based on Facts but had to be claimed to be fiction as the government would never let them out for any one to see. Also just the thought that "Maybe" they were true will put fear in many people and cause them to think that "They" might be next on some hit list. I never Assassinated anyone, but I did train others in how to prevent assassinations, and looking back to the late 1960s and what happened in Chile that put "Our Man" Pinochet in power in the 70s I see now that tho I did not pull the trigger, people I trained did. No one can play in mud and not feel muddy afterward, and I sure feel muddy over that one! These DVDs are Based on fact - even if the writers did take some liberties in writing the story's [sic], it happened! J. -------------------------- All that I have been able to find online about Deiser, so far, is this brief obituary: http://www.whitefuneralhome.org/obituary/1881782 Strictly FWIIW.... ML
  2. Taking a detour regarding LBJ, the following account, never previously published, comes from a now-dearly-departed friend who lived near Johnson City, Texas. Here is what he wrote to me, after reading The Outfit Killed JFK, a 2010 PLAYBOY article by Hillel Levin:: Thanks for sending this. It is quite good and I was unaware of its publication. I will say it dovetails with pretty much everything else of a credible nature that I have learned about the incident over the years; two of which I will offer up here as they would not be accessible to the general public. The first is the recollections of my closest friend, E. [who] spent his adult life in one form of law enforcement or criminal justice or the other. At the time JFK was shot he was on the Ft. Worth PD. He reports that there was not a cop in the DFW area that had any doubts that Ruby was "mobbed up." Hell, most of them hung out after hours at his strip club. Given that knowledge, they were amazed that a known criminal would just waltz into the Dallas cop shop while the alleged killer of the President was being transported. Many of the cops in both cities were, according to Earl, pretty skeptical about the "official story," given who Jack liked to play with. The second is much, much closer to home. From the earliest days of LBJ's political career (stuffing the ballot boxes of Duvall County to get into the US House), he had a close friend and collaborator: nominally his "business manager," named A. W. Moursund. A. W. became a very powerful man in Blanco County, TX (LBJ's home) and well beyond. That was due, in no small part, to LBJ giving him back-room control over his greatest political plum - the Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC). A. W. was extremely smart - street smart - and a very credible, if dishonest, attorney. He was also exceptionally ruthless. In addition to being referred to as LBJ's "bag man" (with sound justification) he was also an enforcer. It has been persistently rumored (even now that he has been dead for going on 10 years) that he was "mobbed up." As far as I am concerned, he was and the final confirmation of that came to me through a woman of some 80 + years and her daughter. The older woman was, until her recent death, a well respected member of the ranching tradition in this area. Her daughter had, for a period of time, worked in Moursund's insurance companies, one of four businesses he built on a PEC foundation. Both women reported to me, and at different times, how private planes would frequently arrive at the Moursund's private strip. The daughter would be detailed to go pick up the visitors from Chicago, Detroit, Vegas and New Orleans. The men who would deplane were straight from central casting - large men in black shirts with white ties, a bulge under the left armpit and pushed over noses. So, it is pretty clear that LBJ - even if sly enough to keep a degree of separation through A.W. - certainly had easy access to the mob and they to him. ------------------------------ "... I don't know if the Mob did it, but I doubt it. From my experience as a committee investigator and, later, as a team leader, I know that the Committee's investigation was simply not adequate enough to produce any firm conclusions about the nature of the conspiracy. To give the impression that it was, is a deception...." - From The Last Investigation, by Gaeton Fonzi. Many thanks to Linda Minor for providing the following Web link: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/70663920 My late friend Dave, and the two people he cites, above, must have been referring to the grandson of the above-referenced A. W.: Albert Wadel Moursund III, who lived between 1919 and 2002: "Graduate of University of Texas School of Law, admitted to Bar of Texas in 1941. Served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and opened his law practice in Johnson City, Texas, after the war. Elected to Texas House of Representatives for two terms (1948-1952). Lifelong friend, business associate, counselor and advisor to President Lyndon B Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson. Married to Mary Allen Moore Moursund for 60 years." Above from: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7700683/albert-wadel-moursund
  3. Welcome to the club, Jim! <g> In the following message thread, attorney Cory Santos sets out some interesting information on "reasonable doubt" and beyond, particularly as it applies to murder cases that are tried in court: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/25352-bush-not-in-dallas-he-is-dead/?page=9 Based on the currently available evidence, I do believe you, Sandy and others have presented a convincing case that the referenced DPD radio transcripts and recordings were altered. In the meantime I have read James DiEugenio's April (2018) article "The Tippit Case in the New Millennium," at https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/the-tippit-case-in-the-new-millennium - which provides additional, corroborating evidence in support of your Tippit murder theses. Thank you for your continued hard work in this area of inquiry, which I will continue to follow closely. ML
  4. Thanks much for the clarification, Jim! Now I understand what I had interpreted to be a direct conflict between the two https://harveyandlee.net/Tippit/Tippit.html statements, as quoted above. Perhaps you can make those critical time stamps more clear, as you did so well immediately above, in the Web site's treatment of those details. Thanks again, ML
  5. https://harveyandlee.net/Tippit/Tippit.html Jim, at the above-referenced Web page, you and/or Jim Armstrong write: "Reserve officer Croy most likely arrived at 10th & Patton in police car #207 with personnel officer Capt. Westbrook, and they both watched as LEE Oswald shot and killed Tippit at 1:06 PM. Westbrook drove away in police car #207...." Further down the same page, however, you write: "Westbrook did not drive directly to the scene of the Tippit murder at 10th & Patton.... Capt. Westbrook drove his own dark blue, unmarked police car to Oak Cliff with Sgt. Stringer sitting next to him in the front seat and with Dallas Morning News reporter Jim Ewell sitting in the back seat (read Jim Ewell's account here: http://www.kenrahn.com/JFK/History/The_deed/Sneed/Ewell.html). And an unknown police officer did NOT let Westbrook out at the scene of Tippit's murder, because Westbrook drove his unmarked police car from the Book Depository directly to the Texaco Station at 401 E. Jefferson and arrived shortly before 1:25 PM.... [italics and emphasis from the original] Can you clarify, please? ML
  6. As I wrote in the following posting to this message thread, below, "... I find the under-construction highway-landing scenario implausible, but OTOH, the old Greater Southwest Airport (KGSW, formerly Amon Carter Field) was still operating then; and also located nearby was the former Hensley Field (by 1963 called the Naval Air Station Dallas, currently named the NAS Fort Worth JRB) - both of which could have easily accommodated the C-54. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Southwest_International_Airport https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Air_Station_Dallas It would have been flirting with a huge disaster to have attempted a landing on such a highway, unless it had been thoroughly checked in advance to be sure it was cleared of obstacles - and especially people. Since the day was Friday, where was the road construction crew? Where was their machinery and equipment? By contrast, a quick stop at the military-controlled NAS Dallas, especially if refueling of the aircraft was not required, might have looked perfectly ordinary to any casual observers who happened to be present. ML
  7. Somehow his face was *not* covered, as evidenced by this and other remarkable - and all too *convenient* - color transparencies, credited to a US Navy-employed civilian, Stuart L. Reed, who promptly left Dallas for New Orleans, and from there on to the Panama Canal Zone. From https://harveyandlee.net/Leaving/Leaving_the_TSBD.html:
  8. Yes, apparently no one has found any primary source doc backing up Hunt’s claim that he himself was temporary MC station chief in Sept. ‘63, or at least when the “Oswald” nonsense was unfolding.... Jim, have you considered contacting Jefferson Morely directly, via jfkfacts.org or via e-mail message, to see if Hunt might have made any such claim(s) during Morely's interview(s)? ML
  9. Recall, too, that in 1960 Howard Hunt - at that time "... known by the alias 'Eduardo'" - was back in Mexico City to lead the AMCIGARs in Operation Zapata - modeled on Operation Success [sic] in Guatemala - with the goal of assassinating Fidel Castro, but ultimately a prelude to the Bay of Pigs. The Yanquis, particularly including station chief Win Scott, thought they had the Mexican president and his cabinet securely in their pockets, but they "... completely ignored that the Cuban Revolution had substantial support in Mexico, even in the ruling PRI party.... Within weeks of their arrival, the Cubans were proving a daily disaster. Win wanted the AMCIGARs gone, and soon they were. Hunt and the Cubans bought one-way tickets back to Miami. 'As we flew east across the Gulf,' Hunt later wrote, 'it seemed as though we could hear a sigh of relief from Los Pinos,' the Mexican presidential residence where Lopez Mateos lived...." Our Man in Mexico, pp. 105-106. Regarding Hunt's later claims to have been "chief" of the MX CIA station during the alleged "Oswald" visits, Morely cites interviews with numerous sources, including Hunt himself; as well as Hunt's book Give us This Day. Morely makes no reference, that I can find, to Hunt's claim of having been MX chief at that time. ML
  10. Yes she did, according to Our Man in Mexico and other sources. This prompts me to ask: Who was it who said - accurately, I think - something close to: "Anne Goodpasture should be in jail"?
  11. Jim, I have seen free copies of Cigar Aficionado in the businesses (called FBOs) at airports where high-rollers come and go in their private jets, but not being a high-roller (or cigar aficionado) myself, I've never bothered to flip through it. In any event, I have not yet had time to evaluate all of the several index entries for E. Howard Hunt in Our Man in Mexico, but I wonder if the following account might somehow have been conflated with, or into, Hunt's claim, as stated above: "... The debut of the CIA in Mexico had not been auspicious. One of the first CIA operatives in Mexico was E. Howard Hunt, a graduate of Brown University and a novelist with a gift for cliches. He came in 1951 as chief of the OPC [Office of Policy Coordination] station. A brash man of outspoken conservative convictions, Hunt inevitably offended the finer sensibilities of of some at the embassy and more than a few Mexicans, who mistrusted his Yanqui style. When he moved on to join Operation Success [sic] in Guatemala in late 1953, he was not missed by many. To say that Win Scott surpassed Howard Hunt in Mexico City is an understatement...." Our Man in Mexico, p. 85. Stay tuned.... ML
  12. That's not an easy question to answer, Tom, but I'll try by offering you a tepid "yes." The book was published in early 2008, and considerable new source information has been released since then; but it does seem that Morely establishes a factual account of Scott. It was hard for me to imagine liking the CIA less than I did at the time I began reading this book, but that has indeed been the result. Winston Scott himself has turned out to be someone I find extremely hard to admire, and many of these players seem to me more adept at blatant criminality - hidden, or at least protected by, "color of law" - than they are at gathering and analyzing actionable intelligence. During Scott's unusually long tenure as station chief there - nearly 13 years, compared to the usual four - Mexico City was considered to be one of the CIA's best and most important stations, hosting both Soviet and Cuban embassies and consulates that were vulnerable to US espionage - thanks in large part to the complicit and accommodating Mexican government and its corrupt, oppressive security apparatus, the DFS. Even with this comprehensive access, Scott and his station were at the epicenter of what may have been one of the most important intelligence failures in CIA history: choosing not to disclose to HQ the contacts of one or more "Oswald" characters with the Cuban consulate; and missing altogether some alleged extra-consular "socializing" between "Oswald" and consulate employee (and Mexican citizen) Sylvia Duran. (Scott himself specifically requested that the Mexican DFS brutally interrogate Duran regarding her contacts with "Oswald.") Some additional quotes from Our Man in Mexico: "Oswald's conspiratorial connections, [Scott] argued, had gone unexamined because of liberal bias. The fact that the communist embassies dealt with and counseled this '... assassin a few weeks prior to the time he murdered President Kennedy is treated as an irrelevant bit of news, not worthy of consideration,' he wrote. 'This could be due to the fact that a serious investigation into the matter would offend the Soviets, with whom our foreign policy pundits, leftists and liberals are trying to be friendly while the Soviets stab us in the back and insult us to our faces.' "Win's conclusion that there had been no 'serious investigation' of Oswald's communist connections was well informed. His effort to blame '... foreign policy pundits, leftists and liberals' was less persuasive. There were, after all, few such heretics at the top of the CIA.... Likewise, his esteemed colleague Dick Helms could have ordered a closer review of the proliferating reports of Oswald's activities in Mexico. Instead, he ordered Win and other station chiefs to cut off and discredit all discussion of the alleged assassin's motives and contacts. "The peculiar truth that Win's conservative political faith could not absorb was that it was the impeccably patriotic Dulles, Helms, and Angleton, not deluded liberals, who blocked investigation of Oswald's communist connections, and his friend David Phillips who fudged the record. They stalled, avoided, and dissembled in the course of the Oswald investigation not because they were soft on communism, not to avoid offending liberal public opinion, but out of self-preservation...." p. 279 "... In June 1969, Win traveled to Washington to receive one of the highest honors that could be accorded to a CIA man: the Distinguished Intelligence Medal. He had been eased out of the station chief job...." p.273 In any case, I do suggest that you read the first three or four reviews of this book at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2288129.Our_Man_in_Mexico#other_reviews If you have not already read Morely's 2017 tome on James Angleton, The Ghost, I recommend that you read it prior to diving into Our Man in Mexico. Strictly FWIIW.... ML
  13. Uhm, at least tangentially related to the sometimes touchy subject of You-Know-Who in Mexico City (cough!): I have just completed a long and exhausting slog through Jefferson Morley's Our Man in Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA. One of the book's more memorable quotes is taken from Scott's post-retirement memoir "It Came to Little" - over half of which is, to this day, redacted by the CIA: "Above all, [the clandestine intelligence operations officer] must know and realize that almost all agents are knaves, in the worst sense of the word. But, he must treat them as if he thought them gentlemen." (Our Man in Mexico, p. 281) FWIIW, ML
  14. Jim Garrison, October 1967: "... [A] member of [the JFK assassination] group is an individual who deliberately impersonated Lee Oswald before the assassination in order to incriminate him: we believe we know his identity...." From: http://www.maebrussell.com/Garrison/Garrison Playboy Intvw 1.html
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