Leslie Sharp

Should RFK Jr. decide to run, his campaign will be compelled to explain his actual take on vaccines. For now, he seems to be comfortable with the ambiguity, but once he's on the campaign trail and defines his stance, the crossover appeal will be diminished significantly. And I don't think he can invoke his belated public stance on the assassinations of his father and uncle, having remained relatively agnostic for decades. The reality that anyone can use the phrase for or against fascism without a blink of an eye, metaphorically, is evidence that fascism has seeped into the collective American psyche yet again. Having endured the coverage of Trump's Waco-Nuremberg-style rally last weekend, the penny dropped. Trump and far too many of his supporters have come out of the closet and are no longer ashamed to admit their preference for fascism over democracy. Hallelujah while he waits in the wings.

Diane Rehm has maintained a captive audience for over a decade. We need these voices! (as a side note, have you listened to Joe Tacopina. Which reminds me, Trump's voice is quite annoying yet he won an election. Then again, he lost the next one but likely his tenor had nothing to do with that loss. I digress...) "Investigations, Indictments, And The Political Future Of Donald Trump" — Diane Rehm, Mar 23 WAMU https://wamu.org/story/23/03/23/investigations-indictments-and-the-political-future-of-donald-trump/

‘I see this as a global fascist moment’: author Jeff Sharlet on interviewing far-right Americans Sharlet, who spent a dozen years talking to ordinary people about their predilection for violence, has long sounded the alarm https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/30/jeff-sharlet-undertow-fascism-far-right-religion-trump

Recall the preface to my post which provides numerous exmples of escapes by assassins, including those we're debating, Before outlining in detail those in authority who could effect the release or escape of recently incarcerated known assssins in 1963 . . . Who was the "camp director" at Île de Ré at the time?

@Steve Thomas The first of these examples, the one that marked the most at the time, was the marriage of Captain Souètre34. On January 20, 1962, the mayor of Saint-Laurent-les-Arbres married Captain Jean Souètre with Josette Marcailhou d'Aymeric within the camp. A banquet is set up in which the 74 internees take part, but also the wives of some of them. There is of course the family of the bride. General Clément, deputy commander of the 9th Military Region (Marseille), was the groom's best man and the wedding meal had nothing particularly prison about it. To top it off, a reporter from Paris-Match36 is there, entered with who knows what authorization. At the end of the festivities, Souètre, a deserting officer, was named commander. This affair cost General Clément his post and Achille Perrodo was replaced as camp director. It nevertheless testifies to the sympathy and the links which the assigned State can rely on both in the army and in the police where Jean Dides [notorious ex-policeman, stay-behind] still has many and solid supports. For many police officers, the cause of French Algeria where many colleagues gave their lives is a strong cause, at least until the shooting in the rue d'Isly in Algiers on March 26, 1962. https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/2589?lang=it

Similarly, show me proof he was at Île de Ré from mid-November thru November 23?

Do you have the name of the camp director at Île de Ré in 1963?

Those in question in this particular discussion are known escapees, known to be trained assassins, to have been involved in recent assassination plots, and known — in the instance of Souetre, to have been in New Orleans and in Dallas in 1963. They can also be linked to SS Otto Skorzeny's camps.

Are you deliberately deflecting from the essence of the facts presented relating specifically to escape from lax prisons and allowed to travel through porous borders for some reason? I could have been selective and ommitted those facts you consider in error so that you would be compelled to address the salient question. You actually have no proof that Marton was in prison on the dates in question ... unless in the past you have posted documents I haven't seen that have been weighed carefully for authenticity to establish they're not part of a contrived paper trail. cc. Jeffrey Sundberg

@Steve Thomas Before outlining in detail those in authority who could effect the release or escape of recently incarcerated known assassins in 1963, the following excerpts resulting from a simple word search “escape” reflect lax prison conditions (as evidenced in the prison attire in undated photos of Lajos Marton & Laszlo Varga which have been presented in this discussion as proof they couldn’t have crossed the MX – US border), porous prison systems and international borders, and apparent weak attempts to recapture escapees . . . [relevant phrases in bold.] · Following their arrest, Souetre and Brousse were transferred, first to the prison de Maison Carrée in France, then back to Algeria, where they and the others arrested with them were tried before a military tribunal on December 17, 1961. The press referred to this group as Souetre’s “First Algerian Marquis.” Four days later, they were sentenced to three-to-four years in a detention camp at Saint Maurice l’Ardoise; however, the sentence was suspended and replaced with an administrative detention of indeterminate length. Apparently, the terms of confinement were somewhat generous because, in January 1962, Souetre was allowed to marry Josette Marcaihou of Aymeric. Four days later, they were sentenced to three-to-four years in a detention camp at Saint-Maurice l’Ardoise]. However, the sentence was suspended and replaced with an administrative detention of indeterminate length. Indeed, the camp’s commander, General Claude Clement, attended the ceremony. [under dispute.] Souetre and his new wife enjoyed a confined honeymoon, but days later the newlywed soldier escaped the camp along with seventeen others. After his escape, Souetre quickly assumed a leading role in planning the OAS attack on General de Gaulle at Petit-Clamart. De Gaulle escaped unharmed. Very much involved in the August 22, 1962 attempt to kill de Gaulle were Souetre’s close associates Laszlo Varga, Lajos Marton, along with Hungarian Gyula Sari, and Corsican born Francois Duprat, identified as one of the lead architects of Holocaust denial in France. About a month after escaping, Souetre emerged in Feb–March 1962 living in Spain, and from there he often traveled to Portugal. On several occasions at this time Souetre approached CIA officials and tried to persuade them to provide the OAS with backing as the best and most “viable alternative to communism” in France. As we have seen, there are at least two declassified CIA documents that purport to outline these meetings. Meanwhile, his new bride, provided false identity papers, had joined him in Madrid but because of his continued OAS activities, she soon left him, returning to France where she filed for a divorce. Due to her use of false documents in Spain, her divorce was interrupted by her falsification of papers. Having paid the fine for the offence, she was released, the divorce was finalized, and Josette Marcaihou disappeared from history. · Brousse -- Influential member of the Committee of the Association of Mayors of France and Overseas, in charge of the Youth and Sports Commission, member of the steering committee of the Council of European Municipalities, he joined Algerian War and became head of the SAS of Masséna. Opposed to the Algerian policy of France, he was the animator of the first "French Algeria" maquis, in the territories of Mostaganémois, with as companions Sheikh Si El Hadj Tekouk Ben Tekouk Senousssi, Captain Souetre, commandos of the air, and René Villard, Algerian civil leader of France-Resurrection. Arrested, placed in solitary confinement, he escaped and went into exile. · Pierre Lafitte would also cross paths with Filliol—who like Lafitte would use at least twenty aliases—when in 1944 he was associated with the SS Waffen Charlemagne Division, a French unit aiding the National Socialists in their occupation of France. It is reported by surviving members of Lafitte’s family that he was with the SS Brigadefuhrer Krukenenberg in April 1945, just prior to its being moved to Berlin to defend Hitler in his final bunker days, but independent confirmation of this remains elusive. There is no evidence that Lafitte was ever captured, let alone brought to trial; however, at the end of World War II, Filliol was tried in absentia and sentenced to death. His sentence was never carried out because he escaped to Spain and fascist dictator General Francisco Franco refused to extradite the killer. · The New York Times article is a bit off about General Giraud not having popular support. Indeed, Giraud was a national hero who had served in the French army for forty-six years, through both world wars. American diplomat Robert Murphy said of Giraud, “This extraordinary old soldier had a brilliant service record as a young officer in North Africa. He knew the country well, and he knew Arabs well and was generally respected by them. Giraud was somewhat of a specialist in escape.” · Lafitte, operating under the alias Jean Pierre Martin, visited Martino in prison on at least one occasion in 1961. This is known only because of a notation made by George Hunter White: “Pierre to see Martino Cuba—call Rene.” [Rene being Pierre’s wife.] A subsequent notation by Lafitte reads: “Siragusa re Martino Cuba.” This pertains to former OSS officials and Federal Narcotics Bureau agent Charles Siragusa, who was approached by the CIA in 1960 about contracting American Mafia figures in Cuba, and elsewhere, to help three CIA employees imprisoned with Martino to escape. It is thought that perhaps Siragusa contacted White and Lafitte for help with this request. · Of those named by Trafficante, readers are already familiar with Loran Eugene Hall, understood to have known alleged assassination bagman John Martino; Lucien Rivard, whose 1965 daring escape from prison in Canada would make headline news in the US as a known narcotics smuggler operating out of Havana; and Leslie Bradley, trained pilot and self-described soldier of fortune who had been arrested for plotting and participating in an invasion of Nicaragua meant to embarrass Fidel Castro. According to FBI documents, “Cuban authorities charged that the [Nicaragua] plot was hatched on orders from the United States (CIA) to discredit the Castro regime.” The lesser-known individual identified by Trafficante as “Hudson,” was also involved in that failed plot. Deitsch writes that Hudson was an alleged “British Journalist,” sometimes called Carlos Juan Wilson-Hudson who “reportedly worked for Batista.” We know with certainty that he was known to Pierre Lafitte as J. Wilson-Hudson a.k.a. JW-H. Before delving into this obscure character identified by Trafficante as being present in Trescornia when Ruby visited the prison, it is important to place that imprisonment in context. · A February 26, 1962 exposé “Neo-National Socialists Linked to Algeria French” by correspondent Waverley Root, then living in Paris, published in The Washington Post, reveals that European extremists—known as Ultras—in Algeria were “now tied in with the worldwide clandestine neo-National Socialist organization which has existed ever since the end of the war, built around a core of Hitlerites who escaped post war justice. The head of this international National Socialist underground has always been believed to be Madrid’s man of mystery, Otto Skorzeny, the SS trooper who rescued Mussolini from his captors.” More chilling, Root continues, “Skorzeny is reported to maintain contacts with former National Socialists scattered throughout the world, especially in Latin America and the Middle East. They have not given up hope that National Socialistsm may yet triumph throughout the world, and they seem prepared to lend their aid in any desperate venture of like political ideology which might achieve a Rightest authoritarian government anywhere.” (emphasis added.) Root’s informed sources said that “two of four defendants in the trial escaped and made their way to Spain.” The trial he refers to was the result of the arrest of those involved in the 1957 bazooka attack on General Raoul Salan. The far-right extremists were convinced that the general wasn’t fully on their side to halt the movement toward independence from France in Algeria. All charged with the attack had been found guilty. Among them was Doctor René Kovacs, who was sentenced to death in absentia following his escape. A physician by training, Kovacs was born in Algeria of [notably for our purposes] Hungarian parents. Along with his aide, Joseph Ortiz, a restaurateur, and fellow far-right extremist, the two fled to Spain.

Can I ask if this is reference to the Trans Texas Airways job?

If I understand your response, you didn't ask her and she didn't offer? Do you find it plausible she didn't know, considering the arrest made the news and his subsequent interview was broadcast. It's slightly more plausible that Ruth wasn't aware Lee traveled MC, but the leafletting and arrest and radio interviews in NOLA beg the question how she remained in the dark. Hypothetically, if she knew about the arrest, why didn't she have a quiet chat with authorities either in NOLA or Dallas? Furthermore, I think by September she must have known SA Hosty was in the picture or she could have reached out to her friend SA "Hart" Odum off the record. Or, as you seem to intimate, she was clueless.

Greg, do you recall whether Ruth knew that Oswald had been arrested in New Orleans before he left for MC?

Thanks, W. and I appreciate the distinction between Ivanka's Cold War history and the younger Melania from Slovenia. You remind us of the myriad of contradictions in Trump's personal life that he was comfortable marrying the daughter of a Communist Party member albeit not affiliated with the Kremlin ... I was thinking more about Paulo Zampolli, the model agent who secured her first work visa and I believe was instrumental in her subsequent US citizenship?

Thanks, John. Being new here, I'm playing catch up. Have you studied Linnie's history?

As I said, At the risk of invoking Marguerite among a readership that will likely jump down the throat of anyone who chooses to venture here . . . If you are referring to his day to day activity, I agree that Marguerite would not have been privy to their daily lives. However, Ruth had known Lee since February 1963 and since June/ July she seems to have been fairly read in on his activity, yet she never detected anything unusual about his behavior? Had Marguerite been in their day to day lives, do you think as a mother she might have detected "something was up"? And, were Marina and Ruth unaware of the arrest in New Orleans in August? Did it not occur to her to touch base with Hart, or did she in fact give him a call? Didn't Ruth deliver and later retrieve Marina and the baby prior to Lee leaving for MC? Did she ask, "hey, Lee, tell me about those leafletting incidents, your arrest" or better still, "Lee, why are you going to MC?" Or did she not know about either? If so, then she didn't now Lee very well, did she? Marguerite realized while waiting to see her son in the Dallas jail that Ruth Paine had no intention of aiding this couple in their hour of need. Ruth metaphorically turned and walked away. Texans have a word for such betrayal.

I've wondered whether Melania has a file as well?

That context renders a benign interpretation of Ruth Paine’s role in getting Oswald the job in the TSBD untenable. Among the individuals who have flown under the radar for decades is Linnie Randle, Buell's sister.

GD. She welcomed him on weekends when he visited. LS. She declined his request on at least one occasion. If memory serves it was a significant birthdate. GD. proving in her [Ruth's] mind he had the heart to do premeditated murder of a president too. LS. Yet, it had not been established beyond a reasonable doubt (nor has it been to date) that Oswald fired at Walker's house in April, correct? Which alleged shooting event did Ruth use to confirm the other? At the risk of invoking Marguerite among a readership that will likely jump down the throat of anyone who chooses to venture here, Lee's mother knew her son better than certainly Marina let alone Ruth, and also recognized that Ruth was not a "friend" to be trusted. I believe numerous records reflect that Ruth was never in their company as a friend again?

I'm having similar questions, Jim. Why now.

Parasite jumps to mind as an answer.

@Gil Jesus Gil, a research colleague and friend is following this closely. It's possible you've answered these questions previously, and if so, can you point me to the EF thread or your online contributions elsewhere? He writes, I read the full transcription and in doing so . . . I still remain puzzled as to, why Jack didn’t realize he had been entrapped before he “walked down that ramp Sunday morning”—what happened on the ramp to fully enlighten him as to his precarious predicament? was the note smuggled out of the jail to a Thomas Miller who had actually been released by that time? Any handwriting experts match the handwriting with other Ruby docs? Do we know the note’s full history of possession? If Miller had been released, writing a letter to a fellow prisoner seems both risky and unnecessary when one can have direct communication via face-to-face conversation. And I want to ask if you've come across the pie-shaped doodle on a page in the Ruby letter? I've been told it appears on a page. I ask because the person who spotted it had spotted a similar doodle in the Lafitte datebook. Remember that Lafitte references "Ruby" in two datebook entries.

Another example is Blakey acknowledging publicly during a 1981 interview that he had seen the Jean Rene Souetre files presented to HSCA by J. Gary Shaw in December but that by the following December they still hadn't pursued the leads, saying [paraphrasing] we just didn't have time. Both Walker and Souetre are identified in the records of Pierre Lafitte and in fact, an April 30 datebook entry reads, Tuesday, April 30, 1963 WALKER = SOUETRE IN NEW ORLEANS/ARMS (DAVIS WHERE? CABLE TO O.)

Another example is Blakey acknowledging publicly during a 1981 interview that he had seen the Jean Rene Souetre files presented to HSCA by J. Gary Shaw in December but that by the following December they still hadn't pursued the leads, saying [paraphrasing] we just didn't have time. Both Walker and Souetre are identified in the records of Pierre Lafitte and in fact, an April 30 datebook entry reads, Tuesday, April 30, 1963 WALKER = SOUETRE IN NEW ORLEANS/ARMS (DAVIS WHERE? CABLE TO O.)