Steven Gaal

The plight of five imprisoned Cuban counterterrorism officers, known collectively as the Cuban Five, has been the subject of a growing campaign to lobby Congress in favor of releasing the men.

The five officers were monitoring Cuban exile groups based in Miami with an established track record of orchestrating terrorist acts inside Cuba. The group had informed US authorities of their actions, and were not in possession of any weapons, nor did they engage in any act of espionage against the US or cause harm to any person.

In September 1998, the five officers were arrested by FBI agents and were accused of conspiracy to commit espionage. Their trial, which lasted over six months, became the longest in US history. Though the group was never directly accused of espionage, nor were any acts of espionage committed, the five Cuban men were sentenced to a total of four life sentences plus 77 years.

No fair trial

The men were initially kept in solitary confinement for 17 months, and were later imprisoned in five separate maximum-security prisons spread across the US without the possibility of communication with each other. Their case represents the first time in US history that life sentences were meted out on espionage charges.

The consensus among various legal experts and advocacy groups is that political and partisan considerations worked against justice and the five Cuban men were not given a fair trial. The trial was held in Miami, a region that is synonymous with maintaining open hostility toward the Cuban government, making it incredibly difficult to seat an impartial jury in such a politically charged atmosphere.

According to reports, the US government commissioned several Miami-based journalists to write negative stories to discredit the five defendants, which were widely publicized to influence public opinion. Moreover, the US government even recognized in writing that it was unable to substantiate the conspiracy to commit murder charges against Gerardo Hernandez, one of the five defendants.

During the lengthy appeals process, a three-judge panel in 2005 overturned all of the convictions on the grounds that the defendants had not received a fair trial in Miami, but Washington pressured the Court of Appeals in 2006 to reverse the decision.

The UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention also concluded that the imprisonment of the group was arbitrary, and urged the US government to correct the situation. Despite dissenting opinions from judges in the Court of Appeals, the US Supreme Court intervened in 2009 to announce its decision not to review the case of the five Cuban nationals, despite strong arguments made by their defense attorneys.

Who’s fighting terrorism

The predicament facing the Cuban Five is relevant not just on the basis that these men were denied justice, but that their detention is a result of the group’s efforts to thwart terrorist activities carried out by Cuban exile groups with the support and collusion of US intelligence agencies.

Cuba has faced terrorist activities for decades, in addition to attempted US military invasions and numerous assassination attempts upon its former President, Fidel Castro. The vast majority of bomb attacks and other terrorism that has historically afflicted Cuba originate from southern Florida, carried out by Cuban-exile groups that are tolerated and partly financed by the US government.

A series of bombings swept through Havana in 1997 targeting hotels, restaurants, bars and clubs. Cuba dispatched the five officers who would later be arrested and given life sentences precisely because they intended to monitor the suspected culprits of the bombings who were based in Miami. The men were arrested and charged despite their attempts to share information with the FBI in the hope that they would assist in clamping down on violent right-wing exile groups.

The string of bombings was later confirmed to be orchestrated by Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile and former CIA asset. Carriles moved to the United States after the Cuban revolution and helped to organize the failed invasion at the Bay of Pigs; he was later trained by the CIA in sabotage and explosives, becoming a key figure among the exile community for orchestrating anti-Castro activities.

Carriles admitted his involvement in the 1997 bombings in Havana, and was convicted in absentia in Panama for bombing a Cuban airliner in 1976 that killed 78 civilians. Despite warnings from the US Justice Department, Carriles was allowed to remain in the United States and was acquitted of all charges in 2011, allowing him to continue living comfortably in Miami.

Foreign affairs logic

The Cuban government has consistently campaigned for the release of the five men over the last fifteen years. Two of the men, René González and Fernando Gonzalez, were allowed to end their sentences early, in October 2011 and February 2014 respectively. The three other men received much harsher sentences; Antonio Guerrero will be released in September 2017, while Ramón Labañino’s release is scheduled for October 2024. Gerardo Hernandez faces to two life terms plus 15 years of imprisonment.

In an effort to release the three remaining men, Havana has repeatedly offered to begin negotiations with the Obama administration on a possible exchange of their three remaining agents for Alan Gross, an American contractor currently serving a 15-year sentence in Cuba for smuggling illegal satellite communication equipment into the country as part of a US Agency for International Development (USAID) democracy promotion program initiated under the Bush Administration.

Gross smuggled laptops, smartphones, hard drives, networking equipment, and satellite communications equipment into the country, which he claimed was only designed to facilitate internet access for the small Jewish community in Cuba. Upon his detention, Gross was found to be carrying a specialized SIM card not available on the open market and is distributed only to governments that experts say is often used by the Pentagon and the CIA to mask satellite signals to avoid being tracked.

Havana sentenced Gross to 15 years in prison for smuggling and encouraging “acts against the integrity” of the state in December 2009. The Cuban authorities view the operations of USAID as attempts to foment regime change and consider such programs to be an affront to its sovereignty. Washington has refused even to provide operational details of its USAID projects in Cuba to various congressional committees charged with overseeing the program, which operates with a massive $20 million budget

The Obama administration recently set a precedent by swapping five members of the Taliban who were detained in Guantánamo Bay for Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an American solider imprisoned in Afghanistan. When asked at a recent press conference, US State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki dismissed the possibility of a prisoner swap that would free the three remaining Cuban officers in exchange for Gross.

The rationale for the Obama administration’s decision to swap members of the Taliban for Bergdahl was allegedly an expression of the principle that soldiers are not left behind on the battlefield. Dozens of American senators have called on President Obama to take whatever steps are in the national interest to free Gross, while members of the Gross family have criticized Washington for all-but abandoning the detained American contractor and lacking the political will to compromise with Havana to secure his release.

In the midst of the Obama administration’s lax efforts to get Alan Gross released from detention, USAID found itself muddled in a scandal that exposed the agency’s failed attempt to engineer a Twitter-like text messaging network in Cuba with the aim of spreading information tarnishing the reputation of the Cuban government, ostensibly with the aim of igniting anti-government sentiments.

The unjust imprisonment of Cuban officers is the biggest impediment to an improvement in relations between Washington and Havana, and the precedent is now set to for a common sense prisoner swap that would be mutually beneficial for both sides. If the Obama administration is comfortable with releasing five former Taliban fighters to free an American, there should be no question about freeing the three remaining Cuban counterterrorism officers.

Despite calling for better relations with Cuba during his 2008 campaign, the Obama administration has not deviated from the harassment and regime change policies undertaken by consecutive US administrations. The injustice meted out to the Cuban Five is a testament to Washington’s infinite capacity for embracing double standards, as counterterrorism operations are criminalized while anti-Castro terrorists walk free.

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What is essentially a celebration of expansionism, military aggression, and extraterritorial political subversion, the event featured many of the chief protagonists in Ukraine’s current crisis. These included US Secretary of State John Kerry and US Vice President Joseph Biden, along with NATO commanders and US corporate-financier funded policymakers who have authored America’s decades of “exceptionalism.” It also included US Senator John McCain who literally flew to Kiev during the height of the “Euromaidan” protests and took the stage with ultra-right Neo-Nazi Svoboda Party leaders.

In their own words, those attending the Atlantic Council gathering describe the battle for Ukraine being fought to “complete” their socioeconomic consolidation in Europe – this includes “integrating Russia.” Secretary John Kerry at the gathering would literally state:

By “integrating” Russia, of course, Kerry means overthrowing any independent national political order that exists in Moscow and replacing it with one that answers to Wall Street, London, and now Brussels. This can be seen clearly in attempts by the West to replicate its model of “color revolution” within Russian territory itself.

But Kerry and the rest of EU-NATO, recognizing that efforts to subvert and overthrow an independent political order in Russia have failed, have resorted to a policy of encirclement, containment, and confrontation, with Ukraine being only one of many battlefields the West is fighting upon. Kerry would declare Europe’s energy market as another.

He stated (emphasis added):

And immediately they did. After resisting pressure from the EU regarding Russia’s South Stream pipeline, Bulgaria has been forced to suspend ongoing construction, jeopardizing interests and opportunities not only for Russia, but for the nations the pipeline is to pass through.

The Battle for South Stream
The halting of construction followed a visit by US Senators John McCain, Christopher Murphy, and Ron Johnson – with McCain in particular directly supporting the armed overthrow of the Ukrainian government earlier this year. In a Washington Post article titled, “Bulgaria halts work on South Stream gas pipeline,” it states:

Moscow responded by pointing out the obvious nature of what are in all intents and purposes sanctions against Russia. The Moscow Times reported in an article titled, “Russia Sees Underhanded Sanctions in Bulgaria’s Suspension of South Stream,” that:

The article would also point out that once the South Stream pipeline is completed it will diminish Ukraine’s importance as a transit point for Russian natural gas into Western Europe. It appears that the moves against South Stream are designed to at the very least, delay this inevitable outcome for as long as possible, to maintain leverage as the West struggles to consolidate power on behalf of their teetering proxy regime in Kiev.

For Bulgaria’s part, not only have they disregarded US sanctions on Russia, choosing a Russian firm to build the pipeline, they appear eager to resolve the legal obstacles conveniently laid down amid the ongoing Ukrainian crisis, and complete the pipeline as soon as possible.

Exploiting South Stream’s Delay
The West’s plans to use South Stream’s delay to extort concessions from Russia and those working with it on the project. Additionally the delay will help preserve the benefits of Ukraine’s current monopoly on transporting Russian natural gas to Western Europe. To ensure maximum leverage, the West is placing key personnel within Ukraine’s energy sector, in addition to propping up the regime in Kiev. Perhaps the most indicative of the overall illegitimacy and criminal nature of the current EU-NATO posture was the appointment of Hunter Biden, son of US Vice President Joseph Biden, as a member of Ukraine energy giant Barisma’s board of directors.

Biden Jr.’s nepotist appointment is not where the conflict of interest begins or ends. Biden Jr. was also a director of the US State Department’s National Endowment for Democracy (NED) subsidiary National Democratic Institute (NDI). The NED/NDI played an admitted role in building up opposition parties in Ukraine prior to the so-called “Euromaidan” protests and admittedly engineered the so-called “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine in 2004. More recently, they served as “election monitors” lending their stamp of approval of polling in Ukraine where entire provinces failed to vote in the east, opposition parties were unable to campaign in the west, and the aerial bombardment of cities across the country was underway.

In effect, Biden Jr.s NDI overthrew a government ahead of himself being appointed as a director in the targeted nation’s largest energy company – a dizzying conflict of interest. Coupled with the stated US agenda of reducing Russia’s influence in Europe’s energy market, this conflict of interest becomes a self-evident impropriety and an obvious component of the West’s agenda of encircling and containing Russia.

It remains to be seen how long the South Stream delay lasts and what other moves the EU, NATO, and Ukraine’s openly foreign-influenced regime and industries take in implementing Secretary Kerry’s stated goal of confronting Russia. For nations like Bulgaria, the cost to their sovereignty upon entering the European Union can now be acutely felt. Bulgaria is now unable to pursue their own interests because of dictates from Brussels made on behalf of special interests operating well beyond their borders and in absolute disregard to the peace and prosperity of the Bulgarian people. It is a cautionary tale for other nations around the world seeking to enter into similar supranational “communities,” most notably Southeast Asia’s ASEAN/AEC.

NATO and the EU’s open intent to “integrate” all of Europe including Russia into their geopolitical order, clearly by force if necessary, their abuse of the EU’s legal framework to impose thinly veiled sanctions on Russia, overt nepotism, as well as obstructing the completion of projects that are demonstrably beneficial to their own member states reveals an emerging political order of immense criminality unbound by the rule of law and a clear and present danger to global stability. For those in eastern Ukraine weathering air raids, artillery barrages, and mechanized “national guard” composed of ultra-right Neo-Nazi militants, that instability is already a deadly, daily reality.

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In other words -- why would Alan Dulles back the Cuban Exiles to murder JFK, but then support the Lone Nut theory that Oswald acted alone -- knowing that this depoliticized Oswald and the JFK murder itself? It seems like a mismatch

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

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"Alan Dulles back the Cuban Exiles to murder JFK, but then support the Lone Nut theory that Oswald acted alone" ///// TREJO = Dulles dosent care who he motivates to kill JFK. If you read the material I presented you understand that DULLES family represented ,at times, British interests who wanted the survival of a Communist Cuba. The existence of Cuba is like the sand and the oyster, it's a creative irritant,creating a militant interventionist globalist USA. If at one time Dulles wanted Cuba gone he changed his mind as his Anglo betters directed. (see above thread post - # 49 - John Dulles creates CFR). As to anti-Castro rhetoric post assassination by Dulles ,thats all in the play/manipulation of elites to the masses.In the same fashion JFK did the same thing (though for better, IMHO, reasons). JFK researchers have shown JFK pro-Vietnam War rhetoric was designuous and that he was planing a withdrawal. see http://www.history-matters.com/vietnam1963.htm and http://www.thenation.com/article/177332/jfks-vietnam-withdrawal-plan-fact-not-speculation

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Jack Ruby personally told Supreme Court Earl Warren that those responsible for the JFK murder were the John Birch Society and General Edwin Walker in Dallas.

People somehow let this fact of testimony slip through their fingers. Jim Garrison let it slip, too. That was his most glaring error of his entire heroic investigation, IMHO.

Regards,
--Paul Trejo
+++++++++++++++++++
No one lets it slip through ....Ruby's bosses the FBN/CIA have always provided (had ready) a number of cover stories for there ELM ST act. Low level operative Ruby knows there are some loose connections to useful idiots like JBS/Walker to the plot and he tells the story. Warren may have believed and covered it up but others ,sigh, actually believe the tales of Ruby. Ruby was fighting for his life and his tales were the only pressure he had to save his life. Ruby much deeper than the official story. (see below)
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JFK: The Ruby Connection, Gary Mack's Follies - Part One
By James DiEugenio

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One of the problems with this show is that its very title is deceptive. Because there is simply no exploration of who Jack Ruby was and what his connections to the John F. Kennedy case were or may have been. I say "may have been" because, as with Oswald, the Warren Commission's exploration of Ruby's actual background was, to be kind, cursory. To be unkind, today it looks humorous. For instance, the Commission famously wrote that Ruby had no significant link to organized crime. (Jim Marrs, Crossfire, p. 389) Yet the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) listed a series of phone calls made by Ruby in the month leading up to the murder of Kennedy. It clearly exposes that assertion as dubious. In fact, the House Select Committee specifically criticized both the Warren Commission and the FBI for "failing to analyze systematically ... the data in those records. " (Vol. V, p. 188) Ruby's phone usage went up by a factor of 300% in November of 1963. (ibid p. 190) At this time, Ruby was in phone contact with the likes of Irwin Wiener, Barney Baker, Nofio Pecora, Lewis McWillie, and Dusty Miller, all of who had ties to organized crime. (ibid pgs. 193-195) And as Jim Marrs writes in Crossfire, "the record shows his involvement in a number of criminal activities including gambling, narcotics, prostitution, and gun running." (Marrs, p. 389) But, as the quote above shows, these activities were not done only with the Mafia.

Ruby's gun running was at least partly done with former CIA agent Thomas Eli Davis. (Henry Hurt, Reasonable Doubt, pgs 401-405) And Davis' connections reportedly went all the way up to the CIA assassin famously code named QJ/WIN. Davis had a slight resemblance to Oswald and he used the name Oswald at times in his work. (ibid, p. 402) In fact, Ruby was so close to Davis that, after he shot Oswald, Ruby actually volunteered Davis' name to his attorneys. Incredibly, Ruby said that if he beat the Oswald rap he wanted to go back into the gun running business with Davis. (ibid) Both Davis and Ruby had been involved with another gun runner named Robert McKeown. (ibid) McKeown had run guns to Castro and during one of Ruby's contacts with McKeown, Ruby offered him 25,000 dollars for a letter of introduction to the Cuban dictator. (Hurt p. 177) Where Ruby would get that kind of money and why he himself needed to contact Fidel so badly is something that we will mention later, but which Gary Mack never brings up in this show that supposedly tells the viewer about Ruby's connections to the JFK case.

Neither does Mack explain another interesting riddle. Less than three weeks after the assassination, Davis was attempting to sell guns in Morocco. He was arrested. While he was searched, the authorities found a strange handwritten letter on him referring to "Oswald" and the assassination. (ibid p. 403) In fact, there is evidence that on the day of Kennedy's murder, Davis was in Algiers for gun-running activities, and was released with the help of QJ/WIN himself. (ibid p. 404) Geez, those are interesting Ruby connections to the JFK case: Castro, the Mafia, the CIA, and the usage of Oswald's name. They aren't on this program though.

Ruby also lied about how many times he had been to Cuba. He said he had been there only once, in August of 1959. (ibid, p. 178) Yet there is evidence Ruby was there two times just in that same year. Again, it appears the Commission tried to cover up this fact about Ruby. How? By blending the two trips, which took place in August and September, into one. (Warren Report, p. 370, p. 802, WC Vol. XXII p. 859) Robert Blakey, Chief Counsel of the HSCA, once wrote that it was "...established beyond doubt that Ruby lied repeatedly and willfully to the FBI and the Warren Commission about the number of trips he made to Cuba and their duration ... Their purpose, was to courier something, probably money, into or out of Cuba." (Marrs, p. 394)

The man who Ruby was closest to in Havana was the mob associated gambler, Lewis McWillie. Elaine Mynier, a girlfriend of McWillie, described the two men. She said McWillie was "...a big time gambler, who has always been in the big money and operated top gambling establishments in the United States and Cuba. He always had a torpedo (a bodyguard) living with him for protection." She went on to say that Ruby was "a small time character who would do anything for McWillie ... (Marrs, p. 393, italics added) The Commission had to have known that McWillie was a gambler and killer who Ruby idolized. (WC Vol. V, p. 201, Vol. XXIII, p. 166) While managing the Tropicana in Havana, McWillie became associated with some of the Mob's top leaders like Santo Trafficante and Meyer Lansky, who were part owners. (FBI Memo of 3/26/64) It was Trafficante's association with McWillie that has led some commentators to relate one of Ruby's visits to McKeown as a favor for McWillie. In early 1959, McWillie's boss Trafficante was arrested and jailed outside of Havana by Castro. Just a few days later, Ruby got in contact with McKeown. He told McKeown that he represented Las Vegas interests who were seeking the release of three prisoners in Cuba. Ruby told him that he would offer him five thousand dollars per prisoner for his help. McKeown said he wanted to see the money first. (Marrs, p. 396)

McWillie was also a former employee of a main power inside the Delois Green gang – Benny Binion – who had moved to Las Vegas. Binion also worked at the Tropicana in Havana in 1959. (See CD 1193, WC Vol. XXIII p. 163) Binion probably knew Frank Sturgis since Sturgis was Castro's supervisor of gambling concessions in 1959. Further, Ruby was reportedly involved in gun running with Miami arms dealer Eddie Browder. Browder was also involved with Sturgis. (Marrs, p. 392) Frank Sturgis, of course, was connected to the CIA, Castro, and the Mafia.

There was also the testimony of Ruby employee Nancy Perrin Rich to attest to Ruby's intelligence ties and his gun running activities. She testified that she had moved to Dallas in 1962 to reconcile with her husband Robert. Once they did so, two local detectives who knew Robert had helped her find a job. It was tending bar for Jack Ruby. But she said she didn't like Ruby because of his overbearing manner and temper. So she quit.

She said that later her husband Robert had met with a military officer about getting some anti-Castro Cubans out of Cuba and into Miami. This meeting in Dallas was presided over by a U.S. Army colonel. The colonel suggested a cash payment of ten grand. A few nights later, the Perrins met again with the colonel but this time there were a couple of Cubans in attendance. At this second meeting the assignment was more well-defined. They were not just going to get refugees out; they were also running guns into Cuba. When they heard this, the Perrins wanted more money. The implication made by the Cubans and colonel was that the money would be arriving soon via a bagman. Rich then told the Commission: "I had the shock of my life ... A knock comes on the door and who walks in but my little friend Jack Ruby ... and everybody looks like ... here comes the savior." The Commission did not mention any of Rich's testimony in their report. Further, in 1966, Nancy Rich told Mark Lane that the Commission had eliminated the telling detail that, outside of the apartment house where the second meeting took place, was a cache of military armaments. (Mark Lane, Rush to Judgment, pgs 287-297, Marrs, p. 397)

In fact, this aspect of Ruby's life – his relations to CIA-Mafia activities in Cuba – was obvious to even Commission staffers. Warren Commission attorneys Leon Hubert and Burt Griffin, who ran the Ruby investigation, wrote a memo to Chief Counsel J. Lee Rankin in March of 1964. They wrote that, "The most promising links between Jack Ruby and the assassination of President Kennedy are established through underworld figures and anti-Castro Cubans and extreme right-wing Americans." (John Armstrong, Harvey and Lee, p. 948) Two months later, they wrote another memo: "We believe that a reasonable possibility exists that Ruby has maintained a close interest in Cuban affairs to the extent necessary to participate in gun sales and smuggling ... Neither Oswald's Cuban interests in Dallas nor Ruby's Cuban activities have been adequately explored ... We believe the possibility exists, based on evidence already available, that Ruby was involved in illegal dealings with Cuban elements who might have had contact with Oswald. The existence of such dealings can only be surmised since the present investigation has not focused on that area." (WC Memorandum to J. Lee Rankin, 5/14/64) In other words, Griffin and Hubert were saying that the connection between the two men very likely existed in these Cuban matters. But since the FBI was not interested in it, they couldn't really discover if it was there.

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Gunrunner Ruby and the CIA
by Lisa Pease

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It's not as if they didn't know. Assistant counsels to the Warren Commission Burt Griffin and Leon Hubert wrote, in a memo to the Warren Commission members dated March 20, 1964, that "the most promising links between Jack Ruby and the assassination of President Kennedy are established through underworld figures and anti-Castro Cubans, and extreme right-wing Americans." 1 Two months later, Griffin and Hubert wrote another memo to the Commission, significantly titled "Adequacy of the Ruby Investigation" in which they warned, "We believe that a reasonable possibility exists that Ruby has maintained a close interest in Cuban affairs to the extent necessary to participate in gun sales or smuggling."

"They're going to find out about Cuba.
They're going to find out about the guns,
find out about New Orleans,
find out about everything."
Ruby had talked about it himself while in jail, reportedly telling a friend, "They're going to find out about Cuba. They're going to find out about the guns, find out about New Orleans, find out about everything." 2 Tales of Ruby running guns to Cuba abounded in the FBI reports taken in the first weeks after the assassination, yet neither the Warren Commission nor the House Select Committee pursued those leads very far. Griffin and Hubert expressed concern over this, saying that "neither Oswald's Cuban interests in Dallas nor Ruby's Cuban activities have been adequately explored." 3
If They Dared
Hubert and Griffin expressed in their memo of May 14 to Rankin that "we believe that the possibility exists, based on evidence already available, that Ruby was involved in illegal dealings with Cuban elements who might have had contact with Oswald. The existence of such dealings can only be surmised since the present investigation has not focused on that area." 4 They expressed concern that "Ruby had time to engage in susbtantial activities in addition to the management of his Clubs" and that "Ruby has always been a person who looked for money-making 'sidelines'." They even suggested that since the Fort Worth manufacturer of the famous "Twist Board" Ruby was demonstrating the night after the assassination had no known sales, and was manufactured by an oil field equipment company, that "[t]he possibility remains that the 'twist board' was a front for some other illegal enterprise." But what Griffin and Hubert kept coming back to is that there was "much evidence" that Ruby "was interested in Cuban matters, citing his relationship to Louis McWillie; his attempted sale of jeeps to Castro, his reported attendance of meetings "in connection with the sale of arms to Cubans and the smuggling out of refugees"; and Ruby's quick correction of Wade's remark that Oswald was a member of the Free Cuba Committee, a group populated with such notables as Clare Booth Luce, Admiral Arleigh Burke, and Hal Hendrix. "Bits of evidence link Ruby to others who may have been interested in Cuban affairs."

What was their recommendation, based on such tantalizing evidence? "We suggest that these matters cannot be left 'hanging in the air.' They must either be explored further or a firm decision must be made not to do so supported by stated reasons for the decision." History has given us the commission's decision on this, but a clue to the motivation shows up in this same memo, in regards to Seth Kantor, who claimed to have seen Ruby at Parkland hospital around the time of Kennedy's death. "We must decide who is telling the truth, for there would be considerable significance if it would be concluded that Ruby is lying." [emphasis added] The concern was not what the truth was, but what the truth might mean if it was uncomfortably discovered.

Ruby was lying, and the implications are enormous.

Cuban Excursions
Ruby had told the Warren Commission he had only been to Cuba once, on vacation, for a week to ten days. Not true. According to Cuban travel records, Jack Ruby entered Cuba from New Orleans on August 8, 1959; left Cuba September 11, 1959; re-entered Cuba from Miami on September 12, 1959; and returned from Cuba to New Orleans on September 13, 1959. 5 But bank records 6, Dallas police records 7, and FBI records 8 showed Ruby in Dallas August 10, 21, 31, and September 4, days which fall right in the middle of his supposedly continuous stay in Cuba. Somehow, Ruby was getting in and out of Cuba without the Cuban authorities detecting and recording such. Why was Ruby making multiple excursions to Cuba during this time? What were the nature of these visits and why did he choose to hide them?

The reticence of investigative bodies to investigate these matters make sense when one realizes that Jack Ruby was not going to Cuba on pleasure trips. The Warren Report tells of an incident in early 1959 where Ruby made "preliminary inquiries, as a middleman, concerning the possible sale to Cuba of some surplus jeeps located in Shreveport, La., and asked about the possible release of prisoners from a Cuban prison." 9 Ruby's sister indicated the jeeps might have been military surplus from W.W.II. 10 Both the story of the jeeps and the story of the prisoners tie Ruby to some interesting Cuban activities.

A Whole Lot of Jeeps
Texas gunrunner Robert McKeown said Ruby "had a whole lot of jeeps he wanted to get to Castro." Ruby wanted McKeown to write a personal letter of introduction to Castro for Ruby so he could talk to Castro about releasing some unnamed friends detained in Havana. 11

At that time, Santo Trafficante was being held at the Trescornia detention center in Cuba. Was Ruby instrumental in winning Trafficante's release at that time? John Wilson Hudson (a.k.a. John Wilson), an English journalist supposedly detained with Trafficante in the camp, indicated that Ruby came to see Trafficante in Trescornia. 12 After Ruby shot Oswald, according to CIA cables, Wilson contacted the American Embassy and reported that "an American gangster called Santo...was visited by an American gangster type named Ruby." 13 If Ruby was trying to sell jeeps to Castro, as McKeown said, was this an arms-for-hostages type deal? Get Castro the jeeps and get Trafficante out of jail? Recent events remind us this certainly wouldn't have been the only such effort in history. Trafficante was released from the detention center in August, 1959, 14 possibly just after Ruby's appearance there.

Questioning Trafficante
Trafficante is a person often portrayed as one of Ruby's mob contacts. But Trafficante was one of the "gangsters" who participated in the CIA's Castro assassination attempts, according to the CIA Inspector General's report. Key to understanding the seriousness of defining Trafficante's relationship with Ruby are the questions originally put to him before Blakey took over the HSCA, by then-chief counsel Richard Sprague. 15 To all of the following, Trafficante's response was, "I respectfully refuse to answer that question pursuant to my constitutional rights under the 1st, 4th, 5th, and 14th amendments." This is the legal outlet allowed when a truthful answer will be self-incriminating, and Trafficante used it throughout.

"Mr. Trafficante, have you at any time been an employee, a contract employee, or in any manner been in the service of the Central Intelligence Agency, or any other agency of the Federal Government of the United States?"
The first question out of Sprague's mouth is probably indicative of why he was eventually ousted - he had a habit of getting right to the point:

"Mr. Trafficante, have you at any time been an employee, a contract employee, or in any manner been in the service of the Central Intelligence Agency, or any other agency of the Federal Government of the United States?"
The rest of the questions followed in a similar vein:

"Mr. Trafficante, did you know John Rosselli?"
"Mr. Trafficante, did you know Sam Giancana?"
"Mr. Trafficante, do you know Robert Maheu?"
"Mr. Trafficante, prior to November 22, 1963, did you have information that President Kennedy was going to be assassinated?"
"Mr. Trafficante, prior to November 22, 1963, did you advise other people of the assassination of President Kennedy?"
"Mr. Trafficante, prior to November 22, 1963, did you know Jack Ruby?"
"Mr. Trafficante, have you ever met with representatives of the Central Intelligence Agency to discuss the assassination of various world leaders, including Fidel Castro?"
"Mr. Trafficante, is any agency of the U.S. Government giving you any immunity with regard to any plans to assassinate any world leaders?"
"Mr. Trafficante, did you ever discuss with any individual plans to assassinate President Kennedy prior to his assassination?"
"Mr. Trafficante, while you were in prison in Cuba, were you visited by Jack Ruby?"
When the questions were opened to the others present, more questions followed in the same vein. Note: no one was asking questions about Trafficante's mob involvement. They were interested in his ties to the government:

"Mr. Trafficante, as a result of your appearance here today, have you been threatened by anyone, any group or agency? Has your life been threatened in any way?"
"Mr. Trafficante, have you been contacted by any agency in the executive branch, say the CIA or FBI, in connection with your possible testimony before or after you received formal subpena to appear before this committee?"
Trafficante's involvement with the CIA and Ruby bear further scrutiny. The Review Board should be asked to release all CIA and FBI files on Santo Trafficante.

The story of Jack Ruby getting Trafficante out of a Cuban jail was not the only such allegation. There is another allegation from a different source that Ruby was involved in some guns for hostages deal.

Nancy Perrin Rich told the Warren Commission a fascinating story about a group running Enfield rifles to Castro in order to run refugees out of Cuba to Florida. The guns were to be run through Mexico. Ruby was evidently the bagman for this group, since his appearance on at least one occasion made the cries about lack of money disappear when he walked in. 16

Nancy Perrin Rich's story is perhaps the most widely retold of Ruby's gunrunning episodes. But there are a number of other odd stories that bear dissemination, some with more substantiation than others. There are the new Elrod revelations that put Ruby in the middle of yet another gunrunning scenario. 17 And there is a story from Islamorada, Florida that leads to interesting places.

Jack and James
Mrs. Mary Thompson met a man named "Jack" accompanied by a women, not his wife, named "Isabel" at the home of Mary Lou and James Woodard in Islamorada, Florida. 18 At the time, Mary Thompson was accompanied by her daughter Dolores and Dolores's husband. Jack was said to be from Chicago originally. Mrs. Thompson placed the date of this encounter around the end of May of 1958. Interestingly enough, she said Jack's first real name was Leon but went by Jack. Jack Ruby's middle name was Leon.

Mary Lou Woodard said Jack had a trunk full of guns he was going to supply to Cubans. Mary Thompson stated she'd been told there were supplies of guns hidden in the marshes that were being collected by the Indians in the area to be sold to the Cubans, as this was around the time of the Cuban revolution. Mary Thompson's daughter Dolores also saw and described this same Jack, as did Mrs. W. R. Simons.

Dolores recalled that her husband's friend James Woodard, while drunk one night, declared he would run guns to Cuba with Jack. Woodard had two or three guns of his own but said Jack had a lot more. When shown a photo of Jack Ruby she said it resembled the man she remembered, although she didn't remember his last name as being "Ruby."

A check of the Knoxville FBI files showed that James Woodard was considered "armed and dangerous", packed a weapon, and had a violent temper when drinking. Interviewed by the FBI in September of 1963, Woodard "in somewhat rambling and incoherent manner" talked of his participation in an invasion of Cuba prior to the Castro regime, that he had again participated in the Bay of Pigs and had furnished ammunition and dynamite to both Castro and the Cuban exile forces. On October 8, 1963, Woodard was questioned again, this time concerning dynamite found at his residence in South Dade County, Florida, as the dynamite had been stolen from a construction company. He claimed the dynamite was being used by Cuban exile forces fighting the Castro regime.

After the assassination, James Woodard's sister said James had been in Texas a lot, and that she had asked James if he ever knew Ruby. He said no, but then promptly disappeared and hadn't been seen since November 25, 1963. If he truly had been running guns with Ruby to the CIA-sponsored Cuban exile forces, one can surely imagine a hefty motive for his sudden disappearance after Ruby appeared on the public scene by shooting Oswald. Woodard is another person whose records the Review Board should look into to shed light on Ruby's contacts with Cubans and gunrunning.

Perhaps Ruby was concerned enough to hide his activities not so much because he was running guns, but because of who he was running them for, and with.

By far the most interesting account of Ruby's gunrunning is found in an FBI report taken a week after the assassination. Informant "T-2" (Blaney Mack Johnson) revealed that in the early 1950s a man he knew then as "Rubenstein" arranged illegal flights of weapons to the Castro organization in Cuba. He added that Rubenstein "left Miami and purchased a substantial share in a Havana gaming house in which one COLLIS PRIO (phonetic) was principal owner." 19 One recognizes the name Carlos Prio Soccaras, especially when T-2 linked "COLLIS" to Batista. In the early 50s Prio was a supporter of the Batista regime under which he had grown exceedingly wealthy, but in the mid to late 50s Prio worked hand in hand with Castro, aided by the CIA, to overthrow the increasingly difficult Batista.

In a letter to Lee Rankin of the Warren Commission, Hoover had this to say of the ongoing (since 1952) investigation of Dr. Carlos Prio Socarras, a.k.a. Carlos Prio: "The neutrality and registration act investigation related primarily to the activities of Carlos Prio Socarras, who, with a number of others including McKeown, was involved in a conspiracy to ship arms, munitions, and other war materials to Fidel Castro to assist him in his efforts to overthrow the Batista regime in this investigation." 20 In the attachment, the FBI had McKeown knowing Castro and Carlos Prio Socarras personally. As referenced earlier, McKeown was the one who revealed Ruby's possible jeep deal and Ruby's attempt to get friends released from Cuban detention. McKeown also said that Ruby came to him offering a large sum of money in return for a personal letter of introduction to Castro. 21

Mysterious Mr. Browder
But T-2's account revealed possibly a contact of Ruby's even more interesting than Prio. T-2 stated that the man he recognized as Ruby but knew formerly as Rubenstein was smuggling arms to Cuba with one Donald Edward Browder. T-2 went on to name three people who he said could corroborate his story: Joe Marrs of Marrs Aircraft whom Ruby contracted to make flights to Cuba; former Chief of Police in Hialeah, Florida Leslie Lewis, who would know of Ruby's gunrunning and smuggling operations; and Clifton T. Bowes, Jr., formerly captain of National Airlines, Miami, for further corroboration.

Joe Marrs worked for Eastern Airlines. He claimed he never flew for hire or transported goods. He knew Browder, but claimed he avoided Browder as he saw him as a shady promoter who was all talk about air transport plans but no money (an amusing revelation from a man who just a few words earlier had said he didn't fly for hire.) 22

Les Lewis, the former Chief of Police, denied knowing Jack Ruby and claimed to have "no knowledge whatsoever of persons flying weapons to Cuba." A Hialeah Police Chief having no knowledge of persons flying weapons to Cuba in the fifties is a bit hard to believe. And of course, Lewis completely denied ever knowing a Donald Edward Browder. 23

Clifton T. Bowes was sure he never knew a Jack Rubenstein and said he first heard of Ruby watching him on television. He did not know a Donald Edward Browder but did claim to know Blaney Mack Johnson, saying he understood Johnson was ill and had been hospitalized, was "highly imaginative" 24, the usual FBI line for an unwelcome witness.

When the FBI collected these denials, they returned to Johnson. Johnson stuck tightly by his story and insisted all the information he had provided had been true and accurate. He also said he understood why Lewis, Marrs and Bowes would have lied to conceal their knowledge of and/or involvement in Ruby's activities. And of course, Johnson replied he had never been hospitalized.

Enter Eddie Browder. Eddie Browder testified before the House Select Committee on Assassinations in the 70s. 25 He was a former Lockheed test pilot who was serving a 25-year prison sentence for "security violations." He told the committee he worked for the CIA. One time he had leased a B-25 bomber under the name of a non-existent company and flown it to Haiti a year after the Kennedy assassination. He cashed a check signed by George DeMohrenschildt's Haitian business associate Clemard Charles, in the amount of $24,000. What's interesting is that the HSCA used Browder's testimony in the DeMohrenschildt section, not the Jack Ruby section. Is there a tie there linking DeMohrenschildt to Jack Ruby? Only three small "innocuous" reports of the more than 1000 pages the FBI has on Browder were released to the Warren Commission. 26 It's time the remaining documents on Browder, including the full text of his executive session testimony before the HSCA, were released. Any Browder who used the Don Eduardo alias 27, worked with DeMohrenschildt, and ran guns with Ruby to Cuba is worthy of further study.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

(Continued in the next issue of Probe.)
Notes
George Michael Evica, And We Are All Mortal (University of Hartford, 1978), p. 161. (Back to text)
Peter Dale Scott, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK (University of California Press, Ltd, 1993), p. 179. (Back to text)
Memorandum to J. Lee Rankin from Leon D. Hubert and Burt W. Griffin, May 14, 1964, p. 3. (Back to text)
Memorandum to J. Lee Rankin from Leon D. Hubert and Burt W. Griffin, May 14, 1964, p. 4. (Back to text)
HSCA, Vol. 5, pp. 197-198. (Back to text)
HSCA, Vol. 5, p. 204. On page 205 Stokes said that Ruby was admitted to his box on August 20th, but the copy of the FBI report on the bank records on the previous page show both a typewritten date of August 21 and a handwritten note with the same date. (Back to text)
Anthony Summers, Conspiracy (Paragon House paperback edition, 1989), p. 439. (Back to text)
HSCA, Vol. 5, p. 221. (Back to text)
Report of the Warren Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1964), p. 345. (Back to text)
WC Vol. 26, p. 661, CE 3069. (Back to text)
Summers, p. 437 (Back to text)
Summers, p. 441. (Back to text)
Summers, p. 440; HSCA Vol. 5, p. 365. (Back to text)
HSCA, Vol. 5, p. 325. (Back to text)
HSCA, Hearings March 16, 1977, pp.37-41. (Back to text)
WC Vol. 14, pp. 349-350. (Back to text)
For a lengthy treatment of Elrod, see the article by Ray and Mary La Fontaine, The Washington Post, 8/7/94, "The Fourth Tramp". (Back to text)
WC Vol. 26, p. 642-649. (Back to text)
WC Vol. 26, p. 634, CE 3063. (Back to text)
WC Vol. 26, p. 650, CE 3066. (Back to text)
Summers, p. 437. (Back to text)
WC Vol. 26, p. 639. (Back to text)
WC Vol. 26, p. 639. (Back to text)
WC Vol. 26, p. 640. (Back to text)
Jim Marrs, Crossfire (Carrol & Graf, 1989), p. 284. (Back to text)
Marrs, p. 392. (Back to text)
Don Eduardo was a well known alias of E. Howard Hunt. But James McCord also used the name Don Eduardo. Jim Hougan, Secret Agenda (Random House, 1984), p. 80. Blaney Mack Johnson said Don Edward Browder was sometimes called "Don Eduardo." WC Vol. 26, p. 642.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

JFK: The Ruby Connection, Gary Mack's Follies Continued
Part Two
By James DiEugenio

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As I proved in Part One, the title to this documentary is a misnomer. Since it deliberately shears off all the possible connections Jack Ruby could have to the Kennedy assassination i.e., to the Cosa Nostra, to the CIA, to Oswald, and finally to the Dallas Police. In Part One, I presented only a précis of the multitude of connections Jack Ruby had to those three entities and to Oswald. Other authors, like Jim Marrs and John Armstrong, have done longer and fuller examinations of what those ties were. For instance, Armstrong traces Ruby's gun-running activities with the CIA back to the late fifties. But how could that be if Castro was not in power at the time? Because, as it often does, the CIA was playing both sides in the Batista/Castro struggle. So they were actually sending some aid to Castro at the time. And Ruby appears to have been part of it. (See John Armstrong, Harvey and Lee, pgs. 177, 586)

================================================================================

SIDE BAR

========

Most other nations don't have it so well -- they are still ruled by 1% of 1% of 1%. So, I say to my leftist fellow Americans -- look on the bright side.

Paul Trejo
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The U.S. Has The Worst Income Inequality In The Developed World ...
www.huffingtonpost.com/.../income-inequality-wall-street_n_3762422.html‎Cached
SimilarAug 15, 2013 ... This echoes an OECD study from earlier this year that found the U.S. had the
highest income inequality in the developed world. It followed only ...
+++++++++++++++++++++++
The U.S Ranks 4th in Income Inequality | Inequality for All
inequalityforall.com/fact-4/‎Cached
SimilarThe U.S. is nearly the most wealth-unequal country in the entire world. Out of 141
countries, the U.S. has the 4th-highest degree of wealth inequality in the world, ...

• ^{Peter Dale Scott theorized in Deep Politics and the Death of JFK that the stock transactions of the major stockholders of LTV (Harold Byrd (owner TSBD), Troy Post (financier) and James Ling (businessman) engineer) were made with foreknowledge of the JFK assassination.}
• ^{Troy Post was co-owner of Coconut micro island in Hawaii with California oil man Edwin Pauley.}
• ^{JFK researcher Bruce Adamson acquired the 6 volume set of personal phone books George De Mohrenschildt and noted that De Mohrenschildt had listed Edwin Pauleys name an unusual 4 times. ( To note to avoid confusion ,per Adamson ,George de Mohrenschildt also worked for CBS head William S. Paley after call to Paley's private secretary) The phone books also listed GHWB and also GHWB's intimate nickname "POPPY" ,which few knew. In the appendix of the Secret War Against the Jews book George de Mohrenschildt had the post WWII office number of Allen Dulles at RCA. William Paley (CBS) and Allen Dulles were very,very close friends (see letters Paley - Dulles, Adamson). Prescott Bush (father of GHWB, was a CBS trustee for 30 years (from the radio days to the TV days)) also was a friend of Allen Dulles from the 1930s.}
• ^{Edwin Pauley ,as was William Casey, were private post WWII operatives of Allen Dulles per Secret War Against the Jews book. Casey and Pauley were , per the Gold Warriors book , were top operatives (with Edwin Lasndale) in the ultra secret post WWII Asian-Japanese stolen gold project that help fund post WWII anti-communist CIA operations. Edwin Lasndale was considered by Fetcher Prouty to be a Allen Dulles operative inside the Air Force.}
• ^{Dimitri Von Mohrenschildt (brother of George de Mohrenschildt ) wrote a book in the 1950s with the nephew of Allen Dulles.}
• ^{In 63 William Casey worked with Prescott Bush Jr. (brother GHWB) in a think tank advocating a stronger CIA and increased CIA covert operations.}
• ^{=====================########================================#######========================}
• ^{The Paines' Participation in the Minox Camera Charade}

  ^{by Carol Hewett, Esq.}

  ^{Almost every JFK assassination researcher is aware that the Dallas police found, and inventoried, a tiny hi-tech Minox camera amongst Oswald's personal effects when Ruth and Michael Paine's home was searched and that this camera later was omitted from an inventory list once the FBI took over the investigation. What is not generally known is the Paines' role in this camera charade.}

  ^{There were 3 separate inventory lists itemizing the evidence from the Paine household:}

  1. ^{a Dallas police List,}
  3. ^{a joint Dallas police and FBI list, and}
  5. ^{the FBI Headquarters list.}
  ^{This camera disappears from List #3. There were four separate sets of photographs of the items removed from the Paine household:}
  1. ^{the Dallas Police Crime Lab revealing the camera,}
  3. ^{the joint Dallas police and FBI photos which should have shown the camera,}
  5. ^{the altered joint set of photos which omitted the camera, and}
  7. ^{the supplement set to #3 which still failed to show the Minox camera.}
  ^{The FBI's early efforts to conceal the existence of the Minox camera did not stay secret for long, as word leaked out amongst news reporters that the FBI had altered its inventory list and that the FBI had pressured the Dallas police to alter its inventory. The FBI was now squarely in the middle of an evidence-tampering dilemma before the Warren Commission investigation was barely underway. One solution would be to produce the original camera, or any Minox camera for that matter, in order to resolve the discrepancy. This is precisely what the FBI did. Many of the documents setting forth the method by which the Minox camera "reappeared" were not released to the public until 1984 and are amongst the Paine files.}

  ^{We now know that the controversy over the Minox camera reached the highest levels of the FBI. Eventfully Hoover demanded that Dallas SAC Gordon Shanklin contact the Dallas Police, Marina Oswald and Ruth Paine to get to the bottom of the problem. Late in January 1964, Dallas FBI Agent Bardwell Odum contacted the Paines. Mr. Paine advised Odum that he still had his Minox camera in a coffee can in his garage, that it had been dropped in salt water a few years ago and that he had repaired the water damage by cleaning the camera with kerosene. According to Paine, the camera seemed to be in good working order but "someone" had bent the shutter and "now" it was not working. Paine recollected that when the law enforcement officers first searched his home, he gave them a drawer of his photographic equipment with everything in it except for the Minox camera. Paine went on to say that he had mentioned to the officers that the Minox camera was in the garage but they did not seem interested in it. This was an obvious lie for the police had in fact taken a Minox camera into custody. Paine also claimed that the Minox light meter seized that weekend belonged to him.}

  ^{Did the Paines have a prior relationship with Agent Odum that would allow the three of them to participate in a ruse? Mr. Paine told the Warren Commission that he knew "Bob" Odum, casually referring to Bardwell Odum's nickname of "Bob". Odum, incidentally, apparently lived in Irving in 1963 because Irving barbershop owner, Clifton Shasteen, told the Warren Commission that he not only cut Oswald's hair but that he also cut FBI Agent Bardwell Odum's hair. Following her Warren Commission testimony, Ruth Paine wrote the Commission seeking return of various items which belonged to her and her husband; her lists mentions only the Minox light meter and light meter case, not a Minox camera. In all the ensuing correspondence, no mention of the Minox camera is made by the Paines, Rankin or Hoover --- once again suggesting collusion.}

  ^{The camera as inventoried by the Dallas police, and later by Odum, contained exposed film. In 1977 author Alan J. Weberman obtained copies of these developed photos. 29 photos were produced, some of which depicted a freighter in a harbor and a military installation apparently situated in Central America. One of the military photos shows a blond American which the HSCA must have thought was CIA operative Gerry Patrick Hemming inasmuch as the HSCA juxtaposed two other photos of Hemming next to it for comparison. Other photographs were of Rome, including the Piaza of St. Peter and the Roman Coliseum. Still another photo in the series consists of a pet cat reclining on a checkered tiled floor.}

  ^{In the 1970's Michael Paine denied having taken such photos despite the fact that he had owned the Minox camera. In 1994, Paine would be questioned again about these matters for the Frontline TV production. This time Paine stated that the camera which was returned to him had been stolen about 5 years after the assassination along with all of the photographs from that era Is he referring to the 29 photos? Why would they have been returned if they were not his in the first place? A theft could not have occurred 5 years after 1963 because the camera marked by Odum was shown to Marina by the HSCA in 1978. In fact Marina was shown two Minox cameras! The source of the second one remains a mystery.}

  ^{Neither one of the Paines were ever questioned under oath about the camera or the photos. The pictures of Rome could have been taken by Michael during his 1955 travels to Europe for his passport application indicated that he planned to go to Italy. Oswald also indicated on his second passport application of June 1963 that he intended to travel to Italy but there is yet no indication that he actually traveled to Italy at any time. As for the cat, the Paines did in fact own a cat while living in Irving which they gave away to the family of E.E. Bruner because of their little girl's allergies. There exists an independent photo of June Oswald as a toddler playing with a white kitten. So who owned the black and white cat, the Paines or the Oswalds?}

  ^{Both of the Paines and Bardwell Odum are still alive. They must be relieved of any secrecy oaths and forced to give sworn testimony about this camera. Such testimony may help resolve whether either of the Paines or Lee Harvey Oswald worked in the capacity of an intelligence asset and also whether Michael and Lee worked together.}

• ^{=====================================}

  ^{All in the Family (The Paines)}

  ^{by Barbara LaMonica}

  ^{Ruth Paine's father, William Avery Hyde, undertook a Department of State/AID assignment to Peru within weeks of the publication of the Warren Report. His first tour of duty out of the country would last almost three years from October 1964 to August 1967. Mr. Hyde's official status was that of a contract employee for CLUSA, the Cooperative League of the USA. His job title was that of Regional Insurance Advisor for Latin America. Indeed, Mr. Hyde who for many years was an insurance executive with Nationwide Insurance Company, was the only individual at the time who was accredited to the Latin America Division of the U.S. Agency for International Development for handling insurance problems. Thus he should be considered an important asset of the U.S. government's economic policies in Latin America during that time period insofar as the promotion of capitalism and modern day business techniques was concerned.}

  ^{Hyde's tour of duty was not limited to Peru. He provided technical assistance to the launching of insurance cooperatives in Bolivia, Ecuador and Panama. His efforts were directed towards all types of coverage, including life, casualty, automobile, and mortgage insurance and brought him into contact with Latin American credit unions, banks and the housing industry. Furthermore, he urged the State Department to consider the development of a Central American Common Market modeled after the European Common Market. Hyde's experience with insurance cooperatives led him to serve as a consultant to another CLUSAAID cooperative project in Peru called the Artisan Handicraft Project. Inasmuch as Peru's major economic activity consisted of the folk arts, the U.S. government sought to upgrade the cottage industries and to increase the market for Peru's export of handicrafts through modern and large scale foreign retailers such as Sears and Roebuck. This in turn would presumably lead to a better standard of living for workers via higher wages and the development of an accompanying infrastructure.}

  ^{Ruth's father contributed to the "end-of-tour" report on the Artisan Handicraft Project as it was drawing to a close. This report, which was routed to both the State Dept. and the CIA, was found by assassination researchers at the AID library in D.C. Of special interest to the State Department was Hyde's commentary on problems, both politically and culturally, which AID technical advisors could expect to encounter when working in Latin America. These personal remarks consist of only 3 pages but the content is reminiscent of the report which Oswald made about his observations of life in Russia. In fact, a comparison of the two documents reveals Oswald to be the better writer and more thorough observer (notwithstanding the snide remarks about Oswald's writing and thinking abilities made by Norman Mailer in Oswald's Tale).}

  ^{From this, we can conclude that William Avery Hyde could have been deemed an important source of information for the Domestic Contacts Division of the CIA which collected data of a sociological and economic nature for its in-house encyclopedias on foreign nations. It is not difficult to imagine that George DeMorhenschild and Lee Harvey Oswald may have served the same purpose for the CIA following their travels abroad. In any case, we now see that there is more to Ruth's Paine's family background than revealed to us by the Warren Commission or the HSCA or Ruth Paine herself.}

Speaking of fanatic mercenaries who had gone into Cuba before and after the Bay of Pigs, we can name Larry Howard and Loran Hall.

As for "non-Agency Anglos who were associated with those exiles" we can name Gerry Patrick Hemming, who confessed to A.J. Weberman that he paid off Lee Harvey Oswald to bring his rifle to the TSBD building on 11/22/1963. Hemming was also an on-and-off pal with Larry Howard and Loran Hall.

Best regards,
--Paul Trejo

++++++++++++++++++++++++++
GEE LORAN HALL = JBS (GAAL)
(4) Finally, Larry, you say that DPD politics would show up in investigations. Normally that would be true -- but Dallas could be a major exception in the USA in 1963. William Turner describes the normal DPD officer in 1963 as radically right-wing. Gerry Patrick Hemming agreed when he said that elements in the DPD would "assassinate at a whisper." // Paul Trejo

==================================================

COMMIE ,LHO ???????

Statements That Sink The WC's Conclusions - #61

(1/1)

Rob Caprio:
As we saw in the 56th installment of this series the claim was made that Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) did NOT revoke his citizenship (and on the surface this is true, but the correct statement is he was NOT allowed to). Well, if that is true then we have some very odd things going on in the twenty six volumes.

Note: While this topic is NOT as "sexy" as some others, it is an important one in showing how the groundwork was laid for LHO even back in 1959. What was going to be his role IF JFK was NOT killed? Who knows, but this topic, and others, show he was going to be used for something eventually IMO.

********************************************************************

We have already looked at the testimony of Frances Knight (Passport Chairperson) regarding this issue, but the Warren Commission (WC) also called Abram Chayes who was a legal advisor to the State Department. Here is an exchange on this topic (again, keep in mind, the issue of a passport being issued is very relevant as IF LHO did NOT get issued one he could NOT shoot JFK (if you believe the WC’s conclusion)).

Representative Ford. Would you in the June determination have had the files from the Department of State which showed that on October 31 Oswald walked into the American Embassy.

Mr. Chayes. Oh, yes.

Representative Ford. And said "I, Lee Harvey Oswald, do hereby request that my present citizenship in the United States of America be revoked."

Mr. Chayes. Oh, yes; the entire file.

Representative Ford. And would it also have had the one of November 3d where he said "I, Lee Harvey Oswald, do hereby request that my present United States citizenship be revoked"?

Mr. Chayes. Yes; it would have had all of that.

Representative Ford. It would have had all of that?

Mr. Chayes. Yes.

Representative Ford. And it would have had the----

Mr. Chayes. But it would also have had the determination that he had to expatriate himself and that he was an American citizen. I, myself, doubt that an abortive attempt at expatriation would, certainly without more, warrant the denial of a passport to a person who was in fact a citizen.

An “abortive attempt” he says? Does this sound like an abortive attempt? Go to CE-920 and read this:

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In this document you will see it says LHO requested that his US citizenship be REVOKED and came to the consulate office of the US Embassy to SIGN THE FORMAL PAPERS, but was REFUSED by the Embassy. This clearly shows LHO did NOT “expatriate” himself ONLY because the US government wouldn’t allow him to!

He even is writing a PROTEST to the US government and mentions that he has “an application, requesting that I be considered for citizenship in the Soviet Union, is now pending before the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R.” Does that sound like someone who does NOT want to get rid of their US citizenship and expatriate himself? It sure does to me. OR, more to the point, he is an INTELLIGENCE operative running a scam for the Soviet listeners.

If we go to CE-919 and read that it seems simple to do.

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It says, “As you were informed at the time of your visit to the Embassy on October 31, 1959, it is a principal of the American Government that the right of expatriation is a natural AND INHERENT RIGHT of any person and that the manner prescribed by law for renunciation of American citizenship is the execution of an oath before a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States in the established form.” (emphasis added)

So, it seems it only took an oath at the Embassy before a diplomatic or consular officer to renounce one’s citizenship, thus, the question has to be asked, why was LHO trying to fill out paperwork to do this? He even says in his letter that he was refused his LEGAL RIGHT. Why? Who did NOT want LHO to renounce his citizenship? Or was he play acting again? Either scenario shows there were bigger plans for LHO even then and his return to the US was necessary.

What did Mr. Chayes mean by this comment?

Mr. Dulles. Is it not correct though that when you were trying to get the visa for Mrs. Oswald, you made a very strong case that his continued residence in the Soviet Union was harmful to the foreign policy of the United States, or words to that effect?

Mr. Chayes. Well, we were very anxious to get him back and I think that is right. In a sense we had him on our hands then. We were in discussion with him. He was in the Embassy and he was very directly our responsibility, so that anything that he did or that went wrong during that period, he was under our protection and we were necessarily involved.

If he went back as a tourist and got into some trouble of some kind or another, we would then have the choice I think to get involved, and we might or might not. The situation it seems to me is different when a fellow is already in trouble and you have taken steps to put the U.S. Embassy in the picture. Then you have a special responsibility if anything goes off the track and you want to take whatever steps you can to shorten the time in which you are bearing that special responsibility.

Get him back from what? Was he saying they were glad to have him back from Russia? IF so, why? He was a disaffected LONER supposedly! Also note how his staying in the USSR was "harmful to diplomatic relations" between our countries. The SAME thing would be said about looking into a CONSPIRACY by LBJ's aide to Henry Wade! It seems this was the code term then as "National Security" is now.

I think that is what he saying because this was the NEXT question.

Representative Ford. I think, Mr. Chayes, however, you are saying or you are inferring that it was a clear-cut decision back when it was determined that he had not given up his United States citizenship.

Mr. Chayes. It was in July of 1961, when his passport was renewed. We couldn't have had a passport renewal if there weren't such a determination, and in fact there was such a determination.

Representative Ford. There was such a determination?

Mr. Chayes. Yes, sir.

Of course he had NOT given up his US citizenship since it was just shown he was NOT ALLOWED TO! This kept the door open for his return to the US. Why would the US want a “sociopath” (the WC’s word) back in the US and then NOT debrief him supposedly?

Again, all of this leads one to believe LHO was on a mission and not really trying to defect as claimed. ONLY the CIA was running a mission like this, and this shows us LHO was anything but a “loner” as claimed by the WC.

====================================

http://whokilledjfk.net/lho.htm

We know that the State Department Loaned him the money for the return trip back to the United States.

I also have on video tape that the CIA supplied their Assets with Minox Cameras.

A Minox Camera was found among Oswald's possessions after his arrest. (See Spy Stuff Page)

WHY would a Repatriated Defector continue to wear his Marine Corps Ring and his Marine Corps I D Bracelet? Oswald was wearing them when he was arrested.

I can understand a U S Marine Corps Private contracting a Venarial Disease while stationed at a Top Secret U-2 Base.

What I can NOT understand is that it was contracted "In The Line of Duty"???

HOW could a Defector work on Highly Classified material?? (below) (DURING THE MISSLE CRISES)

Oct. of '62 was the Missle crises. WHAT was Oswald,s Job? see below

Robert Walker

Aug 13 2007, 01:31 AM

Post #1

Joined: 20-June 07
Member No.: 5721

As you can tell from my bio, I work at Southern Methodist University ("SMU"). When I moved to Dallas in 1999 I got a job at SMU's Center for Media & Instructional Technology ("CMIT"). The CMIT media librarian at the time (introduced to me as "Judy Childs") was in fact Judy Chiles, wife of Bill Chiles, part owner of Jaggars Chiles Stovall.

Well, you know, when I found that out I just went through the roof! So at one of our Chritmas parties, I approached Bill (who is a sweet guy) and I asked him point blank about Lee Harvey Oswald working for his company.

Bill stated that Oswald was generally a crappy employee, that we wore thick black military-type boots, was surly, and to the concern of Bill at least, walked around speaking in Russian.

Since they did some work for the US Government, Bill was concerned about this guy enough to call the FBI. Bill told the FBI that this guy named Oswald was clunking around in military boots, speaking in Russian and making a nuisance of himself. Bill said the FBI put him on hold, and then came back with (and I am paraphrasing here) "...yeah, we know about Oswald, he's okay."

For what it's worth.

Rob