Programmed to Kill: Lee Harvey Oswald, the Soviet KGB, and the Kennedy Assassination

[John Simkin]

Robin Ramsay, the editor of Lobster Magazine, has sent me this.

http://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/

This review is from: Programmed to Kill: Lee Harvey Oswald, the Soviet KGB, and the Kennedy Assassination (Hardcover)

American readers probably missed the fact that four months after Pacepa's book came out Ludvik Zifcak, the former intelligence officer in Czechoslovakia, published his book "We Killed Kennedy" (Zabili jsme Kennedyho, Nakladatelstvi ELLF). In this book Zifcak, using records from KGB archives in Moscow, fills in essential information supporting Pacepa's hypothesis. See for yourself:

Page 14: "The Soviet intelligence service mobilized all active agents and `sleepers' in the USA including those in the highest level in the US government. On November 15 they intercepted important information that preparation for the assassination of the President in the United States has began. Top secret information was delivered the same day to Khrushchev..."

Page 48: "As the President's trip to Dallas was approaching the activity in the Soviet Embassy was rising. The Soviet intelligence supplied new information about Kennedy's trip, all of them alarming. In the morning of November 20, 1963 Embassy sent to Moscow last top-secret message: "The assassination will take place probably in Dallas and the forces behind it will use it against the Soviet Union."

The Chairman of KGB Semicastnyj received the message the same day at 2PM and immediately contacted Khrushchev. The conversation like this followed:

"Hallo Nikita Sergejevjc. Excuse me but I have a very important message from Washington regarding president Kennedy. May I come over?"

"OK, come over Vladimir Jefrenovic, but as soon as possible please."

When Semicastnyj explained to Khrushchev the content of the message from Washington Nikita Sergejevic was silent for a while. "And what should we do about it now Vladimir Jefremovic?" Khrushchev asked.

"We could warn the President directly, Nikita Sergejevic," Semicastnyj offered immediately.

"It doesn't look like the best solution to me," Khrushchev replied. "President was briefed about our information already by CIA and I don't think Vladimir Jefrenovic we should be more forthcoming to Americans any more. On the other hand what guarantee we have that this information is not just a provocation against us?" Khrushchev went silent for a while and then he added: "Personally, I believe we should wait what will happen, Vladimir Jefremovic..."

Page 146: "...when speculations about possible involvement of Cuban G2 in the Kennedy's assassination surfaced Khrushchev a couple of times said: "If the Cuban involvement in the assassination of the President of the United States would be confirmed the Soviet Union wouldn't be able to support the international terrorism."

Page 157: "...At the same time KGB assigned the agent Marina Nikolajevna Prusakova on Oswald. Her assignment was to find out Oswald's objectives in the Soviet Union and to develop the position for the later relocation in the United States and establishing her position there. KGB was doing everything to make this happen including the plan of traveling the US as Oswald's wife. Regardless of Prusakova's cover job in the health sector she was actually the personal office clerk in the 1st Department of GRU. Marina was from the family of Soviet Interior Ministry colonel Prusakov and she was trained, during Seljepin leadership, for covert operation in the US or Canada. For her age she was relatively highly educated, spoke other languages and, following the script written by KGB, she quickly fall in love with Oswald. Following the same script the Soviets announced to Oswald on October 21, 1959 that his visa has expired and he must leave Moscow within 2 hours. Oswald responded by staging suicide attempt cutting his arteries on the left hand. He was hospitalized in the hospital where Prusakova has free access to him purposefully building their relationship.....After detailed debriefing where KGB focused on military information, Soviet intelligence decided leave Oswald in the Soviet Union but don't grant him the citizenship. For a good reason. As the Soviet citizen Oswald would have no value for KGB. The objective was to get him and agent Prusakova back to the USA."

Page 158: "After their return to the United States Oswald and his wife Marina attracted attention of CIA and FBI. It is clear from KGB documents that she was in close touch with the Soviet intelligence all the time informing them about the preparation for the assassination. Her activity prevented later indictment of the Soviet Union and Cuba in the assassination plot. Based on Marina's information both countries refused to give visa to Oswald shortly before the assassination. It became clear later that information sent by Marina to the Soviet intelligence probably prevented the war because American intelligence services wanted to blame Soviet Union and Castro's regime for Kennedy's assassination."

Page 171: "Embassy in Washington sent following information to Moscow: "Dallas Court is hiding the information about the contact between Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Rubby. According to the court's records both men met on October 4, 1963. During the meeting they discussed options of the President's assassination and it's financing..."

According to the information from the Soviet agent the assassination was discussed 50 days in advance."

Anyway, Pacepa's book "Programmed to Kill" is an excellent reading for everyone interested in the mystery of Kennedy's assassination. With Zifcak co-incidentally supporting Pacepa's picture this book shines new light on the case, the light nobody else would dare to turn on.

Robert Buchar

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A2QF1FJYRW18VZ/ref=cm_cr_pr_pdp

[John Simkin]

Michael Ledeen has also reviewed Programmed to Kill: Lee Harvey Oswald, the Soviet KGB, and the Kennedy Assassination at Amazon:

A new book from General Ion Mihai Pacepa is cause for celebration, because he is among a tiny handful of people who know a lot about the intelligence services of the Soviet Empire, and because he writes about it with rare lucidity, always with an eye to helping us understand our world. His first book, "Red Horizons," is indubitably the most brilliant portrait of a Communist regime I've ever read. "Programmed to Kill" is equally fascinating, not least because it contains both a convincing theory about the Kennedy Assassination and scores of enlightening stories about Pacepa's own life, many of which I had never heard before.

Pacepa was unique in the Cold War: the highest ranking intelligence officer to defect from the Soviet bloc. He was Ceausescu's top strategic adviser, and the acting chief of the Romanian secret intelligence service. His defection resulted in the total shutdown of the Romanians' clandestine activities, making him unique in the history of modern espionage. Moreover, his many intimate working relations with Soviet intelligence officials made him an invaluable source of information and understanding of our major enemy.

He arrived in Washington back in 1978 with two blockbuster messages: first, that the presentation of Ceausescu as an "independent Communist" with whom the United States could work, was a deliberate deception. And second, that Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin of John F. Kennedy, was an agent of the KGB, programmed to kill JFK, and did so despite frantic Soviet efforts to stop him.

American officials hated both of those messages, because they were in direct conflict with what the U.S. Intelligence Community had been telling successive presidents, and challenged the bases of much of American foreign policy toward the Soviet Union. Both the Intelligence Community and the State Department had assured the White House that Ceausescu was genuinely independent, and `we could work with him.' Pacepa showed that Ceausescu worked in lockstep with the Soviets, and, for example, was tricking the United States into selling advanced technology to Romania that went directly to Moscow. For a while some of the spooks were so upset with what Pacepa had to say that they threatened to send him back to Romania, and certain death, a testament to the lengths to which some bureaucrats will go to silence someone who has "bad news" they don't want heard.

I don't think anyone can read "Programmed to Kill" and still believe that Oswald had no working relationship with the KGB. Pacepa painstakingly takes us through the documentary evidence, including invaluable material on Soviet bloc cyphers that throws new light on Oswald's letters to KGB officers in Washington and Mexico City. And he argues convincingly that the KGB had assigned a case officer to Oswald, about which I will say no more except that his secrets were on the verge of becoming public, whereupon he blew his brains out.

No novelist could have written a more exciting story, made all the more compelling because of Pacepa's first-hand involvement in the Russians' efforts to hide their Oswald connection. He spent many hours writing the language that disinformation agents were to use with their Western friends, and he recognizes his words in some of the articles and books that purported to tell the true story of the Kennedy Assassination.

Why were the Soviets so desperate to stop Oswald? Surely not because they had suddenly developed moral qualms about assassination, and least of all because Khrushchev -- who had ordered the operation in the first place- -- ad decided Kennedy was a good guy. Khrushchev didn't just call off Oswald's operation, he cancelled all assassinations after a KGB agent had been caught in West Germany in the course of a similar operation. The Soviet dictator decided it was best to lie low for a while, and several murderous plots were put on hold. This, too, was part of Pacepa's work.

Finally there is the fascinating question of Jack Ruby, Oswald's killer. Pacepa is not convinced by Ruby's claim that he killed Oswald out of rage. Pacepa thinks he acted at the behest of the Cuban regime, and was later poisoned in order to silence him.

It's a complicated tale, because, Pacepa argues, you need to know a great deal about Soviet intelligence methods in order to understand the evidence. To that end, he provides a long supplement at the end of "Programmed to Kill," entitled "Connecting the Dots." He goes through the evidentiary trail bit by bit, including his own experiences that help understand the "dots."

It's entirely appropriate, for Pacepa's own life is the key to understanding that terrible moment in November, 1963, from which so much of the contemporary world took shape.

Michael Ledeen

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A3Q6NHSF9YMGM5/ref=cm_cr_pr_pdp

[John Simkin]

Considering Michael Ledeen's background, this could well be a CIA disinformation campaign.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ledeen

Robert Buchar is also a very interesting character.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Buchar

[Pamela Brown]

Agent Hosty told me that he believed if there was a spy in the Oswald family it was Marina. He thought she was a sleeper. He also didn't like her, and called her a 'snake-in-the-grass', which seemed a bit excessive, especially considering how the WC and almost everyone else saw her as a lovely victim.

[David Andrews]

Again, for comparison, it would be useful to have a study of the other Americans, especially US military, who defected and returned in the same period as Oswald.

Can't believe no one's put Oswald in that context - thus leaving him a singularity susceptible to LNs and other misinterpreters.

Edited February 14, 2011 by David Andrews

[Greg Parker]

Page 146: "...when speculations about possible involvement of Cuban G2 in the Kennedy's assassination surfaced Khrushchev a couple of times said: "If the Cuban involvement in the assassination of the President of the United States would be confirmed the Soviet Union wouldn't be able to support the international terrorism."

Wiki on Ledeen:

Michael Arthur Ledeen (born Los Angeles, California, August 1, 1941) is an American specialist on foreign policy. His research areas have included state sponsors of terrorism, Iran, the Middle East, Europe (Italy), U.S.-China relations, intelligence, and Africa (Mozambique, South Africa, and Zimbabwe) and is a leading neoconservative.

I ask, would Khrushchev ever have uttered a word about sponsoring "international terrorism" to anyone? Sponsoring international Anti-Imperialist forces? Maybe. International freedom fighters? Almost certainly. But international terrorism???? Not in a pink fit. I'd bet London to a brick those words were written by Leedon, and they betray this as being a propaganda effort - though not a particularly smart one.

[Guest Robert Morrow]

Considering Michael Ledeen's background, this could well be a CIA disinformation campaign.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ledeen

Robert Buchar is also a very interesting character.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Buchar

You simply can not trust anything that comes out of Michael Ledeen's mouth. It would not surprise me at all if what Michael Ledeen wrote was a CIA disinformation campaign. Here is Ledeen's "debunking" of the October Surprise theory by Gary Sick. It is recognized today by most authorities that there is no question that the Reagan campaign in 1980 made a dirty deal with the Iranians to NOT release the American hostages until after the 1980 election.

Admiral Bobby Inman told me in a personal interview in spring, 2009 that there was "no doubt" in his mind that William Casey, Reagan's campaign manager, was making such a deal with the Iranians. Inman told me he did not think that GHW Bush was involved because "Casey hated Bush."

I beg to differ, I believe that GHW Bush was involved up to his ears in the dirty dealings with the Iranians.

Here is Ledeen's attempt at a debunking in June, 1992, in the middle of the campaign season that year. This, of course, is in the same time frame that George Herbert Walker Bush is using CIA assassins to terrify Ross Perot out of the 1992 campaign (see Chip Tatum, Pegasus).

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/october-surprise-by-gary-sick/

[Thomas Graves]

Considering Michael Ledeen's background, this could well be a CIA disinformation campaign.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Ledeen

Robert Buchar is also a very interesting character.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Buchar

You simply can not trust anything that comes out of Michael Ledeen's mouth. It would not surprise me at all if what Michael Ledeen wrote was a CIA disinformation campaign. Here is Ledeen's "debunking" of the October Surprise theory by Gary Sick. It is recognized today by most authorities that there is no question that the Reagan campaign in 1980 made a dirty deal with the Iranians to NOT release the American hostages until after the 1980 election.

Admiral Bobby Inman told me in a personal interview in spring, 2009 that there was "no doubt" in his mind that William Casey, Reagan's campaign manager, was making such a deal with the Iranians. Inman told me he did not think that GHW Bush was involved because "Casey hated Bush."

I beg to differ, I believe that GHW Bush was involved up to his ears in the dirty dealings with the Iranians.

Here is Ledeen's attempt at a debunking in June, 1992, in the middle of the campaign season that year. This, of course, is in the same time frame that George Herbert Walker Bush is using CIA assassins to terrify Ross Perot out of the 1992 campaign (see Chip Tatum, Pegasus).

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/october-surprise-by-gary-sick/

bumped

Didn't Leeden also have something to do with the falsifying / transmitting of the "Niger yellow cake uranium" memo that George W. and Cheney and Colin Powell used as a pretext for invading Iraq?

--Tommy

[Keyvan Shahrdar]

James Wooley, a former director of the CIA just referenced Programmed to Kill, written by Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest intelligence official ever to defect from the Soviet bloc, and how the Russians called off the assassination of JFK by Oswald to only have Oswald go ahead with the assassination himself.  I cannot believe the CIA is still pushing the lone nut theory and the Russia did it story.  There is photographic and film evidence showing two assassins in the pergola next to the grassy knoll in Dealey Plaza.  One of the Tramps is Harold Doyle, he had what appears to be the butt of a rifle on the left lapel of his jacket in one of the photographs taken by a Dallas reporter.  BTW, two of the tramps Harold Doyle and John Gedney are Army veterans, Oswald, a Marine.  Gus W. Abrams, I do not know if he is ex-military, but I suspect so.

From the photographic and film evidence, I suspect that the "Tramps" was an assassination team and I also suspect that Generals in the Pentagon did it!

Edited October 23, 2017 by Keyvan Shahrdar