The Ultimate USAEC secrets per the JFK hit.

[Thomas Graves]

edited and bumped so Gaal can't ignore it (GRAVES)

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

The thrust of the debate on this thread has become whether or not High or Low level CIA people are part of the JFK assassination.

POST #84 above has answers to said debate. Thomas Vallee's car registration is a inconsequential sidebar that has become a stumbling block for Mr. Graves.

When you make garbage statements in your posts, you can expect to be challenged.

Example: You said that Thomas Vallee was driving a car registered to Lee Harvey Oswald.

LOL

--Tommy

Edited July 13, 2014 by Thomas Graves

[Thomas Graves]

"Gilberto Policarpo Lopez was also a very LOW-LEVEL intelligence asset. Yet even though his career parallels Oswald's in so many ways, it is rushing to judgment to presume that he was being groomed to be a patsy of the JFK murder."

--PAUL TREJO

#############################################

LOW LEVEL CIA PEOPLE AWARE OF LOPEZ OPERATION BELOW ??

LOW LEVEL PEOPLE GET SUCH SIMILAR PEOPLE (SIMILAR HISTORIES) IN SAME LINE OF ACTIVITY BELOW ??

http://jfkcountercou...retrospect.html

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

“In both the Tampa and Dallas attempts, officials sought a young man in his early twenties, white with slender build, who had been in recent contact with a small pro-Castro group called the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC). In Dallas that was Lee Harvey Oswald, but the Tampa person of interest was Gilberto Policarpo Lopez, who – like Oswald- was a former defector. 44 We later document eighteen parallels between Dallas suspect Lee Harvey Oswald and Gilberto Policarpo Lopez, but here are a few: Like Oswald, Lopez was also of interest to Navy Intelligence. Also similar to Oswald, Gilberto Lopez made a mysterious trip to Mexico City in the fall of 1963, attempting to get to Cuba. Lopez even used the same border crossing as Oswald, and government reports say both went one way by car, though neither man owned a car. Like Oswald, Lopez had recently separated from his wife and had gotten into a fistfight in the summer of 1963 over supposedly pro-Castro sympathies. 45 Declassified Warren Commission and CIA documents confirm that Lopez, whose movements parallel Oswald in so many ways in 1963, was on a secret ‘mission’ for the US involving Cuba, an ‘operation’ so secret that the CIA felt that protecting it was considered more important than thoroughly investigating the JFK assassination.” 46

################################################################

• Per Bolden the Secret Service coverup was orchestrated by the Secret Service HDQ in Washington DC.
• There were the Tampa and Chicago plots (which I have already mentioned in this THREAD) indicating a larger organizational operation.
• Lopez fits a pattern. Thomas Vallee in Chicago drove 1962 Ford Falcon that registered in the name of Lee Harvey Oswald. THUS THERE IS NO RUSH TO JUDGEMENT. I dont know why you dont see the higher level CIA operation. Its possible that your conservative ideology precludes you from criticism of police/military (CIA) organizations.

• May 14th, 2008
  An Odyssey for Truth and Justice
  Ed McCarthy of the White House News Photographer Association/H.V. Press, Former SS Agent Abraham Bolden, and Adult Education Director of Newburgh Enlarged School District Gary Van Voorhis during Bolden’s recent visit to the area as part of his book tour for “The Echo from Dealy Plaza.”

  By Ed McCarthy

  An odyssey that began 5 decades ago by Abraham Bolden continues to this day. Bolden was the first African-American to serve The White House Presidential Protection detail. He was hand-picked personally by President John F. Kennedy to serve on the detail. President Kennedy affectionately referred to Bolden as "The Jackie Robinson of The Secret Service". Bolden had been a Pinkerton National Detective and an Illinois State Police Investigator prior to joining the U.S. Secret Service in October 1960.

  In the course of his duties, he found laxity in the security for the president and also some agents deep concerns as to President Kennedy’s safety. He also told of the severe racism that he encountered from some of the agents. (In current history there is a class action lawsuit by Black agents of the Secret Service alleging basically the same conditions exist. The case even refers to Bolden’s plight).

  Bolden then was assigned to the Chicago SS office where he worked counterfeit cases. On November 1, 1963, the Chicago SS office had received a teletype warning of a "Cuban" hit team in Chicago to Assassinate the President on his trip to Chicago, on November 2^nd, to see the Army-Navy football game. Other agents, as well as Bolden, were made aware of the situation. A tip was received from a rooming house landlady who said her tenant, Thomas Arthur Vallee, was threatening the president and arranged to have off from work the next day. Chicago police and the Secret Service stopped a car driven by former U.S. Marine Vallee for a headlight that was out. The ticket is still sealed as classified at the national archives. Vallee’s car was found to contain explosives an M-1 Rifle and 3000 round of ammunition. Vallee was briefly detained and released. Simultaneously the SS agents had surveillance on two of the alleged Cuban Hitmen who managed to slip away. The President’s trip was cancelled.

  The license plate and registration on the 1962 Ford Falcon that Vallee was driving on November 1^st in Chicago was New York Registration License plate # 311-ORF and was registered in the name of Lee Harvey Oswald. This is 21 days prior to President Kennedy’s assassination and the world knowing the name Oswald.

  Bolden shortly thereafter was back in Washington on assignment and spoke to Secret Service Director James J. Rowley and as he had with U.B. Baughman the previous director had told him of his observations and knowledge of the Chicago incidents. Bolden tried to contact Warren Commission Counsel J. Lee Rankin. The very next day Bolden was arrested and falsely accused of soliciting a bribe from counterfeiter. This put Bolden through two trials and wound up in prison for more than 3 years before the witnesses broke down under oath in Federal Court and told that they were forced by the Government to lie against Bolden. The Prosecutor in the case was called before the judge and took the 5^th amendment when asked if the frame up were true. The ordeal of Bolden is well documented in his new book "The Echo from Dealey Plaza".

  In research at The National Archives in Washington of The Assassination files of 25 Million documents it turned up that in fact NY plate 311-ORF at the Vallee Traffic stop was registered in the Name of Lee Harvey Oswald. Documents declassified also state that same car in Dallas Texas at the time of the assassination. The detailed information with the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles is still withheld by order of The US Secret Service and The FBI. In the 1960’s license plate in the Hudson Valley were coded OR for Orange County, UL which meant Ulster County, SU was Sullivan County and DU was Dutchess County. Of the 25 Million documents in The JFK Assassination archives, there is a 6 page Secret Service report about a trip of President Kennedy to Stewart Air Force Base, (Newburgh, NY) and of him being shadowed by two member of George Lincoln Rockwell’s American Nazi Party.

  Bolden has never received an apology for what he was put through. This man is truly an American Hero. In this writer’s opinion, he should be given an apology publicly and Awarded either "The Presidential Medal of Freedom" or "The Congressional Gold Medal" which is awarded for "An especially meritorious Contribution to the security or National Security." Abraham Bolden today is as patriotic as they come and deeply believes in the American way. He is a true patriot and for him the dream’s not over. Let’s not disappoint him. This is a chance for America to make it right.

  Information for this article was from released documents from the National Archives.

posted in fair use from The Hudson Valley Press.

################################################

https://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/The_CIA_and_the_JFK_Assassination

[...]

Bumped to show that Gaal is the one who made a such a big deal out of the unsubstantiated allegation that Thomas Vallee was driving a car "registered to Lee Harvey Oswald" when arrested in Chicago.

Note the huge red letters used by Gaal and the green color that he applied to part of an article by Ed McCarthy to try to make his point, but now claims that it was only an "inconsequential sidebar" in this thread.

LOL

Actually, Gaal is right, in a twisted kind of way of course. Because it is inconsequential now, isn't it, Steven?

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=62272&relPageId=51

Question: Why should any serious researcher or student of the JFK assassination take you seriously when you naively and fanatically believe and promulgate everything you read that appears to support your theories?

I wouldn't be surprised if you believed Robert Vinson's tale of a CIA-owned military cargo plane landing on the bank of the Trinity River to take Oswald's "double" away." If so, try reading this with an open mind:

From an article about Robert Vinson at http://22november1963.org.uk/robert-vinson-jfk-assassination :

JFK and the Unspeakable and Robert Vinson

Robert Vinson’s story raises several questions which Douglass’s account, along with those of other commentators, does not consider:

• Although an expert claimed that it was possible to land a plane of the correct type on a particular area close to the Trinity River, no corroboration of the event appears to exist. One might imagine that there would be plenty of eye–witnesses to a large cargo plane landing and taking off a mile or so from downtown Dallas a few hours after the city had become the centre of the world’s attention. Not only is no corroboration cited, but JFK and the Unspeakable fails to mention any effort to find witnesses or documentary evidence to demonstrate that such an unusual event occurred.
• Sending a large cargo plane with distinctive markings hundreds of miles to collect one man is not the most practical or efficient way to remove a conspirator quietly from the scene of the crime. There were plenty of roads out of Dallas, and the chance of anyone getting stopped must have been insignificant. Someone who looked like Oswald would have been under no more suspicion than anyone else until about 2pm, when Oswald’s appearance became known as he was paraded through the police station. The plane is supposed to have arrived in Dallas at around 3:30pm, by which time someone escaping by car could have been far away.
• The Oswald double is supposed to have made his escape in no fewer than four cars, but covered only four or five miles in three hours. A Rambler station wagon took him away from Dealey Plaza; more than an hour later, a police car took him away from the Texas Theater; a few minutes later, he drove a red Falcon from an unknown location to a car park outside a restaurant; and finally, an hour and a half later, he disembarked from a jeep before boarding the plane.

Although JFK and the Unspeakable is one of the better books about the assassination, its need to present a complete narrative of events has led James Douglass to include several episodes, in particular the Robert Vinson story, which may be true but which lack corroboration and hence credibility.

[emphasis added by T. Graves]

--Tommy

Edited July 14, 2014 by Thomas Graves

[Thomas Graves]

"Gilberto Policarpo Lopez was also a very LOW-LEVEL intelligence asset. Yet even though his career parallels Oswald's in so many ways, it is rushing to judgment to presume that he was being groomed to be a patsy of the JFK murder."

--PAUL TREJO

#############################################

LOW LEVEL CIA PEOPLE AWARE OF LOPEZ OPERATION BELOW ??

LOW LEVEL PEOPLE GET SUCH SIMILAR PEOPLE (SIMILAR HISTORIES) IN SAME LINE OF ACTIVITY BELOW ??

http://jfkcountercou...retrospect.html

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

“In both the Tampa and Dallas attempts, officials sought a young man in his early twenties, white with slender build, who had been in recent contact with a small pro-Castro group called the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC). In Dallas that was Lee Harvey Oswald, but the Tampa person of interest was Gilberto Policarpo Lopez, who – like Oswald- was a former defector. 44 We later document eighteen parallels between Dallas suspect Lee Harvey Oswald and Gilberto Policarpo Lopez, but here are a few: Like Oswald, Lopez was also of interest to Navy Intelligence. Also similar to Oswald, Gilberto Lopez made a mysterious trip to Mexico City in the fall of 1963, attempting to get to Cuba. Lopez even used the same border crossing as Oswald, and government reports say both went one way by car, though neither man owned a car. Like Oswald, Lopez had recently separated from his wife and had gotten into a fistfight in the summer of 1963 over supposedly pro-Castro sympathies. 45 Declassified Warren Commission and CIA documents confirm that Lopez, whose movements parallel Oswald in so many ways in 1963, was on a secret ‘mission’ for the US involving Cuba, an ‘operation’ so secret that the CIA felt that protecting it was considered more important than thoroughly investigating the JFK assassination.” 46

################################################################

• Per Bolden the Secret Service coverup was orchestrated by the Secret Service HDQ in Washington DC.
• There were the Tampa and Chicago plots (which I have already mentioned in this THREAD) indicating a larger organizational operation.
• Lopez fits a pattern. Thomas Vallee in Chicago drove 1962 Ford Falcon that registered in the name of Lee Harvey Oswald. THUS THERE IS NO RUSH TO JUDGEMENT. I dont know why you dont see the higher level CIA operation. Its possible that your conservative ideology precludes you from criticism of police/military (CIA) organizations.

• May 14th, 2008
  An Odyssey for Truth and Justice
  Ed McCarthy of the White House News Photographer Association/H.V. Press, Former SS Agent Abraham Bolden, and Adult Education Director of Newburgh Enlarged School District Gary Van Voorhis during Bolden’s recent visit to the area as part of his book tour for “The Echo from Dealy Plaza.”

  By Ed McCarthy

  An odyssey that began 5 decades ago by Abraham Bolden continues to this day. Bolden was the first African-American to serve The White House Presidential Protection detail. He was hand-picked personally by President John F. Kennedy to serve on the detail. President Kennedy affectionately referred to Bolden as "The Jackie Robinson of The Secret Service". Bolden had been a Pinkerton National Detective and an Illinois State Police Investigator prior to joining the U.S. Secret Service in October 1960.

  In the course of his duties, he found laxity in the security for the president and also some agents deep concerns as to President Kennedy’s safety. He also told of the severe racism that he encountered from some of the agents. (In current history there is a class action lawsuit by Black agents of the Secret Service alleging basically the same conditions exist. The case even refers to Bolden’s plight).

  Bolden then was assigned to the Chicago SS office where he worked counterfeit cases. On November 1, 1963, the Chicago SS office had received a teletype warning of a "Cuban" hit team in Chicago to Assassinate the President on his trip to Chicago, on November 2^nd, to see the Army-Navy football game. Other agents, as well as Bolden, were made aware of the situation. A tip was received from a rooming house landlady who said her tenant, Thomas Arthur Vallee, was threatening the president and arranged to have off from work the next day. Chicago police and the Secret Service stopped a car driven by former U.S. Marine Vallee for a headlight that was out. The ticket is still sealed as classified at the national archives. Vallee’s car was found to contain explosives an M-1 Rifle and 3000 round of ammunition. Vallee was briefly detained and released. Simultaneously the SS agents had surveillance on two of the alleged Cuban Hitmen who managed to slip away. The President’s trip was cancelled.

  The license plate and registration on the 1962 Ford Falcon that Vallee was driving on November 1^st in Chicago was New York Registration License plate # 311-ORF and was registered in the name of Lee Harvey Oswald. This is 21 days prior to President Kennedy’s assassination and the world knowing the name Oswald.

  Bolden shortly thereafter was back in Washington on assignment and spoke to Secret Service Director James J. Rowley and as he had with U.B. Baughman the previous director had told him of his observations and knowledge of the Chicago incidents. Bolden tried to contact Warren Commission Counsel J. Lee Rankin. The very next day Bolden was arrested and falsely accused of soliciting a bribe from counterfeiter. This put Bolden through two trials and wound up in prison for more than 3 years before the witnesses broke down under oath in Federal Court and told that they were forced by the Government to lie against Bolden. The Prosecutor in the case was called before the judge and took the 5^th amendment when asked if the frame up were true. The ordeal of Bolden is well documented in his new book "The Echo from Dealey Plaza".

  In research at The National Archives in Washington of The Assassination files of 25 Million documents it turned up that in fact NY plate 311-ORF at the Vallee Traffic stop was registered in the Name of Lee Harvey Oswald. Documents declassified also state that same car in Dallas Texas at the time of the assassination. The detailed information with the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles is still withheld by order of The US Secret Service and The FBI. In the 1960’s license plate in the Hudson Valley were coded OR for Orange County, UL which meant Ulster County, SU was Sullivan County and DU was Dutchess County. Of the 25 Million documents in The JFK Assassination archives, there is a 6 page Secret Service report about a trip of President Kennedy to Stewart Air Force Base, (Newburgh, NY) and of him being shadowed by two member of George Lincoln Rockwell’s American Nazi Party.

  Bolden has never received an apology for what he was put through. This man is truly an American Hero. In this writer’s opinion, he should be given an apology publicly and Awarded either "The Presidential Medal of Freedom" or "The Congressional Gold Medal" which is awarded for "An especially meritorious Contribution to the security or National Security." Abraham Bolden today is as patriotic as they come and deeply believes in the American way. He is a true patriot and for him the dream’s not over. Let’s not disappoint him. This is a chance for America to make it right.

  Information for this article was from released documents from the National Archives.

posted in fair use from The Hudson Valley Press.

################################################

https://www.maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/The_CIA_and_the_JFK_Assassination

[...]

This July 10, 2014 post by Steven Gaal was bumped by me to show that Gaal is the one who made a such a big deal out of the unsubstantiated and therefore non-credible allegation that Thomas Vallee was driving a car "registered to Lee Harvey Oswald" when arrested in Chicago.

Note the huge red letters used by Gaal and the green color that Gaal applied to part of an article by Ed McCarthy to try to emphasize his point -- that "Vallee's car was registered to Lee Harvey Oswald." !!!

It seems hypocritical and disingenuous of Gaal to now claim that this Thomas Vallee car registration issue is only an "inconsequential sidebar" of this thread.

If it was so inconsequential, why did you express it in huge red letters and green-highlighted text, Stevie?

LOL

Actually, Stevie is right, in a twisted kind of way of course. Because it is inconsequential now, isn't it, Stevie?

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=62272&relPageId=51

Question for Stevie Gaal: Why should any serious researcher or student of the JFK assassination take you seriously when you naively and fanatically believe and perpetuate everything you read that appears to support your theories?

I wouldn't be surprised if you actually believed Robert Vinson's tale of a CIA-owned military cargo plane landing on the bank of the Trinity River to take Oswald's "double" away.

If so, try reading the following with an open mind.

From an article about Robert Vinson at http://22november1963.org.uk/robert-vinson-jfk-assassination :

.....

JFK and the Unspeakable and Robert Vinson

Robert Vinson’s story raises several questions which Douglass’s account, along with those of other commentators, does not consider:

• Although an expert claimed that it was possible to land a plane of the correct type on a particular area close to the Trinity River, no corroboration of the event appears to exist. One might imagine that there would be plenty of eye–witnesses to a large cargo plane landing and taking off a mile or so from downtown Dallas a few hours after the city had become the centre of the world’s attention. Not only is no corroboration cited, but JFK and the Unspeakable fails to mention any effort to find witnesses or documentary evidence to demonstrate that such an unusual event occurred.
• Sending a large cargo plane with distinctive markings hundreds of miles to collect one man is not the most practical or efficient way to remove a conspirator quietly from the scene of the crime. There were plenty of roads out of Dallas, and the chance of anyone getting stopped must have been insignificant. Someone who looked like Oswald would have been under no more suspicion than anyone else until about 2pm, when Oswald’s appearance became known as he was paraded through the police station. The plane is supposed to have arrived in Dallas at around 3:30pm, by which time someone escaping by car could have been far away.
• The Oswald double is supposed to have made his escape in no fewer than four cars, but covered only four or five miles in three hours. A Rambler station wagon took him away from Dealey Plaza; more than an hour later, a police car took him away from the Texas Theater; a few minutes later, he drove a red Falcon from an unknown location to a car park outside a restaurant; and finally, an hour and a half later, he disembarked from a jeep before boarding the plane.

Although JFK and the Unspeakable is one of the better books about the assassination, its need to present a complete narrative of events has led James Douglass to include several episodes, in particular the Robert Vinson story, which may be true but which lack corroboration and hence credibility.

[emphasis added by T. Graves]

--Tommy

expanded and bumped

Edited July 15, 2014 by Thomas Graves

[Larry Hancock]

After working the issue of the Vinson story from its inception, contacting his lawyer numerous times over the years and responding to Vinson's offer to deal with questions and issues published in his book - and receiving no reply - I can positively that there are a great many issues with it, including the fact that Vinson could not differentiate what was going on with his recruitment to the SR71 program and the CIA security checking associated with that from his story of 1963. I admire Douglas a lot but I wish there had been a chance to have some dialog with him on certain of his items, such as the Vinson story, before he went to press.

-- Larry

[Thomas Graves]

After working the issue of the Vinson story from its inception, contacting his lawyer numerous times over the years and responding to Vinson's offer to deal with questions and issues published in his book - and receiving no reply - I can positively that there are a great many issues with it, including the fact that Vinson could not differentiate what was going on with his recruitment to the SR71 program and the CIA security checking associated with that from his story of 1963. I admire Douglas a lot but I wish there had been a chance to have some dialog with him on certain of his items, such as the Vinson story, before he went to press.

-- Larry

Larry,

I wouldn't be surprised if Vinson's story was very sophisticated, albeit implausible, CIA disinformation. After all, he did say that he went to work for the CIA in 1965, didn't he? http://22november1963.org.uk/robert-vinson-jfk-assassination

Either that, or the sad product of a deranged mind,,,

Interesting that he didn't let you take him up on his offer to answer questions.

--Tommy

Edited July 14, 2014 by Thomas Graves

[Steven Gaal]

I wouldn't be surprised if you believed Robert Vinson's tale of a CIA-owned military cargo plane landing on the bank of the Trinity River to take Oswald's "double" away." // GRAVES

????????

Never posted on the issue.As a matter of fact I communicated to Jack White that the story was hard to believe. It was to open an operation.for the CIA As to Vallee the document you keep showing car registration I posted first in the thread,not you.

++++++
Since you dont acknowledged what has become the major issue of the thread (level of CIA involvement in JFK assassination). I will repost the uncommented upon post # 84. Continual reposting seems Mr. Graves forte.

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

Posted Yesterday, 12:29 AM

===

JFK Assassination: First JFK Conspiracy Theory Was Paid For By The CIA

By Joseph Lazzaro@JosephLazzaro
on December 05 2013 2:23 PM

• 
  CIA Miami Chief of Covert Operations George Joannides’ actions in 1963 provide strong evidence that certain Central Intelligence Agency personnel manipulated Lee Harvey Oswald (pictured above) for propaganda purposes both before and after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963. Above: Oswald handing out leaflets for his "Fair Play For Cuba" committee in New Orleans in Aug. 1963. WikiCommons

Less than one day after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, a Central Intelligence Agency-funded organization in Miami published a special edition of its monthly magazine in which it linked the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, to Cuban President Fidel Castro.

According to JFKFacts.org moderator Jefferson Morley, this was the first JFK assassination conspiracy theory to reach the public in print.

Moreover, the CIA propaganda effort remains exactly that -- a lie and an attempt to spread a conspiracy theory -- because there has never been a preponderance of evidence -- let alone incontrovertible evidence -- that Castro or Castro-backed groups organized or implemented a plot to murder the U.S. president.

The Nov. 23, 1963, special edition of the magazine, Trinchera (in English: Trenches), was published by members of the Cuban Student Directorate, a CIA-funded organization based in Miami.

Leaders of the Directorate, also known as the DRE, its Spanish acronym, received $51,000 per month in 1963 dollars ($389,000 per month in 2013 dollars), or roughly $4.8 million per year, from the CIA, according to an April 1963 memo found in the JFK Library in Boston.

Declassified CIA records prove that the publication was paid for by undercover CIA Officer George Joannides, who was chief of psychological operations in the CIA’s Miami station.

Ongoing Suit To Make Public JFK Assassination Files Held By CIA

Morley is the plaintiff in the ongoing Morley v. CIA suit, which seeks to make public Joannides’ classified files.

Morley believes Joannides’ files -- and at least some of the information in the more than 1,100 other related classified files from key CIA officers -- will provide more information regarding the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of President Kennedy. The CIA, which said the files are “not believed relevant” to the JFK assassination, has refused to make public the files, citing “national security.” However, the CIA's claim has never been independently verified.

In Morley’s suit, his attorney has responded to the CIA’s latest brief, on the issue of court fees. Having won on appeal twice, the plaintiff Morley argues that the standard practice of the U.S government paying court fees for a successful appeal should apply. The CIA counters that the litigation has not generated any significant new information, and therefore the government should not have to pay the court fees. The issue is now in the hands of U.S. Judge Richard Leon.

Other files related to the JFK assassination that the CIA refuses to make public include the files of CIA Officers David Atlee Phillips, Birch D. O’Neal, E. Howard Hunt, William King Harvey and Anne Goodpasture.

Regarding the Directorate (DRE), within the CIA, the south Florida Anti-Castro group was known by its code name AMSPELL. The group was “conceived, created and funded by the Agency in September 1960 and terminated in December 1966,” according to a CIA memo, dated April 1967.

CIA Miami Psychological Warfare Operations Chief Joannides handled contacts with the DRE, according to Joannides’ July 1963 job evaluation. With the CIA’s support, the DRE engaged in “intelligence collection, political action and propaganda.”

In its Nov. 23, 1963, special edition, the DRE's Trinchera focused on comments Oswald made during a debate on a New Orleans radio program with DRE Delegate Carlos Bringuier in August 1963. The DRE asserted that Oswald and Castro were “the presumed assassins.”

Also, earlier, in August 1963, Joannides’s AMSPELL had a series of encounters with a Castro supporter named Oswald in New Orleans. The Cuban students confronted and publicized Oswald’s one-man chapter of the pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba Committee, which generated newspaper, radio and TV coverage of Oswald’s obscure, tiny political action group.

Hence, two objective facts stemming from the above are:

1) Joannides was running “psychological warfare” operations aimed at discrediting Castro supporters in the United States in the summer of 1963.

2) Members of Joannides’ AMSPELL network played a leading role in publicizing Oswald’s pro-Castro views both before and after Kennedy was assassinated.

The question Morley v CIA seeks to answer is: are the two facts related?

The CIA could clarify the situation, but, as noted, the CIA won’t make public or release the aforementioned files on Joannides, nor will it make public the files of the other key CIA officers.

CIA: Pattern Of Obstruction Regarding Joannides, Et Al.

So what, one may ask, is the CIA hiding? What is in the Joannides’ file and the other CIA officers’ files that the Agency is so worried about?

It might be something as minor as an operation or project that was mismanaged or had failed despite a large amount of money, time, energy or resources allocated to it. No U.S. government department wants to be seen foundering or mismanaging public dollars -- particularly not in the current era of fiscal austerity.

That said, given the CIA’s history of failing to tell the truth and obfuscation, the Joannides’ files may indicate something more substantial, something that reflects adversely -- or worse -- on the Agency. That’s because the CIA’s latest refusal to make public the files represents the fourth time the Agency has opposed a public interest effort to obtain the full truth on the assassination of President Kennedy. Those incidences:

1) Warren Commission: delay and obstruct. In 1964, CIA Deputy Director Richard Helms, “the man who kept the secrets,” and Joannides’ boss, never told the Warren Commission that Kennedy’s alleged assassin had scuffled with the CIA-backed Cubans in New Orleans. Helms also never disclosed that Joannides -- and other CIA agents who were under his supervision and funding -- had helped communicate the story of Oswald’s pro-Castro activities. It wasn’t until 1998 -- when the CIA was forced to disclose Joannides’ support for Oswald’s antagonists among the anti-Castro students -- that the public learned of this psychological warfare operation. The Agency has resisted further disclosure about the nature, focus and objective of Joannides’ operations in 1963 ever since.

2) HSCA: lie, deflect, delay and obstruct. In 1978, Joannides served as CIA liaison to the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), which re-investigated the JFK assassination, but he did not disclose the obvious conflict of interest to the HSCA in regard to his role in the events of 1963.

HSCA Chief Counsel G. Robert Blakey said that had he known who Joannides was at that time, Joannides would have not continued as CIA liaison, but would have become a witness who would have been interrogated under oath by the HSCA staff or by the committee. In addition, Joannides’ failure-to-disclose occurred despite the fact that Blakey and the CIA had a pre-investigation agreement between the HSCA and the CIA that CIA personnel who were operational in 1963 could not be involved in the committee’s investigation.

Many would consider the above deception by the CIA audacious, to put it diplomatically.

When Morley first informed Blakey about a decade ago about Joannides’ role in the very anti-Castro activities from 1963 that the HSCA was investigating, Blakey was flabbergasted:

“If I’d known his [Joannides’] role in 1963, I would have put Joannides under oath -- he would have been a witness, not a facilitator,” Blakey, now a law professor at the University of Notre Dame, told The New York Times. “How do we know what he didn’t give us?”

3) ARRB: lie again, delay and obstruct. After Oliver Stone’s seminal 1991 film “JFK” increased debate about who was behind Kennedy’s murder, the public pressured Congress to declassify more files related to the JFK assassination, and Congress created the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) to oversee the release of more documents. However, incredibly, the CIA once again failed to tell the ARRB about Joannides’ 1963 work, and the board was blinded to a legitimate and germane investigation area.

U.S. Judge Jack Tunheim, ARRB chairman from 1994-1995, said that had the board known about Joannides’ activities in 1963, it would have been a no-brainer to investigate him:

“If we’d known of his role in Miami in 1963, we would have pressed for all his records,” Judge Tunheim said, the New York Times reported.

4) Obstruction No. 4: Morley v CIA

Fast-forward 18 years into the now postmodern era, and the CIA’s response to petitions for pubic disclosure in the Morley v CIA case looks a lot like its stance versus the Warren Commission, the HSCA and the ARRB: refuse to make public the documents, seek to delay, obfuscate the issues, and do not confirm or deny.

Moreover, the CIA’s stance versus Morley looks all the more problematic due to the fact that it has been 50 years since the assassination of President Kennedy. The Cold War is over: the United States won. There is no existential threat to the United States. Russia, the world's second strongest military power, while not a U.S. ally, is not an enemy, either, but a rival. Cuba’s centrally planned communist economic model has been discredited for decades, and it will likely become a market-oriented economy in the decade ahead. Cuba also poses no threat to the U.S. or its interests in the region -- i.e., don’t expect Cuba to invade Florida or export its centrally planned economic system to Brazil or Mexico any time soon. Even so, the CIA argues that making public the classified JFK assassination files would cause “extremely grave damage” to U.S. national security.

JFK Assassination Investigation Status

It must be underscored that, to date, there is no smoking gun or incontrovertible evidence of a plot or conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy, but there is a pattern of suspicious activity, along with a series of anomalies and a commonality of interests among key parties, that compel additional research and the release of non-public documents.

Further, the CIA probably is not covering up some tectonic, systemic crisis-triggering secret about the assassination of President Kennedy, or even evidence of a colossal Agency operational failure that would prompt the American people to call for a dismantling of the national security state apparatus.

But you would not know it from the CIA’s stance toward the old, still-classified JFK assassination files.

See Also:

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The Reissue of Oswald and the CIA

By John Newman

Reviewed by James DiEugenio

Oswald and the CIA is not an easy book to read. And I think this is one of the reasons that it was underappreciated when it was first published in 1995. One would expect this result in the mainstream press. But even the research community was not up to the task of understanding the true value of this important work when it was originally published.

Jerry Rose's The Fourth Decade discussed the book twice: once directly and once indirectly. That journal specifically reviewed the book in late 1995 (Vol. 3 No. 1). The reviewer was a man named Hugh Murray. His review was completely inadequate. He gave the book less than two pages of discussion. Murray never even addressed the volume's two crucial chapters on Mexico City, which are the key to the book. (This would be like criticizing the Warren Report and never addressing the single bullet theory.) In the summer of the following year (Vol. 3 No. 3), Peter Dale Scott did something that may have been even worse. He wrote a long article for Rose's publication entitled "Oswald and the Hunt for Popov's Mole". This piece seriously distorted and misinterpreted both the book itself and some of the important information Newman had unearthed. This sorry performance partly explains why the book's achievement was never really comprehended even within the critical community.

But to be honest, Newman made some mistakes that contributed to the book's disappointing reception. The author felt it was important to get the book out quickly. He thought he should do so while the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB)) was still operating in order to draw attention to its work. I thought this was an error at the time. I still do. For there were some documents, not fully processed at the time, which would have been useful to the endeavor. For instance, The House Select Committee's Mexico City Report, aka the Lopez Report, had not yet been fully declassified. And to his credit, Newman updated his work on Mexico City with a 1999 article for Probe (Vol. 6 No. 6 ). This is included in The Assassinations.

Secondly, because of this haste, the book is--to put it gently--not adroitly composed. Newman's previous book, JFK and Vietnam, also deals with a complex topic: President Kennedy's intent to withdraw from the Vietnam conflict. Yet that book is skillfully arranged and written. When I asked the author about the comparison between the two, he said, "But Jim, that book was ten years in the making." I should also add that he had an editor on the first book. Something he did not have, at least to my knowledge, on the second.

Third, Major John Newman was an intelligence analyst for twenty years. And he approached Oswald and the CIA in that vein. In other words, he played to his strengths. Therefore the book is a study of Oswald as he is viewed through the intelligence apparatus of the United States government. Or, as the author notes, it's about "Oswald the file". The author rarely tries to fill out the story or the personage. For instance, the alleged attempted suicide of Oswald in Russia is not mentioned here. Ruth Paine is mentioned once; Michael Paine not at all. Only a highly disciplined, almost obsessed mind, could hew to that line almost continuously. Or the mind of a former intelligence analyst. Consequently, because of its inherent longeurs, the book makes some demands on the reader. Which some, like Scott and Murray, were not up to.

II

Now, with caveats out of the way, lets get to the rewards in this valuable, and undervalued, book. No person, or body, not even the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), has ever dug more deeply into what the American intelligence community knew about Oswald prior to the assassination. What Newman reveals here literally makes the Warren Commission look like a Model T Ford. All the denials issued to that body by the likes of John McCone and J. Edgar Hoover are exposed as subterfuges. Contrary to their canards, there was a lot of interest in Oswald from the time he defected to Russia until the assassination.

Newman first discovered this when he was hired by PBS to work on their ill-fated Frontline special about Oswald in 1993. And it was this discovery that inspired him to write the book. The CIA Director at the time of the debate in Congress over the creation of the Assassination Records Review Board had testified there were something like 39 documents at CIA about Oswald. Most of them were supposed to be clippings. Newman discovered there was many, many times that amount. Further, he discovered the Agency held multiple files on Oswald. And finally, and perhaps most interestingly, there were some puzzling irregularities within the record. (When the author expressed his continuing bewilderment about this to the archivist, the archivist replied, "Haven't you ever heard of Murphy's Law?" To which Newman shot back, "Every time I turn around I'm walking into Mr. Murphy.")

Mr. Murphy makes his appearance right at the start. Once Oswald defected to Russia in 1959 the FBI opened up a file on him for security purposes. But at the CIA there is a curious, and suspicious, vacuum. Richard Snyder of the American Embassy in Moscow sent a cable to Washington about Oswald's defection. But the exact date the CIA got it cannot be confirmed (p. 24). Further, the person who received it cannot be determined either. Since Oswald was a former Marine, the Navy also sent a cable on November 4th. This cable included the information that Oswald had threatened to give up radar secrets to the Soviets. But again, no one knows exactly when this cable arrived at CIA. And almost as interesting, where it was placed upon its immediate arrival. (p. 25) This is quite odd because, as Newman points out (Chapter 3), Oswald's close association with the U-2 plane while at Atsugi, Japan should have placed alerts all over this cable. It did not. To show a comparison, the FBI recommended "a stop be placed against the fingerprints to prevent subject's entering the US under any name." (Ibid) So, on November 4, 1959, the FBI issued a FLASH warning on Oswald. This same Navy memo arrived at CIA and, after a Warren Report type "delayed reaction", eventually went to James Angleton's CI/SIG unit on December 6th. Angleton was chief of counter-intelligence. SIG was a kind of safeguard unit that protected the Agency from penetration agents. It was closely linked to the Office of Security in that regard. But as Newman queries: where was it for the previous 31 days? Newman notes that the Snyder cable and this Navy memo fell into a "black hole " somewhere. In fact, the very first file Newman could find on Oswald was not even at CI/SIG. It was at the Office of Security. This is all quite puzzling because, as the author notes, neither should have been the proper resting place for an initial file on Oswald. This black hole "kept the Oswald files away from the spot we would expect them to go-the Soviet Russia division." (p. 27)

Another thing the author finds puzzling about this early file is that he could find no trace of a security investigation about the danger of Oswald's defection. This is really odd because while talking to some of his friends the author found out that Oswald knew something that very few people did: the U-2 was also flying over China. If Snyder's original memo said that Oswald had threatened to give up secrets on radar operation to the Russians, and Oswald had been stationed at the U-2 base in Japan, there should have been a thorough security investigation as to what Oswald could have given the Russians. For the obvious reason that the program could be adjusted to avoid any counterattack based upon that relayed information. Newman could find no evidence of such an inquiry. (pgs 28,33-34) Further, the author found out that Oswald was actually part of a unit called Detachment C, which seemed to almost follow the U-2 around to crisis spots in the Far East, like Indonesia. (p. 42)

Needless to say, after Oswald defected, the second U-2 flight over Russia--with Gary Powers on board--was shot down. Powers felt that, "Oswald's work with the new MPS 16 height-finding radar looms large" in that event. (p. 43) The author segues here to this question: Whatever the CIA did or did not do in regard to this important question, it should have been a routine part of the Warren Commission inquiry. It was not. As the author notes, "When called to testify at the Warren Commission hearings, Oswald's marine colleagues were not questioned about the U-2." (p. 43) Oswald's commander in the Far East, John Donovan, was ready to discuss the issue in depth. The Commission was not. In fact, Donovan was briefed in advance not to fall off topic. (p. 45) When it was over, Donovan had to ask, "Don't you want to know anything about the U-2." He even asked a friend of his who had testified: "Did they ask you about the U-2?" And he said, "No, not a thing." (Ibid) Donovan revealed that the CIA did not question him about the U-2 until December of 1963. But this was probably a counter-intelligence strategy, to see whom he had talked to and what he had revealed. Why is that a distinct probability? Because right after Powers was shot down, the CIA closed its U-2 operations at Atsugi. Yet, Powers did not fly out of Atsugi. As Newman notes, the only link between Powers and Atsugi was Oswald. (p. 46)

Right after this U-2 episode, Newman notes another oddity. The CIA did not open a 201 file on Oswald for over a year after his defection, on 12/8/60. (p. 47) This gap seriously puzzled the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Investigator Dan Hardway called CI officer Ann Egerter about it. It was a short conversation. She didn't want to discuss it. (p. 48) The HSCA tried to neuter the issue by studying other defector cases. But as Newman notes: defection is legal but espionage, like giving up the secrets to the U-2, is not. (pgs 49-50) So the comparison was faulty. In fact, when Egerter finally opened Oswald's 201 file, the defection was noted, but his knowledge of the U-2 wasn't. This delay in opening the 201 file was so unusual that the HSCA asked former CIA Director Richard Helms about it. His reply was vintage Helms: "I am amazed. Are you sure there wasn't? ... .I can't explain that." (p. 51) When the HSCA asked where the documents were prior to the opening of the 201 file, the CIA replied they were never classified higher than confidential and therefore were no longer in existence. Newman notes that this is a lie. Many were classified as "Secret" and he found most of them, so they were not destroyed. Further, the ones that were classified as confidential are still around also. (p. 52)

And this is where one of the most fascinating discoveries in the book is revealed. Although no 201 file was opened on Oswald until December of 1960, he was put on the Watch List in November of 1959. This list was part of the CIA's illegal HT/LINGUAL mail intercept program-only about 300 people were on it. Recall, this is at a time when Oswald's file is in the so-called Black Hole. It was not possible to find a paper trail on him until the next month. How could he, at the same time, be so inconsequential as to have no file opened, yet so important as to be on the quite exclusive Watch List? This defies comprehension. In fact, Newman is forced to conclude, "The absence of a 201 file was a deliberate act, not an oversight." (p. 54) Clearly, someone at the CIA knew who Oswald was and thought it was important enough to intercept his mail. Long ago, when I asked Newman to explain this paradox in light of the fact that his first file would be opened at CI/SIG, he replied that one possibility was Oswald was being run as an off the books agent by Angleton. In light of the other factors mentioned in this section, i.e. concerning the U-2 secrets, the "black hole" delay, plus what we will discover later, I know of no better way to explain this dichotomy.

III

In his analysis of the Russian scene with Oswald on the ground, Newman made clear two important points. First, whereas most of the attention prior to this book was on embassy official Richard Snyder's interaction with Oswald, Newman revealed a man behind the scenes, peering through the curtains: John McVickar. It was this other embassy official who asked Priscilla Johnson to interview Oswald without Snyder's OK. (p. 72) What makes this interesting is the timing. Oswald had actually refused an interview with American reporter Bob Korengold. He had not been very forthcoming with Aline Mosby, the first journalist to talk to him. Then two things happened. First, the Russians communicated to Oswald that he would be allowed to stay in Russia (p. 73). Second, after McVickar gave Johnson the tip about Oswald, the defector agreed to meet her at her room. He arrived at nine at night. He stayed until well past midnight. (p. 72) What makes this interesting is that Newman reveals that Oswald's room at the Metropole Hotel was equipped with an infra-red camera for the observation of its occupants-and the CIA knew this. (p. 9) Second, Oswald found out he would be allowed to stay through a Russian official who actually visited his room.

After the long interview with Priscilla Johnson, McVickar had dinner with the reporter. Johnson, of course, worked for the conservative, and intelligence affiliated, North American News Alliance. At this dinner, somehow, some way, McVickar revealed that Oswald was going to be trained in electronics. (p. 84) Which he was.

Besides the discoveries about McVickar, Newman actually found documents that revealed that Johnson had applied to work for the CIA as early as 1952. She then worked with Cord Meyer, who helped fund the Congress for Cultural Freedom, exposed later as a CIA conduit. At the time Newman wrote the book, it was not yet revealed that the CIA did not hire her because they later deduced she could be used to do what they wanted anyway and they classified her as a "witting collaborator." (The Assassinations p. 435) The story based on this interview received little play in the media at the time, although it did announce that Oswald was a defector. But after the assassination, Johnson revised this original story-to Oswald's disadvantage-- and it received circulation through the wire services, including the front page of the Dallas Morning News. Thanks to Newman we now know that McVickar was ultimately responsible for it.

Another hidden action that was first revealed in this book was that in 1961, the CIA launched a counterintelligence program against the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, which had been formed the year before. According to the author, that effort was launched by the CIA's Office of Security, under the orders of James McCord. (p. 95) Further, this operation was done within the United States, which made it illegal for the Agency, and without the permission of the FBI. Making it even more interesting is that, as Newman first revealed, David Phillips was also part of this program. (p. 241) This program used neighbors hired as spies, and double agents posing as sympathizers, both reporting back to the CIA. (p. 241)

When Oswald decided he wanted to return from Russia, Newman notes another appearance by Mr. Murphy. Actually two. No "lookout" card was inserted on Oswald by the State Department. Although it appears that one was prepared, it was never active. (p. 138) This would have alerted State and other agencies that a security risk had applied to reenter the country. Second, many FBI files that contained the security risk information on Oswald from 1959 are now missing. (p. 153) Finally, the FBI very selectively issued documents from these files to the Warren Commission. The HSCA got more of the picture. But in 1994, when the author went looking for the information hinted at to the HSCA, he couldn't find them. (p. 154)

When Oswald tries to return, he negotiates to have potential legal proceedings against him dropped. (p. 218) Interestingly, he was taken off the Watch List in 1960, then placed back on it in August of 1961. (But yet, his mail was opened even when he was off the list! p. 284) And at this time, there is the first documentary evidence that the CIA had an operational interest in Oswald. At the end of a memo about Oswald's probable return, the chief of the Soviet Russia division wrote, "It was partly out of curiosity to learn if Oswald's wife would actually accompany him to our country, partly out of interest in Oswald's own experiences in the USSR, that we showed operational intelligence interest in the Harvey [Oswald ] story." (p. 227)

Marina got her exit visa surprisingly fast. Oswald explained his behavior there as, "It was necessary to make this propaganda because at the time he had wanted to live in Russia." (p. 235) Oswald thought his passport would be confiscated when he returned. But, surprisingly-or not-Oswald was actually able to sign papers for a government loan at the American Embassy. A man named Spas Raikin of the Travelers Aid Society was contacted by the State Department to meet Oswald and his new wife in New York in June of 1962. The Oswalds made it through customs and immigration without incident. And without any evidence of an attempt at a debriefing.

When Oswald arrived back in Texas, FBI agent John Fain did do an interview with him. Oswald then got a job at Leslie Welding, and started to subscribe to communist newspapers. At this point, Mr. Murphy pops up again. Even though the FBI had informants in many post offices looking out for just this sort of thing-a former defector subscribing to communist periodicals- and Oswald has signed a post office form instructing the post office to deliver him foreign propaganda, the Bureau did an inexplicable thing. In October, they closed their Oswald file. (p. 271)

What makes the timing of this fascinating are two events. First, the CIA campaign against the FPCC begins to heat up, and the FBI opens up a similar front against the FPCC led by Cartha De Loach. (p. 243) Second, George DeMohrenschildt, the Baron, enters Oswald's life. In his interview with the Warren Commission, the Baron tried to conceal his knowledge of who J. Walton Moore was. Moore was the head of the CIA office in Dallas who, it was later revealed, approached the Baron about going out to meet the returned defector. But DeMohrenschildt told the Warren Commission that Moore was "some sort of an FBI man in Dallas. Many people consider him the head of the FBI in Dallas." (p. 277)

Newman closes this section of the book with a beautiful Mr. Murphy episode. He notes that FBI agent James Hosty was now, rather belatedly, looking for Oswald and his wife. This was in March of 1963. Hosty also recommended that Oswald's case be reopened. The grounds for this reopening? Oswald had a newly opened subscription to the Communist newspaper, The Worker. (p. 273) But, as the author notes, when the Dallas FBI office had previously learned of an earlier such subscription-to the exact same publication-it had closed his file! This recommendation had a caveat. Hosty left a note in Oswald's file "to come back in forty-five to sixty days." (Ibid) But by then, of course, Oswald would be in New Orleans. Newman poses the question: Was the reason Oswald's case was closed for these six months because DeMohrenschildt was now making his approach to Oswald? (p. 277) Was another reason because Oswald was now about to enter the fray, along with the CIA and FBI, against the FPCC in New Orleans? (p. 289)

IV

The two finest parts of this distinguished work are the sections on New Orleans and, especially, Mexico City. Newman notes that the official story is that the FBI lost track of Oswald while he was organizing his FPCC group in New Orleans under the name of Hidell. This is when many credible witnesses place him in league with Guy Banister and Sergio Arcacha Smith at 544 Camp Street. But even though FBI agents Regis Kennedy and Warren DeBrueys were specialists on the anti-Castro beat in New Orleans, the FBI holds that Hosty did not know that Oswald moved to New Orleans until June 26th. In this book, the author demonstrates with a chart why this is so hard to believe. On page 300 he lists seven different events between May 14th and June 5th that should have caused the Bureau to realize that Oswald had moved. If you believe the Bureau, it wasn't enough.

The author suspects this methodical obtuseness was due to the fact that Oswald was in, what Newman calls, his "undercover" phase in New Orleans. That is, he has visited Jones Printing to order flyers with two different stamps applied, neither of them in his name. The first is under the name Hidell, and the second is addressed 544 Camp St. Newman believes that Banister was using Oswald to smoke out leftwing students and liberal professors at Tulane, like Prof. Leonard Reissman. Newman also brings out the fact that in a memo to the Bureau from New Orleans, the information that several FPCC pamphlets contained the 544 Camp St. address was scratched out. (p. 310)

The next discovery made by the author is also arresting. The FBI says they discovered Oswald was in New Orleans at the end of June. (p. 317) Yet they did not verify where he lived until August 5th. As Newman notes, the latter is the same day that Oswald broke out of his undercover mode and contacted some Cuban exiles, using his real name. Or as the author puts it: " ... the FBI's alleged blind period covers-to the day-the precise period of Oswald's undercover activity in New Orleans." (Ibid)

On August 5th, Oswald begins to play an overt role as an agent provocateur with Carlos Bringuier of the anti-Castro exile group, the DRE. The Warren Commission never knew that the DRE had a CIA code name, AMSPELL. When Oswald is arrested on Canal Street after his famous altercation with Bringuier, he actually had the Corliss Lamont booklet, "The Crime Against Cuba" with him. This had the "FPCC 544 Camp Street" stamp on it. (As I showed in my first book, this particular pamphlet was very likely provided to Banister through the CIA itself. See Destiny Betrayed, p. 219) Newman then details Oswald's arrest, his court date, his activities in front of the International Trade Mart-with flyers in his own name with his own address, and how Oswald now goes to the papers to get ads published for his cause. Oswald was attracting so much attention that J. Edgar Hoover requested a memorandum on him in late August with a detailed summary of his activities. This went to the CIA. When Oswald debated Bringuier on a radio program, the moderator Bill Stuckey offered the tape to the FBI. And the DRE reported the incident to the CIA. As Newman builds to his climax, all of this is important in light of what will happen next.

After creating a lot of bad publicity for the FPCC in New Orleans, Oswald now lowers his profile again. At the Mexican consulate in New Orleans, he and CIA operative Bill Gaudet get visas to go to Mexico on September 17th .Why is the date important? Because on the day before, the 16th, the CIA told the FBI they were considering countering FPCC activities in foreign countries. A week later, Oswald leaves New Orleans on a bus to Mexico.

What Newman does with the legendary Oswald trip to Mexico is, in some respects, revolutionary. Greatly helped by the release of the finally declassified Lopez Report, he actually goes beyond that magnificent document. According to the Warren Commission, Oswald was in Mexico City from Friday September 27th to Wednesday October 3rd. The ostensible reason was to acquire an in-transit visa from the Cuban consulate so he could travel from Cuba back to the Soviet Union. But as Newman notes, this story makes little sense and is likely a ruse. (p. 615) Oswald already had a passport to Russia, but the stamp warned that a person traveling to Cuba would be liable for prosecution. If he really wanted to go to Russia, Oswald could have gone the same roundabout route he had in 1959. The route he was choosing this time actually made it much harder, if not impossible, to get to Russia in any kind of current time frame.

When Oswald first shows up at the Cuban consulate it allegedly is at 11:00 AM on Friday. (p. 356) Yet as the author notes on his chronological chart, he is supposed to have already called the Soviet Consulate twice that morning. (Ibid) The problem with those two calls is that they were both in Spanish which, as the Lopez Report notes, the weight of the evidence says Oswald did not speak. He tells receptionist Silvia Duran he wants an in-transit visa for travel via Cuba to Russia. But he has no passport photos. He leaves to get the pictures taken. When he returned with the photos, Duran told him that he now had to get his Soviet visa before she could issue his Cuban visa. (p. 357)

Oswald now went to the Soviet Consulate. But here we find another problem with what is supposed to be his third call there. The time frames for the call and the visit overlap. He cannot be outside calling inside when he is already inside. (Ibid) Further, this call is also in Spanish, which creates a double problem with the call. Once inside, Oswald learns he cannot get a visa to give to Duran unless he requested it from Washington first. And the process would take weeks. Oswald now makes a scene and is escorted out. He goes back to the Cuban consulate. Oswald tells Duran there was no problem with the Soviet visa. She does not buy his story and calls the Soviet consulate. They tell her they will call her back. Embassy official and KGB secret agent Valery Kostikov calls back. Oswald's attempt falls apart since Oswald knows no one in Cuba and the routing to the Russian Embassy in Washington will take too long. (p. 359) This call seems genuine. But as the author notes, and as we shall see, there was one problem with it: neither Duran nor Kostikov mentioned Oswald by name.

Oswald creates another scene and quarrels with Cuban counsel Eusebio Azcue. Now, and this is important, Duran insists that this is the last time she saw or spoke to Oswald. This created a serious problem because the Warren Commission reported that she did talk to him again.(p, 408) The apparent source for this is an FBI memo of Dec. 3, 1963. The HSCA realized this was a problem. So they grilled Duran on this point. They tried three different ways to get her to admit she could be wrong. She stuck by her story. (pgs 409-410)

Why is this so problematic? Because on the next day, Saturday September 28th, the Lopez Report says there was a call from a man and a woman to the Soviet Consulate. Further, in his interviews, Newman discovered that the Russians maintain that the switchboard was closed on Saturday. (p. 368) From this and other evidence, Newman concludes that the man in this call is not Oswald. Duran says the woman is not her. Further evidence of this impersonation is that Oswald had visited the Russian Consulate earlier that day. And this phone conversation has little, if any, connection to what he discussed there. From information in the Lopez Report, from CIA Station Chief's Winston Scott's manuscript, and interviews with the transcribers, there was also a call made on Monday, the 30th, from Oswald to the Soviet Consulate. This call is apparently lost today.

Finally, on Tuesday, October 1st, there are two calls from Oswald to the Soviet Consulate. Right off the bat, these are suspicious because they are in poor Russian. Yet Oswald was supposed to have spoken fluent Russian. So again, these two calls appear to have been made by an imposter.

But why? In the new Epilogue written for this edition, Newman writes it is because when Duran originally called the Soviet Consulate, Oswald's name was not specifically mentioned. When Oswald then went to the Soviets on Saturday, and created another scene, this was the last of the actual encounters. The specific problem was this: There was no direct record made between Oswald and Kostikov. As we shall see, this could not be allowed. So the two calls on Tuesday had to be made. And the necessity was such that the risk was run of exposing the charade by not having Oswald's voice on the tapes. Why was this so important?

V

Prior to Oswald's Mexican odyssey, the FBI reports on his FPCC forays in New Orleans went into a new operational file at CIA, which did not merge with his 201 file. (p. 393) According to the author, this file eventually contained almost a thousand documents. Newman dates the bifurcation from September 23rd: shortly after Oswald goes to the Mexican consulate, and right about when he leaves New Orleans. The FBI report goes to Oswald's CI/SIG soft file and his Office of Security file. (p. 394) But after the assassination, all the FBI reports suddenly revert back to Oswald's 201 file. Only two compartments in the Agency had all of Oswald's file-CI/SIG and Office of Security. As we shall see, there is a method to all this meandering.

At CIA HQ, after the information about Oswald in Mexico City arrives, a first cable is sent on October 10. This cable is meant for the FBI, State Department and the Navy. This cable describes a man who does not resemble Oswald. He is 35 years old, has an athletic build, and stands six feet tall. (p. 398)

At almost the same time this cable was sent, a second cable from CIA HQ goes to Mexico City. This one has the right description of Oswald. So therefore, in a normal situation, the officers in Mexico City could match the description to their surveillance take. But it was missing something crucial. It said that the latest information that CIA had on Oswald was a State Department Memorandum dated from May of 1962. This was not true. For just one example, the Agency had more than one FBI report about Oswald's FPCC activities in New Orleans. Yet, for some reason, the file used to draft this cable was missing the FBI New Orleans reports. What makes these two varyingly false cables even more interesting is that Angleton's trusted assistant Ann Egerter signed off on both of them for accuracy. (p. 401) Apparently, she didn't know what she was signing, or if they contradicted each other. Further, Egerter sent Oswald's 201 file, which was restricted, to the HQ Mexico City desk until November 22nd. (Ibid)

For the first cable, Jane Roman was the releasing officer. She also participated in the drafting of the second cable. What makes her participation in all this so interesting is that she had read the latest information about Oswald in New Orleans on October 4th, less than a week before she signed off on the first cable. When Newman confronted her with these contradictory documents, she said: "I'm signing off on something that I know isn't true." (p. 405) She went on and tried to explain it with this: "I wasn't in on any particular goings-on or hanky-panky as far as the Cuban situation ... to me it's indicative of a keen interest in Oswald, held very closely on a need-to-know basis." (p. 405) Note her reference to the "Cuban situation". For it was Oswald's activities with the Cubans in New Orleans that was left out of the second cable to Mexico City. Therefore Mexico City chief Win Scott could not coordinate Oswald's New Orleans activities with what Oswald had done on his home turf.

For the second cable, the releasing officer was Tom Karemessines who was deputy to Richard Helms. It has never been explained why this cable had to go so high up into officialdom for permission to release it.

There is one last piece to this mosaic that is necessary for its deadly denouement to be fully comprehended. Ann Egerter testified that their counter-intelligence group knew Kostikov was a KGB agent. But the story is that they did not know he was part of Department 13, which participated in assassinations, until after Kennedy's assassination. (p. 419)

All of this is absolutely central to the events that occur on November 22, 1963. Consider: Here you have a defector who was in the Soviet Union for almost three years. He returns and then gets involved confronting anti-Castro Cubans in New Orleans. He then goes to Mexico City, and visits both the Cuban and Soviet embassies trying to get to Russia from Cuba. He creates dramatic scenes at both places, and here is the capper: He talks to the KGB's officer in charge of assassinations in the Western Hemisphere. By the time Oswald returned to Dallas, the alarm bell should have been sounding on him throughout the intelligence community. Especially in view of Kennedy's announced visit to Texas. He should never have been allowed to be on the motorcade route. The Secret Service should have had the necessary information about him and he should have been on their Security Index.

This did not happen. In fact, at the time his profile should have been rising, these false cables within the CIA and to the FBI, State, and Navy were actually lowering it. The final masterstroke, which made sure the information would be concealed until November 22nd, was not discovered until after the book's initial publication. As stated above, the FBI had issued a FLASH warning on Oswald back in 1959. After four years, this was removed on October 9, 1963! This was just hours before the first CIA cable mentioned above was sent. (The Assassinations p. 222)

As Newman notes, "the CIA was spawning a web of deception". (p. 430) When JFK is killed, and Hoover tells President Johnson about Oswald's trip to Mexico City and his visits to both the Cuban and Russian embassies, the threat of nuclear war quickly enters the conversation. But when the FBI discovers that the voice on the tapes are not really Oswald's it does two things: 1.) It points to something even more sinister, therefore throwing the intelligence community into a CYA mode, and 2.) It forces the Agency to hatch a cover story: the tapes were routinely destroyed days after they were made. The result of all this was an investigation that was never allowed to investigate. A presidential commission whose leader was told beforehand that millions of lives were at risk because the Cubans and Russians might be involved. And it exposed an intelligence community that was asleep at the switch, therefore allowing the alleged assassin to be moved into place by the KGB. The result was therefore preordained: a whitewash would follow. And Newman presents written evidence from both J. Edgar Hoover and Nicolas Katzenbach demonstrating that the subsequent inquiry was curtailed at its inception. Deputy Attorney General Katzenbach wrote that speculation about Oswald had to be "cut off" and the idea that the assassination was a communist conspiracy had to be rebutted. (p. 632) Newman later discovered that Hoover realized he had been duped by the CIA about Oswald in Mexico City. (The Assassinations, p. 224)

In his new Epilogue for this 2008 edition, Newman explains why only someone who a.) Understood the inner workings of the national security state, and b.) Understood and controlled Oswald's files, could have masterminded something as superhumanly complex as this scheme. One in which the conspiracy itself actually contained the seeds that would sprout the cover-up.

In this new chapter, Newman names James Angleton as the designer of the plot. (p. 637) He also names Anne Goodpasture, David Phillips' assistant in Mexico City, as the person who hatched the internal CIA cover up by saying the ersatz tapes had been destroyed in October. This is evidenced in a cable she sent on 11/23 (pgs 633-634). Yet she probably knew this was false. Because she later testified to the ARRB that a voice dub of a tape had been carried to the Texas border on 11/22/63, the night before she sent the cable (p. 654). Further, Win Scott had made his own voice comparison after the assassination. He could not have if the tapes had been destroyed. (p. 635) Angleton made sure Scott's voice comparison never became public by swooping into Mexico City and confronting, nearly threatening, Win Scott's widow after he died. Once he was inside the house, he removed four suitcases of materials from Scott's office. This included the contents of his safe where the Mexico City/Oswald materials had been stored. (p. 637)

This remarkable book could never have been composed or even contemplated without the existence of the Assassination Records Review Board. No book takes us more into Oswald's workings with the intelligence community than this one. And his section on Mexico City is clearly one of the 5 or 6 greatest discoveries made in the wake of the ARRB. The incredible thing about the case he makes for conspiracy and cover up is this: The overwhelming majority of his evidence is made up of the government's own records. Its not anecdotal, its not second hand. In other words, its not from the likes of Frank Ragano, Billy Sol Estes, or Ed Partin. It is material that could be used in a court of law. And it would be very hard to explain away to a jury. Imagine the kind of witness Jane Roman would make.

Which is why it all had to be concealed for over thirty years. So much for there being nothing new or important in those newly declassified files. Angleton knew differently. Just ask Win Scott's widow. Or read this book.

Edited July 14, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[Larry Hancock]

Tommy, actually Vinson was recruited in a logistics staff role for the SR-52 Blackbird testing at Area 51 in Nevada....the CIA was in charge of development but the Air Force was running

the facility. The long and short of it is that he was put through advanced security screening for that highly secret project.

As to the 1963 story, there are so many issues with it that even after multiple contacts with his lawyer and attempts to talk with him I just gave up. Having been in the Air Force myself

some of them were easy to spot.....I think he's sincere but I just can't parse it all out....but I'm pretty sure no transport landed where he said it did at the height of the assassination

furore without being noticed and that the second landing did not occur at a SAC base operating at Defcon 3 and the passengers deplane and casually walk over to the flight ops

building without about 50 armed SAC air police having them flat on the ground first.

I will say it has the feel of disinformation, but it should not have all those issues if it were put together by professionals. I can also say that the book as published has some variances from

the notes that I took of the video his lawyer showed impromptu during lunch at a Lancer conference.

[Thomas Graves]

I wouldn't be surprised if you believed Robert Vinson's tale of a CIA-owned military cargo plane landing on the bank of the Trinity River to take Oswald's "double" away." --Tommy

"Never posted on the issue. As a matter of fact I communicated to Jack White that the story was hard to believe. It was to [sic] open an operation.for the CIA. As to Vallee, the document you keep showing [sic] car registration [sic], I posted first in the thread, not you." [Gaal]

[ emphasis added by T. Graves ]

++++++

Since you dont [sic] acknowledged [sic] what has become the major issue of the thread (level of CIA involvement in JFK assassination). I will repost the uncommented-upon post # 84. [...] [Gaal]

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

[...] (see post #84, above)

So you've really shot yourself in the foot then, haven't you Gaal, because the link you posted shows that the car was registered to Thomas Vallee, not to Lee Harvey Oswald as you claimed! http://www.maryferre...72&relPageId=51

--Tommy

PS I never claimed to have posted it first, so CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU SO MUCH for finding it and posting it for me!

LOL

Edited July 14, 2014 by Thomas Graves

[Steven Gaal]

PS I never claimed to have posted it first, so CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU SO MUCH for finding it and posting it for me!

LOL

// Graves

CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU SO MUCH,after I corrected the issue ,your reposted about it three times.

GRAVES THE KING OF UNNECESSARY REPOSTERS !!!

Edited July 14, 2014 by Steven Gaal

[Thomas Graves]

[...]

PS I never claimed to have posted it first, so CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU SO MUCH for finding it and posting it for me!

LOL

--Tommy

CONGRATULATIONS and THANK YOU SO MUCH, after I corrected the issue, your [sic] reposted [sic] about it three times.

[...]

You corrected the issue?

You corrected the issue?

You never did admit to being wrong, all you did was half-heartedly blame it on another "researcher" (Skolnick) for leading you astray.

LOL

--Tommy

Edited July 14, 2014 by Thomas Graves

[Thomas Graves]

Tommy, actually Vinson was recruited in a logistics staff role for the SR-52 Blackbird testing at Area 51 in Nevada....the CIA was in charge of development but the Air Force was running

the facility. The long and short of it is that he was put through advanced security screening for that highly secret project.

As to the 1963 story, there are so many issues with it that even after multiple contacts with his lawyer and attempts to talk with him I just gave up. Having been in the Air Force myself

some of them were easy to spot.....I think he's sincere but I just can't parse it all out....but I'm pretty sure no transport landed where he said it did at the height of the assassination

furore without being noticed and that the second landing did not occur at a SAC base operating at Defcon 3 and the passengers deplane and casually walk over to the flight ops

building without about 50 armed SAC air police having them flat on the ground first.

I will say it has the feel of disinformation, but it should not have all those issues if it were put together by professionals. I can also say that the book as published has some variances from

the notes that I took of the video his lawyer showed impromptu during lunch at a Lancer conference.

Thanks, Larry.

It is encouraging to know there are researchers, such as yourself, who do not swallow everything they read, "hook, line, and sinker."

Having read most of your book, I personally am starting to give more credence to the Parrot Island Incident and to the visiting of Robert McKeown by Oswald and a Hispanic by the name of Hernandez...

--Tommy

Edited July 14, 2014 by Thomas Graves

[Paul Trejo]

The thrust of the debate on this thread has become whether or not High or Low level CIA people are part of the JFK assassination.

POST #84 above has answers to said debate...

One legitimate CIA Agent, David Morales, his obscure flunky, Roy Hargraves, a demented super-flunky, Thomas Valee, and then one more legitimate CIA Agent, George Joannides -- these are the personnel being offered up here as an "official CIA plot" to murder JFK.

Sorry - but (even with the status of Joannides) this line-up is still too LOW-LEVEL within the CIA to be credible as representative of an "official CIA plot."

Another mismatch, Steven, is the loose linking of the CIA with any "CIA-funded organization," like the dozens of wild and wacky Cuban Exile groups, continually intoxicated and trigger-happy -- whom the CIA had great difficulty controlling.

These mangy mutts are also paraded before us as credible representatives of an "official CIA plot." The figures simply don't add up, Steven.

What I'm being shown are LOW-LEVEL assets in every single case. These CIA assets are unanimously linked with emotionally invested failures of the Bay of Pigs disaster.

By attempting to link former CIA Director Allen Dulles into this alleged "official CIA plot," the debater tacitly admits that if the alleged plotter was connected with the Bay of Pigs, then his or her participation must be "guaranteed."

This is the strongest part of their argument. It is extremely clear, IMHO, that the Cuba question rests at the heart of the JFK murder -- and yet the leaders of the plot were not Cuban Exiles. The Cuban Exiles were LOW-LEVEL assets. Nor were the leaders their CIA handlers (most of whom were also caught by surprise).

Instead, the leaders of the JFK murder plot were US civilians, probably led by Ex-General Walker in cooperation with Guy Banister. They recognized that they held tremendous power because of the mythology that anybody linked with the CIA (even at a LOW-LEVEL) must have the authority of the CIA.

That mythology persists down to this very day, in this very thread.

While we have plenty of evidence (and you yourself show it, Steven) that LOW-LEVEL Cuban Exiles funded by the CIA were clearly also linked to Lee Harvey Oswald -- it is simply a stretch of logic to make the "official CIA" responsible for the LOW-LEVEL framing of Lee Harvey Oswald in the murder of JFK.

Nor does the amount of money that the CIA paid these CIA Exile groups (even if millions) bear any proof at all that the CIA was in control of the plot to murder JFK.

I'd point out with regard to the DRE that its leader, Carlos Bringuier, appeared in newspaper print, court records, jail records, radio broadcasts and a TV show with Lee Harvey Oswald during the summer of 1963.

I'd also point out the close relationship between Carlos Bringuier and Guy Banister in the summer of 1963.

I'd also point out that Ex-General Walker was known to be a cash supporter of the DRE in 1963 (as he admitted in the Warren hearings), and that Carlos Bringuier would also speak at the same right-wing rallies at which Walker spoke, along with Billy James Hargis and Kent Courtney.

There was money going to the DRE all right -- and not all of it was from the CIA.

I strongly suspect, however, that CIA Agent George Joannides is linked with the murder of JFK -- not simply because of his dealings with Cuban Exiles (DRE) at the time. I urgently call for further photographic evidence to locate Joannides in Dallas on the day JFK was murdered.

As for John Newman's book on OSWALD AND THE CIA (1995) it is justly criticized, even by Jim DiEugenio, for its flights of speculation and innuendo (e.g. his sinister portrait of George De Mohrenschildt).

Aside from the LOW-LEVEL street-level assets who boasted about their links with the CIA (Sturgis, Hemming, Hall, Roselli, Crisman, Martin, Beckham, Ferrie, Shaw, Oswald), what actual CIA Agents have we really identified? Richard Case Nagell, David Morales and E. Howard Hunt. We might have George Joannides and we could even add Edward Lansdale -- but even if we do, this still amounts to a ROGUES GALLERY.

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited July 15, 2014 by Paul Trejo

[Larry Hancock]

Paul, just for reference, we know of very few official, sanctioned CIA assassination projects. One we do know of was personally authorized by Dwight Eisenhower to Mr. Dulles. Aside from Dulles

and one headquarters case officer, the only other people involved were one individual from CIA tech services who carried poison to the Congo, one Chief of Base in the Congo who was simply

advised of the action and surprised by it and two street level assets from Europe who were to deliver the poison, both smugglers, one a probable drug dealer and both tasked with assassination as their

first time project for the Agency. And the plan failed to poison Patrice Lemumba in any event.

I wouldn't get to carried away with that rogues gallery thing, although I do not maintain that Dallas was any sort of official CIA project I do assert senior officers were involved....but in virtually all known CIA assassination efforts, successful and not, the people who did the street level work could probably be described as "rogues", you might meet them in a bar but it would not be one in Fairfax Virginia. .

[Paul Trejo]

...Although I do not maintain that Dallas was any sort of official CIA project I do assert senior officers were involved....but in virtually all known CIA assassination efforts, successful and not, the people who did the street level work could probably be described as "rogues"...

Larry, I appreciate very much that you've met me more than half-way with this post.

As for the self-confessed Richard Case Nagell and David Morales, they were, by my estimation, CIA "junior officers". E. Howard Hunt called himself a "bench warmer," and he was already near the end of his career.

I myself cannot find solid evidence of CIA "senior officers" in the JFK murder plot beyond Edward Lansdale.

Lansdale was a US General, and was able to order Colonel Fletcher Prouty to travel to the South Pole instead of providing Security for JFK in Dallas. That's the highest level of official Authority that I can find in my JFK research so far.

Fletcher Prouty names Edward Lansdale, and so that is now, IMHO, a fact of history. Lansdale was the ranking Officer involved in the JFK murder. As such, he had tremendous power over many Military and CIA assets (like Colonel Fletcher Prouty).

HOWEVER -- even General Lansdale didn't have the ability to control the ground-crew in Dallas. For that arena, even somebody as powerful as General Lansdale would require somebody with some real clout among the right-wing lunatics in Dallas (who were directly involved, IMHO, starting with the DPD and their members among JBS, the Minutemen, White Citizens' Councils and the KKK in Dallas).

When we trace the career of DPD officer, Roscoe White, for example, we find extreme right-wing causes in his resume. It was bold yahoos like this -- and like ex-General Walker, their bold yahoo leader (superstar of Ole Miss and Adlai Stevenson night) who would compete with each other to protect their home turf from the "Communist Menace that was JFK."

Even the Warren Commission had to closely examine the "nut country" exhibits which circulated throughout Dallas that day, from the WANTED FOR TREASON handbill to the WELCOME MR. KENNEDY full page Ad designed and paid for by the John Birch Society.

Given boldness like this in Dallas, it seems reasonable to me that General Lansdale was not the leader of the Dallas plot, but rather a secondary player, who was responsible for the relatively minor details of handling the CIA, the local Infantry, the Secret Service, the Limo, the Autopsy records, the Press and so on.

The main event was all home grown, IMHO.

As for the all-important Patsy -- he was probably supplied by Ex-General Edwin Walker himself -- in cooperation with Guy Banister, the DRE and INCA in New Orleans in 1963, starting 14 April through 23 September -- and in cooperation with Loran Hall and Larry Howard from 24 September through 3 October. Ex-General Walker, a seasoned expert in paramilitary planning, had it all planned out.

If I'm missing higher placed people in the CIA than Edward Lansdale, Larry, then please offer a name, so that I can look it up in your book, Someone Would Have Talked (2010).

Best regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited July 15, 2014 by Paul Trejo

[Larry Hancock]

Paul, for one thing Lansdale was not really a ranking CIA officer. It is true that he was CIA Chief of Base in Saigon for a time and that he held significant political action positions in SE Asia. If anything he was much higher up in terms of his standing with JFK than within the CIA and JFK actually tried to move him up to a major position in South Viet Nam, only to be dramatically opposed by the CIA senior officers, State Department and the Joint Chiefs. In fact once JFK had put him in charge of Mongoose Lansdale really had no supporters in Washington other than JFK and possibly RFK.... All of this is detailed in the histories that deal with Lansdale - and some good books on Vietnam. I consolidate a good deal of it in Shadow Warfare. I'm not going into the Lansdale in Dallas thing but first off, Lansdale was not in any sort of chain of command for the CIA in 1963, he had been isolated a good deal by being selected and supported by JFK and because of that he really was not trusted by the Chiefs, the top CIA guys or the top State guys. You will find all of this in history books outside JFK works.

I think you said you had purchased NEXUS and if so you will find out the clear chain of CIA officers that I propose were involved - and more importantly how they were involved - starting with Angleton, then through Harvey, then down to Morales and further down to people like Robinson and possibly Sforza. To what extent Angleton talked about JFK as a security risk and the need to do something about him with Dulles will never be known - and given the standard practices of those people, the words they used would have been very vague. Angleton might talk about JFK as a risk, by the time the conversation gets carried to Miami by Harvey and he and Morales are talking it would get much more definitive....in assassination directives people like Dulles always said "eliminate" and by the time it got down the chain the translation would be made to "kill".

With apologies for repeating myself, SWHT done in 2010, is a bottoms up study. NEXUS, done two years later is tops down and much more tightly focused on CIA assassination practices and how that translates into the murder of JFK. SWHT is context and presents some 12 or more years of background research, NEXUS is how I think the conspiracy jelled and was carried out.

-- Larry