Was Oswald an Intelligence Agent?

[Thomas Graves]

...As regards the manipulating of Oswald or Oswald's files into his becoming the perfect patsy, let's not forget the telephonic impersonation (by an apparent SAS or Staff D insider) and the physical impersonation by a "blond Oswald" in Mexico City.

Which gives me an idea: Why didn't the blond "Oswald" in Mexico City dye his hair brown to look more like Oswald? The fact that he didn't suggests that the plotters or his handlers didn't know what Oswald looked like and chose to impersonate him in a manner consistent with what was already in his Intelligence files.

--Tommy

Tommy, I believe that Bill Simpich's book, "State Secret" (2014) answers the questions about the large blonde Russian guy whose photograph appears in Lee Oswald's CIA 401 file. According to Bill Simpich...

He wasn't impersonating Lee Oswald -- the CIA high-command chose to start a "mole-hunt" to find out which "mole" had impersonated Lee Harvey Oswald, ostensibly to link his name with KGB Agent Valery Kostikov.

The CIA high-command deliberately altered Lee Oswald's 401 file in many ways, including (1) replacing the photo with a stranger; (2) changing Oswald's middle name to "Henry," (3) slightly changing the names of his parents; (4) slightly changing some date information.

Sadly, when the JFK assassination occurred, and the Warren Commission demanded the CIA files on Lee Harvey Oswald, the CIA handed over the tampered-with files. That's all that anybody knew at the lower levels of the CIA.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Paul,

Very well put, but I'm afraid you're unwittingly reducing the five different characters I'm alluding to into only two. Of the five "people" I'm talking about, one is either a real Russian "scientist" or a still unidentified "mystery man," the second is a composite of two real people -- false defectors Robert Webster and Lee Harvey Oswald --, and the fifth one is the "blonde-or-dark-blonde," very thin-faced "Oswald" that Cuban Consul Azque dealt with in a (for him) very memorable way on September 27, 1963.

When you say "the large blonde Russian guy whose photograph appears in Lee Oswald's CIA 401 file," you're actually talking about the guy Bill Simpich identified as Yuri Moskalev, a balding, brown-haired Russian "scientist" and GRU agent who may have been the man who was photographed (and eventually labeled "The Mexico City Mystery Man") while leaving the Mexico City Soviet Embassy on October 2, 1963, one day after someone had telephonically impersonated Oswald by calling the Russian Embassy, identifying himself as Oswald, and claiming to have visited Vice Consul Kostakov there earlier.

Although "Moskalev" / "Mexico City Mystery Man" was large ("athletic build," actually), he wasn't blonde (or even dark blonde), and therein lies some of the basis for my contending that you've oversimplified things a bit too much or that you didn't properly address the questions I posed in my earlier post.

In a cable Anne Goodpasture sent to CIA headquarters, she fibbed about the date Moskalev(?) was photographed because, for urgent Mexico City "mole hunting" reasons and to preserve the operational viability of a much older Oswald-involved "marked card" operation, she desperately needed a CIA photograph taken of any 35-ish, white, American-looking male, preferably with dark-blonde or light- brown hair, who had been "captured" on film while entering the Russian Embassy on or about October 1. Since the only CIA-taken photo Goodpasture could find that was close to that date (and in which the subject reasonably approximated the above-listed physical description requirements), happened to have been of the dark-haired Moskalev-character on October 2, Goodpasture used it and said that the guy (who was apparently unknown to her) was photographed on the mandatory-for-her October 1 date, instead. And why did Goodpasture have to say October 1? Because that was when an Oswald impostor was tape recorded calling the Mexico City Soviet Embassy and stating, "My name is Oswald."

Moskalev(?) below. Please note that whoever this man is, he is not blonde, or even dark blonde.

FWIW, here's a Russ Holmes HSCA CIA document from 1977 which speculates that the Mexico City Mystery Man might have been Moskalev:

http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/cia/russholmes/104-10413/104-10413-10055/html/104-10413-10055_0002a.htm

A handwritten note on this 1971 document says Moskalev was in the U.S. in October, 1963.

https://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=6532&relPageId=2

Moving ahead now, in my earlier post I was wondering why the thin-faced, "blonde or dark blonde" Oswald impostor whom Azque encountered in the Cuban Consulate on September 27 hadn't died his hair light brown to look more like the real Oswald, and the best answer I could come up with is that the "bad guys" had either not cared about trying to match Oswald's hair color, or had believed that he had blonde or dark-blonde hair. But why would they think that? Answer: Because Robert E. Webster had blonde dark-blonde hair, and because Webster's and Oswald's physical descriptions had been merged in a Popov Mole "marked card" operation right after the brown-haired Oswald had "defected" to Russia in 1959, and the "bad guys," who apparently were privy to that "marked card" information, were themselves fooled by it into believing that Oswald has blond or dark-blond hair.

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/jfkinfo/hscaascu.htm

Two things that have always troubled me about Sylvia Duran's testimony is that she claimed Oswald was short, only about 5' 5",apparently, and that he was dressed "cheaply." The real Oswald was, at 5' 9.5", about four inches taller than her and was wearing a nice vest sweater and tie in the passport photos he had just had taken of him about an hour earlier! Scroll down on this link to see his Cuban Visa application photograph:

http://history-matters.com/essays/frameup/MoreMexicoMysteries/MoreMexicoMysteries_1.htm

Would Eusebio Azcue or Sylvia Duran lie about what "Oswald" looked like? Did Duran and Azcue somehow deal with different Oswald impostors? Is Duran lying or is Azcue lying, or are they both lying?

I'm starting to think that the real Oswald didn't even go to Mexico City, and that something really, really "fishy" was going on down there.

I hope this helps you understand what I was talking about in the earlier post.

--Tommy

FWIW, here's a photo of the blond-haired Robert E. Webster in Russia. No, I'm not saying that Robert Webster was in Mexico City. I'm saying that the "blond, dark-blond" M.C. Oswald impersonator that Azcue encountered may have "inherited" Webster's hair color through the bad guy's misinterpretation of the CIA's Oswald-Webster "marked card" process, originally begun by the CIA some three years earlier in an attempt to catch "Popov's Mole.".

Edit: I believe this 1962 newspaper photograph of Webster was doctored to make him look even more like Oswald than he already did.

Edited and bumped.

time to bump it again so some of the "newbies" can get educated

Edited October 6, 2016 by Thomas Graves

[Thomas Graves]

Two things that have always troubled me about Sylvia Duran's testimony is that she claimed Oswald was short, about 5' 5", and that he was dressed "cheaply." The real Oswald was [5'9.5",] about four inches taller than her and was wearing a nice vest sweater and tie in the passport photos he had [allegedly] just had taken of him about an hour earlier [in Mexico City]! Scroll down on this link to see his Cuban Visa application photograph:

http://history-matte...Mysteries_1.htm [ -- T. Graves in post # 871, directly above, and in an earlier version, pg 19, this thread]

Tommy, unless I am mistaken, there was an intense search to locate where that photo was taken - with no luck at all. Now it makes sense that Oswald might have dressed well for the visit, but Duran would have handled his application with the photo so either her memory is very poor or there is a big disconnect. Again, given that clothes are always an important part of a description I'm curious as to why nobody ever seems to have shown that passport photo to Duran or Azcue or anyone else and asked for a verification. Why rely on physical descriptions alone when you have a photo of the guy they supposedly saw ...and in multiple visits. For that matter, did anyone ever show the photo to the Russians for a verification?

Excellent questions, Larry. Thanks for the input.

Edit: Actually, in 1978 the HSCA lawyer (Cornwell) questioning Azque apparently did show him that photo, and Azque said it wasn't the same "Oswald" he'd dealt with in Mexico City.

Mr. CORNWELL. I would like to direct your attention to an exhibit which has been marked for identification as JFK exhibit F-408. That exhibit is provided in an enlargement form, and a photograph of it in a smaller form has been handed to the witness. Can you tell us what type of document that is? Senor AZCUE. This form is a request that was given to foreigners who approached the consulate requesting a visa to travel to Cuba. Mr. CORNWELL. May we have that exhibit admitted into evidence, Mr. Chairman? Chairman STOKES. Without objection, it may be entered in the record at this point. [...]

http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol3/pdf/HSCA_Vol3_0918_2_Azcue.pdf

-- Tommy

PS For those "newbies" who want to expand their mind, please see the post immediately preceding this one.

Edited October 5, 2016 by Thomas Graves

[Steve Thomas]

Might be a good idea to get this thread back to its starting point -- WAS OSWALD AN INTELLIGENCE AGENT?

The question has a built-in ambiguity -- it can mean, "was Oswald EVER an Intelligence Agent," or it can mean, "was Oswald an Intelligent Agent in the USA?"

This might be overly simplistic, and it probably is.

But I think using disaffected servicemen in fake defections to Russia was CIA.

Once Oswald arrived back in the US, he was handed off to the FBI as a somewhat still usable asset..

The domestic war against the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, and the use of agent provocateurs to disrupt subversive groups in the COINTELPRO program was FBI.

Steve Thomas

[Paul Trejo]

Might be a good idea to get this thread back to its starting point -- WAS OSWALD AN INTELLIGENCE AGENT?

The question has a built-in ambiguity -- it can mean, "was Oswald EVER an Intelligence Agent," or it can mean, "was Oswald an Intelligence Agent in the USA?"

This might be overly simplistic, and it probably is.

But I think using disaffected servicemen in fake defections to Russia was CIA.

Once Oswald arrived back in the US, he was handed off to the FBI as a somewhat still usable asset..

The domestic war against the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, and the use of agent provocateurs to disrupt subversive groups in the COINTELPRO program was FBI.

Steve Thomas

I agree partly with this, Steve, yet I would hesitate to name the CIA so quickly, when there are so many US Intelligence Agencies to choose from.

The former CIA Agent, Victor Marchetti, is an excellent source, IMHO, and he held that Oswald was sent into the USSR by the Office of Naval Intelligence. This makes sense since Oswald was a young Marine -- still only 19 years old when he went in.

The assignment that Victor Marchetti envisioned for Oswald was part of a "dangle" operation, which included dozens of other "dangles" in a pattern. None of them would know the full mission, but they collectively would keep track of the locations of important people that the ONI wanted to locate. That was all. The reports were only useful over a long period of time, by lots of "dangles" scattered widely, who didn't know each other.

It's unlikely that Oswald would be a CIA Agent at age 19, unless he was also some University genius -- which he wasn't. Oswald was a high-school dropout, and even though he was intelligent (enough to learn to speak Russian) he still wasn't intelligent enough for the CIA at age 19.

Oswald could have joined the CIA later in life if he worked hard enough, I think. I believe Oswald wanted to be in the CIA so bad he could taste it. I think Oswald did almost everything he did with that one goal in mind.

However -- I also believe that Oswald's weaknesses were his social skills, and that Marina Oswald tied Lee around her little finger. She wanted to move to the USA, and so she pushed Lee Oswald to cut short his duties with the Office of Naval Intelligence. Oswald wasn't finished with his mission there -- but he quit in the middle and returned to the USA in early 1962. And that's why his Marine discharge was reduced to less than satisfactory. He had breached his mission.

For the next two years of his short life Oswald was continually broke and supported his family in dire poverty. He had brought this upon himself.

Then, when Oswald let himself get mixed up with George De Mohrenschildt and Volkmar Schmidt, who hated General Walker, Lee Harvey Oswald's life took a turn downhill from which it would never recover.

Oswald found himself in New Orleans preparing an Anti-Fidel campaign for mercenaries -- including David Ferrie and Interpen and many others in these paramilitary training camps. Oswald probably thought he was doing work that would earn him more points with the Intelligence Agencies.

But since Oswald had taken a pot-shot at General Walker -- nobody but a handful of people in New Orleans and in Dallas knew that Oswald was really being prepared as a Patsy by an out-of-control Civilian Conspiracy for a much more dangerous target.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited October 5, 2016 by Paul Trejo

[Roger DeLaria]

I don't believe Oswald was a CIA agent, I think he was a CIA asset. I think there might be a distinction.

I understand that Oswald was at Atsugi, which I heard somewhere was largely CIA operations. So, the agency may certainly have been using him already in some capacity, as well as other young GIs. I read somewhere that the CIA ran the false defector program through the ONI. I could see that happening. And, as Steve said, he came back and became an FBI informant/asset. It seems that Oswald was being run many different parties. Through all this, he ended up becoming the perfect patsy.

Edited October 4, 2016 by Roger DeLaria

[Paul Brancato]

Roger - when LHO went to New Orleans and soon declared himself the head of the local FPCC, on whose initiative do you think he undertook that action?

[Roger DeLaria]

I would say, generally speaking, this falls under the CIA domain. Being as compartmentalized as the CIA is, which persons specifically, and who knew what regarding Oswald and his activities, I'm not sure who might have directed Oswald. I think there were very likely cutouts and layers, so I could only speculate at best with that. David Atlee Phillips might be a good candidate? Some others?

Given the CIA's campaign against Castro and involvement with anti-castro cubans. Oswald came into contact with the CIA funded DRE, which I believe was overseen by George Joannides.

[Paul Brancato]

Yes to all that. Yet he asked to speak with FBI when he was arrested didn't he?

[Steve Thomas]

Roger,

You wrote:

"It seems that Oswald was being run by many different parties"

It was John Martino who said, "Oswald didn't know who he was working for..."

While I think Oswald was "lent" to the FBI, you have to place this in the context of the antagonism that existed between the FBI and the CIA. While the CIA was sending "someone" down to Mexico City, Hoover was saying (paraphrasing), "Our men have listened to the tapes and seen the pictures of the guy down there, and he doesn't match the man the Dallas Police have in custody."

While the CIA was running a fake defector program in Russia, Hoover was putting out reports that someone else was using Oswald's birth certificate.

While the CIA was doing everything it could to arm and train anti-Castro exiles, Hoover and the FBI were being ordered to shut the training camps down, seize arms caches (Lake Pontchartrain), and stop the maritime raids out of Florida (like Interpen and Alpha 66).

When Tom Huston was trying to overhaul the U.S.'s domestic intelligence programs under the Huston Plan, it was Hoover that refused to sign on.

As far as Oswald being ONI, I'd invite you to read up on the Army Spy Scandal and Senator Sam Ervin's Subcommittee Hearings on Constitutional Rights.

In my personal opinion, that was really scary stuff.

It was Colonel Folsom, in his WC testimony who said,

Mr. ELY - I am a little curious about Keesler Air Force Base. Is that under the auspices of the Air Force rather than the Marine Corps?
Colonel FOLSOM - Yes; it is an Air Force School.
Mr. ELY - And do people from all branches of the service get trained there?
Colonel FOLSOM - Yes; we have cross training with all the other services.

It is alleged that Oswald attended the Monterey School of Languages. That was an Army Intelligence School.

I think there was a lot of "cross training".

Steve Thomas

[Paul Trejo]

Roger,

You wrote:

"It seems that Oswald was being run by many different parties"

It was John Martino who said, "Oswald didn't know who he was working for..."

While I think Oswald was "lent" to the FBI, you have to place this in the context of the antagonism that existed between the FBI and the CIA. While the CIA was sending "someone" down to Mexico City, Hoover was saying (paraphrasing), "Our men have listened to the tapes and seen the pictures of the guy down there, and he doesn't match the man the Dallas Police have in custody."

While the CIA was running a fake defector program in Russia, Hoover was putting out reports that someone else was using Oswald's birth certificate.

While the CIA was doing everything it could to arm and train anti-Castro exiles, Hoover and the FBI were being ordered to shut the training camps down, seize arms caches (Lake Pontchartrain), and stop the maritime raids out of Florida (like Interpen and Alpha 66).

When Tom Huston was trying to overhaul the U.S.'s domestic intelligence programs under the Huston Plan, it was Hoover that refused to sign on.

As far as Oswald being ONI, I'd invite you to read up on the Army Spy Scandal and Senator Sam Ervin's Subcommittee Hearings on Constitutional Rights.

In my personal opinion, that was really scary stuff.

It was Colonel Folsom, in his WC testimony who said,

Mr. ELY - I am a little curious about Keesler Air Force Base. Is that under the auspices of the Air Force rather than the Marine Corps?

Colonel FOLSOM - Yes; it is an Air Force School.

Mr. ELY - And do people from all branches of the service get trained there?

Colonel FOLSOM - Yes; we have cross training with all the other services.

It is alleged that Oswald attended the Monterey School of Languages. That was an Army Intelligence School.

I think there was a lot of "cross training".

Steve Thomas

Steve,

Yes, I think this gets to the heart of it. If Oswald was a genuine Intelligence Agent, at any level, he could never have been made into a Patsy. Somebody would have had his back.

The trouble was that Oswald was headstrong -- a very young man -- and had too many irons in the fire. Oswald wanted to play at being a double-agent -- but he was no match for Richard Case Nagell, and Oswald only made the Cuban mercenaries angry and suspicious of him.

John Martino said it best, and I appreciate your quotation, Steve, when he said, "Oswald didn't know who he was working for..."

Insofar as Oswald was widely said to have worked for the FBI -- this was for chump change. $200 a month is not really an Informant's wages -- so probably Oswald did some part-time side-work after he returned from the USSR. This was probably why the FBI initially closed his file.

As for the New Orleans period, I think Roger named the right guy -- David Atlee Phillips -- because in his 1988 manuscript, THE AMLASH LEGACY, Phillips openly admitted that he was grooming Oswald to assassinate Fidel Castro, and making Oswald appear to be an FPCC officer, and tried to help Oswald get into Cuba through Mexico City, and almost did it.

Yet Bill Simpich (2014) proved that the CIA didn't know who impersonated Oswald the day after Oswald left Mexico City. This proves, IMHO, that the CIA was trying to assassinate Fidel Castro, and that some rogues inside the CIA (at least David Morales and Howard Hunt) had left the reservation to join an out-of-control Civilian Conspiracy against JFK -- and so hi-jacked Oswald, just as Phillips wrote in his manuscript.

The impersonator in Mexico City caused the CIA to start a top-secret mole hunt. In doing this, the CIA high-command changed Oswald's middle name, and replaced the photographs they had of Oswald with some big Russian dude -- and so the lower level CIA clerks unwittingly reported this false data to the FBI. There was therefore no match.

It's no surprise, either, that people in the Intelligence Community -- at any department -- once they get hold of some underground name, will use it when they need an underground name. I totally agree that Oswald was part of the Intelligence Community -- but my argument is that he was at the very lowest levels -- a newbie -- a wannabe -- a flunky -- perhaps even lower than Roger's term, "an asset." No salary.

The CIA was still trying to assassinate Fidel Castro when JFK and RFK ordered the Justice Department and the FBI to shut down those paramilitary training camps. JFK wanted to put a happy face forward to the world, and pursue cloak-and-dagger policies in the most secret ways possible. The Cuban Expatriate mercenaries didn't get this, and they wanted the whole world to know they were coming. What a tragicomedy.

I agree that Oswald attended the Monterey School of Languages, so yes, a lot of cross-training went on. Oswald was being groomed for an Intelligence career -- BUT HE NEVER MADE THE GRADE.

Oswald's biggest mistake was that he tried to assassinate General Walker in April 1963. Oswald read the signals wrong from George DeMohrenschildt and Volkmar Schmidt.

As a consequence, General Walker got revenge on RFK, JFK and Oswald all on the same day.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited October 5, 2016 by Paul Trejo

[Chris Newton]

I agree that Oswald attended the Monterey School of Languages, so yes, a lot of cross-training went on. Oswald was being groomed for an Intelligence career -- BUT HE NEVER MADE THE GRADE.

Oswald and I have something in common here although I think if he attended the school he's a lot smarter than me.

A few years after being discharged from active service I attempted to re-enlist in the Army and I was sent down to Miami to take the Army language aptitude test. The test is taken while wearing headphones and they create an entirely new language and then ask you to choose between multiple audio "answers" to identify the proper phrase. Having lived overseas for long periods, I had conversational knowledge of the French and German languages and I had studied Latin for two years in grade school, along with French. This prior knowledge didn't help me take this test at all.

It was the hardest test of any type I have ever taken in my entire life and I failed.

I'm told that the test I took was developed in the 1950's and only recently (in the 2000s) have they updated it.

[Thomas Graves]

...As regards the manipulating of Oswald or Oswald's files into his becoming the perfect patsy, let's not forget the telephonic impersonation (by an apparent SAS or Staff D insider) and the physical impersonation by a "blond Oswald" in Mexico City.

Which gives me an idea: Why didn't the blond "Oswald" in Mexico City dye his hair brown to look more like Oswald? The fact that he didn't suggests that the plotters or his handlers didn't know what Oswald looked like and chose to impersonate him in a manner consistent with what was already in his Intelligence files.

--Tommy

Tommy, I believe that Bill Simpich's book, "State Secret" (2014) answers the questions about the large blonde Russian guy whose photograph appears in Lee Oswald's CIA 401 file. According to Bill Simpich...

He wasn't impersonating Lee Oswald -- the CIA high-command chose to start a "mole-hunt" to find out which "mole" had impersonated Lee Harvey Oswald, ostensibly to link his name with KGB Agent Valery Kostikov.

The CIA high-command deliberately altered Lee Oswald's 401 file in many ways, including (1) replacing the photo with a stranger; (2) changing Oswald's middle name to "Henry," (3) slightly changing the names of his parents; (4) slightly changing some date information.

Sadly, when the JFK assassination occurred, and the Warren Commission demanded the CIA files on Lee Harvey Oswald, the CIA handed over the tampered-with files. That's all that anybody knew at the lower levels of the CIA.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Paul,

Very well put, but I'm afraid you're unwittingly reducing the five different characters I'm alluding to into only two or three. Of the five "people" I'm talking about, one is either a real Russian "scientist" (or a still unidentified "mystery man"), the second is a composite of two real people -- false defectors Robert Webster and Lee Harvey Oswald --, and the fifth one is the "blonde-or-dark-blonde," very thin-faced "Oswald" that Cuban Consul Azque dealt with in a (very memorable-for- him) way on September 27, 1963.

When you say "the large blonde Russian guy whose photograph appears in Lee Oswald's CIA 401 file," you're actually talking about the guy Bill Simpich identified as Yuri Moskalev, a balding, brown-haired Russian "scientist" and GRU agent who may have been the man who was photographed (and eventually labeled "The Mexico City Mystery Man") while leaving the Mexico City Soviet Embassy on October 2, 1963, one day after someone had impersonated Oswald by calling the Russian Embassy, alluding to an earlier visit, and identifying himself as "Oswald."

Although "Moskalev" / "Mexico City Mystery Man" was large ("athletic build," actually), he wasn't blonde (or even dark blonde), and therein lies some of the basis for my contending that you've oversimplified things a bit too much or that you didn't properly address the questions I posed in my earlier post.

In a cable Anne Goodpasture sent to CIA headquarters, she fibbed about the date Moskalev(?) was photographed because, for urgent Mexico City "mole hunting" reasons and to preserve the operational viability of a much older Oswald-involved "marked card" operation, she desperately needed a CIA photograph taken of any 35-ish, white, American-looking male, preferably with dark-blonde or light- brown hair, who had been "captured" on film while entering the Russian Embassy on or about October 1. Since the only CIA-taken photo Goodpasture could find that was close to that date (and in which the subject reasonably approximated the above-listed physical description requirements), happened to have been of the dark-haired Moskalev-character on October 2, Goodpasture used it and said that the guy (who was apparently unknown to her) was photographed on the mandatory-for-her October 1 date, instead. And why did Goodpasture have to say October 1? Because that was when an Oswald impostor was tape recorded calling the Mexico City Soviet Embassy and stating, "My name is Oswald."

Moskalev(?) below. Please note that whoever this man is, he is not blonde, or even dark blonde.

FWIW, here's a Russ Holmes HSCA CIA document from 1977 which speculates that the Mexico City Mystery Man might have been Moskalev:

http://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/cia/russholmes/104-10413/104-10413-10055/html/104-10413-10055_0002a.htm

A handwritten note on this 1971 document says Moskalev was in the U.S. in October, 1963.

https://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=6532&relPageId=2

Moving ahead now, in my earlier post I was wondering why the thin-faced, "blonde or dark blonde" Oswald impostor whom Azque encountered in the Cuban Consulate on September 27 hadn't died his hair light brown to look more like the real Oswald, and the best answer I could come up with is that the "bad guys" had either not cared about trying to match Oswald's hair color, or had believed that he had blonde or dark-blonde hair. But why would they think that? Answer: Because Robert E. Webster had blonde dark-blonde hair, and because Webster's and Oswald's physical descriptions had been merged in a Popov Mole "marked card" operation right after the brown-haired Oswald had "defected" to Russia in 1959, and the "bad guys," who apparently were privy to that "marked card" information, were themselves fooled by it into believing that Oswald has blond or dark-blond hair.

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/jfkinfo/hscaascu.htm

Side note: Two things that have always troubled me about Sylvia Duran's testimony is that she claimed Oswald was short, only about 5' 5",apparently, and that he was dressed "cheaply." The real Oswald was, at 5' 9.5", about four inches taller than her and was wearing a nice vest sweater and tie in the passport photos he had just had taken of him about an hour earlier!

Scroll down on this link to see his Cuban Visa application photograph: http://history-matters.com/essays/frameup/MoreMexicoMysteries/MoreMexicoMysteries_1.htm

Would Eusebio Azcue or Sylvia Duran lie about what "Oswald" looked like? Did Duran and Azcue somehow deal with different Oswald impostors? Is Duran lying or is Azcue lying, or are they both lying?

Regardless, I hope this helps you understand what I was talking about in the earlier post.

--Tommy

FWIW, here's a photo of the blond-haired Robert E. Webster in Russia. No, I'm not saying that Robert Webster was in Mexico City. I'm saying that the "blond, dark-blond" M.C. Oswald impersonator that Azcue encountered may have "inherited" Webster's hair color through the bad guy's misinterpretation of the CIA's Oswald-Webster "marked card" process, originally begun by the CIA some three years earlier in an attempt to catch "Popov's Mole.".

Edit: I believe this 1962 newspaper photograph of Webster was doctored to make him look even more like Oswald than he already did.

[...]

[...]

edited and bumped

Edited October 6, 2016 by Thomas Graves

[Steve Thomas]

Chris,

"Oswald and I have something in common here although I think if he attended the school he's a lot smarter than me.

A few years after being discharged from active service I attempted to re-enlist in the Army and I was sent down to Miami to take the Army language aptitude test. The test is taken while wearing headphones and they create an entirely new language and then ask you to choose between multiple audio "answers" to identify the proper phrase. Having lived overseas for long periods, I had conversational knowledge of the French and German languages and I had studied Latin for two years in grade school, along with French. This prior knowledge didn't help me take this test at all."

That's why I don't believe that the Language Aptitude Test that Lt. Col Folsom described in his WC testimony about Oswald consisted only of reading and writing comprehension. Not only that, but Oswald's test scores under "understanding" are different from his test scores in "reading" and in ""writing".

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/folsom.htm

"Mr. ELY - All right. Now, moving further down page 7, we have the record of a Russian examination taken by Oswald on February 25, 1959. Could you explain to us what sort of test this was, and what the scores achieved by Oswald mean?
Colonel FOLSOM - The test form was Department of the Army, Adjutant General's Office, PRT-157. This is merely the test series designation.
Now, under "understands" the scoring was minus 5, which means that he got five more wrong than right. The "P" in parentheses indicates "poor." Under reading he achieved a score of 4, which is low. This, again, is shown by the "P" in parentheses for "poor."
Mr. ELY - This 4 means he got four more questions right than wrong?
Colonel FOLSOM - This is correct.
And under "writes" he achieved a score of 3, with "P" in parentheses, and this indicates he got three more right than he did wrong.
His total score was 2, with a "P" in parentheses meaning that overall he got two more right than wrong, and his rating was poor throughout."

I don't really believe that Oswald attended Monterey. If we can believe the official records, he was only in California for three months in 1959. It's possible that that is where he was tested, but you can't learn a foreign language in that short a period of time. Nor can you understand a foreign language simply by reading a few books. I can believe that he attended an ASL, an Army Language School while he was stationed in Japan.

Nor do I believe Ofstein when he told the WC:

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/ofstein.htm

Mr. JENNER. And I assume, with an entire year's study at that special school of Monterey, you acquired a facility with the language, did you?
Mr. OFSTEIN. Not as well as I should have; no, sir.

Mr. JENNER. Did you pursue your study of the Russian language at anytime from the time you left Monterey until the present?
Mr. OFSTEIN. Only in little--what you might say, self study in spurts.

This was a guy who spent a year at Monterey, and then spent his military tour of duty in Germany with the 507th, whose mission was to intercept and translate Russian and East German military traffic.

I don't buy it.

"It was the hardest test of any type I have ever taken in my entire life and I failed."

That took a lot of courage to say.

Steve Thomas

[Paul Trejo]

...Mr. ELY - This 4 means he got four more questions right than wrong?

Colonel FOLSOM - This is correct.

And under "writes" he achieved a score of 3, with "P" in parentheses, and this indicates he got three more right than he did wrong.

His total score was 2, with a "P" in parentheses meaning that overall he got two more right than wrong, and his rating was poor throughout."

I don't really believe that Oswald attended Monterey. If we can believe the official records, he was only in California for three months in 1959. It's possible that that is where he was tested, but you can't learn a foreign language in that short a period of time. Nor can you understand a foreign language simply by reading a few books. I can believe that he attended an ASL, an Army Language School while he was stationed in Japan.

Nor do I believe Ofstein when he told the WC:

http://jfkassassination.net/russ/testimony/ofstein.htm

Mr. JENNER. And I assume, with an entire year's study at that special school of Monterey, you acquired a facility with the language, did you?

Mr. OFSTEIN. Not as well as I should have; no, sir.

Mr. JENNER. Did you pursue your study of the Russian language at anytime from the time you left Monterey until the present?

Mr. OFSTEIN. Only in little--what you might say, self study in spurts.

This was a guy who spent a year at Monterey, and then spent his military tour of duty in Germany with the 507th, whose mission was to intercept and translate Russian and East German military traffic.

I don't buy it.

Steve Thomas

Steve, I hold a certificate in TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) and I can affirm that mastering a second language in adulthood is far more difficult than any other topic -- including math and physics.

Besides, some people have the aptitude, and most people simply don't.

LHO was a special case. Even if LHO had spent only one week in that Monterey language class in the Military, it would only have encouraged him, because Oswald had already taught himself many elements of Russian when he was younger -- while still a teenager. The younger the better to learn a foreign language -- that's an academic fact.

According to Robert Oswald, young LHO was fascinated with the deception inherent in being a double-agent, and "I Led Three Lives" was one of young LHO's favorite TV programs. Being a spy was a boyhood dream of young LHO. Learning Russian on his own was one of his youthful obsessions. Any brief time LHO spent in Monterey would have merely confirmed his destiny to him.

Much has been made of LHO's circling of the US Intelligence Community -- even since his teenage years. I have little doubt that LHO wanted to be in the CIA so bad he could taste it.

I also have little doubt that LHO never made the grade. He kept messing up. First by leaving his USSR mission too early, and secondly by becoming involved in George DeMohrennschildt's personal hatred of General Walker.

LHO would never become a CIA agent, or an FBI agent, or obtain any permanent employment in the US Intelligence Community. George DeMohrenschildt said it best -- LHO's best choice would have been to go back to the Marines and sign-up again.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited October 6, 2016 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Brancato]

I thought the myth of Oswald watching I led three lives had been exploded already. Wasn't it on the air at a time when Oswald could not have watched it?