Was Harvard Student Edward L. Keenan, Jr. a CIA Agent in 1959?

[Thomas Graves]

(Seriously edited, augmented, and moved here from another thread)

It is well known that twenty-four year old Harvard graduate student Edward Louis Keenan, Jr. encountered Lee Harvey Oswald at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow in late October, 1959.

Keenan was born on May 13, 1935 in Buffalo, New York, and died on March 6, 2015 after many years serving as an administrator and professor at Harvard. He taught medieval Russian history there, having received his 1957 bachelor's degree in Slavic studies at Harvard, as well as his PhD there in 1965.

Here's a remembrance by a colleague which states that Keenan was a graduate exchange student for two years in Russia, starting in 1959:

http://muse.jhu.edu/.../16.2.boeck.pdf

Greg Parker claims that Keenan was a CIA agent in Russia, having been "spotted" at Harvard by the very same man he was visiting at the U.S. Embassy that October 1959 day in Moscow, senior consulate official Richard Edward Snyder.

It is true that Keenan was accused of being a U.S. spy by the Soviet authorities and expelled from the Soviet Union in 1961.

Greg Parker:

"As for Edward L Keenan the exchange student. He was most definitely a CIA agent in the REDSKIN program and had actually been "spotted" for the role by Snyder. He was kicked out in '61 or '62 for spying and in a speech once at Harvard, he talked about the difficulty of meeting contacts over there - an admission of sorts, despite his denials when the Russians actually published the details of his spying in '67."

Me:

"How sure are you that in late 1959 twenty-four year Keenan was a CIA agent in the REDSKIN program? Are there any documents that prove this?"

Greg Parker:

"There is a grab bag full of circumstantial evidence - but there is also a document which I believes provides verification. It is a CIA memo sent out about him after he was booted from the country. It is about him meeting with a BSA defector shortly before leaving. It is marked REDSKIN and RYBAT (code for "urgent"). To further add to the weight of that, I checked memos on a number of other Americans who happened to come into contact with the NSA defector - none had either of those crypts.

You can read it all here, Tommy:

http://www.reopenkennedycase.net/parker5.html

Timing is everything. I am actually about to tackle this part of the case for my book. I'll be turning a few notions upside down in the process."

Me: The wording of the document you are referring to sounds innocuous enough to me, Greg. I took the liberty of "decrypting" it, literally and figuratively, into plain English:

"Mr. Edward Louis Keenan, a student recently expelled from the Soviet Union and now lingering in Alexandria, Egypt, for one Arabic language study [course] before returning to the U.S (see State Department / US Embassy traffic), casually mentioned on July 12 that he had met and spoken with [NSA defector William Hamilton Martin] in Leningrad 'last year' with his Russian wife. Not questioned further, but could be."

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=48643&search=keenan_arabic#relPageId=2&tab=page

Comments and questions for Greg Parker:

1) Don't you think it's strange that Keenan didn't get around to "casually mentioning" (in Egypt) his contact with NSA-defector Martin in Leningrad until at least seven months after it had happened? One would think that if Keenan were a CIA "REDSKIN" agent in Russia that he would have told his case officer in Russia much earlier than that, and not just by "casually mentioning" it, either. The feeling I get from the document is that Keenan may not have even realized he was talking to a CIA agent / officer / informant in Alexandria, Egypt, on July 12, 1961.

2) If Keenan was a CIA "REDSKIN" agent whose job, as you have claimed elsewhere, was to provide "orientation" to recently-arrived Oswald, do you think he provided it to him at the U.S. Embassy? Did anyone ever claim to see Keenan and Oswald together at a pub, etc? Did he introduce Oswald to Marina at the dance?

3) If Edward Louis Keenan (Jr.) was a CIA agent, don't you think it's strange that his full name, not his CIA "pseudo" or crypt, was spelled out in the "Secret," RYBAT, "Eyes Only" document? After all, Martin's name was originally referred to in the document by the letter "B" in the cryptic phrase "IDEN B REF" and was only later written in as "Martin".

4) If Keenan was a CIA agent, what was his "pseudo" or crypt? If unknown, are there any other CIA documents which, in your opinion, secretly refer to him during the same time period (1959 - 1961)?

Thanks Greg,

--Tommy

Edited June 13, 2015 by Thomas Graves

[Greg Parker]

Don't you think it's strange that Keenan didn't get around to "casually mentioning" contact with NSA-defector Martin in Leningrad until at least seven months after it had happened, and not even in Russia at that?

Nope. You fundamentally misunderstand the role of an agent and specifically, what the REDSKIN program was. In any case, if you dig deeper into the documents, you'll find he never actually did meet the defector after all.

The REDSKIN program was a legal traveller's program. Keenan would have been briefed on the specifics of his role within that. Since Russell Langelle told the HSCA that there were 3 or 4 students involved in handling "orientation projects", and since Keenan was at the embassy on a Saturday over what he would later tell authors was a "visa problem" - a day HE almost certainly would know was a day it was not open - the one day LHO would happen to be there - then my best guess is that he was one of the 3 or 4 involved in "orientation projects". To that extent, I wonder on what basis he would need to know about the NSA defectors, let alone meet with them as part of his role. Answer: he wouldn't. So the short answer is - no - I don't find it the least bit strange.

2) If Keenan was a CIA agent whose job was to provide "orientation" to recently-arrived Oswald, do you think he provided it to him at the U.S. Embassy?

That's how it looks to me. What about you.

Did anyone ever claim to see Keenan and Oswald together at a pub, etc? Did he introduce Oswald to Marina at the dance?

Not that I'm aware of.

3) If Edward Louis Keenan (Jr.) was a CIA agent, don't you think it's strange that his full name, not his CIA "pseudo" or crypt, was spelled out in the "Secret," RYBAT, "Eyes Only" document? After all, Martin's name was originally referred to in the document by the letter "B" in the cryptic phrase "IDEN B REF" and was only later written in as "Martin".

Again, you fundamentally misunderstand what an "agent" is and what the program was. He didn't have or NEED a psuedo or crypt. He was a legal traveller there for legal purposes.

4) If Keenan was a CIA agent, what was his "pseudo" or crypt? If unknown, are there any other CIA documents which, in your opinion, secretly refer to him during the same time period (1959 - 1961)?

You've been watching James Bond marathons again, haven't you Tommy....

[Thomas Graves]

Parker: The REDSKIN program was a legal traveler's program. Keenan would have been briefed on the specifics of his role within that. Since Russell Langelle told the HSCA that there were 3 or 4 students involved in handling "orientation projects", and since Keenan was at the embassy on a Saturday over what he would later tell authors was a "visa problem" - a day HE almost certainly would know was a day it was not open - the one day LHO would happen to be there - then my best guess is that he was one of the 3 or 4 involved in "orientation projects".

Graves: I think the embassy was open until 12 noon on Saturdays, wasn't it? And wasn't Keenan already a student at Leningrad University? Maybe he had classes Monday through Friday and could only go to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on a Saturday. I believe it's possible that Keenan was at the embassy to take care of a problem with his visa. How long had he been in Russia at that point, anyway? He had probably arrived fairly recently himself. In addition to a standard, run-of-the-mill kind of "visa problem," it's easy to imagine that he already had a "special" kind of visa problem because, from what I've read, he liked to travel around Russia without official permission to do so, which eventually led to his getting expelled.

Parker: To that extent, I wonder on what basis Keenan would need to know about the NSA defectors, let alone meet with them as part of his role. Answer: he wouldn't. So the short answer is - no - I don't find it the least bit strange.

Graves: NSA-defectors Martin and Mitchell "went public" to the Moscow press on December 6, 1960, at which time they announced they had requested asylum and Soviet citizenship. It's reasonable to assume that Keenan would have heard about this. Keenan was a student at Leningrad University, and at some point Martin started studying there, too. If Keenan was a CIA REDSKIN "agent," even if he didn't know that Martin was a NSA-defector it's reasonable to assume that he would have mentioned his meeting of Martin and Martin's Russian wife to his CIA controller / supervisor / contact in Russia in a timely manner and that a CIA document would have been written which would have reflected that. But no such "timely" document has been uncovered.

Graves: If Keenan was a CIA agent whose job was to provide "orientation" to recently-arrived Oswald, do you think he provided it to him at the U.S. Embassy?

Parker: That's how it looks to me. What about you?

Graves: I think Keenan was probably there to take care of a visa problem. BTW, what kind of "orientation" do you think Keenan could have given Oswald that Saturday? Oswald had already been in Moscow for several days, and had even spent some time in a Soviet hospital. Do you think Oswald need to be "oriented"?

Parker: Keenan didn't have or NEED a psuedo or crypt. He was a legal traveler there for legal purposes.

My bad, Greg. When you said, "Keenan was most certainly a CIA agent," I guess you meant "agent" very broadly, kind of like a "voluntary 'legal' participant in spying activities". LOL

BTW, here's a CIA document in which several REDSKIN operatives, e.g. AEBALCONY/2 and AEBALCONY/6, are referred to only by their respective crypts.

http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/1705143/AEBALCONY_0005.pdf

They must have had sensitive assignments.

I wonder if Oswald was considered a sensitive assignment for Keenan?

How many REDSKIN "agents" are you aware of who are actually identified by their real names in "secret" CIA documents?

--Tommy

Edited June 13, 2015 by Thomas Graves

[Greg Parker]

Parker: The REDSKIN program was a legal traveler's program. Keenan would have been briefed on the specifics of his role within that. Since Russell Langelle told the HSCA that there were 3 or 4 students involved in handling "orientation projects", and since Keenan was at the embassy on a Saturday over what he would later tell authors was a "visa problem" - a day HE almost certainly would know was a day it was not open - the one day LHO would happen to be there - then my best guess is that he was one of the 3 or 4 involved in "orientation projects".

Graves: I think the embassy was open until 12 noon on Saturdays, wasn't it? And wasn't Keenan already a student at Leningrad University? Maybe he had classes Monday through Friday and could only go to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on a Saturday. I believe it's possible that Keenan was at the embassy to take care of a problem with his visa. How long had he been in Russia at that point, anyway? He had probably arrived fairly recently himself. In addition to a standard, run-of-the-mill kind of "visa problem," it's easy to imagine that he already had a "special" kind of visa problem because, from what I've read, he liked to travel around Russia without official permission to do so, which eventually led to his getting expelled.

Parker: To that extent, I wonder on what basis Keenan would need to know about the NSA defectors, let alone meet with them as part of his role. Answer: he wouldn't. So the short answer is - no - I don't find it the least bit strange.

Graves: NSA-defectors Martin and Mitchell "went public" to the Moscow press on December 6, 1960, at which time they announced they had requested asylum and Soviet citizenship. It's reasonable to assume that Keenan would have heard about this. Keenan was a student at Leningrad University, and at some point Martin started studying there, too. If Keenan was a CIA REDSKIN "agent," even if he didn't know that Martin was a NSA-defector, it's reasonable to assume that he would have mentioned his meeting of Martin and Martin's Russian wife to his CIA controller / supervisor / contact in Russia in a timely manner and that a CIA document would have been written which would have reflected that. But no such "timely" document has been uncovered.

Graves: If Keenan was a CIA agent whose job was to provide "orientation" to recently-arrived Oswald, do you think he provided it to him at the U.S. Embassy?

Parker: That's how it looks to me. What about you?

Graves: I think Keenan was probably there to take care of a visa problem. BTW, what kind of "orientation" do you think Keenan could have given Oswald that Saturday? Oswald had already been in Moscow for several days, and had even spent some time in a Soviet hospital. Do you think Oswald need to be "oriented"?

Parker: Keenan didn't have or NEED a psuedo or crypt. He was a legal traveler there for legal purposes.

My bad, Greg. When you said, "Keenan was most certainly a CIA agent," I guess you meant "agent" very broadly, kind of like a "voluntary 'legal' participant in spying activities". LOL

Here's a CIA document in which several REDSKIN operatives, e.g. AEBALCONY/2 and AEBALCONY/6, are referred to only by their respective crypts.

http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/1705143/AEBALCONY_0005.pdf

They must have had sensitive assignments.

I wonder if Oswald was considered a sensitive assignment for Keenan?

--Tommy

Tommy,

interesting document. Thanks. I'll get to that shortly.

With regard to ELK1... the following facts apply:

1. The HSCA established that Snyder was a spotter for the legal travel program at Harvard.

2. I established that ELK1 was at Harvard during the period

3. The CIA was extremely interested in utilizing experts in all things Russian (what a shock!)

4. ELK1 was an expert in one or more fields pertaining to Russia

5. Although the exact date he went there is unknown to me, I did find evidence at some stage that he was one of the first exchange students to go under the then recently signed exchange agreements

6. As you note, he liked to travel around the SU - knowing he was not supposed to

7. As he told the Davis Center, his travels involved meeting "contacts"

8. As a student in a host country under an exchange program that was highly important to thawing tensions, he should not have had any "visa problems". All his papers should have been in order, and he would have had exchange program contacts to sort any issues that crop up. It is not something - as a participant in such an important program - that he should have had to personally deal with. Especially since it apparently entailed more unauthorized travel.

9. Yes, the embassy was open till noon - but the official story has it that Snyder had to be called down to his office to deal with Oswald who arrived AFTER noon. If Snyder was not in his office dealing with ELK1, where exactly was ELK1 who freely admitted to being present?

10. We have Russell Langelle telling the HCSA that 3 or 4 students were working on "Orientation Projects" for the CIA. Oswald had NOT been in hospital prior to the appearance at the embassy as you claim. He had for the most part, been holed up in his hotel room except maybe to see some sights with his Intourist guide.

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

Your document is both interesting but also slightly confusing.

There were a number of RED programs. REDSKIN was partially a support program for the others.

REDSOX for example, was to infiltrate former Soviet and Satellite nationals back into their home countries to recruit for small cells to be in place awaiting the time for a general uprising and to collect intelligence. And that is what the people described sound like - REDSOX rather than REDSKIN agents. I'm guessing that they were indeed REDSOX agents "hidden" inside the legal travellers program - which, as I said, was partially a support program for the other programs - including REDSOX.

I know it does not suit your theory (that LHO was just a wannabe) to have ELK1 be a CIA agent, but to me, saying he was there in Snyder's office by sheer coincidence is akin to saying LHO got his job at the TSBD by sheer coincidence.

Edited June 13, 2015 by Greg Parker

[Thomas Graves]

Parker: The REDSKIN program was a legal traveler's program. Keenan would have been briefed on the specifics of his role within that. Since Russell Langelle told the HSCA that there were 3 or 4 students involved in handling "orientation projects", and since Keenan was at the embassy on a Saturday over what he would later tell authors was a "visa problem" - a day HE almost certainly would know was a day it was not open - the one day LHO would happen to be there - then my best guess is that he was one of the 3 or 4 involved in "orientation projects".

Graves: I think the embassy was open until 12 noon on Saturdays, wasn't it? And wasn't Keenan already a student at Leningrad University? Maybe he had classes Monday through Friday and could only go to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on a Saturday. I believe it's possible that Keenan was at the embassy to take care of a problem with his visa. How long had he been in Russia at that point, anyway? He had probably arrived fairly recently himself. In addition to a standard, run-of-the-mill kind of "visa problem," it's easy to imagine that he already had a "special" kind of visa problem because, from what I've read, he liked to travel around Russia without official permission to do so, which eventually led to his getting expelled.

Parker: To that extent, I wonder on what basis Keenan would need to know about the NSA defectors, let alone meet with them as part of his role. Answer: he wouldn't. So the short answer is - no - I don't find it the least bit strange.

Graves: NSA-defectors Martin and Mitchell "went public" to the Moscow press on December 6, 1960, at which time they announced they had requested asylum and Soviet citizenship. It's reasonable to assume that Keenan would have heard about this. Keenan was a student at Leningrad University, and at some point Martin started studying there, too. If Keenan was a CIA REDSKIN "agent," even if he didn't know that Martin was a NSA-defector, it's reasonable to assume that he would have mentioned his meeting of Martin and Martin's Russian wife to his CIA controller / supervisor / contact in Russia in a timely manner and that a CIA document would have been written which would have reflected that. But no such "timely" document has been uncovered.

Graves: If Keenan was a CIA agent whose job was to provide "orientation" to recently-arrived Oswald, do you think he provided it to him at the U.S. Embassy?

Parker: That's how it looks to me. What about you?

Graves: I think Keenan was probably there to take care of a visa problem. BTW, what kind of "orientation" do you think Keenan could have given Oswald that Saturday? Oswald had already been in Moscow for several days, and had even spent some time in a Soviet hospital. Do you think Oswald need to be "oriented"?

Parker: Keenan didn't have or NEED a psuedo or crypt. He was a legal traveler there for legal purposes.

My bad, Greg. When you said, "Keenan was most certainly a CIA agent," I guess you meant "agent" very broadly, kind of like a "voluntary 'legal' participant in spying activities". LOL

Here's a CIA document in which several REDSKIN operatives, e.g. AEBALCONY/2 and AEBALCONY/6, are referred to only by their respective crypts.

http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_conversions/1705143/AEBALCONY_0005.pdf

They must have had sensitive assignments.

I wonder if Oswald was considered a sensitive assignment for Keenan?

--Tommy

Tommy,

interesting document. Thanks. I'll get to that shortly.

With regard to ELK1... the following facts apply:

1. The HSCA established that Snyder was a spotter for the legal travel program at Harvard.

2. I established that ELK1 was at Harvard during the period

3. The CIA was extremely interested in utilizing experts in all things Russian (what a shock!)

4. ELK1 was an expert in one or more fields pertaining to Russia

5. Although the exact date he went there is unknown to me, I did find evidence at some stage that he was one of the first exchange students to go under the then recently signed exchange agreements

6. As you note, he liked to travel around the SU - knowing he was not supposed to

7. As he told the Davis Center, his travels involved meeting "contacts"

8. As a student in a host country under an exchange program that was highly important to thawing tensions, he should not have had any "visa problems". All his papers should have been in order, and he would have had exchange program contacts to sort any issues that crop up. It is not something - as a participant in such an important program - that he should have had to personally deal with. Especially since it apparently entailed more unauthorized travel.

9. Yes, the embassy was open till noon - but the official story has it that Snyder had to be called down to his office to deal with Oswald who arrived AFTER noon. If Snyder was not in his office dealing with ELK1, where exactly was ELK1 who freely admitted to being present?

10. We have Russell Langelle telling the HCSA that 3 or 4 students were working on "Orientation Projects" for the CIA. Oswald had NOT been in hospital prior to the appearance at the embassy as you claim. He had for the most part, been holed up in his hotel room except maybe to see some sights with his Intourist guide.

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

Your document is both interesting but also slightly confusing.

There were a number of RED programs. REDSKIN was partially a support program for the others.

REDSOX for example, was to infiltrate former Soviet and Satellite nationals back into their home countries to recruit for small cells to be in place awaiting the time for a general uprising and to collect intelligence. And that is what the people described sound like - REDSOX rather than REDSKIN agents. I'm guessing that they were indeed REDSOX agents "hidden" inside the legal travellers program - which, as I said, was partially a support program for the other programs - including REDSOX.

I know it does not suit your theory (that LHO was just a wannabe) to have ELK1 be a CIA agent, but to me, saying he was there in Snyder's office by sheer coincidence is akin to saying LHO got his job at the TSBD by sheer coincidence.

Greg,

Fair enough.

--Tommy

[Steven Gaal]

REDBLOCK / REDCOAT / REDLEG / REDTOP
CIA Soviet Russia Division

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

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/ops/ussr.htm

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

Throughout the Cold War, the potential enemies were mainly the USSR and other Soviet Bloc countries. As various wars of national liberation blossomed under communist support to indigenous, native guerrilla movements, there were still other factions of guerrillas on the scene. At the close of World War II, certain groups of guerrilla fighters who had been opposing the Germans, the Soviets, or both, still existed. As Eastern Europe was quickly occupied by Soviet forces these organizations, primarily in Albania, Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, and some even within the Soviet Union, shifted from guerrilla warfare to espionage, subversion, and sabotage.

The United States looked upon these groups as possible allies against the Soviets and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) spent considerable time, effort, and money in keeping contact with these eastern European groups. Both the United States and the Soviet Union secretly started to mobilize forces against each other and build intricate networks of spies.

A secret American plan known as Rollback was "an audacious strategy of espionage, subversion, and sabotage to foment insurrection in the Soviet satellite countries." The book Operation Rollback: America's Secret War Behind the Iron Curtain highlighted these secret efforts. This possible theater for a future WorldWar III started at a time when the OSS of World War II fame was dissolving into the CIA on the civilian side and into Army Special Forces on the military side.

◾REDBIRD - Operations involving the illegal return of defectors and emigres to USSR as agents.
◾REDCAP - was the planned collection of information on Soviet personnel stationed abroad for the purpose of operational exploitation, including defection inducement.
◾REDSKIN - Operations involving legal methods of placing, recruiting, and communicating with agents within the USSR.
◾REDSOX - Operations involving the illegal return of defectors and emigres to USSR as agents.
◾REDWOOD - Action indicator for information for CIA Soviet Division.

◾AERODYNAMIC (formerly CARTEL, ANDROGEN, AECARTHAGE) (1949-70) refers to CIA support for ZP/UHVR (Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council), which began in 1949. CIA helped to establish in New York City the Prolog Research and Publishing Company in 1953 as ZP/UHVR's publishing and research arm. Prolog, through an affiliate in Munich, published periodicals and selected books and pamphlets which sought to exploit and increase nationalist and other dissident tendencies in the Soviet Ukraine. ZP/UHVR operational activity concentrated on propaganda and contact operations. In 1970, AERODYNAMIC was redesignated QRPLUMB.
◾AEBEEHIVE [later QRDYNAMIC/QRPLUMB] (1970-91) superceded Project AERODYNAMIC and supported the Ukrainian émigré organization ZP / UHVR (Ukrainian Supreme Liberation Council) with a New York publishing arm called Prolog Research Corporation (QRTENURE, AETENURE) and a Munich Office, Ukrainian Society for Foreign Studies (QRTERRACE, AETERRACE), publisher of the monthly journal Suchasnist. CIA terminated QRPLUMB after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1991 and provided funds to enable Prolog to transition to a privately-funded company. In 1992, Prolog's monthly Ukrainian journal Suchasnist (Contemporary Times) was successfully transitioned to a publishing company in Kiev, Ukraine and thereafter was published as a collaborative effort between Prolog and a Ukrainian group in Kiev.
◾AECAMBISTA-1, CAMBISTA-1 (cryptonyms for BNR). Byelorussian emigration was split into two organizations -- the BZR/BCR (Beloruska Zentralna Rada or Byelorussian Central Council) and the BNR (Beloruska Nationalna Rada or Byelorussian National Council or Council of the Byelorussian Peoples Republic). The BZR/BCR, which was created during the German occupation of Byelorussia and supported by the Germans, was headed by Radislaw Ostrowsky. The BNR, which included a Cadre School and a Study Group, was headed by Mikola Abramtchik in Paris and Major Boris Ragula was its Operations Chief. Francis Kushel was BNR's military representative in New York.
◾AEMANNER (1955-58) was an operation to collect intelligence on the Lithuanian SSR by spotting, recruiting, and training Lithuanians who planned to return to Lithuania; spotting, recruiting, and training Lithuanian merchant seamen who would be on vessels calling at Lithuanian SSR ports; exploiting existing postal channels between Lithuanian SSR and the West; and interrogating persons coming out of the Lithuanian SSR.
◾AEMARSH (1953-59) involved collecting foreign intelligence on the Soviet regime in Latvia through sources residing in the Latvian SSR, legal travelers, and all possible legal means. The Institute for Latvian Culture (AEMINX) was established as a cover facility engaged in the preservation and development of Latvian national culture, collection of information on Latvian national life, and the safeguarding and preserving of physical, spiritual, and moral conditions of Latvians who were separated from their homeland.
◾AEDEPOT (formerly AEREADY) (1957-65) was designed to provide a trained "Hot War" cadre of agents who could be used during a period of heightened tensions/increased alert or during actual hostilities against the Soviet Union.

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

________________________________________________________

Soviet Russia - REDBIRD / REDSOX

The REDBIRD / REDSOX operations involved the illegal return of defectors and emigres to USSR as agents. The REDSOX program against the Soviet Union adopted agent infiltration by parachute as the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) had practiced it in Europe during World War II. CIA then modified - one might say diluted - it, in deference to the impossibility of arranging the ground reception parties used by the OSS, in order to apply it against the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea. In this way, the covert infiltration of intelligence and covert action teams, mostly by air although occasionally overland or by sea, became an endurinq facet of the Clandestine Service's approach to the problem of penetrating closed societies.

As applied by the OSS, the practice later known as "black entry" enjoyed its most notable success with the Jedburgh operation, which after D-Day inserted teams of American and indigenous nationality to mobilize local resistance movements against the Nazis. They armed French resistance fighters, including over 20,000 combatants in Brittany alone, and these cut rail lines, derailed trains, ambushed German road convoys, and cut telephone and electric power lines.

The respectable showing of the Jedburgh teams, coupled with the absence of promising alternatives, made it natural to apply the blind drop technique against the Soviet Union as cooperation against Hitler gave way to Cold War hostility. Both Nazi-occupied Europe and the Soviet Union suffered the abuses of a brutal dictatorship, and it seemed reasonable to expect the rise of a resistance movement against Stalin similar to those that Jedburgh had supported against the Germans. In any case, as Cold War tensions hardened, the Agency had to do something, and no better alternatives were at hand. Accordingly, between 1949 and 1959, CIA dispatched agents, mostly by air, into the Soviet Union under the aegis of the REDSOX program.

◾AEACRE (1952-64) established a mechanism for the planning and conduct of REDSOX operations via a Domestic Operations Base (DOB) used for the interrogation, assessment, training, briefing, and preparation for dispatch of agents for infiltration into the USSR.
◾AEASTER was a program in near east areas to spot, recruit, and train Circassians and other Russian emigres and send them back into the USSR.
◾AEBALCONY (1960-62) was designed to use U.S. citizens with Baltic language fluency in "mounted" and "piggy-back" legal traveler operations into Soviet-occupied Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
◾AEFREEMAN (1953-64), which included AEBASIN/AEROOT (1953-60), AEFLAG (1955-62), and AEPOLE (formerly AECHAMP (1949-59)), was designed to strengthen resistance to communism and harrass the Soviet regime in the Baltic countries. AEBASIN/AEROOT supported Estonian emigres and émigré activities aganist the Estonian SSR. AEFLAG was aimed at people of the Latvian SSR. AEPOLE (formerly AECHAMP (formerly BGLAPIN)) targeted the Lithuanian SSR. These projects provided intelligence and operational data from Baltic countries through radio broadcasts, mailing operations, liaison with emigre organizations, political and psychological (PP) briefings for legal travelers and exploitation of other media such as demonstrations.
◾AECOB, approved in 1950, was a vehicle for foreign intelligence (FI) operations into and within Soviet Latvia and involved infiltration and exfiltration of black agents and the recruitment of legally resident agents in the USSR, especially Latvia. ZRLYNCH was approved in 1950 for use of the Latvian Resistance Movement, which had been formed in 1944, as a vehicle for clandestine activities within the USSR. ZRLYNCH was renewed in 1952 as a part of AECOB, which then provided both FI and political and psychological (PP) activities. AECOB / ZRLYNCH PP project was terminated in 1955. AECOB FI project was terminated in 1959.
◾AESAURUS / AENOBLE (initially AEROSOL, renamed AEGIDEON / AENOBLE in 1958) operation (1950-61) maintained communications with agents of the National Alliance of Russian Solidarists (Narodno Trudovoi Soyuz or NTS (CABOCHE-1, PDGIDEON, SHUBA-100)). NTS was founded in 1930s by Russian emigres with extreme rightest and anti-Semitic views and collaborated closely with the Nazis in Russia, providing local administrators, propagandists, and informants. NTS rebuilt itself in 1945 as an anti-Soviet émigré organization inside the USSR and with its own newspaper "Possev." This project sought the development and exploitation of NTS agents as long-term hot war assets and as sources of operational positive and psychological intelligence. The Project included Operation CARCASS, training/dispatch into USSR of agents to organize resistance groups and collect FI; Operation SPAIN to establish NTS groups in US zone/Germany and Austria against Soviet occupation forces through propaganda, defection, resistance, and collecting FI; Operation RADIO to establish a mobile covert radio operated by NTS for propaganda into East Zone.
◾AEPRIMER's (1957-59) objective was to establish long-term, durable assets illegally infiltrated into the Byelorussian SSR. Candidates for these assets were to be recommended by the Byelorussian National Council (BNR). However, AEQUOR/FI had similar objectives and was terminated in 1956 when information about AEQUOR Team 2 in Byelorussia surfaced in Pravda. In addition, AEQUOR's relationship with the BNR was terminated for security reasons. AEPRIMER's association with the BNR was limited to its President (Mikola Abramtchik) and his representative (Francis Kushel) in New York. AEPRIMER was terminated in 1959.
The effort enjoyed almost no success. Indeed, the chief of the Soviet Russia Division in the Directorate of Plans wrote in 1957 that it had been "strewn with disaster." More agents survived who were sent overland than those inserted by blind drop; of the latter, apparently only three ever managed to exfiltrate, and one of these was suspected of having been doubled. Meanwhile, the intelligence product of the program as a whole was "pitifully small, and the anticipated intelligence support apparatus, grafted on ... underground resistance organizations, died aborning." Not even the overland operations produced anything substantial, involving as they did shallow, short-term penetrations of "largely uninhabited ... border areas." The result was that "no REDSOX agent ever succeeded in passing himself off successfully as a Soviet citizen and penetrating, even briefly, into the Soviet heartland."

In 1971, Operations Directorate (DO) historians attributed the failure of REDSOX to two factors. One was the "implacable and ubiquitous KGB." The other was the absence of the prospect of liberation that might have fueled resistance movements like those in Western Europe during World War II.

Beginning in 1956, CIA pilots began flying high-altitude U-2 spy planes over the Soviet Union to photograph a variety of missile and defense related installations. On May 1, 1960, Francis Gary Powers, a CIA pilot, had his U-2 plane shot down over Sverdlovsk in the Soviet Union, prompting Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev to cancel his scheduled conference at Paris with President Dwight Eisenhower.

)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

General News 11/22/2011 at 13:48:00
THE JFK CASE: The Twelve Who Built The Oswald Legend (Part 6: White Russians Keep An Eye On Oswald In Dallas)

----
By Bill Simpich (about the author) Permalink (Page 1 of 7 pages)

http://www.opednews.com/articles/THE-JFK-CASE--OSWALD-AND-by-Bill-Simpich-110814-415.html

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

ALSO SEE

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=17471&p=238836

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

I dedicate this post to lone nutter DVP. STEVEN GAAL

Edited June 13, 2015 by Steven Gaal

[Thomas Graves]

[...]

Tommy,

interesting document. Thanks. I'll get to that shortly.

With regard to ELK1... the following facts apply:

1. The HSCA established that Snyder was a spotter for the legal travel program at Harvard.

2. I established that ELK1 was at Harvard during the period

3. The CIA was extremely interested in utilizing experts in all things Russian (what a shock!)

4. ELK1 was an expert in one or more fields pertaining to Russia

5. Although the exact date he went there is unknown to me, I did find evidence at some stage that he was one of the first exchange students to go under the then recently signed exchange agreements

6. As you note, he liked to travel around the SU - knowing he was not supposed to

7. As he told the Davis Center, his travels involved meeting "contacts"

8. As a student in a host country under an exchange program that was highly important to thawing tensions, he should not have had any "visa problems". All his papers should have been in order, and he would have had exchange program contacts to sort any issues that crop up. It is not something - as a participant in such an important program - that he should have had to personally deal with. Especially since it apparently entailed more unauthorized travel.

9. Yes, the embassy was open till noon - but the official story has it that Snyder had to be called down to his office to deal with Oswald who arrived AFTER noon. If Snyder was not in his office dealing with ELK1, where exactly was ELK1 who freely admitted to being present?

10. We have Russell Langelle telling the HCSA that 3 or 4 students were working on "Orientation Projects" for the CIA. Oswald had NOT been in hospital prior to the appearance at the embassy as you claim. He had for the most part, been holed up in his hotel room except maybe to see some sights with his Intourist guide.

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

[...]

Greg,

By "official story" I guess you mean what Snyder and McVickar told the Warren Commission? Am I missing anyone?

In their WC testimony, both Snyder and McVickar are unsure if Oswald showed up before noon or after. Snyder claimed that he couldn't remember if it was on a Wednesday or a Saturday, and rather lamely said that it must have been after noon because he told Oswald that the embassy was closed. Well, yes, we know from Oswald and the CIA that after having a long conversation with Oswald, Snyder told him he couldn't type up the renunciation of citizenship papers right then because it was after noon by that time and the embassy was closed. I doubt that Snyder would have told Oswald twice that the embassy was closed, first upon meeting him and then again after that long conversation, so I think that he only told him that at the end. Why would Snyder tell Oswald the embassy was already closed when he first met him but then proceed to get into a long conversation with him?

Another thing that seems "fishy" to me is the fact that an intelligent, observant ("CIA spotter") man like Snyder couldn't remember if Oswald had come in before or after closing time, especially after having had such a memorable meeting with the twenty-year-old Marine radar operator and would-be defector / self-avowed traitor, Lee Harvey Oswald.

On a side note, it doesn't make sense that the embassy's guards and staff would have let any visitors in after it was closed.

Using the end date of the Moscow trade fair as a "mental landmark," receptionist Joan Hallett insisted to the ARRB that "Oswald" had been at the embassy on or before September 5, 1959, but the fact is that Oswald was still in the U.S. at that time. Since Oswald look-alike Robert Webster was working at the Moscow trade fair and may have been at the embassy on September 5, Hallett might have confused him with Oswald. If so, where was Hallett the day the real Oswald showed up (October 31), and what was the name of the receptionist who dealt with him that day?

For what it's worth, in Oswald and the CIA Newman says Oswald arrived in Snyder's office a little after 11 am.

--Tommy

PS In answer to your question, the official story is that Keenan came in shortly after Oswald and that he was still in the lobby when Oswald went storming out the front door. I believe it's possible that both Oswald and Keenan entered the embassy about half an hour before noon, and Keenan, being either overly optimistic about getting some after-hour help with his visa problem or simply not realizing that the embassy had closed while he was sitting there, decided to stay in the lobby during the Snyder and Oswald pow wow. Or maybe he stayed there because he was eavesdropping on their fascinating conversation!

Edited June 14, 2015 by Thomas Graves

[Greg Parker]

[...]

Tommy,

interesting document. Thanks. I'll get to that shortly.

With regard to ELK1... the following facts apply:

1. The HSCA established that Snyder was a spotter for the legal travel program at Harvard.

2. I established that ELK1 was at Harvard during the period

3. The CIA was extremely interested in utilizing experts in all things Russian (what a shock!)

4. ELK1 was an expert in one or more fields pertaining to Russia

5. Although the exact date he went there is unknown to me, I did find evidence at some stage that he was one of the first exchange students to go under the then recently signed exchange agreements

6. As you note, he liked to travel around the SU - knowing he was not supposed to

7. As he told the Davis Center, his travels involved meeting "contacts"

8. As a student in a host country under an exchange program that was highly important to thawing tensions, he should not have had any "visa problems". All his papers should have been in order, and he would have had exchange program contacts to sort any issues that crop up. It is not something - as a participant in such an important program - that he should have had to personally deal with. Especially since it apparently entailed more unauthorized travel.

9. Yes, the embassy was open till noon - but the official story has it that Snyder had to be called down to his office to deal with Oswald who arrived AFTER noon. If Snyder was not in his office dealing with ELK1, where exactly was ELK1 who freely admitted to being present?

10. We have Russell Langelle telling the HCSA that 3 or 4 students were working on "Orientation Projects" for the CIA. Oswald had NOT been in hospital prior to the appearance at the embassy as you claim. He had for the most part, been holed up in his hotel room except maybe to see some sights with his Intourist guide.

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

[...]

Greg,

By "official story" I guess you mean what Snyder and McVickar told the Warren Commission? Am I missing anyone?

In their WC testimony, both Snyder and McVickar are unsure if Oswald showed up before noon or after. Snyder claimed that he couldn't remember if it was on a Wednesday or a Saturday, and rather lamely said that it must have been after noon because he told Oswald that the embassy was closed. Well, yes, we know from Oswald and the CIA that after having a long conversation with Oswald, Snyder told him he couldn't type up the renunciation of citizenship papers right then because it was after noon by that time and the embassy was closed. I only wonder why Snyder would have told Oswald twice that the embassy was closed, first upon meeting him and then again after that long conversation! Or an even better question is why would Snyder tell Oswald it was closed when he met him but then proceed to get into a long conversation with him?

Another thing that seems "fishy" to me is the fact that an intelligent, observant ("CIA spotter") man like Snyder couldn't remember if Oswald had come in before or after closing time, especially after having had such a memorable meeting with the twenty-year-old Marine radar operator and would-be defector / self-avowed traitor, Lee Harvey Oswald.

On a side note, it doesn't make sense that the embassy's guards and staff would have let any visitors in after it was closed.

Using the end date of the Moscow trade fair as a "mental landmark," receptionist Joan Hallett insisted to the ARRB that "Oswald" had been at the embassy on or before September 5, 1959, but the fact is that Oswald was still in the U.S. at that time. Since Oswald look-alike Robert Webster was working at the Moscow trade fair and may have been at the embassy on September 5, Hallett might have confused him with Oswald. If so, where was Hallett the day the real Oswald showed up (October 31), and what was the name of the receptionist who dealt with him that day?

For what it's worth, in Oswald and the CIA Newman says Oswald arrived in Snyder's office a little after 11 am.

--Tommy

PS In answer to your question, the official story is that Keenan came in after Oswald and that he was still in the lobby when Oswald went storming out the front door. I believe it's possible that both Oswald and Keenan entered the embassy before noon, and Keenan, being either overly optimistic or simply not realizing that the embassy closed at 12 o'clock, stayed in the lobby during the Snyder and Oswald pow wow. Or maybe he was just eavesdropping on their fascinating conversation.

If that's from Newman too, take it with a grain of salt. Newman was either oblivious to the fact that Keenan had been made persona-non-grata for spying, or he chose not to mention it. Either way, he does not seem to have been curious at all about Keenan's background. But really, if I am right about Keenan, would you expect him to say he was anywhere but innocently sitting in the waiting area to see Snyder after closing time? I've lost all faith in Newman.

When I talk about "official" story, I am nearly always referring to the WCR, which stated:

Oswald ate only once on the following day; he stayed near the telephone, fully dressed and ready to leave immediately if he were summoned. He remained in his room for 3 days, which seemed to him "like three years," until October 31, when he decided to act. He met Rima Shirokova at noon and told her that he was impatient, but did not say what he planned to do; she cautioned him to stay in his room "and eat well." She left him after a short while and, a few minutes later, he took a taxi to the American Embassy, where he asked to see the consul. (See Commission Exhibits Nos. 24, 912, 913, pp. 264, 263, 261.) When the receptionist asked him first to sign the tourist register, he laid his passport on the desk and said that he had come to "dissolve his American citizenship." Richard E. Snyder, the Second Secretary and senior consular official, was summoned, and he invited Oswald into his office.

Edited June 14, 2015 by Greg Parker

[Greg Parker]

One more thing... maybe I'm wrong but I assume that the bugs in Snyder's office would have no one listening after normal office hours... if correct... making Saturday afternoon the perfect time for briefings of the kind I believe took place.

[Thomas Graves]

One more thing... maybe I'm wrong but I assume that the bugs in Snyder's office would have no one listening after normal office hours... if correct... making Saturday afternoon the perfect time for briefings of the kind I believe took place.

I wonder what kind of "orientation" Oswald would have required from CIA REDSKIN agent Edward Louis Keenan, Jr. ?

Couldn't "spotter" Richard Snyder have told him everything he needed to know?

--Tommy

[Greg Parker]

One more thing... maybe I'm wrong but I assume that the bugs in Snyder's office would have no one listening after normal office hours... if correct... making Saturday afternoon the perfect time for briefings of the kind I believe took place.

I wonder what kind of "orientation" Oswald would have required from CIA REDSKIN agent Edward Louis Keenan, Jr. ?

Couldn't "spotter" Richard Snyder have told him everything he needed to know?

--Tommy

The question of what exactly was entailed with "orientation" programs would have been a good one for the HSCA to ask of Langelle.

[Steven Gaal]

http://joanmellen.com/wordpress/literary-matters/who-was-lee-harvey-oswald/
=============
Sometimes Soviet Russia Counter Intelligence was called in at the briefings. So the mystery of Oswald in the Soviet Union unravels. The above trajectory offers further evidence that Oswald was a creature of the CIA, worked for the CIA, and, quite understandably, was debriefed by them upon his return. Additional evidence that CIA debriefed Oswald after his return from the Soviet Union resides in the unredacted version CIA document 435-173A, dated 25 November 1963, by the same Thomas B. Casasin. This document is familiar because we have long had a redacted version of Casasin’s 25 November 1963 memo to Walter P. Haltigan, whom Casasin subsequently revealed to be one “Jim Flint.” Flint was part of SR9, the operations part of the Soviet Division and was Casasin’s “normal contact” in Paris where Casasin arrived in September 1962. In this memo, Casasin writes that “Oswald’s unusual behavior in the USSR” made him look “odd,” leading Casasin not to use him in operations in the REDWOOD target area. REDWOOD was an action indicator for the SE Division. (SED was a CIA geographic designator for the Soviet Union and the Soviet Bloc countries of Eastern Europe). It seems now a case of one hand not knowing what the other was doing, a not infrequent CIA situation.

In that unredacted version of Thomas B. Casasin’s memo to Walter P. Haltigan, Casasin writes: “as chief of the 6 Branch I had discussed – sometime in Summer 1960 (he later corrected that date to “1962”) with the then Chief and Deputy Chief of the 6 Research Section the laying on of interview(s) [with Oswald] through KUJUMP [the operations division] or other suitable channels.” KUJUMP had a contacts division for debriefing persons. KUJUMP was synonymous with 00 (Contacts Division).

Casasin closes his addendum to the memo with this line, indicating that was not aware of Angleton’s program: “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 story.” Casasin was looking for links between Soviet women marrying foreigners and the KGB. Casasin also refers in his 25 November 1963 memo to a program called AEOCEAN 3, then run out of SR10, and referring to Oswald in particular: this was the legal travelers program, i. e. the intelligence use of legal travelers to the Soviet Union. It seems apparent that Casasin, a pseudonym, was not in the loop, and is struggling to make sense of Oswald and his defection.

In his HSCA interview, while speculating, without any real evidence, that Oswald might have been a “lay-low Soviet operative,” Casasin fills in some gaps in our knowledge about what Oswald was doing in the Soviet Union. He reveals that “there were some type of special design plants in Minsk which were of interest to the CIA.” Casasin adds that CIA “had some type of encyclopedic information at the agency on the radio factory in Minsk where Oswald worked.” He is talking about a component of CIA called the “Industrial Registry.” Casasin was instructed by CIA not to reveal to HSCA information about a tourist guide he ran in the Soviet Union under a program called REDSKIN, and who, like Oswald, married a Soviet woman. In passing, let us note that the Warren Commission never contacted Casasin about his Oswald memo. Casasin’s HSCA interview, released in 2000, reminds us of how heavily compartmentalized, how much on a need to know basis, counterintelligence operated: Casasin told the HSCA that “he does not recall any discussions concerning the possible use of American defectors to penetrate the Soviets.” Casasin does admit: “Counterintelligence did have their own closely held operations…and “it was possible or even probable that Counterintelligence ran operations in his own geographical target.”

Back to Donald Deneselya, who worked at a far lower rung of the Soviet Russia Division than Casasin, not to mention Crowley and Ashcraft. When Deneselya asked his Agency confreres about the document, he was told that the subject was Robert Webster, although Webster was located not in Minsk, but at a plant in Leningrad, and there was a parallel document mentioning Webster by name. Mr. Deneselya was convincing. Among the details he added was that some time after he witnessed the Oswald debriefing document, he asked James Angleton where he might find a copy so that he could peruse it again.

“You’ll never find that document,” Angleton said. The bad faith of the House Select Committee is reflected in the “Outside Contact Report,” dated September 26, 1978, in which the Oswald revelation is barely mentioned, and Deneselya’s information is almost completely confined to his work with a KGB defector named Golitsin. Ken Klein should have been excited by the appearance of proof that Oswald had been debriefed by the CIA. Instead, in his report he affects disinterest. You can see him yawning ostentatiously over what should have been an astonishing revelation. Klein behaves no differently than the specious “Frontline” program which allows Deneselya a few words, then rapidly brings on Richard Helms and Robert Oswald, the brother whose bona fides I have already called into question, to discount the information that Oswald had been debriefed by CIA. I’ve always believed that many documents have been destroyed and been wary of the notion that somehow once ALL the files were opened, we would gain the truth. I know of mounds of materials that were removed from libraries by “men in suits,” never to be seen again, despite FOIA requests. (In one case the men lied outright and said that they had been sent by the University where the papers had been willed: they hadn’t been). -

See more at: http://joanmellen.com/wordpress/literary-matters/who-was-lee-harvey-oswald/#sthash.zip5wh0q.dpuf

]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

this post dedicated to Trejo and DVP

Edited June 16, 2015 by Steven Gaal

[Kenneth Drew]

Thomas, this is an interesting thread and has some good information. It seems to be mostly confirmation that LHO was a CIA asset, just as Keenan seems to have been. The total number of people that have been used by the CIA as assets would be staggering. As relates to the JFK assassination, none of this seems to be related except as likely proof that most of the actions taken by LHO, especially in the 60 days or so prior to the shooting were all a part of the setup of him as the patsy.

Edited June 16, 2015 by Kenneth Drew