W. Oltmans' testimony of de Mohrenschildt

[Glenn Nall]

I'm surprised that I found no discussion in here of the Willem Oltmans testimony (to the HSCA?) of his time, interviews and "rescue" of George de Mohrenschildt. There are some pretty bold statements Oltmans makes of GdM's words and claims which sound fairly reliable, researchable, surely.

Except that he gets evasive at some points because his notes are not before him and he seems to strongly desire to be "exact" in his quotes of dM's words... a little unnerving, but really really interesting testimony. It takes dM all the way back to Hitler (which wasn't so far back at the time, i have to remember) and all the way UP to HL Hunt as a direct connection between Hunt and LHO.

of GdM "confessing" to a semi-direct role in the assass...

This is not at all unrealistic in and of itself. This scenario could still merge with others (the way i try to look at all scenarios - the ability for one to play well with others), though I don't know what of these words of Oltmans' have been debunked or supported.

he discusses GdM's major transition from stud to fragile, his regular mentions of suicide and his paranoia (of both the Feds and Jewish "nazi-ist" activists). of being forced off the road and wrecked by someone in the earlier days.

overall he sounds very credible - if he's making things up, he'd have had to do a LOT of homework with international airline flight info, etc. And I don't think he had an internet connection, so...

anyone with any thoughts?

[David Boylan]

I found it interesting that Oltmans mentioned that George was friends with Lester Logue.

[Glenn Nall]

RIGHT! i forgot about that. I just got to that late last night before i had to sleep. I hope to follow that out a little bit -

i remember reading about Oltmans' project years ago, hoping to follow up on whatever he ended up publishing, but haven't until now. Don't know what happened with him or his work since dM died. Has Oltman died? Forgive my ignorance, and if DVP says a single word about my not knowing this, I will personally move to Indiana and...

[Steven Gaal]

John Simkin

John Simkin

Admin

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Posted 23 January 2009 - 09:13 AM

On pages 263-274 you consider the case of Willem Oltmans and the evidence that he supplied to the House Select Committee on Assassinations on 4th January 1977. You make the comment that: “His profile at times appears less that of the typical left-leaning Dutch journalist and more suggestive of a U.S. intelligence agent. Former colleagues of Oltmans, who is deceased, described him to me as a complex and mysterious figure. As will become clear, Oltmans was a cipher to one and all, sometimes seeming to be determined to expose the truth, and sometimes to do the opposite. Perhaps he was something of a free agent, pursuing a particular course yet unhappy about it. But one thing is certain: just as de Mohrenschildt helped steer Oswald, to a lesser extent Oltmans did the same for de Mohrenschildt.”

I have carried out some research into Oltman's career and would argue that his reporting of events in Indonesia, Cuba and North Vietnam suggest he reflected a consistent left-wing position.

In 2000 Oltmans won his legal case against the Dutch government. The jury agreed that the government conspired to keep him out of work, for which it had to pay him 8 million guilders in damages. This dates back to reports that he was writing about Netherlands New Guinea in 1956. This upset Joseph Luns, the Dutch minister of foreign affairs. The court ruled that Oltmans was right when he claimed that Luns did what he could to sabotage his journalistic career. Luns was a close friend of the CIA and eventually was appointed Secretary General of NATO.

We also know that during this period the CIA was working with Luns in an attempt to overthrow President Sukarno of Indonesia. The head of this CIA operation was Al Ulmer, who ran the agency's Far East operations. In fact, Ulmer lost his job after the failure of the CIA backed coup in May 1958. As Thomas Powers, the author of The Man Who Kept The Secrets (1979), a book about Richard Helms, points out: "The result, of course, was a humiliation for the United States, but it was a quiet humiliation. The Indonesians knew who had been behind the rebels, of course, but they elected to treat the matter calmly... and the American press somehow never got wind of the CIA's role."

Oltmans, who enjoyed a good relationship with Sukarno, did know what was going on and reported this in the Dutch press. This does not sound like someone under the control of the CIA. In fact, by 1962, this journalist who was reporting on events in Cuba and North Vietnam in the early 1960s, was seen as a hero by left-wing students. It is during this period that his network was infiltrated by CIA agent Werner Verrips.

Oltmans also claims that he was supplying President Kennedy with information about the situation in New Guinea. Whatever the truth of this statement, Kennedy, against CIA advice, applied pressure on the Dutch government to hand over the territory to a temporary UN administration (UNTEA). On May 1, 1963, Indonesia took control of the country. It was not only over the policy towards Cuba that the CIA was angry with Kennedy.

Without the testimony of Oltmans I don’t think the story about George de Mohrenschildt claims about the assassination would have entered the public domain. Nor would much attention have been paid to his suicide three months after Oltmans’ testimony to the HSCA.

What is significant is that at the time of his death he was taking part in a planned four-day interview at the Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach with Edward Jay Epstein on behalf of the Reader's Digest magazine. In my view, this was an attempt by the CIA to discover just how much de Mohrenschildt knew about the assassination. We now know that de Mohrenschildt had given an interview to Dick Russell in June 1976. See this thread for Dick’s comments on this:

http://educationforu...h...13575&st=60

I know I would trust the evidence of Willem Oltmans and Dick Russell over that of Edward Jay Epstein.

What is your view of the de Mohrenschildt’s confession he made to Oltmans?

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SIMKIN, OLTSMANS NOT CIA,.gaal

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see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cb6-HgBLMFo

Edited July 10, 2015 by Steven Gaal