Bill Kelly's Review of David Talbot's new book "The Devil's Chessboard"

[James DiEugenio]

I should add, I have Talbot's book.

It is a well written, densely packed, sharp-edged volume of about 625 text pages.

I am about half way through right now. And the book is so full of characters, episodes, personal touches, and insights, that I have decided to read it twice before I review it. That is the only way to do something like this justice.

I will say this though, its the most complete appraisal of Dulles as CIA Director I have yet seen. What a very bad man.

Edited October 15, 2015 by James DiEugenio

[Glenn Nall]

i really do appreciate the weight of disdain that can be conveyed in such a concise statement: "what a very bad man." I think that sums him up fairly nicely.

[Paul Trejo]

I should add, I have Talbot's book.

It is a well written, densely packed, sharp-edged volume of about 625 text pages.

I am about half way through right now. And the book is so full of characters, episodes, personal touches, and insights, that I have decided to read it twice before I review it. That is the only way to do something like this justice.

I will say this though, its the most complete appraisal of Dulles as CIA Director I have yet seen. What a very bad man.

James, doesn't this amount to a one-sided criticism? Is Talbot truly being objective?

And isn't the 47 year history of JFK research, following Jim Garrison, already biased against the CIA anyway? Are we certain we are getting an objective appraisal?

Remember, too, that in 1962 the John Birch Society condemned Allen Dulles as a Communist, along with every other member of the CFR. Objectivity in politics is remarkably fragile.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

[James DiEugenio]

Who the heck knew anything about Dulles in 1962?

I mean if the public had known anything about him back then, the cry would have gone up against him being on the WC, just as it did when W tried to get Kisisinger as head of the 9-11 Commission.

[Thomas Graves]

[...]

Oswald wasn't a pawn in the chess sense. Pawns have status, positions, and sometimes great (lawful) power.

Oswald wasn't just a scapegoat, and a way of pressuring LBJ into invading Cuba after the assassination, or to to carry it a step further, a way to ensure the cover up by correctly anticipating that LBJ would not allow WW III to occur at that time.

I believe he was also manipulated and moved around, like a chess piece.

Rhetorical question: Did the bad guys only start considering using him when they learned that the motorcade would pass by his place of work?

If so, they must have been overjoyed at their good fortune.

--Tommy

edited and bumped

Edited October 15, 2015 by Thomas Graves

[Glenn Nall]

i for one am not biased or glued to the CIA's collusion - it's just that everywhere you look, some member or another of the organization keeps popping up, from the BOP to the Paines to Howard Hunt's lies to de Morenschildt's assoc. with LHO, ad infinitum. It's hard to ignore them when they're everywhere you look.

[Paul Brancato]

Biased against the CIA? Well Paul, consider this. Unlike the rightwing crazies you propose Oswald was aligned with, certain CIA were provably following Oswald' movements and actions for at least 3 years, a fact they tried hard to conceal both during Oswald's short life and after his death, even to the present day.

Edited October 15, 2015 by Paul Brancato

[James DiEugenio]

BTW, I should add that Talbot's book was only officially released two days ago.

But its selling pretty well considering, as he notes in his Democracy Now interview, he has been bumped by some of the MSM gatekeepers who at first were going to have him on.

Its near the top 100 overall on Amazon. And its in the top 5-6 in the subcategories.

[Paul Trejo]

Biased against the CIA? Well Paul, consider this. Unlike the rightwing crazies you propose Oswald was aligned with, certain CIA were provably following Oswald' movements and actions for at least 3 years, a fact they tried hard to conceal both during Oswald's short life and after his death, even to the present day.

Well, Paul B., I have always recognized that LHO was tracked by the CIA, starting with his trek into the USSR in 1959. LHO was moving in Intelligence Circles since 1959, IMHO, but not as an important figure, rather, only as a trainee.

IMHO, former CIA Agent Victor Marchetti is right when he says that Oswald went to the USSR as a "dangle" in a large system of dozens of "dangles" organized by the ONI.

IMHO, LHO pissed off the ONI by quitting on them -- abandoning his post, getting married and having a baby, and then rushing back to the USA before completing his trainee "dangle" mission.

That explains, IMHO, why the Marines lowered LHO's discharge status.

After that, the FBI did interview him, and the CIA admitted that it considered "laying on of interviews" with regard to LHO. But LHO never got hired.

LHO was bright enough to learn Russian at a young age, as well as radar secrets and perhaps "micro-dots", but LHO was also too independent to be a Team Player. Neither the FBI, CIA nor ONI hired him full time (but possibly gave him "informant" status and some chump change).

LHO really got into trouble with the FBI and CIA, however, when, at the urging of George De Mohrenschildt and Volkmar Schmidt (and possibly Michael Paine), LHO tried to murder General Walker at his Dallas home, IMHO.

Dick Russell (1992) says Mrs. Igor Voshinin told the FBI about Oswald-as-a-Walker-suspect only four days later. This corresponds with many of Walker's personal papers, for example, his letter to Senator Frank Church in 1975: http://www.pet880.com/images/19750623_EAW_to_Frank_Church.pdf

After the Walker shooting, I feel certain that the FBI, CIA and ONI scratched Oswald off their prospect lists, and only put him on their watch lists as just another crackpot mixed up with Guy Banister in New Orleans.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited October 16, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Glenn Nall]

Biased against the CIA? Well Paul, consider this. Unlike the rightwing crazies you propose Oswald was aligned with, certain CIA were provably following Oswald' movements and actions for at least 3 years, a fact they tried hard to conceal both during Oswald's short life and after his death, even to the present day.

Well, Paul B., I have always recognized that LHO was tracked by the CIA, starting with his trek into the USSR in 1959. LHO was moving in Intelligence Circles since 1959, IMHO, but not as an important figure, rather, only as a trainee.

IMHO, former CIA Agent Victor Marchetti is right when he says that Oswald went to the USSR as a "dangle" in a large system of dozens of "dangles" organized by the ONI.

IMHO, LHO pissed off the ONI by quitting on them -- abandoning his post, getting married and having a baby, and then rushing back to the USA before completing his trainee "dangle" mission.

That explains, IMHO, why the Marines lowered LHO's discharge status.

After that, the FBI did interview him, and the CIA admitted that it considered "laying on of interviews" with regard to LHO. But LHO never got hired.

LHO was bright enough to learn Russian at a young age, as well as radar secrets and perhaps "micro-dots", but LHO was also too independent to be a Team Player. Neither the FBI, CIA nor ONI hired him full time (but possibly gave him "informant" status and some chump change(.

LHO really got into trouble with the FBI and CIA, however, when, at the urging of George De Mohrenschildt and Volkmar Schmidt (and possibly Michael Paine), LHO tried to murder General Walker at his Dallas home.

Dick Russell (1992) says Mrs. Igor Voshinin told the FBI about Oswald-as-a-Walker-suspect only four days later. This corresponds with many of Walker's personal papers, for example, his letter to Senator Frank Church in 1975: http://www.pet880.com/images/19750623_EAW_to_Frank_Church.pdf

After that, I will bet my bottom dollar that the FBI, CIA and ONI just wrote Oswald off as a potential Agent, and only put him on their watch lists as just another crackpot mixed up with Guy Banister in New Orleans.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

PT *** abandoning his post, getting married and having a baby, and then rushing back to the USA before completing his trainee "dangle" mission.

Only problem with that is his very mysteriously expedited visa and return to the US so soon after he'd just pronounced his allegiance to the Party. We're talking weeks. You think a normal US citizen could renounce americanism, move to russia, marry a russian and then just up and change his mind? xxxx, man, that would have taken a year at a minimum.

someone helped him get there, AND someone helped him get back. pure as pickles.

[Paul Trejo]

PT *** abandoning his post, getting married and having a baby, and then rushing back to the USA before completing his trainee "dangle" mission.[/size]

Only problem with that is his very mysteriously expedited visa and return to the US so soon after he'd just pronounced his allegiance to the Party. We're talking weeks. You think a normal US citizen could renounce americanism, move to russia, marry a russian and then just up and change his mind? xxxx, man, that would have taken a year at a minimum.[/size]

someone helped him get there, AND someone helped him get back. pure as pickles.[/size]

Yes, Glenn, that's just what I said -- the ONI got LHO into the USSR, and the ONI got LHO back out. All of the charade about LHO joining the Communist Party was just baloney -- as the ONI knew full well.

Once LHO decided to quit his post and come back to the USA, of course the US Government would bend over backwards to get their "dangle" back home safe and sound.

At the same time, LHO's report card for this USSR mission was marked, "Incomplete".

Yes, the Intelligence Communities watched LHO since 1959. No, they never hired LHO as a full-time Agent.

Then, when LHO took a pot-shot at General Walker on 10 April 1963, he was disqualified from all further Intelligence jobs.

That's why LHO turned to Guy Banister in New Orleans (only *days* after the Walker shooting). Guy Banister knew exactly how to fix his wagon. First, Banister would promise LHO a job in the CIA...

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited October 16, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Glenn Nall]

i agree with all that - sure. i think the term pawn has been bandied about of late... my one hesitancy is the word 'hire', asint if there's a human resources department who checks to see of you've ever stolen a snickers from Six Flags with two friends who threw you under the bus like an empty styrofoam spaghetti box - not that i've ever experienced that - i think in this game of cloak and dagger there's an extremely large chasm between "hired" and "no longer employed", etc.... usefulness comes in all shapes and colors.

i tend to agree that LHO had the perfect balance of intelligence and abject idiocy, which probably made him invaluable to intel types. hell, they probably discovered his rare trait in Atsugi.

[Paul Trejo]

i agree with all that - sure. i think the term pawn has been bandied about of late... my one hesitancy is the word 'hire', asint if there's a human resources department who checks to see of you've ever stolen a snickers from Six Flags with two friends who threw you under the bus like an empty styrofoam spaghetti box - not that i've ever experienced that - i think in this game of cloak and dagger there's an extremely large chasm between "hired" and "no longer employed", etc.... usefulness comes in all shapes and colors.

i tend to agree that LHO had the perfect balance of intelligence and abject idiocy, which probably made him invaluable to intel types. hell, they probably discovered his rare trait in Atsugi.

OK, but at Atsugi Lee Harvey Oswald was still a teenager -- so, how does one separate idiocy from simply being a teenager? Going by that, LHO looked like a promising candidate for Intelligence training. He had real potential, but it also appears that LHO wanted to call the shots -- and that's a deal killer for Intelligence training.

So by 1961, when LHO was 21 years old, he was only half-trained. And then he bailed out.

It seems to me that LHO, who was born and raised as poor as a Church-mouse, never had it so good as when he lived in Minsk, USSR. He had his own apartment -- one of the newest ones in town -- and received not only a salary, but also a stipend from the Red Cross (probably through the ONI) which made his salary almost as high as the Director. He went to parties every week, and had several girl friends, and lots of work friends. He finally made it.

But it went to his head -- from having nothing in the USA, LHO suddenly he had more than the average person in the USSR. I think this made him feel he had "arrived" and could start calling the shots.

When he returned to the USA -- without his ONI credentials -- he suddenly found himself living on the bottom of the ladder again -- and the Intelligence Communities sent him George De Mohrenschildt. Pushy George, however, only pushed LHO into hating and despising General Walker (whom he called, General Fokker). So LHO thought he was doing the right thing by trying to kill Walker. After that week, however, George De Mohrenschildt never saw LHO again.

The Walker shooting was the ultimate downfall of LHO. It was all downhill from there. At that point, LHO's best bet seemed to be to join the boys of Interpen -- Loran Hall, Larry Howard, Gerry Patrick Hemming -- in the mercenary war against Fidel Castro. What value could he bring? Why, he could be a double-agent, posing as a Communist in order to infiltrate the ENEMY.

The Fake FPCC in New Orleans headquartered at 544 Camp Street is the solid evidence of my theory here.

Any CIA involvement would be to support Guy Banister in assassinating Fidel Castro. Perhaps David Atlee Phillips became hopeful that LHO could really do this thing -- if he could actually sneak into Cuba using his "credentials" from this Fake FPCC (as per the Lopez Report). Reading Phillips' bio-fiction, THE AMLASH LEGACY, suggests as much.

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited October 16, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Paul Trejo]

Who the heck knew anything about Dulles in 1962?

I mean if the public had known anything about him back then, the cry would have gone up against him being on the WC, just as it did when W tried to get Kissinger as head of the 9-11 Commission.

The person who knew about Allen Dulles in 1962 was Dan Smoot -- former broadcaster for H.L. Hunt's "Lifeline" radio show.

Dan Smoot joined the John Birch Society in 1960, and he wrote a book for them entitled, "CFR: The Invisible Government" (1962)

In that book on the CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) Dan Smoot claimed the CFR was a Communist Front.

Smoot named all CFR members at the time, with an emphasis on a pair of brothers: Dwight D. Eisenhower, Milton Eisenhower, John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles.

I find it amusing that 53 years later, the US Left-wing today considers the CFR to be "The Invisible Government", just as the US Right-wing used to believe in 1962 !!

Regards,

--Paul Trejo

Edited October 16, 2015 by Paul Trejo

[Douglas Caddy]

David Talbot wrote on Facebook today:

I've been told that the Washington Post is refusing to even review "The Devil's Chessboard" -- after reviewing my two previous books. Major newspapers like the Washington Post and the New York Times have historically been far too cozy with U.S. intelligence, particularly throughout the Dulles regime at the CIA. One would hope, for the good of press freedom and our democracy, that the Washington media establishment -- after all the government manipulation and lies of the Cold War and now the War on Terror -- would FINALLY be growing a backbone in its coverage of the national security state. In the meantime, read "The Devil's Chessboard" -- the book that the CIA and the media elite don't want you to read.