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Jean-Rene Souetre aka Robin Hood


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For some reason, I can't seem to edit my post on Roux and Souetre. It should read:


 

 


 
From Bernard Fensterwald's lawsuit against the Department of State, et.al January 16, 1981
https://archive.orf/stream/nsia-SouetreJean/nsia-SouetreJean/Souetre+Jean+o63_djvu.txt
Physiacally, Souetre is almost 6;tall and weighs between 175-200 pounds.”
“The FBI's Michel Roux was born on August 31, 1940 at Soyaux, Charaente, France. In 1964, he was discribed as a white male, 
5'8”, 148-150 pounds, black hair.”

 

Steve Thomas

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Supposedly, Fensterwald got much of his information from a man named, Gilbert Le Cavelier. This apparently tracks back to Dick Russell in The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Cavelier was either SAC or SDECE (I don't remember now which one). You'd have to do some research on him. They were at war with the OAS, and would do whatever it took to discredit them.

The idea of Hunt meeting with Souetre in Madrid in April or May goes back to a CIA memo that says that "somebody" from the CIA met with Souetre and Guerin Serac where they made an approach to the CIA and asked for their support in overthrowing DeGaulle. They were rebuffed. (I think a very bad copy of this CIA memo is on the last page of that Possible French Connection.

 

Rather than Souetre, I would look at a man named Irving Brown as the possible CIA representative.

This is from the Fensterwald memo:

See p. 30 of this Gary Shaw FOIA litigation

for a man named “Brown” who was the CIA Station Chief in Paris.

Russ Holmes Work File

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=6060&search=Torjmann#relPageId=30&tab=page

 

http://www.xiconhoca.org/PDF/DDeRoux/Apossiblefrenchconnection.pdf

PART 1 OF 3: THE GREAT HEROIN COUP-DRUGS,INTELLIGENCE @INTERNATIONAL FASCISM

 

There is the example of George White, an FBN official and former OSS agent who testified to the Kefauver Committee that he had been approached on behalf of Luciano in 1943 by an old China trafficker, August del Grazio.[59] White worked closely with the CIA in the postwar years and (under FBN cover) ran one of their LSD experiments in Project MK/ULTRA.

 

By the time of White's visit to Marseilles, the CIA and AFL organizer Irving Brown were already subsidizing the use of Corsican and Italian gangsters to oust Communist unions from the Marseilles port. Brown's CIA case officer, Paul Sakwa, has confirmed that by the time CIA subsidies were terminated in 1953, Brown's chief contact with the Marseilles underworld, Pierre Ferri Pisani, no longer needed U.S. support, because of the profits his newly gained control of the port supplied from the heroin traffic.”

 

http://alchetron.com/Irving-Brown-775007-W

Established in France, he (Irving Brown) headed the international relations of the AFL-CIO from his offices at 10, rue de la Paix in Paris. From 1951 to 1954, the CIA division headed by Thomas Braden provided $1 million a year to Brown and Lovestone ($1,600,000 in 1954).

In 1952 he was in Helsinki, supporting the unionists who had decided to vote to quit the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), then mainly composed of Communist unions.

During the Algerian War, he subsidized the Algerian National Movement (MNA), founded by Messali Hadj to oppose the National Liberation Front (FLN).”


I don't know if this is the same “Brown who was the Station Chief in Paris” I don't know who the Station Chief in Paris was., but you've got this mix of trade unionists, the stay behind network, and heroin smuggling going on.

 

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On 11/24/2018 at 9:38 AM, Jim Hargrove said:

Thanks, Steve... this is interesting.

It had never occurred to me that Le Cavelier’s anti-OAS position might have colored his reports.  I’ll try to find the time to look into that, as well as Irving Brown.  

 

Jim,

 

Perhaps this belongs in another thread, but maybe some future researcher will find this and can make better sense of it all than I can.

Do you remember the old Mad Magazine, Spy vs Spy? Well the CIA has nothing on these guys. The French and Russians, Chinese too probably, have been doing this for a thousand years or more.

 

Some notes on La Cavalier. I thought he was SAC:

 

Footnote number 19 in A Possible French Connection:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=6060&search=%22howard_hunt%22+AND+SPAIN#relPageId=44&tab=page

Page 44

Aux Ordres du SAC, by Gilbert Lecavlier, 1982

(In the orders of, or under the orders of SAC)
 

Patricia Tourancheau writing in the magazine, Liberation

Ecoutes de l'Elysée: un militant d'extrême droite s'étonne d'avoir été «branché»

Par Patricia Tourancheau — 10 mai 1995

https://www.liberation.fr/france-archive/1995/05/10/ecoutes-de-l-elysee-un-militant-d-extreme-droite-s-etonne-d-avoir-ete-branche_133758

Gilbert Le Cavelier, militant d'extrême droite, dont le téléphone a été «branché» neuf mois en 1985 par la cellule antiterroriste de l'Elysée au motif de «trafic d'armes», «ne voit pas sur quels critères il a été écouté» (lire Libération du 9 mars 1995). S'il a bien passé six mois au SAC (Service d'action civique) en 1968, dont il a tiré un livre, Aux ordres du SAC, Gilbert Le Cavelier se déclare avant tout «journaliste depuis 1981, carte professionnelle n$ 48.055». A ce titre, il s'insurge contre «les écoutes employées quel que soit le régime en place», mais se dit encore plus «écoeuré par l'utilisation que les uns font aujourd'hui des comptes rendus de vieilles écoutes pour dénigrer les autres». Dans l'instruction du juge Jean-Paul Valat, qui a déja mis en examen 5 anciens membres de la cellule pour «atteinte à l'intimité de la vie privée», figurent en effet les transcriptions téléphoniques de 23 personnes, dont 365 pages pour Gilbert Le Cavelier. Aujourd'hui reconverti dans les services de sécurité à Madagascar, il prétend que des «parties civiles» ayant normalement accès au dossier lui «portent tort en les divulguant» à ses employeurs: «Du coup, certains en profitent pour ficher et déstabiliser» dix ans après


 

What follows is a Google translation:

 

Listening to the Elysee Palace: an extreme right-wing activist is surprised to have been "connected"

Gilbert Le Cavelier, far right activist, whose phone was "plugged" nine months in 1985 by the anti-terrorist unit of the Elysée on the grounds of "arms trafficking", "does not see what criteria it was listened to "(read Libération of March 9, 1995). Although he spent six months in the SAC (Civic Action Service) in 1968, from which he pulled a book, At the SAC's orders, Gilbert Le Cavelier declares himself above all "journalist since 1981, professional card n $ 48,055" . As such, he protests against "the wiretapping used whatever the regime in place", but is said even more "sickened by the use that some are now reports of old plays to denigrate others ". In the instruction of Judge Jean-Paul Valat, who has already indicted five former members of the cell for "infringement of the privacy of privacy", in fact include the transcripts of 23 telephone, including 365 pages for Gilbert the Cavelier. Today reconverted in the security services in Madagascar, he claims that "civil parties" who normally have access to the file "wrongly by disclosing" to his employers: "Suddenly, some take the opportunity to file and destabilize" ten years later.”

 

http://www.association-radar.org/IMG/pdf/10-008-00024-59.pdf

radar.org – something about bringing together and disseminating the archives of revolutionary writings.

image.png.b57262f51d701b514a5576f98cd960e1.png

 

The last paragraph reads: Jean-Claude Noury, leader of the service order New Order. Retired in 1970. Returns to ETEC with Gilbert Le Cavelier. Animated (?) in the anti-left section. Shortly thereafter joined the group, “Impact”.

 

The paragraph above that talks about a Marie-Jose Dorot being a member of an Italian paramilitary group, “Europa Civita”.

“Impact” is mentioned again in an earlier paragraph talking about protesting communist aggression in North Vietnam.

Some day I'll have to try and find out what "Impact" was all about.

 

The reference to ETEC caught my eye.

 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=6060&search=%22howard_hunt%22+AND+SPAIN#relPageId=17&tab=page

A Possible French Connection.

Page 17:

 

"Surprisingly, from July 1970 to October 1971, Souetre was a "section chief" in ETEC (Etudies Techniques et Commerciales), a cover operation run by OAS veterans Charles Lascorz and Raymond Courbet. It was a strange mixture of SDECE, SAC, and OAS. Souetre was responsible for ETEC's relations with OAS exiles in Spain, as well as relations with the Spanish Secret Police. He resigned from ETEC when he discovered the extent to which it was dominated by his old antagonists from SAC.”

 

Steve Thomas

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What's coming across to me is that La Cavalier was SAC and right-wing. He infiltrated the OAS in service to SAC.

Gary Shaw's affidavit and Fensterwald's supporting documentation was done in the 1980's - twenty years after the fact.

There was that little bit about Cavalier's phone being tapped in the mid-1980's in an investigation of arms dealing.

As I mentioned to Paul Brancato a while back, I've never read any first-person account of someone who said, "Yes, I saw Souetre in Louisiana and trained with him.", or, "Yes, I met with Souetre when he met General Walker, or anything from Walker that said, "Yes, I met Souetre in April, 1963" (or whenever it was supposed to have happened.) (or anything either from Souetre who said, "Yes, I met General Walker.")

It's all third-hand, written twenty years after the fact and just repeated over and over.

I need to learn more about ETAC.

 

Steve Thomas

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This CIA cable was in reference to an upcoming visit by DeGaulle to Mexico City (I think it was, slated for March of 1964.

A CIA document dated November 1, 1962 gives a list of the OAS members furnished to the Italian authorities. The list was given to Italian border police and replaced a longer list of some 562 people. It says the list was current as of August 27, 1962. An asterisk placed beside some names indicated that a photograph accompanied the name of the person. Souetre has an asterisk beside his name.


NARA Record Number: 1993.08.05.10:50:12:500006

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=64991&relPageId=3

 

http://www.50elysee.com/fileadmin/user_upload/AFP/ARCHIVE/4-DE_GAULLE-Allemagne-4-5.9.1962.pdf

In September, 1962, Charles DeGaulle traveled to West Germany for a state visit.

In advance of his visit the West German Security Services asked the French Surete for photographs of several chief men of the O.A.S. Among these were ex-colonels Goddard and Antoine Argoud; ex-captains Souetre, Sergent, Curutchet; and ex-senator Dumont.

(see p. 5 of this document)

 

Steve Thomas

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Perhaps this belongs in another thread, but maybe some future researcher will find this and can make better sense of it all than I can.

Footnote number 19 in A Possible French Connection:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=6060&search=%22howard_hunt%22+AND+SPAIN#relPageId=44&tab=page

Page 44

Aux Ordres du SAC, by Gilbert Lecavlier, 1982

(In the orders of, or under the orders of SAC)
 

Lecavalier was SAC. SAC and the OAS hated each other. He wrote in his book that whereas the the main effort of SAC between 1958 and 1960 was against the FLN (the pro-independence Algerian rebels), between 1961 and 1967, it was against the OAS. In his book, he published a Directory of SAC (insofar as 1968 anyway).  There are some names here that I hadn't encountered before.

Maybe you can use this in your studies.

Aux Ordres du SAC, by Gilbert Lecavlier, 1982

(In the orders of, or under the orders of SAC)

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k4814563g/f29.image.texteImage

page 23:

image.thumb.png.d67cad111cb350d67ebfb395412c4719.png

 

Steve Thomas

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A couple of things:

1) As I pointed out to Paul Brancato once, if you read that memo carefully, the first two sentences are second-person statements. (The French said this, and the French said that...)

When you get to to the sentence that starts out, "He was in Fort Worth on morning of 22 November..." however;  the sentence becomes a declarative statement. Is this information coming from the French, or the CIA writer of the memo? After that sentence, the memo reverts back to second hand information from the French.

This is suspicious to me.

 

2) No, the rest of that memo has never surfaced. We don't know who wrote it, or when it was written.

I believe that this is the copy of the photograph that was included with the memo:

image.thumb.png.2d4413551e0ce461bc5d784c76b05e93.png

 

Steve Thomas

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5 hours ago, Steve Thomas said:

A couple of things:

1) As I pointed out to Paul Brancato once, if you read that memo carefully, the first two sentences are second-person statements. (The French said this, and the French said that...)

When you get to to the sentence that starts out, "He was in Fort Worth on morning of 22 November..." however;  the sentence becomes a declarative statement. Is this information coming from the French, or the CIA writer of the memo? After that sentence, the memo reverts back to second hand information from the French.

This is suspicious to me.

 

2) No, the rest of that memo has never surfaced. We don't know who wrote it, or when it was written.

I believe that this is the copy of the photograph that was included with the memo:

image.thumb.png.2d4413551e0ce461bc5d784c76b05e93.png

 

Steve Thomas

Steve - thanks for your continued efforts to get at the truth. I see that Larry Hancock has found your research helpful. 

Im looking forward to seeing Garrisons files on the French Connection, assuming that the files are real. I think he is the source that inspired Fensterwald. There have been some dead ends on the French Connection for sure. Just as with Crichton’s 488th MID there are many uncorroborated stories that keep circulating. I don’t think in either case - French/Corsican/OAS, or 488th, that the lack of corroboration, or the dead ends, are proof that they are just rumors. My inclination is to see the lack of corroboration and the clearly false leads (Christian David for instance) as evidence in and of itself that there is something hidden. 

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11 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

Steve - thanks for your continued efforts to get at the truth. I see that Larry Hancock has found your research helpful. 

Im looking forward to seeing Garrisons files on the French Connection, assuming that the files are real. I think he is the source that inspired Fensterwald. There have been some dead ends on the French Connection for sure. Just as with Crichton’s 488th MID there are many uncorroborated stories that keep circulating. I don’t think in either case - French/Corsican/OAS, or 488th, that the lack of corroboration, or the dead ends, are proof that they are just rumors. My inclination is to see the lack of corroboration and the clearly false leads (Christian David for instance) as evidence in and of itself that there is something hidden. 

In a conversation with Larry, I said,

"The way I see it, you've got three tracks to a "French Connection"

1) You've got Steve Rivele and his work with Christian David and Lucien Sarti.

2) You've got Fensterwald and his work on Mertz and Souetre

3) You've got William Reymond and his work on the Three Tramps.

JFK : autopsie d'un crime d'État

http://oasassassinatjfk.e-monsite.com/pages/les-vraies-clochards-et-vagabonds.html

He identified Souetre as being one of the shooters using the code name, "Max"

(A tantalizing clue here is that "Maxime" was the radio call sign for the 40/541 parachute unit Souetre commanded in Algeria between 1957 and 1960).

 

If anything, I'm inclined to go along with Rivele who said in later years that if he were to do it over again, he'd concentrate on Paul Mondolini - drug trafficker out of Montreal (where Mertz was also sent after his double-cross in the Pont-sur-Seine affair and also involved in narcotics trafficking). As I read it, the Americans were tracking Mertz the drug smuggler, but lost him shortly before JFK's assassination. This is what Lamar Waldron says in his Legacy of Secrecy.

 

I guess I would add a fourth track.

In his book and blog, Maurice Philipps also traces the origin of JFK's assassination back to the Montreal underworld.

I HAVE SOME SECRETS FOR YOU
By Maurice Philipps
http://somesecretsforyou.blogspot.com/

http://somesecretsforyou.blogspot.com/2006/01/links-between-jfk-assassination-and.html

 

Montreal, where Paul Mondolini was a drug kingpin and where Mertz (who also was involved in heroin smuggling) was sent after he double-crossed the OAS in the Pont-sur-Seine assassination attempt against DeGaulle. As he put it, "One of most active members of the French Connection, Corsican Paul Mondolini was in Cuba associate to both Trafficante and Rivard. He also was accomplice of French smuggler and secret agent Michel-Victor Mertz."

Tinea Warrenist in jfk-fr.com summarized Philipps book this way this way:
Sunday October 31, 2004 with 14h46 #11891

"The book of Maurice Phillips relates, mainly, to the bonds that there would have been between the Montreal underworld and the assassination of Kennedy, particularly the case of Lucien Rivard, sought in Texas for heroin traffic, and who was the middleman between the underworld Italian of Montreal (pledged with that of New York) (Joe Bonanno) and famous "French Connection" Marseillaise..."

The "French did it" is just as bad as people who say, "The CIA did it."

As you put it, "there are many uncorroborated stories that keep circulating."

 

Steve Thomas

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In the past, I've been asked how the OAS got its money.

This would be one way.

This article appeared in the March 24, 1962 issue of the Cumberland Evening Times. Cumberland, MD page 1

https://newspaperarchive.com/cumberland-evening-times-mar-24-1962-p-1/

image.png.dc6e8f72f5115d9f6a68e3e975f1f050.png

Jean-Rene had made his escape from the prison camp in February,  so I do not know if had successfully made his way to Spain by March, or if he had had a hand in this bank robbery in Algeria.

I do not know if this money made its way into the coffers of the main OAS headquarters in Spain.

There is a long article about the day-long battle between the OAS and the French Army. The newspaper article was in a Saturday issue, and they speak of the heavy fighting that took place on Friday, so I'm assuming it happened on March 23rd. The article says that this marked the first time the OAS had battled the French Army directly. This was some serious stuff.

From page 2:

image.png.36d98c3007f0e96ae0872b7075fd488c.png

 

By this time in 1962, 2060 people had died, and another 4, 044 had been wounded in this year alone.

 

Steve Thomas

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14 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

Why would OAS be fighting the French Army in Algeria? That’s news to me - thanks.

Paul,

 

The Evian Peace Accords had been signed in March. A nation-wide referendum in France had been held in 1961 and an overwhelming number had voted to allow Algeria to become independent. Charles DeGaulle worked to make that a reality.

The right-wing factions of Algerie Francais, or French Algerians did not want to see that happen. They wanted Algeria to remain a Department of France.

By 1960, Algeria had been a part of France for 130 years. It was one of France's 13 Departments (similar to our 50 States).

The Europeans in Algeria did not want to see Algeria become an independent country. I read once that Europeans owned 90% of the arable land in Algeria.

The OAS grew out of that resistance. At first, that resistance was against the FLN, or pro-Moslem, pro-independence movement. By 1962, that OAS had turned against the French State iteslf.

 

Steve Thomas

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Thanks Steve - what I didn’t know is that they were literally engaging with French Army troops in Algeria. 

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On 4/13/2016 at 6:52 AM, Steve Thomas said:

Raconteur. Soldier-of-Fortune. Centurion. Son of a naval petty officer, he was raised in a military boarding school. Decorated military hero. Winner of five military citations, including two combat medals. Developed a fast-attack, lighting strike force called “Matou” (Tomcat”) inserting paratroopers directly into front-line combat situations. One of, if not the, youngest Captain in the French Air Force. Led a company of 100 men, he would be known as Captain Souetre for the rest of his life. Beloved by his men, frowned on by his superiors. Was called charismatic, but naive. Nicknamed “Robin Hood” by his friends, he named his first-born son “Little John”. Arrested and tried for desertion, he married his second wife two weeks after arriving in a prison camp. His best man (or in French fashion, “Witness”) at his wedding was a 70-year old hippie General who once wrote that he would rather put flowers in the barrels of soldiers' guns than drop bombs on people, and organized a rock concert headlined by Pink Floyd. The “arch of sabers” at his military-style wedding was not crossed swords, but strands of barbed wire. In The Great Escape fashion, led an 18-man prison escape by digging a tunnel 35 meters long under the prison walls. Married three times. Had three children, and possibly a fourth born out of wedlock. High ranking member of the French OAS, at one time he was one of the two most wanted men in France. Suspect in not just one, but at least two assassination plots against national Heads of State. Target of an assassination plot himself. Amnestied in 1968, would later go on to serve in local government politics as a member of the right-wing Front National party. He died on June 15, 2001, but his Death Certificate would not be signed until June 18th.

Interesting fellow this Jean-Rene.

Here's a copy of his death certificate. He died at 11:00 in the morning. He was 70 years old:

image.thumb.png.d1b9ad9983a0a260e507555291e8893c.png

 

Steve Thomas

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