Whitter's statement to HSCA still classified?

[Larry Hancock]

Steve, its really too bad you don't have the 2010 edition; it goes into great deal in this area and cites a number of documents related to weapons dealing not only in this instance but in regard to Ruby in general.  Its not something I can replicate here. On your questions, as far as I can tell nobody was stockpiling anything in Dallas because the exiles didn't have much money, they talked a lot and put out a lot of feelers but little in the way of actual sales happened. Lots of talk but not much money. That applies to the exiles that were not being supported by the administration. AMWORLD and Artime had tons of money and were doing big weapons and equipment buys from mainstream weapons suppliers in Europe. Again, that's all in the 2010 edition plus in Shadow Warfare, much of the research courtesy of Gary Murr.  But because DRE and other groups operating independently (DRE was supported by the CIA to some extent but not with much money and they were really jealous with what was going on with Artime; the two groups were very antagonistic in 63/64) were talking so much and putting out so many feelers they certainly did get the attention of Ellsworth and the FBI for that matter. Remember, FBI was officially tasked with shutting down  military action against Cuba - but only the independents, Artime and his people were getting a free pass..

Not that there were some weapons sales, but they were in handfuls - like the trailer Howard had - and mostly light weapons. There was probably as more ultra right weapons traffic going on in Dallas than anything else, a lot of it courtesy of Mason.  The guys stopped in Dallas because Mason was well known for reworking weapons to full auto.

Its really important to understand the difference between the Artime project and the independents; most of the rumors about an invasion were either related to Artime or were street talk by the other groups who just hoped to do something and had no major financial support - they were being shut down by the FBI, Artime had free rein on his project but that was indeed moving offshore as quickly as possible. 

On intelligence sharing, that's always been a problem - actually the fact that ATF, FBI and DPD were working the same weapons effort in Dallas was pretty unusual, and had just come about.  That mornings meeting was one of the first coordination sessions and only came about because DPD had blown the sting being run by the others. As to Secret Service, they really had nothing to do with any of this and operated virtually independently; it was a different world back then and they really only responded to threats provided to them via the threat index and then only in cities directly mentioned in the threat - as if there were no mobile threats.  Amazing in retrospect but the SS has always been like that - and they are so secretive its hard to tell if they have improved.  Recent events suggest possibly not.

 

On the stolen car, that's really very typical so if somebody gets a license number or physical description it doesn't track to known suspects.