Did the Dallas Radical Right kill JFK?

[Ernie Lazar]

The FBI files captioned "Desegregation of the University of Mississippi" (item #5 in Jason's message) have also been destroyed or transferred to NARA.  Here are just a few of them:

Dallas 157-203
(NARA)

HQ 157-401
(NARA)

Memphis 157-147
Destroyed 7/13/05 

Miami 157-700
Destroyed 1977 

New Orleans 157-221
Destroyed 11/4/77

When I received the original release of Edwin Walker's HQ file (2629 pages) in 1995, it included a very substantial number of pages from the HQ "Desegregation" file (157-401).  This file will eventually be scanned by UC-Berkeley so I can post it online.

BTW -- the 157-401 file had 2592 serials as of 1962.
 

Edited January 25, 2018 by Ernie Lazar

[Ernie Lazar]

The "Edwin A. Walker Group" (item #7) in Jason's message is a reference to the "Friends of General Walker".  There are numerous references in FBI files to this group.

The first time I recall seeing this group mentioned was in the file captioned "Unnamed Organization of Dallas Texas Patriots" which the FBI created after they arrested Ashland F. Burchwell. 

The main relevant FBI files are: HQ 100-439412 and Dallas 105-1475 for the "Unnamed Organization" and Dallas 152-2, Dallas 190-59, and HQ 152-40 for Ashland Burchwell.  The Dallas 105-1475 file will be scanned by UC-Berkeley and added to my online collection sometime this year.

A few of the notes I took from Ashland Burchwell's file:

152-2, #24 (12/12/62 SAC Dallas report which summarizes interview of Burchwell to determine his connection with Edwin A. Walker and the desegregation controversy in Oxford MS.  On pages 3-4, Burchwell discusses the membership cards found in his vehicle when arrested:

pg 3: “Burchwell stated he was not a member of the organization for which he had the membership cards but stated he was in sympathy with its aims and purpose and had been asked to join but stated he did not have the time for this group.  Burchwell described the group as being similar in aims and purposes to the Minutemen and stated that this group was organizing to resist a communist takeover of the United States…”

Pg 4: “Burchwell stated he sincerely believed that a communist takeover in the U.S. was possible, pointing out what happened in Czechoslovakia in 1948.  He also reported that they had heard reports that Mongolian troops were massing in lower California in Mexico.  When asked where he received such information, Burchwell stated he had heard it from a minister, named unrecalled, who claimed to have seen these Mongolian troops in California, and the publication, ‘Common Sense’ which Burchwell described as an anti-semitic newspaper.  Burchwell insisted that the real issue in MS, according to what Walker told him, was not racial, but the constitutional issue of whether the Federal government could interfere with the states rights of MS.”

[Paul Trejo]

Jason,

Once again you've done an admiral job of uncovering data on General Walker regarding the JFK Assassination.  Nobody else in the past half-century has uncovered what you've found.   Congratulations are in order, in my humble opinion.

Now -- as for your surmise that the data to convict Walker has always been available -- although nobody has requested it through FOIA -- and so it is unlikely to be part of the total release of JFK documents pursuant to the JFK Records Act which matured on 10/26/2017, I must stand in admiration.

In fact, when studying about General Walker at UT Austin with Professor H.W. Brands from 2012 to 2015, I contacted NARA several times to obtain material about General Walker -- and I was always denied on grounds of "FOIA Exceptions."

Here's what I asked for: 

1. Radio news transcripts of General Walker from September 15, to October 2, 1962.
2. TV news transcripts of General Walker from September 15, to October 2, 1962.
3. Independent film clips of General Walker at the Ole Miss riots of September 30, 1962.
4. Independent film clips of General Walker's arrest in Oxford, Mississippi on October 1, 1962.
5. Any film at all from the Ole Miss riots of September 30, 1962.
6. Government film of General Walker.
7. Independent film of General Walker giving a speech.

I was blocked at every turn.   I have been saying on this JFK Forum for over 6 years now, that there is a direct, straight line from the Ole Miss riots of 1962 to the JFK Assassination of 1963.   

It was well known in Dallas that Edwin Walker was the leader of the humiliation of Adlai Stevenson at the Texas Memorial Auditorium in October 1963 (cf. Chris Cravens, 1993).   October, 1963 was the first anniversary of Ex-General Edwin Walker's entry into an insane asylum at the command of RFK and JFK in response to the Ole Miss riots.

We too easily dismiss General Walker as a "kook.'   Because of this blind spot we have for the South, we continually misread the signs -- which now include the grass-roots revival of the Confederate Flag, for example in Charleston and the University of Virginia.  It always takes us by surprise.   We are sleep-walking.   

My issue today, however, is mainly with NARA.  This data is a half-century old, and belongs to history now.  Why keep it under wraps?    The missing link to the JFK Assassination is apparently being hidden by NARA under the pretext of "FOIA Exceptions."

Regards,
--Paul Trejo

Edited January 27, 2018 by Paul Trejo
typos

[Roger DeLaria]

I just finished reading Treachery In Dallas by Walt Brown, and found it quite illuminating.

From the Analysis section of the chapter "The Right and Other Wings" p87:

 

Groups and individuals cited in the foregoing narrative certainly had no affection for John Kennedy or his policies, and occasional violence had been known to be a method employed by such groups. It is possible that in their loathing of Kennedy, added to the potential willingness to embrace a Texan president, some elements cited above may have been the final catalyst--not just infiltrators in the Kennedy assassination. It should also be noted that such groups are based on the "good old boy" network, which guarantees a code of silence among all even if there are transgressors in their midst. Several good old boys made plans in Texas, and one good old boy became president. Other good old boys "investigated" the event.

And it must also be noted that the Dallas law enforcement community was an additional dependable group of good old boys.

One of the unspoken keystones in all of this is the Walker shooting, seen by many as a red herring. If Oswald shot at Walker, how could any subsequent alliance include both Walker and Oswald? Since everybody knew Oswald was involved, Walker could not have been, so the thinking goes. (Continue to bear in mind the premise of that logic.) Although Walker testified that he did not believe it was Oswald who shot at him, it is equally easy to imagine a shot fired into an empty room in the Walker residence to divert suspicion from a group that would be active later in the year.

Edited January 25, 2018 by Roger DeLaria

[Jason Ward]

3 hours ago, Paul Trejo said:

Jason,

Once again you've done an admiral job of uncovering data on General Walker regarding the JFK Assassination.  Nobody else in the past half-century has uncovered what you've found.   Congratulations are in order, in my humble opinion.

Now -- as for your surmise that the data to convict Walker has always been available -- although nobody has requested it through FOIA -- and so it is unlikely to be part of the total release of JFK documents pursuant to the JFK Records Act which matured on 10/26/2017, I must stand in admiration.

In fact, when studying about General Walker at UT Austin with Professor H.W. Brands from 2012 to 2015, I contacted NARA several times to obtain material about General Walker -- and I was always denied on grounds of "FOIA Exceptions."

Here's what I asked for: 

1. Radio news transcripts of General Walker from September 15, to October 2, 1962.
2. TV news transcripts of General Walker from September 15, to October 2, 1962.
3. Independent film clips of General Walker at the Ole Miss riots of September 30, 1962.
4. Independent film clips of General Walker's arrest in Oxford, Mississippi on October 1, 1962.
5. Any film at all from the Ole Miss riots of September 30, 1962.
6. Government film of General Walker.
7. Independent film of General Walker giving a speech.

I was blocked at every turn.   I have been saying on this JFK Forum for 6 years now, that there is a direct, straight line from the Ole Miss riots of 1962 to the JFK Assassination of 1963.   

It was well known in Dallas that Edwin Walker was the leader of the humiliation of Adlai Stevenson at the Texas Memorial Auditorium in October 1963 (cf. Chris Cravens, 1993).   October, 1963 was the first anniversary of Ex-General Edwin Walker's entry into an insane asylum at the command of RFK and JFK in response to the Ole Miss riots.

We too easily dismiss General Walker as a "kook.'   Because of this blind spot we have for the South, we continually misread the signs -- which now include the grass-roots revival of the Confederate Flag, for example in Charleston and the University of Virginia.  It always takes us by surprise.   We are sleep-walking.   

My issue today, however, is mainly with NARA.  This data is a half-century old, and belongs to history now.  Why keep it under wraps?    The missing link to the JFK Assassination is apparently being hidden by NARA under the pretext of "FOIA Exceptions."

Regards,
--Paul Trejo

Ok, let's work on a FOIA.   (wait, I thought I was stepping back from the JFK thing in 2018???)

[Jason Ward]

27 minutes ago, Roger DeLaria said:

 

One of the unspoken keystones in all of this is the Walker shooting, seen by many as a red herring. If Oswwald shot at Walker, how could any subsequent alliance include both Walker and Oswald? Since everybody knew Oswald was involved, Walker could not have been, so the thinking goes. (Continue to bear in mind the premise of that logic.) Although Walker testified that he did not believe it was Oswald who shot at him, it is equally easy to imagine a shot fired into an empty room in the Walker residence to divert suspicion from a group that would be active later in the year.

****YES****

1. Roger, the Walker shooting and Walker's mysterious ability to tell the world that Oswald shot at him BEFORE the famous letter from Oswald admitting to the shooting is found at Ruth Paine's house and published in the papers.....makes all CIA-did-it devotees look like idiots. 

2. Plus, how in the world does the John T Martin film show bullet hole damage from WITHIN Walker's house immediately after the April 10, 1963 shooting and also show candid film sequences of Oswald passing out literature on Canal Street....UNLESS WALKER KNEW OSWALD WOULD BE ON CANAL STREET?

3. It's all there in Warren Commission testimony.....See below....

Dulles is sure insistent on making sure it gets on the official record that Walker only knew Oswald shot him after he read it in the papers ...yet Walker told the German newspaper National Zeitung on November 22nd that Oswald was the shooter in the April 10 attack at Walker's residence. How is it possible for Walker to know this on 22 November 1963?

Also, Chief Justice Warren also wants to make sure this is made "clear" that Walker only knew Oswald was the shooter of the 10April63 attack because of what he read in the papers, otherwise everyone might quickly realize the truth that Walker's advance knowledge that Oswald was the shooter on 10 April means Walker has conspirator-only-knowledge of Oswald's actions. 

{whoops!  Dulles almost blows the whole smokecreen by his slip of the tongue admission that Walker knew BEFORE 22 November that Oswald shot Walker in April...had to get that fixed quick!}

                                   PS - Walker sending his aide to talk to Marina's lawyer is ...pregnant... with implications, is it not?  A warning?   Or simply a fishing expedition to find out what she knew about Walker?

Edited January 25, 2018 by Jason Ward

[Ernie Lazar]

14 hours ago, Paul Trejo said:

Jason,

Once again you've done an admiral job of uncovering data on General Walker regarding the JFK Assassination.  Nobody else in the past half-century has uncovered what you've found.   Congratulations are in order, in my humble opinion.

Now -- as for your surmise that the data to convict Walker has always been available -- although nobody has requested it through FOIA -- and so it is unlikely to be part of the total release of JFK documents pursuant to the JFK Records Act which matured on 10/26/2017, I must stand in admiration.

In fact, when studying about General Walker at UT Austin with Professor H.W. Brands from 2012 to 2015, I contacted NARA several times to obtain material about General Walker -- and I was always denied on grounds of "FOIA Exceptions."

Here's what I asked for: 

1. Radio news transcripts of General Walker from September 15, to October 2, 1962.
2. TV news transcripts of General Walker from September 15, to October 2, 1962.
3. Independent film clips of General Walker at the Ole Miss riots of September 30, 1962.
4. Independent film clips of General Walker's arrest in Oxford, Mississippi on October 1, 1962.
5. Any film at all from the Ole Miss riots of September 30, 1962.
6. Government film of General Walker.
7. Independent film of General Walker giving a speech.

I was blocked at every turn.   I have been saying on this JFK Forum for 6 years now, that there is a direct, straight line from the Ole Miss riots of 1962 to the JFK Assassination of 1963.   

It was well known in Dallas that Edwin Walker was the leader of the humiliation of Adlai Stevenson at the Texas Memorial Auditorium in October 1963 (cf. Chris Cravens, 1993).   October, 1963 was the first anniversary of Ex-General Edwin Walker's entry into an insane asylum at the command of RFK and JFK in response to the Ole Miss riots.

We too easily dismiss General Walker as a "kook.'   Because of this blind spot we have for the South, we continually misread the signs -- which now include the grass-roots revival of the Confederate Flag, for example in Charleston and the University of Virginia.  It always takes us by surprise.   We are sleep-walking.   

My issue today, however, is mainly with NARA.  This data is a half-century old, and belongs to history now.  Why keep it under wraps?    The missing link to the JFK Assassination is apparently being hidden by NARA under the pretext of "FOIA Exceptions."

Regards,
--Paul Trejo

1. Are you sure that NARA has all these items?

2.  With respect to the "outside the scope" exemption which Jason mentioned in a previous message:

The FBI (and other agencies) often will send FOIA requesters what seems like a "helpful" friendly message concerning their FOIA request.  This usually occurs most often when a request involves a large number of pages.

The "friendly" and "helpful" message is totally BOGUS and it will say something like: 

"In order to expedite processing of your request, and reduce potential costs, would you like to narrow the scope of your request to"  (enter parameter here -- such as limiting request to just specific years or specific time period, OR perhaps limit request to just documents about one or more specific subjects, OR just limit request to certain types of documents (such as HQ summary memos, but not every individual memo prepared by a field office).

WORD OF ADVICE:   NEVER (repeat: NEVER) accept that "friendly, helpful" suggestion.

What happens if you do accept the "limit the scope" suggestion is that some analyst assigned to work on your request will substitute THEIR un-informed judgment for your knowledge about whatever subject(s) you are pursuing -- and, consequently, that analyst will do everything possible to reduce their workload by severely reducing the number of pages they need to review, or declassify, or ultimately release.

In many cases, when I first starting making FOIA requests to the FBI, I accepted the "friendly, helpful" advice from the FBI and I limited the scope of my requests--when I received paper documents.  Years later, when I re-requested the same files as PDF docs on CD's -- I got the entire file and I saw how the FBI interpreted my original "limit scope" paper docs and it was horrific.

[Ernie Lazar]

2 minutes ago, Ernie Lazar said:

We too easily dismiss General Walker as a "kook.'

It is not that we "dismiss" Walker "as a kook".  We just recognize his significant limitations (financially, intellectually, and in practical terms).

The problem is that there were so many JFK-haters like Walker (including former military) running around who were actually in a better position to commit a murder (or facilitate a murder) than Walker.

As Paul knows, I have repeatedly stated that Walker was an indisputable racist (which Paul denies) because of the mountains of indisputable evidence concerning Walker's beliefs, values, associations, and behavior.

However, there are people like former Navy Rear Admiral John G. Crommelin or Marine General Pedro del Valle whose associations and rhetoric and behavior were even more viciously racist and hateful toward JFK than Walker's. 

While Walker was tolerable to Robert Welch and the John Birch Society people like del Valle and Crommelin were totally unacceptable even to the JBS! 

In addition, one could argue that Crommelin and del Valle (but especially Crommelin) had a much better developed network of contacts and access to other highly-trained military in the south than did Walker.

Crommelin, in particular, is noteworthy because of his direct ties to violent Klan members and similar groups.  He was associated with Wesley Swift and Col. William P. Gale's "Christian Defense League" and Crommelin was a stockholder in Conde McGinley's notorious bigoted newspaper, "Common Sense" which expressed pro-nazi sentiments that even Walker never did.  I don't recall Walker ever endorsing Crommelin during his many attempts to be elected to public office whereas numerous vicious racists and Jew-haters did.

Between 1955 and 1960, there were 88 bombing incidents which involved members of the National States Rights Party.  At least 16 of these incidents involved (directly or indirectly) Crommelin, J.B. Stoner, and John Kasper.  Unlike Walker, Crommelin was a wealthy man and he bankrolled white terrorist activities across the South.  Nor did Crommelin hide or euphemize what he believed.  His bigotry was overt and well-known.  Not even Paul Trejo could deny it or seek to justify it.

Other people also come to mind who had more inclination (and wherewithal) to commit or facilitate the murder of JFK than Walker.

[Paul Trejo]

On ‎1‎/‎25‎/‎2018 at 12:00 AM, Roger DeLaria said:

I just finished reading Treachery In Dallas by Walt Brown, and found it quite illuminating.

From the Analysis section of the chapter "The Right and Other Wings" p87:

Groups and individuals cited in the foregoing narrative certainly had no affection for John Kennedy or his policies, and occasional violence had been known to be a method employed by such groups. It is possible that in their loathing of Kennedy, added to the potential willingness to embrace a Texan president, some elements cited above may have been the final catalyst--not just infiltrators in the Kennedy assassination. It should also be noted that such groups are based on the "good old boy" network, which guarantees a code of silence among all even if there are transgressors in their midst. Several good old boys made plans in Texas, and one good old boy became president. Other good old boys "investigated" the event.

And it must also be noted that the Dallas law enforcement community was an additional dependable group of good old boys.

One of the unspoken keystones in all of this is the Walker shooting, seen by many as a red herring. If Oswald shot at Walker, how could any subsequent alliance include both Walker and Oswald? Since everybody knew Oswald was involved, Walker could not have been, so the thinking goes. (Continue to bear in mind the premise of that logic.) Although Walker testified that he did not believe it was Oswald who shot at him, it is equally easy to imagine a shot fired into an empty room in the Walker residence to divert suspicion from a group that would be active later in the year.

Roger,

I applaud your recognition of Professor Walt Brown as a source on the JFK Assassination, with the Dallas Police squarely in his sights.

As for the Walker shooting by LHO on April 10, 1963, I have long maintained that it is no red-herring, it is a historical fact.   I also maintain that Walker found out that LHO was one of his two shooters the very next weekend after the shooting.   I have two sources: (1) Dick Russell's book, The Man Who Knew Too Much (1993); and (2) Walker's own letter to Senator Frank Church here:   http://www.pet880.com/images/19750623_EAW_to_Frank_Church.pdf

There are two sources of indirect evidence: (1a) George DeMohrenschildt's manuscript, I'm A Patsy! I'm A Patsy! (1978) where George admits his hatred for General "Fokker" Walker; and (2a) Volkmar Schmidt's public confessions that he convinced LHO that Walker was "as bad as Hitler," which LHO himself repeated to Marina.

Insofar as Oswald truly shot at General Walker, the CIA-did-it CTers just fall to pieces.   The correct CT is the Radical Right Wing in Dallas killed JFK.   But this CT has received comparatively little attention in the past 55 years.   Here is what the evidence shows, in my CT:

1.  Lee Harvey Oswald was under the influence of George DeMohrenschildt and Volkmar Schmidt (and perhaps others in their circle).

2.  LHO tried to impress this circle by killing Walker (on his own, with one other accomplice) on Wednesday, April 10, 1963.

3. Dick Russell records that George DeMohrenschildt told Igor and Natasha Voshinin of his suspicions of LHO on Easter Sunday, April 14, 1963, and she called the FBI that morning, repeating the story.

4.  That contact in the FBI (probably James Hosty) alerted General Walker that very same morning.   Ever since that morning, Walker plotted to kill Lee Harvey Oswald -- and JFK and RFK.

5.   The motivation for General Walker --- as he told the German newspaper Deutsche Nationalzeitung on 11/23/1963 -- was that he was certain that RFK had sent LHO to kill him.   Walker repeated that story for the rest of his life in various media.

Regards,
--Paul Trejo

Edited January 26, 2018 by Paul Trejo

[Ray Mitcham]

The letter you quote above, Paul says this.

"

Dear Senator Church,

The Warren Commission found and concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald attempted to assassinate the undersigned at his home, at 9 pm. on April 10,1963.

The initial and immediate investigationat the time of the incident reported two men at my home,one with a gun, seen by an eye-witness --a neighbor.

Within days I was informed by a Lieutenant on the Dallas City Police Force that Oswald was in custody by 12 pm. that night fo for questioning. He was released on higher authority than clia:*
that in Dallas. There were two men, not a " Lonely Loner ".

Please inform me if the CIA was involved in this attempted assassination ?

"

 

[Paul Trejo]

On 1/26/2018 at 1:12 PM, Ray Mitcham said:

The letter you quote above, Paul says this.

"

Dear Senator Church,

The Warren Commission found and concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald attempted to assassinate the undersigned at his home, at 9 pm. on April 10,1963.

The initial and immediate investigationat the time of the incident reported two men at my home,one with a gun, seen by an eye-witness --a neighbor.

Within days I was informed by a Lieutenant on the Dallas City Police Force that Oswald was in custody by 12 pm. that night fo for questioning. He was released on higher authority than that in Dallas. There were two men, not a " Lonely Loner ".

Please inform me if the CIA was involved in this attempted assassination ?

Ray,

Yes, that's what General Walker wrote to Senator Frank Church on June 23, 1975  (well before the HSCA was organized).   Let's take a closer look:

1.   Walker believes the Dallas Police, who report an eye-witness who saw TWO MEN at his home.    That is, Walker disbelieves the Warren Report, which reports only ONE MAN was there, namely, Lee Harvey Oswald, as the "Lone Shooter."

2.   Within "days" of the Walker shooting (April 10, 1963) Walker claims that he had already learned that Lee Harvey Oswald was one of those two shooters!  Within days!

3.  Walker claimed that he got that report from a "Lieutenant on the Dallas City Police Force."    That source said they had Oswald in custody!

4.   Walker did not name that source.   It was a "Lieutenant on the Dallas City Police Force."   That's all he said.

5.  Then, said Walker, somebody released Oswald later that night!   

6.  Who released Oswald from Dallas Police custody during the late night of April 10, 1963?    Walker does not say.

7.  However, Walker does say that whoever released Oswald was a "higher authority than that in Dallas."

8.  This seems to hint that the person who released Oswald from custody was from Washington DC.    (RFK?  JFK?)

9.  Walker asks Senator Church to tell him if it was the CIA who tried to kill Walker on April 10, 1963. 

Interesting, right?
--Paul Trejo

Edited January 27, 2018 by Paul Trejo

[Ernie Lazar]

I highlight in blue font one sentence which destroys the hopes of Paul Trejo, et al, regarding what remains to be released by April.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article200391724.html

Documents haven’t quelled JFK conspiracy theories. Do the answers lie abroad?

BY KEVIN G. HALL

khall@mcclatchydc.com

February 16, 2018 05:00 AM

Updated 7 hours 35 minutes ago

MINNEAPOLIS 

 

Does the key to unlocking the enduring mystery of the Kennedy assassination lie abroad, in Belarus, Cuba or Mexico?

A special review board created in the 1990s to declassify U.S. government assassination secrets tried to secure important information from those countries. It was unsuccessful. 

But as the window for the 25-year-long declassification of John F. Kennedy assassination documents closes on April 26 — with experts warning that a smoking-gun document is unlikely to turn up in the remaining tens of thousands of U.S. government files — pursuit of definitive answers is likely to shift overseas.

John R. Tunheim, now a federal district judge in Minnesota, led the Assassination Records Review Board from 1994 to 1998. It oversaw and set dates for the release of tens of thousands of government documents about the murder of President John F. Kennedy.

 “The biggest cache of records that are still out there, the real treasure trove, are the Oswald KGB surveillance records,” said John R. Tunheim, now a federal district judge in Minnesota, who from 1994 to 1998 headed the Assassination Records Review Board. 

That bipartisan body was created after Congress passed a law in 1992 starting the clock for release of all JFK assassination records. The action was prompted by an outcry after Oliver Stone’s hit movie JFK discredited the official version of Kennedy’s murder.

In the 1990s, Belarus was still home to a five-foot-high stack of KGB surveillance documents on alleged Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.

The 20-year-old Marine defected to the Soviet Union soon after he was discharged in 1959 and was given a factory job in Minsk, the capital of what today is Belarus. The accused Kennedy assassin worked there until returning to the United States in 1962.

Tunheim and colleagues declassified tens of thousands of U.S. documents in those four years and set a timetable for complete release of documents that had been redacted. Many have trickled out over the past 25 years under schedules set by the board.

Then last year came four large document releases by the National Archives. The veil was supposed to be fully lifted by October 2017, but President Donald Trump extended the deadline to April 26.

More than 34,000 documents were posted online by the National Archives last year, many with redactions. McClatchy has learned that more than 22,000 documents still have not been released in full.

But most of those at least partially released have not been complete surprises, dampening anticipation of a big reveal by the end of April.

When Tunheim’s panel began declassifying the documents almost 30 years after JFK’s death, many were missing. Some of those had been under the control of the all-powerful CIA counterintelligence chief James J. Angleton.

Some believe that James Angleton, former chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's counterintelligence division, destroyed a number of documents related to the Kennedy assassination.

 “I am convinced he destroyed everything because he knew it was coming. He knew he was going to get fired,” said Tunheim, in a lengthy interview in January. “I don’t know how he did it but he got rid of just about everything before he was gone because there were huge gaps in the record.”

That view is shared by Jefferson Morley, author of a new biography on Angleton called The Ghost. In an interview, Morley called “defunct” the official version that Oswald was a lone-wolf gunman who came out of nowhere to kill an American president.

“Oswald was under counterintelligence surveillance from 1959 to 1963,” Morley said. “Everywhere he went he touched CIA collection operations, code-named secret intelligence operations, whose product was delivered to Angleton.”

In the 1970s, congressional hearings showed how the CIA had misled the Warren Commission, which issued an exhaustive report in 1964. The CIA again came under fire for misleading the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

These missteps by the CIA, ostensibly aimed at hiding from public view how it carried out spy craft and meddled in the affairs of foreign governments, helped fuel today’s theories of “conspiracy and cover up,” said Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst with the National Security Archive at George Washington University.

Now, virtually every alternative theory of possible culprit and motive for the JFK killing seems to get new life with each release of documents.

Fidel Castro? Government documents show how the CIA sought to kill him, giving him a motive to retaliate. The mob? Files prove the agency worked closely with mobsters in Cuba and Chicago as they plotted to kill Castro. Texans in the CIA? Documents released last year showed that Earle Cabell, mayor of Dallas at the time of the killing, had actually been a CIA asset since 1956. His brother Charles was a top CIA official forced by Kennedy to resign less than a year before the assassination on Nov. 22, 1963.

Minsk matters

As time was running out on his review board — which concluded its work on Sept. 30, 1998, with a lengthy report — Tunheim traveled to Minsk in Belarus and tried to copy the entire Oswald surveillance record.

“I was going to pay $100,000 for copying charges, I probably would have been criticized over that but it was such a gem of a file,” recalled Tunheim, adding that “I have seen many of them, I’ve had a lot of them read to me.”

But every time the review board came close to securing the Minsk files, tension with Belarus flared. Its leader then and now — Alexandr Lukashenko — is fiercely pro-Russian and has clashed with successive U.S. administrations.

“We could never get it in the time we had available,” Tunheim lamented. “And that covers every damn thing that Oswald did over his three or so years in the Soviet Union. It’s an amazing file and there is a copy of it somewhere in the Kremlin files someplace.”

The review board did acquire about 500 pages of Minsk documents, many of them from author Norman Mailer who had been there first and acquired some for use in his famous 1995 book Oswald’s Tale: An American Mystery.

What might the rest of those files contain? Much of it is likely mundane, but some JFK conspiracy theorists believe that Oswald was actually helping to train Cuban fighters while in Minsk. The files, now believed to be locked up in Russia, might also shed light on the KGB’s efforts to monitor Oswald once he returned to the United States.

Cuba libre?

One of the review board’s major accomplishments was releasing the files on Operation Mongoose — a Kennedy administration plot to overthrow and possibly kill Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Once the Mongoose files were made public, Tunheim had copies delivered to the Cuban interest section, which worked out of the Swiss embassy in Washington.

“The complete set of them, everything. We put together a box and said, ‘Send it to Fidel, your president,’” said Tunheim. The hope was that goodwill would beget goodwill.

 “He wanted to meet but the State Department didn’t allow it,” the judge said, chalking it up to concerns that at the time no one wanted to run afoul of the powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jesse Helms.

The North Carolina Republican had co-authored legislation toughening the Cuba trade embargo. Relations were also frayed by the 1996 downing by Cuba of civilian aircraft operated by the anti-Castro group Brothers to the Rescue.

Some lower level meetings took place in the Bahamas, and the Cuban government shared some documents but told Tunheim’s team that it didn’t have much since “defending the revolution” took so much effort.

“Castro intuited right away that CIA propaganda assets were trying to blame the assassination on Cuba, and the records we now have confirm that,” said Morley, who is also editor of the website JFK Facts, adding that Cuba’s documents could shed light on anti-Castro groups. “They heard lots of talk, coming from inside the anti-Castro movement. What they heard after the assassination would be very interesting to know, and important.”

The JFK documents released by the National Archives last year confirmed the full portfolio of CIA activity designed to destabilize the Castro regime, and the extent of spying on the Cuban embassy in Mexico City.

Much of the spying effort was led by Texan David Atlee Phillips, a charismatic Fort Worth native whose alleged relationship with Oswald has also been the subject of speculation by conspiracy theorists.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, on Oct. 4, 1975, reported that Phillips told a local gathering that he was “reasonably convinced” Oswald had acted alone.

But Cuban exile leader Antonio Veciana has maintained for years that Phillips, using the assumed name Maurice Bishop, was Oswald’s handler, and that he saw the two together in Dallas a month before the assassination. Now elderly and in ill health, Veciana told McClatchy in December that he stands by his account.

Phillips, who died in 1988, was a high-level CIA official in Cuba before and after Castro’s arrival in power. Transferred later to Mexico, he was tasked with watching all traffic and calls into and out of the Cuban and Soviet embassies.

And that’s where the U.S.’s southern neighbor fits into Tunheim’s view that important answers may still come from abroad.

Fresh Mex

Some of the most significant documents left classified for the bulk of the 25-year timeframe and released last year deal with Oswald’s trip to Mexico City weeks before the assassination of Kennedy.

During that timeframe, Oswald’s calls to the Cuban and Soviet embassies are believed to have been recorded. Tunheim recalled being told by the CIA that the recordings were not thought of consequence at the time and were recorded over.

“We know they existed at some point in time. I also know that our deal with the Mexican government was that they got a copy of everything we recorded,” said Tunheim, adding that “I am convinced that that probably exists somewhere, whether someone has taken it home or it’s in a closet or attic someplace.”

Tunheim had seen documents showing that CIA leaders had either seen transcripts of or heard the actual recordings. He flew to Houston in 1998 to meet with CIA officials from the U.S. embassy in Mexico City, asking them to see what they could dig up.

“They promised to follow up and I never heard another word from them,” he said.

Among the calls that would be of greatest interest is the intercept of Oswald’s Oct. 1, 1963 call with Valeriy Vladimirovich Kostikov, described in documents released last year. Kostikov was not only a consul general, the documents said, but a KGB officer who had been part of Department 13 — the feared sabotage and assassination unit.

Just hearing Oswald’s voice would be important.

What little audio of Oswald that exists publicly comes from an interview he gave in New Orleans in a pro-Cuba protest. His limited on-camera footage features a brief denial that he killed Kennedy, calling himself “a patsy.” Two days after the JFK assassination, Oswald was fatally shot by Jack Ruby as he was led from his Dallas jail cell.

[Paul Trejo]

Nope, that's just one more CT -- "the KGB has the true records."

I'll believe it when it see it.

Nobody but NOBODY in the past 50 years has been able to focus global attention on the Dallas Police and Deputies who were also among the Radical Right in Dallas -- including groups like the Minutemen, the White Citizens Councils, the John Birch Society and the KKK.

Everybody else is a suspect -- LBJ, the CIA, the US Army, the Congress, the Senate, J. Edgar Hoover, Allen Dulles and now the KGB.

Everybody will get blamed before Dallas is analyzed for the JFK Assassination which occurred in the heart of Dallas.

Like I say -- I'll believe it when I see it.    In the meantime, I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Regards,
--Paul Trejo

[Ernie Lazar]

6 minutes ago, Paul Trejo said:

Nope, that's just one more CT -- "the KGB has the true records."

I'll believe it when it see it.

Nobody but NOBODY in the past 50 years has been able to focus global attention on the Dallas Police and Deputies who were also among the Radical Right in Dallas -- including groups like the Minutemen, the White Citizens Councils, the John Birch Society and the KKK.

Everybody else is a suspect -- LBJ, the CIA, the US Army, the Congress, the Senate, J. Edgar Hoover, Allen Dulles and now the KGB.

Everybody will get blamed before Dallas is analyzed for the JFK Assassination which occurred in the heart of Dallas.

Like I say -- I'll believe it when I see it.    In the meantime, I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Regards,
--Paul Trejo

You do realize (don't you?) that Judge Tunheim was the Chairman of the ARRB and he saw everything?  I assume you also know that the ARRB is the body which determined which records would be released in full, or partially released, or delayed until 2017?  Consequently, when Judge Tunheim explicitly says that the only really significant documents which remain to be released are Oswald's KGB surveillance records -- then even you should be able to draw the logical conclusion -- right?

[Ernie Lazar]

FYI:  The second batch of my paper FBI files have been converted into PDF files by the Center for Right Wing Studies at University of California-Berkeley, (paid through the generosity of Southern Poverty Law Center) and I will be uploading these files into my Internet Archive webpage over the next 3 days after I perform an OCR scan on them. 

Several of these files pertain to individuals and organizations discussed in Dr. Caufield's book.

For those who may be interested, the subjects in this batch of files are as follows:

RIGHT WING and EXTREME RIGHT INDIVIDUALS/ORGANIZATIONS/PUBLICATIONS

American Anti-Communist League – HQ 62-82948 (120pp)

Arab Participation in Distribution of Hate Literature in U.S. – Los Angeles 105-6400 (265pp)

Arab Participation in Distribution of Hate Literature in U.S. – WFO 105-29384 (358pp)

   [Note:  These files pertain to propaganda circulated in U.S. by extreme right individuals and groups]

Arizona Patriots/Ty Hardin – HQ 100-487422 (252pp)

Canadian Intelligence Service/Ron Gostick – HQ 105-15137 (168pp)

Christian Anti-Communism Crusade/Fred Schwarz – San Francisco 100-40407 (300pp)

Council for Statehood-Mary M. Davison – HQ 157-758 (320pp)

Covenant, Sword, Arm of the Lord/James Ellison – HQ 100A-16708 (256pp)

DILYS, Joseph – Chicago 105-8307 (199pp)

DILYS, Joseph – Chicago 177B-74353 (107pp)

EASTLAND, James O. (U.S. Senator-MS) – HQ 94-4-5130 (242pp)

Facts Forum – HQ 62-94811 (95pp)

FORT JR., William E. – HQ 62-102708 (351pp)

GOFF, Kenneth – Minneapolis 100-12138 (33pp)

GOFF, Kenneth – WFO 105-29384 (162pp)

Human Events, newsletter – HQ 105-8697 (201pp)

JOSEPHSON, Emmanuel – Newark 100-442049 (14pp)

LAVARRE, William J. – HQ 62-61481 (202pp)

LAVARRE, William J./American Mercury magazine– xrefs (47pp)

Let Freedom Ring – Chicago 157-716 (92pp)

Liberty and Property, Inc./Willis Carto – HQ 105-47766 (159pp)

Liberty and Property, Inc./Willis Carto – WFO 100-33381 (16pp)

Liberty Lobby/Willis Carto – HQ 62-106941 (623pp)

Liberty Lobby/Willis Carto – WFO 157-69 (132pp)

LOGAN, Bard A./Constitution Party – San Antonio 100-8085 (252pp)

Louisiana Joint Legislative Committee—Subversion in Racial Unrest – HQ 62-103863 (303pp)  [Includes testimony by Guy Banister, Joseph Z. Kornfeder, Leonard Patterson, Manning Johnson, Martha Edmiston, Leander Perez, Hubert Badeaux]

MASON SR., Hatley N. – HQ 62-101087-49 (26pp)

MORRIS, Robert J. – HQ 62-98670 (250pp)

National Association of White People – HQ 105-18867 (150pp)

National Citizens Protective League – Philadelphia 105-1457 (87pp)

National Renaissance Party/James Madole – HQ 62-83296 (204pp)

National Renaissance Party/James Madole – NYC 105-6112 (226pp)

National Youth Alliance – NYC 157-3447 (211pp)

Nationalist Action League/W. Henry MacFarland Jr. – Philadelphia 105-426 (92pp)

Network of Patriotic Letter Writers – Los Angeles 62-4594 (145pp)

ROBNETT, George W. – HQ 51-324 (40pp)

THOMPSON JR., H. Keith – Newark 105-1160 (34pp)

Tocsin newsletter/Charles Fox – San Francisco 100-47243 (122pp)

TREVOR SR., John B. – HQ 62-21364 (66pp)

Voters Alliance of Americans of German Ancestry – HQ 105-11215 (211pp)

We, The Mothers Mobilize for America, Inc./Lyrl Clark Van Hyning – San Francisco 100-10704 (120pp)

Western American Security Police – Houston 100-10177 (205pp)

Williams Intelligence Summary newsletter/Robert H. Williams – HQ 105-10091 (77pp)

WILLIAMS, Robert H. – Army Intel Report (7pp)

Women’s Voice newsletter/Lyrl Clark Van Hyning – Chicago 105-456 (194pp)

Young Americans For Freedom – HQ 100-434516 (200pp)

GENERAL FILES

American Research Foundation – HQ 62-102255 (73pp)

WHITE, Walter F./NAACP – HQ 100-328241 (72pp)