Does the Cover-up Point to the Assassination Plotters?

[Michaleen Kilroy]

I have a vague idea of McCord's possible involvement in this, Michael.  Could you share a couple of good links I could review?

IMO, researchers, if they are truly interested in solving this case, need to treat the American media and public like a jury.  We need to provide reasonable arguments backed by compelling evidence.  For me, the Helms-Phillips-Kent-Joannides connection fits the bill.  You can prove all four knew about the CIA's control of the DRE and either kept quiet, lied about it or actively covered it up.  And the CIA of today continues to follow their lead and withholds relevant information. That for me is incriminating and requires a full investigation.   

10 minutes ago, Michael Clark said:

I add James McCord Jr. to this group as well. McCord had the highest clearances attainable and was running, at the time, operations to infiltrate state-side Cuban groups. McCord was directing LHO, with little or no separation.

 

[Michael Clark]

57 minutes ago, Mike Kilroy said:

I have a vague idea of McCord's possible involvement in this, Michael.  Could you share a couple of good links I could review?

IMO, researchers, if they are truly interested in solving this case, need to treat the American media and public like a jury.  We need to provide reasonable arguments backed by compelling evidence.  For me, the Helms-Phillips-Kent-Joannides connection fits the bill.  You can prove all four knew about the CIA's control of the DRE and either kept quiet, lied about it or actively covered it up.  And the CIA of today continues to follow their lead and withholds relevant information. That for me is incriminating and requires a full investigation.   

 

This is a John Newman quote on Wikipedia. Another researcher says the same thing except that he has LHO infiltrating Pro Castro groups. I will look for that citation. Ideally, I would have Newman’s source on this but I do not.

On 7/28/2017 at 5:55 PM, Michael Clark said:

"McCord worked for the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1961, and under his direction, a counter-intelligence program was launched against the Fair Play for Cuba Committee." (Wikipedia; Oswald and the CIA by John Newman p.138)"

 

[Michaleen Kilroy]

28 minutes ago, Michael Clark said:

This is a John Newman quote on Wikipedia. Another researcher says the same thing except that he has LHO infiltrating Pro Castro groups. I will look for that citation. Ideally, I would have Newman’s source on this but I do not.

 

Thanks, Michael. I have John’s book so I’ll do some searches on McCord.

[Steve Thomas]

1 hour ago, Mike Kilroy said:

For me, the most compelling evidence pointing to the conspirators are those CIA officials who lied and covered up the agency's involvement with the DRE during the time of LHO.

For me, the main problem with the JFK research community is that it goes in so many different directions rather than focusing on the most compelling evidence of wrongdoing or suspicious behavior.  That way the American media and public remain bewildered and confused rather than outraged and demanding answers.  

The tale of these four officers and their cover-up of the DRE-CIA connection and the anti-FPCC operations in NO and MC in the weeks before the assassination, as well as the decades-long refusal of the CIA to explain or release pertinent files regarding this issue, is the best evidence of conspiracy we have in this case, IMHO.

Mike,

 

I just got done reading this February 26, 2005 article on the Northwoods Plan in the Cryptome website.

I'm sorry, I don't know who "D" is. The author writes, "Thanks to "D".

I would encourage anyone to read it.

https://cryptome.org/northwoods.htm

The author makes a compelling case for the JCS teaming up with hard right-wing, anti-communist elements. He says the military knew ahead of time that the CIA-directed Bay of Pigs was destined to fail and deliberately let it happen so they could step in and take charge of the anti-Castro effort leading up to a Cuban invasion. Whatever collateral damage Northwoods brought (and later, Vietnam) was just too bad.

 

Steve Thomas

[Jim Hargrove]

4 hours ago, Mike Kilroy said:

For me, the most compelling evidence pointing to the conspirators are those CIA officials who lied and covered up the agency's involvement with the DRE during the time of LHO.

Richard Helms, David Phillips and William Kent all knew each other, knew the CIA was involved with the DRE during the late summer and fall of 1963, and covered up that connection and their knowledge of it.  Helms personally put George Joannides in charge of handling the DRE.  And the circumstantial evidence is strong that all four officials knew or were personally involved in an anti-FPCC operation in NO and Mexico City, and that this likely included the use of LHO as a witting or unwitting asset.

Helms kept the WC in the dark about the agency's DRE control and committed perjury during his HSCA questioning when he said he knew of no further relevant information regarding the assassination.  Helms, Phillips and Kent all kept quiet as Joannides took over as the CIA's liaison to the HSCA.

Former HSCA investigator Dan Hardway does a great job summarizing the incriminating evidence against these guys here: https://aarclibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Doc.-156-1.-Dan-L.-Hardway-Declaration.pdf

For me, the main problem with the JFK research community is that it goes in so many different directions rather than focusing on the most compelling evidence of wrongdoing or suspicious behavior.  That way the American media and public remain bewildered and confused rather than outraged and demanding answers.  

The tale of these four officers and their cover-up of the DRE-CIA connection and the anti-FPCC operations in NO and MC in the weeks before the assassination, as well as the decades-long refusal of the CIA to explain or release pertinent files regarding this issue, is the best evidence of conspiracy we have in this case, IMHO.

My bet is you’re right, Mike.  I couldn’t agree more with what you say (except I’m not familiar with the case against William Kent).  To your list of the probably guilty among Agency personnel I’d add E. Howard Hunt and J.J. Angleton.  

And as I said near the beginning of this thread, there may well have been a direct chain of command from CIA’s David Atlee Phillips to former intel officer Gordon McLendon to McLendon’s close friend Jack Ruby.  After all, the most critical first step in the cover-up was surely the silencing of the patsy.

OTOH, there are reasons to suspect the conspiracy may have extended beyond the CIA into elements of the military.  I’ll be watching for evidence about that.

Thanks for your post!

EDIT: Ah, I see Dan Hardway makes the case against Kent in the "Declaration" you linked above.  Thank you for that.  First I've seen it!

Edited August 26, 2018 by Jim Hargrove

[Steve Thomas]

10 hours ago, Jim Hargrove said:

EDIT: Ah, I see Dan Hardway makes the case against Kent in the "Declaration" you linked above.  Thank you for that.  First I've seen it!

Jim,

 

Do you know anything about this?

 

https://aarclibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Doc.-156-1.-Dan-L.-Hardway-Declaration.pdf

 

From page 25:

 

40. “The CIA recently was accused of spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee. In this case, the CIA has admitted to running an undercover agent in an investigation of the CIA by a Congressional committee. Any details released about the nature of that operation would be great public benefit.”

 

Steve Thomas

 

[Jim Hargrove]

Steve,

I think Mr. Hardway was probably referring to this:

https://www.cnn.com/2014/07/31/politics/cia-spying-senate-apologize/

[Steve Thomas]

1 hour ago, Jim Hargrove said:

Steve,

I think Mr. Hardway was probably referring to this:

https://www.cnn.com/2014/07/31/politics/cia-spying-senate-apologize/

Jim,

 

Ah.

OK. Thanks.

Steve Thomas

[Jim Hargrove]

On 8/26/2018 at 3:54 PM, Steve Thomas said:

I just got done reading this February 26, 2005 article on the Northwoods Plan in the Cryptome website.

I'm sorry, I don't know who "D" is. The author writes, "Thanks to "D".

I would encourage anyone to read it.

https://cryptome.org/northwoods.htm

The author makes a compelling case for the JCS teaming up with hard right-wing, anti-communist elements. He says the military knew ahead of time that the CIA-directed Bay of Pigs was destined to fail and deliberately let it happen so they could step in and take charge of the anti-Castro effort leading up to a Cuban invasion. Whatever collateral damage Northwoods brought (and later, Vietnam) was just too bad.

Thanks for posting this link to the Operation Northwoods write-up from Body of Secrets.  I read much of James Bamford’s tome ten or fifteen years ago when it first came out and had forgotten much of it since, so this review was welcome.

If memory serves, Mr. Bamford made news on the publication of his book by pointing out how Lemnitzer and, in fact, the entire JCS seemed to have gone nuts over their willingness to see innocent people killed—in fact to order their deaths--simply to provoke an invasion of Cuba.  At least these were the kinds of ideas written up in the Operation Northwoods plan that was signed by every member of the JCS. Pretty shocking stuff.

It is easy to see that when the order came from the Kennedy Brothers to stop all covert action plans against Cuba, people like Lemnitzer, Lansdale and perhaps even the entire JCS would have been incensed.  

Would that anger have led these military leaders to plot the murder of their own commander-in-chief?  It seems quite possible that it would, but I know of little or no direct evidence to convict them.  Compare the scant evidence against the military to the trainload of evidence against David Atlee Phillips and several other members of the CIA.

Perhaps I harp on this too much, but in the weeks leading up to his assassination, member(s) of JFK’s own administration predicted that if a coup d'état occurred in the U.S., it would come from the CIA and not the Pentagon.

 

[Paul Brancato]

For me it’s not an either/or situation. General Lansdale was also CIA. They are intertwined. 

[Jim Hargrove]

10 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

For me it’s not an either/or situation. General Lansdale was also CIA. They are intertwined. 

I couldn't agree more!!!  In his 11/2/63 Washington Daily News story that prompted Kroch’s outrage, Richard Starnes wrote, 

An American field officer with a distinguished combat career speaks angrily about "that man at headquarters in Saigon wearing a colonel's uniform." He means the man is a CIA agent, and he can't understand what he is doing at U.S. military headquarters here, unless it is spying on other Americans.

Another American officer, talking about the CIA, acidly commented: "You'd think they'd have learned something from Cuba but apparently they didn't."

They were ALL intertwined!!!