Book Review - Michele Metta's book about CMC

[Rob Couteau]

4 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

It did not happen for the simple reason that Shaw and Ferrie did not know about the CORE voter drive going on in Clinton;  therefore about 40-50 people saw the trio and the Cadillac.

Fascinating. That answers a lot of questions. Thank you. I knew that they wanted to portray O as a psycho in that ward, but I never understood the voting registration thing, or why they had O stand in line.

And a great chart by Robert Wheeler. Who would have ever thought that Kerry and Ruth Paine had that kind of connection?!?

Edited March 2, 2019 by Rob Couteau

[John Kowalski]

13 hours ago, Rob Couteau said:

How does the whole Permindex angle alter or deepen or clarify the Oswald-Shaw relationship?

 

 

Rob:

Permindex / CMC does nothing to clarify the Shaw - Oswald relationship. The only thing that it does do is confirm that Shaw was a CIA asset and that he was doing work other than being a domestic informant reporting to the CIA on things he observed while traveling to foreign countries.  It also confirms that Shaw was working for a company that had connections to people in Italy who were far right and violent,  and who probably would have supported Kennedy's assassination. But there is no direct connection between Oswald and Permindex / CMC and Shaw's later involvement with Oswald in Clinton has no direct connection to his work for Permindex / CMC.

[James DiEugenio]

I disagree with John on that. Probably because I know more about Shaw than most people here.  The whole take on Shaw in the anti Garrison sixties was that he was really Mr.Clean.  And Garrison was up a tree.  This was the MSM angle.  It was adapted by some in the research community who became violently anti Garrison. I named some of them above.

But as time has gone on, one now sees that this was not the case.  Shaw really was  what some, including Garrison, thought he was:  a deep cover CIA agent from at least the fifties.  As Regis Kennedy said, part of this service he did in Italy for about five years. This was his CMC/Permindex association.  Then there was his covert security approval, which we also know about now, and Marchetti thought was for Tracy Barnes' DOD operations  And then there was that document that Joan Mellen got which says he was a highly valued, well paid contract agent from the fifties.  Finally we have that really important memo from a member of the ARRB which states that the CIA destroyed Shaw's 201 file.

I mean how much more indication does one need that there was an internal cover up about who Shaw really was?  This coincides with what Gordon Novel once wrote to the late Mary Ferrell: that the internal cover up about Shaw began in 1964, ordered by Howard Osborne at the Office of Security.

That appears to be true from this other evidence.  And when you encounter something like that then one meets up with the whole consciousness of guilt syndrome.  I mean why begin the cover up about Shaw in the first place?  And we also know through Mellen that the FBI covered up the  Clinton/Jackson incident.

Once one understands this, then what happened to Garrison, and the people used to attack him--Sheridan, Phelan, Aynesworth--makes perfect sense.

Edited March 2, 2019 by James DiEugenio

[John Kowalski]

I agree that there was a cover-up about Shaw. He was a CIA asset and he was seen in Clinton with Oswald and Ferrie. However, there is nothing in the work that Shaw did with Permindex/CMC that directly connects him to Oswald. When he was acting as a CIA asset on CMC's board of directors, he was doing work for the CIA that most likely had to do with containing leftist aspiration in Italy and had nothing to with Oswald. Later on, when he was seen in Clinton with Oswald and Ferrie, he was again acting as a CIA asset, and this time he is connected to Oswald. Doing research on Permindex/CMC and reading Metta's book will not provide any new insights into Shaw's connection to Oswald.

[James DiEugenio]

John, in fairness to Mr. Metta, I think it should noted that he does proffer the whole Hemming, Trujillo episode as his background to a plot to kill Kennedy.  And Metta does trace some ties in funding a plot to  CMC. (pp. 49-51)  William Turner previously talked about the funds that Banister sent to Permindex for an attack on DeGaulle through Maurice Gatlin.

And Metta does place some ties between what Hemming called a French team, and the OAS and Soutre. And the Houma raid that Banister, Ferrie and Novel were part of and that Garrison talks about in his book, that was a tie in between the CIA and the OAS. (Garrison, p. 40)

Should also add that Nagy had a home in Dallas at the time, and Shaw was in New Orleans.

Whether or not one agrees with this, or buys Hemming, that is another matter.  But they are in the book.

I think Metta's book is quite interesting.  I wish it was better written and organized, and it really does need an index, but its really a fascinating read for the wide web of international intrigue that he draws.

 

 

Edited March 2, 2019 by James DiEugenio

[John Kowalski]

17 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

John, in fairness to Mr. Metta, I think it should noted that he does proffer the whole Hemming, Trujillo episode as his background to a plot to kill Kennedy.  And Metta does trace some ties in funding a plot to  CMC. (pp. 49-51)  William Turner previously talked about the funds that Banister sent to Permindex for an attack on DeGaulle through Maurice Gatlin.

And Metta does place some ties between what Hemming called a French team, and the OAS and Soutre. And the Houma raid that Banister, Ferrie and Novel were part of and that Garrison talks about in his book, that was a tie in between the CIA and the OAS. (Garrison, p. 40)

Should also add that Nagy had a home in Dallas at the time, and Shaw was in New Orleans.

Whether or not one agrees with this, or buys Hemming, that is another matter.  But they are in the book.

I think Metta's book is quite interesting.  I wish it was better written and organized, and it really does need an index, but its really a fascinating read for the wide web of international intrigue that he draws. 

 

 

Jim: my problem with Metta's book is that while he does show that there are many connections between this company and the far right he does not provide details as to how it carried out the plots he alleges it to be involved in. An example is the funding of the assassination, he did not show how Permindex transferred funds to the assassins.

We will have to agree to disagree about Permindex's and CMC's role in Kennedy's assassination or other terrorist events.

[John Kozlowski]

On 3/2/2019 at 1:35 AM, James DiEugenio said:

Let me reply to both:

The ARRB released so much stuff about Clay Shaw that Fred Litwin had to do a nauseating cover up about the guy. 

You can read it here  https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/jim-garrison-vs-fred-litwin-the-beat-goes-on-part-2

Litwin and Tommy Graves reply well, that is only a review of one chapter of the book.  My answer: if you make that many mistakes and that many misrepresentations in 17 pages, what is the point in reading the rest?

Its pretty obvious to anyone who gives two hoots that Garrison was correct about Shaw being a deep cover agent in New Orleans.  Shaw did CIA work for Permindex, he had a covert security clearance, and they then destroyed his 201 file.  And we have that in the ARRB's own words.  Don't hold your breath for Hoch, Scott or Thompson or Summers to apologize. They will not under any circumstances. To this day they think they are correct, which tells you a lot about this case.

These declassified files are the link between Shaw and Oswald.  One source in the 80's said in an interview that the intel apparatus for New Orleans was made up of Shaw, Banister, and ONI reserve officer Guy Johnson. My view of the Clinton/ Jackson incident is similar to what Bill Davy makes of it, and also Garrison.  I think the end game was to get Oswald's files into that hospital, in the employee department, and then switch them to the patient department on the eve of the assassination. Presto! Oswald really was a sociopath.  And Oswald even knew a couple of doctors who worked there! One was a pal of Sergio Arcacha Smith.

It did not happen for the simple reason that Shaw and Ferrie did not know about the CORE voter drive going on in Clinton;  therefore about 40-50 people saw the trio and the Cadillac.

As per fleeing from Italy, yes that is accurate to my knowledge. The same thing happened eventually in Italy as happened previously in Switzerland.  Permindex was what Jim Garrison thought it was. A thinly disguised shell company for intel uses, and the investment purposes of very very wealthy people, Bilderberger types.

Litwin covered that up also. He looks like a clown with what Maurice Phillips, Kowlalski and Metta have now got on the record.  Let me take that back, I might be insulting the clown union by writing that.

 

PS: that is a very interesting chart by Mr Wheeler. One which everyone should take a look at. As with Permindex, there is a level of involvement in this case that goes above the CIA.

Considering there was the voter drive, why don't you think that they just didnt go back another day? Why risk being seen by so many people? I've never understood that part of it.

[James DiEugenio]

Because they contacted the people who told them how to get into the hospital.

That would be McGehee, Morgan, and Palmer the registrar, and also the Sheriff, Manchester.  Those were the witnesses that saw Oswald and Manchester, Palmer and, to a lesser extent, Morgan saw Shaw.  Then the people inside the hospital like Dedon saw Oswald. So they went ahead with it anyway.

BTW, the above are the people Garrison produced at trial.  I believe he only used one CORE worker.

And they had already talked to McGehee and Morgan before they got to the registration drive.  Plus with Morgan, his two kids saw Oswald too.  Really good witnesses, Mary and Van.  I talked to both of them, in addition to Morgan and McGehee. And McGehee's daughter was also good.  Once when I went to see him, he was ill, but she came out and talked with me for about an hour.  We were sitting at an outdoor restaurant, and some guy walked by, and she  said pointing to me, "He wants to talk about Oswald being up here."  and the guy replied, "Oh yep he was."

Everyone knows it happened up there.  Its like a common history everyone carries around from their parents to their sons and daughters. You  have to go there to understand it.  Bugliosi did not.  I still don't think he went anywhere.  Which is amazing.  Twenty years, a million bucks, and you never leave your office?

Edited March 4, 2019 by James DiEugenio

[Rob Couteau]

Just now, James DiEugenio said:

Everyone knows it happened up there.  Its like a common history everyone carries around from their parents to their sons and daughters.

Thanks for sharing this, it fleshes the story out really well. And fleshes out Bugliosi's motivations to avoid truth at any cost.

 

[James DiEugenio]

Thanks Rob.

In my view its a crucial piece of evidence.