Creating the Oswald Legend Part 5

[Larry Hancock]

Weisberg obtained the original FBI memo on this, which Matthew Smith came across and followed up on during several years of interviews and contacts with January.  It was during those contacts that Smith developed the story of the larger transport aircraft incident flown out of Dallas on November 22 that he and then I followed up on separately.  Certainly I can say in regard to that, every piece of information from January in regard to the transport aircraft checked out and was verifiable. 

Specifically in regard to the couple trying to rent the smaller aircraft, here is a bit more detail - it should be noted that January told Smith that he had tried to focus the FBI on the young couple but that all they appeared to be really interested in was whether he had himself been associated with Jack Ruby. Matthew Smith's discussions with January also turned up the point that the FBI report from his interview was quite inaccurate on a key point as far as January was concerned:

Matthew Smith's "JFK: The Second Plot" contains the following FBI memo
which Harold Weisberg obtained under the FOIA:

"The following interview was conducted by SA's KENNETH B.JACKSON and
JOHN V.ALMON on November 29, 1963:

AT DALLAS,TEXAS

WAYNE JANUARY, owner, American Aviation Company, Room 101, Terminal
Building, Red Bird Airport, Dallas, Texas, advised that from February
through April, 1963, he, together with several friends, on occasion
frequented the Carousel Club, Dallas, Texas, which he understands is
owned by one JACK RUBY.

JANUARY stated that during February, 1963, he received an anonymous
telephone call from a man who offered him the sum of $5,000.00 to fly
to Laredo, Texas, and back with no questions asked. JANUARY said that
he surmised that this individual planned to transport narcotics to
Dallas and for this reason he declined the offer. JANUARY further
stated that during March, 1963, he received a second anonymous
telephone call from a man who wanted him to fly $12,000,000.00 worth
of gold dust to Mexico City where he was to pick up the currency and
return with it to Dallas. He stated that this individual offered him
$400,000.00 to make this flight which he also declined.

JANUARY stated that during the latter part of July, 1963, a man and a
woman whom he had never seen before contacted him at his office at
which time they inquired about chartering a plane for a trip to "Old
Mexico". JANUARY stated that when he asked this man questions
essential to such a flight he was definitely evasive in his answers.
JANUARY explained that this individual did not appear to know exactly
where he desired to go in Mexico but said something about the West
Coast. Furthermore, he did not appear to know when he desired to
return or or exactly how many passengers could be expected on the
flight. JANUARY said that this man, after stating that he did not wish
to make the flight for a couple of months, stated that he would
consider the information which JANUARY had given him and let him know
at a later date. He said that when the couple left he observed a third
man who had been waiting in their automobile during the entire
conversation, and after observing a photograph of LEE HARVEY OSWALD on
television it now seems to him that this man somewhat resembled OSWALD
although he was not definitely sure in this respect. JANUARY was
unable to offer any additional information which might be of
assistance in identifying the man and woman who inquired about the
flight to Mexico. He said that they did not appear to him to be
persons of sufficient financial means to charter a trip such as the
one discussed.

JANUARY reiterated the fact that the man, accompanied by the
unidentified woman, who made inquiries concerning a chartered flight
to Mexico, was not LEE HARVEY OSWALD and said that he has no records
or any other method of identifying the persons who contacted him
during the latter part of July, 1963.

JANUARY further commented that he never visited the Carousel Club when
he did not observe several plainclothes officers, and when a friend of
his attempted to date one of the performers, KATHY KAY, she informed
this friend that she had to go with another man, whom she identified
as a plainclothes officer.

JANUARY concluded with the opinion that JACK RUBY was not the type of
individual who would have killed, or attempted to kill, anyone charged
with the assassination of the President. He said that he does not
think that RUBY would care that much, even about his own mother."

Wayne January had never seen this memo until Matthew Smith showed it
to him and "was amazed when this author (Smith) told him the FBI
stated he had said his visitors, including Oswald, had called several
MONTHS before the assassination, instead of two days before." January
said, "How would I have been able to remember the face to compare with
the pictures of Oswald I saw on television for that long? It was the
Wednesday before the assassination"

Smith also says, "As opposed to the uncertain identification stated in
the report, January told this author his identification of Oswald was
so strong he would give it nine out of ten."
 

[James DiEugenio]

That is what I thought.  

Bugliosi quotes the FBI report as if it were accurate.  Never asking the question of how the guy could remember someone's face from four months prior.

[Richard Booth]

On 9/21/2020 at 11:04 AM, James DiEugenio said:

Yes, because from everything I have read, Szulc's information is false.

Hunt was not temporary chief of station in Mexico City.  No one has seen an document that says that since the ARRB began declassifying.

Which makes one wonder: who told Szulc that?

IMO, no one who studies this case should ever forget what I think are two of the most important sentences ever uttered in the literature:  "A mansion has many rooms.  I was not privy to who struck John."

I will never forget reading that for the first time.

According to Szulc his sources were "CIA employees" and he refused to name them citing journalistic privilege. I agree with you that Hunt was not temporary chief of station, to me that whole thing reeks of intentional misdirection. We have ONE source, whose unnamed source is CIA agents, and zero supporting documentation. Besides that, does it even fit? Why would the CIA make an operations guy like Hunt chief of station? If they needed a temporary chief of station would the CIA not just appoint someone to that job who actually already works in Mexico City, someone who worked with Win Scott? THAT is what they would do. 

Regarding the Angleton quote I think Angleton was saying quite literally "I don't know who pulled the trigger, that information is comparmentalized and I don't know that part."

My personal belief is that Angleton was a key figure in the conspiracy, one of the leading key figures.  

[Rob Couteau]

I read Matthew Smith's "JFK: The Second Plot" when it first came out and always thought it was a good piece of work.

[James DiEugenio]

The thing about what Angleton said is that it corresponds with what Trento said about the memo he saw.

Whether the memo is real or not is beside the point.  Also Gordon Novel said the same thing about Angleton, that it was a way for him to signal to the others that he was not taking the rap himself.

I never read that book Rob, but I guess Matt did a nice job on Redbird AIrport.

 

 

Edited September 23, 2020 by James DiEugenio

[Richard Booth]

11 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

The thing about what Angleton said is that it corresponds with what Trento said about the memo he saw.

Whether the memo is real or not is beside the point.  Also Gordon Novel said the same thing about Angleton, that it was a way for him to signal to the others that he was taking the rap himself.

I never read that book Rob, but I guess Matt did a nice job on Redbird AIrport.

 

 

I don't know enough about the memo that Trento said he saw, all I remember about that is that what Trento said he saw said it would implicate Hunt in a limited hang-out.

@Jim: You should talk about this on BOR. Go over the Trento memo and then go over Angleton's quote and how it's related.

Also may be worth mentioning that Tad Szulc allegation and how it's the ONLY source for the allegation of Hunt in Mexico City in August/Sep/Oct, and how Szulc's sources are unnamed CIA officials... Talk about how the Szulc allegation could possibly have been designed to implicate Hunt (which it certainly did) and reasons why. 

This would make a good bit for discussion on the show.

[James DiEugenio]

OK, Richard.  You got it.

[Richard Booth]

12 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

OK, Richard.  You got it.

I refreshed my memory of it -- covered succinctly in Destiny Betrayed.

However, would make a good bit to talk about, perhaps in a discussion about Angleton in general. There is so much about him worth talking about. 

[James DiEugenio]

This part is also fascinating and I think, in large part, owes to Larry Hancock, and perhaps Summers and his Vanity Fair article.

It might be how the idea of killing JFK and causing an invasion of Cuba began.

"In the fall of 1963, President Kennedy had established back channel communications with Castro through journalist Lisa Howard and William Attwood, in order to open a secret dialogue with the Cuban leader. Kennedy used a second back channel, the French journalist Jean Daniel introduced to Kennedy by Attwood. When the CIA learned of these back channels, some officers felt Kennedy had excluded them from his decisions and that he was betraying their efforts and work. The word was passed down in Miami that Kennedy was preparing to begin talks with Castro. One of the first CIA officers who would have learned about it was James Angleton, who would have been alarmed. Angleton likely would have alerted CIA officers like Dave Morales and David Phillips, who would have spread the rumor in the exile community.

Gaeton Fonzi interviewed Cuban exile Rolando Otero, who told him that there was a rumor circulating in certain areas of the exile community that “Kennedy was a Communist, he’s against us; he’s messing up the whole cause.”[1] Another exile, Felipe Vidal Santiago, had made similar remarks when interrogated by Cuban Intelligence, according to Fabian Escalante, Chief of Cuba’s G-2.[2] Escalante had also revealed that Cuban Intelligence had infiltrated a CIA connected exile group and a CIA officer had said to them in a secret meeting that took place in a safe house that “You must eliminate Kennedy.”[3]

There is no way that foot soldiers like Santiago and Otero would have known about this sensitive information, originally known only to Kennedy, Castro, their confidants, and, perhaps, Dick Helms. Larry Hancock believes that they learned it from exiles like John Martino and Bernardo De Torres who had links to the CIA officers and their operations."

[Larry Hancock]

More detail on this upcoming shortly,  with separate tracks down from Washington to Miami (to SAS and JMWAVE personnel) with the JFK backchannel news - and then with the word going two directions from Morales. One direction to very select JMWAVE maritime operations personnel via Robertson, and another going sideways though Martino to Vidal and his associates. 

Always important to remember that standard practice in CIA political assassination was to use deniable surrogates - as in "yes we knew them but they did it on their own initiative, we didn't order them to do it".

Check my most recent blog post for a progress report.....

 

[Richard Booth]

48 minutes ago, Larry Hancock said:

More detail on this upcoming shortly,  with separate tracks down from Washington to Miami (to SAS and JMWAVE personnel) with the JFK backchannel news - and then with the word going two directions from Morales. One direction to very select JMWAVE maritime operations personnel via Robertson, and another going sideways though Martino to Vidal and his associates. 

Always important to remember that standard practice in CIA political assassination was to use deniable surrogates - as in "yes we knew them but they did it on their own initiative, we didn't order them to do it".

Check my most recent blog post for a progress report.....

 

Very excited about this:

https://larryhancock.wordpress.com/2020/09/21/tipping-point/

Tipping Point / The conspiracy which murdered President John Kennedy

Introduction

            Reality Check

            Dissension

            The Back Door

The Cuban Backstory

Revolutionary Cuba 1958-1960

The CIA Cuba Project 1960-1961

Covert Action Against Cuba 1961-62

Anti-Castro Activism 1961-1962

Helter Skelter – 1963

Enter Lee Oswald

            Walking a Tightrope

            Oswald’s Uses

People in Motion – Fall 1963

Context for Conspiracy

            They Talked

            A Witches Brew

            Tipping Point

Trickle Down

            Oswald in Play

            A Useful Idiot

The Conspiracy

            Assets

Tactics and Tools

            Jack Ruby

            Harry Olson?

            J.D. Tippit?

            A Visible Conspiracy

            The Castro Linkage

Final Words

Citations and Commentary

 

 

[James DiEugenio]

In the upcoming Section 6, there will be a part of Richard Case Nagell also.

Therefore both the stars of SWHT are in VV's series.

[Rob Couteau]

Just finished reading all five parts - what a great piece of work. Looking forward to part six.

 

[James DiEugenio]

Thanks Rob.  VV is working on Part VI now.

I cannot thank Malcolm Blunt enough.

He is the one who found all that stuff by Betsy Wolf and discovered Hunt in the SR division in 1962

ANd he also says NSA stuff is missing, and Slawson had personal papers that he cannot find.