Jean Rene Souetre expelled from the US 18hrs after JFKA?!

[Leslie Sharp]

3 hours ago, Roger Odisio said:

There is also the memo on the ZRRifle project from Helms, I think, posted here a while back, in which the CIA expresses a preference for foreign assassins "for operational security reasons".  Fly them in, do the job, and send them back to their safe haven.  Beats having to kill them later, like that messy Oswald deal. 

If I could interject, there is also the power of loyalty to consider and the hold it had over fellow paramilitary operatives.  Skorzeny depended on those he knew he could trust, and in exchange, they knew he would "leave no man behind" in Dallas. He was a "military soldier" to his core and extraction was a particular skill he had obviously honed. It's clear from the Lafitte datebook that escaping Dallas was part and parcel of the Skorzeny plan.  Likewise, those who Lafitte reveals as belonging to the Willoughby team — Canon, Askins, likely Johnson — had served under him in Korea, or knew him during the early '60s and developed symbiotic trust.

[Paul Brancato]

Leslie - could you say more about Willoughby’s team? What do we know about them?

[Leslie Sharp]

8 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

I can understand why Skorzeny’s participation is a stretch, and also whether Pierre Lafitte’s notes are proof. But what is not in doubt is the collusion of our post war National security apparatus with the German and Eastern European remnants of the third Reich. We know much more now than Mae Brussell did then, and it only gets worse the more you look. The standard line defending this is of course the necessity of fighting Communism. If it was just German rocket scientists that were enlisted by the US I might buy this explanation, but it’s way deeper than that. A friend who has dug down into available documents told me that some 50,000 of these war criminals thugs were brought here, using various rat lines. Skorzeny was certainly active in this effort, and he was released by the Army CIC and protected in Madrid, where he operated with impunity. Arnold Silver, one of his interrogators who later joined the CIA and became station chief in Luxembourg, recommended Skorzeny’s release, saying he judged him a patriot, not a Natzi. Silver worked closely with William Harvey in many areas including the QJWIN project. JFK made clear his intention to weaken the hold that our military had on the ship of state when he lobbied for joint US-Russia space exploration. Can you imagine the response of NASA rocket scientists? Of the Joint Chiefs? 

You're probably aware that D.C. attorney Dan Alcorn has been in pursuit of QJ/WIN files for years.  He has granted permission to add his efforts to our list.  Interestingly, he has also battled for Byrd and von Alvenselben documents, arguing that von A was a trained assassin or sniper, I forget his precise designation at the moment.  Because we can track von Alvenselben to Victor Oswald, global arms dealer in Madrid and close friend and business associate of Skorzeny, it's possible we will eventually arrive at a convergence.  A relevant area of inquiry at the moment is Richard Thomas Gibson in Tangier.

[Leslie Sharp]

2 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

Leslie - could you say more about Willoughby’s team? What do we know about them?

I'll begin with Dick Russell's observation about Cactus Jack Cannon who served under Willoughby in Korea and after.  Dick writes,

 Albarelli’s book also adds corroboration to my own work as an investigative journalist, including knowledge imparted to me by double agent Richard Case Nagell. While Nagell is not named in the datebook, it provides substantiation for his stressing Mexico City’s Hotel Luma as a planning site and offers up the name of a Willoughby associate (Jack Canon) who Nagell had hinted was among several shooters in Dealey Plaza.

[Leslie Sharp]

5 minutes ago, Leslie Sharp said:

I'll begin with Dick Russell's observation about Cactus Jack Cannon who served under Willoughby in Korea and after.  Dick writes,

 Albarelli’s book also adds corroboration to my own work as an investigative journalist, including knowledge imparted to me by double agent Richard Case Nagell. While Nagell is not named in the datebook, it provides substantiation for his stressing Mexico City’s Hotel Luma as a planning site and offers up the name of a Willoughby associate (Jack Canon) who Nagell had hinted was among several shooters in Dealey Plaza.

With kudos to and deep respect for Robert Montenegro, who in my opinion should be reinstate on the JFK Ed Forum, the following research is invaluable to grasping the symbiosis Willoughby and Walker brought to the Dallas plot.

The Joint Advisory Commission, Korea  included US military intelligence officers Brig. Gen. Edwin Anderson Walker, Hans V. Tofte, Lt. Col. Philip James Corso, Maj. Gen. Charles Andrew Willoughby, George E. Aurell, COL. Albert Richard Haney, Charles Tracy Barnes, Col. Joseph "Jack" Young Canon, William Alexander "Rip" Robertson, Nestor D. Sanchez, COL. Benjamin Hayes "Vandy" Vandervoort, all later suspecting of President Kennedy's murder.

Walker, Willoughby, Barnes, and Canon appear in Lafitte's records.

Regarding Robert Emmett Johnson — prime candidate for the sniper referred to by Lafitte and providing  an opportunity to speak to "leaderless resistance" which enforces our conclusion that the Dallas plot was conceived and executed outside structural protocol ... 

As we read in the next chapter, among the suspects that fell under command of Charles Willoughby in plans for Dallas was Robert Emmett Johnson. A skilled sniper, Johnson was also a fairly decent writer, and Ulius Amoss had brought him on board under the cover of “journalist.” 

Johnson’s Bosses Hiding in the Shadows

Ulius L. “Pete” Amoss had served as a division chief in Bill Donovan’s OSS, assigned to Greece and then Cairo, before he fell from Donovan’s graces for alleged “administrative improprieties.” According to a declassified document, during this period he “recruited, trained and launched numerous teams of assassins that carried out hits in North Africa, So. Europe, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal.” His skillset also included setting up gambling operations as fronts for spying. As noted, while in North Africa, he served with Col. Carleton Coon and William Eddy, both of whom feature in Chapters 1 and 2 of this book. . . .

Robert Emmett Johnson 

In the early ’60s, Robert Emmett Johnson, would-be journalist and skilled assassin, attested that he had been employed by Information Services International to support the agenda of dictator Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. ISI, founded and presided over by former OSS officer Ulius Amoss—dealt with extensively in the previous chapter, boasted as a trusted advisor, General Charles Willoughby. The day following the critical note, “O says done-- Oswald in place,” Pierre leaves a clue that the W. team included E. Johnson. 

W team  E. Johnson’s

(Itkin)

 

Said to be fiercely independent and opinionated, Johnson advised Special Agents of the FBI in Miami on September 19, 1961 that he had been employed as Foreign Affairs Analyst for Dominican Republic leader Generalissimo Trujillo, who had been assassinated in May of that spring. Johnson held the “analyst” position from 1956–1960. At the time of his visit from the FBI (9/61), Johnson stated he was then employed by ISI, which he described as “an independent intelligence-gathering organization” founded by Amoss, a former Chief of Staff in the US Air Force. On the ISI board of Trustees was Charles Willoughby.

[Leslie Sharp]

45 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

Leslie - could you say more about Willoughby’s team? What do we know about them?

Col. Charles “Boots” Askins, Jr.

Boots Askins was a storied gunman in Texas since the early 1930s, and had moved within far-right circles all his life. Author Jeffrey Caufield, in his study of the assassination of JFK, features a letter from Joseph Milteer (himself a racist and far right associate of Willoughby and Walker) to Charles Askins pertaining to a forthcoming meeting of one of the myriad clandestine organizations that the radical right was running during the ’60s, indicating very “hush-hush” stuff. 

            Born in October 1907, the son of a prominent hunter and writer, Askins Jr. followed in his father’s footprints and, according to legend, "left some marks deeper than his dad." Prior to enlisting in the US Army, Askins had served in the US Forest Service and Border Patrol in the American Southwest. 

            During WWII, he served as a battlefield recovery officer, making landings in North Africa, Italy, and D-day. Following the war, he was posted in Spain as an attaché to the American embassy, assisting Franco’s administration in rebuilding the arms and ammunition factories after the war. This is but one clue that Askins was well known to General Willoughby and through that connection, he knew fellow Texan “Cactus Jack” Canon. In his role at the embassy in Madrid, Askins undoubtedly encountered Johannes Bernhardt of SOFINDUS, Otto Skorzeny, and Victor Oswald, all of whom need no further introduction to our reader. As attaché, Askins would also have been familiar with US Embassy officials including CIA agent Al Ulmer, and fellow attaché Jere Wittington, Otto and Ilse’s close friend and minder. 

            After several years in Madrid, enjoying the company of his family and bird hunting in the Spanish countryside, Askins was sent to Vietnam to join the select number of Eisenhower “advisors” training South Vietnamese soldiers in shooting and paratrooping. During those years, the colonel managed to earn his airborne qualification with both countries, amassing 132 jumps before calling it quits. While posted on the Vietnamese front, Askins would have encountered Jack Canon and Lucien Conein, among a number of other legends in that ill-fated endeavor. — Coup in Dallas

Edited March 24, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Paul Brancato]

Leslie - that’s quite a list of American born possible assassins. Thanks. Now that my books are all out of storage I can do some more reading in Coup in Dallas.

[Ron Bulman]

6 hours ago, Roger Odisio said:

There is also the memo on the ZRRifle project from Helms, I think, posted here a while back, in which the CIA expresses a preference for foreign assassins "for operational security reasons".  Fly them in, do the job, and send them back to their safe haven.  Beats having to kill them later, like that messy Oswald deal. 

Roger, I think the memo you refer to from Helms is actually Bill Harveys notes.  I may well be mistaken but I think they are a released CIA document posted on here before.

[Ron Bulman]

3 hours ago, Leslie Sharp said:

I'll begin with Dick Russell's observation about Cactus Jack Cannon who served under Willoughby in Korea and after.  Dick writes,

 Albarelli’s book also adds corroboration to my own work as an investigative journalist, including knowledge imparted to me by double agent Richard Case Nagell. While Nagell is not named in the datebook, it provides substantiation for his stressing Mexico City’s Hotel Luma as a planning site and offers up the name of a Willoughby associate (Jack Canon) who Nagell had hinted was among several shooters in Dealey Plaza.

Dad Gummitt.  Not to detract from the thread but Cactus Jack made me think of JFK calling former Roosevelt VP John Nance, Catus Jack Garner the morning of 11/22/63 before he left Fort Worth to wish him a happy Birthday.  

Cactus Jack drinks coffee black stuck on my mind in rewind at the moment.  Maybe sharing it will free me, though it's a refreshing memory.

TSHA | Garner, John Nance (tshaonline.org)

 

[Leslie Sharp]

1 hour ago, Ron Bulman said:

Dad Gummitt.  Not to detract from the thread but Cactus Jack made me think of JFK calling former Roosevelt VP John Nance, Catus Jack Garner the morning of 11/22/63 before he left Fort Worth to wish him a happy Birthday.  

Cactus Jack drinks coffee black stuck on my mind in rewind at the moment.  Maybe sharing it will free me, though it's a refreshing memory.

TSHA | Garner, John Nance (tshaonline.org)

 

5 o'clock in tha Texas mornin', it's been-a long long w-a-a-y.  He was the best! Think I saw him at Willy's picnic one year.

I can't believe the high strangeness of the "Cactus Jack" coincidence. Thank you for sharing this!

[Leslie Sharp]

13 hours ago, Evan Marshall said:

Blame it on the National Socialist's and the French? Why the continued cover up if the CIA and Fed Govt skirts are clean?

Is symbiosis on an international scale out of the question?

[Leslie Sharp]

On 3/3/2023 at 7:59 AM, Steve Thomas said:

Here are the notes I have with respect to the idea that Jean-Rene Souetre me with American authorities both in Madrid in the April-May, 1963 timeframe, and in Lisbon, Portugal in May, 1963. In Lisbon, I think he met with the American Ambassador, Admiral George Whelan Anderson, Jr,

With respect to Madrid:

A Pssible French Connection

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=6060#relPageId=15&search=%22howard_hunt%22+AND+SPAIN

pp, 15-16

Footnote number 19 in A Possible French Connection:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=6060&search=%22howard_hunt%22+AND+SPAIN#relPageId=44&tab=page

 

Footnote# 19 Page 44

^19. Aux Ordres du SAC, by Gilbert Lecavlier, 1982

(In the orders of, or under the orders of SAC)

 

Forum member Chuck Scwartz wrote in this thread on page 1:

https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/22775-jean-rene-souetre-aka-robin-hood/

“Dick Russell wrote in "The Man Who Knew Too Much":

• OAS had contact in New Orleans with anti-Castro group

• In March-April 1963, Souetre met with Howard Hunt (of Watergate and Bay of Pigs infamy) in Madrid.”.

I was looking at William Reymond’s FK, autopsie d'un crime d'Etat., and in his Endnotes, he wrote that he wanted to give special thanks to Gilbert Lecavalier for all his help in preparing the sections on Souerte and Mertz, etc.

 

SUMMARY OF PARIS TRIP - NOVEMBER 13-22, 1982

Fensterwald Sunnary of Paris Trip, 1982

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/S%20Disk/Souetre%20Jean%20with%20aka%27s/Item%2011.pdf

 

Page 3

Both ____ and Le Cavelier suggested that a current visit to see Souetre
in Divonne Les Bains would be (1) dangerous; (2) unproductive (he won't talk);
and (3) probably counterproductive. We did not visit Souetre

 

Page 4

On Saturday, November 20, we had a meeting with Jean Claude Perez, M.D., ex-chief of O.R.O., the OAS intelligence organization. Dr. Perez was extremely cautious of us (including Le Cavelier), had a tendency to lapse into OAS dialetics and old war stories, but did let slip a few pertinent items:

 

5. The OAS made a real effort to help via right wing U.S. Ambassador to Portugal, Admiral George Whelan Anderson, Jr.. They though Anderson would understand "de Gaulle's true nature, i.e., pro-communism"; even Anderson could not swallow this;

 

Pages 4-5

Attached as Appendix C is Dr. Farrell's summary of our conversation with Perez.

We had a number of long private conversations with Le Cavelier, and the investigation in France will continue full steam.

 

Appendix C Dr. Farrell's summary of our conversation with Perez.

Page 22

Q: Did you know of any O.A.S. members training Anti castro gerrillas
there?
A: No.
Gilbert Lecalevier breaks in, tells him that, yes there were some.

 

Page 23

Q: Does the name Espaillot mean anything to you?
A: Not a thing.
Q: How about Bannister?
A: Hmmmmm. Seems to me I once met a Bannister, tall, older,said to be a former F.B.I. man. Met him in Madrid.
Q: What was his relation to the O.A.S.?
A: Just met him. You must not assume from meeting that contactand support were the same thing. I see here in your realm; that you claim we were financed by Nagy on account of a meeting. False.We were constantly meeting with people in an attempt to recruit support. It was rarely forthcoming. We tried, for example, through the goddaughter of the commander of Spanish-based American Forces, William Donovaz5to make contact with the U.S.

Q: The Donovan, commander of the wartime O.S.S.? That one?
A: Yes. We also tried to make indirect contacts through friends and acquaintances with Admiral Anderson (was that the name?) the U.,5.ambassador. We could never make contact. Some of these high-ranking military men ware noted for right-wing positions. We thought we would get a sympathetic hearing. We could never get an interview. “

 

I got to wondering how much of the information we have on Souetre has come from Lecavalier. Lecavalier was SAC. SAC and the OAS hated each other. He wrote in his book that "whereas the main effort of SAC between 1958 and 1960 was against the FLN (the pro-independence Algerian rebels), between 1961 and 1967, it was against the OAS"

 

Concerning the meeting in Lisbon, Portugal:

On Page 8 of this thread,

https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/27759-jean-rene-souetre-expelled-from-the-us-18hrs-after-jfka/page/8/

I included a memo from the Deputy Director of Plans to the

Deputy Director for Coordination

Bureau of Intelligence and Research

Department of State

In 1963, the Deputy Director of Plans for the CIA was Richard Helms

In that memo, Helms summarizes the meeting in Lisbon, Portugal between Jean-Rene Souetre and Captain Gueria. I believe that Helms was actually referring to Yves Guerin-Serac.

 

The last line in that memo reads:

On page 9 of this Forum thread, I included the memo of June 25^th .

https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/27759-jean-rene-souetre-expelled-from-the-us-18hrs-after-jfka/page/9/

FBI - HSCA Subject File: Jean Souetre

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=83405#relPageId=1

Document# 11

Look at the Report number in the top right hand corner of this June 25^th Report

 

There was something else in that memo from Helms to the Department of State that caught my eye:

 

FBI - HSCA Subject File: Jean Souetre

https://www.maryferrell.org/php/showlist.php?docset=1434

Document# 7

Notice the date  (Had the CIA decided to use him after all? And was this why the CIA told the FBI and French Intelligence to stop all investigations of Jean-Rene Souetre?)

 

Fensterwald Sunnary of Paris Trip, 1982

http://jfk.hood.edu/Collection/Weisberg%20Subject%20Index%20Files/S%20Disk/Souetre%20Jean%20with%20aka%27s/Item%2011.pdf

 

Page 18

APPENDix B
DRAFT OF ARTICLE ON L'AFFAIRE KENNEDY
The French Government is repressing records that might well solve the Affaire Kennedy. Equally interesting, it appears to be hiding the documents at the behest of the American CIA, which has blunted all investigations – official and otherwise -- for the past nineteen years.

“The American investigation ended a few days later; as suddenly as it began -- and without reaching any conclusions.”

 

Was the CIA using Souetre as an asset, that is why his records have not been released all these years?

Steve Thomas

 

Steve, do you know much about the split within the OAS?  and Gen. Salan?

 

[Paul Brancato]

Steve - I think that is a good question - was CIA using him as an asset? 

Edited March 27, 2023 by Paul Brancato

[Leslie Sharp]

@Steve ThomasWas the CIA using Souetre as an asset, that is why his records have not been released all these years?

Similarly, were his files withheld or destroyed because in fact he was in Dallas at the behest of Otto Skorzeny as revealed in the records of project manager Pierre Lafitte?  Would there be an international scandal if a French soldier, known to have participated in at least one attempt on deGaulle's life, and acting under direction of a N-azi SS commando, have arrived in Dallas for the purpose of assassinating the US president?   

 

The persistent focus on "THE" CIA has stalled the investigation long enough.  Dulles, Angleton, Harvey, Barnes, used their credentials to run Lancelot Project off the shelf, and aligned with "former" N-azis who in fact had for over a decade been in pursuit of reviving the Reich, plotted to remove a democratically elected president while he was in Dallas.

Edited March 27, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

According to the Lafitte records, Souetre was brought on board by Otto Skorzeny.  

We're considering the strong possibility of an overlap with George Joannides, via ZRRifle, and Jean Souetre via QJ/WIN. If so, we have further evidence to support the argument that this was an international operation and that Skorzeny was not a simple "tactician" working for THE C.I.A.

If elements of the OAS which had not yet been fully disbanded were involved, and if de Gaulle had gotten wind of the plan and did nothing to interfere, we're looking at a decades-long major rift in US-French relations with reverberations across Europe and NATO. Is this why the Souetre/INS files remain under lock and key? Is there correlation with the Joannides files?

Further, we now have several candidates — including a QJ/WIN operative within the highest echelon of INTERPOL — who could have affected a furlough for Hungarians Marton and Varga in order for them to travel with Souetre, all the way down to DFS Mexico City.  The vehement resistance to Hank's investigation by some — including active members on Ed Forum — is perplexing to say the least.

Edited April 12, 2023 by Leslie Sharp