The CIA hides George Joannides

[Gerry Down]

Jeff Morleys research in recent years has unearthed documents showing that George Joannides had a house in New Orleans in the summer of 1963. The following CIA document however lists the CIA officers that were in New Orleans in 1963 and Joannides name is not among them. Can we infer from this that there was something specific about Joannides in New Orleans in the summer of 1963 that the CIA wanted to hide?

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10013-10348.pdf

Or is this document only dealing specifically with CIA officers that were in New Orleans in late 1963, and so by compiling a list in this manner the CIA may have avoided listing other CIA officers that were there in the summer of 1963 which they didn't want being publicly known. 

[Larry Hancock]

I'd go with B.....the CIA needed to obfuscate all its activities around New Orleans in the summer...including reports coming from the DRE and memorandum of meetings with DRE leadership that Jeff also documents.  

[Tom Gram]

4 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

Jeff Morleys research in recent years has unearthed documents showing that George Joannides had a house in New Orleans in the summer of 1963. The following CIA document however lists the CIA officers that were in New Orleans in 1963 and Joannides name is not among them. Can we infer from this that there was something specific about Joannides in New Orleans in the summer of 1963 that the CIA wanted to hide?

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10013-10348.pdf

Or is this document only dealing specifically with CIA officers that were in New Orleans in late 1963, and so by compiling a list in this manner the CIA may have avoided listing other CIA officers that were there in the summer of 1963 which they didn't want being publicly known. 

I’ve seen that document and remember trying to track down an unredacted version to find out what William Kent’s office cover was. As far as I know it is still redacted as of 2022. 

I bet you are right about Joannides. I wonder if the reason they didn’t want to acknowledge that the DRE case officer was in New Orleans in the Summer of ‘63 is because Carlos Bringuier was the only DRE delegate in the area at that time. 

Bringuier is quite the enigma. He was a propaganda officer for the CRC, heavily involved in CRC military activities via Mongoose, then all of a sudden claims a split with Arcacha (who he was living literally next door to), becomes DRE delegate in the Summer of ‘62 at the exact same time the CIA gets the FBI to stop all further investigation of the CRC through the Justice Department, and (allegedly) moves apartments away from Arcacha. Almost immediately after Bringuier’s move, the whole FRD/FDC Bannister thing pops up with Arcacha, William Dalzell and Co. in the Balter Building and then 544 Camp St. 

The timing is curious, since based on Bringuier’s previous activities he would have almost certainly been right in the thick of Bannister’s operation had he not transferred to the DRE. 

[Larry Hancock]

Its also interesting that one of Bringuier's associates, Carlos Quiroga, had been suspected of being a Castro agent by the CIA,  was cleared and then considered as a CIA employee.  Of course Quiroga was the fellow sent to "test" Oswald but we only have his and Bringuiers word for that and it appears that rather than testing Oswald he might well have been carrying a stack of FPCC leaflets to Oswald for his later leafletting.  Would be really interesting if those had the Camp Street address...     I'm not at all sure that Bringuier was that distant from Bannister's office, what I am sure is that its unlikely we have the truth of matters from either he or Quiroga.

 

[Tom Gram]

Just now, Larry Hancock said:

Its also interesting that one of Bringuier's associates, Carlos Quiroga, had been suspected of being a Castro agent by the CIA,  was cleared and then considered as a CIA employee.  Of course Quiroga was the fellow sent to "test" Oswald but we only have his and Bringuiers word for that and it appears that rather than testing Oswald he might well have been carrying a stack of FPCC leaflets to Oswald for his later leafletting.  Would be really interesting if those had the Camp Street address...     I'm not at all sure that Bringuier was that distant from Bannister's office, what I am sure is that its unlikely we have the truth of matters from either he or Quiroga.

 

Oh I don’t think so either. The lead I’ve been chasing actually suggests a connection between Bannister and Bringuier, and I’ve developed supporting information that’s pretty damn provocative. I was actually going to email you with some more specific questions. I’ll get around to that today. 

[Larry Hancock]

I'll look forward to that Tom,  it looks like we may be going down a common trail and a connection between Bannister and Bringuier makes perfect sense to me - in fact given Bannister's interest in the Cuban community and in uncovering Castro agents it would be more strange if there was not a connection.   Garrison's find of the FPCC leaflets with the Camp Street address pretty much says it all if we choose to listen...

[David Boylan]

I found this from a previous write-up. Joannides was reporting to William Kent during 1963. Kent was signing off on Joannides fitness reports as supervisor. I suspect that one reason for not releasing Joannides reports was that Helms was copied on all of them. He would have known about Oswald.

 

Crozier was by all reports a respected member of JMWAVE. He, unfortunately, was the case officer for the DRE. The DRE (Student Revolutionary Directorate) was composed of young independent minded members. In other words, the CIA could not control them. One example was when Crozier under the alias of Roger Fox accompanied 9 DRE members to the 8th World Youth Festival in Helsinki, July-Aug 1962. John Koch and Enrique Beloyra were so disruptive that the Finnish police "detained" Koch and Beloyra and banned the remaining members from speaking at the festival. Despite the ban, Carlos Hernandez, Juan Salvat and Anna Diaz-Silveira managed to speak and draw attention to Koch and Beloyra's detention. The Finnish police released them both on the condition that they leave Finland the next day.

 

It didn't take DRE members (Salvat, Hernandez, Blanco) long before they caused an international incident by firing on the Blanquita hotel in Havana (Aug 24th). Both Czech and Russian officers were staying there. The purpose was to bring attention that Russians were in Cuba. They also reported that there were Soviet missiles in Cuba.

 

The end for Crozier aka "the man in Miami" came when he asked Luis Fernandez-Rocha (AMHINT-53) and Salvat and three others to infiltrate Cuba on either Oct 23-24 during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Ostensibly to report on military intelligence but told they might have to direct artillery fire.

 

Their Today Show interview on Nov 12 and a newspaper article bought DRE members Fernandez-Rocha and Jose Lasa a face to face  meeting with Richard Helms himself on Nov 13, 1962. Nestor Sanchez translated.

 

 

Helms informed them at this meeting that there would be a change in their contact in Miami. (He would replace Crozier with George Joannides alias Walter Newby). He said that (Joannides) could come directly to him (Helms) if he needed any clarification.

 

 

 

 Fernandez-Rocha Report to Joannides aka Howard

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=18928#relPageId=3

 

Even after Joannides(Newby) replaced Crozier, the DRE were still doing their own thing. https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=16129#relPageId=3