Fred Litwin's new book

[Chuck Schwartz]

I agree that Shaw was a CIA asset.  I believe there was a connection between Shaw and European assassins that tried to kill DeGaulle and may have killed JFK.   The organization that Shaw was connected to in this arena may have been called Permidex.  I don't think think this was innocent. 

[Chuck Schwartz]

This is from Wikipedia, "On March 1, 1967, Shaw was arrested and charged with conspiring to assassinate President John F. Kennedy by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison.^[7] Three days later on March 4, the Italian left-wing newspaper Paese Sera published a story alleging that Shaw was linked to the CIA through his involvement in the Centro Mondiale Commerciale, a subsidiary of Permindex in which Shaw was also said to be a board member.^[7] According to Paese Sera, the CMC had been a front organization developed by the CIA for transferring funds to Italy for "illegal political-espionage activities" and had attempted to depose French President Charles de Gaulle in the early 1960s.^[7] On March 6, the newspaper printed other allegations about individuals it said were connected to Permindex, including Louis Bloomfield whom it described as "an American agent who now plays the role of a businessman from Canada (who) established secret ties in Rome with Deputies of the Christian Democrats and neo-Fascist parties."^[8] The allegations were retold in various newspapers associated with the Communist parties in Italy (l'Unità), France (L'Humanité), and the Soviet Union (Pravda), as well as leftist papers in Canada and Greece, prior to reaching the American press eight weeks later.^[7] American journalist Max Holland stated that Paese Sera's allegations connecting Shaw to the CIA eventually led to Garrison implicating the CIA in a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy".^[7]

[Tom Gram]

7 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

There was potentially an innocent explanation for the CIA cover up of Shaw in 1964. There was a lot of scrutiny in 1964 surrounding the trade mart because Oswald had been passing out leaflets there. Shaw, the manager of the trade mart was a valuable CIA asset. Therefore it would make sense for the CIA to naturally tighten their security around Shaw in 1964 given all the investigatory and media attention surrounding the trade mart after the jfk assassination. The last thing the CIA wanted was for the cover of their asset, Clay Shaw, to be inadvertently blown with all the attention focusing on the trade mart.

I’m going off memory here, but I think the official story is that Shaw was strictly a DCD informant and his relationship with CIA terminated in 1956. The CIA admitted that Hunter Leake, Chief of the New Orleans DCD, ran into Shaw at social gatherings for years afterwards and “exchanged greetings”, but that’s about it. There’s also a document that reflects CIA would basically send Shaw on assignment to foreign trade shows of interest to the agency and pay him for it - so it does seem like he was a bit more than a normal informant - but is that really enough to justify any sort of security concern in 1964? 

CIA officer William Sturbitts testified to the Rockefeller Commission that the agency would channel funding to Cuban exile groups in Miami through a “great number” of prominent people in New Orleans, and he was asked specifically if Shaw was one of those people. He said he didn’t know, but his colleague Bill Kent would probably know because he was in New Orleans at the time. The deposition took place at CIA HQ, and Sturbitts said that Kent was in the building:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=219770#relPageId=86

Maybe I’m missing something, but I can’t find any evidence of a RockCom interview with William Kent. Considering Sturbitts’ testimony, I don’t think there’s any doubt that such an interview took place, so where is the documentation? 

Another interesting tidbit is Sturbitts’ description of the funding network is basically a perfect match for Carlos Bringuier: 

A. Well, in other words, to fund these organizations we were subsidizing there had to be some ostensible source of income for them to continue what they were doing. A great number -- well, not a great number, but a number of select people were -- well, they were selected and then they were talked to, to pose as trustees, if you would, or directors or whatever you might have of some of these organizations in order to get the funding through to the organizations. These people were normally prominent people and --

If Shaw was involved in a clandestine funding network run out of JMWAVE, that would explain the security concerns a bit better than if he was just a defunct DCD informant. We’d need some more evidence to be sure, but it’s an interesting possibility, IMO. 

Just for kicks, here’s Bill Kent’s job description for 1963: 

Also, Kent was in New Orleans from Aug. ‘66 through Sept. ‘67, which coincides pretty much exactly with the first phase of the Garrison investigation. 

Edited January 31, 2023 by Tom Gram

[James DiEugenio]

Chuck: 

It would be more proper to say Shaw was a CIA agent, not an asset.

We will never know the full extent of his service, because of what Legaspi wrote about what the CIA had done to Shaw's 201 file. But the materials that did survive indicate that he was an agent.  This is why Fred rewrote one of them.

 

[Gerry Down]

1 hour ago, Tom Gram said:

I’m going off memory here, but I think the official story is that Shaw was strictly a DCD informant and his relationship with CIA terminated in 1956. The CIA admitted that Hunter Leake, Chief of the New Orleans DCD, ran into Shaw at social gatherings for years afterwards and “exchanged greetings”, but that’s about it. There’s also a document that reflects CIA would basically send Shaw on assignment to foreign trade shows of interest to the agency and pay him for it - so it does seem like he was a bit more than a normal informant - but is that really enough to justify any sort of security concern in 1964? 

CIA officer William Sturbitts testified to the Rockefeller Commission that the agency would channel funding to Cuban exile groups in Miami through a “great number” of prominent people in New Orleans, and he was asked specifically if Shaw was one of those people. He said he didn’t know, but his colleague Bill Kent would probably know because he was in New Orleans at the time. The deposition took place at CIA HQ, and Sturbitts said that Kent was in the building:

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=219770#relPageId=86

Maybe I’m missing something, but I can’t find any evidence of a RockCom interview with William Kent. Considering Sturbitts’ testimony, I don’t think there’s any doubt that such an interview took place, so where is the documentation? 

Another interesting tidbit is Sturbitts’ description of the funding network is basically a perfect match for Carlos Bringuier: 

A. Well, in other words, to fund these organizations we were subsidizing there had to be some ostensible source of income for them to continue what they were doing. A great number -- well, not a great number, but a number of select people were -- well, they were selected and then they were talked to, to pose as trustees, if you would, or directors or whatever you might have of some of these organizations in order to get the funding through to the organizations. These people were normally prominent people and --

If Shaw was involved in a clandestine funding network run out of JMWAVE, that would explain the security concerns a bit better than if he was just a defunct DCD informant. We’d need some more evidence to be sure, but it’s an interesting possibility, IMO. 

Just for kicks, here’s Bill Kent’s job description for 1963: 

Also, Kent was in New Orleans from Aug. ‘66 through Sept. ‘67, which coincides pretty much exactly with the first phase of the Garrison investigation. 

Interesting post.

So hypothetically, the CIA would give funds to someone like Clay Shaw and he would then pass the funds to a cuban exile group. To the outside it looked like Clay Shaw was giving the group his own funds, but actually it was the CIA. This example using Clay Shaw being hypothetical of course. 

Do you think William Kent and George Joannides were working together in New Orleans in the summer of 1963? 

[James DiEugenio]

Let us go to Litwin on David Ferrie.  To show again how Freddie treats facts that show consciousness of guilt. Again this deals with Litwin's book on Garrison.

 From the day of the assassination, Ferrie was looking for evidence that would link him to Oswald. In the wake of the assassination, this happened three times. On the day of the assassination, he went to Oswald’s former landlady, Jesse Garner. He wanted to know if anyone had been to her home referring to his library card being found on Oswald. (HSCA interview of 2/20/78) Within days of the assassination he repeated this question with a Mrs. Doris Eames. Again, he wanted to know if Oswald, who her husband had talked to at the library, had shown him Ferrie’s library card. (NODA memorandum of Sciambra to Garrison, 3/1/68) On November 27^th, Ferrie was on the phone calling the home of his former CAP student Roy McCoy. He wanted to know if there were any photos at the house depicting Ferrie in the CAP. He also asked if the name “Oswald” rang a bell. Mr. McCoy called the FBI about this episode and he quite naturally told them he thought that Ferrie was looking for evidence that would depict him with Oswald. (FBI report of 11/27/63)

Attorneys call this kind of behavior “consciousness of guilt”. But that does not just refer to Ferrie, it also refers to the FBI. With the report by Mr. McCoy they knew Ferrie was lying to them. It is a crime to lie to an FBI agent while you are under investigation. The fact that Ferrie committed perjury did not interest J. Edgar Hoover. If it had, with a little initiative, he would have discovered the other instances indicating the lie, and he would have found the picture revealing Ferrie with Oswald that PBS discovered in 1993. What this clearly shows is that Hoover was not interested in the Kennedy case. In other words, right after Kennedy was killed, Ferrie was lying on numerous material points, and the FBI was covering up for him.

Try and find any of this in Litwin’s book. Let me know when you locate it.

Edited January 31, 2023 by James DiEugenio

[Robin Finn]

A 1992 CIA memo on a survey of CIA records associated with the HSCA investigation stated:" These records do reveal, however, that Clay Shaw was a highly paid CIA contract source until 1956."  How does a description of "highly paid" match someone(Shaw) who was supposedly just providing information on foreign travel to Domestic Contacts? Is there a record of any other DCD contact being highly paid?  I recently read some notes made by an ARRB staffer that raise the possibility of Counterintelligence involvement with QKENCHANT.

[Steve Roe]

2 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

It would be more proper to say Shaw was a CIA agent, not an asset.

Jamey, please get the facts straight. Shaw was a Domestic Contact for the CIA, like many international businessmen. 

Here's your "CIA Agent" working for free. 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=55187#relPageId=9&search=Clay_Shaw remunerated

[Tom Gram]

3 minutes ago, Steve Roe said:

Jamey, please get the facts straight. Shaw was a Domestic Contact for the CIA, like many international businessmen. 

Here's your "CIA Agent" working for free. 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=55187#relPageId=9&search=Clay_Shaw remunerated

Steve, this file suggests that Shaw did not work for free. It's Shaw agreeing to attend a trade show abroad on behalf of the CIA, i.e. a show he would not have attended otherwise, as long as the CIA paid for it and he got permission from his board of directors:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pcwVz-N_dt3X3HGyj5K1gsxIVK2pNdmK/view

Going undercover for the CIA on an all expenses paid trip to Czechoslovakia seems like a bit more involvement than your average DCD informant, does it not? 

That document you posted is pretty interesting though. Guy Banister gave information to the CIA on trucks going to Cuba in 1963? I'm guessing the 3 is a 0 but I can't really tell. I've seen Garrison era CIA memos talking about Banister getting cleared as a source in Nov. 1960 - but nothing stating that they ever actually used him. Do you have any other files on this truck business? Also do you have a RIF for that cable and/or a version without the redaction on Banister? I'm gonna have to post this in the Banister CIA thread. Thanks Steve! 

[Steve Roe]

34 minutes ago, Tom Gram said:

Steve, this file suggests that Shaw did not work for free. It's Shaw agreeing to attend a trade show abroad on behalf of the CIA, i.e. a show he would not have attended otherwise, as long as the CIA paid for it and he got permission from his board of directors:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pcwVz-N_dt3X3HGyj5K1gsxIVK2pNdmK/view

Going undercover for the CIA on an all expenses paid trip to Czechoslovakia seems like a bit more involvement than your average DCD informant, does it not? 

That document you posted is pretty interesting though. Guy Banister gave information to the CIA on trucks going to Cuba in 1963? I'm guessing the 3 is a 0 but I can't really tell. I've seen Garrison era CIA memos talking about Banister getting cleared as a source in Nov. 1960 - but nothing stating that they ever actually used him. Do you have any other files on this truck business? Also do you have a RIF for that cable and/or a version without the redaction on Banister? I'm gonna have to post this in the Banister CIA thread. Thanks Steve! 

The RIF# is 1994.04.12.12:16:07:600005 However it it lumped in with other CIA doc's. If you do the RIF search for 1994.04.12.12, the doc's will appear. I haven't located a "redaction free" on that RIF. I'm not interested. 

Banister and Jeeps: Although the CIA states 1963, it could have been referring to this FBI report of Banister in 1961 about war surplus jeeps. https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=81057#relPageId=8&search=Banister_jeeps

Re: Clay Shaw and the Czech trade fair. That was in 1955. As I'm sure you are aware, the CIA was in the information gathering business on economics, trade, current affairs, etc. in other countries. Clay Shaw did extensive travel to Europe, West Indies, Latin America. This was not cloak and dagger stuff. I see nothing sinister about Leake approaching him about the Czech Trade Mission and offering to pay expenses while he was in Europe. That was Clay Shaw's business, international trade. 

But Shaw was not a paid CIA agent in cloak and dagger fantasies like DiEugenio says. But hey we know DiEugenio's highly questionable record of getting anything right and leading people down false trails, don't we?

Shaw filed reports to DCS from 1949 to 1961 on his travels. One trip to Peru were he was asked about that country's problems with exchange currency. There you go DiEugenio......find something sinister with that. How about the roads in Nicaragua that Shaw was questioned about? That has to be tied in with the assassination. 

Clay Shaw was an innocent man whose life was ruined by Garrison. He had nothing to do with the assassination. Take a look at Harold Weisberg's archives on Garrison. 

 

[James DiEugenio]

3 hours ago, Robin Finn said:

A 1992 CIA memo on a survey of CIA records associated with the HSCA investigation stated:" These records do reveal, however, that Clay Shaw was a highly paid CIA contract source until 1956."  How does a description of "highly paid" match someone(Shaw) who was supposedly just providing information on foreign travel to Domestic Contacts? Is there a record of any other DCD contact being highly paid?  I recently read some notes made by an ARRB staffer that raise the possibility of Counterintelligence involvement with QKENCHANT.

Robin:

That is the document Fred rewrote.

He wanted it to say "contact" so he wrote it like that.

This is why I have no respect for the man.  And no one else should either.

Shaw was being paid well and in some cases his expenses were paid also, as one can see from above.

The ARRB finally produced some of the true facts about Oswald in New Orleans and who Shaw, Ferrie and Banister really were.  And Fred does a whitewash over them

By, the way, one of the files the CIA destroyed on Shaw was something called a Y file. I don't know what that designates. Legaspi probably would know but I have not been able to locate him for a phone call.

Edited January 31, 2023 by James DiEugenio

[W. Tracy Parnell]

43 minutes ago, Steve Roe said:

Clay Shaw was an innocent man whose life was ruined by Garrison. He had nothing to do with the assassination. Take a look at Harold Weisberg's archives on Garrison.

Right. For a discussion of the "Shaw worked for the CIA" matter, see chapter 45 of Fred's new book. For those who don't have the book, this blog post covers much of the same material:

Was Clay Shaw a "Contract Agent" for the CIA? (onthetrailofdelusion.com)

[Ron Bulman]

On 1/30/2023 at 2:01 AM, James DiEugenio said:

Fred Litwin  is a millionaire Neocon from up in Canada.

He worked on Bay Street, Toronto's version of Wall Street, then on Wall Street itself, then in London on computers and then in the Far East introducing the Intel pentium.

he then retired and decided to be the Canadian version of David Horowitz.  So he donned the cape of Horowitz, that is, he was an alleged leftist the whole time he was making his fortune on Wall Street, but he suddenly found the error in his ways and now writes a book about the Iraq War in which, hold on to your hats, he cannot find the space to say the USA killed 650,000 innocent Iraquis on the basis of a lie. 

I am not kidding one bit about that.  Because unlike Pat Speer, I read that book.

Now, here is something of a flim flam if you ever saw one.  Fred has never been able to produce one piece of evidence to show that he really was a lefty in all his days on Bay Street, Wall Street, London and the Far East.  I know since I read all of his books, except this last which is not a book.

In other words, there is no trace of him writing a letter to a paper, magazine, taking part in a demonstration, appearing on tV or radio to protest say, the Contra War, the October Surprise, CIA Crack Cocaine trading, the first invasion of Iraq, Reagan turning down the Iceland deal, I could go on and on.  But try and find something like that. I can give you examples like that for me--protesting at the LA TImes against their slamming of Gary Webb on the crack cocaine issue. And we know where Oliver is on those issues and he can prove that.

Yet, make no mistake this is the fulcrum of Fred.  I can call him that since I demolished all of this books at Kenendysandking.com, reading them was quite a painful experience, they were so bad. And Matt D and Mantik also reviewed his first Kennedy book, where he trots out this thing about him reversing field again. A repeat from his first pile of junk, Conservative Confidential.

If you cannot prove who you are, then why should anyone believe anything you write?  The implication being you are putting up a front for another front.

If Fred can produce anything like him in demonstrations in NYC or London please do and I will withdraw the charge.

Jim, I was being sarcastic.  I've read pretty much all you've posted on here on Fred and the links you've provided.  It's all good though, some have not and need to.  The rest of us can use a refresher, I've noticed a couple of things new to me that were not in prior posts/links or I'd missed/forgotten about.  Also, Fred needs to be exposed for what he is, a Mockingbird, whenever and wherever he can be.

[Paul Cummings]

I know the name Fred Litwin because he's constantly listed as an on line viewer when I'm in here. I'm guessing he's a Maple Leafs fan.

[Ron Bulman]

25 minutes ago, Paul Cummings said:

I know the name Fred Litwin because he's constantly listed as an on line viewer when I'm in here. I'm guessing he's a Maple Leafs fan.

Paul, read Jims posts in the last 3 pages and the links he provides.  You will learn more about Fred than he ever wants you to know.  That's why you see him lurking.

Edited February 1, 2023 by Ron Bulman