JFK Records Act lawsuit — can we collect a list of egregious failures to comply?

[Leslie Sharp]

As a companion piece to Paul Brancato's new thread titled Mary Ferrell Lawsuit - can we get media coverage?

I've launched this thread to solicit incidents of NARA's failure to comply with the JFK Records Act.

If anyone has a significant outstanding FOIA, either pending or denied, they suspect might relate to the last batch of withheld files, we are asking you to provide enough details of your FOIA to add to this list that will be turned over for consideration of inclusion in the final brief filed by Larry Schnapf and the legal team suing the Biden administration.

I plan to add details of the FOIAs for Jean Rene Marie Souetre and the missing Dallas INS report(s) once I've received confirmation of the history behind J. Gary Shaw's lawsuit in pursuit of same (hopefully by Mar 23).

I hope readers/members will give this invitation some thought in the very near future, and add to the list as appropriate. It's my understanding that the final brief is due April 27.

 

I. Denied FOIA — files pertaining to Jean Rene Marie Souetre.

II. Denied FOIA — files pertaining to Dallas office of the INS report(s) for November 22-26, 1963

 

III.

 

IV.

 

V.

 

VI.

 

VII.

[Roger Odisio]

13 hours ago, Leslie Sharp said:

 

As a companion piece to Paul Brancato's new thread titled Mary Ferrell Lawsuit - can we get media coverage?

I've launched this thread to solicit incidents of NARA's failure to comply with the JFK Records Act.

If anyone has a significant outstanding FOIA, either pending or denied, they suspect might relate to the last batch of withheld files, we are asking you to provide enough details of your FOIA to add to this list that will be turned over for consideration of inclusion in the final brief filed by Larry Schnapf and the legal team suing the Biden administration.

I plan to add details of the FOIAs for Jean Rene Marie Souetre and the missing Dallas INS report(s) once I've received confirmation of the history behind J. Gary Shaw's lawsuit in pursuit of same (hopefully by Mar 23).

I hope readers/members will give this invitation some thought in the very near future, and add to the list as appropriate. It's my understanding that the final brief is due April 27.

 

I. Denied FOIA — files pertaining to Jean Rene Marie Souetre.

II. Denied FOIA — files pertaining to Dallas office of the INS report(s) for November 22-26, 1963

 

III.

 

IV.

 

V.

 

VI.

 

VII.

The MFF lawsuit has little to do with FOIA.  It's about enforcing disclosure of records mandated by the JFK Act of '92,using the standards for withholding in the Act.  The JFK Act was passed in part because, for almost 30 years, FOIA was ineffective in getting information about the JFKA released that was held by government agencies. The JFK Act allows us to stop fooling around with FOIA requests to individual agencies and instead insist that NARA do its job to retrieve and make available all relevant JFK records, whoever currently has them.

 

And as Larry was saying the other day, the suit is also about getting NARA to add information to the Collection we now know about, but which is not currently held by agencies.  As far as he, or anyone knows, NARA has done next to nothing to update the Collection since the ARRB closed 25 years ago.  The Darnell and Wiegman films are just one example of such information.

 

When I emailed NARA to ask if they took recommendations of records to add to the JFKA Collection, I was told yes they did.  That was characterized by staff as an "official" response to my question.  Send your recommendation to the NARA general counsel, they said.  Which I did the next day.  That was 4 months ago and still no response.  I emailed them again on Friday pointing this out.

 

The fact that NARA staff acknowledged, in writing, its responsibility to add records to the Collection, when placed beside its 25 year record of failing to do so, is pretty damning.  I'm pretty sure the suit will press this point.  Examples will help.

 

So shouldn't we broaden this list by asking folks to list any attempt to get access to JFKA information from anybody that has been thwarted in some way by somebody?

[Leslie Sharp]

1 hour ago, Roger Odisio said:

The MFF lawsuit has little to do with FOIA.  It's about enforcing disclosure of records mandated by the JFK Act of '92,using the standards for withholding in the Act.  The JFK Act was passed in part because, for almost 30 years, FOIA was ineffective in getting information about the JFKA released that was held by government agencies. The JFK Act allows us to stop fooling around with FOIA requests to individual agencies and instead insist that NARA do its job to retrieve and make available all relevant JFK records, whoever currently has them.

 

And as Larry was saying the other day, the suit is also about getting NARA to add information to the Collection we now know about, but which is not currently held by agencies.  As far as he, or anyone knows, NARA has done next to nothing to update the Collection since the ARRB closed 25 years ago.  The Darnell and Wiegman films are just one example of such information.

 

When I emailed NARA to ask if they took recommendations of records to add to the JFKA Collection, I was told yes they did.  That was characterized by staff as an "official" response to my question.  Send your recommendation to the NARA general counsel, they said.  Which I did the next day.  That was 4 months ago and still no response.  I emailed them again on Friday pointing this out.

 

The fact that NARA staff acknowledged, in writing, its responsibility to add records to the Collection, when placed beside its 25 year record of failing to do so, is pretty damning.  I'm pretty sure the suit will press this point.  Examples will help.

 

So shouldn't we broaden this list by asking folks to list any attempt to get access to JFKA information from anybody that has been thwarted in some way by somebody?

Thanks for the insight Roger.  Can you PM me to provide precise wording how you would improve the solicitation?  I'll talk you through the trajectory of this project as well.

[Leslie Sharp]

apropos failure to comply . . . 

Albarelli writes extensively about Charles WilliamThomas, "The Strange and Sad Saga of Charles William Thomas," in A Secret Order. Thomas was among the earliest to confirm LHO attended a party in MC where he engaged with among others, Elena Garro.

Excerpt ... [Charles] Thomas did not note in his July 1969 letter to Secretary of State Rogers concerning Elena Garro Paz and Lee Harvey Oswald that he was also an employee of the CIA's Branch 4, Covert Action staff.  Hired by the CIA in early 1952, following service in the U. S. Navy as an ensign assigned to still-secret intelligence matters, Thomas had already covertly served the Agency at several posts, including Monrovia, Liberia; Sierra Leone; Accra, Ghana; and Tangier, Morocco.  We can only guess Secretary Rogers was aware of Thomas' dual employment and covert role with the CIA.

The "matter," explained Thomas ... concerned "Lee Harvey Oswald, the presumed assassin of President Kennedy, [who was] allegedly present at a party given by a Mexican communist sympathizer ... continued Thomas, "There are allegations that the Mexican Government may have been aware of Oswald's presence at that party and that the Cuban government may have tried to intimidate others who saw him there.
 

Caveat. I'm aware that Albarelli was concerned by some of Shenon's coverage of the investigation, but on the question of Thomas he obviously agreed, having pursued Thomas's story for his book published in 2013.

JFK documents could show the truth about a diplomat's death 47 years ago

Philip Shenon

2018, The Guardian.

Family of Charles Thomas are pleading with Trump to release papers they say show his 1971 suicide stemmed from officials wanting to shut down effort to reopen JFK investigation

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/22/jfk-documents-could-show-the-truth-about-a-diplomats-death-47-years-ago

Edited March 20, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

Further to media coverage and failure to comply, this might be a chance convergence.

 

@Paul Brancato,  perhaps Philip Shenon would take a call or read an email?

His pursuit of the Charles Thomas angle of the investigation made it to The Guardian in 2018. Might he consider approaching his broadcast media contacts in light of Thomas, a subject I'll be adding to our "failure to comply" in a day or two.

 

Hank Albarelli writes extensively about Charles WilliamThomas, "The Strange and Sad Saga of Charles William Thomas," in A Secret Order. (Trine Day, 2013) Thomas was among the earliest to confirm LHO attended a party in MC where he engaged with among others, Elena Garro.

Excerpt ... [Charles] Thomas did not note in his July 1969 letter to Secretary of State Rogers concerning Elena Garro Paz and Lee Harvey Oswald that he was also an employee of the CIA's Branch 4, Covert Action staff.  Hired by the CIA in early 1952, following service in the U. S. Navy as an ensign assigned to still-secret intelligence matters, Thomas had already covertly served the Agency at several posts, including Monrovia, Liberia; Sierra Leone; Accra, Ghana; and Tangier, Morocco.  We can only guess Secretary Rogers was aware of Thomas' dual employment and covert role with the CIA.

The "matter," explained Thomas ... concerned "Lee Harvey Oswald, the presumed assassin of President Kennedy, [who was] allegedly present at a party given by a Mexican communist sympathizer ... continued Thomas, "There are allegations that the Mexican Government may have been aware of Oswald's presence at that party and that the Cuban government may have tried to intimidate others who saw him there.
 

[Caveat. I'm personally aware that Albarelli differed with Shenon on certain aspects of the investigation, but on the question of Thomas he was on board with drawing attention to a man he described as covertly serving the Agency at several posts . . .’ A Secret Order, Trine Day, 2013.] 

@Benjamin Cole

JFK documents could show the truth about a diplomat's death 47 years ago

Philip Shenon

April 2018, The Guardian

Family of Charles Thomas are pleading with Trump to release papers they say show his 1971 suicide stemmed from officials wanting to shut down effort to reopen JFK investigation

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/apr/22/jfk-documents-could-show-the-truth-about-a-diplomats-death-47-years-a

Edited March 20, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Paul Brancato]

I recall that chapter. What’s interesting is his CIA creds and working in Africa and Tangier. If LHO was in MC he wasn’t meeting with Communists as part of a plot to kill JFK. Wonder why he was pressing to reopen the investigation. 
 

[Leslie Sharp]

37 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

I recall that chapter. What’s interesting is his CIA creds and working in Africa and Tangier. If LHO was in MC he wasn’t meeting with Communists as part of a plot to kill JFK. Wonder why he was pressing to reopen the investigation. 
 

Good question, Paul.

And there's another possible interesting overlap related to Tangier.  

Reports from John Whitten, in MC at the same time as Charles William Thomas, include the early claims made by Moroccan born Mohammed Reggab who claimed to have dated Marina in Moscow (not Minsk) prior to her meeting Oswald, and one Richard Thomas Gibson - co-founder of FPCC NYC who told a friend in Bern that he was acquainted with Oswald.  The claims were made back to back, November 26 and November 27 respectively. Report went straight to Helms who personally ordered serious investigation into the assertions.  Gibson moved from NYC to Tangier before ending up in Europe.  Records indicate he intended to establish Tangier as HQ for FPCC. 

Edited March 21, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Paul Brancato]

1 hour ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Good question, Paul.

And there's another possible interesting overlap related to Tangier.  

Reports from John Whitten, in MC at the same time as Charles William Thomas, include the early claims made by Moroccan born Mohammed Reggab who claimed to have dated Marina in Moscow (not Minsk) prior to her meeting Oswald, and one Richard Thomas Gibson - co-founder of FPCC NYC who told a friend in Bern that he was acquainted with Oswald.  The claims were made back to back, November 26 and November 27 respectively. Report went straight to Helms who personally ordered serious investigation into the assertions.  Gibson moved from NYC to Tangier before ending up in Europe.  Records indicate he intended to establish Tangier as HQ for FPCC. 

Never heard of Reggab. Gibson I think maybe I have. Probably why I think FPCC was itself a covert Intelligence operation. 

[Leslie Sharp]

32 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

Never heard of Reggab. Gibson I think maybe I have. Probably why I think FPCC was itself a covert Intelligence operation. 

I think that for our purpose, the fact that the Thomas family plead with Trump to release the files is significant, and requests for his files belong on our list.

[Ron Bulman]

1 hour ago, Paul Brancato said:

Never heard of Reggab. Gibson I think maybe I have. Probably why I think FPCC was itself a covert Intelligence operation. 

I thought there was evidence the FPCC was an intelligence operation or at least it was infiltrated at a high level early on in it's existence.  Maybe something about a break in to their office when the founder was out of town.  Hmm, where might I have read such?

[Leslie Sharp]

14 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

I thought there was evidence the FPCC was an intelligence operation or at least it was infiltrated at a high level early on in it's existence.  Maybe something about a break in to their office when the founder was out of town.  Hmm, where might I have read such?

I think that's the direction Jefferson Morley is going with his focus on the withheld batch of Joannides records.

Jeff published this article about Gibson at jfkfacts.org. c. 2018. He doesn't mention Tangier, by the way.  It's possible he wrote a follow up piece that I've missed.

https://jfkfacts.org/jfk-cointelpro-and-the-curious-case-of-richard-gibson/

[Leslie Sharp]

Directly related to the missing, misidentified, or destroyed Jean Rene Souetre files ...

***

In the early 1950s, [Roy] Cohn [future US president Donald Trump’s first political guru] had caught the eye of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover who soon recommended the twenty-four-year-old attorney to his personal friend, Joe McCarthy, to fill the role of his chief counsel. For assistant counsel, McCarthy fulfilled another request, that of his good friend Joseph P. Kennedy who was looking for a spot for his young and restless son, Robert F. Kennedy. McCarthy designated RFK as assistant counsel to his committee, working alongside Hoover’s professional protégé, Roy Cohn . . . 

 

A Far-Right Ecosystem Spanning Decades

This analysis began with the question: what might the America First Committee and a figure named Roy Cohn have in common, and how might that commonality relate to contemporary politics? In addition to pointing me in the direction of the history behind Roy Cohn’s protégé Donald Trump’s own version of America First, Albarelli’s thinking before he passed was also influenced by our research into the history of rabid anti-communist Senator Joe McCarthy and the men surrounding him, including Robert Morris of the John Birch Society who served as attorney to one of our prime suspects, General Edwin A. Walker. Morris worked alongside Senator McCarthy’s legal counsel, Roy Marcus Cohn. 

 

*****

 

Nearly seven months before JFK’s assassination, on April 8, 1963, The Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s New York Office sent a brief memorandum to FBI director Hoover marked “Attention: Foreign Liaison Unit.” The memo’s subject was: ALDERSONS, 5803 Burlinghall, Houston, Texas. [IS-FRANCE.]” The memorandum, still partially redacted to date, opens with the words: “For the information of the Bureau and Houston, on 4/3/63, CSNY [Confidential Source New York, name redacted] reliable [several lines redacted].” The memo’s next and final section reads: “Houston is requested to identify the ALDERSONS, and when this information is forthcoming, the Bureau is requested to advise what, if any, information may be furnished to this source.” The memorandum is stamped in bold letters: “EXP. PROC” [Expedited Processing].

                  

About a month later, on May 3, 1963, the FBI office in Houston, Texas sent a memorandum to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover concerning Lawrence Mason Alderson and what was referred to as a “New York letter to the Bureau dated April 8, 1963captioned ‘Alderson, 5803 Burlinghall, Houston, Texas, IS-France.’” (The memorandum was also marked “ATTENTION: FOREIGN LIAISON.”) . . .

 

On May 20, 1963, the FBI’s Special Agent in Charge sent a memorandum to director Hoover, subject: Lawrence Mason Alderson, but also bearing Jean Rene Souetre’s CIA assigned 201 file number: 105-120510. The memorandum was also marked: “1-Mossburg,” meaning a copy went to the FBI’s E. Hyatt Mossburg, a Special Agent in the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the FBI. Copies also went to the Bureau’s Foreign Liaison Unit and its Houston office.

                  A typed “NOTE” on the document made at least two references to the Confidential Source in New York [CSNY] but five lines were redacted obscuring the paragraph.

                  The memorandum reads: “CSNY [name redacted] should be advised that the Aldersons, referred to in New York letter 4/8/63, may be identical with Dr. and Mrs. Lawrence M. Alderson, who reside at 5803 Burlinghall, Houston, Texas. Dr. Alderson is a dentist in Houston, Texas. He reportedly served in the US Army from 1953–1954. Our files contain no information indicating that Dr. Alderson and his wife have been outside the US or have been engaged in any anti-France activity. [Italics added.]

                  Despite the fact that the memorandum bore the 201-file number for Jean Souetre, it contained no reference to him. 

  

*****

  

How do we know that these experienced assassins, who emerged from the ranks of La Cagoule to deal directly with Otto Skorzeny, coalesced in 1963 specific to our investigation of events in Dallas? Some of the answers reside in a series of obscure post-assassination letters addressed to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover from a Mr. Paul Gluc, 112 General Leclerc Avenue, Boulogne Billancourt (92) France. According to one of the letters, Mr. Gluc, a self-described benevolent detective, was employed by French automobile manufacturer Régie Renault and lived in a populous suburb five miles from the centre of Paris.

                  A detailed account of this strange and revealing correspondence over a span of nine years, and the subsequent FBI memo traffic that attempted to discredit its significance and impugn the character of the author, is available to the reader in the endnotes to this chapter. For now, the following excerpts serve to not only validate the aforementioned history of assassins directly associated with one another, and by inference with Otto Skorzeny, but they also provide Gluc’s independent confirmation of certain entries in the 1963 datebook of Pierre Lafitte essential to the investigation of the assassination of John Kennedy.

 

Mr. Director, only you can clear OTTO SKORZENY of guilt

of being (an) agent in the Dallas operation with (the) passive

complicity of Allen W. Dulles.

                                                      —Paul Gluc, March 14, 1975

 

The 1975 letter was Gluc’s fourth and final correspondence with the FBI. The first letter, dated March 18, 1964, just four months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and later claimed by the FBI to be either lost or misplaced, was hand-written in English to “Mr. Hoover, director of the FBI.” It reads: 

I understand you are very close to the solution of all the mysteries of President Kennedy’s assassination, but I suspect you are without key information. This information concerns the holders of many of the missing cards, Jean Souetre, as well as Jean Paul Filiol, both known to have been in Dallas on 22 November 1963. . . . Included in this knowledge are Mme. Lamy and M. Litt, all mentioned before, and extremely distasteful individuals. . . . I am anxious to spell this out for you by coming to Washington, D.C.

The letter was signed: “Mr. Gluc.” 

                  

                  . . . With his letter, Gluc has provided us independent corroboration that Filiol, Lamy and Litt were known associates and that they were in Dallas, and as noted, he did so as early as March 1964. We also see, perhaps for the first time outside of cryptic reports that revealed a smattering of facts, that the FBI was made aware of the possibility that known assassin Jean Souetre had been in Dallas. Yes, Gluc could have simply picked up on the obscure rumors about Souetre being expelled from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, but there was no known trail in the public domain of the presence of Filiol, Lamy and or Litt in Dallas that would tie the three to Jean Souetre.