J. Morley on RFK Jr.

[Benjamin Cole]

The Latest From JFK Facts

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Fact Checking RFK Jr: Is He Right About JFK?

A closer look at allegations of KGB disinformation and a 'shadowy' CIA agent.

JEFFERSON MORLEY MAY 11

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Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s unprecedented claim that the CIA was responsible for his uncle’s murder has generated a furious response. Much of the Kennedy family is reportedly alienated and a leading chronicler of the CIA is contemptuous.

“I cannot emphasize enough that this is a lie first promulgated by the KGB in 1967, and that RFK Jr is acting as a useful idiot for the Kremlin,” tweeted former New York Times reporter Tim Weiner, author of “Legacy of Ashes,” a critical history of the CIA.

After claiming the evidence of CIA involvement is “overwhelming,” RFK Jr. added specificity to his charge. In a tweet Monday about still-classified records related to JFK’s assassination, the candidate wrote:

“As a Senator, Joe Biden voted for the Assassination Records Act of 1992, requiring that all documents related to the killing of JFK be released by 2017. But President Biden is still keeping thousands of pages heavily redacted, including 44 pages related to a shadowy CIA agent and a covert program that had contact with Lee Harvey Oswald just months before my uncle was killed.”

RFK Jr.’s claims received respectful coverage from right-leaning Real Clear Politicsand Greg Gutfeld of Fox News Radio, but has not yet been fact checked by Polifact (which has refuted his claims about the dangers of the Covid vaccine, as has FactCheck.org.)

So JFK Facts will examine the historical record.

What does the factual record of JFK’s assassination tell us about RFK Jr.’s claim? What is the evidence of CIA involvement? Is it overwhelming? Is it a KGB disinformation operation? And who is this “shadowy CIA agent”?

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

‘Overwhelming’ Evidence?

The new records of JFK assassination released since the 1990s lend credence to—but do not prove—RFK Jr.’s allegations of CIA complicity.

These new files, unearthed by the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB), do not reveal a CIA plot but they reveal significant new facts not reported by major news organizations and not generally known to the public. 

The new records show that certain senior undercover CIA officers—including bitter Kennedy enemies —knew far, far more about the president’s accused killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, than they ever acknowledged to investigators or friendly news organizations.

A Pentagon file released in 1997 shows that in mid-1963 the Joint Chiefs conceived and approved false flag operations (code name Operation Northwoods) to deploy “trusted covert operatives” to stage a spectacular attack on a U.S. target and arrange for the blame to fall on Cuba. The goal wax to deceptively advance the policy favored by generals and opposed by JFK: a U.S. invasion.

Declassified files also show that Agency assets in a propaganda program (codename AMSPELL) were the first to link Oswald to Castro in the panicky hours after the president was gunned down in broad daylight. The New York Times reported that the AMSPELL case officer stonewalled congressional investigators about his knowledge of Oswald’s Cuban contacts.

CIA headquarters, Langley, Virginia

In addition, the ARRB took sworn testimony from doctors and other personnel involved in JFK’s autopsy, which showed egregious breaches in the photographic record. Photo technician Saundra Spencer and other witnesses established that the photographic record of JFK’s autopsy evidence has been culled of photos showing the president’s fatal wound, and thus cannot be considered reliable. Of course, this does not constitute evidence of a murder conspiracy but it is evidence of a crime—tampering with evidence—begging the question why someone would manipulate the JFK autopsy evidence? One possibility: to conceal evidence of a crime.

In its totality, the preponderance of new JFK evidence does not yield “smoking gun” proof of a conspiracy, but it does further undermine the credibility of the Warren Commission’s conclusion that the president was killed by one man alone for no reason. It raises investigative possibilities unknown to the Warren Commission or the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

All the same, RFK Jr. has overstated his case. The evidence that has come into public view since Oliver Stone’s 1992 “JFK” movie is consistent with a CIA-assisted false-flag operation designed to kill the president and lay the blame on Cuba. The evidence is not overwhelming or definitive. Rather, it is suggestive and incomplete.

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KGB Disinformation?

The claim of RFK Jr’s critics that the notion of a CIA plot against JFK originated with the Soviet intelligence service is erroneous. In fact, the notion originated with Americans who had CIA experience.

RFK Jr.s claim on Sean Hannity’s show that “it was my father’s first instinct that the CIA had killed his brother” is accurate. In his biography “RFK in His Times,” Arthur Schlesinger tells the story of RFK’s November 22 meeting with CIA director John McCone almost exactly as RFK Jr. recalls it. This was four years before the KGB disinformation operation alleged by Tim Weiner and others.

The possibility of a plot among CIA-supported Cubans against JFK was raised again by the Agency’s Miami station within days of the attack in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza. The proof came with the release of a long-secret CIA memo in December 2022. 

The memo, written by Donald Heath, a deceased undercover officer, shows that, while the White House and FBI assured the public that Oswald had acted alone and there was no evidence to the contrary, CIA officers in south Florida actively pursued suspicions that anti-Castro exiles known to the CIA were involved. These officers were not under the influence of KGB disinformation.

Heath wrote that he and his fellow officers developed lists of “persons capable of orchestrating the murder of President Kennedy in order to precipitate and armed conflict between Cuba and USA.” In other words, the CIA men investigated the possibility that Kennedy’s assassination was the result of a Northwoods-style operation to justify a war with Cuba. 

(The Heath memo belies the oft-stated claim that the recent JFK assassination files do not contain significant information. They do. You can read the Heath Memo here: “1964-65 Miami Station Action to AId USG Investigation of the Murder of John F. Kennedy.)

The possibility of CIA involvement was also raised, albeit obliquely, by President Harry Truman within a month of JFK’s assassination. In a column published in the Washington Post on December 22, 1963, Truman called for the abolition of the Agency he had signed into existence in 1947. 

The CIA had become “an operational and at time policymaking arm of the Government,” the former president wrote. As “a symbol of sinister and mysterious foreign intrigue” and the “subject of cold war enemy propaganda, the Agency had outlived its usefulness, he argued.

Former president Harry Truman in Key West, Florida (Credit: National Archives)

While Truman never linked JFK’s assassination to the CIA, his notes in the Truman Library indicate he started writing his piece on December 9, 1963, the day the FBI issued its initial report concluding Oswald acted alone. Truman’s call for CIA abolition was almost certainly motivated by the ambush in Dallas.

He was not alone. In April 1967 President Lyndon Johnson told an aide he thought the CIA was involved in JFK”s assassination. In a memo to colleagues, a senior FBI official wrote:

Excerpt from an FBI report, April 4, 1967

So the notion that the CIA personnel were complicit in Kennedy’ murder—while encouraged by communist sources—did not originate with the KGB. It first voiced by well-informed Americans who had experience working for or with the CIA.

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‘Shadowy’ CIA Agent?

RFK Jr.s claim that Biden is still keeping thousands of pages of JFK files “heavily redacted” is accurate.

The National Archives database indicates that some 4,400 assassination-related records still contain redactions, some of them quite extensive. For example the CIA is still censoring more than a page of Arthur Schlesinger’s 1961 memo for JFK on “CIA Reorganization.”

RFK’s Jr. statement that the CIA is withholding “44 pages related to a shadowy CIA agent and a covert program that had contact with Lee Harvey Oswald just months before my uncle was killed” is inaccurate but understated.

As I reported here last November, the CIA has “denied in full” 44 documents—not 44 pages—from the administrative file of George Joannides, undercover officer who ran the AMSPELL program in 1963 when his agents had repeated encounters with Oswald in the summer of 1963. 

Whether Joannides, who died in 1990, can fairly be described as “shadowy” is a judgment call. He certainly obstructed the House Select Committee on Assassinations, according to G. Robert Blakey, head of the HSCA investigation.

CIA officer George Joannides, left, received a CIA medal in 1981 after stonewalling JFK investigators (Credit: CIA)

An ARRB staffer who reviewed the Joannides file in 1998 stated that it contained no information about Oswald or the assassination. What the review board didn’t know was the that the file contains extensive still-classified information about the AMSPELL program which publicized Oswald’s pro-Castro activities before and after JFK was killed. 

Judge John Tunheim, a federal judge who chaired the ARRB from 1994 to 1998, told President Biden in a letter last December that the CIA had “deliberately misled” the board about the Joannides file. “The Joannides file absolutely needs to be released in full,” Tunheim wrote.

In response to the JFK Facts story, the CIA issued a statement to favored Washington news organizations claiming

The assertion that CIA has been holding, and has not disclosed, a set of documents about Lee Harvey Oswald that were part of now-deceased, former CIA officer George Joannides’ files in the JFK Collection is false.

The CIA’s denial is technically accurate and wholly misleading. The 44 Joannides documents that the CIA is withholding were not—and are not—part of the JFK Collection at National Archives. Despite Judge Tunheim’s recommendation, the CIA refuses to turn over the 44 documents to the National Archives. 

In other words, the CIA is holding, and has not disclosed, a set of assassination-related documents related to a CIA covert program that came to involved with Kennedy’s accused killer.

I filed a Mandatory Declassification Review request with the CIA for these documents to the CIA in June 2020. Three years later, the Agency has yet to respond.

Will the Joannides files confirm or refute RFK Jr’s allegations of CIA involvement in JFK’s assassination? Only full disclosure can answer the question.

 

[Mark Knight]

Jeff Morley is all about getting to the truth behind the JFK assassination. I have the utmost respect for him.

[James DiEugenio]

RFK JR is getting worldwide attention on this issue.

 

REN TV, one of the biggest broadcasters in Russia, just called me and did an interview right off the bat.

I told them, hey Bobby's campaign is not about this issue, but he was destined to be asked these questions.  Its not like he was seeking publicity for it.

But when he was asked, he did not dodge the question.  And that makes him honest and courageous. 

He does not want to get into a back and forth on the evidence, so he referred everyone to a  good book on the case, JFK and the Unspeakable.

I then added that when he mentioned it, that book went to number 7 on Amazon and its 16 years old. 

This case will not go away.  Because it was not just a personal tragedy but an epic tragedy.

Edited May 12, 2023 by James DiEugenio

[Paul Brancato]

17 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

RFK JR is getting worldwide attention on this issue.

 

REN TV, one of the biggest broadcasters in Russia, just called me and did an interview right off the bat.

I told them, hey Bobby's campaign is not about this issue, but he was destined to be asked these questions.  Its not like he was seeking publicity for it.

But when he was asked, he did not dodge the question.  And that makes him honest and courageous. 

He does not want to get into a back and forth on the evidence, so he referred everyone to a  good book on the case, JFK and the Unspeakable.

I then added that when he mentioned it, that book went to number 7 on Amazon and its 16 years old. 

This case will not go away.  Because it was not just a personal tragedy but an epic tragedy.

Almost 60 years have passed. It was an epic tragedy. Yet of all my friends and family - 100’s - I can only think of one friend that agrees with me. And yet most of them do agree when I say this country is falling apart. Most of them don’t fall for American exceptionalism, and most question the Warren Commission report. They just don’t connect the dots. I’m almost thinking that even if RFK Jr didn’t come into this intending to answer questions about his uncle’s murder, he might be well served to connect those dots and make it part of his campaign. You notice that his father’s murder never makes it to the fore, yet we know that RFK Jr figured that one out too. Again, only one friend understands that Sirhan didn’t fire the fatal bullet. I hope Junior has a short statement prepared about that, including a book to recommend. He can sidestep the Sirhan issue, but carrying on his father’s legacy could be rallying cry. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Paul Brancato said:

Almost 60 years have passed. It was an epic tragedy. Yet of all my friends and family - 100’s - I can only think of one friend that agrees with me. And yet most of them do agree when I say this country is falling apart. Most of them don’t fall for American exceptionalism, and most question the Warren Commission report. They just don’t connect the dots. I’m almost thinking that even if RFK Jr didn’t come into this intending to answer questions about his uncle’s murder, he might be well served to connect those dots and make it part of his campaign. You notice that his father’s murder never makes it to the fore, yet we know that RFK Jr figured that one out too. Again, only one friend understands that Sirhan didn’t fire the fatal bullet. I hope Junior has a short statement prepared about that, including a book to recommend. He can sidestep the Sirhan issue, but carrying on his father’s legacy could be rallying cry. 

There is a genuine injustice and underdog narrative to be tapped into. A story that most human beings can relate to and connect with. I hope his speechwriter understands the power of this. 

[Benjamin Cole]

15 hours ago, Chris Barnard said:

There is a genuine injustice and underdog narrative to be tapped into. A story that most human beings can relate to and connect with. I hope his speechwriter understands the power of this. 

RFK Jr. has a shot, that's for sure. Remember, people said Trump had no shot, they said Carter had no shot. If I remember correctly, HRC was expected to beat Obama in the primaries. 

The establishment Donks and M$M will try to do a snuff job on RFK Jr. We just have to wait and see how it plays out. 

 

[K K Lane]

Morley's fact-check was well-written and informative.   I request a fact-check on an additional interview RFK Jr. just had with Russell Brand.    Link.

1)  RFK Jr. claims that Oswald was a false defector whose defection was designed to root out a CIA mole.   I've read speculation about LHO being a false defector but nothing definitive beyond that.   

2) RFK Jr. puts some stock in E. Howard Hunt's deathbed confession.   Last I heard Hunt didn't confess because he didn't get money from Kevin Costner.

3) Finally, RFK Jr. repeatedly recommends the Douglass book on JFK.   Ray McGovern also recommends the book (link to his recent interview backing up RFK Jr. on JFKA).  What's the research community's assessment of that book?

Thanks.

 

[Benjamin Cole]

6 hours ago, K K Lane said:

Morley's fact-check was well-written and informative.   I request a fact-check on an additional interview RFK Jr. just had with Russell Brand.    Link.

1)  RFK Jr. claims that Oswald was a false defector whose defection was designed to root out a CIA mole.   I've read speculation about LHO being a false defector but nothing definitive beyond that.   

2) RFK Jr. puts some stock in E. Howard Hunt's deathbed confession.   Last I heard Hunt didn't confess because he didn't get money from Kevin Costner.

3) Finally, RFK Jr. repeatedly recommends the Douglass book on JFK.   Ray McGovern also recommends the book (link to his recent interview backing up RFK Jr. on JFKA).  What's the research community's assessment of that book?

Thanks.

 

KK Lane:

IMHO you are asking the right questions. 

1. John Newman has done quite a bit of research on LHO, and strongly suspects he was an intel-state asset. His book is a good read: https://www.amazon.com/Oswald-CIA-John-Newman/dp/0786701315 The fact that the Joannides files from New Orleans are still suppressed is informative. 

CIA'er Tennent Bagley said LHO was a witting asset. 

2. What to say about Hunt's deathbed confession? Unverifiable. 

3. I am in a small minority here, but I have reservations about the Douglass book. IMHO, Douglass allows his personal politics to infringe on what he believes happened in the JFKA. He is insufficiently skeptical of witnesses he wants to believe--in fact, seems to wax religiously at times. 

There are others, such as former CIA'er James Woolsey, who do the same, opposite thing: Woolsey says the Russians did it, through LHO.  His book:

https://www.amazon.com/Operation-Dragon-Inside-Kremlins-America-ebook/dp/B084HPHCKV?

Larry Hancock's Tipping Point may be the most realistic assessment of what we know today about the JFKA. 

My bias: I suspect a very small, pre-JFKA plot, involving two or three people, and LHO as a patsy. Likely all CIA assets, of whom there were thousands at the time in the US due to the Castro situation. Hence, the necessity of a cover-up. 

Did the perps get some inside info from CIA higher-ups? Or did info leak about LHO and then was used by the perps? 

Who knows?

Just IMHO....

 

 

[Michaleen Kilroy]

It will be interesting to see if RFK Jr. can make it on a stage with President Biden and have him defend his continued withholding of the JFKA files.

Biden has a bust of his father in his office for chrissakes. How will he possibly be able to dissemble from a direct question by the son of his slain hero?

The 60-year cover-up might be in for its most direct, public and powerful challenge.

Edited May 14, 2023 by Michaleen Kilroy

[Benjamin Cole]

1 hour ago, Michaleen Kilroy said:

It will be interesting to see if RFK Jr. can make it on a stage with President Biden and have him defend his continued withholding of the JFKA files.

Biden has a bust of his father in his office for chrissakes. How will he possibly be able to dissemble from a direct question by the son of his slain hero?

The 60-year cover-up is in for its most direct, public and powerful challenge.

I would pay real money to see that set up: RFK Jr. coherently and cogently explaining to the public that President Biden is part of the JFKA cover-up, even an accessory after the fact, while Biden mumbles a response. 

[Roger Odisio]

In the last Sanders-Biden 2020 primary debate, after the nomination was essentially clinched for Biden, Bernie looked at Biden and said:  Four times in your career on the floor of the Senate, you tried to cut entitlements, including Social Security and Medicare.  Biden said, no I didn't.  Bernie (pathetically) implored, C'mon Joe, it's all over the internet; anybody can find it.  Biden repeated, no I didn't.

This was the debate that Biden announced he would pick a woman as vice president.  Post-debate that is all the media wanted to talk about. Bernie's point disappeared.

Lesson:  don't put too much stock in such events.  Biden is a skilled and practiced xxxx. 

[Benjamin Cole]

4 hours ago, Roger Odisio said:

In the last Sanders-Biden 2020 primary debate, after the nomination was essentially clinched for Biden, Bernie looked at Biden and said:  Four times in your career on the floor of the Senate, you tried to cut entitlements, including Social Security and Medicare.  Biden said, no I didn't.  Bernie (pathetically) implored, C'mon Joe, it's all over the internet; anybody can find it.  Biden repeated, no I didn't.

This was the debate that Biden announced he would pick a woman as vice president.  Post-debate that is all the media wanted to talk about. Bernie's point disappeared.

Lesson:  don't put too much stock in such events.  Biden is a skilled and practiced xxxx. 

The media alliance with the political parties is now complete. 

There are a few outfits not aligned with one or both of the two parties. The Hill and Breaking Points are read-worthy, watchable. Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, and a few more. 

In a previous era, there used to be machine politics in major US cities, and aligned local newspapers. Reading one newspaper or the next was to be transported from one reality to the next. 

BTW, Biden's Chief of Staff (Klain), top domestic policy advisor (Rice), and Secy of Labor (Walsh), and top PR lady (Psaki) have already quit. 

Biden appears in-and-out mentally. 

I can't understand taking a White House-Cabinet  position at the start of an Administration, and then quitting after less than two years. I guess in modern DC, White House jobs and Cabinet posts are just resume-builders. Much more money made elsewhere. 

So it goes...

[Anthony Thorne]

On 5/14/2023 at 1:26 PM, Benjamin Cole said:

 

1. John Newman has done quite a bit of research on LHO, and strongly suspects he was an intel-state asset. His book is a good read: https://www.amazon.com/Oswald-CIA-John-Newman/dp/0786701315 The fact that the Joannides files from New Orleans are still suppressed is informative. 

RFK Jr. did his interview with Russell Brand in front of a large bookshelf. Newman's OSWALD AND THE CIA is one of the volumes on the shelf, as is FAMILY OF SECRETS. RFK Jr. name checked the Douglass book again in the video, which currently has nearly half a million views. Pretty impressive.

Edited May 15, 2023 by Anthony Thorne

[Benjamin Cole]

2 hours ago, Anthony Thorne said:

RFK Jr. did his interview with Russell Brand in front of a large bookshelf. Newman's OSWALD AND THE CIA is one of the volumes on the shelf, as is FAMILY OF SECRETS. RFK Jr. name checked the Douglass book again in the video, which currently has nearly half a million views. Pretty impressive.

RFK Jr. is probably well read on the topic, and with 100% justification. 

I wish RFK Jr. had referenced the more politically neutral works of Newman and Hancock. 

My guess is Biden or Trump never read a book on the JFKA. 

[Anthony Thorne]

I think the Douglass book is fine. I can't think of a single Newman book I could give anyone at the moment that offers a decent overview of the full story and assassination. JFK AND VIETNAM doesn't go into detail about the assassination, OSWALD AND THE CIA won't clear up much of the overall story, and Newman's ongoing series is of marginal use right now to newcomers who might be looking for the sort of overview that the Douglass book offers. Hancock's book is good but there's probably a hundred different things that the Douglass book covers in depth which the Hancock book doesn't even mention. So for people looking for a broad overview of the story I actually agree  with RFK Jr. that the Douglass volume is a good pick.

RFK Jr. noted in either the Brand interview or another one, that once he got interested in the topic, he read something like 50 volumes on the subject, 'maybe a hundred', so he's now probably better read than most.