Uncovering Popov's Mole

[James DiEugenio]

Paul Bleau reviews the latest in John Newman's series, this one is entitled Uncovering Popov's Mole.

It poses some very provocative questions about the mole hunt.

Like was Yuri Nosenko a genuine defector or was Angleton right about the man.

Was the reason the mole was not revealed because he was Bruce Solie, in charge of the hunt?

https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/uncovering-popov-s-mole

[Michael Kalin]

Thanks Jim, finally something worth reading about Oswald, beats playing trivial pursuit with his accoutrements by a long shot.

[John Cotter]

Fascinating article.

[Pete Mellor]

18 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

It poses some very provocative questions about the mole hunt.

Like was Yuri Nosenko a genuine defector or was Angleton right about the man.

Was the reason the mole was not revealed because he was Bruce Solie, in charge of the hunt?

UPM is a profound piece of work, the review by Paul says it all.

Was Nosenko a genuine defector?  I go with Newman, that he was a provocation.  Angleton was right about him because at that time he was heavily influenced by the revelations from Golitsyn that "future Soviet defectors would be false."

Was the reason the mole was not revealed because he was Bruce Solie, in charge of the hunt?  Place your bets.  I'm 2-1 on.  & Nosenko gets married to Solie's wife's sister!

Edward Clare Petty's CI/SIG report to CIA in 1975 stated that the 'mole' in CIA, that Angleton had been hunting for 25 years was, in fact, Angleton!  Was this the impetus for Director William Colby to firstly remove Angleton from the Israeli desk & then quickly retire Angleton completely in December of '75?

UPM is spy wars not really JFKA, but as complex as any le Carre novel. The chronology fluctuates, so requires careful reading and some re-reading too.  But, is a must read for all interested in the JFK case.  Can't wait for Vol V Armageddon.  

Edited June 14, 2023 by Pete Mellor
info

[Gene Kelly]

Quite a new set of facts to digest.  No wonder that CIA has obfuscated and withheld information all these years ... if Solie was the mole, and Nosenko was a false/dangle, then CIA was severely penetrated and compromised (and for many years after the assassination). That fact alone reflects poorly on the Agency.  And perhaps Solie was not the only mole within the CIA. 

This also begs the eternal question of what Oswald's role really was ... and why did "they" still select him as a patsy?    

[Paul Cummings]

33 minutes ago, Pete Mellor said:

UPM is a profound piece of work, the review by Paul says it all.

Was Nosenko a genuine defector?  I go with Newman, that he was a provocation.  Angleton was right about him because at that time he was heavily influenced by the revelations from Golitsyn that "future Soviet defectors would be false."

Was the reason the mole was not revealed because he was Bruce Solie, in charge of the hunt?  Place your bets.  I'm 2-1 on.  & Nosenko gets married to Solie's wife's sister!

Edward Clare Petty's CI/SIG report to CIA in 1975 stated that the 'mole' in CIA, that Angleton had been hunting for 25 years was, in fact, Angleton!  Was this the impetus for Director William Colby to firstly remove Angleton from the Israeli desk & then quickly retire Angleton completely in December of '75?

UPM is spy wars not really JFKA, but as complex as any le Carre novel. The chronology fluctuates, so requires careful reading and some re-reading too.  But, is a must read for all interested in the JFK case.  Can't wait for Vol V Armageddon.  

Angleton's relationship with Israel shall we say was interesting?

[Pete Mellor]

7 minutes ago, Paul Cummings said:

Angleton's relationship with Israel shall we say was interesting?

Treasonous with regard to the theft of weapons grade uranium from NUMEC.  Treasonous with regard to his close one to one meetings with Ben Gurion & his none reporting about Dimona, totally against JFK's nuclear non-proliferation policy. As Meir Amit stated in his memoir, "Angleton was the biggest Zionist of the lot."

[Paul Brancato]

Jim - very interesting article and I’m glad that Mr Bleau had the patience and fortitude to read and analyze this book. Newman’s writing is so dense I find it near impossible to read and comprehend. But having read this, and other commentary on Popov’s mole, I’m left wondering how it is that Angleton could be so severely duped not once but twice. His reputation was as a master of Intel ops. Am I correct in asserting that whatever Bruce Solie was up to it was with Angleton’s knowledge? I’ve thought for a long time that Angleton was the mole. But surely his sympathies didn’t lie with the Soviets. In the past I was given to speculations about the whole Spy vs Spy Game, and the Cold War itself, being some kind of smoke and mirrors deception to keep the US on permanent war footing. In order to fit Angleton into that scenario I have to imagine that the Soviet hard liners benefitted too. But there is a wild card in this, which is Angleton’s peculiar attachment to Israel. I’m not an anti-Semite, and even have sympathy for the state of Israel itself despite misgivings about their treatment of Palestinians, within and without their borders. Why would Angleton personally help Israel gain nukes? I struggle to put this in a comprehensible framework. Is there some way that this relationship sheds light on his apparently inept handling of US Counterintelligence? 

[Ron Bulman]

34 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

Jim - very interesting article and I’m glad that Mr Bleau had the patience and fortitude to read and analyze this book. Newman’s writing is so dense I find it near impossible to read and comprehend. But having read this, and other commentary on Popov’s mole, I’m left wondering how it is that Angleton could be so severely duped not once but twice. His reputation was as a master of Intel ops. Am I correct in asserting that whatever Bruce Solie was up to it was with Angleton’s knowledge? I’ve thought for a long time that Angleton was the mole. But surely his sympathies didn’t lie with the Soviets. In the past I was given to speculations about the whole Spy vs Spy Game, and the Cold War itself, being some kind of smoke and mirrors deception to keep the US on permanent war footing. In order to fit Angleton into that scenario I have to imagine that the Soviet hard liners benefitted too. But there is a wild card in this, which is Angleton’s peculiar attachment to Israel. I’m not an anti-Semite, and even have sympathy for the state of Israel itself despite misgivings about their treatment of Palestinians, within and without their borders. Why would Angleton personally help Israel gain nukes? I struggle to put this in a comprehensible framework. Is there some way that this relationship sheds light on his apparently inept handling of US Counterintelligence? 

Well said Paul.  Reading Newman is necessarily slow for me to absorb his (excellent) work.  I still don't know about the whole mole story.  I've not studied it but read a little.  I also still don't consider Angleton as inept.  He did manage to keep the Oswald file close enough to his vest that we still don't know what really happened, and managed to give Israel the enriched uranium among other things.  Maybe devious is a better word for him, Dulles, Harvey and more.  

[James DiEugenio]

Paul and Ron, I hate to say this but I cannot reply since I did not read the book yet.

Its like 34 bucks and there is no  e version yet.

But I thought John's idea deserved exposure so I had Paul write about it.

[David Cooper]

An alternative understanding of Angleton’s relationship with the early Zionists and Israel is in the book by John Loftus and Mark Aarons, “The Secret War Against the Jews”. Loftus and Aarons have high level connections with the intelligence world, and reveal that Angleton, Dulles and some others were discovered and blackmailed by the Zionists (later were organized into Mossad) for their work in Italy at the end of the War working with the Vatican helping smuggle wealth and war criminals out of Germany. Angleton was not a true friend to Israel in their account. This explains some of his puzzling actions. 

[Paul Brancato]

20 hours ago, David Cooper said:

An alternative understanding of Angleton’s relationship with the early Zionists and Israel is in the book by John Loftus and Mark Aarons, “The Secret War Against the Jews”. Loftus and Aarons have high level connections with the intelligence world, and reveal that Angleton, Dulles and some others were discovered and blackmailed by the Zionists (later were organized into Mossad) for their work in Italy at the end of the War working with the Vatican helping smuggle wealth and war criminals out of Germany. Angleton was not a true friend to Israel in their account. This explains some of his puzzling actions. 

That is fascinating. I’m going to search out that book 

[Anthony Thorne]

Fascinating to read they were using blackmail to get those results back then. I guess if it works, it works. This is what many people cite as being a key thing with the Jeffrey Epstein situation (ie his murder and probable cover-up), that Epstein was a guy who helped blackmail many high profile business people and politicians by getting them on camera sleeping with underage models. Once they'd done it, Epstein and his pals would say, great, now you need to do these things for us - and you're welcome to keep sleeping with those young women, come to our island if you want - or we can leak the tapes and ruin your career. Whitney Webb is all over this stuff at the moment, but I haven't kept track of every detail.

I have the ebooks of Newman's earlier volumes, but not this one. I do hope his next volume starts to feel more like a JFK assassination book, as he's taking the long slow route from a good sized distance. But his books are good books and I've learned new things in each one.

Edited June 16, 2023 by Anthony Thorne

[David McLean]

I am currently reading the Aaron’s/Loftus book and they really put the Dulles boys in the frame with National Socialists. John Loftus’s America’s National Socialist Secret is revelatory as he had high level archival clearance. His co-authored novel The  Witness Tree is his hypothetical reconstruction of the UN recognition of Israel thru blackmail.

I am dead curious how this ties in with Nasser, Skorzeny and the US wooing of Egypt, and Skorzeny’s later work for the Israel. 

One thought that keeps recurring is the extent and significance of these suppressed National Socialist linkages in our understanding of the Cold War and its key moments — the Cuban missile crisis and the JFK assassination.

 

 

[Paul Brancato]

6 hours ago, David McLean said:

I am currently reading the Aaron’s/Loftus book and they really put the Dulles boys in the frame with National Socialists. John Loftus’s America’s National Socialist Secret is revelatory as he had high level archival clearance. His co-authored novel The  Witness Tree is his hypothetical reconstruction of the UN recognition of Israel thru blackmail.

I am dead curious how this ties in with Nasser, Skorzeny and the US wooing of Egypt, and Skorzeny’s later work for the Israel. 

One thought that keeps recurring is the extent and significance of these suppressed National Socialist linkages in our understanding of the Cold War and its key moments — the Cuban missile crisis and the JFK assassination.

 

 

I just started the book too. I have the same questions. 
Anthony - completely agree that’s what Epstein was doing, and why he is gone and the story buried.