United States Army cover-story E. Howard Hunt?!

[Paul Brancato]

*Full credit to Robert Ward Montenegro for bringing these documents to my attention...

 

 

 

• https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10120-10347.pdf

 

This first document clearly states that roughly after 21 September 1962, the CIA's Records & Services Division provided Chief, Reports & Publications, Domestic Operations Division Support, Directorate of Plans, (C/R&P/DODS/DD/P), Everette Howard Hunt Jr. with false US Army "...military cover backstop..."  

Specifically, the US Army unit that C/R&P/DODS/DD/P Hunt was operating under was called "...US Army Element, Composite Operations Group..." 

It should be stressed that a one "...James N. Franklin, Chief, Military Cover, Central Cover Branch..." of CIA was involved in the authenticating and approval process for these documents, so the military unit C/R&P/DODS/DD/P Hunt was hiding in may have been a product of CIA proper.

This document may be a very strong indicator that Everette Howard Hunt Jr. was hiding covert operations under official United States Army intelligence traffic.

Meaning simply that, all of these document hounds wailing over the release of CIA documents are squawking up the wrong tree.

Perhaps, as a research community, we ought to be screaming for US Army intelligence documents, not CIA... 

 

Edited July 2, 2023 by Paul Brancato

[Paul Brancato]

• https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10119-10099.pdf

 

 

The above document is a follow-up supporting document that clearly states that Reports & Publications, Domestic Operations Division Support, Directorate of Plans, (R&P/DODS/DD/P) chief, Everette Howard Hunt Jr. was, as a point of fact, operating under United States "...Army cover..."

Edited July 2, 2023 by Paul Brancato

[Joe Bauer]

Do all here dismiss E. Howard Hunt's taped, near end-of-life confessional about his team's involvement in "The Big Event" including his "bench warmer" role and his placement of LBJ and Cord Meyer in the hierarchy of it's planning?

If so, please explain why you do...and your thoughts as to why Hunt would propose and create such an earth-shaking confessional?

If it was all a hoax...why would Hunt perpetrate it and state it on tape no less?

And even include a diagram of hierarchy drawn by his own hand?

That tape and it's accompanying diagram is universally treated as if it doesn't exist. 

Sorry, the tape and the diagram does exist.

And the ignoring of that Hunt confessional reality impugns the integrity of those that do imo.

Before the Hunt "Big Event" tape and diagram...how many JFKA researchers and writers ever included the name "Cord Meyer" in their possible "guilty men" scenario speculations?

Hunt not only mentions Meyer but even offers his opinion as to Meyer's specific motive for wanting JFK killed.

That of a jealous husband who lost his wife's affection to JFK.

Was Hunt the first to offer this Cord Meyer involvement and motive story?

Or, had someone before him presented this and in a published way?

 

 

Edited July 2, 2023 by Joe Bauer

[Leslie Sharp]

2 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

*Full credit to Robert Ward Montenegro for bringing these documents to my attention...

 

 

 

• https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10120-10347.pdf

 

This first document clearly states that roughly after 21 September 1962, the CIA's Records & Services Division provided Chief, Readiness & Plans, Domestic Operations Division Support, Directorate of Plans, (C/R&P/DODS/DD/P), Everette Howard Hunt Jr. with false US Army "...military cover backstop..."  

Specifically, the US Army unit that C/R&P/DODS/DD/P Hunt was operating under was called "...US Army Element, Composite Operations Group..." 

It should be stressed that a one "...James N. Franklin, Chief, Military Cover, Central Cover Branch..." of CIA was involved in the authenticating and approval process for these documents, so the military unit C/R&P/DODS/DD/P Hunt was hiding in may have been a product of CIA proper.

This document may be a very strong indicator that Everette Howard Hunt Jr. was hiding covert operations under official United States Army intelligence traffic.

Meaning simply that, all of these document hounds wailing over the release of CIA documents are squawking up the wrong tree.

Perhaps, as a research community, we ought to be screaming for US Army intelligence documents, not CIA... 

 

Great find. This could very well solve a number of conundrums. Kudos to Monty!

Edited July 2, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Douglas Caddy]

 

 

From the article: 

Mr. Hunt. “Well, I note that the colonel has said that he was never involved in any assassination planning between 1949 and 1951.

     “Now of course in my recollection I put the period of time several years later, and I am always suspicious of non-service CIA record for a paramilitary personnel. And I would say Lucian Conein, for example, is an individual who was apparently in and out of the CIA and military capacity for a long period of time, from my own apparent devotion to this career of foreign service, in the foreign service and out of the foreign service to the Department of the Army and back.

     “So a mere referral of not having been assigned to the CIA at a particular time is something that I think would bear looking into, as it did in the case of Colonel Pash.”

[Paul Brancato]

A message from Robert Ward Montenegro:

"So pleased to see you respond to this post Mr. Caddy, hope I didn't sap and impurify all of your precious bodily fluids..."

 

Edited July 2, 2023 by Paul Brancato

[Joe Bauer]

No takers regards my E. Howard Hunt "Big Event" confessional question eh?

Typical.

No one wants to commit to it's integrity...let alone it's existence.

[Paul Brancato]

57 minutes ago, Joe Bauer said:

No takers regards my E. Howard Hunt "Big Event" confessional question eh?

Typical.

No one wants to commit to it's integrity...let alone it's existence.

A message from Robert Ward Montenegro:

"Hello Mr. Bauer, this is Robert Montenegro—as you can see, Paul is allowing me to post on the forum, despite me being banned—to the point of your question about Mr. Hunt's death-bed confession.

I personally believe it is a limited-hangout of sorts—that is to say, elements of it may fall into the realm of fact.

However, we must consider that he was, at one point, Central Intelligence Agency's top cover & deception officer, and by virtue of that fact, he is a professional narrative fabricator and cannot, under any circumstances, be trusted any farther than you can kick his fetid corpse.

I personally find it difficult to believe, for instance, that Lyndon Baines Johnson, the perverted scoundrel he was, had anything whatsoever to do with the murder of President Kennedy (even though his buddies in the construction consortium Raymond International-Morrison-Knudsen-Brown & Root-J.A. Jones stood to gain ten billion US taxpayer dollars in Vietnam).

I would say, to a high level of probability, that if Everette Howard Hunt Jr. said something to the general public, death-bed or not, it was excrement.

Of course, on 22 November 1963, E. Howard Hunt was in Dealey Plaza:

 

E. Howard Hunt is the man standing on the intersection of Houston & Main Street, whose face is covered up by the motorcycle policeman–incidentally, the tall man with the suit, standing to the right rear of Hunt is "Jerry" Patrick Hemming.

 

 

 

Above is another photograph of E. Howard Hunt, this one taken after the murder of President Kennedy, just strolling, hands in pockets, in the middle of Elm Street.

 

The fascist egomaniac that he was, Hunt never seemed to change his wardrobe—here is a photograph of E. Howard Hunt from around ten years later, during the aftermath of Operation Gemstone..."

Edited July 2, 2023 by Paul Brancato

[Larry Hancock]

Joe, I will answer the Hunt question and do so to some extent already did in my second edition of SWHT.   Hunt's story is bogus and the genesis of its content - which was nothing more than a sketchy org chart with a handful of names - was in a response to a genuine offer to pay him the million dollars he had teased the press about over the  years, claiming he knew about the assassination.   The offer came from an entertainment figure who had the money and it was genuine.  After some two years with Hunt dancing around and providing no details he finally made out the little chart with names, giving nothing to back it up or to substantiate his recruitment by Morales. At that point the entertainment figure bailed and Hunt eventually gave the names to his son. 

We had a lengthy presentation on the details of all that at a Lancer conference years ago - from one of the folks directly involved with Hunt and the entertainer.  I've gone though this several times in various places but nobody wants to hear that it was just one more case of Hunt being a talker and an adventure writer - as it turned out what he really wanted was to get the entertainer to put together a book deal for him because Hunt was pretty well broke at the time.

Now having said that I would not at all doubt that Hunt heard some gossip about the conspiracy and CIA officer involvement, even to the point of some of the names, like Morales.  But Hunt was generally considered a blabber mouth by the field guys in Miami (where he had already been involved in more than one security issue),  in one document Morales even comments that Hunt would spill his guts over Watergate because nobody could trust Hunt or his poor trade-craft.  With that endorsement its especially hard to think Hunt's story of Morales recruiting him seriously...

  - that's all I have to say here - but you do have an answer from me at least...

[Douglas Caddy]

9 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

• https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10119-10099.pdf

 

 

The above document is a follow-up supporting document that clearly states that Reports & Publications, Domestic Operations Division Support, Directorate of Plans, (R&P/DODS/DD/P) chief, Everette Howard Hunt Jr. was, as a point of fact, operating under United States "...Army cover..."

St. John Hunt, son of Howard and Dorothy, published his fascinating biography of his mother, titled "Dorothy" in 2014. It is difficult to find a copy now because there was a recent rush to purchase it after "The Plumbers" became a TV hit. The book covers the work that Dorothy did as a CIA employee. The CIA's internal profile of Dorothy portrayed her as "An Amoral and Dangerous Woman."  I had a recent phone conversation with St. John in which I told him that my conclusion was that she had figured out that at its root the Watergate break-in and coverup was a clandestine CIA operation and for that reason she had to be killed.

From St. John's book: [Charles] Colson: "I think that the CIA killed Mrs. Hunt." Time Magazine, July 8, 1974.

Conversation between Charles Colson and Saint John Hunt 2007: 

Hunt: Mr. Colson, what can you tell me about the Time Magazine quote regarding the death of my mother?

Colson: I will only say -- and this is for our protection -- that I stand by my quote.

[Jonathan Cohen]

Larry, thank you, as always, for being a voice of reason. It's really sad that people believe nonsense such as the CIA murdering Dorothy Hunt

[Joe Bauer]

Thank you all for posting.

All I can do is speculate and express my own opinion regards the Hunt confession story.

My gut feeling is that there are still at least some reasons ( if only a few) to not totally dismiss Hunt's JFKA story.

Yes, we all know about Hunt's disinformation specialty background as well as David Phillips.

He was also a wannabe Ian Fleming and he had trained himself to write Bond type spy books with exaggerated stories and characters.

Those facts certainly affirm his ability and possibly an inclination to have made the whole confessional up.

And Hunt was very money orientated in his mid-career days.

He obviously liked the good life for himself and his family. The Country Club lifestyle. Large estates in the country. Cadillacs, cigars, private schools for his kids.  He probably had his Bond type sexual dalliances in his travels.

Hunt was clearly extremely financially stressed and desperate in his last invalid days.

So it would make perfect sense that he wanted to get that one big last payday for his family before he died and needed to present Kevin Costner a great story to get it.

All logical reasons to easily believe he made this guilty party JFKA story up.

We all also know Hunt would lie his head off in the name of patriotic duty.

G. Gordon Liddy same thing.

Yet, there are some accounts mentioned by some in Hunt's circle that I believe collaborate at least a few aspects to his confessional story.

Both Marita Lorenz and Frank Sturgis mention running guns to Texas and staying in safe houses on a Southern route days before the JFKA.

Marita claims she dropped out of the group, sensing something too dangerous about it. 

Hunt mentions this traveling safe house scenario at the same time.

He mentions only being a "bench warmer" for the group.

There was movement of covert agents through the South ( at that time ) according to all three accounts stating this.

As imaginative as E. Howard Hunt was in making up stories I still think his LBJ, Cord Meyer connection was too specific.

Why throw Cord Meyer into the mix?

Very few people ever heard of Cord Meyer before Hunt's story.

Doug Caddy told us that Hunt also didn't personally like Cord Meyer.

He had something less than flattering to say about Meyer upon Meyer's entrance to a private club Caddy and Hunt were dining at.

I've read St. John Hunt's account of his very frictional and angry interaction with Kevin Costner when Costner came to get E. Hunt's story.

St. John Hunt and his father were completely insulted by the pittance amount Costner offered for the story.

I mean it was so cheap...I agree with dad and son when they felt it was insulting.

It all blew up.

Who do you believe in this tale?

I think LBJ was so corrupt and ruthless, ordering or okaying murders was definitely possible on his end. Getting his protege Malcolm Wallace off of a jury reached murder conviction is just one true story that reveals his corruption in spades.

I also believe LBJ's long time mistress regards her claim that LBJ "growled" into her ear the late night of 11,21,1963 that "after tomorrow those blankity-blank Kennedys will never embarrass me again. That's no threat, that's a promise." 

Was Hunt throwing in Cord Meyer in his guilty men JFKA story to get back at him for some reason?

And the murder of Mary Meyer just adds another connecting thread to the Cord Meyer mystery.

IMO, the Mary Meyer killing was a classic professional hit.

One carried out in broad daylight along a public walk way yet in an area where there were no eyewitnesses.

Washington Post editor Ben Bradley races to break into Mary Meyer's art studio within hours of her death and finds spectral James Jesus Angleton already there!?  Both of them looking for Mary Meyer's dairy?  PLEASE...

 

 

 

 

 

Edited July 3, 2023 by Joe Bauer

[Matt Allison]

Hunt's deathbed story is entirely bogus.

That does not mean there isn't some truth to him being connected to the JFKA.

CIA internal review is said to have shown Hunt took a sick day on 11/22/63; he was at work the day before, and back at work the following Monday.

There are better resolution photos of the one above that show the man crossing the street, and it most certainly looks like Hunt, in a coat and hat seen in later photos of him.

Hunt hated Kennedy because of the BOP. Hunt was a hero to the exiles. Did someone tell him he could witness revenge if he happened to find himself in Dealey Plaza on 11/22/63?  Who knows.

Btw, Hunt was assigned a bigshot CIA lawyer less than 2 months after the Watergate break-in:

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10105-10259.pdf

[James DiEugenio]

Interesting documents, thanks to Paul for posting them and Montenegro for finding them.

It does look like CIA is using Army Intel as a cover.

 

[Douglas Caddy]

1 hour ago, Matt Allison said:

Hunt's deathbed story is entirely bogus.

That does not mean there isn't some truth to him being connected to the JFKA.

CIA internal review is said to have shown Hunt took a sick day on 11/22/63; he was at work the day before, and back at work the following Monday.

There are better resolution photos of the one above that show the man crossing the street, and it most certainly looks like Hunt, in a coat and hat seen in later photos of him.

Hunt hated Kennedy because of the BOP. Hunt was a hero to the exiles. Did someone tell him he could witness revenge if he happened to find himself in Dealey Plaza on 11/22/63?  Who knows.

Btw, Hunt was assigned a bigshot CIA lawyer less than 2 months after the Watergate break-in:

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2023/104-10105-10259.pdf

Howard Hunt in his autobiography, American Spy, makes no mention of Hanson as being his attorney at any time during Watergate. I represented Hunt from June 17, 1972, until I was subpoenaed to appear before the Federal Grand Jury on June 28, 1972. William Bittman, a famous former Justice Department prosecutor, immediately succeeded me in representing Hunt and did so through Hunt pleading guilty in January 1973 at the start of the first Watergate trial. I and my two attorneys met twice with Bittman during this period. We did not learn until the coverup broke that Bittman took the $25,000 hush money that I had refused to accept. He was later named an unindicted co-conspirator in the coverup.

If you read my Introduction to my forthcoming book, In the First Hour of Watergate, Hunt was indispensable until he was expendable in the CIA's plan to set up Nixon for the fall that he took. The CIA wanted to keep its distance from Hunt after the case broke.

There is indeed a batter photograph of Hunt crossing Elm Street immediately after JFK's assassination.

 

 

Edited July 3, 2023 by Douglas Caddy