CONFIRMED: Vice President of PERMINDEX, Dr. Ernst W. Imfeld, was a Nazi intelligence asset...

[Leslie Sharp]

9 hours ago, Robert Montenegro said:

 

I appreciate the heads-up about the datebook, but this thread is about Dr. Ernst Imfeld, and his documented Nazi intelligence connections.

 

I've examined the datebook to it's logical end, but unfortunately, there are too many hidden variables in it—in the sense that the bulk of the entries are open to multiple, sometimes conflicting, interpretations.

 

As a documents hound, I can only extrapolate based off of known variables.

 

That being said, the datebook itself is a very useful tool, but only if you know the entire saga of the individual persons mentioned in it—and we know so little about people like, Dalzell, Wilson-Hudson, & Lafitte.

 

Lafitte truly was a spook's spook, and even in death, what little that is known about him, I am terrified to speak about him so lightly.

 

If Jean-Pierre Lafitte was not the devil, he was a very good substitute...

 

 

@Robert Montenegro
I responded to Paul's inquiry of you on this thread about Pierre Lafitte's role as chef at the Plimsoll.

I was actually unclear why he asked you and not me directly, so I copied you in.

I know you've not studied Lafitte in depth.  I have, as had Hank.

Lafitte was pivotal to the Lancelot Project. He was not "military" and was only considered a "special employee" when contracted by various three letter acronym agencies.  He had other income sources as we know.  It is for that reason I will continue to push back at any interpretation of the Lafitte datebook entries that might serve a hypothesis that Dallas was a "military" coup.  It was not, by definition. Distorting Hank's investigation would be unconscionable. 

To be clear, Hank never characterized Pierre Lafitte as the devil incarnate because it's a simplistic phrase that fails to capture Lafitte accurately. 

Edited July 21, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Paul Brancato]

I mentioned Lafitte in conjunction with Clay Shaw, Permindex member. 

[Greg Doudna]

13 hours ago, Robert Montenegro said:

I appreciate the heads-up about the datebook, but this thread is about Dr. Ernst Imfeld, and his documented Nazi intelligence connections.

I've examined the datebook to it's logical end, but unfortunately, there are too many hidden variables in it—in the sense that the bulk of the entries are open to multiple, sometimes conflicting, interpretations.

As a documents hound, I can only extrapolate based off of known variables.

That being said, the datebook itself is a very useful tool, but only if you know the entire saga of the individual persons mentioned in it—and we know so little about people like, Dalzell, Wilson-Hudson, & Lafitte.

Lafitte truly was a spook's spook, and even in death, what little that is known about him, I am terrified to speak about him so lightly.

If Jean-Pierre Lafitte was not the devil, he was a very good substitute...

Just as friendly curiosity, what about the datebook persuaded you it is authentic ("a very useful tool")?

Also, what about Jean-Pierre Lafitte makes him a good substitute for the devil, and "terrified to speak about him so lightly" and a "spook's spook"? Any documents that support any of those three things? 

So far as I can tell, the unsubstantiated datebook aside, Lafitte was (a) a gourmet chef, and (b) a high-level con in financial schemes divesting wealthy people of some of their money, no evidence of violence involved, just chicanery, serially done to a fine art with flair. Like a lot of cons, he worked both sides of the law.

What convinced you to see more to him than that?

Time magazine, 1969 on him--not a violent crime mentioned. Just the kind of man from whom you wouldn't want to buy a luxury car, a work of art, or a claimed historical artifact ... but where's the terror? In terms of the JFK assassination, I cannot see that he has anything to do with anything in terms of vetted evidence. 

"police records show that he was arrested 23 times in 48 years for fraud, confidence schemes and burglary, they also show that he was a valuable undercover man for the Federal Government. He helped trap some of the late Vito Genovese's mafiosi for the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. He also posed as a buyer for the FBI, luring thieves into selling him stolen paintings and jewelry and then testifying against them in court..."(https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,941724,00.html)

 

[Leslie Sharp]

@Greg Doudna Perhaps if you had read Coup in Dallas you would know more about Pierre Lafitte than you've tossed out in this vacuous "just a friendly curiousity" comment.  

As I recall, instead of reading the record of Albarelli's investigation, beginning with his introduction in the Front Matter of Coup which spells out in detail the circumstances of his coming into possession of certain of Lafitte's private records, you set about to ridicule the co-author's statement on provenance and authenticity of Hank's primary source material — a physical instrument you never laid eyes on.

Now, here you are, weighing in on a thread related to a Nazi intel agent who sat on the board of Permindex — a deliberate attempt to distract from the essence of Monté's research? — and instead of pursuing discussion about Imfeld, you ask someone who is not authorized to speak on behalf of Albarelli's Coup in Dallas  about a datebook you disparaged under the cloak of academic professionalism within ten days of publication of Coup.

At the risk of being accused of paranoia, I'm going to ask, what's up, Mr. Doudna? Are you hovering over the datebook and Coup in Dallas for a reason?

For more on Lafitte, read Albarelli's breakthrough investigation: A Terrible Mistake: The Murder of Frank Olson and the CIA's Secret Cold War Experiments and come back with more than idle "friendly" curiosity.  

btw, the TIME magazine was a puff piece, and arguably a cover story to get Lafitte out of New Orleans post the Garrison investigation into Clay Shaw. Any TIME reporter worth their salt would have dug a little deeper to find Lafitte's history with James Phelan who together with Pierre published a popular series of accounts of the latter's escapades in Las Vegas.  From there, said reporter would /or should have known that Phelan had written a "puff piece" on the new NOLA DA Garrison back in 1963, only to join Garrison's team investigating Shaw several years later   . . . only to break into the DA's office with the help of his sidekick Pierre Lafitte.

@Robert Montenegro and apologies to our host for the diversion.  Back to Imfeld!

Edited July 22, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Ron Bulman]

Not to digress here Robert, but Lesile brought him up.

I'm sure she, you and many others know Phelan was pretty much destroyed many years ago in Destiny Betrayed, James Phelan Declassified, pgs. 243-249.  An associate of Hugh Aynesworth who rented the house in New Orleans during the Shaw trial where he, Sheridan and Aynesworth held court each evening with the other reporters in town providing them with hors d'oeuvres and likely libations, pg. 289.

I wonder who paid for the house, food, booze (?), like I wonder who paid for the house Joannides kept there in the summer of 63.

[Leslie Sharp]

21 hours ago, Robert Montenegro said:

 

I appreciate the heads-up about the datebook, but this thread is about Dr. Ernst Imfeld, and his documented Nazi intelligence connections.

 

I've examined the datebook to it's logical end, but unfortunately, there are too many hidden variables in it—in the sense that the bulk of the entries are open to multiple, sometimes conflicting, interpretations.

 

As a documents hound, I can only extrapolate based off of known variables.

 

That being said, the datebook itself is a very useful tool, but only if you know the entire saga of the individual persons mentioned in it—and we know so little about people like, Dalzell, Wilson-Hudson, & Lafitte.

 

Lafitte truly was a spook's spook, and even in death, what little that is known about him, I am terrified to speak about him so lightly.

 

If Jean-Pierre Lafitte was not the devil, he was a very good substitute...

 

 

@Robert Montenegro @Greg Doudna . . .  and we know so little about people like, Dalzell, Wilson-Hudson, & Lafitte.

Respectfully, I have to take exception with this statement. If you mean "we" document hounds have yet to identify government records to implicate them in the plot to kill Kennedy, I would agree.  But to assert wholesale that "we know so little about them," is rather insulting and fails to take into account the information we have accumulated by simply following the datebook entries to the letter. 

For example, we have letters from Dalzell (an oil field worker by trade) to a woman he conned out of her life savings, one of which is written from his mother's home "out west" just after the assassination waxing lyrical about what a tragic loss for the nation. It's reasonable to suspect Dalzell was laying tracks of some kind, not dissimilar to Tom Davis's arrest in Tangier. We have documents to confirm that Dalzell (who worked briefly in Odessa Texas for a young oil entrepreneur, GHW Bush) and New Orleans raconteur Nick Popich had been in business together for years, including gun running, as well as the scheme to land oil drilling rights near the Red Sea. This effort aligns with Lafitte's reference to activity "in the desert" in Eritrea with Tom Proctor and Mitch WerBell. SDECE Philippe de Vosjoli is seen in the shadows.  None of this is tied to a US Military Operation by definition. 

We know that John Wilson-Hudson founded the equivalent of "America First Committee" in Chile; we know he married into the Bronfman-Weinstein family and that the family's christian names align with those of the Edgar Bronfman dynasty. Jack Crichton, engaged in the Skorzeny-Meadows oil scheme based in Madrid, was in charge of Bronfman's oil interests under the umbrella of Empire Trust,* Further genealogical research is underway as we speak to determine if Wilson-Hudson's "wife — British Embassy" mentioned in the Lafitte datebook was an Edgar Bronfman relative. We know that JW-H appears in the Lafitte datebook on the same day, with a near image phrase as found in Jack Ruby's notes. This is NOT indication of a military operation.

*on the board of Empire Trust at the time was Lewis Douglas (brother in law of John Jay McCloy) who was also a longtime board member of Phelps Dodge which purchased the shares of the d'Autremont mining interests in  Arizona. Cicely d'Autremont Angleton enjoyed a personal friendship with Rene (Mrs. Pierre) Lafitte.

We know that Nick Popich was on the periphery of the Ellen Rometsch operation run by James Angleton, Otto Skorzeny, Ilse Skorzeny, and Pierre Lafitte as point man; and we are on the verge of confirming that Pierre Lafitte was a sous chef in one of Popich/Marcello's French Quarter restaurants in early 1960s. Again, it was Popich who entertained Baker/Tyler/Rometsch/Aguirre in New Orleans in May 1963, and it was Lafitte who arranged acting classes for Ella R. and passports for her sudden departure following interviews by the FBI.

None of the aforementioned leads us to conclude that an official military / intel structure held these entities together in the lead up to the assassination in Dallas. We can say, however, that OIL smoothes the way for sudden and sometimes deadly change. 

And, for the record, Hank knew enough about Pierre Lafitte to fill another book.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

1 hour ago, Ron Bulman said:

Not to digress here Robert, but Lesile brought him up.

I'm sure she, you and many others know Phelan was pretty much destroyed many years ago in Destiny Betrayed, James Phelan Declassified, pgs. 243-249.  An associate of Hugh Aynesworth who rented the house in New Orleans during the Shaw trial where he, Sheridan and Aynesworth held court each evening with the other reporters in town providing them with hors d'oeuvres and likely libations, pg. 289.

I wonder who paid for the house, food, booze (?), like I wonder who paid for the house Joannides kept there in the summer of 63.

@Ron Bulman, have you ever come across the exact address of Joannides' purported living arrangements in New Orleans?

[Paul Brancato]

Greg - do read Albarelli’s A Terrible Mistake. The chapters on Lafitte and on George Hunter White are especially interesting and well researched, and written before any diaries surfaced. 
Leslie - the ‘we’ in we know so little about includes me and probably everyone else reading this other than you and Robert, who is continuing his deep dive into all the characters mentioned in Coup and in the diaries, and into many other dark recesses. I know you have no doubts about the authenticity of the Lafitte diaries, but please understand that the rest of us wonder about various aspects of it including handwriting analysis, possible multiple authors, and exactly what the notes represent. But we continue to examine the names therein. You knew Hank better than anyone, and put your lifeblood into getting his work published, and continue to delve into the clues in the diaries  So I understand how very important this is to you, how you feel attacked when someone has questions. Can you let the questions exist without viewing them as a salvo in a turf war for truth? We all care, those of us reading this, how we got here in 2023, including Greg. I hope he takes me up on reading Hank’s earlier work and doesn’t just rely on Time magazine for a bio of this most interesting figure in history. 

[Ed Berger]

@Leslie Sharp Apologies if this is already familiar information, but your comment here is very interesting to me (especially in light of the expanded role that Wilson-Hudson seems to have had in these critical events):

Quote

We know that John Wilson-Hudson founded the equivalent of "America First Committee" in Chile; we know he married into the Bronfman-Weinstein family and that the family's christian names align with those of the Edgar Bronfman dynasty. Jack Crichton, engaged in the Skorzeny-Meadows oil scheme based in Madrid, was in charge of Bronfman's oil interests under the umbrella of Empire Trust,* Further genealogical research is underway as we speak to determine if Wilson-Hudson's "wife — British Embassy" mentioned in the Lafitte datebook was an Edgar Bronfman relative. We know that JW-H appears in the Lafitte datebook on the same day, with a near image phrase as found in Jack Ruby's notes. This is NOT indication of a military operation.

The Bronfman connection to Empire Trust lands not very far from Permindex at all. Bloomfield, the proxy agent for various shareholders into Permindex, came from the big Canadian law firm of Phillips & Vineberg, which happened to also be the primary firm utilized by the Bronfman family. The senior partner of Phillips & Vineberg, Philip Vineberg, was the chief legal advisor for the dynasty for well over forty years. 

While I've never seen evidence that Bloomfield himself worked on Bronfman affairs, Philip Vineberg himself did straddle the joint worlds of the Bronfmans and Permindex. Case in point is this blogpost by Maurice Philipps:

 

Quote

In April 1rst 1959, Louis Bloomfield sent three communications that reveal both Stanley Vineberg and Edmund Rothschild’s links to Permindex. In a first cable, he urged Georges Mantello to have his son Enrico provide legal and fiscal documentation to someone called “Pereire”, in order for him to be able to inspect a property. Other documents in the Bloomfield Archives give the full identity of this “Pereire” as being François Pereire from the Compagnie Financière, a private Paris bank in which Edmund de Rothschild is the principal shareholder. In the same message, Bloomfield informed Mantello that Vineberg is expecting him in Montreal with “satisfactory documentation”. This statement clearly indicates that attorney Stanley Vineberg, of the Phillips, Bloomfield, Vineberg & Goodman law firm was exercising an authority greater then Bloomfield’s.

Another MAJOR interlock between these various worlds is Mark Millard, who was an energy specialist at Carl M. Loeb, Rhoades & Co (which itself links out to Empire Trust via the Loeb family's intermarriages with the Bronfmans and their own stake in Empire Trust). Of Millard, Edgar Bronfman wrote "I had enjoyed many successful business dealings with Mark over the years, and I trusted him deeply.” Besides working with the Bronfmans and the Loeb empire, Millard appears in the following:

• In 1952 he was a found director of D.H. Byrd's Byrd Oil Company.
• In 1956 he was named as a director of the Great Southwest Corporation, the Wynne family-William Zeckendorf-Rockefeller development project between Dallas and Fort Worth that was of such interest to Peter Dale Scott.
• In 1959 he became a director of Stanton Oil Company alongside David Baird, whose fraudulent, securities-dealing foundations were outed as CIA funding conduits. Baird, who has been terribly overlooked by researchers, appears in a letter from Louis Bloomfield to Carlo D'Amelio as a prospective addition to the CMC board. 
• In 1961 he was added to the board of Canadian Javelin (following Carl M. Loeb, Rhoades & Co) buying into the company. Canadian Javelin was, of course, the bizarro Newfoundland 'development' company (read: mob outpost) that links backwards to the World Commerce Corporation and also appears in Coup in Dallas in conjunction with Pierre Lafitte's own fraudulent securities dealings. 

As a final side note, I put some info in a recent thread on the 488th intelligence unit on potential connections between Empire Trust, Jack Crichton, William Dalzell and Yemen. Would be curious your thoughts on this and potential connections to the Proctor/desert references that you're referencing. 

[Robert Montenegro]

4 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

Greg - do read Albarelli’s A Terrible Mistake. The chapters on Lafitte and on George Hunter White are especially interesting and well researched, and written before any diaries surfaced. 
Leslie - the ‘we’ in we know so little about includes me and probably everyone else reading this other than you and Robert, who is continuing his deep dive into all the characters mentioned in Coup and in the diaries, and into many other dark recesses. I know you have no doubts about the authenticity of the Lafitte diaries, but please understand that the rest of us wonder about various aspects of it including handwriting analysis, possible multiple authors, and exactly what the notes represent. But we continue to examine the names therein. You knew Hank better than anyone, and put your lifeblood into getting his work published, and continue to delve into the clues in the diaries  So I understand how very important this is to you, how you feel attacked when someone has questions. Can you let the questions exist without viewing them as a salvo in a turf war for truth? We all care, those of us reading this, how we got here in 2023, including Greg. I hope he takes me up on reading Hank’s earlier work and doesn’t just rely on Time magazine for a bio of this most interesting figure in history. 

 

Precisely.

 

[Paul Brancato]

2 hours ago, Ed Berger said:

@Leslie Sharp Apologies if this is already familiar information, but your comment here is very interesting to me (especially in light of the expanded role that Wilson-Hudson seems to have had in these critical events):

The Bronfman connection to Empire Trust lands not very far from Permindex at all. Bloomfield, the proxy agent for various shareholders into Permindex, came from the big Canadian law firm of Phillips & Vineberg, which happened to also be the primary firm utilized by the Bronfman family. The senior partner of Phillips & Vineberg, Philip Vineberg, was the chief legal advisor for the dynasty for well over forty years. 

While I've never seen evidence that Bloomfield himself worked on Bronfman affairs, Philip Vineberg himself did straddle the joint worlds of the Bronfmans and Permindex. Case in point is this blogpost by Maurice Philipps:

 

Another MAJOR interlock between these various worlds is Mark Millard, who was an energy specialist at Carl M. Loeb, Rhoades & Co (which itself links out to Empire Trust via the Loeb family's intermarriages with the Bronfmans and their own stake in Empire Trust). Of Millard, Edgar Bronfman wrote "I had enjoyed many successful business dealings with Mark over the years, and I trusted him deeply.” Besides working with the Bronfmans and the Loeb empire, Millard appears in the following:

• In 1952 he was a found director of D.H. Byrd's Byrd Oil Company.
• In 1956 he was named as a director of the Great Southwest Corporation, the Wynne family-William Zeckendorf-Rockefeller development project between Dallas and Fort Worth that was of such interest to Peter Dale Scott.
• In 1959 he became a director of Stanton Oil Company alongside David Baird, whose fraudulent, securities-dealing foundations were outed as CIA funding conduits. Baird, who has been terribly overlooked by researchers, appears in a letter from Louis Bloomfield to Carlo D'Amelio as a prospective addition to the CMC board. 
• In 1961 he was added to the board of Canadian Javelin (following Carl M. Loeb, Rhoades & Co) buying into the company. Canadian Javelin was, of course, the bizarro Newfoundland 'development' company (read: mob outpost) that links backwards to the World Commerce Corporation and also appears in Coup in Dallas in conjunction with Pierre Lafitte's own fraudulent securities dealings. 

As a final side note, I put some info in a recent thread on the 488th intelligence unit on potential connections between Empire Trust, Jack Crichton, William Dalzell and Yemen. Would be curious your thoughts on this and potential connections to the Proctor/desert references that you're referencing. 

Ed - before I dig into your Permindex etc info I want to say I’m glad you are posting here. 

[Leslie Sharp]

2 hours ago, Ed Berger said:

@Leslie Sharp Apologies if this is already familiar information, but your comment here is very interesting to me (especially in light of the expanded role that Wilson-Hudson seems to have had in these critical events):

The Bronfman connection to Empire Trust lands not very far from Permindex at all. Bloomfield, the proxy agent for various shareholders into Permindex, came from the big Canadian law firm of Phillips & Vineberg, which happened to also be the primary firm utilized by the Bronfman family. The senior partner of Phillips & Vineberg, Philip Vineberg, was the chief legal advisor for the dynasty for well over forty years. 

While I've never seen evidence that Bloomfield himself worked on Bronfman affairs, Philip Vineberg himself did straddle the joint worlds of the Bronfmans and Permindex. Case in point is this blogpost by Maurice Philipps:

 

Another MAJOR interlock between these various worlds is Mark Millard, who was an energy specialist at Carl M. Loeb, Rhoades & Co (which itself links out to Empire Trust via the Loeb family's intermarriages with the Bronfmans and their own stake in Empire Trust). Of Millard, Edgar Bronfman wrote "I had enjoyed many successful business dealings with Mark over the years, and I trusted him deeply.” Besides working with the Bronfmans and the Loeb empire, Millard appears in the following:

• In 1952 he was a found director of D.H. Byrd's Byrd Oil Company.
• In 1956 he was named as a director of the Great Southwest Corporation, the Wynne family-William Zeckendorf-Rockefeller development project between Dallas and Fort Worth that was of such interest to Peter Dale Scott.
• In 1959 he became a director of Stanton Oil Company alongside David Baird, whose fraudulent, securities-dealing foundations were outed as CIA funding conduits. Baird, who has been terribly overlooked by researchers, appears in a letter from Louis Bloomfield to Carlo D'Amelio as a prospective addition to the CMC board. 
• In 1961 he was added to the board of Canadian Javelin (following Carl M. Loeb, Rhoades & Co) buying into the company. Canadian Javelin was, of course, the bizarro Newfoundland 'development' company (read: mob outpost) that links backwards to the World Commerce Corporation and also appears in Coup in Dallas in conjunction with Pierre Lafitte's own fraudulent securities dealings. 

As a final side note, I put some info in a recent thread on the 488th intelligence unit on potential connections between Empire Trust, Jack Crichton, William Dalzell and Yemen. Would be curious your thoughts on this and potential connections to the Proctor/desert references that you're referencing. 

Thank you, @Ed Berger

And, I don't want to hi-jack Monté's work on Imfeld, but considering Permindex surfaces in both studies, and the Lafitte datebook entries relating to Dalzell and to the desert, and to Eritrea and to Crichton, we may encounter a significant convergence of research here.

I'll respond to a section of one of your recent posts on the in a recent thread on the 488th intelligence unit, and then if Monté requests, we can take the discussion back to your thread.

The other was a dominant stake in the Yemen Development Corporation. Crichton was president of this company too, and its chairman was George E. Allen (who was also over at Floyd Odlum's Atlas Corporation, which is its own infinite can of worms, leading directly to things like the World Commerce Corporation). The Yemen Development Corporation was set up to carry out oil exploration in the Kingdom of Yemen, which at that time was shaping up to be a major geopolitical pivot point (and for the British, something that appeared as the last stand in their waning empire). But it had a covert side: the State Department and the CIA were the forces behind Yemen Development, with the mandate of the company being an effort to obtain a foothold in the region ahead of the Soviets. 

You're one of the few in recent years to take an interest in Allen, Odlum, and Atlas Corporation, so thanks for reigniting this research. The connection to World Commerce is 'huge.' I believe we may be in the process of establishing without doubt that Permindex was, as noted in Coup in Dallas, the god-child of WCC, or perhaps more accurately said, the next iteration of a model that likely originated with SOFINDUS in Latin America and Spain, or perhaps as far back as the British East India Co./ Hudson Bay, or even further back to the Hanseatic League?

Speculation aside, and I'm going to jump ahead two decades so I hope you'll indulge and understand why in a moment: you're likely aware that Dallas independent oilman H. L. Hunt entered into a deal with North Yemen in 1981 and inching his way offshore in the Red Sea. (aside: I went to work for the Hunt family the year prior. The Dallas hotel was full of brass that required polishing; our "brass polishers" were Ethiopian immigrants.) This is relevant to your thread because the summer of 1963, Jack Crichton joined the board of H. L.'s Hunt "Foundation." Crichton was in Romania later that fall, several weeks prior to the assassination on a friendly mission along with (I believe) five other oil experts — all of whom worked for Rockefeller's Standard operations. Crichton was the only "independent" on the trip; this may advance your hypothesis, "foothold in advance of . . . " Whether it is documented, or rumor, Frank Wisner was carrying on an affair with Princess Cadja of Romania at the time. Wisner appears in the Lafitte record on two dates in 1963.

Of possible relevance, FBI Bardwell Odum's brothers - one a minister and the other with the State Department - both had histories in Russia.  Again, I'll expand further if it seems important to this exercise. 

Yemen Development ended up being a very troubled venture, to say the least. An August 1957 CIA memorandum makes reference to Yemen Development in the context of operations in the region, while a CIA document from November of the same year shows that they were hunting for buyers for the company, while few were interested in picking it up due to costs. Ultimately, it went bust, as did a follow-up effort under the auspices of the American Overseas Investment Corporation, but a successor company stepped in 1961—the John Mecom Company (details of this are in numerous petroleum journals from the period, such as volume 33 of Petroleum Engineer, 1961).

As you note, Mecom's company was a CIA front, cloaked under an umbrella of Continental Oil whose board included former Sec. Army Frank Pace* who shared a small investment board (Nation-Wide Securities) intermittently with Allen Dulles, Maxwell Taylor, and Ret. Navy Admiral Robert B. Barney, the chairman of Bath Iron Works.  The threads in this particular tapestry constitute the Military-Industrial Complex writ large, or, as some are figuring out, a fascist government by definition — corporations controlling government — shielded by the America flag.
*Pace was CEO of General Dynamics and I think you'll recognize the overlap with Atlas board members. Pace would have been privy to the F-111 scandal involving Bobby Baker. Lafitte records Baker's visit to New Orleans along with Carol Tyler and Ellen Rometsch in May 1963; one of Marcello's front-men in the restaurant business, Nick Popich played host.  Popich and Dalzell, as noted in another post, were working to secure Red Sea drilling rights. 

So I find it interesting: we have Crichton, starting in 1955, running an Empire Trust holding, the Yemen Development Corporation, which was actually part of a CIA-effort to route around the Soviets in Yemen by obtaining oil concessions there. Then, when have Crichton, at the very least, using the name of a military intelligence unit, the 488th, that appears to have been monitoring Soviet oil activities. Maybe there's something here? 

If I can interject, just three years prior, Crichton of Empire Trust — with his established credential from deGolyer-MacNaughton — was a pivotal component of the [Algur H.] Meadows—[Otto] Skorzeny oil scheme based in the capitol of Franco's fascist Spain, Madrid.  At the time, Otto and Ilse Skorzeny were also immersed with Frank Ryan's World Commerce Corp. Al Meadows provided a venue for at least one meeting during 1963 related to the plot to kill the president in his beloved Dallas. Crichton, "Algur" Meadows, Otto and Ilse Skorzeny appear in the Lafitte datebook, as does "Ilya" as in Mamantov who Crichton seconded to translate for Marina the afternoon of Nov. 22.  More on that incident in another thread.

As one final dangling thread, we have one of Guy Bannister's associates, William Dalzell, turning up in spring of 1960 acting as an agent of Yemen—traveling to "make contacts with representatives of oil companies to market" Yemen oil concessions. There's actually a reference to Crichton and the Yemen Development Corporation within Dalzell's FBI file, but the scan is very bad and the Mary Ferrell search isn't tracking it down at the moment. I'll post it when I can find it. But the FBI also inquired with the John Mecom Company about Dalzell; the company's W. Angie Smith said that Dalzell sounded "vaguely familiar". Mecom denied any knowledge of Dalzell, however.

There's a directly link from Mecom to Continental Oil to (?) McKeown related to a request to import or export coffee making machine to Cuba or some strange tale.  (If it is determined this is significant, I'll track down the story - which I'm sure you're your familiar with.) It is significant here because McKeown is identified with Thomas Eli Davis AND Jack Ruby in the saga, both of whom are identified in the Pierre Lafitte datebook for 1963.  Apologies for digressing, but this may well be significant because Davis was traveling in North Africa in late 1963.  We'll see where this might lead.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

1 hour ago, Robert Montenegro said:

 

Precisely.

 

@Paul Brancato and copy @Robert Montenegro @Greg Doudna You knew Hank better than anyone, and put your lifeblood into getting his work published, and continue to delve into the clues in the diaries 

Paul, I began my study of the assassination twenty plus years prior to Hank contacting me to co-author this book, so I take umbrage at the suggestion I've only put my lifeblood into "getting his work published."  It was a collaborative effort, and I happened to be the one he designated to bring the Albarelli, Sharp, Kent book across the finish line.

So I understand how very important this is to you, how you feel attacked when someone has questions. Can you let the questions exist without viewing them as a salvo in a turf war for truth?

If I appear defensive, it is not because I "feel attacked" personally. This is a question of professional pragmatism, and yes, as I've shared with Robert repeatedly, I have great difficulty understanding anyone who uses the datebook as a springboard for research and then develops a confirmation-biased hypothesis outside what the datebook actually reveals.  I think that is NOT effective research assuming one is intent on solving the crime.  Were this case to end up in a Dallas court, are you suggesting the DA might have indicted thousands let alone hundreds? Filling the balloon to burst is going to damage this significant contribution to the shared effort of solving the cold case murder investigation.

I will continue to challenge anyone's attempt to distort Hank's investigation to suit an agenda, benign or otherwise.  What I would like to see is research contributions building from the ground up, using the datebook as a solid foundation, not working from the rooftop with no scaffolding.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

15 minutes ago, Leslie Sharp said:

@Paul Brancato and copy @Robert Montenegro @Greg Doudna You knew Hank better than anyone, and put your lifeblood into getting his work published, and continue to delve into the clues in the diaries 

Paul, I began my study of the assassination twenty plus years prior to Hank contacting me to co-author this book, so I take umbrage at the suggestion I've only put my lifeblood into "getting his work published."  It was a collaborative effort, and I happened to be the one he designated to bring the Albarelli, Sharp, Kent book across the finish line.

So I understand how very important this is to you, how you feel attacked when someone has questions. Can you let the questions exist without viewing them as a salvo in a turf war for truth?

If I appear defensive, it is not because I "feel attacked" personally. This is a question of professional pragmatism, and yes, as I've shared with Robert repeatedly, I have great difficulty understanding anyone who uses the datebook as a springboard for research and then develops a confirmation-biased hypothesis outside what the datebook actually reveals.  I think that is NOT effective research assuming one is intent on solving the crime.  Were this case to end up in a Dallas court, are you suggesting the DA might have indicted thousands let alone hundreds? Filling the balloon to burst is going to damage this significant contribution to the shared effort of solving the cold case murder investigation.

I will continue to challenge anyone's attempt to distort Hank's investigation to suit an agenda, benign or otherwise.  What I would like to see is research contributions building from the ground up, using the datebook as a solid foundation, not working from the rooftop with no scaffolding.

@Paul Brancato @Robert Montenegro @Greg DoudnaPS. Please read the post related to the relevance of OIL in Hank's investigation, beginning with Rene Lafitte's own words.

I would think @Greg Doudna above all would find common ground in this aspect of Hank's investigation.  For the record, Hank recognized my knowledge of the socio-political-economic dynamics of Dallas via my contributions to Morley's jfkfacts.org years ago.  Apparently he stored them away for the appropriate serendipitous time.

 

Monté's research has not touched on Algur Meadows, Robert Storey, Col. Lawrence Orlov, et al with shared international petroleum concerns ...  or the metaphorical glue that binds — Oil.  Nor have these government documents provided any semblance of courtroom evidence. On the other hand, Lafitte's volatile notes — such as tech building — phone booth/bridge. O says turn them — most certainly do.

Edited July 22, 2023 by Leslie Sharp

[Ed Berger]

1 hour ago, Paul Brancato said:

Ed - before I dig into your Permindex etc info I want to say I’m glad you are posting here. 

Thank you for the kind words, Paul! By the way, I've been a big fan of your Iran-Contra trading cards—great way to keep all the info straight.