Jefferson Morley: The CIA AND ZIONISM

[Douglas Caddy]

 

The CIA and Zionism: A Complex History (spytalk.co)

[James DiEugenio]

Allen Dulles allowed Angleton to become a giant monster.

[Kevin Balch]

Is that really Meir Amit in the photo? Wasn’t Leslie Sharp claiming it was someone else?

I am reading a few books right now about Israel’s effort to obtain nuclear weapons, Israel and the Bomb by Avner Cohen and The Bomb in the Basement by Michael Karpin. I have previously read Stealing the Atom Bomb by former US Nuclear Regulatory Commission physicist Roger Mattson about the theft of highly enriched uranium from a US defense plant owned by devout Zionist Zalman Shapiro in the 1960s. I suspect that this material was used to construct a simple Hiroshima type nuclear weapon for use in the 1967 war.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/world/middleeast/1967-arab-israeli-war-nuclear-warning.html

I suspect that the Israelis knew or feared that the USS Liberty had intercepted communications regarding their nuclear bombs. At the time, Liberty was stationed offshore from the approximate location the bombs would have been deployed. The NYT article says the bombs were not deployed but that could be a cover to maintain Israel’s promise not to be the first nation to introduce nuclear weapons in the middle east.

The other reasons given for the attack on the USS Liberty do not make sense. Israel did not need US military assistance against Egypt. They already had complete air supremacy and totally dominated the theatre. US intervention would have complicated Israeli control of the region considering how the US forced Israel, France and the UK to withdraw from the Sinai in 1956. The other theory that the attack was to cover up Israeli executions of Egyptian POWs doesn’t make sense since those did not happen until the day after the attack.

I also wonder if the JFKA could have been a cooperative effort between Israel and Cuba. Israel supplying intelligence via Angleton and also helping with the setup and coverup with Cuba doing the actual wet work. In the early 1960s, Cuba and Israel had good relations. Both viewed JFK as existential threats. Israel because of JFK’s efforts to stop their nuclear program, Cuba because of the assassination and sabotage plots and the threat of US invasion. Cuba’s ambassador to Israel, Riccardo Wolf later moved to Israel and is buried there. Not much is known about him except that he endowed the Wolf Prizes similar to but less well known than the Nobels.

I am surprised no one has read Ronen Bergman’s Rise and Kill First about Israel’s assassination programs.

[Greg Doudna]

The problem with supposing Castro or the Cuban government did the JFKA is it makes no sense strategically. There was no reason to think the successor, LBJ, would be any improvement, and the risks if it was found traced back to Castro would have been catastrophic for Cuba. There is no way any non-insane Castro conspiracy would employ Oswald either as gunman or as patsy (given his communist associations baggage). And no way USSR would approve of it if they were asked, and if they weren’t would likely be catastrophic in ending Soviet relations with Cuba. That is, there is no logic in Castro deciding to kill JFK, unlike the reverse, plots to kill Castro which had rational logic and foreseeable advantages in US interests in such succeeding. The only way to put Castro into killing JFK is to assume individual madman insane or mass suicide revenge psychology, and there is no other sign Castro was insane, save only the one time he said he wanted the Russians to use nukes in Cuba against the US in retaliation to a U.S. attack, no matter the consequences. He told that to McNamara in later years who was horrified. Castro told McNamara if the roles were reversed he, McNamara, would have done the same thing (think nuclear tripwire deterrence missiles in West Germany against threat of conventional force Soviet invasion. Would US leaders have really refused to fire if such an invasion triggered that tripwire?) 

But except for that lone instance of Castro’s endorsement of the aptly named MAD logic which was central to US policymakers thinking, Castro was not ROGUE insane. 

[Kevin Balch]

56 minutes ago, Greg Doudna said:

The problem with supposing Castro or the Cuban government did the JFKA is it makes no sense strategically. There was no reason to think the successor, LBJ, would be any improvement, and the risks if it was found traced back to Castro would have been catastrophic for Cuba. There is no way any non-insane Castro conspiracy would employ Oswald either as gunman or as patsy (given his communist associations baggage). And no way USSR would approve of it if they were asked, and if they weren’t would likely be catastrophic in ending Soviet relations with Cuba. That is, there is no logic in Castro deciding to kill JFK, unlike the reverse, plots to kill Castro which had rational logic and foreseeable advantages in US interests in such succeeding. The only way to put Castro into killing JFK is to assume individual madman insane or mass suicide revenge psychology, and there is no other sign Castro was insane, save only the one time he said he wanted the Russians to use nukes in Cuba against the US in retaliation to a U.S. attack, no matter the consequences. He told that to McNamara in later years who was horrified. Castro told McNamara if the roles were reversed he, McNamara, would have done the same thing (think nuclear tripwire deterrence missiles in West Germany against threat of conventional force Soviet invasion. Would US leaders have really refused to fire if such an invasion triggered that tripwire?) 

But except for that lone instance of Castro’s endorsement of the aptly named MAD logic which was central to US policymakers thinking, Castro was not ROGUE insane. 

First, it would not have to have been Fidel Castro’s idea. It could have been Raul or unidentified elements in the Cuban intelligence service.

Second, if the Cubans knew Oswald was doubling, his association with US intelligence would have prompted the US government itself to cover up details of the assassination. I think this is one of the reasons the US covered up the USS Liberty attack. The US was not nearly the “ally” of Israel that it is today. It would have been extremely embarrassing if it were known that Israel was able to steal highly enriched uranium from a US defense plant to advance Israel’s nuclear weapons program. Further, revealing that Israel had nuclear weapons would have led the Arabs to prevail upon the Soviets for nuclear weapons or develop their own resulting in a nuclear arms race in the middle east.

Third, the assassinations were largely an RFK project. There is no indication LBJ knew anything about them, particularly given the hatred between RFK and LBJ.

Besides Castro’s desire for the Soviets to initiate a nuclear first strike on the US and his opening of the prisons and mental institutions to supply the exodus for the Mariel boat lift, how many examples of a madman  do you need?

[David McLean]

One factoid I have been mulling over, since his official obituary twenty odd years ago, which may lend some small credence to an Israeli angle to the JFKA is the following—-in 1967, the CIA station chief in Tel Aviv was one John Denley Walker, an otherwise unremarkable Angleton acolyte, with postings in Paris, Malta and Canberra. What intrigues and puzzles me is that in 1976-77 he was another liaison figure between CIA and the House Select Committee. On the Joannides analogy, what  sensitive info might Walker have been stonewalling? 
FYI, other aspects of his career were membership of the Society of the Cincinnati, an late 1940s visit to Civil War Greece, where his father was stationed as a AID type bureaucrat, close contact with Bernie Houghton in 1970s Sydney, and his marriage breakdown when his wife left him for the 2ic in our domestic security outfit ASIO.

[Benjamin Cole]

16 hours ago, Kevin Balch said:

First, it would not have to have been Fidel Castro’s idea. It could have been Raul or unidentified elements in the Cuban intelligence service.

Second, if the Cubans knew Oswald was doubling, his association with US intelligence would have prompted the US government itself to cover up details of the assassination. I think this is one of the reasons the US covered up the USS Liberty attack. The US was not nearly the “ally” of Israel that it is today. It would have been extremely embarrassing if it were known that Israel was able to steal highly enriched uranium from a US defense plant to advance Israel’s nuclear weapons program. Further, revealing that Israel had nuclear weapons would have led the Arabs to prevail upon the Soviets for nuclear weapons or develop their own resulting in a nuclear arms race in the middle east.

Third, the assassinations were largely an RFK project. There is no indication LBJ knew anything about them, particularly given the hatred between RFK and LBJ.

Besides Castro’s desire for the Soviets to initiate a nuclear first strike on the US and his opening of the prisons and mental institutions to supply the exodus for the Mariel boat lift, how many examples of a madman  do you need?

KB--

That the Cuban commies are the usual tinpot ideological autocrats, you will get no argument from me. 

I think you may be on to something, but more along the lines of this:

1. The US Cuban exile-intel community was heavily infiltrated by Castro double-agents, and others working for Castro. 

2. These US-based elements took umbrage at US attempts to assassinated Castro, and decided to play tit-for-tat. In other words, a fragment of the Castro intel community perped that JFKA. 

3. The Castro Cubans had enough sources and info to know that LHO was a CIA asset, and perhaps learned of a password or signal that would convince LHO that they were earnest CIA assets also. 

4. They convinced LHO to partake in what LHO thought was a false-flag op, a failed JFKA that would be blamed on Castro. 

5. On 11/22 they fired upon JFKA for real, perhaps from the Dal-Tex building, while LHO fired a lone shot that intentionally missed. 

The CIA still had a situation that had to be covered up. 

1. A CIA asset had played a role in the JFKA.

2. They has been so penetrated that the CIA itself enabled the JFKA, to some degree. 

So, this led to the cover-up.

---30---

All that said, it is a speculative JFKA explanation above. Who? Who were the Cubans who worked with LHO? Other than a reasonable deduction, is there any evidence at all that Cuban intel perped the JFKA? 

I have yet to read as explanation of the JFKA that is compelling on the nuts-and-bolts side, including my own favored explanation.  

We have Russians, Cubans, Nazis, LBJ, Mob, CIA, Israelis, Mormon Mafia, French mercs. All are favored by one explanation or another. 

A government cannot investigate itself, which was the WC, and then the HSCA. Garrison tried, but was tasked with a skiff against battleships. 

The Biden Administration is still doing a snuff job on the JFK Records. Maybe some answers are in there. 

 

 

 

[Kevin Balch]

1 hour ago, Benjamin Cole said:

KB--

That the Cuban commies are the usual tinpot ideological autocrats, you will get no argument from me. 

I think you may be on to something, but more along the lines of this:

1. The US Cuban exile-intel community was heavily infiltrated by Castro double-agents, and others working for Castro. 

2. These US-based elements took umbrage at US attempts to assassinated Castro, and decided to play tit-for-tat. In other words, a fragment of the Castro intel community perped that JFKA. 

3. The Castro Cubans had enough sources and info to know that LHO was a CIA asset, and perhaps learned of a password or signal that would convince LHO that they were earnest CIA assets also. 

4. They convinced LHO to partake in what LHO thought was a false-flag op, a failed JFKA that would be blamed on Castro. 

5. On 11/22 they fired upon JFKA for real, perhaps from the Dal-Tex building, while LHO fired a lone shot that intentionally missed. 

The CIA still had a situation that had to be covered up. 

1. A CIA asset had played a role in the JFKA.

2. They has been so penetrated that the CIA itself enabled the JFKA, to some degree. 

So, this led to the cover-up.

---30---

All that said, it is a speculative JFKA explanation above. Who? Who were the Cubans who worked with LHO? Other than a reasonable deduction, is there any evidence at all that Cuban intel perped the JFKA? 

I have yet to read as explanation of the JFKA that is compelling on the nuts-and-bolts side, including my own favored explanation.  

We have Russians, Cubans, Nazis, LBJ, Mob, CIA, Israelis, Mormon Mafia, French mercs. All are favored by one explanation or another. 

A government cannot investigate itself, which was the WC, and then the HSCA. Garrison tried, but was tasked with a skiff against battleships. 

The Biden Administration is still doing a snuff job on the JFK Records. Maybe some answers are in there. 

 

 

 

Your scenario is plausible, IMHO. Everyone is good at pointing out inconsistencies in the JFKA. But constructing a completely convincing scenario is difficult, especially as time passes. So you end up with theories that require dozens of people with near flawless execution of an extremely complex plan that extends over generations.

Why do we have so much better relations with Vietnam than Cuba?

[Stu Wexler]

19 hours ago, Greg Doudna said:

The problem with supposing Castro or the Cuban government did the JFKA is it makes no sense strategically. There was no reason to think the successor, LBJ, would be any improvement, and the risks if it was found traced back to Castro would have been catastrophic for Cuba. There is no way any non-insane Castro conspiracy would employ Oswald either as gunman or as patsy (given his communist associations baggage). And no way USSR would approve of it if they were asked, and if they weren’t would likely be catastrophic in ending Soviet relations with Cuba. That is, there is no logic in Castro deciding to kill JFK, unlike the reverse, plots to kill Castro which had rational logic and foreseeable advantages in US interests in such succeeding. The only way to put Castro into killing JFK is to assume individual madman insane or mass suicide revenge psychology, and there is no other sign Castro was insane, save only the one time he said he wanted the Russians to use nukes in Cuba against the US in retaliation to a U.S. attack, no matter the consequences. He told that to McNamara in later years who was horrified. Castro told McNamara if the roles were reversed he, McNamara, would have done the same thing (think nuclear tripwire deterrence missiles in West Germany against threat of conventional force Soviet invasion. Would US leaders have really refused to fire if such an invasion triggered that tripwire?) 

But except for that lone instance of Castro’s endorsement of the aptly named MAD logic which was central to US policymakers thinking, Castro was not ROGUE insane. 

My father, a liberal JFK supporter his whole life, switched from a government to Castro-did-it theory once the Castro plots were detailed in the Church hearings and report. He especially was concerned with the timing of the Cubela plot and the famous exchange of the poison pen. He believed whether or not the Kennedy's ordered it, that Castro could have interpreted it that way and it as a betrayal (of the normalization talks) and, assassinating Castro as not only a response but as a hail mary to save his own life/regime.  It was almost the only thing topic that could consistently get us into sometimes heated arguments. He was very effective at making the case. Our assertion that Castro would never risk something so dangerous was met with two points. First, every group who has been accused of the assassination was taking a huge risk, possibly to their own survival or future, something we almost always underestimate when analyze motives in this case (risk-reward). Castro would have been more desperate, on the other hand, than the mafia/CIA etc. becausd the risk of not doing something would be to his life directly. Second, and more importantly, he would point out that, if one looked closely at the Cuban Missile Crisis, they would see that the only party more reckless than Castro were the Joint Chiefs. 

My main point in response to him was that Castro was nothing if not crafty. And he never would have touched or involved Oswald in any way. That is not risky-- that is *gratuitously* risky. He had double agents within the exile movement, for instance, who he could have blamed for the crime. My father's response would be to argue for a hardliner rogue type plot within Cuba. I voiced serious skepticism any G2 agent would take a risk like that without approval. 

But I think the thing that gave my father the most pause was the material presented by James Bamford. I think anyone who reads The Puzzle Palace's section on the NSA intercepts and surveilance of Castro post Nov 22nd would have a hard time sticking with the theory. 

Stu

[Kevin Balch]

4 minutes ago, Stu Wexler said:

My father, a liberal JFK supporter his whole life, switched from a government to Castro-did-it theory once the Castro plots were detailed in the Church hearings and report. He especially was concerned with the timing of the Cubela plot and the famous exchange of the poison pen. He believed whether or not the Kennedy's ordered it, that Castro could have interpreted it that way and it as a betrayal (of the normalization talks) and, assassinating Castro as not only a response but as a hail mary to save his own life/regime.  It was almost the only thing topic that could consistently get us into sometimes heated arguments. He was very effective at making the case. Our assertion that Castro would never risk something so dangerous was met with two points. First, every group who has been accused of the assassination was taking a huge risk, possibly to their own survival or future, something we almost always underestimate when analyze motives in this case (risk-reward). Castro would have been more desperate, on the other hand, than the mafia/CIA etc. becausd the risk of not doing something would be to his life directly. Second, and more importantly, he would point out that, if one looked closely at the Cuban Missile Crisis, they would see that the only party more reckless than Castro were the Joint Chiefs. 

My main point in response to him was that Castro was nothing if not crafty. And he never would have touched or involved Oswald in any way. That is not risky-- that is *gratuitously* risky. He had double agents within the exile movement, for instance, who he could have blamed for the crime. My father's response would be to argue for a hardliner rogue type plot within Cuba. I voiced serious skepticism any G2 agent would take a risk like that without approval. 

But I think the thing that gave my father the most pause was the material presented by James Bamford. I think anyone who reads The Puzzle Palace's section on the NSA intercepts and surveilance of Castro post Nov 22nd would have a hard time sticking with the theory. 

Stu

Pro-Cuba is probably more accurate than a “Castro plot”. As I’ve pointed out elsewhere, Castro may not have known anything about it. It could have been Raul or rogue elements in his own intelligence service. The same thing with the “Mossad theory”. It might not have been Ben Gurion or Eshkol but rogue elements.

Both nations viewed themselves as facing existential threats at the time. At the risk of committing a post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy, both emerged better off after the JFKA.

[Leslie Sharp]

23 hours ago, Kevin Balch said:

Is that really Meir Amit in the photo? Wasn’t Leslie Sharp claiming it was someone else?

I am reading a few books right now about Israel’s effort to obtain nuclear weapons, Israel and the Bomb by Avner Cohen and The Bomb in the Basement by Michael Karpin. I have previously read Stealing the Atom Bomb by former US Nuclear Regulatory Commission physicist Roger Mattson about the theft of highly enriched uranium from a US defense plant owned by devout Zionist Zalman Shapiro in the 1960s. I suspect that this material was used to construct a simple Hiroshima type nuclear weapon for use in the 1967 war.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/world/middleeast/1967-arab-israeli-war-nuclear-warning.html

I suspect that the Israelis knew or feared that the USS Liberty had intercepted communications regarding their nuclear bombs. At the time, Liberty was stationed offshore from the approximate location the bombs would have been deployed. The NYT article says the bombs were not deployed but that could be a cover to maintain Israel’s promise not to be the first nation to introduce nuclear weapons in the middle east.

The other reasons given for the attack on the USS Liberty do not make sense. Israel did not need US military assistance against Egypt. They already had complete air supremacy and totally dominated the theatre. US intervention would have complicated Israeli control of the region considering how the US forced Israel, France and the UK to withdraw from the Sinai in 1956. The other theory that the attack was to cover up Israeli executions of Egyptian POWs doesn’t make sense since those did not happen until the day after the attack.

I also wonder if the JFKA could have been a cooperative effort between Israel and Cuba. Israel supplying intelligence via Angleton and also helping with the setup and coverup with Cuba doing the actual wet work. In the early 1960s, Cuba and Israel had good relations. Both viewed JFK as existential threats. Israel because of JFK’s efforts to stop their nuclear program, Cuba because of the assassination and sabotage plots and the threat of US invasion. Cuba’s ambassador to Israel, Riccardo Wolf later moved to Israel and is buried there. Not much is known about him except that he endowed the Wolf Prizes similar to but less well known than the Nobels.

I am surprised no one has read Ronen Bergman’s Rise and Kill First about Israel’s assassination programs.

The photo (without caption) was called to my attention in context of our investigation into Col. Charles Askins who appears in the 1963 datebook maintained by Pierre Lafitte. Athough there are physical similarities, the likelihood Askins would be photographed with Angleton was slim.  There are several additional photos of Meir in Tucson with JJA.

 I (perhaps naively) asked an Israeli research colleague whether Amit was a Zionist:

Of course he was. Every Israeli, except Arabs, extreme left and Ultraorthodox may be considered Zionist in some sense . An Army General like Amit would certainly be considered Zionist, which , in itself, doesn't imply any extremism . 

I thought you indicated he was moderate. I'm reviewing Permindex and trying to distinguish those who believed in a strong Israel vs. the slander hurled at "Zionists". For instance, as you know, Edgar Bronfman is referred to in the derogatory, A ZIONIST.

Perhaps it's hard to explain. A person who lives in Israel and makes himself part of the nation-building effort of the country is perforce a Zionist, which doesn't in any way make him an extremist, although of course there are Zionist Exrtremists, such as Meir Kahane and some parts of the Likkud party. Not all Zionists are extremists, unless one regards Zionism itself as extremist, and Israel itself as an illegitimate entity. If Bronfman was affiliated with the "Stern Gang" or Etzel, out of which the Likkud developed, he would be more extreme than someone affiliated with the "Hagganah", which had its roots in the Labour party. But it's a matter of degree and different perspectives. Sorry about the longish lecture. 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 4 by Leslie Sharp

[Leslie Sharp]

22 hours ago, Kevin Balch said:

Is that really Meir Amit in the photo? Wasn’t Leslie Sharp claiming it was someone else?

I am reading a few books right now about Israel’s effort to obtain nuclear weapons, Israel and the Bomb by Avner Cohen and The Bomb in the Basement by Michael Karpin. I have previously read Stealing the Atom Bomb by former US Nuclear Regulatory Commission physicist Roger Mattson about the theft of highly enriched uranium from a US defense plant owned by devout Zionist Zalman Shapiro in the 1960s. I suspect that this material was used to construct a simple Hiroshima type nuclear weapon for use in the 1967 war.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/03/world/middleeast/1967-arab-israeli-war-nuclear-warning.html

I suspect that the Israelis knew or feared that the USS Liberty had intercepted communications regarding their nuclear bombs. At the time, Liberty was stationed offshore from the approximate location the bombs would have been deployed. The NYT article says the bombs were not deployed but that could be a cover to maintain Israel’s promise not to be the first nation to introduce nuclear weapons in the middle east.

The other reasons given for the attack on the USS Liberty do not make sense. Israel did not need US military assistance against Egypt. They already had complete air supremacy and totally dominated the theatre. US intervention would have complicated Israeli control of the region considering how the US forced Israel, France and the UK to withdraw from the Sinai in 1956. The other theory that the attack was to cover up Israeli executions of Egyptian POWs doesn’t make sense since those did not happen until the day after the attack.

I also wonder if the JFKA could have been a cooperative effort between Israel and Cuba. Israel supplying intelligence via Angleton and also helping with the setup and coverup with Cuba doing the actual wet work. In the early 1960s, Cuba and Israel had good relations. Both viewed JFK as existential threats. Israel because of JFK’s efforts to stop their nuclear program, Cuba because of the assassination and sabotage plots and the threat of US invasion. Cuba’s ambassador to Israel, Riccardo Wolf later moved to Israel and is buried there. Not much is known about him except that he endowed the Wolf Prizes similar to but less well known than the Nobels.

I am surprised no one has read Ronen Bergman’s Rise and Kill First about Israel’s assassination programs.

Heinz Krug: German rocket scientist, who had been a part of Von Braun's team at Peenemunde, and was to take a major part in Egypt's missile program, disappeared on September 11, 1962. There are two versions of his disappearance and death. In both versions, the Israeli Mossad orchestrated the deed. One version, put forward by Dr. Ronen Bergman in his book Rise and Kill First, says Krug was abducted by Israeli agents, taken to Israel, and interrogated and eventually killed there. The other version, put forward by Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman in their article "The Nazi Who Became A Mossad Hitman,” says he was lured to a forest outside Munich and murdered there by Skorzeny, on the orders of Skorzeny's Mossad handlers.
These conflicting versions may underscore the difficulty of understanding Skorzeny's personality and motives. Was he an unrepentant Nazi, an opportunistic mercenary, or a madman? Or perhaps all three?—Ran Daniel, researcher, writer and research associate of author H. P. Albarelli Jr.  – Notes: Chapter 1. WWII, Special Ops, and Assassinations. Coup in Dallas by H. P. Albarelli Jr. with Leslie Sharp and Alan Kent

Interesting to watch as Otto Skorzeny seeps deeper into the collective psyche. (Perhaps eventually his role in the JFK assassination will be accepted by "the community.")

https://www.timesofisrael.com/story-of-mossads-ties-with-high-ranking-nazi-to-become-tv-show/

[Leslie Sharp]

14 minutes ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Heinz Krug: German rocket scientist, who had been a part of Von Braun's team at Peenemunde, and was to take a major part in Egypt's missile program, disappeared on September 11, 1962. There are two versions of his disappearance and death. In both versions, the Israeli Mossad orchestrated the deed. One version, put forward by Dr. Ronen Bergman in his book Rise and Kill First, says Krug was abducted by Israeli agents, taken to Israel, and interrogated and eventually killed there. The other version, put forward by Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman in their article "The Nazi Who Became A Mossad Hitman,” says he was lured to a forest outside Munich and murdered there by Skorzeny, on the orders of Skorzeny's Mossad handlers.
These conflicting versions may underscore the difficulty of understanding Skorzeny's personality and motives. Was he an unrepentant Nazi, an opportunistic mercenary, or a madman? Or perhaps all three?—Ran Daniel, researcher, writer and research associate of author H. P. Albarelli Jr.  – Notes: Chapter 1. WWII, Special Ops, and Assassinations. Coup in Dallas by H. P. Albarelli Jr. with Leslie Sharp and Alan Kent

Interesting to watch as Otto Skorzeny seeps deeper into the collective psyche. (Perhaps eventually his role in the JFK assassination will be accepted by "the community.")

https://www.timesofisrael.com/story-of-mossads-ties-with-high-ranking-nazi-to-become-tv-show/

Isser Harel submitted a letter of resignation, and to his shock, Ben-Gurion accepted it. The new Mossad director, commander of military intelligence Gen. Meir Amit, moved the agency away from chasing or intimidating Nazis.

Amit did activate Skorzeny at least once more, however. The spymaster wanted to explore the possibility of secret peace negotiations, so he asked Israel’s on-the-payroll Nazi to arrange a meeting with a senior Egyptian official. Nothing ever came of it.

Skorzeny never explained his precise reasons for helping Israel. His autobiography does not contain the word “Israel,” or even “Jew.” It is true that he sought and got the life insurance. The Mossad did not assassinate him. . . 
https://www.motl.org/the-strange-case-of-a-nazi-who-became-an-israeli-hitman/

 

Meir Amit was studying at Columbia University 1959-1961 following a serious parachuting accident in 1958, so a trip cross country to visit the Angleton's in Cicely's home state of Arizona is reasonable. 

 

When the kibbutz movement split, Amit left his kibbutz and went into long-term service in the regular army. In 1953 he served as head of the Operations Division in the IDF General Headquarters. In 1955 and 1956 he was head of the Southern Command and again head of the Operations Division of the General Staff . He participated in planning the Sinai Campaign in 1956.

In 1958 he was appointed head of the Central Command. At about the same time he was seriously injured in a parachuting accident and was hospitalized for more than a year. As part of his rehabilitation he studied business administration at Columbia University (1959-61).

When he returned from the United States in the summer of 1961, Chief of Staff Tsvi Tsur asked him to accept command of military intelligence. He was appointed to the office in early 1962, the first time the post was filled by someone from the army and not from within intelligence. As head of military intelligence he strengthened the collection units. In 1963 Ben-Gurion appointed him head of the Mossad, a position he held until 1968.  

https://www.terrorism-info.org.il/Data/pdf/PDF_09_200_2.pdf

[Leslie Sharp]

Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that Angleton “launched” the notorious MKULTRA mind control program. It has been updated to read that Angleton “helped launch” the program. – Jefferson Morley

The Security Research Staff (SRS), an Office of Security branch, directed by retired Brigadier General Paul F. Gaynor, was primarily responsible for detecting foreign attempts to penetrate the CIA, interrogating defectors and suspected spies, and operating several 'behavior modification' programs that were part of the CIA's top-secret BLUEBIRD and ARTICHOKE Projects which predated Project MKULTRA. –  A Terrible Mistake by H. P. Albarelli Jr., pg. 88

From its inception, as readers shall learn in greater detail, the tightly compartmentalized project was Col. Sheffield Edwards' baby.  Indeed, Edwards had selected the code-name "Bluebird" after an attendee at an early planning session made an offhand remark about creating a non-lethal arsenal for "making subjects sing like birds." – pg. 28 

Detailed BLUEBIRD reports, such as the one above, were circulated only to carefully selected individuals.  Those persons "who have been briefed on BLUEBIRD" included, by 1951: William King Harvey, J. H. Alberti, James Angleton, H. M. Chadwell, Cutler Clark, H. H. Cooper, Robert H. Cunningham, E. H. Cushing, James H. Drum, Allen Dulles, John Earman, Sheffield Edwards, Richard Helms, Lyman B.  Kirkpatrick, Frank Wisner, Dr. William Webster.  In October 1950, concurrently with implementation of BLUEBIRD, the CIA's chief of ultra-secret Staff D – which then included Richard Helms and James Angleton – requested that security director Edwards immediately contact former OSS officers who "experimented during 1945 and early 1946 with a drug known under the cryptonym SUGAR" . . . . Stanley Lovell urged the Agency to locate Geore Hunter White, a former OSS officer "with considerable experience with Project SUGAR."  – pg. 212 

The day before [Dr. Sidney] Gottlieb left New York, he and White met at the Narcotics Bureau office where White introduced Gottlieb to agents Arthur Giuliani and Vance Newman.  Also present was "special employee" LaChapelle, who was known at FBN by his real name, Pierre Lafitte.  As readers shall soon learn, Giuliani, Newman and Lafitte would, within a year, play prominent roles in the CIA's drug experiments at their Greenwich Village safe house in New York. . . . at the time, George White had already been vetted for Project BLUEBIRD by James Angleton. – pg. 223 

By August 16, 1951, Sheffield Edwards notified H. Marshall Chadwell that pursuant to his expressed security concerns, the new name for BLUEBIRD would be ARTICHOKE.  – pg. 221

In November 1952, Hunter White was summoned to share with Office of Scientific Intelligence the results of certain experiments that had a bearing on ARTICHOKE. Three weeks later, James Angleton and Gottlieb met with Hunter White in New York about the progress with search for a safe house and "they also discussed several projects for Lafitte" . . . . 'That evening White, Lafitte, Angleton and Gottlieb had dinner with Dr. Harold Abramson, and were joined by Robert Lashbrook, Col. Drum and Willis Gibbons, who had flown up from Washington.  Over dinner, Gibbons explained that White and Lafitte would jointly run experiments with drugs . . . ' pg. 240

' . . . At any rate, towards the end of 1950, almost three years before DCI Allen Dulles would approve the MKULTRA Program [1953], the CIA established an "informal agreement" with the SOD [Camp Detrick's Special Operations Division approved by Sec. James Forrestal, accelerated by the recommendation of the Ad Hoc Committee on Chemical and Biological Warfare) to pursue projects the Agency requested.' – pg. 65

Eleven years later, CI Chief James Angleton and "special employee" Pierre Lafitte in league with infamous SS Commando Otto Skorzeny based in Madrid and Co. Kildare, Ireland would engage in Lancelot Project, the plot to assassinate President John Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963. A thumbnail analysis of relevant entries found in the 1963 datebook maintained by Lafitte who along with his wife Rene had developed a personal friendship with Cicely and James Angleton as well as the Sheffield Edwards:

James Angleton                      May  10  26                               July  31      Aug  23                            Oct  17  25                                    Nov  22   26   27   28                 Dec   5

Sheffield Edwards                                                                         July 9                                                                                                                                                                        Dec 23                                           

Otto Skorzeny     April   30    May 20      June   20  25     July  27      Aug   11      Sept  26     Oct  1  18  22  23  24  25        Nov  5  15   25   28  30             Dec   1

 

 

[James DiEugenio]

To get back to Jeff's article, its pretty good I think as far as showing how dedicated Angleton was as a backer of Israel and how he helped them get the bomb.

But I am going to write a reply or rejoinder or whatever including the newest version of Angleton's testimony as secured by Aaron Good, plus how this policy clashed with Kennedy's policy.