Dr. Jose Rivera

[William Kelly]

I see Dr. Jose Rivera does not have an entry at Namebase. Do any members know of any books that look at Rivera's career?

I'd almost be willing to bet that Rivera knew and was connected to Dr. Ochner, or those working with him. Anyone have anything related to that?

Peter,

That would be a good bet.

Rivera did work in New Orleans for a number of years, teaching nurses.

BK

[Michael Hogan]

Rivera is at Tulane in the summer of 63 offering research grants from NIH.

Rivera did work in New Orleans for a number of years, teaching nurses.

Forum member Edward Haslam writes:

And there were other connections between NIH and New Orleans. Of particular interest was Jose Rivera, M.D., Ph.D., who sat on the NIH Board of Directors in the 1960s. We will note that Dr. Rivera was really Col. Jose A. Rivera, one of the U.S. Army's top experts in biological warfare, and that in the summer of 1963 he was in New Orleans handing out research grants from NIH (its Institute for Neurological Diseases and Blindness) to Tulane Medical School, LSU Medical School, and the Ochsner Clinic.

(Dr. Mary's Monkey, p. 221)

Edited July 8, 2007 by Michael Hogan

[Francesca Akhtar]

Koepfler and Clay Shaw jointly owned a real estate investment in New Orleans.

That is interesting. Do you have any more details on this 'investment'?

[William Kelly]

John,

I don't think it's fare to compare Adele and Judyth, though they both have the medical research background.

While Judyth only gives info that is verafiable from books and published sources, Adele has given us literally dozens of new leads that DO check out and lead to others.

Stockdale is one example. Others have done more research on his death, all I have is a newspaper clip.

Other leads: Drs. Jose Rivera, his superior Dr. Carl Lamana, SS SAIC NO John Rice, Blackie's House of Beef, the New Orleans medical research community, etc. are all more significant and pan out with other leads.

As for your profile of Dr. Rivera, when she met Rivera at the conference in Atlantic City Adele was a research student with a grant from the NIH that Rivera provided as the administrator.

The Army Inspector General's Report on the Use of Human Subjects in Chemical Agent Research (circa 1976) notes that for the most part, subjects of MKULTRA (LSD, etc.) experiments were either prisoners, soldiers or students, and she was one of the subjects who has survived. It's time to go beyond Adele, and instead of concentrating on her, follow up on the leads she presents.

Doug Horne, a military investigator for the ARRB, requested Rivera's military files and got about 800 pages, which include his background, military postings and the name of his superior on the classified projects Rivera was working on.

Both in 1948 at Ft. Detrick and 1961-63 Rivera worked on classified projects under Dr. Carl Lamanna, who isolated the crystaline form of the botulinum toxin (the most poisonous poison) at Ft. Detrick and did research on Anthrax in the 50s. Dr. Richard E. Shope (U. of Iowa) says that Lamanna was with the Scientific Defense Biological Warfare Program at Ft. Detrick ( later USAMRIID).

The Church Committee discovered the existence of MKNAOMI, a joint CIA-USArmy research project and covert operational base that I believe Lamanna and Rivera were affiliated with. [see attached doc.]

Both Lamanna and Rivera were assigned to a joint Navy-Army research project at Monteray, Calif. at the time Oswald got out of the service and defected, and Rivera, besides being a teacher of nurses in New Orleans at relevant times, was assigned for the longest time - seven years - at Brooks Medical facility in Texas, which JFK visited on 11/21/63. While there, he broke off from the tour he was given to check out a special, new oxygen tank that could have possibly saved the life of his young son Patrick, whose medical condition Rivera was familar with from his NIH position in Bethesda, DC.

The most important lead Adele gives us however, is Special Agent In Charge (SAIC) of the New Orleans Secret Service office, who she talked to on the phone before and after the assassination, and who interviewed her in NO on 11/24/63 at the time of Oswald's murder. I'm sure Oswald's sudden demise suddenly made those whistleblowers like Adele to keep quite.

Rice is only mentioned in a dozen or so docs at the NARA, and in only one book as far as I can tell. Pat Lampert's lame book on Jim Garrison mentions Rice was looking for David Ferrie at one point. Then he disapears, though Adele says he was fairly young and we believe he is still alive today.

There are a number of imortant witnesses and suspects who are stll alive and should be located and properly interviewed, including John Rice, Jim Braden, Steve Kennan, Don Norton, Jean Aase, Carl Mather, the mystery man in Mexico City, and the positive id of the tramps.

Identifying them and their whereabouts, and asking them the proper questions would be significant, and having them testify under oath before a Congressional Hearing or a Grand Jury would be even better.

Bill Kelly

bkjfk3@yahoo.com

[William Kelly]

Chemical and Biological Activities

Against this background, the Central Intelligence Agency entered into a special agreement with the Army on a project which the CIA codenamed MKNAOMI. The original purpose of MKNAOMI is difficult to determine. Few written records were prepared during its 18 year existence; most of the documents relating to it have been destroyed; and persons with knowledge of its early years have either died or have been unable to recall much about their association with the project. However, it is fair to conclude from the types of weapons developed for the CIA, and from the extreme security associated with MKNAOMI, that the possibility of first use of biological weapons by the CIA was contemplated.

The Army agreed that the Special Operations Division (SOD) at Fort Detrick would assist the CIA in developing, testing, and maintaining biological agents and delivery systems. By this agreement, CIA acquired the knowledge, skill, and facilities of the Army to develop biological weapons suited for CIA use. In 1967, the CIA summarized MKNAOMI objectives:

• To provide for a covert support base to meet clandestine operational requirements.
  
• To stockpile severly incapacitating and lethal materials for the specific use of TSD [Technical Services Division].
  
• To maintain in operational readiness special and unique items for the dissemination of biological and chemical materials.
  
• To provide for the required surveillance, testing, upgrading, and evaluation of materials and items in order to assure absence of defects and complete predictability of results to be expected under operational conditions.
  In reviewing the records and testimony of SOD personnel, it is easy for the most part, to distinguish SOD's work for the Army from the work for the CIA, even though very few SOD scientists knew of the CIA connection. For example, the CIA personnel who worked with SOD were identified as military officers from the fictitious Staff Support Group, whose interest in SOD was markedly different from the Army's. The CIA was careful to ensure that its moneys were transferred to SOD to cover the cost of CIA projects and the few existing SOD records indicate which projects were to be charged against the CIA funds received from "P-600," the accounting designation for CIA funds.
  SOD's work for the Army from 1952 until the early 1960s was primarily to assess the vulnerability of sensitive installations, such as the Pentagon, air bases, and subway systems, to biological sabotage by an enemy….
  The transfer from SOD to the CIA resulted in a major quantity of the toxin being retained by the agency in a manner which clearly violated the President's order….
  Nevertheless, the history of MKNAOMI and the atmosphere surrounding it undoubtedly contributed to the mistaken belief of these individuals that they were not directly affected by the President's decision. The MKNAOMI project itself was contrary to the United States policy since 1925 and to Presidential announcement since 1943, for it contemplated a first use of biological weapons by the CIA – albeit in the context of small covert operations. Moreover because of the sensitive nature of MKNAOMI, these scientists gave their superiors little written record of their work and received little or no written guidance. The National Security Council staff, charged by the President with determining what U.S. policy should be, did not discover MKNAOMI in the course of its study and did not, therefore, consider the possibility that the CIA had biological weapons or biological agents. The CIA employee who claims to have made the decision, on his own, to retain the toxin received no written instructions to destroy them. Kept outside the National Security Council's study, the employee had to rely only on the newspaper account of the President's announcement and on his own interpetation of it.
  

Edited July 8, 2007 by William Kelly

[James Richards]

I see Dr. Jose Rivera does not have an entry at Namebase. Do any members know of any books that look at Rivera's career?

I'd almost be willing to bet that Rivera knew and was connected to Dr. Ochner, or those working with him. Anyone have anything related to that?

Peter,

When Rivera was at Brookes Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, he worked under William Ampacher who was the director of surgical research. I believe this man had connections to Ochsner.

Rivera worked on a 5 year study concerning antibiotics. Dr. Paul Donaldson is one who may have insights into the chain of command here. I have no idea if he is still alive.

FWIW.

James

Edited July 11, 2007 by James Richards

[William Kelly]

I see Dr. Jose Rivera does not have an entry at Namebase. Do any members know of any books that look at Rivera's career?

I'd almost be willing to bet that Rivera knew and was connected to Dr. Ochner, or those working with him. Anyone have anything related to that?

Peter,

When Rivera was at Brookes Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, he worked under William Ampacher who was the director of surgical research. I believe this man had connections to Ochsner.

Rivera worked on a 5 year study concerning antibiotics. Dr. Paul Donaldson is one who may have insights into the chain of command here. I have no idea if he is still alive.

FWIW.

James

After leaving Fort Detrick, home to MK/NAOMI, MK/ULTRA, Army Chemical Agent research, and the Remote Reviewing program, Rivera was stationed at a Navy research center near San Francisco, at the same time LHO was stationed in San Diego.

Rivera was stationed at Brookes for seven years, the longest of any posting in his career. Also recall that the official visit to Brookes was the reason JFK went to Texas, the other stops were political sidelines.

At Brookes, Rivera knew a US Army officer who was command of a unit Rivera describted as trying to identify political demonstrators from photos.

There's also the role played by the Shriners fraternal lodge supported the Brookes Army Medical Center burn unit, and raised millions for their hospital and research.

Rivera's superior at Fort Detrick and the Navy Lab in California was Dr. Carl Lamanna, who had also done research on the use of Anthrax in chemical warfare.

Thanks for those names JR.

Perhaps a background check on Willam Ampacher will offer some more clues as to Dr. Rivera's foreknowledge of the assassination.

BK

[James Richards]

Bill,

I don't know much about Ampacher other than during WW2 he was with the 77th Evacuation Hospital and served as deputy surgeon to Richard Arnest.

Arnest I believe was the author of a report regarding some very poor behavior by Patton. Details escape me for now.

James

[William Kelly]

I see Dr. Jose Rivera does not have an entry at Namebase. Do any members know of any books that look at Rivera's career?

I'd almost be willing to bet that Rivera knew and was connected to Dr. Ochner, or those working with him. Anyone have anything related to that?

Peter,

When Rivera was at Brookes Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, he worked under William Ampacher who was the director of surgical research. I believe this man had connections to Ochsner.

Rivera worked on a 5 year study concerning antibiotics. Dr. Paul Donaldson is one who may have insights into the chain of command here. I have no idea if he is still alive.

FWIW.

James

Here's some more Brookes Med Center officers I came to in a most bizzare way.

BK

SHRINER'S PARADE IN NEW ORLEANS

SHRINER'S CIRCUS IN NEW ORLEANS "It will happen after the Shriner's circus comes to New Orleans." – Dr./Col. Jose Rivera.

After I began to take Adele Edisen seriously, and closer examine her story, I broke up various aspects of her conversations with Dr. Rivera into SERIALS – to see if they could be checked out. A few of them seemed easy, others more difficult, but hints and clues that latched onto something real that could be verified.

For instance, [sERIAL # 6 ] Edisen quoted Rivera as saying: "We'll have him go to the library and read up on all of the great assassins in history."

The list of books Oswald checked out of the New Orleans Public Library was not classified, and from what I've seen of the list, though I might not have the complete list, there aren't any books on assassination that I could find in a quick perusal. There are however, some interesting authors – Aldus Huxley, Ian Fleming, science fiction and spys, but nothing about assassins.

In the course of reading the Secret Service Exceptional Case Study Project (ECSP) it is interesting to note that in the course of attempting to profile and manage potential assassins that come to their attention, they list Questions to Ask in a Threat Assessment: "Has the subject shown an interest in any of the following? – Assassins or assassination. Weapons (including recent acquisition of a weapon. Militant or radical ideas/groups. Murders, murderers, mass murderers, and workplace violence and stalking incidents."

Now SERIAL # 6, reading up on assassins in history, was the first part of Adele Edisen's story that didn't check out, so far, and it is a peculiar one.

All of the significant SERIALS do check out while one seemingly insignificant one does not.

I thought an even more bizarre quote Edisen attributes to Rivera is: "It will happen after the Shriner's circus comes to New Orleans."

Now I've since learned that the Shriner's Circus does come to New Orleans every November, and it is apparently a big social occasion. I also have a list of the organizations that Dr. Jose Rivera was a member of, which includes the Shriners.

Now the Shriners that I knew, who put on funny costumes and hats and rode small poneys and golf carts on Atlantic City boardwalk parades, and seemed to be a big party fraternity, the kind that got drunk and put lamp shades on their heads.

So it was with some interest that I somehow, quite miraculously came into possession of a pulp paperback book, "Parade To Glory – The Shriners – and their Caravan to Destiny" by Fred Van Deventer ( Pyramid Books, N.Y., 1964);

p. 275:

"It was even possible that Governor Earl Warren (later to become Chief Justice

of the United States) served as prophet when he welcomed the Imperial Council

representatives to California, by declaring that America is a fraternal nation.

'It is,' he said, 'a land of fraternities, and one of the greatest is the Shrine

of North America. Nations across the waters do not understand this phase of or

national life….I wish all the world could absorb this fraternal spirit and put

it to work. It is all that is necessary to solve the most troublesome problems

of our turbulent times…..If the world would adopt the same attitude towards the

poor, the weak and the under-privileged that the Shrine has maintained toward

the crippled children of North America, without regard to race, creed or color,

it would dispel most of the darkness around us. There is no gloom that cannot be

driven out by the sunshine of the Shrine.'"

p.296:

"Thus it was that it became apparent to him [Dr. Clayton F. Andrews] in the

decade of the fifties that while the hospitals had successfully and mercifully

treated thousands of children afflicted with orthopedic deformities, not much

use had ever been made of the wide background and knowledge obtained by the

hospitals and doctors from all of the successes and, of course, a few failures.

"During the decade, Dr. Guy A. Caldwell, professor of surgery at

Tulane University in New Orleans, had become chief of the advisory board of

orthopedic surgeons, and as Dr. Andrews moved up the line became friendly with

him. And so it was that at the mid-winter meeting of the Board of Trustees of

the hospitals at the Astor Hotel in New York in January of 1958, Dr. Andrews

presented Dr. Caldwell to make a long and detailed speech on the value that

could be obtained from all of the hospital records if the board would approve a

program of clinical research."

p. 298:

"Dr. Andrews conceded in the discussion that his program of clinical

research would not need all of the funds the hospital corporation had available

for research, and [imperial Sir Marshall M.] Porter replied that side by side

with the program of clinical research, the Shriners should explore some other

field that bears some relation to the overall picture of the Shriners Hosptial

for Crippled Children. But what field? No one knew."

"In Atlantic City that July of 1959, Dr. Andrews became the Imperial

Potentate. Together with the manifold duties of his office, he continued to

watch over his research project. Seminars for surgeons were conducted. Experts

devised the punch-card IBM program, and in Washington, Chief Counsel Bob Smith

picked up the telephone in his office and put through a call to the United

States Army Medical Research Command."

"At some unrecorded date in the spring of 1958, Smith had discussed

with some of the top medical brass of the Army, Navy and Airforce what the

Shrine might do in the field of medical research to help humanity in general,

and children in particular. And Army records reveal that a number of projects

were suggested, but Colonel Frederick Timmerman, deputy to Brigadier General

Joseph McNinch in command of the Army medical research, recalls that he had

become convinced, and told Smith, that the greatest single medical need in North

America was some facility for the treatment of major burns and research and

teaching projects connected with them."

"While Smith had all of the suggestions in hand when he went to

Atlantic City, there is no recorded evidence that he offered them to the

trustees, but it is likely that he talked about them behind closed doors, for

after that session was concluded he immediately asked the Army's medical

research command if they would stage a seminar on burns for the Shrine's

leadership. They would and did on August 24 and 25….The Army doctors did a bang

up job of showing them the need for burn research. They went into every phase of

their own research programs. Colonel Edward H. Vogel, Jr., the commanding

officer of the Army medical research unit at Brooke Army Medical Center at San

Antonio, Texas, who was in charge of the only burn research center in the United

States, was particularly impressive with a movie and slide presentation of the

work his unit was doing."

"But all of the military men said there was so much more to be done,

particularly among civilians; and among civilians, particularly children, for

burns were one of the great scourges of childhood."

"In January of 1960, at the mid-winter meeting of the Board of

Trustees in New Orleans, there was no doubt of the enthusiasm that had been

generated…., but Caldwell cautioned that so far it was just something for the

board to think about, and that the entire matter for the time being should be

held confidential among themselves."

"But the spark had begun to ignite into flame, and by the time the

trustees met prior to the Denver Convention, it had grown into a bright blaze,

and they unanimously approved a resolution that Chairman Calhoun should appoint

a burns committee that would make extensive investigations into a burns

treatment and research program for children and report to the mid-winter meeting

in Las Vegas, Nevada, the following January…"

"The committee wasted no time. They quickly called into consultation

the doctors, the lawyers and the builders. The doctors and the committee visited

at the Brooke Army Medical Center. So did the Shrine's architects so that they

might report on just what would be involved structurally if a burns program was

finally approved. The lawyers investigated the legal feasibility of the COLORADO

CORPORATION entering into such a program, and they quickly discovered from a

search of the records that Shriners Hospitals for Crippled Children had been

treating burns cases of children for years because burns created orthopedic

problems. The Surgical Advisory Board was unanimous in its opinion that while

burns created problems other than orthopedic, certainly burn cases were

orthopedic in character because bone and muscle contractures."

"Progress was being made by the committee, but it was slow work for

there were so few people to advise. They had talked, of course, with Colonel

Vogel in San Antonio and with Dr. Truman Blocker, another former Army burn

specialist, and now a professor of surgery at the University of Texas Medical

School in Galveston. Dr. Blocker and Dr. Vogel also recommended that they talk

with Dr. Curtis P. Artz, associate professor of surgery at the University of

Mississippi, who as an Army colonel had originally set up the Brooke burns

program."

"At the Imperial session in Miami in July, 1961, the burns committee

was able to make an interim report, but they were not quite ready to formalize a

program. There was still much work to do. Dr. Caldwell needed to talk with the

deans of important medical schools, so that when a program would be formally

introduced there would be no doubt of its final passage. The delay in Miami was

brought on largely through the death of [Council] Bob Smith in Boston on May 12,

1961 of a heart attack. He was visiting Robert Gardner Wilson in connection with

his activities on behalf of the proposed burns institutes..."

"Galloway Calhoun, who had lived most of his life at the center of drama, died

the same way as he addressed the 90th annual conclave of the Knights Templar of

Arkansas on the evening of April 16, 1962….Past Imperial Potentate [ Thomas C.]

Law died three weeks later on May 4, 1962, in a private hospital in Atlanta, and

thus three men who had had so much to do with the Shrine's hoped-for new

philanthropy were not present when the Shriners began to arrive in Toronto on

June 30."

"Dr. Caldwell returned to tell the Shriners that as projected, the burns

institutes would provide three things – 1. immediate treatment for burned

children, treatment within 48 hours, which would require in many cases air

travel for the patient; 2. total burn research in laboratories in each

institute, which would be located on or adjacent to campuses of outstanding

medical universities where vast facilities for treatments associated with burns

would be available; and 3. the creation of programs for the teaching of teams of

burn doctors and technicians, which could then take to all America training

programs for other teams to be created."

p. 309:

"In the end, the committee chose the Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts

General Hospital; the University of Texas Medical School Branch at Galveston,

Texas; and the University of Cincinnati Medical School and University Hospital.

The first institute to begin actual construction was that at Galveston, Texas,

where Imperial Potentate Howard C. Close broke ground on June 23, 1964.

THE PARADE

p.310:

"'Accompanied by 50 brass bands, some 500 horses, and at least two camels, the

Shriners swarmed into Manhattan 150,000 strong, occupied 85 hotels and motor

inns, added to the traffic jams, monopolized sidewalks, held seven-hour-long

parades and displayed a keen group sense of humor in a thousand hilarious ways,

including occasionally entangling innocent natives in loops of invisible thread.

They wore red fezzes, red and green floppy harem trousers, and red-embroidered

jackets and looked like wandering extras from 'The Forty Days of Musa Dagh,'

They were the respectable and respected members of the Ancient Arabic Order

Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. As representatives of an organization forthrightly

dedicated to whoopee in a good cause, the Shriners are pranksters by

profession….'"

p.311-312:

"Equally important, among his [O.Carlyle Brock's] first messages to

temples was that he wanted Shrine units to make every public appearance possible

so that the general public might know that Shriners, playing at Moslems and

Infidels, are dedicated Masons, actively working at and contributing to the

welfare of those less fortunate. Moreover, he wanted the public to know that in

their antics and demonstrations, they still lived within the code, as William B.

Melish put it in 1892:

'Pleasure without intemperance, hospitality without rudeness and jollity without

coarseness.'"

Dr. Guy A. Caldwell - Tulane

Galloway Calhoun - Arkansas

Thomas C. Law - RIP May 4, 1962

Robert Bob Smith - DC RIP Boston - May 12, 1961 USA Med Research Command

Dr. Clayton F. Andrews

Robert Gardner Wilson

Marshal M. Porter

Col. Frederick Timmerman

Brig. Gen. Joseph McNinch

Col. Ed H. Vogel, Jr.

Dr. Truman Blocker

Dr. Curtis P. Artz

If anybody has or can get a make on any of these guys I'd appreciate any additional information on them.

- By Bill Kelly

Edited July 15, 2007 by William Kelly

[William Kelly]

TULANE University – U.S. Army Research Grants -

The U.S. Army Inspector General’s Report on the Use of Human Subjects in Chemical Agent Research. 21 July, 1975. p.160 :

“In 1955 an Army grant (DA18-108-CML-5596) was provided to Tulane University, Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, for research in abnormal brain functioning as related to mental illness. The few Army records available regarding the experiments conducted under the terms of the Army grant revealed that mental patients, normal volunteers and neurological patients were used by the Tulane medical investigators. The actual terms of the grant were not found and therefore no determination was made concerning the grantees’ compliance with Department of the Army policies nor could any judgment be made as to the quality of consent rendered by the patients. One particular experiment involved giving LSD and mescaline to mental patients who previously had wire electrodes implanted in their brains. Reports indicated that the research group believed that a basic biochemical abnormality was responsible for the bizarre behavior demonstrated by many psycholotic patients; and that the wired electrodes served a twofold purpose: to record electrical abnormalities in patients’ brains, and to stimulate patients brains in hope of curing or ameliorating the patients’ problem. The reports suggested that the implantation of electrodes was financed under a grant from the COMMONWEALTH FOUNDATION and not the Army grant. Finally, it was not clear what the Chemical Corps interest in the experiments were at the time, although, it was surmised that their interest did not go beyond gathering evidence of the effects of LSD and mescaline in humans. Some evidence was lent to that belief by the reports provided the Chemical Corps, which did not discuss the implantation procedures, purposes or effect; rather they stressed the effects of the drugs.”

Footnote #18, Chapter 10: “Department of the Army, office of the Surgeon General Memorandum, subject: Review of Reports on Department of the Army Grant, DA 18-108-CML 5596, to the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, Tulane University, 1955-59 – Information Memorandum, dated 22 August 1975.

Edited July 17, 2007 by William Kelly

[John Simkin]

According to Ed Haslam (Dr. Mary's Monkey) Rivera sat on the National Institute of Health Board of Directors. A fellow director in the early 1960s was Alton Ochsner. In 1963 Rivera was in New Orleans handing out research grants from NIH to the Tulane Medical School. This seems to support Adele Edison's story about Rivera knowing Lee Harvey Oswald's phone number in New Orleans before he arrived in the city.

[William Kelly]

It seems that a list of veterans with files at the NPRC include one on Rivera that describes him as one of the doctors who performed the autopsy on JFK at Bethesda.

While that appears to be grossley inaccurate, there may be reason to believe that Rivera was present at the autopsy.

BK

Edited July 5, 2008 by William Kelly

[William Kelly]

It seems that a list of veterans with files at the NPIC include one on Rivera that describes him as one of the doctors who performed the autopsy on JFK at Bethesda.

While that appears to be grossley inaccurate, there may be reason to believe that Rivera was present at the autopsy.

BK

This would be one of the stranger 'turns' in an already very strange story, indeed. Why do you speculate that 'there may be reason to believe that Rivera was present at the autopsy'?! By whom? [Though I'd agree with you there is no evidence he was.]

Mike Ravnitzky, who has worked with FOIA records in the past, located this list of people associated witht the assassination of JFK among the files of the National Personnel Records Center - Military Personnel Records Office.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=13078

SELECTED MILITARY SERVICE FILES AT THE NATIONAL PERSONNEL RECORDS CENTER -

MILITARY PERSONNEL RECORDS OFFICE

By Michael Ravnitzky

Note: the V files are Vault Files belonging to persons of note.

MR: I took the descriptions word for word from the NPRC descriptions from their

V-Files Listing. Any errors are theirs. I acknowledge that

unfortunately I am not well versed in the details of the JFK and MLK

assassinations. I should have had a caveat on those descriptions.

Sorry about that.My primary purpose was not to describe the people

but to encourage someone to get hold of their military files.

BK: Among those on the list is Jose A. Rivera, who is misidentified as "one of hte doctors who performed the autopsy on President John F. Kennedy after the assassination..."

Jose A. Rivera, service number 513618, One of the doctors who performed the

autopsy on President John F. Kennedy after the assassination. File reviewed

by Assassination Records Review Board 1995. Vault Service File V2308

Adele Edisen compared these numbers with the records reviewed by the ARRB and they match to the Dr./Col. Jose Rivera, of NIH who supervised Adele's research project and asked her to call LHO in New Orleans in April, 1963.

Adele notes, "Rivera was not an MD, as far as I know. He was a glorified lab technician in bacteriology and infectious diseases and headed Army bacteria labs and worked in Biowarfare with a Top Security clearance with Dr. Carl Lamanna, Army specialist in Biowarfare. He managed to get a Ph.D degree in Biology in 1972 or 1973, just before he retired from NIH."

The military file on Jose A. Rivera obtained by Doug Horne and ARRB was incomplete, and additional parts of his military file might indicate that he did attend the autopsy, at least as an observer in the gallery. Rivera did live in Bathesda, Md., had an office there, and could have attended the autopsy, though its apparent these records are misidentified, at least in regards to Rivara.

The list is interesting however, and if they isolated these records for whatever reason, they should be looked into.

BK

[Guest David Guyatt]

In 1942 Rivera joined the United States Army and served as first lieutenant in the medical corps. He was stationed at Walter Reed Army Hospital and later assigned to Halloran General Army Hospital in New York. In 1944 he was promoted to captain and went on a series of assignments in Italy and France and at the 198th General Army Hospital in Berlin.

During the Korean War he served in the Medical Field Unit and was promoted to the rank of major. After the war, he was chief of laboratory service and pathology at the U.S. Army Hospital in Tokyo. In 1958, he was assigned to the Reserve Training Center in Washington.

Dr Jose Rivera's background & movements are very interesting. Other posts in this thread suggest his involvement in MK-ULTRA. Is it the case that Rivera was in Japan in a senior "medical" position throughout the 1950s?

In posts #82, 85 & 89 in the thread linked below, I posted information about MK-ULTRA documents from 1954 describing proposed human "field" tests of narco-hypnotic programming, particularly in the context of a "false defector" programme. It is also documented that Atsugi was one of two known non-US bases used for MK-ULTRA field trials.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...75&start=75

There are also suggestions that the "false defector" programme involved the Gehlen Organization, the OSS/CIA network of Nazi spies (often right-wing East Europeans such as White Russians, Ukrainians, Latvians) used against the Soviets in the aftermath of WW2.

In "The Nazi Connection to the John F Kennedy Assassination", Mae Brussell stated:

Also at (Allen) Dulles' direction, Gehlen tapped the ranks of his wartime Russian collaborators for a cadre of spies to be parachuted into the Soviet Union. Some of these spies were schooled at the CIA's clandestine base at Atsugi, Japan, where, in 1957, a young marine named Lee Harvey Oswald was posted to the U-2 spy plane operation there.

So, if this is correct, we have "training schools" for both MK-ULTRA and the Gehlen Organization operating out of Atsugi in the timeframe that Oswald was busy attacking his superiors in strangely pre-meditated fashion in the Blue Bird Cafe.

The synchronicities are piling up.

Yes, I agree Jan, the pimple is about to 'pop'.....and isn't it interesting how things that 'seem' to be connected, but don't 'make sense' in a complete way, as being connected, suddenly do - at a certain point. I think we have almost reached that point on this matter.....the puzzle pieces are all there and only need some final assembly. I assure all the final picture will not be 'pretty'. Many, if not most, of the White Russians [and others] around Oswald were likely creatures of [or connected to] the Gehlen Org - as were some others in the Oswald set-up 'orbit'. Mae really was 'on track' IMO. MK/ULTRA fits in here...exactly how is not completely clear yet..but I think it just around the corner; and that 'piece' will fit nicely when put in its 'place'.

The concern Peter, is that when that final piece of the puzzle clarifies, it will very likely be too late to stop the beast of fascism manifesting again.

[Terry Mauro]

In 1942 Rivera joined the United States Army and served as first lieutenant in the medical corps. He was stationed at Walter Reed Army Hospital and later assigned to Halloran General Army Hospital in New York. In 1944 he was promoted to captain and went on a series of assignments in Italy and France and at the 198th General Army Hospital in Berlin.

During the Korean War he served in the Medical Field Unit and was promoted to the rank of major. After the war, he was chief of laboratory service and pathology at the U.S. Army Hospital in Tokyo. In 1958, he was assigned to the Reserve Training Center in Washington.

Dr Jose Rivera's background & movements are very interesting. Other posts in this thread suggest his involvement in MK-ULTRA. Is it the case that Rivera was in Japan in a senior "medical" position throughout the 1950s?

In posts #82, 85 & 89 in the thread linked below, I posted information about MK-ULTRA documents from 1954 describing proposed human "field" tests of narco-hypnotic programming, particularly in the context of a "false defector" programme. It is also documented that Atsugi was one of two known non-US bases used for MK-ULTRA field trials.

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...75&start=75

There are also suggestions that the "false defector" programme involved the Gehlen Organization, the OSS/CIA network of Nazi spies (often right-wing East Europeans such as White Russians, Ukrainians, Latvians) used against the Soviets in the aftermath of WW2.

In "The Nazi Connection to the John F Kennedy Assassination", Mae Brussell stated:

Also at (Allen) Dulles' direction, Gehlen tapped the ranks of his wartime Russian collaborators for a cadre of spies to be parachuted into the Soviet Union. Some of these spies were schooled at the CIA's clandestine base at Atsugi, Japan, where, in 1957, a young marine named Lee Harvey Oswald was posted to the U-2 spy plane operation there.

So, if this is correct, we have "training schools" for both MK-ULTRA and the Gehlen Organization operating out of Atsugi in the timeframe that Oswald was busy attacking his superiors in strangely pre-meditated fashion in the Blue Bird Cafe.

The synchronicities are piling up.

Yes, I agree Jan, the pimple is about to 'pop'.....and isn't it interesting how things that 'seem' to be connected, but don't 'make sense' in a complete way, as being connected, suddenly do - at a certain point. I think we have almost reached that point on this matter.....the puzzle pieces are all there and only need some final assembly. I assure all the final picture will not be 'pretty'. Many, if not most, of the White Russians [and others] around Oswald were likely creatures of [or connected to] the Gehlen Org - as were some others in the Oswald set-up 'orbit'. Mae really was 'on track' IMO. MK/ULTRA fits in here...exactly how is not completely clear yet..but I think it just around the corner; and that 'piece' will fit nicely when put in its 'place'.

The concern Peter, is that when that final piece of the puzzle clarifies, it will very likely be too late to stop the beast of fascism manifesting again.

My, my are we all as cynical as I?!....I agree it might be too late, but we need to try, just in case we are wrong on the timing and doing the near impossible. Information will help those to whom it has meaning. I agree a new fascism is ascendent now and one doesn't need the last puzzle pieces to fit in order to see that. Those last few pieces might help fight it though!....maybe....we can hope...

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"My, my are we all as cynical as I?!"

"The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it."

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish writer.