David Atlee Phillips

[John Simkin]

David Atlee Phillips was head of the CIA’s Western Hemisphere Division. Gaeton Fonzi was a staff investigator for the House Select Committee on Assassinations. In his book, The Last Investigation, Fonzi takes the view that the assassination was organized by Phillips. He denied the charge and for a while he threatened legal action against Fonzi.

Phillips later told Kevin Walsh, a former investigator with House Select Committee on Assassinations: "My private opinion is that JFK was done in by a conspiracy, likely including rogue American intelligence people."

David Atlee Phillips died of cancer on 7th July, 1988. He left behind an unpublished manuscript. The novel is about a CIA officer who lived in Mexico City (that is where Phillips was in 1963). In the novel the character states: "I was one of those officers who handled Lee Harvey Oswald... We gave him the mission of killing Fidel Castro in Cuba... I don't know why he killed Kennedy. But I do know he used precisely the plan we had devised against Castro. Thus the CIA did not anticipate the president's assassination, but it was responsible for it. I share that guilt."

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKphillips.htm

This fits in with the story supplied by the CIA agent Harry Dean. He claims that he was working with Lee Harvey Oswald in a plot to kill Fidel Castro. However, this was switched to an attack on Kennedy (the CIA working with the John Birch Society).

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKdeanH.htm

[Wim Dankbaar]

Is there more information on this unpublished manuscript? Can it be found on the web? Or is it his book "The shadow warrior"

Wim

[John Simkin]

Is there more information on this unpublished manuscript? Can it be found on the web? Or is it his book "The shadow warrior"

This information came from the updated 2002 edition of The Kennedy Conspiracy by Anthony Summers. He says it had been unpublished at the time of his death. There was no information about whether the novel has been published since 1988. Nor does he say what the novel was called.

[Denis Morissette]

 

[Benjamin Cole]

I think it is possible that Phillips organized a false flag op against JFK, intended to effect only, that was piggy-backed on by anti-Castro CIA assets who shot for real. 

[Matt Allison]

Don't know if it has been discussed much, but here is what I think needs to be looked at really thoroughly:

We talk about the "Mexico City Mystery Man" and his photo being sent by the Mexi CIA station on 11/22 as a picture of Oswald. The important thing there, IMO, is that the people at Mexi really thought that was Oswald. We know that because of the cablegram sent by Mexi on October 6th, where they describe Oswald exactly as someone would the man in the mystery photo; 35 yo, big build, etc. Those photos of mystery man were already in Mexi possession, and believed to be Oswald!

So what happened? A few days earlier, on October 1st, Phillips had a anonymized package of materials sent via diplomatic pouch to his alias, Michael Choaden, in DC. 

Why did he have them sent to his alias? He was Mexi bigwig. Were these materials the surveillance photos taken during Oswald's visit just days before? If so, why would Phillips pull the photos of Oswald, and send the rest back to Mexi? Did he not want anyone to know what Oswald really looked like? Was there someone else with Oswald in the photos? 

Whatever happened with the Mystery Man photos happened way before the assassination. That's what needs to be explained.

[Benjamin Cole]

39 minutes ago, Matt Allison said:

Don't know if it has been discussed much, but here is what I think needs to be looked at really thoroughly:

We talk about the "Mexico City Mystery Man" and his photo being sent by the Mexi CIA station on 11/22 as a picture of Oswald. The important thing there, IMO, is that the people at Mexi really thought that was Oswald. We know that because of the cablegram sent by Mexi on October 6th, where they describe Oswald exactly as someone would the man in the mystery photo; 35 yo, big build, etc. Those photos of mystery man were already in Mexi possession, and believed to be Oswald!

So what happened? A few days earlier, on October 1st, Phillips had a anonymized package of materials sent via diplomatic pouch to his alias, Michael Choaden, in DC. 

Why did he have them sent to his alias? He was Mexi bigwig. Were these materials the surveillance photos taken during Oswald's visit just days before? If so, why would Phillips pull the photos of Oswald, and send the rest back to Mexi? Did he not want anyone to know what Oswald really looked like? Was there someone else with Oswald in the photos? 

Whatever happened with the Mystery Man photos happened way before the assassination. That's what needs to be explained.

I agree 100%.

LHO was shadowed and impersonated in MC, and then the CIA deleted records and created various smokescreens about the LHO visit. A wilderness of black spots, smoke and mirrors. All well before the JFKA.  

 

 

 

[Matt Allison]

The Lopez report is obviously the place to start when figuring out the Mexico City saga, but this excellent grilling of Anne Goodpasture by the ARRB in 1995 also provides plenty of insight:

https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/arrb/cia_testimony/pdf/Goodpasture_12-15-95.pdf

Was she in on what Phillips was up to during September and October of 1963? I tend to doubt it. But it seems likely she was drafted to cover up some of the mess that followed after the assassination.

The Mystery Man photo confusion and the cables from CIA Mexi in October 1963 confirm that at minimum one of two things happened:

1. Oswald was impersonated in Mexico City, both on the phone and in the flesh.

2. Oswald was indeed in Mexico City, and that fact was immediately attempted to be corrupted, well before the assassination.

If we are to believe Nechiporenko, Oswald was indeed there; so for some reason the photos of him were immediately removed from the CIA photo surveillance collection.

I speculate that it was Phillips that did this.

[Stu Wexler]

Something that Tony Summers heard when he was doing his work for Not In Your Lifetime--  a possible reason for covering up the photos, even if they showed Oswald, were the *other people* in the same photos.

[Matt Allison]

22 minutes ago, Stu Wexler said:

a possible reason for covering up the photos, even if they showed Oswald, were the *other people* in the same photos.

So then the question becomes: Why would there be a need prior to the assassination to hide other people that were in a photo with Lee Oswald?

Hide pictures of those other people from other CIA staff at Mexi? At that time before the assassination in October 1963, the assumption would be no one outside of CIA would ever see those photos, so why hide them?

Edited June 10 by Matt Allison

[Benjamin Cole]

43 minutes ago, Matt Allison said:

So then the question becomes: Why would there be a need prior to the assassination to hide other people that were in a photo with Lee Oswald?

Hide pictures of those other people from other CIA staff at Mexi? At that time before the assassination in October 1963, the assumption would be no one outside of CIA would ever see those photos, so why hide them?

Add on: Even back then, "other people" could be whited out of photos. Not sure about the negatives. Maybe they were a concern. 

Not only Nechiporenko, but Kostikov and the third KGB'er in the Russian Embassy all said they met with the real LHO. Many witnesses in MC said they saw LHO, although one might contend they were coaxed by the FBI. 

Still, the three Russians in the embassy entertained no doubts about who they met, and all are recorded on film:

 

 

About the one-hour mark. 

 

[Matt Allison]

There would also be a 3rd possibility: That Oswald was impersonated well enough at the Embassy and Consulate to fool both the Russians and the Cubans.

When shown the photo, the Russians claimed to know who Mystery Man was; they said it was an American serviceman. I would certainly like to know the full story behind that.

But it's possible the surveillance photos had to be "cleansed" immediately after Oswald's supposed visit because they showed a remarkably good Oswald impersonator.

Once those pics were removed and the rest returned, when Mexi went to try to put a name with a face, they were left with only person that looked American: the infamous Mystery Man. 

[Benjamin Cole]

47 minutes ago, Matt Allison said:

There would also be a 3rd possibility: That Oswald was impersonated well enough at the Embassy and Consulate to fool both the Russians and the Cubans.

When shown the photo, the Russians claimed to know who Mystery Man was; they said it was an American serviceman. I would certainly like to know the full story behind that.

But it's possible the surveillance photos had to be "cleansed" immediately after Oswald's supposed visit because they showed a remarkably good Oswald impersonator.

Once those pics were removed and the rest returned, when Mexi went to try to put a name with a face, they were left with only person that looked American: the infamous Mystery Man. 

MA-

I agree, there is a chance there was an LHO double close enough in appearance, that after a lone meeting, and nearly two months later and with faded recollections, the three KGB'ers earnestly thought they had met the "real" LHO. 

But, my guess is the KGB not only met the real LHO, but were somehow intrigued into it. 

I mean, a wayward American tourist shows up on a Saturday---non-business hours---and three KGB'ers meet with him? 

Like everything about JFKA....seems to stretch the odds. 

 

[Larry Hancock]

Ben, an American showing up at an Embassy, claiming to need to urgently meet with diplomatic staff in Mexico City would be treated much the same as a Russian showing up in Berlin on a weekend needing to  urgently meet with American diplomatic staff. 

Its the height of the cold war and the most desirable thing that can happen at an embassy is called a "walk in"....somebody from the other side, potentially a real voluntary defector of some sort....some of the most valuable intelligence came in just that way from walk ins who had been pushed over the edge for some reason.  Saturday is another clue, the individual is not constrained by their day job and less likely to be seen defecting.  You can bet all the staff, especially the KGB (or CIA) types in the building are going to want to talk to the person. 

Lots of Cold War spy novels started that way because it was very real, and dramatic.  In this instance "its just Oswald" but at first the KGB guys would not have known that, could have been a very important American who was fed up and wanted to "come over".

[Benjamin Cole]

9 hours ago, Larry Hancock said:

Ben, an American showing up at an Embassy, claiming to need to urgently meet with diplomatic staff in Mexico City would be treated much the same as a Russian showing up in Berlin on a weekend needing to  urgently meet with American diplomatic staff. 

Its the height of the cold war and the most desirable thing that can happen at an embassy is called a "walk in"....somebody from the other side, potentially a real voluntary defector of some sort....some of the most valuable intelligence came in just that way from walk ins who had been pushed over the edge for some reason.  Saturday is another clue, the individual is not constrained by their day job and less likely to be seen defecting.  You can bet all the staff, especially the KGB (or CIA) types in the building are going to want to talk to the person. 

Lots of Cold War spy novels started that way because it was very real, and dramatic.  In this instance "its just Oswald" but at first the KGB guys would not have known that, could have been a very important American who was fed up and wanted to "come over".

LH-

Always great to have LH in the house. 

I suppose there have been occasions when a bona fide defector simply walked into an Embassy. That seems extraordinarily risky, to the defector. If the defector makes the reasonable assumption he has been witnessed entering the enemy Embassy without official justification...seems like a suicide plan.

Dies the defector expects to leave the enemy Embassy only in a cloak-and-dagger type manner and then re-locate to his new home country? 

But, if such episodes have happened, then they are part of the historical record. 

I thought these defections usually start with a concealed note, etc. A Russian spy who is expected to garner info from US people, and then, having established contacts, elects to defect in a safe way, such as in a neutral city.

But, back to LHO. Perhaps three KGB'ers elected to delay their volleyball game on a Saturday to entertain a wayward American, in the hopes he was a walk-in.

Or, perhaps they had been "leaked" curated info that LHO was a US asset and they wanted to talk to him, to try to figure out what LHO was up to. They had a professional obligation to talk to LHO. 

Who knows?