Why did Marina write these words...

[Greg Parker]

edit

Edited November 17, 2012 by Greg Parker

[John Dolva]

I have posted in this before with seemingly little interest. Hopefully showing the exhibit will help illustrate my concern.

Pic exhibit 60 was Pic's notebook. This notebook was used to have a "conversation" with Marina at their Thanksgiving meeting.

In testimony, Pic explained the presence of this written communication this way:

Mr. PIC - She being a pharmacist, and me being in the medical field, we tried to communicate with each other just to make small talk with medical terminology, metric system and so forth, just some way to kill time with each other she and I seemed to be able to do this to some degree.

Mr. JENNER - That is to communicate?

Mr. PIC - Yes; as long as we stuck within the pharmacy and medical field.

Mr. JENNER - Did she know some English terms in the pharmacy, medical field?

Mr. PIC - She used Latin phrases, some of which were familiar to me.

Mr. JENNER - Just what was that writing, some medical terms?

Mr. PIC - Yes; I think these are names of drugs she was writing down. I wouldn't know.

This explanation however doesn't make much sense since they could have spoken an any topic with Lee acting as interpreter.

Pic's explanation of what Marina had written, and the WC acceptance of that explanation also lacks credibility.

Below, you can clearly identify each of the three words as "Morphinum", "Diceiv" (no doubt a mispelling of "deceive") and "Heroics".

Morphinum - an alkaloid of opium, is described here as being "less stimulating, less convulsant, and more decidedly hypnotic" than belladonna. Interesting then, that she followed this "hypnotic" drug with the words, deceive and heroic...

anyway, here it is:

Greg, thanks for posting the relevant pages.

Some observations.

Diceiv : An analysis of the grayscale values shows that the word is more likely dicain which is a name for a generic class Tetracain hydrochloride which is an anaesthetic used for such things as eyes.

Morphinum apart from the above (hypnotic etc) is also a pain killer.

'heroics' has a few possibilities so I'll work on that, one thing that stands out is that in some respects, it was written at a different time to the other words possibly by a different person and with a different pen.

Overall the numbers relating to the morph is the first and the second the dicain, Its a possibility he may have been evasive ('i don't know') as he may have been embarrassed about why he was interested in them?

[Guest Stephen Turner]

Greg, in medical terminology the word "Hypnotic" means to induce sleep. In laymans terms sleeping tablets or drafts. Hope this is of some help. Steve.

[John Dolva]

Greg, in medical terminology the word "Hypnotic" means to induce sleep. In laymans terms sleeping tablets or drafts. Hope this is of some help. Steve.

Heroica

With regards to 'Heroica', a number of cultural references are perhaps relevant:

Place name:

Heroica Zitacuaro, Michoacan, Mexico

Russian sculptor:

Artist - Boris Lovet-Lorski

Born - 1894

Died - 1973

Origin - Russia

Year Built - 1965

About the Artist: Raised on his parents' Lithuanian estate, Boris Lovet-Lorski went to St. Petersburg, Russia, as a teen for artistic training. After brief study at the Imperial Academy of Art, he fled Russia in 1916 during the Bolshevik Revolution, traveling across Europe and arriving in the United States in 1920. In 1921, he was offered a position at the Layton School of Art in Milwaukee, and two years later he had his first solo exhibition at the nearby Milwaukee Art Institute. He became a citizen in 1925. Lovet-Lorski left for Paris in 1926, exhibiting in the Salon d'Automne that same year. During his sojourn in Paris, he began carving portrait busts and quickly earned a reputation as a portraitist. Although Lovet-Lorski worked primarily in stone during his early career, severe arthritis in his arms forced him to concentrate on bronze casting from the 1950s until his death.

For most of his career, Lovet-Lorski worked in a stylized Art Deco style inspired by Classical Greek sculpture. Heroica, 1965, depicts an idealized female nude, a recurring subject for Lovet-Lorski. Despite the stylization of the contours, the artist preferred rough, expressive textures characteristic of chiseled stone. Heroica looks to both the contemporary direct carving movement, particularly the work of Jose de Creeft, and to the late work of Michelangelo.

Music: Heroica Sonata

Emblem Project Utrecht

Symbola heroica

author Paradin, Claude

main title Symbola heroica

place Antwerpen

date 1583

possibly most relevant is the ages of man which the above are based on: (wikipedia)

Heroic Age

This article treats the Heroic Age of the Greeks. For the so-called Heroic Age when the Germanic tribes are concerned, see Germanic Iron Age.

The Heroic Age was the period of Greek mythological history that lay between the purely divine events of the Theogony and Titanomachy and the advent of historical time after the Trojan War. It was demarcated as one of the five Ages of Man by Hesiod. The Greek heroes can be grouped into an approximate chronology, based on the great meet-up events of the Argonautic expedition and the Trojan War. While the inherently contradictory nature of mythical evidence makes precision impossible, the following represents a reasonably accurate timeline of the Greek Heroic Age.

Before the Argonauts

Aeacus, Agenor and Phoenix, Cadmus, Europa, Cilix, Labdacus, Tantalus, Oenomaeus

The generation of the Argonauts

(about three generations before Troy)

The Argonauts: Atalanta, Autolycus, Calais, Castor and Polydeuces, Echion, Euphemus, Euryalus, Heracles, Hylas, Idas, Idmon, Jason, Laertes, Lynceus, Meleager, Nestor, Oileus, Orpheus, Peleus, Poeas, Polyphemus, Poriclymenus, Telamon, Theseus, Tiphys, Zetes. Medea.

Others: Pelops, Perseus, Hippodamia, Laius, Minos, Rhadymanthus, Sarpedon (1), Myrtilus.

Orpheus:

From the 6th century BC onwards he was looked upon as one of the chief poets and musicians of antiquity, the inventor or perfecter of the lyre, who by his music and singing was able not only to charm the wild beasts, but even to draw the trees and rocks from their places, and to arrest the rivers in their course. As one of the pioneers of civilization, he was supposed to have taught mankind the arts of medicine, writing and agriculture. As closely connected with religious life, he was an augur and seer; practised magical arts, especially astrology; founded or rendered accessible many important cults, such as those of Apollo and Thracian god Dionysus; instituted mystic rites, both public and private; prescribed initiatory and purificatory ritual.

Morphine:

Morphine was first used medicinally as a painkiller and, erroneously, as a cure for opium addiction. It quickly replaced opium as a cure-all recommended by doctors and as a recreational drug and was readily available from drugstores or through the mail. Substitution of morphine addiction for alcohol addiction was considered beneficial by some physicians because alcohol is more destructive to the body and is more likely to trigger antisocial behavior. Morphine was used during the American Civil War as a surgical anesthetic and was sent home with many wounded soldiers for relief of pain. At the end of the war, over 400,000 people had the “army disease,” morphine addiction. The Franco-Prussian War in Europe had a similar effect.

In 1906 the Pure Food and Drug Act required accurate labeling of patent medicines and tonics. Various laws restricting the importation of opium were enacted, and the Harrison Narcotics Act (1914) prohibited possession of narcotics unless properly prescribed by a physician. Despite legislation, morphine maintained much of its popularity until heroin came into use, it in its turn believed to be a cure for morphine addiction.

[John Dolva]

Further:

With regards to the 'squiggle' next to Pics name and next to the calculation.

"nB,0 is the amount of B when ξ = 0. A more general definition is ∆ξ = ∆nB/vB. The extent

of reaction also depends on how the reaction equation is written, but it is independent of

which entity in the reaction equation is used in the defintion.

Example For the reaction is footnote (17), when ∆ξ = 2 mol, ∆n(N2) = -1 mol,

∆n(H2) = -3 mol, and ∆n(NH3) = +2 mol.

This quantity was originally introduced as degrè d'avancement by de Donder."

ξ is xi, term for 60 and 'extent of reaction'.

It looks like a parenthsis.

on the second set of pages seems to be an explanation of this. On the bottom of the second set of pages are two duplications of this but side on. Indicating perhaps that the person writing it here was leaning over to someone sitting nearby looking at the pages and writing from the side to explain the 'squiggles' meaning : xi.

Edit::

To summarise my points.

No misspellings: Morphinum Dicain Heroics

I suggest it may be calculation for ξ Pic in using Morphine and Tetracain HCL to explore some of the mythical rites of ancient greeks under the guidance of Orpheus from the 'Age of Heoics'. I suggest this is a plausible reason for Pic's seeming evasiveness.

(A closet Hippie? while it was an age of MKULTRA it was also 'the sixties')

_____________________________________________

Or a crook back?

Morphinum Hydrochloricum

"...a substantial exacerbation of radicular pain syndrome in the course of discopathy resistant to traditional treatment. The observation of 61 non-surgical patients, who were given epidurally an analgetic (Bupivacainum hydrochloricum or Morphinum hydrochloricum) and a steroid antiphlogistic (Depo-Medrol) simultaneously, using a stationary catheter, confirms the efficacy of the method."

Dicain ( Tetracain Hydrochloride )

"[The effect of concurrent atherosclerosis on the permeability of the dura mater and the efficacy of epidural analgesia with morphine and dicain]

[Article in Russian]

Vitenbek IA.

The permeability of spinal dura mater (SDM) was examined for morphine and tetracaine hydrochloride in 7 suddenly died patients with profound morphological manifestations. Atherosclerosis was found to show an average 37% increase in SDM permeability. With this, the efficiency of postoperative epidural analgesia (EA) with morphine was studied in 32 surgical patients with concurrent atherosclerosis. EA was demonstrated to be not only beneficial for this category of patients, unlike control patients, but followed by a significant decrease in respiratory center sensitivity to CO2. It was concluded that the regularities found should be taken into account during EA with narcotic analgesics in patients with concurrent atherosclerosis.

PMID: 2596724 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] "

EDIT on second thought , I don't feel confident about the Heroics bit, it s too speculative on my part.

Edited October 23, 2005 by John Dolva

[Greg Parker]

Stephen and John,

thanks for your considered replies. I started a response, but have had to abandon it for now. Have 20 month old twins running amok.

Just letting you know I haven't ignored you, and hopefully can reply tonight.

[Greg Parker]

Stephen and John, again... thanks for replies. This is precisely why I wanted feedback.

Stephen said:

Greg, in medical terminology the word "Hypnotic" means to induce sleep. In laymans terms sleeping tablets or drafts. Hope this is of some help. Steve.

Yep. am aware of that. You cannot hypnotize (as in MKULTRA) someone with drugs. The drug however, puts someone into a state whereby suggestion can be implanted.

John,

I tried and tried to make a medical term or drug name out of the second word using the last letter as a "n" and "v". I had not heard of "Dicain" and didn't consider the fourth letter to be anything other than an "e". In the end it made sense to read it as "Diceiv" as that seemed a likely way a Russian would mispell "Deceive" as many of their own words end in "v".

That said, I agree - I was wrong. It makes more sense as "Dicain".

Now to put all of this in to some sort of context.

CE 22 shows that Marina was working as an analytical chemist and then as assistant pharmacist prior to coming to the US.

Pic, at the time of this meeting, was working at Wilford Hall Medical Center, a USAF Base hospital in San Anonio. His job was as NCOIC (Non Commisioned Officer in Charge) Special Procedures Branch of the Pathology Department. In the 1990s, the DoD was forced to admit its Cold War human radiation experiments. Wiford Hall was one hospital named as conducting those experiments during the '60s. In the '50s, he had been a commie hunter for the Port Security Unit. Seems an unlikely candidate to turn out to be a closet hippie.

Both dicain and morphine are listed among 145 drugs tested by the CIA in various projects.

Now to return to the notebook...

The words written by Pic seem to be related to bloodwork -- and the type of bloodwork it indicates is consistent with the bloodwork which would be done post-radiation treatment.

Under that, we have a calculation of mileage to Ft Worth - Robert's place where the Thanksgiving reuinion took place.

This was Pic's explanation for why he kept the notebook:

Mr. JENNER - I have John Pic Exhibit No. 60 in my hand. What is this?

Mr. PIC - A black memo book, I guess.

Mr. JENNER - Of yours?

Mr. PIC - Yes, sir; I had it in my car at the time. Whenever I travel I keep a little book with my mileage on it and so forth.

Fair enough. But such records are usually kept to claim work related travel against tax. I can't think of any reason he'd record the mileage to a family reunion - unless it was claimable. If so, it would indicate this was indeed, something more than just a family reunion.

I don't buy that he hedged on the contents of the notebook out of embarrassment. I repeat that he could have talked on any subject with Marina using Lee to interpret if making polite chit chat was the goal. When you note what the words are, that there are pages missing from the notebook, their backgrounds, and the distinct possibility that Pic was claiming the prip as a tax deduction... I at least, have to wonder if this was perhaps some type of swap of information, or a debrief session of some sort.

[Guest Stephen Turner]

Mr. PIC - She being a pharmacist, and me being in the medical field, we tried to communicate with each other just to make small talk with medical terminology, metric system and so forth, just some way to kill time with each other she and I seemed to be able to do this to some degree.

Mr. JENNER - That is to communicate?

Mr. PIC - Yes; as long as we stuck within the pharmacy and medical field.

Mr. JENNER - Did she know some English terms in the pharmacy, medical field?

Mr. PIC - She used Latin phrases, some of which were familiar to me.

Mr. JENNER - Just what was that writing, some medical terms?

Mr. PIC - Yes; I think these are names of drugs she was writing down. I wouldn't know.

This explanation however doesn't make much sense since they could have spoken an any topic with Lee acting as interpreter.

How on earth does this translate as any sort of smalltalk, Without context its simply writing a few common drug names in a black book. If I wished to have a chat with a Russian speaker about soccer, no matter how knowledgable we may be, simply writting players names, and strip colours down would be meaningless. And the type of "chat" Pic and Marina were attempting by this method would be far more complex

[John Dolva]

Mr. PIC - She being a pharmacist, and me being in the medical field, we tried to communicate with each other just to make small talk with medical terminology, metric system and so forth, just some way to kill time with each other she and I seemed to be able to do this to some degree.

Mr. JENNER - That is to communicate?

Mr. PIC - Yes; as long as we stuck within the pharmacy and medical field.

Mr. JENNER - Did she know some English terms in the pharmacy, medical field?

Mr. PIC - She used Latin phrases, some of which were familiar to me.

Mr. JENNER - Just what was that writing, some medical terms?

Mr. PIC - Yes; I think these are names of drugs she was writing down. I wouldn't know.

This explanation however doesn't make much sense since they could have spoken an any topic with Lee acting as interpreter.

How on earth does this translate as any sort of smalltalk, Without context its simply writing a few common drug names in a black book. If I wished to have a chat with a Russian speaker about soccer, no matter how knowledgable we may be, simply writting players names, and strip colours down would be meaningless. And the type of "chat" Pic and Marina were attempting by this method would be far more complex

Some thoughts:

In some societies intellectual exchanges as Pic is suggesting are considered 'small talk'.

While Lee could have interpreted here Pic is saying: 'we' tried to communicate...'we' seemed to be able to do this... As they shared the medical field it seems reasonable to talk of medical things. As she came from a metric system and was prob only familiar with that and presumably Pic was familiar with both but mostly the Imperial (american imperial?) then a convo on this might be of interest to both.

What I find a bit questionable is Pics off hand comment 'I think those are names of drugs she was writing down, I wouldn't know'. ??? Really? Given his job and the fact Marina was there to explain and presumably it was a topic of discussion, I'd say he likely knew very well. The main reason for being evasive around that is if he wanted to create an impression that he had nothing to do with drugs, and the only reason for doing that as far as I can see is because he did, in a way that was perhaps socially unacceptable (personal use, addiction, theft, alcoholism treatment) if not outright illegal.

OK, so the calculations have nothing to do with drugs as can be seen from second lot of pages, but mileage calculations. Is the fact that they are written AROUND the drug names of importance? What I mean is they relate to a trip at the end of which is a gathering at which Marina jots down the Drug names. Pic then does the calculations at a later time? Indicative of creative accounting?

Xi (curious coincidence that it's exhibit 60 and xi stands for the numeral 60) is repeated again on this second set of pages. Does it reappear on further pages?

Another way of looking at bilirubin and urea is in the context of colouring agents, stains, and dyes. They are both part of body wastes. Bilirubin the pigment of er... 'xxxx'. Urea is a fixing agent used in dyeing cloth.

[Greg Parker]

Mr. PIC - She being a pharmacist, and me being in the medical field, we tried to communicate with each other just to make small talk with medical terminology, metric system and so forth, just some way to kill time with each other she and I seemed to be able to do this to some degree.

Mr. JENNER - That is to communicate?

Mr. PIC - Yes; as long as we stuck within the pharmacy and medical field.

Mr. JENNER - Did she know some English terms in the pharmacy, medical field?

Mr. PIC - She used Latin phrases, some of which were familiar to me.

Mr. JENNER - Just what was that writing, some medical terms?

Mr. PIC - Yes; I think these are names of drugs she was writing down. I wouldn't know.

This explanation however doesn't make much sense since they could have spoken an any topic with Lee acting as interpreter.

How on earth does this translate as any sort of smalltalk, Without context its simply writing a few common drug names in a black book. If I wished to have a chat with a Russian speaker about soccer, no matter how knowledgable we may be, simply writting players names, and strip colours down would be meaningless. And the type of "chat" Pic and Marina were attempting by this method would be far more complex

Agreed. But as I said earlier, there are pages missing. Might have been taken out through non-relevance to the Thanksgiving meeting. Might also have been taken out because of the sensitivity of what was there. The one person who might have cleared this up was Marina (at least as far as what we know she wrote)... but wouldn't you know it... the WC didn't ask her about it.

[Greg Parker]

An updated look inside John Pic's notebook. In the course of researching this update, I found a statement by the husband of his sister-in-law who had known Pic for 11 years, that Pic had been trained as a pharmacist by the Navy. Most of his military career was spent in facilities which were involved in human medical experiments.

John Pic's Notebook

Although I don't go into this. one exception to the above was during Lee Harvey Oswald's stay with him in NY. During that time, Pic was stationed with the Port Security Unit (PSU) which was charged with clearing the ports of "subversive" elements. The PSU did this with the help of both FBI and ONI informants. Oswald's truancy problems started when he turned 13 and ended when Pic transferred out of the PSU. A lot of his classmates would have been the sons and daughters of maritime workers. Did any of those class-mates join his refusal to salute the flag...? Did any of his teachers express support, or at least a lack of horror and affront...?

I do make an observation about Pic's wife which may draw some criticism, but I'll cop that sweet... the observation is made, and others can decide how much merit it has.

Thanks again to John Dolva for helping sort out the words written by Marina.

[Robert Howard]

An updated look inside John Pic's notebook. In the course of researching this update, I found a statement by the husband of his sister-in-law who had known Pic for 11 years, that Pic had been trained as a pharmacist by the Navy. Most of his military career was spent in facilities which were involved in human medical experiments.

John Pic's Notebook

Although I don't go into this. one exception to the above was during Lee Harvey Oswald's stay with him in NY. During that time, Pic was stationed with the Port Security Unit (PSU) which was charged with clearing the ports of "subversive" elements. The PSU did this with the help of both FBI and ONI informants. Oswald's truancy problems started when he turned 13 and ended when Pic transferred out of the PSU. A lot of his classmates would have been the sons and daughters of maritime workers. Did any of those class-mates join his refusal to salute the flag...? Did any of his teachers express support, or at least a lack of horror and affront...?

I do make an observation about Pic's wife which may draw some criticism, but I'll cop that sweet... the observation is made, and others can decide how much merit it has.

Thanks again to John Dolva for helping sort out the words written by Marina.

Greg, Its an interesting mystery regarding Marina and John Pic's banter over pharmaceuticals. The issue begs the question of what type of context to place this conversation under, shooting the breeze with a in-law over mutual interests, or something deeper.....

I had the same type of reaction to Lee Oswald and his interest in "soma," and to some degree with Marina's trip to Baylor Hospital; dentists have some interesting chemicals they use you know........But since I don't believe the conceptualization of Marina pre-assassination supports the thesis of a "security threat," it is sort of a moot point, the only security threat she exploited, was her husband's reputation after he was dead, and the Secret Service provided the impetus for that exploitation, or she would have held up to a more positive scrutiny, after all these years.

In another light, it has become a factuality that the Warren Commission faced certain areas they did not want to go into, such as Jack Ruby and drugs, ie absence of Federal Bureau of Narcotic files, as one example.

Speaking of Jack, he seems to have at least once skated into jail in the periphery of a known location associated with nuclear materials, back in 1958 wasn't it? The bedeviling aspect is that Aztek, New Mexico is also associated with another subject that I personally abhorr being mentioned in the same sentence with the assassination. I am sure you can guess what it is.......

[Greg Parker]

Greg, Its an interesting mystery regarding Marina and John Pic's banter over pharmaceuticals. The issue begs the question of what type of context to place this conversation under, shooting the breeze with a in-law over mutual interests, or something deeper.....

I had the same type of reaction to Lee Oswald and his interest in "soma," and to some degree with Marina's trip to Baylor Hospital; dentists have some interesting chemicals they use you know........But since I don't believe the conceptualization of Marina pre-assassination supports the thesis of a "security threat," it is sort of a moot point, the only security threat she exploited, was her husband's reputation after he was dead, and the Secret Service provided the impetus for that exploitation, or she would have held up to a more positive scrutiny, after all these years.

In another light, it has become a factuality that the Warren Commission faced certain areas they did not want to go into, such as Jack Ruby and drugs, ie absence of Federal Bureau of Narcotic files, as one example.

Speaking of Jack, he seems to have at least once skated into jail in the periphery of a known location associated with nuclear materials, back in 1958 wasn't it? The bedeviling aspect is that Aztek, New Mexico is also associated with another subject that I personally abhorr being mentioned in the same sentence with the assassination. I am sure you can guess what it is.......

Robert,

I think the context may be found in the fact that Pic recorded the mileage to Robert's house, and therefore may have been intending to claim it as a tax deduction due to it being a work related, rather than private trip.

All the medical terms used by Pic could related to any number of medical conversations, but that does include human radiation experiments which had been conducted at the Wilford Hall facility he was based at. And what are the chances that the only 3 drugs written down by Marina were all used by the CIA in their programs?

You are right of course. The WC did not want to know certain things. They failed to ask Marina anything about this conversation, for instance. And why was Peter Gregory's son there that day? Ostensibly it was to give Lee and Marina a lift to the bus station, but I'm sure John or Robert would have been happy to do that. And why was he paying Marina for Russian lessons when she barely spoke English, and his own father taught Russian?

As for Aztec, NM - yeah - according to John C Jackson, he and Ruby were arrested there in an overdue rental car and were interviewed by FBI while behind bars. Kantor noted in his book that the WC failed to look into this arrest, and further noted that rumors in Dallas indicated it was drug related. Trouble is, while noting the WC's failure, Kantor himself failed to note that it was not just Ruby - it was also Jackson involved. If it was drug related - that is of great interest not only in support of Ruby as trafficker of various goods and services, but also because Jackson was involved in medical experiments while living with Ruby (that by his own admission).

BTW, who in blue blazes gave you permission to take a vacation? I mean, did Bush take a vacation from the War on Terror? Did Nero fiddle and fart about while Rome burned?

edited for typos

Edited January 2, 2010 by Greg Parker

[Greg Parker]

Interesting thread. Thanks Greg. Highly speculative BECAUSE the WC didn't want to 'go there' [as with so many other important issues].

I think this is all soundly based speculation. In my less supported speculations, I'd suggest that Marina was sent to the dentist, not for bad teeth, but to have a radio implant inserted in time for the family reunion. I might also suggest that was the reason for writing down the conversation with Pic. I'll drop that speculation when someone shows me a picture of Marina with those supposedly disgusting teeth taken prior to the dental work. A retired officer was with DeM when the whole teeth issue came up, and according to DeM it was his (Lawrence Orlov's) comment about her teeth that prompted action. My other favorite piece of pure speculation is that Marina's father was Niki K. He was a bit a of ladies man in his younger days and dashingly good looking to boot. It was a throwaway line from DeM to the affect that her baby looked like Niki that got me thinking. DeM seemed to hide knowledge in little joke lines like that... and it would certainly explain why the paternity issue was such a big secret...

I guess one could still ask Marina.

Preferably under oath

One thing that did pop into my mind. There are quite a number of very sane researchers who think that Oswald was at least associated [at times] with mind-control experiments and persons so involved, if not subject to it himself. It was all the rage at the time in the Company and Military. If any of those drugs were references to ones he was taking or being given or even had been given in the past, it all takes on a much more sinister tone.

Frankly, I don't know what to make of it. And I'm well aware there could be a non-sinister explanation. That said, Pic's semi-denial that he thought the words were names of drugs but that he "wouldn't know", does come across like he had something to hide. He knew what the words were. He had to, with his medical training.

Are those the only four pages shown in the WC?

There are one or two more, but they seem pretty innocuous. Most of the book was not published. No explanation given, but presumably they only published pages relevant to the so-called "family reunion".

To me it  hardly seems like idle banter and besides while Marina played that she didn't speak English, she did. Your point about translation by Lee is interesting. Perhaps they were writing so that he couldn't know what they were talking about. Just conjecture, but Marina was likely a low-level Russian agent - later turned in her captivity after Lee's death to a captive American one. Her job, I believe, was just to watch Oswald and report his activities, etc. to the Soviets - or be able to report if and when needed - a kind of sleeper agent. 

Well, I've heard whispers that Operation Redskin included a project to have operatives marry suspected KGB agents and bring them home.

Just to add a bit further to my thoughts on Pic... I just counted about 60 times in his testimony where he says "I don't remember" or "I don't recall". That does not include all the times he was specifically asked if he recalled or remembered something and he gave a "no" response. That has to be some kind of record for WC witnesses.

At one point, possibly sensing that he is frustrating Jenner, he offers up his cousin Marilyn Murret as knowing before anyone else that Lee is in Europe. They then break for dinner, and by the time they resume and get to the end of the session, he suddenly gives his opinion that Lee acted alone on 11/22/63.

Edited January 2, 2010 by Greg Parker

[Len Colby]

So what's the working hypothesis Greg that LHO's wife and half brother were part of some sort of plot to Manchurian Artichoke him into not killing JFK?

What do you make of the other pages of the notebook that mention other pharmaceuticals?

Do have any evidence that dicain and morphine could be use to control someones mind other than a list "145 drugs [supposedly] tested by the CIA in various projects" A list that include alcohol, quinine, pot, caffeine and Manganese chloride (not a drug but a mineral used as contrast in MRI's)?

As for the radio transmitter hidden in Marina's tooth did you consider the possibility it was to remote control her? Help with the minutae was it implanted before or after she separated from LHO?