TOPSEC

[John Dolva]

Stafford, David. Spies Beneath Berlin. London: Murray, 2002.

Clark comment: This is a scholarly account, supplementing and even extending Murphy and Kondrashev's Battleground Berlin (1997).

Bath, NIPQ 9.1/2, notes that the author "sees no sign that the Soviets used their knowledge of the tunnel to plant disinformation." This is "[a]n interesting story, well told."

For Peake, Studies in Intelligence 47.1 (2003), Spies Beneath Berlin presents "the most complete story of this amazing operation," adding new details and putting down some of the myths. The author "does a good job of explaining why the tunnel operation was indeed a success even though the KGB knew about it."

Cain, JIH 3.2, concludes that "Stafford's book will stand as the last word on this subject and in this manner it recommends itself to all intelligence historians."

a fascinating read.

Imperal Hotel, CIA and 'the honey pot', Austrian Post Office, Underground Cables, Helms, Dulles, Smoky Joe's, SIS, John Taylor, Field Security and the Post Office Team.

'50's

"Looking out I saw to my horror three Austrian workmen with pickaxes attacking the area in the road above our tunnel. We had a panic telephone on which one did not speak. I lifted it up and replaced it on the bridge. This alerted the security officer....within an hour...the GOCAustria arrived with the Austrian equivalent of the Postmaster General...."...call your men off and if you ever breathe a word about this, I promise you, you will be dead within the hour"

The repair team vanished as quickly as it had arrived.

An example of how integral the postal system can be to the world of spies. Is it reasonable to assume that Dulles, 10 years later, would not have woven the Postal Inspection Officer into the net?

bearing in mind the previous thread on phone calls, where did the cabling lie in Dallas. Where does the US phone system relate to the Postal System, telegraph etc?

re comm breakdown: is it possible to find a parallel live network through taps? can Dallas for example communicate with Washington through known taps?

Edited September 7, 2006 by John Dolva

[John Dolva]

William King Harvey, ex-FBI, oversaw the Berlin tunnel . Later he ran the Operation Mongoose, got close to John Roselli and thus was fired by Robert Kennedy.

What strikes me principally is the primary purpose of the tunnels::to determine Red Army preparations for any attacks, and how the whole setup was dependent on the involvement of the Post and Telecommunications network, and how that inevitably involved Depertmental staff, the higher echelons, the Inspectors and also Maintenance.

Mirrored in Dallas we have Harry D. Holmes, his superiors, who through the illegal Mail opening operations were directly connected with people who oversaw the Berlin and Vienna ops TOPSEC, Gold and Stopwatch.Helms and Dulles.

Other important witness whose testimony steered the early conspiacy investigators was Price of PO maintenance. RR Carr construction worker who fought at Anzio where Gen LK Truscott also was, and who later was part of the Tunnel teams.

So while some of this is no doubt simple coincidences, the need for communications etc in controlling the conspiracy would not be a peripheral matter.

[Jack White]

William King Harvey, ex-FBI, oversaw the Berlin tunnel . Later he ran the Operation Mongoose, got close to John Roselli and thus was fired by Robert Kennedy.

What strikes me principally is the primary purpose of the tunnels::to determine Red Army preparations for any attacks, and how the whole setup was dependent on the involvement of the Post and Telecommunications network, and how that inevitably involved Depertmental staff, the higher echelons, the Inspectors and also Maintenance.

Mirrored in Dallas we have Harry D. Holmes, his superiors, who through the illegal Mail opening operations were directly connected with people who oversaw the Berlin and Vienna ops TOPSEC, Gold and Stopwatch.Helms and Dulles.

Other important witness whose testimony steered the early conspiacy investigators was Price of PO maintenance. RR Carr construction worker who fought at Anzio where Gen LK Truscott also was, and who later was part of the Tunnel teams.

So while some of this is no doubt simple coincidences, the need for communications etc in controlling the conspiracy would not be a peripheral matter.

John...you are onto one of the most underinvestigated

areas of Dealey Plaza...POSTAL INSPECTOR HARRY HOLMES.

The only book to mention him extensively was FINAL DISCLOSURE

by Blinky Belin, WC counsel, who sees him as an important figure.

Jack

[John Dolva]

Robert, your postings are not ignored. The fact is that you present succinct data of generally unknown matters, but certainly not insignificant (imo). Chatting about this or that blob on photos is just easier. Go fishing or something time-out, but I hope you will continue to post.