The CIA’s reaction to Kennedy’s assassination
[Excerpted from Scorpions’ Dance: The President, the Spymaster and Watergate (St Martin’s Press, 2022)] “Dick Helms was having a sandwich lunch with John McCone in the director’s suite on the 7th floor of the CIA building when an aide burst into the room. “The president’s been shot,” he cried. McCone turned on a television and watched the news bulletins. Then, Helms recalled, the director “clapped his hat on his head and left to meet Bob Kennedy at his home at Hickory Hill, not far from the agency Headquarters.”
‘The centrality of Nixon and Helms to so many pivotal moments in history.’
Book List on Scorpion’s Dance: “As the Senate Intelligence Committee prodded the CIA over all sorts of issues, including the JFK assassination and attempts on the life of Fidel Castro, Helms became increasingly defensive of his agency’s conduct over the years. The centrality of Nixon and Helms to so many pivotal moments in history makes Morley’s revelations about their sparring even more intriguing.”
The Audiobook of The Ghost is on sale
Do you prefer to listen to your books rather than read them? If so, you’ll want to order the audiobook of THE GHOST 2017 biography of CIA counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton. For a limited time only, the eBook of THE GHOST is only $2.99! Available now at your favorite eBook retailer.
Excerpt: How James McCord’s road to Watergate began
“Helms was also a man of action. Three agency operatives had been arrested in Havana in September 1960, while mounting an audio operation against the offices of the Chinese news service. They were sentenced to ten years in jail, though not identified as CIA agents. Helms asked John Mertz, deputy chief of the Counterintelligence Staff, to come up with a plan to free the prisoners. Mertz consulted with his boss, James Angleton, counterintelligence chief, who supplied him with some “underworld” connections in Havana. “Mertz then tasked James McCord, deputy chief of the Security Research Staff in the Office of Security, to scope out the prison and execute the escape. As McCord later explained, his agents “gained entry to the prisons and returned to the United States “with data acquired. However, the captured men were freed in a prisoner exchange before any rescue operation could be mounted. McCord was credited with being “an actual case officer for Cuban agents” from 1960 to 1962. Helms surely knew of his work, at least in passing. McCord’s road to Watergate had begun.” –From Scorpions’ Dance by Jefferson Morley
Publisher’s Weekly on Scorpions’ Dance
In this eye-opening investigation, journalist Morley (The Ghost) scrutinizes the CIA’s involvement in the Watergate scandal. Drawing on taped conversations between Richard Nixon and CIA director Richard Helms, Morley claims that “the Watergate affair originated in the clandestine collaborative relationship” between the two men. Source: Nonfiction Book Review: Scorpions’ Dance: The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate by Jefferson Morley
An excerpt from #ScorpionsDance https://jfkfacts.org/the-cias-reaction-to-kennedys-assassination/
Coming in just two weeks to a bookstore near you. @BeschlossDC @robreiner @CIAspygirl @Mpolymer @lukenic @lawfareblog @lawfarepodcast @CIA @TheNatlInterest
New from St. Martin's Press: Scorpions' Dance: The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate by Jefferson Morley @jeffersonmorley @StMartinsPress #Watergate #RichardHelms #Nixon #FBI #CIA #PresidentialScandal
http://newreads.blogspot.com/2022/05/scorpions-dance.html
1/19 With 50th anniversary of Watergate break-in less than a month away, I’d like to share thoughts about the hidden hand of CIA in the scandal & what it means in 2022. A thread @JamesRosenTV @TimNaftali @LarrySabato @ggreenwald @joke2power @spytalker
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/scorpions-dance-jefferson-morley/1139985382?ean=9781250275837
I am so looking forward to attending this conference. The subject is "What we know now that we didn't know then." Which is plenty. With John Prados of @NSArchive, I'll be talking about the hidden hand of the CIA in the Watergate affair. @e2films @JamesRosenTV @TimNaftali
Registration is now open for The Watergate Break-in: 50 Years Later, a free two-day online conference (June 9-10) with a stellar cast of speakers including prosecutors Earl Silbert & Don Campbell, @FBI case agent Angelo Lano & three other FBI investigators http://www.watergateat50.com
Another good review #Watergate50 #CIA @StMartinsPress @publisherswkly https://jfkfacts.org/publishers-weekly-on-scorpions-dance/