JFK and Watergate: the Frank Sturgis story
The Rockefeller Commission wanted to know: Was the Watergate burglar involved in the assassination of President Kennedy?
…The Watergate Break-in: 50 Years Later
I’ll be speaking on a conference panel on The Watergate Break-in: 50 Years Later at 11: 45 am ET today.
…Talking about Watergate at the Spy Museum

CIA tradecraft & JFK’s assassination: the making of a patsy

[ICYMI Part I : A veteran officer analyzes the death of a president / Part II: ‘The very top people.’ / ]
CIA veteran Rolf Mowatt-Larseen proposed a “thought experiment” to the November 2019 JFK conference in Dallas. He reverse-engineered the lone gunman scenario, posing a question both novel and incisive.
“How can you get away with a really elaborate but very simple plan of deception, to end up in a place where the president is dead and it is blamed on someone else, other than the people who perpetrated it?” he asked. “Not easy.”
…CIA tradecraft & JFK’s assassination: the making of a patsyRead More »
Spies fall out: a Watergate story
The buddy-buddy friendship of CIA director Richard Helms and Watergate burglar Howard Hunt did not end well.
My story in Graydon Carter’s AirMailNews
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Is there an audiobook of ‘Scorpions’ Dance?’
Yes there is. If you like listening to your spy stories, you can pre-order it here.
CIA tradecraft & JFK’s assassination: ‘The very top people’

[ICYMI: Part I: A veteran CIA officer analyzes the death of a president.]
“Why am I doing this?” Rolf Mowatt-Larssen asked the audience at the Coalition Against Political Assassinations’ conference in Dallas. “As a CIA officer it’s a little controversial. What is my goal? My goal is to have an answer [about who killed JFK] for myself and my children.” That may sound overly ingenuous to some, but most people in the room, myself included, had the same agenda.
Mowatt-Larssen was nine years old when he heard the news from Dallas.
…CIA tradecraft & JFK’s assassination: ‘The very top people’Read More »
You’re invited to the Spy Museum’s event on the CIA and Watergate
Next month, the Spy Museum in Washington DC will host conversation about Scorpions Dance. I’ll be talking with with James Rosen, author of Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate.
An excerpt from my book:
“As told by the Washington Post, and the movie All the President’s Men, Watergate is the tale of a lawless and paranoid president brought to justice by an independent press. The reports of the Senate Watergate Committee and House Judiciary Committee wove narratives of impeachable offenses committed by a president who had abused his powers, both at home …
…You’re invited to the Spy Museum’s event on the CIA and WatergateRead More »
The Watergate conference starts tomorrow
Sponsored by Shane O’Sullivan (Kingston School of Art) and Dr Melissa Graves (The Citadel), the conference features a remarkable array of guests: Register here : The Watergate Break-in: 50 Years Later.
Talking about American power with Parallax Views
…..the dual lives and “clandestine collaborative relationship” between CIA director Richard Helms and PresidentRichard Nixon ….
At my neighborhood bookstore
I’ll be talking about the CIA in American politics with my historian/activist Eddie Becker at the Lost City Bookstore in Washington DC on Thursday, June 16. Free tickets here.
CIA tradecraft & JFK’s assassination: A veteran officer analyzes the death of a president

(This article, titled “Under CIA Eyes,” first appeared in Counterpunch, Vol. 25 published in January 2020.).
“I was struck by the intimacy and the smallness of the whole surroundings,” said retired CIA officer Rolf Mowatt-Larssen after his first visit to Dealey Plaza in November 2019.
Dealey Plaza, a grassy Art Deco entry point to downtown Dallas, is where President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed on November 22, 1963. Hundreds of thousands of people still come from around the world to see the spot where the popular liberal president was ambushed. Many of them have the same reaction to the crime scene: the intimacy, the smallness.
Mowatt-Larssen was not just any tourist.
…CIA tradecraft & JFK’s assassination: A veteran officer analyzes the death of a presidentRead More »