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In 1972, CIA chiefs ordered no more questions about accused assassin Oswald

Jefferson Morley July 27, 2017

On April 5, 1972, CIA counterintelligence chief James Angleton, backed by director Richard Helms, issued a blanket order:

“the agency was not, under any circumstances , to make inquiries or ask any source or defector about Oswald”

The order, found in the massive batch of JFK files released online this week, came nine years after Kennedy was shot dead in Dallas on November 22, 1963, allegedly by Lee Harvey Oswald, a 24 year old ex-Marine. The order was issued after officials in the agency’s Soviet Bloc division asked a Russian defector about the accused assassin who lived in the Soviet Union from 1959 to 1962.

The CIA memo, ~~classified as a state secret for the past 35 years [~~Ed note: Paul Hoch tells me the memo was released with a name redacted in 1998] sheds light on how Angleton, a legendary spy chief known for his brilliance and paranoia, tightly controlled the JFK investigation for years after the crime. No one at the CIA was supposed to ask questions about Kennedy’s accused killer. …

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C.G. Harvey, widow of CIA’s Bill Harvey, denounced JFK and loved a mobster

Jefferson Morley July 1, 2017

In this world-exclusive video, JFK Facts presents a fascinating interview with C.G. Harvey, the widow of legendary CIA officer William King Harvey. Clara Grace Harvey was a CIA officer herself who worked on Operation Paperclip, the agency’s program to evacuate scientists from Nazi Germany.

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JFK Most Wanted: Dave Phillips’ CIA operations files

Jefferson Morley June 27, 2017

David Phillips was a failed actor turned expatriate newspaper publisher in Santiago, Chile when he was recruited into the CIA in the early 1950s. He made his mark fast. In 1955, he won a Distinguished Intelligence Medal, one of the agency’s highest honors, for mounting deceptive radio broadcasts in the CIA’s overthrow of the democratically elected government of Guatemala in 1954.

After that his CIA career took off. With Howard Hunt, Phillips served as propaganda chief in the CIA’s failed effort to invade Cuba at the Bay of Pigs In April 1961. When he was assigned to Mexico City in 1962, station chief Win Scott described him as “the finest covert action officer I have ever met.”

After JFK’s assassination, Scott was not so complimentary and I suspect the reason why was Oswald’s curious handling of Oswald. .(I tell the story in my biography of Scott, Our Man in Mexico. Buy it here.)

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Max Holland vs. Oliver Stone: A debate about the CIA and JFK

Jefferson Morley May 22, 2017

In response to Max Holland’s recent JFK piece in the Daily Beast, Jim DiEugenio writes:

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A CIA officer’s revealing hostility toward JFK

Jefferson Morley March 10, 2017

In this interview, Sam Halpern articulates the widespread hostility in the CIA towards President Kennedy in 1963. When I interviewed Halpern in 1997, I was struck by his insistence on voicing a certain contempt toward JFK and his brother.

In these comments, Halpern acknowledges it was rational for Robert Kennedy to suspect the CIA was complicit in his brother’s murder. “So what?” he says.

HIs tone and body language say it all: JFK had it coming.

A couple of factual corrections. …

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The RealClearPolitics polemic on Castro and JFK

Jefferson Morley December 2, 2016

The death of Fidel Castro continues to revive memories of and debate about JFK’s assassination.

This RealClearPolitics take on Castro and the Kennedy Assassination falters when author James Piereson asserts

Oswald’s motives in shooting President Kennedy were almost certainly linked to his desire to block Kennedy’s campaign to assassinate Castro or to overthrow his government.

There is little evidence to support this claim.

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How the CIA tried to implicate Castro in JFK’s assassination

Jefferson Morley November 26, 2016

The miracle was that Fidel Castro died in his own bed. Never has a defiant antagonist of the United States of America met a more unlikely fate: a peaceful death. Hated, reviled and targeted by the greatest military empire in the history of the world, Castro launched a one-party socialist experiment in Cuba, which was so antithetical to Washington’s vision of a neoliberal world order that the empire struck back hard.

The CIA and its paid agents began plotting Castro’s violent demise in 1959 and continued to do so through the year 2000, concocting hundreds of conspiracies to kill him, 638 times by one well-informed Cuban account. And the empire struck out every time.

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The 2016 election and the secret CIA memo targeting ‘conspiracy theorists’

Jefferson Morley September 25, 2016

Viewed dispassionately, “conspiracy theories” are controversial political messages about secret power. They purport to tell us how the world really works, as opposed to official accounts of government and experts. At a time when the credibility of federal government and news organizations is low, conspiracy theories flourish at the expense of public authority.

Credible or not, conspiracy theories have shaped the course of the 2016 presidential campaign. Conservative strategists Jerome Corsi and Roger Stone claim that Hillary Clinton has organized a conspiracy to conceal her own dire medical condition. Liberals Ezra Klein and Cass Sunstein warn that conspiracy theories distort our political discourse and endanger the political process. Who’s right?

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CIA report sheds new light on Angleteon’s role in Watergate

Jefferson Morley September 2, 2016

Legendary CIA counterspy James Angleton was interviewed by federal investigators in 1973 about a reported meeting with Watergate burglar Howard Hunt, according to a declassified CIA history made public this week.

Angleton responded by dissembling about his relationship with Hunt and threatening legal action against the source of the story.

The report, first obtained by Judicial Watch, sheds new light on the agency’s role in the burglary that brought down President Richard Nixon in 1974 and changed the course of American politics.

James Jesus Angleton, chief of the agency’s Counterintelligence Staff, reached the peak of his powers during the Nixon’s presidency. But his backstage role in the Watergate affair has gone largely unnoticed.

Fox News correspondent James Rosen delivered the goods: …

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The CIA’s secret files on Jim Garrison, the prosecutor celebrated in ‘JFK’

Jefferson Morley August 19, 2016

The CIA retains two secret files on New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, the crusading prosecutor who inspired Oliver Stone’s hit movie “JFK.”

The files–whose existence was first reported by JFK Facts–are among the 3,600 secret U.S. government records related to JFK’s assassination that are scheduled to be released in October 2017. …

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