Tag: David Phillips

Did Castro figure out the JFK case in just five days?

Under the suggestive title “Castro Figured Out The JFK Case in Five Days”, an English version of his speech at the University of Havana on November 27, 1963, is available from CTKA.

In due course, the Warren Commission was provided with a slightly different version, but its members feared and rejected Castro’s line of argument depicting JFK’s assassination as part of a broader “plan against peace, against Cuba, against the Soviet Union, against humanity, against progressive and even liberal sectors of the United States.”

CIA man David Phillips as you’ve never seen him

David Phillips
David A. Phillips

While many JFK files remain secret, some of the new JFK files, released this week, do contain material that has never been seen before. For example, the administrative file of David Phillips. Phillips, a top CIA officer in 1963, later dissembled under oath about what he knew of Lee Harvey Oswald. A trusted CIA agent says he saw Phillips with Lee Harvey Oswald two months before JFK was killed.

Many pages about Phillips’s career that were once secret are now open.

The CIA & JFK on your Kindle

CIA & JFKMy ebook, CIA & JFK: The Secret Assassination Files is based on thousands of pages of newly-declassified records and scores of interviews with former CIA officers.

In telling the story of my JFK research over twenty years, I lay bare the role of CIA employees involved in the events of 1963.

These are the men and women whose secretive actions related to the breakdown of presidential security on Nov. 22, 1963 were never explained by the U.S. government.

They include:

Four key JFK files that are still censored

In November I published a piece on the top five JFK files that are still being hidden by the government. Since the one of them, the transcript of James Angleton’s testimony to the Church Committee in September 1975, has been released.

Four other key JFK documents have been released late last year–but with extensive redactions.

They are the files of four officers involved in the surveillance of Lee Harvey Oswald between 1959 and 1963. …

Bowing to public opinion, the CIA releases more JFK files

Good news: The CIA has released another batch of JFK assassination-related records, according to the New York Times.

In the face of criticism from a federal judge and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the CIA has released 676 new documents related to the murder of President Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, in November 1963.

As always, I’m looking for any files on my top 5 JFK suspects: James Angleton, Bill Harvey, David Phillips, Ann Goodpasture, and George Joannides.  And anything on CIA operations in Mexico City and New Orleans.

If you find something interesting, drop me a line.

Source: Secret C.I.A. Documents May Shed New Light on J.F.K. Killing – The New York Times

JFK Most Wanted: Dave Phillips’ CIA operations files

David Phillips
David A. Phillips, chief of CIA anti-Castro covert operations in 1963

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.)

Antonio Veciana: the Army Intelligence connection

In his review of Trained to Kill, Bill Kelly calls attention to Antonio Veciana’s work for Army Intelligence. He nails the point that Veciana’s critics strive to avoid. Phillips did use the alias “Maurice Bishop” and his physical description of “Bishop” bore an uncanny resemblance to Phillips.

Kelly offers an original thesis, supported by documentation: …

Two different views of Antonio Veciana

After I published my review of Antonio Veciana’s book, Trained to Kill, for Newsweek, several people asked me about Dan Hardway’s review of the book AARC web site and W. Tracy Parnell’s blog, purporting to debunk Veciana’s story.

The former is an investigator’s take, the latter a prosecutor’s brief. Dan looks to get beyond Veciana’s self-presentation. Parnell seeks to impeach his credibility. Dan sees Veciana’s story as “modified limited hangout,” Parnell sees it as a fantasy.

Both are worth taking seriously.

Another gift idea: the JFK story as seen by a top CIA officer

As a former longtime employee of CIA, I can attest that this book conveys a true picture of the goings on within the agency.”

— From Martha Hanchulak’s review of “Our Man in Mexico: Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA.” My first book describes in lucid detail how the CIA’s top man in Mexico viewed President Kennedy’s assassination in 1963: with deep suspicion.

It reads like a novel but every word is true. Available now on Amazon.com.  …

Anti-Castro militant says he saw CIA officer with Lee Harvey Oswald

David Phillips
David A. Phillips oversaw CIA anti-Castro psychological warfare operations in 1963.

Writing in OpEdNews in 2013, attorney Jim Lesar posted the latest development in the evolving story of the role of the CIA in the events leading up to President Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas 50 years ago.

Antonio Veciana, a retired anti-Castro fighter, has confirmed that he saw an undercover CIA officer named David Phillips in the company pro-Castro activist Lee Oswald two months before Oswald is said to have shot and killed President Kennedy in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

Veciana’s account calls attention to continuing CIA secrecy in the JFK story. Lesar is a veteran FOIA litigator who represents me in my lawsuit against the CIA, for the records of one of Phillips’s colleagues.

Where is this story going?

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