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Technical assistance courtesy of the Mary Ferrell Foundation | Designed by iWebResults
I think it is worth noting that in an interview with CBS in the early 1970’s, then CIA Director William Colby stated that the CIA had no contact with Oswald prior, during or after his trip to the Soviet Union. This was contradicted in the early 1990s when PBS’ Frontline uncovered “hard evidence” that Oswald had been debriefed by the CIA. According to one CIA agent interviewed in shadow, Oswald gave information about the radio facility he worked at in Minsk.
Actually the “Frontline” program found absolutely no evidence that the CIA ever “debriefed” Oswald. He was questioned by the FBI; obviously that information was available to the CIA as a source for information on the Soviet Union. No evidence for any contact between Oswald and the CIA was documented on that program.
Photon, check out YouTube. Search “Oswald Frontline”. The top video clip corroborates what I wrote. You are factually incorrect when you write “No evidence for any contact between Oswald and CIA was documented on that program.” Even if you take the position that the FBI debriefed Oswald upon his return from the Soviet Union, why would a devout Marxist give our government any information?
The only written report mentioned was almost certainly a copy of the FBI report. Nowhere in the program is there any evidence that Oswald was debriefed or even came in contact with the CIA aside from an “agent” who never personally came in contact with Oswald or the individual who “signed off” on the report. The report of a CIA section head interviewed is never documented, nor is the claim by him that Oswald was debriefed by the CIA confirmed by any method.
Quoted from G. Robert Blakey:
“What contemporaneous reporting is or was in the Agency’s DRE files? We will never know, for the Agency now says that no reporting is in the existing files. Are we to believe that its files were silent in 1964 or during our investigation?
I don’t believe it for a minute. Money was involved; it had to be documented. Period. End of story. The files and the Agency agents connected to the DRE should have been made available to the commission and the committee.
That the information in the files and the agents who could have supplemented it were not made available to the commission and the committee amounts to willful obstruction of justice.
Obviously, too, it did not identify the agent who was its contact with the DRE at the crucial time that Oswald was in contact with it: George Joannides.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/oswald/interviews/blakey.html
If the CIA debriefed LHO, then there would be a record of this, in paper form. Standard practice would have required LHO to sign and date certain documents in that debriefing. Those documents would be maintained in CIA files.
Is there any evidence whatsoever that Joannides even knew who Oswald was before Nov. 22, 1963? Not speculation, but cold hard facts?
One member of the DRE, Isidro Borja, who knew about the group’s encounters with Oswald in August 1963 has said that Joannides was informed. There is no corroboration of his claim.
The CIA will neither confirm nor deny that Joannides’ secret operations in the 1963 involved the DRE or Oswald.
So the answer to your question is, “No.”
Of course, there may be evidence, but the CIA are illegally witholding the files.
The question that intrigues me is why Joannides was made liason to the HSCA? And being made liason, why did neither himself nor the CIA reveal his position in 1963 to the Committee?
G Robert Blakey, Chief Counsel HSCA :
“I was not told of Joannides background with the DRE, a focal point of our investigation. Had I known who he was he would have been a witness who would have been interrogated under oath by the staff or by the committee. He would never have been acceptable as a point of contact with us to retrieve documents..The law has long followed the rule that if a person lies to you on one point, you may reject all of his testimony”
So, for me, the question is not is there any evidence that Joannides knew Oswald? That question is just too simplistic and easy.
For me , the real question is why are the documents that may hold such evidence being illegally witheld 50 years later?
And why was the Warren Commission or the HSCA not advised of Joannides role with the DRE? After all, this was the murder of the President. Surely, there should have been a full and thorough investigation with no stone left unturned.