C.A.A. Savastano's Blog, page 22

The Curse of Cock Robin

The tale of Cock Robin emerges from within the history of European folklore. A nursery rhyme mourns a heroic figure felled by an unlikely lone sparrow. Some assert it regards the political demise of an English politician and his government. Others have claimed it was a modern version of the Norse tale of the god Baldur's death at the hands of a blind sibling, and some note a resemblance to a Celtic hero murdered by an improbable assassin. The moniker was quietly affixed to John F. Kennedy in a private meeting of the President's Commission. 

Commissioner John J. McCloy regarded the various evidentiary presumptions of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and remarked, "Yes, 'We (the FBI) know who killed Cock Robin'. That is the point." Commission Lead Counsel Rankin subsequently offers the Bureau has "...decided the case, and we are going to have maybe a thousand further inquiries that we say the Commission has to know all these things before it can pass on this. And I think their reaction probably would be, "Why do you want all that. It is clear." Senator Russell mocks the FBI replying "You have our statement what else do you need?" Commissioner McCloy states, "It isn't only who killed cock robin (sic). Under the terms of reference we have to go beyond that."i   

Increasingly clear is J. Edgar Hoover's commitment to securing his preselected agendas surrounding the assassination. Hoover already had begun two reports blaming Oswald alone within seventy-two hours of the crime.ii His judgment occurred before the Commission existed. Hoover states "...the report on the assassination was practically completed." He alludes everything could be complete by the next week. Each unfortunate claim is highly improbable, and based on less than substantial evidence.iii J. Edgar Hoover began the investigative process by coming to a precipitous conclusion.

One can observe within Hoover's actions a consistent denial of the normal legal process. The FBI's intervention proceeds despite lacking jurisdiction,iv Hoover stance toward the President's Commission becomes adversarial.v After officials released the Commission Report, Hoover gathers derogatory information on every Commissioner.vi Hoover disregarded the legal process when it did not serve his purposes. From the moment of the Commission's establishment, the leader of its investigative force undermined it. Brazen investigative dysfunction mars the entire Commission investigation. 

J. Edgar Hoover fails to mention he canceled the security flash on Lee Harvey Oswald October 9, 1963.vii Yet he sends CIA Deputy Director of Plans Richard Helms files regarding Oswald for his information November 8, 1963.viii Senate investigators determined "Rather than addressing its investigation to all significant circumstances, including all the possibilities of conspiracy, the FBI investigation narrowly focused on Lee Harvey Oswald." "...The committee further concluded that the critical early period of the FBI's investigation was conducted in an atmosphere of considerable haste and pressure from Hoover to conclude the investigation in an unreasonably short period of time."ix In the rush of Hoover's forced investigation mistakes were predictable.
 
"The committee also noted that Hoover's personal predisposition that Oswald had been a lone assassin affected the course of the investigation, adding to the momentum to conclude the investigation after limited consideration of the possible conspiratorial areas. While Hoover continued to press conspiracy leads, his apparent attitude was reflected in a telephone conversation with President Johnson...Hoover said: The thing I am most concerned about...is having something issued so we can convince the public Oswald is the real assassin."x 
 
Hoover not only manipulated the investigation to fit a predetermined conclusion but additionally "...the FBI failed to cooperate fully with the Warren Commission. The Committee found the Bureau's relationship with the Commission to have been distinctly adversarial and that there were limited areas in which the FBI did not provide complete information to the Commission and in other areas in which the Bureau's information was misleading." The Senate Select Committee also notes the Bureau had suppressed and destroyed evidence.xi  

The Bureau investigation was obviously deficient and no reasonable investigation could adjudicate this matter before due legal process. Before the officially acknowledged investigation had begun, the Bureau's leader had already come to a judgment. He sought to supplant many of the President's Commission findings. Conflicts of interest doomed the investigation to failure at worst and incomplete findings at best. Neither serves as conclusive.
  
Was it merely Hoover's ego? Feasibly the Bureau suppressions did not merely serve to protect outside concerns but incompetence and disregarded foreknowledge of Oswald's activities. Within the murky agendas of J. Edgar Hoover, the line between legality and nefarious action is frequently crossed. A landscape of grey programs marked with veins of darker intention. Hoover's legacy is unanswered questions and deceptions offered to the public and eminent officials themselves.

Sincerely,
C. A. A. Savastano

References:

i. President's Commission Executive Session, January 27, 1964, pp. 33-34

ii. Federal Bureau of Investigation memo, J. Edgar Hoover regarding a Presidential Commission discussion with Nicholas Katzenbach, November 25, 1963, Harold Weisberg Archives, jfk.hood.edu
 
iii. FBI memo, J.E.H. regarding a Presidential Commission with N. Katzenbach

iv. FBI Memo, FBI HQ File 62-109060, Author William Manchester appointment and interview with J. Edgar Hoover, June 4, 1964

v. Senate Select Committee to Study Intelligence Activities, Book V: The Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Performance of Intelligence Agencies, p. 5

vi. Ibid

vii. HSCA, Administration Folder Q-10, Oswald File Xerox, FBI Cable 327 925 D,  October 6, 1964

viii. HSCA, Segregated CIA file, Report on Lee Harvey Oswald about his arrest, affiliation with Fair Pla, Box 7, November 8, 1963  

ix. HSCA Report, Section 3, The FBI performed with varying degrees of competency..., p. 244

x. Ibid

xi. Ibid, pp. 244-245

Primary Evidence Collections Update

Three new documents, the first is an internal paper on the dangers and benefits of counterintelligence by CIA officer Woodbury Carter. The second is a policy document regarding Covert Security Approvals, such as those used in Agency Project QK-Enchant. The third is the Cuban Mug Book and Key Book Volume One, it contains hundreds of pictures and identities of Cuban nationals observed by the Agency for possible operational and security reasons. Each is offered for your inspection. http://tpaak.com/cia-policy-and-reference

The LBJ Myths

Feasibly second only to Lee Harvey Oswald, another person is asserted by some to be responsible for the death of President Kennedy. Some accuse President Lyndon Baines Johnson, based upon similar unproven hypotheses. They claim he is who most benefitted from the President's death; however, that is not true. Others did benefit more; for instance, J. Edgar Hoover received a lifetime appointment to the FBI's directorship from President Johnson. Johnson gained a looming shadow of accusation that has endured over five decades. His troubled one-term presidency is a paltry reward for such claimed actions.

Johnson was the quintessential opportunist, yet that does not attribute guilt to him regarding President Kennedy's assassination unless substantial evidence demonstrates it. Both Johnson and Lee Harvey Oswald enjoy the presumption of legal innocence without a trial. If LBJ had murderous intentions, why not use poisons that could be attributable to Addison's disease? Perhaps using the "accident" scenario instructed by the CIA's "A Study of Assassination"i would offer minimal chance for exposure. The overt manner of President Kennedy's death infers sending a violent message, not a clandestine removal of a public figure with minimum trouble and chance for discovery.

Some have attempted to assign nefarious blame to Johnson for actions influenced and undertaken by different officials. Some blame Johnson for moving President Kennedy's body from Parkland to Bethesda hospital. They refer to the events as both getaway and theft. However, Mrs. Kennedy would not leave without the President's body; this places untenable pressure on the situation. Yet not just Mrs. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson feasibly rendered this controversial decision. According to Director of Central Intelligence John McCone's private files, he is with Attorney General Robert Kennedy shortly after the President is shot.

McCone had warmed to Kennedy from repeated years spent meeting on the Cuban issue together and their shared Catholic faith. After a long discussion McCone told Kennedy "...that the best thing to do would be to bring the President's body up as quickly as possible, as quickly as it could be released, and that he couldn't possibly get down there for three or four hours, by the time he got aboard a plane and got down there, and he would be out of touch all the time that he was in the air. He (Robert Kennedy) agreed with this, and as a result either decided or agreed with the decision that the body should be brought up with President Johnson and Mrs. Kennedy as quickly as possible."ii While McCone indeed suppressed evidence of Central Intelligence Agency incompetence and illegal programs, this account emerges from his private files. Secured files he had no reason to believe would become public. Nefarious action by Johnson is unproven and the explanation offered by McCone is reasonable. The removal of the body remains illegal, yet the explanation is seemingly not a planned tactic of conspiracy.

Additionally, some attribute the quick swearing in of Johnson again to an unproven nefarious plot he authored. In the files of DCI McCone is a brief discussion of the matter with Robert Kennedy. "He (Robert Kennedy) talked with President Johnson and there was a question of the procedure for swearing in President Johnson...He (Kennedy) contacted his office...to find out exactly who could administer the oath...He insisted that the swearing in be done immediately. I think President Johnson felt the same way. He (Kennedy) did not want the country to go for two hours and a half that President Johnson would be in the air without a President."iii Based on the primary evidence Robert Kennedy's principals, not Lyndon Johnson's power initiated the ceremony in Dallas.

Others claim Johnson attempted to evade the law by forming the President's (Warren) Commission. Yet President Johnson initially desired the Federal Bureau of Investigation to conduct a tidy investigation. However, Nicholas Katzenbach and others at the Department of Justice ultimately may have inspired the Commission's formation against Johnson and Hoover's will.iv Stories leaked to the press further raised the political stakes prompting the Commission's formation. The Commission was not Johnson's idea, but eventually forced upon him despite his want for a Bureau led investigation. The Commission investigation was deeply flawed, but not the mindless Johnson inspired construct some declare.   

Asserted to be among President Johnson's political manipulations is the appointment of Allen Dulles to the President's Commission. Primary evidence instead reveals "Abe [Fortas] has talked with Katzenbach and Katzenbach with the Attorney General (Robert Kennedy). They recommend a seven man commission- two Senators, two Congressman, the Chief Justice, Allen Dulles, and a retired military man..."v Katzenbach told the Select Committee "I doubted that anybody in the Government, Mr. Hoover, or the FBI or myself or the President or anyone else, could satisfy a lot of foreign opinion that all the facts were being revealed and that the investigation would be complete and conclusive and without any loose ends." A variety of uninspected evidence, witnesses, and suspects were the Commission's historical legacy. Many of its findings underwent revision multiple times by various official investigations.

While some have attempted to label Johnson a conspiracy mastermind, these passionate claims rely on no substantial evidence. If Johnson were the author of a murderous conspiracy, he would not challenge the official findings that did not implicate him. He would allow the imperfect actions of officials to suffice without question. Yet that is not what he did.

In private conversations, he disbelieved the Single Bullet Theory, noted possible Agency involvement in a conspiracy, and worried about a shot intended for him.vi vii viii These conversations are not indicative of guilt. Johnson's actions rather infer he was not involved and privately feared possible conspiracies targeting him as well. Akin to McCone, Johnson was unaware the public would learn of his statements.

DCI McCone noted Johnson is "very much concerned over the full-page ads run by anti-Kennedy types just prior to and on the day of the Kennedy visit to Dallas. He is likewise concerned over the flood of letters being sent to Dallas newspapers that the President's assassination was a good thing. DCI asked Dick Helms to see what information we can develop to explain this." If Johnson were responsible why continue to have officials pursue these matters? Johnson seemed find official answers incomplete and privately remained fearful and disturbed.       

The historical findings of multiple scholars and researchers attribute dishonesty, greed, and malice among Johnson's flaws. He was boorish, loud, not averse to violence, and known to burn political bridges easier crossed with diplomacy. Yet the evidence regarding President Kennedy assassination does not indicate the involvement of Lyndon Johnson presently. Shall those who propagated the former LBJ myths be as committed to seeing them dispelled? I have my doubts.

Sincerely,
C. A. A. Savastano

References:

i. CIA Guatemala 1954 Documents, “A Study of Assassination” and transcript, National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 4, George Washington University, georgewashington.edu

ii. Central Intelligence Agency, Miscellaneous Files, DCI Files, 1964, pp. 5-6

iii. Ibid, pp. 4-5

iv. Federal Bureau of Investigation file, J. Edgar Hoover regarding Katzenbach call, Hood University, Harold Weisberg Archives (HWA), November 25, 1963, pp. 1-3

v. Hearings of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, Appendix Volume XI, The Warren Commission, March, 1979, p. 6

vi. Wilkes, Donald E. Jr., “JFK Killer Not Alone, UGA Professor Says”, (1994), Popular Media, Paper 117, University of Georgia Law, digitalcommons.law.uga

vii. Federal Bureau of Investigation Memorandum, Letter from Cartha DeLoach to Clyde Tolson, HWA, April 4, 1967

viii. Phone Conversation between FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and President Lyndon Johnson in the Whitehouse, (n.d.) , History Matters, history-matters.com, November, 1963

Primary Evidence Collections Update

The CIA Security Files of Agency counterintelligence agent Balmes Hidalgo, CIA intelligence agent E. Howard Hunt, and Mafia connected assassin Jack Ruby.  #JFK #CIA http://tpaak.com/cia-security-files

Primary Evidence Collections Update

A collection of CIA Personal History Statements, the files offer extensive information on each subject's private biography in their own words. Among the notable subjects included are CIA Officer David Sanchez Morales, CIA asset Lucien Conein, CIA Dallas group chief James Walton Moore, DRE case officer Ross Crozier, and Mexico City station employees Charlotte Bustos Videla, and Anna and Boris Tarasoff for your review. #JFK #MLK #RFK http://tpaak.com/cia-personal-history-statements

Primary Evidence Collection Update

A collection of CIA Personal History Statements, the files offer extensive information on each subject's private biography in their own words. Among the notable subjects included are CIA Officer David Sanchez Morales, CIA asset Lucien Conein, CIA Dallas group chief James Walton Moore, DRE case officer Ross Crozier, and Mexico City station employees Charlotte Bustos Videla, and Anna and Boris Tarasoff for your review. #JFK #MLK #RFK http://tpaak.com/cia-personal-history-statements

Our Thanks

Special thanks to the Mary Ferrell Foundation for tweeting about the new book "Two Princes And A King: A Concise Review of Three Political Assassinations." #MFF #JFK #MLK #RFK https://twitter.com/InfoMferrell

A Brief History of Executive Action

 

The term Executive Action refers to words in formerly suppressed documents that promote the assassination of enemy leaders. Political assassination by no means is a modern development or a singularly American crime. Many officials had no reason to suspect that formerly private documents would become public knowledge. Despite the clandestine operations, suppression of facts, and verifiable destruction of documents, a substantial body of evidence remains. 

Russian official groups had undertaken terrorism against the public since at least 1946. Previous influence from Joseph Stalin's brutal regime feasibly instructed these official activities. In 1953, Stalin dies and the Soviet government forms the KGB a year later. "The 13th Department of the First Chief Directorate of the KGB is responsible for planning and carrying out so called 'wet affairs'...The Russian term mokryye dela ("wet affairs") corresponds to the designation 'executive action' both terms being applied to such as activities as kidnapping, assassination, and other forms of terrorism."i  

Additionally in 1954, The Central Intelligence Agency created "A Study of Assassination". The document referred to contains a tactically effective design and execution of assassination plots.ii The "Study" document reveals a chain of official actions that made the execution of any executive government leader a greater possibility. Plans for assassination evolve as time and related officials influence the idea. Some Russian and American officials sought to utilize terror for their own political agendas.

"The first seriously-pursued CIA plan to assassinate Castro had its inception in 1960. It involved the use of members of the criminal underworld with contacts inside Cuba. The operation had two phases; the first ran from August 1960 until late April or early May 1961, when it was called off following the Bay of Pigs..."iii Phase one included using Mafia leaders, poisons, and a large cash payment if the target Fidel Castro was killed. 

In 1961, CIA Deputy Director for Plans (DDP) Richard Bissell tasked William Harvey to develop Executive Action plans.iv Harvey constructed preparations for using potential assassins to eliminate world leaders.v Among the recruited was Jose Marie Andre Mankel known under his cryptonym as QJWIN.vi  Executive Action becomes ZRRIFLE expanding the possible targets and pool of assassins for utilization. The Castro plots incorporate ZRRIFLE during Phase two, and Harvey militarizes the original idea.

Phase two assertedly "ran from April 1962 until February 1963 and was merely the revival of the first phase..." according to the Agency's Inspector General in 1967.vii However, the ZRRIFLE recruitment of potential assassins occurred significantly earlier, and was reauthorized, not ended, in February 1963.viii The Inspector General also noted, "The project name ZRRIFLE, first appears in the files on May 1961, although the first recorded approval is dated February 1962."ix Harvey is additionally placed in charge of the "Agency's Cuba task force." 

According to Harvey after he "took over the Castro operation he ran it as one aspect of ZRRIFLE; however, he personally handled the Castro operation and did not use any of the assets being developed in ZRRIFLE. Harvey states that he soon came to think of the Castro operation and ZRRIFLE as being synonymous. The over-all Executive Action program came to be treated in his mind as being synonymous with QJWIN, the agent working on the over-all program. He says that when he wrote ZRRIFLE/QJWIN the reference was to Executive Action Capability, when he used the cryptonym ZRRIFLE alone, he was referring to Castro. He said his correspondence would disclose this distinction. We reviewed the correspondence and found it for the most part unrevealing."x  

The Agency obscures their involvement and suppresses information regarding allied criminal and paramilitary groups. They neglect to mention it expands those who might possess the means to undertake such an operation domestically. Never officially regarded are Harvey's questionable related actions, escalating drinking, and penchant for grievously illegal activities. There were multiple deadly plots active before and after the assassination of President Kennedy. Officials involved may have suffered blowback from the very agents and militant forces to which they provided training and funding. Assassination plotting is a two edged blade that by its very nature implies guilt upon all even briefly connected.

Too large a group would be exposed; too small a group might be unable to fulfill the plot's objective. Most should be unseen and only a single person handles the sniper or snipers. All suggested by the aforementioned official instructions. Officials had incompetently provided the means to assassinate a world leader. Some possessing the motive and opportunity to assassinate President Kennedy might have used official plans. 

Sincerely,

C.A.A.  Savastano      

 

References:

 

i. Central Intelligence Agency, Oswald 201 File, KGB "Executive Action" Department of the First Chief Directorate, November 5, 1962

ii. The National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 4, Document 2: "A Study of Assassination" unsigned, no date, George Washington University

iii. House Select Committee on Assassinations, Segregated CIA file, Microfilm Reel 48, Defectors, 201 files, CI/Sig, IG Report..., Folder ZZ- 1967 IG Report (Unsanitized), May 23, 1967, Gambling Syndicate,  p. 37  

iv. Ibid

v. HSCA, Seg. CIA file, Notes in Draft Re ZRRIFLE Project, Box 5, (n.d.) 

vi. HSCA, Seg. CIA file, Microfilm Reel 48,  Folder ZZ- 1967 IG Report (Unsanitized), May 23, 1967, Gambling Syndicate,  p. 38  

vii. Ibid

viii. HSCA, Seg. CIA file, Extension of Authorization of ZRRIFLE Agent Activities, Box  56, March 6, 1963

ix. HSCA, Seg. CIA file, Microfilm Reel 48,  Folder ZZ- 1967 IG Report (Unsanitized), May 23, 1967, Gambling Syndicate,  p. 38  

x. Ibid, p. 40

Primary Evidence Collection Update

Two CIA employee aliases offered for your inspection. CIA Special Affairs Staff employee Daniel Flores and Operations Officer Harold Francis Swenson. #CIA #Alias   http://tpaak.com/cia-cryptonyms-and-pseudonyms

Primary Evidence Collection Update

Three additional CIA Security Files have been added that include anti-Castro exile leader Orlando Bosch Avila, CIA officer William King Harvey, and CIA employee Sylvia Hyde Hoke. Each offered for your inspection.