C.A.A. Savastano's Blog, page 6

The Ghost of Speculations Future

Reviewing Judyth Baker’s use of a crisis to profit off her followers and spread disinformation in a seeming attempt to maintain relevancy

Enduring historical matters generate significant attention which often inspires certain people to declare improbable stories that cast them as pivotal to history. Claims of secret historical knowledge, assertions of incredible genius, and supposed insider whispers are repeatedly the basis for hucksters to manipulate the public. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy offers no shortage of dishonest official actors but these former leaders are not the only challenge to ascertaining facts. There are opportunists in the public with a great appetite for perceived authority, financial gain, and similar to prior mentioned leaders they assert nearly anything without facts because they also claim to possess some truth or insight unavailable to those who require evidence. Yet how can anyone expect most in the public to believe them without any demonstrable basis to do so?

The years have not been kind to many of the fringe and implausible ideas surrounding the Kennedy assassination case, false ideas range from Lee Harvey Oswald training asserted conspirators to Oswald doing everything without foreknowledge or assistance in less than roughly thirty nonconsecutive hours as officials imagined. Once widely popular fringe conspiracy advocates travelling in Kennedy circles such as James Fetzer or Alex Jones have been largely debunked by their own actions and now lie under anvils of financial and legal woe.i ii Similarly, incongruent official narratives too have unraveled with the greater preponderance of evidence supporting rampant illegal coordination to conceal evidence by some American leadership.  

Historical Fiction Writer Judyth V. Baker

Perhaps the most improbable series of jangling claims and assertions under one gaudy tent are those regarding the purported lover of President Kennedy’s assassin, Judyth Vary Baker. Dare I say there may be no greater current proliferation of myths and uninspired misinformation within the Kennedy realm than Baker and her stories ranging from the mistaken to the exceedingly false. Nor is Mrs. Baker’s fiction the mere aberration it once was, she has cultivated a number of people to disseminate her unfounded rumors and poor ideas far and wide as she manages one of two yearly conferences in Dallas to mark the anniversary of President Kennedy’s death. Indeed, last year’s edition of her sideshow included a visit by CAPA chairman Cyril Wecht, JFK Director Oliver Stone, a couple former officials, authors, and several other known people associated with JFK case. With each passing year and unknown sources of funding, it takes the semblance of lent credibility despite its actual content.

However, unbiased evidence or assessment is always missing from Baker’s conference and it’s doubtful they would have invited anyone with it because reasonable skepticism is not on her agenda. Yet this key element is still required because all reliable ideas must depend on evidentiary standards despite using people with name recognition. It is easy to demand that other must respect your research, but if that work lacks evidence, it fails to be research and is nothing more than rumors and fan fiction. The public has a limitless amount of myths and countermyths that government, filmmakers, and writers can offer but we still decades later require facts. Unfortunately, it is not just merely Baker’s endless past inane claims that present a historical detriment but also the present disinformation pouring from her lips infects current history as well.

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Never one to let a crisis slip from her grasp and not attempt to claim she is an expert about it, Judyth Baker has entered the realm of COVID-19 with all the eagerness of the uninformed. Using a consistent past of claiming scientific knowledge in the Kennedy case she neither has the schooling for nor ability to possess, Baker has attempted to use her ignorance of science to misinform a new generation of unsuspecting people. In her latest social media ramblings JVB decried that secret people were attacking her computer to stop her from posting tips about the coronavirus. It is notable these hacking claims are the exact past ones she offered dozens of times about people attempting to stop her Kennedy conspiracy posts without any proof of single occurrence then as well. Baker apparently has the precise standard used in her books on the Kennedy assassination for dealing with health matters and some unfortunately might still trust just her word lacking verifiable sources.

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Those claims were later followed by another “ominous” but expected blathering that featured her in an interview about the coronavirus and telling people “what they need to know…and what the government is doing wrong”. Again, she has no more qualifications or insights than anyone with a functioning search engine and high school education does, and based on her past record she lacks the perseverance to find evidence to prove what she declares. Having likely read one of the repurposed myths being pushed in the media during March, JVB is now pushing the virus as a “manufactured biological weapon” similar to the ridiculous claims of her creating such a weapon during the nineteen sixties in prior JFK books. It appears she is angling for a bigger share of the conspiracy market and this crisis provides her a chance to do so. Yet such mythical nonsense was a precursor to the real push in April to drive home the disinformation.

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Just recently Baker decided to “unmask” the source of the virus based on her lackluster investigative powers and these supposedly unquestionable methods have JVB spewing foreign propaganda. She now claims the source of the virus is Fort Detrick, the United States Army Medical Command in Maryland that conducted Cold War research on biological warfare and stored pathogens created during the nineteen sixties. However, Baker by ignorance or design has chosen to embrace the exact story and details the KGB pushed in the nineteen eighties to blame America for the AIDS epidemic using Fort Detrick.iii Uninspired Chinese propaganda recently attempted to repurpose this old story to blame the United States Army for China’s recent medical censorship regarding COVID-19.iv v vi vii viii These generations old myths are “important” details that Judyth Baker has deemed so vital that people are trying to prevent her from being able to repeat them, well at least people not associated with Chinese and Russian intelligence.

For some a crisis is an opportunity when they observe a chance to gain money and status by manipulating public fears no matter the source of controversial stories. Baker is now parroting a series of ever more ludicrous claims that support active Chinese and Russian disinformation campaigns designed to spread chaos and mistrust within the United States. Per usual she has no evidence or expertise to offer in this matter but her own ideas and it appears that Judyth Baker is desperate to be relevant because her usual myths fell to the wayside amid a health crisis. Her plethora of speculative claims and destructive tales reveal what little concern Baker devotes to evidence or the consequences for people regarding her myths.
Sincerely,
C.A.A. Savastano

References:
i. Ella Torres, October 16, 2019, Wisconsin man ordered to pay $450K to Sandy Hook father for saying son’s death was a hoax, ABC News, abcnews.com
ii. Kate Gibson, April 10, 2020, Feds order Alex Jones to stop selling phony coronavirus cures, CBS News, cbsnews.com  
iii. Douglas Selvage and Christopher Nehring, July 22, 2019, Operation “Denver”: KGB and Stasi Disinformation regarding AIDS, The Wilson Center, wilsoncenter.org
iv. Robert Boxwell, April 4, 2020, How China’s fake news machine is rewriting the history of Covid-19, even as the pandemic unfolds, Politico, politico.com
v. Renee DiResta, April 11, 2020, For China, the “USA Virus’ Is a Geopolitical Ploy, The Atlantic, theatlantic.com
vi. Jed Babbin, China and Russia play COVID-19 pandemic disinformation games, Washington Times, washingtontimes.com
vii. Wayne Rush, April 7, 2020, As the U.S. Prepares For COVID-19 Disinformation Stokes Panic and Discord, Forbes, forbes.com
viii. Josh Rogin, March 18, 2020, China’s coronavirus propaganda campaign is putting lives at risk, The Washington Post, washingtonpost.com

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The Nations that cried Disinformation

For craven politicians, eager political advocates, and deceptive intelligence leaders a crisis also presents an opportunity. We in times of health crisis must not just face the disaster that everyone is concerned with but additionally must guard against growing fear and disgust generated by those who desire to manipulate us. Isolation for public health forces some people to be alone in a heightened state of stress facing instinctual emotions that allow external powers and official groups to influence citizens. Many national governments during world history exploited dangers beyond their control to enact laws or intelligence operations and some even use existing dangers to manufacture greater panic by increasing the suffering to damage enemy nations beyond just the chaos of a natural disaster.

Whether it was the usurpation of governments by Western or Eastern powers after an energy crisis, terrorist attack, or Cold War, the use of calamity by government to enact policies that normally would never be regularly considered is instructive. One of the most potently affordable methods for a government to utilize against others is by generating misleading or damaging media reports. This disinformation allows intelligence groups using psychological warfare to infect the public with false information designed to alter facts and evidence. Hundreds of groups that include the FBI and CIA in the America, the FSB and SVR in Russia, MI5 and MI6 in the UK, or the MSS (Ministry of State Security) in China have constantly twisted international reporting of events to operational advantage.i One former leading East German intelligence disinformation specialist was quoted by the CIA to have stated “Our friends in Moscow call it ‘dezinformatsiya.’ Our enemies in America call it ‘active measures,’ and I dear friends call it ‘my favorite pastime’.”ii 

However, some agencies lack creativity by largely retelling Cold War tales that rely on the ignorance of modern audiences to support new operations with notable similarities. Innovations for tracking information online make such attempts increasingly difficult to completely hide due to open source data. Effective disinformation must possess tested methods but requires original ideas that cannot be dispelled with repeated examples of similar prior operations. In fact, the lack of creativity in some current narratives seemingly exists because of relying too often upon established methods and tired story lines for a new generation of consumers. Properly executed disinformation operations are similar to great works of art, there are some phenomenal artists but endless amounts of unoriginal poseurs.

As Russian and Chinese intelligence groups and proxies now attempt to rewrite the modern history of COVID-19 to blame their political enemies, it should come as no surprise for those aware of similar past attempts by Russia’s KGB intelligence group to blame the United States for the HIV virus epidemic in the nineteen eighties. Operation INFEKTION was the title given to a widespread intelligence operation designed to blame the United States for the AIDS outbreak and cause panic and doubt within the world population.iii The reasoning likely included weakening US ties to import countries to damage the economy of Russia’s Cold War nemesis, amplifying the hatred of targeted groups toward the American leadership, and supporting other propaganda efforts against Western democracies opposed to the Soviet Union.

This disinformation sickness crafted by the KGB was first spread within India and began to grow via a local newspaper titled “The Patriot.” Fueled by growing fears of the AIDS epidemic, the KGB recognized there was an opportunity to use this crisis to spread a disinformation campaign. The article titled “Aids may invade India” put blame for the epidemic on the United States and claimed Pentagon biological weapons testing was responsible for its release. The article included no evidentiary basis to make the claims and cannot link AIDS to America but it claims that only countries with US imports suffer from the disease. This too is not accurate but sounds convincing if someone is not aware of the facts and even the paper’s name “The Patriot” provides a genuine sounding platform. While it claims to be concerned with important issues to citizens, it merely was designed to amplify the fear or disgust of those reading it.

The disinformation story claimed the virus was stored at Fort Detrick in Maryland, where the United States had stored and studied biological agents that were used in the past by the CIA and its military.iv However, these agents that were eventually destroyed were older creations from prior decades and not anything close to virulence of AIDS. Yet in using a Cold War fact about the use and storage of biological weapons bolsters the false portions of the claim and renders them more palatable. According to the propaganda piece the United States had designed AIDS to kill minority groups and this detail was likely included to maximize domestic tensions that were roiling during the nineteen eighties. Using societal divisions is a tried and true way to increase already present conflicts and removes the need of creating an issue of controversy to exploit with the aid of a significant disinformation campaign. This can be followed with concealment of facts, using a “useful idiot” such as supporting experts, and such groundwork is followed by denials and waiting for the disinformation to infect populations while transmitting across the international media.v

Within two years, Operation INFEKTION’s disinformation sickness rapidly expanded from its original source in India and soon contaminated larger populations. During nineteen eighty-five the story was repeated ceaselessly in the media within Africa by Soviet proxies and the next year two East German scientists bolstered the claims without evidence. Another year brought the disinformation’s contagion to exponentially greater news sources as European and South American press echoed the story. Just four years later in nineteen eighty-seven KGB disinformation was being repeated by Dan Rather on CBS news to millions of Americans without any substantial evidence to prove the story. While the story had gone too far to be stopped, the tale’s effect was blunted when a faltering Soviet Union was demanded by the American leadership to admit it was a fabrication and apologize. Shockingly this produced a rare admission to President Ronald Reagan by Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev that the KGB was responsible and would cease this action. However, it proved too late and today online we can observe some who still purport this lie in addition to other similar claims including the latest to emerge from Russia and China about the coronavirus.

Chinese FOREIGN Ministry Spokesman Zhao LIJIAN Was Among the First Officials Spreading Disinformation About COvid-19 on Behalf of The ChinA’s Authoritarian Government

Taking a page from the Operation INFEKTION, Russian and Chinese state media have begun a seeming modern version of the old story. According to the New York Times “China is pushing a new theory about the origins of the coronavirus: It is an American disease that might have been introduced by members of the United States Army who visited Wuhan in October.” Strikingly this military story line has a strong resemblance to the INFEKTION narrative that includes nefarious activity by the American military deploying a disease or being the source. The internet rumors also lacked basic evidence and were bolstered with the help of China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “whose spokesman accused American officials of not coming clean about what they knew about the disease.”vi vii Russia soon joined the budding chorus of Chinese proxies in blaming their political enemies with additional false reports.viii ix x These claims are laughable because the Chinese government itself has minimized, suppressed, and covered up vitals details which led to a global pandemic. Another notable simultaneous Russian decision amid the crisis was flooding global oil markets to further increase economic stress against the largest current producer of oil, the United States.

Neither are the Chinese or Russian governments alone, there are several uninformed and biased international media and public sources repeating the latest foreign disinformation or adding various other examples to benefit their own favored sources or position. From the dangerously misinformed who believe the virus is a hoax to those seeking to blame a single leader for the crisis despite that America’s present woeful lack of preparation is the fault of many leaders past and present. These ideas share a profound blindness to the current situation and the path that rendered every nation outside China suffering from the effects of its government’s constant media suppression. Arguing the emotional details of unproven accusations seeking to assign blame elsewhere from the absolutely deserving is merely aiding the rampant this disinformation campaign’s authors with further confusion.

The Chinese people who are forced to earn a living operating markets in unsanitary conditions that lack indoor facilities selling a mix of domesticated animals and wild game that number over a hundred species in horrendously cramped spaces are victims.xi Every sick Chinese citizen is a victim similar to all other citizens of every nation affected by China’s Communist authoritarian government covering up the signs of an outbreak and permitting huge public events that bolstered transmission rates.xii The Chinese independent press and medical professionals who were silenced, those whose doors in China were welded closed and arrested, and the elderly who died by the thousands were victims.xiii The leadership of China victimized them.

The United States and Europe do not have time for petty social grievances or politicizing the current situation despite that some leading politicians and media outlets seem unable to refrain from doing so. I assure them they will have time to unintentionally assist enemy intelligence group narratives later, should they survive. The coming days and weeks shall determine if the governments of the world are nearly as impressive as they believe. Another rare opportunity triggered by a crisis is the brief period which allows the public to observe who their political and social leaders really are.
Sincerely,
C.A.A. Savastano

References:
i. 70 countries have now experienced organized disinformation campaigns, September 26, 2019, MIT Technology Review, technologyreview.com
ii . Thomas Boghardt, December 2009, Studies in Intelligence, Volume 53, Number 4, Operation INFEKTION, Soviet Bloc Intelligence and Its AIDS Disinformation Campaign, Central Intelligence Agency, cia.gov
iii. Operation InfeKtion, November 25, 2018, How Russia Perfected the Art of War, The New York Times, nytimes.com
iv. Douglas Selvage and Christopher Nehring, July 22, 2019, Operation “Denver”: KGB and Stasi Disinformation regarding AIDS, The Wilson Center, wilsoncenter.org
v. Fletcher Schoen and Christopher J. Lamb, June 2012, Deception, Disinformation, and Strategic Communications: How One Interagency Group Made a Major Difference, Institute for National Strategic Studies, ndupress.ndu.edu
vi. Steven Lee Myers, March 13, 2020, China Spins Tale That the U.S. Army Started the Coronavirus Epidemic, The New York Times, nytimes.com
vii. Yonden Lhatoo, March 17, 2020, Why is China peddling a coronavirus conspiracy theory?, South China Morning Post, scmp.com
viii. Russia Accused of spreading coronavirus disinformation, March 21, 2020, Sky News, news.sky.com
ix. Tanner Brown, March 15, 2020, Inside China’s campaign to blame the U.S. for the coronavirus pandemic, Market Watch, marketwatch.com
x. Barbara Wesel, March 20, 2020, Is Russia running a coronavirus disinformation campaign?, Deutsche Welle, dw.com
xi. Aylin Woodward, January 22, 2016, Both the new coronavirus and SARS outbreaks likely started in Chinese wet markets. Photos show what the markets look like., Business Insider, buisnessinsider.com
xii. James Kynge, Sun Yu, and Tom Hancock, February 6, 2020, Coronavirus: the cost of China’s health cover-up, Financial Times, ft.com
xiii. Documentary Captures Extreme Distress in Wuhan, China, During the Coronavirus Epidemic, The Passionate Eye, CBC News Network, cbc.ca

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Our Desire to Judge Others

HUMAN BEINGS Constantly INSPECT a Person’s APPEARANCE, HYGIENE, AND BEHAVIOR in order TO MAKE Several INSTINCTUAL JUDGMENTS ABOUT Them

Humans are ever assessing the physical characteristics and statements of others which can generate emotional responses when someone encountered rejects a different person’s appearance or behavior. Insults and hyperbolic words are generally employed to demonize many others inaccurately because a part of their appearance or ideology does not conform to that of the accuser. As history seemingly is repeating itself in this period of renewed tribalism via cultural battles some are intentionally misrepresenting opponents and practicing willful ignorance to bolster their ideological arguments. While new problems have manifest in the modern age, several are just evolved versions of prior dilemmas and that a unified society can overcome in time. However, unity is a rare modern commodity due to most influential groups maintaining position and status by dividing others and this negative strategy is a powerful one.

We are critical thinkers; many are prone to favoring negative assessments over positive ones since our minds relish judging others and linking patterns of perceived unacceptable traits whether or not the facts comport with this belief. Confirmation bias over controversial topics can affect every person in a debate but especially when the most emotional situations become a subject of controversy. Yet such negative tendencies can be usually be overcome with rational attempts to refrain from emotional judgments and not seeking to establish just ideas that support our preconceived beliefs. Yet no person can always refrain from snap judgments about others because our brains are designed to do precisely that.  

Psychologist Elizabeth Hall states the human brain is "wired to make automatic judgments about others' behaviors, so that we can move through the world without spending too much time or energy on understanding everything we see."i She notes that we can shift between situation and personality attributions for people we encounter and these can vary with little information due to familiarity and mood. While a neighbor might seem to be impolite and even antisocial when they do not respond to a friendly greeting, some recent tragedy may have struck them or they simply were distracted and meant no offense. Yet the facts do not matter to our brain and we might develop an unreasonable dislike without any genuine insult happening with a logically justifiable basis. Thus, imagine what assumptions can happen when a legitimate case of this feeling occurs based on factual events.

One of many reasons for desiring to judge others in later years is gaining acceptance or group status and by rendering a damning public judgment one can accrue both quickly in the right environment. From youth humans are “dependent on their group members. Only through copying their skills and practices are we able to learn how to survive in a diverse, and sometimes even hostile environment.”ii This necessitates cooperation with other humans to “gain access to food, shelter, and protection from attack. Children are born into these social groups” and later they develop strategies for making outside social contacts. During the earliest years of life data reflects that children will aid experimenters and seek to help them without any motivation for external rewards beyond “affiliation” with another person. As toddlers’ humans seek out contact with others socially, prefer cooperative work, and engage in behavior that increases the chances others will consider these associations positive. At five years of age “children share more and steal less when they are being watched by a peer compared to when they are alone.”iii The longer the positive social relationship the more likely a child will be inclined to reinforce positive associations with someone and likely to engage in conflict resolution while enjoying stronger friendships.

Adults establishing social groups undertake a similar path while forming relationships that provide useful skills from peers and they seek to gain social status in a larger association. Yet by the time a human reaches maturity the motivations for a positive relationship take on different values not based merely on just helping others as someone does in youth as older humans often receive more tangible benefits and have less altruistic motivations for developing connections. Varying from group loyalty to financial interest, adults have a much wider range of needs to fulfill but it “is clear our reliance on our group members has also exerted a profound influence over our motivation. Successful group functioning requires that we are motivated to interact, and engage, with those around us” due to an intrinsic need to belong to something larger than ourselves and if we do not our minds can suffer.

The need to belong according to one study has two criteria, frequent positive interactions with at least a few people and these interactions must be include enduring concern for the welfare of the other person. This concern is not merely a desire but maintaining the relationship can turn desire into a psychological need that unfulfilled potentially creates “serious distress and long term-negative consequences. Failure to satisfy a mere want or desire may be disappointing but it is unlikely to lead to as severe distress in the short-term or to negative long-term consequences.” An inability to form several lasting productive relationships leads to bleak psychological outcomes when these social needs are not met and this deficiency is further inflamed by unfair judgments which cause people to snap in anger or despair.   

While quick judgments can be valid and have evidence to support them under the proper circumstances, many personal judgments occur without any deep knowledge of the person or their motivations lacking overt prior actions to reinforce the initial assessment.vi Out of context statements considered offensive are interpreted to support the accuser’s worst assumptions and may incorporate a huge exaggeration about the decried behavior and related implications. For instance, those who claim the look on the face of a person might confirm a political or cultural bias must leap to judgment based on a single interpreted physical trait. Rationally this is an incorrect assumption to make about people without supporting evidence or actions, but it does not prevent many people from doing so daily via social media outlets. This unreasonable constant need to judge can become destructive to not just the person being judged but enforcing a habitual desire in those judging that damages their own social relationships. Such increasing outrage in regard to ever less rational triggers leads to self-destructive judgments that can severely impact the amount of future people that will productively engage with them.

We must possess and nurture a healthy self-skepticism before rendering permanent judgments and maintain standard expectations of polite behavior with strangers. How someone engages with ideological opponents provides some insights about their unseen motivations and presents important questions when they lash out. Does a person offer reasonable conversation or do they proclaim a series of judgments as pretext to conversation? Do they believe all people deserve the right speak freely? If honest discourse is the goal why do some groups rely solely on confrontation to prevent the resolution of societal issues with genuine diplomacy? Perhaps discourse for all is not the goal because our human nature can drive us to denounce ideological enemies instead of reasoning with them. That is a serious problem and if we submit to these base instincts too often it undermines the quality of life and mental health of all concerned.
Sincerely,
C.A.A. Savastano

References:
i. Elizabeth Dorrance Hall, May 11, 2018, Why We Judge Others, Psychology Today, psychologytoday.com
ii. Harriet Over, (January 19, 2016), The origins of belonging: social motivation in infants and young children, Philosophical Transactions B, The Royal Society, United States National Library of Medicine, National Institute of Health, ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
iii. Ibid
iv. Nicholas Rule, 2014, Snap-Judgement Science, Observer, Association for Psychological Science, psycholgicalscience.org

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Violence has always been with us since the beginning of the human species because aggressive behavior is both a danger and defense that can allow humans to oppress their competitors or prevent such tyranny. With the growing hyperbole of national politics fueled by obsessive internet usage and the drastic reduction of human interaction, some are becoming emotionally detached and violently lashing out. Outrage dominates public discourse as factions demand censorship and some are too engrossed in unimportant conflict or entertainment to observe the ongoing calamity. Perhaps some just do not care anymore and that apathy is a dire problem for everyone. "Human Time Bomb: The Violence Within Our Nature" by C.A.A. Savastano poses important questions, offers substantial evidence, considers how violence has shaped the path of human history, and presents ideas about what might be done to reduce it ongoing effects.

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Join author C.A.A. Savastano, historian Larry Hancock, and your host Chuck Ochelli as they return to present the incongruent stories US officials would rely upon to connect Mexico City to the JFK assassination. They present evidence, information, and the KGB claims that CIA leaders uncritically accepted to make a disproven set of allegations based upon unidentified individuals that eyewitnesses disputed.

Other Men in Mexico City II

Mexico City was the scene of Multiple unresolved allegations by the CIA, KGB, and US officials related to Lee Harvey Oswald

According to United States officials just months before they accused Lee Harvey Oswald of assassinating President John F. Kennedy he went to Mexico during the end of September. Intelligence leaders would assume these purported visits were connected to later events, despite that Oswald did not yet work at the Texas Schoolbook Depository and they neglected to account for the parade route not being established until mid-November. Without that foreknowledge provided by another party Oswald cannot perceive the endgame of all these various actions occurring later. Taken by itself the incidents in Mexico City attributed to Lee Harvey Oswald are without direct connective evidence a possible occurrence unto themselves without links to subsequent events beyond Oswald’s alleged visits. The focus of US intelligence regarding Oswald reasonably dominates most inspections but the actions of Soviet and Cuba groups regarding this peculiar historical figure are often less reviewed.   

The photograph of Lee Oswald that US officials stated was attached to the application from the Cuban Embassy

Eyewitness statements that include Cuban Consul Eusebio Azcue stating he “would never have identified Lee Harvey Oswald as the man who visited the Cuban Consulate in 1963”, a later conversation between multiple American government leaders regarding impersonation in the same period, and further suppressed evidence infers that someone misrepresented themselves as Lee Harvey Oswald within the limits of Mexico City at least twice in one day to Cuban diplomatic employee Silvia Duran.i These appearances were undertaken by a male who was at least ten year older, shorter, had different hair and eye colors than Oswald, and this person began conflicts with multiple employees damaging any chance of Oswald gaining a visa. Additionally, this person offered illegal documents that claimed membership to a group Oswald did not when later visiting the Mexico City Cuban diplomatic compound. Repeated deviations and contending evidence significantly undermine identifying this person as Lee Harvey Oswald despite the many official assertions.

Consider the figure originally described being an “Uniden North American” on September twenty-seventh who the next day is assumed to be the official suspect conversed in “terrible, hardly recognizable Russian”. While Oswald could not read or write in Russian proficiently, he is noted by his wife and several other witnesses to speak fluent Russian years prior.ii A call made days later during October presents a male calling himself Oswald to the Soviet embassy, and spoke with embassy guard Ivan Obyedkov on the status of a visa but it again features someone who cannot speak Russian well. “Oswald” is never questioned or confronted by the embassy’s guard about allegedly barging in days before this call and bringing a gun to the embassy as multiple KGB agents would later claim. This is quite strange because later official files note that Obyedkov is security minded and he often questions any lapses in consular security.iii When this person cannot remember the name of the official dealing with them at the embassy Obyedkov volunteers the name Valeriy Kostikov, a notorious member of the KGB’s Department Thirteen responsible for sabotage and assassinations. American officials would run with this speculation for years attempting to link Oswald with Kostikov in a Soviet or Cuban plot.

A surveillance photograph of Valeriy Kostikov Walking in front of the Soviet Embassy Compound in Mexico City

This purported encounter was contrived upon “Oswald” failing to know the official he met with and Obyedkov fueled endless speculations and suspicion, just as the similar alternate story of Kostikov’s occasional volleyball partner Third Secretary Nikolai Leonov did. Yet these government ideas regarding Kostikov are complicated by the fact Kostikov spoke little English, the person in these events spoke poor Russian, and Oswald could not communicate in Spanish which left no proficient mutual language for private communication. Other later evidence that was seemingly overlooked instead confirms Kostikov used coded language and met with his contacts outside the embassy because the Russians were aware of surveillance attempts by enemy groups. There are no substantial reasons to believe that Kostikov would damage his base of operations by meeting Oswald without means to properly communicate in a manner that deviates from all other meetings he undertook according to the record unless it was merely in the role of processing and photographing him to maintain his cover assignment.

Another Russian intelligence officer who supported some of the claims of related Soviet leaders was Second Secretary of the Soviet Embassy Pavel Antonvich Yatskov. He according to CIA phone tap stated “I met Oswald here. He stormed into my office and wanted me to introduce and recommend him to the Cubans…He was nervous and his hands trembled, and he stormed out of my office. I don’t believe that a person as nervous as Oswald, who hands trembled could have fired a rifle.”iv This nervous description would support the claims of other Soviet intelligence but he never mentions any threats, claims of wanting to shoot people, a date for the encounter, and the supposed gun. Most strange is while Yatskov eventually had knowledge of all these claims before his surveilled call but does not think the armed person who purportedly talked about shooting people could murder the President, unless of course there potentially never was a gun or threats. The CIA seized upon this as more confirmation of their prior assumptions but neglected to disclose the Soviets were likely aware of surveillance due to coded language used on the phones and might intentionally have misled them.    

Soviet Consular official and KGB Colonel Oleg Maximovich Nechiporenko

Another Soviet intelligence source Colonel Oleg Maximovich Nechiporenko supports that Lee Oswald did venture to the embassy in that period and spoke with Kostikov briefly. Depending on which KGB officer’s version of the story you believe (Yatskov, Leonov, or Nechiporenko) they discussed Oswald’s visit and reported their impressions to Moscow but did not attempt to stop Oswald, warn the people at his hotel, or even turn the gun over as evidence. Thus, it is highly improbable but possible this person calling themselves Oswald did visit the Soviet embassy one of these days, threaten people’s lives, produce a gun, and interacted with up to four KGB agents (Yatskov, Leonov, Nechiporenko, and Kostikov) briefly attempting to gain a visa if we regard all the evidence. Nevertheless, all these assertions designed to implicate Oswald undertaking illegal actions and prevent his travel find support in KGB personnel because American officials just accepted incongruent stories to assume Oswald is responsible by the very Soviets seeking to obstruct their operations. Notably the Agency disagreed with following Russian and Cuban government related pronouncements stating their investigations believed the CIA was involved in President Kennedy’s assassination likely because it did not implicate just Oswald.v

Third Secretary, Assistant Cultural Attaché, and KGB officer Nikolai Leonov

Conversely, perhaps much of these events were fabricated by the KGB to foil a security threat and mislead American intelligence groups due to Nechiporenko’s full claims emerging decades later in a book naming Oswald as part of a conspiracy and Leonov’s account did not appear for decades as well in a Russia state media outlet. Notably the improbable events at the Soviet embassy include a mixture of widely diverging people undertaking the same largely unbelievable actions without regular consequences. American officials noted according to the Mexican newspaper Excelsior, Oswald had returned to the Soviet embassy and created a similar argument to the one a day prior in September at the Cuban embassy, yet they fail to regard other myths about Oswald’s time in Mexico City from the same media source asserting a Cuban plot. The Soviet visit is also supported by a translated Agency document states that Silvia Duran called the Soviet embassy prior to the “Oswald” visit later that day. Yet that person identified is the one from the day before that did not match Oswald’s speech or appearance, similar to the phone call, and thus we must assume it is Oswald despite the facts or consider it was the same person calling themselves Oswald. Perhaps if this impersonator was a member of Russian intelligence, they might just craft the erratic pistol wielding Oswald story to augment the prior damage and with aid from other aligned intelligence officers. Only the speculations of a questionable newspaper, KGB offered statements, and the assumptions of United States intelligence present this person was Lee Harvey Oswald.

Witness Silvia Duran, that officials seem only to rely upon when she conforms to portions of their claims, told investigators she “adamantly denies that Oswald or any other American visited the Cuban Consulate on Saturday September 28, 1963.”vi According to one file Mexican politician Luis Echevarria told Agency Station Chief Winston Scott that Duran was cooperative and offered a statement in November of that same year attesting “two visits by Oswald”, not over two days, but two visits.vii While some officials doubted her and called her a liar when she deviated from their narrative, other subsequent investigators stated “there are indications that she was truthful when she stated that Oswald did not visit The Consulate on September 28…(the) conversation was linked to Oswald because of the marginal notations”.viii Further, CIA assets had falsely disparaged Duran repeatedly by attempting to link her to Oswald following Mexico City station’s considering her recruitment. This same person claimed to be a Communist, something Oswald publicly stated he was not, does not know Oswald’s address and had to return to the Cuban embassy to retrieve it. Unsurprisingly what possible assistance contained in tapes or photography that American officials might contribute were claimed destroyed by multiple sources on different occasions.

Several pieces of evidence and information support the KGB had advance notice that a Cold War defector and his wife sought to return to Russia because of their past repeated letters to Russian officials. September twenty-seventh a person sought to upend any chances Oswald could venture to Cuba or Russia by causing problems with Cuban government representatives, the next day this armed person who spoke broken Russian would allegedly visit the Soviet Embassy and repeat the episode with KGB agents that did little beyond calm him down. Days later the Obyedkov call at the Embassy on the first day of October features a person speaking broken Russian calling themselves Oswald who states they were “a day or so” ago present but the embassy guard does not question them about this visit or even ask if they were person who produced a gun. The CIA assumed this person was Oswald based on transcription notes that claimed this voice matched a former caller with a similar voice at the Cuban consulate speaking broken Russian and then added what details Soviet and Cuban intelligence offered to construct their best guess. Yet there is no reason to assume this is Lee Oswald because of the broken Russian, the diverging physical and behavioral details of witnesses at the Cuban embassy prior, multiple eyewitness statements, and no substantial evidence that ties him to several visits over varying dates.

Oswald’s actions, what actions he did take, the possible manipulation by outside people, and his desire to return to the Soviet Union presented a reasonable security threat or opportunity to Russian intelligence. Were any members of foreign intelligence who later seemingly created unlikely accounts regarding Oswald molding him into an unstable threat in order to neutralize any security dangers he presented without understanding his future importance? According to at least one Soviet official the events of Mexico City did not just prevent Oswald from returning to Russia but his wife as well. Perhaps the actions of several intelligence groups each with their own designs have prevented greater understanding of these competing webs of influence and why people could potentially manipulate the facts about Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City.
Sincerely,
C.A.A. Savastano

References:
i. Assassinations Records Review Board, Electronic Records, Files of Michelle M Seguin, Analyst, Lopez Report, (n.d.), p. 205
 ii. Central Intelligence Agency, Russ Holmes Work File, Overview of Mexico City Photo Ops with Chronology, 28 September 1963 (Saturday), (n.d.), National Archives and Records Administration Number: 104-10413-10000
 iii. CIA, File on Obyedkov, Ivan Dmitriyevich, Dispatch to Chief of Soviet Branch, February 27, 1971, NARA ID: 104-10177-10224 
iv. House Select Committee on Assassinations, Segregated CIA file, Leads investigated by CIA, 2 July 1964 Box 34, August 26, 1964, NARA ID: 1993.07.20.08.53:33:500530 
v. HSCA, Seg. CIA file, Silvia Duran at Cuban Embassy called Soviet Consul RE North American, November 23, 1963, p. 1, NARA ID: 1993.97.06.17:29:10:310150
vi. AARB, Electronic Records, Lopez.01, Files of Executive Director and General Counsel T. Jeremy Gunn, Lee Harvey Oswald, The CIA, And Mexico City, (n.d.), p. 247
vii. HSCA, Seg. CIA file, Personal information taken from Silvia Tirado Bozan de Duran, Box 34, August 26, 1964, p. 9, NARA: 1993.07.20.08:50:25:620530
viii. HSCA, Seg. CIA file, Staff Notes, Analysis of Lee Harvey Oswald’s Activities in Mexico City, 1978, p. 265, NARA ID: 180-10142-10167

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