08-10-2015, 12:57 AM
This conversation appeared on John Newman's Facebook page today and I thought the contents were relevant and interesting enough to share - thanks in advance to the participants (the contents are all public on John Newman's wall so hopefully no-one is irked by the reprinting). The participants are Newman, Joseph Backes and Dan Hardway. The discussion references the declassified document DCI JOHN MCCONE AND THE ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT JOHN F. KENNEDY, linked here.
[URL="http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB493/docs/intell_ebb_026.PDF"]John McCone document
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John Newman: Shenon's latest piece in Politico ("Yes the CIA Director was Part of the JFK Assassination Coverup") is a continuation of the newest stagebegun in 2013of the propaganda campaign to convince Americans that Robert Kennedy got his brother John killed and then worked to cover it up. The genesis of this new stage was a call from a Warren Commission lawyer to Shenon, who then fed Shenon and used him as the mouthpiece for this outrageous scheme. The Castro-did-it propaganda was part of the true coverup of the plot to kill JFK, and it was in play even before the shots were fired in Dallas. But I knew when I read Shenon's 2015 paper edition of his book, A Cruel and Shocking Act, that we would be facing a newer, carefully orchestrated campaign to stick it to the Kennedys right at the time when the battle lines are being drawn to force the releaseas required by the JFK Records Actof the remaining JFK records by October 2017. Now, Shenon takes a recently released internal CIA analysis (which also dates to 2013) about DCI McCone blocking the CIA's anti-Castro plots from the Warren Commission, and uses it to bolster his (Shenon's) baleful version of history. I will comment on that (David Robarge's) analysis after thoroughly reading it. Shenon's Politico piece ends by restating a myth he hopes to make stick: that President Johnson appointed former DCI Allen Dulles to the Warren Commission "at the recommendation of then Attorney General Robert Kennedy." I will hold back here on commenting about this fabrication because David Talbot's new book, The Devil's Chessboard, (to be released next week) so thoroughly (pp. 572-574) demolishes it.
--JN: Shenon's article says Robarge's formerly classified article was quietly released last fall and is available on the CIA's public website. I can't find it. Can anyone else?
Dan Hardway: If you find it please share. Haven't found it yet.
John Newman: Robarge's article was originally published in the classified edition of 9/13 Studies in Intelligence. It is not in the unclassified version which you can see. But Shenon says it was declassified last fall. Robarge has an article on the Congo in that unclassified edition, but nothing on the Warren Commission.
Joseph Backes: Here's the Robarge article:
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB49...bb_026.PDF
John Newman: Joe found it (good job)--see his link above. So, Shenon is incorrect--it's on the NSA (‪nsarchive.gwu.edu) website not ‪cia.gov
Joseph Backes: It's based on a book about McCone that Robarge wrote in 2005 that the CIA has classified. So, is there any chance someone somewhere, like Wikileaks, or Anonymous people has a digital copy of that book? Or the NSA folks?
So, on the bottom of page 3, the first paragraph, the citation part, not the main body of text, it says the CIA opened counterintelligence and security files on Oswald in early November, which could be within hours or days of Oswald's defection on October 31, 1959. Is this information that we knew, or is this new information?
John Newman: We know that CI was tracking right away and that the security office had started a "soft file" which was just typed entries on plain white paper with an "S" number. I think it this is an important confirmation of the fact the toe Soviet Russia Division was shut out at this early point.
Joseph Backes: Warren Commission Document #1 is a FIVE volume FBI report. On page 6 of the article Roberge says it's four.
John Newman: I have now read the David Robarge piece. It's actually one declassified chapter from a book he wrote on DCI John McCone's history as the Director of Central Intelligence. The chapter is "DCI McCone and the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy." It is an important analysis that Shenon has clearly cherry picked through (which is what Shenon did with the HSCA work on the case), taking and spinning sentences that paint McCone as the leader of an effort to steer the Warren Commission away from the critical facts supporting Shenon's theme that RFK got his brother killed. There is no support for this kind of agitprop in the Robarge chapter, although one can wonder about the timing of its declassification and whether McCone's actions at the time (which he later regretted) would help the current campaign to breathe life into the Castro-did-it myth. Researchers will find a lot of important details--names of CIA officers and their roles in the rush of events after the assassination. When you have read this chapter, it is clear that Robarge is not arguing or even implying that Castro killed Kennedy and that RFK was responsible.
[URL="http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB493/docs/intell_ebb_026.PDF"]John McCone document
[/URL]
.........
John Newman: Shenon's latest piece in Politico ("Yes the CIA Director was Part of the JFK Assassination Coverup") is a continuation of the newest stagebegun in 2013of the propaganda campaign to convince Americans that Robert Kennedy got his brother John killed and then worked to cover it up. The genesis of this new stage was a call from a Warren Commission lawyer to Shenon, who then fed Shenon and used him as the mouthpiece for this outrageous scheme. The Castro-did-it propaganda was part of the true coverup of the plot to kill JFK, and it was in play even before the shots were fired in Dallas. But I knew when I read Shenon's 2015 paper edition of his book, A Cruel and Shocking Act, that we would be facing a newer, carefully orchestrated campaign to stick it to the Kennedys right at the time when the battle lines are being drawn to force the releaseas required by the JFK Records Actof the remaining JFK records by October 2017. Now, Shenon takes a recently released internal CIA analysis (which also dates to 2013) about DCI McCone blocking the CIA's anti-Castro plots from the Warren Commission, and uses it to bolster his (Shenon's) baleful version of history. I will comment on that (David Robarge's) analysis after thoroughly reading it. Shenon's Politico piece ends by restating a myth he hopes to make stick: that President Johnson appointed former DCI Allen Dulles to the Warren Commission "at the recommendation of then Attorney General Robert Kennedy." I will hold back here on commenting about this fabrication because David Talbot's new book, The Devil's Chessboard, (to be released next week) so thoroughly (pp. 572-574) demolishes it.
--JN: Shenon's article says Robarge's formerly classified article was quietly released last fall and is available on the CIA's public website. I can't find it. Can anyone else?
Dan Hardway: If you find it please share. Haven't found it yet.
John Newman: Robarge's article was originally published in the classified edition of 9/13 Studies in Intelligence. It is not in the unclassified version which you can see. But Shenon says it was declassified last fall. Robarge has an article on the Congo in that unclassified edition, but nothing on the Warren Commission.
Joseph Backes: Here's the Robarge article:
http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB49...bb_026.PDF
John Newman: Joe found it (good job)--see his link above. So, Shenon is incorrect--it's on the NSA (‪nsarchive.gwu.edu) website not ‪cia.gov
Joseph Backes: It's based on a book about McCone that Robarge wrote in 2005 that the CIA has classified. So, is there any chance someone somewhere, like Wikileaks, or Anonymous people has a digital copy of that book? Or the NSA folks?
So, on the bottom of page 3, the first paragraph, the citation part, not the main body of text, it says the CIA opened counterintelligence and security files on Oswald in early November, which could be within hours or days of Oswald's defection on October 31, 1959. Is this information that we knew, or is this new information?
John Newman: We know that CI was tracking right away and that the security office had started a "soft file" which was just typed entries on plain white paper with an "S" number. I think it this is an important confirmation of the fact the toe Soviet Russia Division was shut out at this early point.
Joseph Backes: Warren Commission Document #1 is a FIVE volume FBI report. On page 6 of the article Roberge says it's four.
John Newman: I have now read the David Robarge piece. It's actually one declassified chapter from a book he wrote on DCI John McCone's history as the Director of Central Intelligence. The chapter is "DCI McCone and the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy." It is an important analysis that Shenon has clearly cherry picked through (which is what Shenon did with the HSCA work on the case), taking and spinning sentences that paint McCone as the leader of an effort to steer the Warren Commission away from the critical facts supporting Shenon's theme that RFK got his brother killed. There is no support for this kind of agitprop in the Robarge chapter, although one can wonder about the timing of its declassification and whether McCone's actions at the time (which he later regretted) would help the current campaign to breathe life into the Castro-did-it myth. Researchers will find a lot of important details--names of CIA officers and their roles in the rush of events after the assassination. When you have read this chapter, it is clear that Robarge is not arguing or even implying that Castro killed Kennedy and that RFK was responsible.