Bill Kelly on Angleton, Jefferson Morley, and Thomas Powers

[Peter Lemkin]

A nice new article from Bill Kelly, who apparently has a book coming on the case. He's a top guy, Bill, so I'm looking forward to reading his book.

https://www.lobster-magazine.co.uk/free/...powers.pdf

Yes, good piece. Bill Kelly is one of the most thoughtful and inventive researchers. I follow his blog. His book should be a welcome one...... His underlining about ASCI in this piece is VERY important - take note. Long ago he exposed NANA - and I can confirm this from my own research independently. He has also done great pieces on Collins Radio and many other important components of a very complex plot.

Below is the latest [very good!] piece by Bill Kelly on his blog:

Alongwith David Martin ("Wilderness of Mirrors"), David Wise("Mole hunt"), Thomas Ross, with Wise ("The InvisibleGovernment"), John Marks and Victor Marchetti ("The CIA andthe Cult of Intelligence") and a few other journalists, ThomasPowers knows more about espionage and the history of the Cold Warthan many spies.
Butas a 30 year veteran of the Council of Foreign Relations, he fails totackle the assassination of the President - the ultimate mystery ofour times - because he is an apologist for the same system that wasresponsible for the murder of the President.
The"intelligence community" still wants to protect its"sources and methods" (what Allen Dulles called the "craftof intelligence") - which are technically neutral and used byevery intelligence agency and network since the days of Sun Tzu andthe Art of War in China thousands of years ago. But it's too late,since these "sources and methods" have already beenexposed, and counter-intelligence techniques are being properlyapplied to analysis of the assassination, as they should have beenfrom the start.
Nowthat the "Wilderness of Mirrors" has been well documentedand mapped out,Inhis review of Jefferson Morley's biography of James Jesus Angleton"Ghost," Powers resorts to attacking Morley personally ratherthan wrestling with the evidence, something we can and must do.Powerssays Morley shouldn't be taken seriously and criticizes him forproviding an uneven profile of Angleton - the CIA's chief of CounterIntelligence (CI) during whose watch the assassination occurred.
Butit is Angleton who provided the CI tools and trade craft, the meansand methods needed to understand what actually occurred at DealeyPlaza.
Morleyand Powers both tell us about Angleton's "Monster Plot" -an obsessive fear that the Soviets penetrated the CIA at its highestlevels - as they did the British, West German and French intelligenceagencies. Crucial to the analysis are the alleged fakedefectors who were muddying the waters - especially Anatoly Golitsyn,Yuri Nosenko and Lee Oswald, the accused assassin of the President. Werethey real or fake defectors? Thanks to the recent release of recordswe have the tapes and transcripts of Nosenko's interrogation, and thefive CIA studies of Nosenko, one of which weighed the cost benefitsof the information he gave up, and concluded he was a legitimatedefector because of the value of the information. Otherknowledgeable researchers familiar with Nosenko's complete file areconvinced that he lied and was a false defector.
Andwhat about Golitsyn and Oswald? They are players in the "MonsterPlot" we have yet to decipher.
Powersaccuses Morley of being "strangely indifferent to the 'MonsterPlot' story that engulfed Angleton - a plot that he says includes theJFK assassination," which Powers sees as "notoriouslytricky" to tackle.
Powerscontends that Morley is strangely indifferent to Angleton's "MonsterPlot," and that Angleton's bugbear is somehow connected to theassassination of the President. But Powers never elucidatesthat connection.
Itwas JFK himself who nominated Michael Straight to head the NationalFederation of the Arts, which sparked an FBI background investigationof Straight, which discovered that he had attended Cambridge with KimPhilby, Guy Burgess, Donald MacLean and others who were recruited tobe Soviet spies before going undercover in the British government.Straight confessed to being approached for recruitment by Philby butdeclined Philby's overture, despite Straight's communist sympathies.
Philbytipped off Burgess and MacLean before they could be arrested, so theyhad already made it safely to Moscow. And Philby was warned ofStraight's confession by MI6 officer Nicholas Elliott and permittedto escape to Moscow. Nicholas Elliot was a close personal friend andMI6 associate of NANA's Ian Fleming and his brother Peter Fleming.Elliot was sent to Beirut, Lebanon to confront Philby, and give himthe opportunity to get while the getting was good.
Butthe damage was done, since Philby was the MI6 liaison to the CIA andalready knew all the secrets. In fact, it was Philby who taughtAngleton many of the CI crafts of intelligence during WWII. Philby and Angleton later had three-martini lunches in Washington,which eventually led CIA analyst Clare Petty to suggest that Angletonhimself was the Soviet mole.
Asformer FBI agent William Turner has said, we know that theassassination of the President was originally devised as a CIA planto kill Fidel Castro and was diverted to kill JFK at Dealey Plaza. Itwas a carefully devised Plan, not a plot, a plan that included ablack propaganda disinformation deception to blame the murder ofFidel Castro, an aspect of the plan that failed.
Thosewho say one man alone did it for his own unknowable irrationalmotives have solved the case in their minds, to their ownsatisfaction. Those of us who believe there's more to the story,however, can look upon all of the evidence as part of a covertintelligence operation, and utilize the CI tools at our disposal toanalyze it.

"Wenow know what happened at Dealey Plaza to a fairly good degree ofcertainty. The motives were piling up the Bay of Pigs, theCuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, the two-track backchannel to Cuba the motives were piling up to the point they had to assassinate him.I think it's now pretty obvious, with the information we havetoday, that the mechanism of it came out of the allegiance betweenthe CIA and the Mafia. They already had an assassination apparatusset up for killing Castro, and they just switched targets and theykilled JFK instead."

- FormerFBI agent William W. Turner at Dallas COPA 2003

Keepingthe CIA plots to kill Fidel Castro from the Warren Commission was oneof the major deficits of their report and calls into question theprimary conclusion that the assassination of President Kennedy wasthe work of a lone deranged gunman Lee Harvey Oswald.
Itdoesn't matter whether the Cuban-connected Oswald was a loneshooter or a patsy since the CIA plots to kill Castro throw a majorwrench into the deranged lone nut scenario, and adds a politicalmotive to the murder.
Besides the CIA-Mafia plots that began during the Eisenhoweradministration there were other CIA plans to kill Castro that camelater in the game and have a much more serious bearing on whathappened at Dealey Plaza, especially the Valkyrie plot.
Inhis new and important book "The Devil's.Chessboard" David Talbot mentions the role Allen Dullesand his agent-mistress Mary Bancroft played in the July 20, 1944 plotto kill Hitler - code named Valkyrie. [1]
AsTalbot points out, and Dulles suspected would become fodder forconspiracy theorists, Mary Bancroft was a close personal friend ofthe mother of Michael Paine, the chief patron and sponsor of Oswaldand his family.
Besidesthat two degree of separation between Oswald and Dulles and Bancroft,the Valkyrie plot to kill Hitler is mentioned a half-dozen times inthe course of the assassination narrative, and while the significanceof this has yet to be fully drawn out, the recurring Valkyrie themethat runs through the JFK assassination story certainly meritsfurther scrutiny.
Asmentioned in my review of "Devil's Chessboard" [2] when it comes to killing Castro the Valkyrie plot has beenignored - despite its numerous direct ties to what happened at DealeyPlaza, beginning with Lee Harvey Oswald and Volkmar Schmidt.

OSWALDAND VOLKMAR SCHMIDT
PhillipShenon devotes a whole book "A Cruel and Terrible Act" [3]to the subject of a Mexico City Twist Party where Oswald wassupposedly encouraged to kill JFK by some Cuban Communist diplomats.It's a party that Oswald could not have possibly attended as I havetalked with two other Americans who were also reported present at theparty and write about in my review of Shenon's book "ACruel and Terrible Twist." [4]
Butthere was another party that was attended by Oswald where he wasencouraged to commit political assassination - that of GeneralWalker, which he is also accused of attempting to do.
Itwas at a February 1963 gathering at Volkmar Schmidt's Dallas home, aparty that George deMohrenschildts set up specifically for Oswald tomeet Michael Paine. DeMohrenschilts later said he wanted Oswald andPaine to meet because of their mutual interest in political ideology.Michael Paine's father Lyman Paine was a founder of the Trotskyitecommunist party in America and Oswald subscribed to their magazineThe Militant. While Michael Paine wasn't at the party, his wifeRuth was and she met Marina and they became famously friends up untilthe assassination. It was at that party when Schmidt says he talkedprivately with Oswald for over two hours and first brought up thesubject of the Valkyrie plot to kill Hitler.

In a phoneconversation with Schmidt [5] he told me that while talking withOswald he used a reverse psychology technique he learned from aGerman doctor who knew some of those involved in the Valkyrie coupwhen Schmidt mentioned the plot to kill Hitler to Oswald.

Whilediscussing right-wing general Walker, Schmidt said he compared Walkerto Hitler and asked if Hitler had been assassinated how different theworld would be? Schmidt implied Walker should be killed before hebecame another Hitler.

Born in Germany and raised in hisformative years by the German doctor, Schmidt was an oil geologist,as was his friend George deMohrenschilts. Schmidt was recruitedin Germany by Magnolia Oil company of Dallas - the company that usedthe red Pegasus sign as its logo and later merged with majorconglomerates. [6]

Schmidt told me that when he learnedthat Oswald had been accused of taking a shot at Walker and killingJFK he felt terribly guilty, especially every time he drove throughDealey Plaza, as he believed he was responsible for planting theassassination seed in Oswald's mind.

Schmidt said,"naturally it was a terrible responsibility, and for years whenI drove past the underpass I literally had to cry because, youknow.... But I exonerate myself completely because I had the bestintent, embarrass Kennedy...I may have triggered it. Actually, a fewdays after I talked with him, he bought his weapons."OSWALDSTO NEW ORLEANS
Shortlyafter the Walker incident Oswald packed up all his family belongingsand was about to suddenly and unexpectedly move his family to hishome town of New Orleans. But Mrs. Paine, who was driving them to thebus station, suggested Marina and the daughter should stay with herin Texas while Oswald went on alone to New Orleans, find a job andapartment and then she would drive them there when he was settledin.

And that he did. While reconnecting with his mother'ssister, his aunt Muriel and uncle Dutz Murret he got a job at ReilyCoffee and an apartment on Magazine Street.

Ruth Painethen drove Marina, the daughter and the Oswald's belongings,including the rifle, to New Orleans, where they settled in.[7]

After an interesting and eventful summer in theCrescent City, the Oswalds considered returning to Texas when RuthPaine wrote to the pregnant Marina and invited her to come and livewith her in Texas until she had the baby. If she agreed, Ruth Painewrote, Marina should write her a letter "in care of Arthur Young,Paoli, Pennsylvania," where she would be visiting her husband'smother Ruth Forbes Paine Young. [8]RUTHFORBES PAINE YOUNG MARY BANCROFT AND ALLEN DULLES
RuthPaine was on a summer station wagon vacation with her kids driving toMassachusetts, Pennsylvania, Washington D.C. and Ohio visitingfriends and family. Before driving to the suburban Philadelphia farmof her husband's mother, another one of the places Ruth Paine visitedwas the Forbes family Naushon Island off Massachusetts.
Asdescribed by yachtsman Walter Cronkite, "Just off Woods Hole isHadley Harbor on Naushon Island, a favorite anchorage or cruisingboats. At the end of a narrow twisting passage through huge rocks, itis a scene of bucolic bliss. The Forbes family (of whompublisher-adventurer-balloonist-sailor Malcolm Forbes is one) ownsthe island, and great mansions grace its hilltops like castles on aScottish moor."
"Theharbor shore itself, besides the grassy shelf on which horses, cows,and sheep graze, is lined with the support mechanism for an islandpopulation a slip from which the Forbes' small private ferryruns over to Woods Hole, and a boatyard which cares for the fleet ofpleasure craft. The gracious Forbes not only permit anchorage intheir harbor, but they even have set aside one of their small islandson which visiting yachtsmen are invited to stretch their legs.Hadley's quiet a welcome refuge on those many days when strongwinds whip up the comparatively shallow waters of Buzzard's Bay andjustify its notoriety as perhaps the Atlantic Coast's roughestsailing round." [9]
Aneccentric heiress and humanitarian member of Cord Meyer's WorldFederalists, Ruth Forbes Paine had married the equally eccentricArthur Young, genius inventor of the Bell Helicopter 47A - the MASHhelicopter with glass bubble and girders. [10 ]

MichaelPaine and Ruth Hyde had met and were married in Philadelphia, andafter apprenticing as a helicopter designer with hisstep-father-in-law, Arthur Young arranged for Michael Paine to get ajob at Bell Helicopter in Texas. So it was in care of Arthur Youngthat Marina wrote to Ruth Hyde Paine agreeing to the new arrangements- Marina would go to Texas to have the baby and wait for Ruth Paineto pick her up in New Orleans.

Most significant however isMichael's mom Ruth Forbes Paine Young and her close association withMary Bancroft, Allen Dulles's agent and mistress who was intimatelyinvolved in the Valkyrie plot to kill Hitler. [11]

In thelate 1930s Ruth Forbes Paine traveled with Mary Bancroft on asteamship to Europe when Bancroft met a Swiss businessman who shewould marry, putting her in position, when the Second World War brokeout, to meet and work in the OSS with Allen Dulles.

Whilewith Dulles, the top OSS chef in Europe, Bancroft met Hans BerndGisevius, a Nazi officer who was deeply involved in the Valkyrie plotto kill Hitler.THEVALKYRIE PLOT TO KILL HITLER
Yearsin the making the Valkyrie assassination and coup plan stemmed mainlyfrom disgruntled military officers and fell to Claus Von Stauffenbergto carry out on July 20, 1944, leaving a briefcase bomb under a maptable next to Hitler in the Wolfsschanze Wolf's Lair bunker inBavaria.

In drawing up the Valkyrie plan Von Stauffenbergbroke it into two parts - Phase One would be the order to have thehome national army seize all key government and communicationbuildings in response to a revolt by the foreign slave labor, thepart of the plan that would be approved by Hitler himself. Phase Two,the secret part, was the assassination of Hitler.

Thecontrol of the radio and media centers was an instrumental part ofthe plan, as Von Stauffenberg put it, "the conspiracy alone mustspeak."

A third part of the plan was a psychologicalwarfare twist to blame the assassination on the SS and Gestapo, whoseleaders would be rounded up by the real coup planners, the militarygenerals.

Dulles and Gisevius had opposed the use of abomb, preferring a pistol up close or a sniper in a motorcade ambushas more likely to succeed and their fears provedtrue. Gisevius supported the coup but was against the bombplot, as he told Von Stauffenberg: "I just I have the feelingwe'll never succeed. I'm not speaking through fear. But I have afeeling very few of us will be alive this time next year, regardlessof what happens with your bomb."

The bomb failed tokill Hitler and hundreds, some say thousands were subsequentlyrounded up and executed, but Gisevius escaped with the assistance ofBancroft and Dulles, who provided him with fake credentials.

Afterthe war Bancroft translated Gisevius' account of the Third Reich andfollowing Gisevius' testimony against the Nazi leadership atNuremberg, which sent them to the gallows, Dulles brought Gisevius toWashington as a CIA consultant. In Washington Dulles arranged for theex-Nazi officer to stay with his deputy Tom Braden, who lived withhis wife and their eight children in a big house next to RFK'sHickory Hill. Braden would write a book "Eight IsEnough" that would be made into a popular family TV showand pattern for The Brady Bunch. An episode on the ex-Nazi livingwith all those kids would certainly be entertaining. And as Talbotnotes, Braden also interviewed Allen Dulles for the KennedyPresidential Library. [12]

So after visiting Michael'smother, Mary Bancroft's good friend in Philadelphia, where she gotMarina's letter, Ruth Paine drove to DC and visited her sister, whoworked at the CIA, and then went on to Ohio to see her father beforepicking up Marina in New Orleans. [13]

Arriving in NewOrleans in late September Ruth Paine stayed the night and the nextday took Marina, the daughter and the Oswald's belongings, includingthe rifle, and drove them to Texas. Early the following morningOswald slipped out of New Orleans and went to Mexico City to visitthe Cuban and Soviet embassies.THEJOINT CHIEFS ARE BRIEFED ON THE VALKYRIE PLAN
Thesame September 25th day in Washington DC CIA officer DesmondFitzgerald briefed the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who were temporarilychaired by Air Force Chief Gen. Curtis LeMay while Gen. Taylor was ona special mission to Vietnam.

Fitzgerald reported to theJoint Chiefs on the CIA's Cuban covert operations with emphasis onhow the military could support them, an assignment given USMC Gen.Victor H. "Brute" Krulak, Special Assistant for CounterInsurgency Activities, whose aide Colonel Walter M. Higgins, Jr. wasin attendance. Higgins' memo of the meeting, released under the JFKAct, includes the bullet point that Fitzgerald mentioned the CIA wasstudying the Valkyrie plot and adapting it to use against Castro.[14]
AsHiggins wrote in his memo on FitzGerald's briefing: "He commentedthat there was nothing new in the propaganda field. However, he feltthat there had been great success in getting closer to the militarypersonnel who might break with Castro, and stated that there were atleast ten high-level military personnel who are talking with CIA butas yet are not talking to each other, since that degree of confidencehas not yet developed. He considers it as a parallel in history;i.e., the plot to kill Hitler; and this plot is being studied indetail to develop an approach."
September23-25, 1963 was a busy time on the Devil's Chessboard as there weremany moves by key players besides Ruth Paine moving Marina and therifle to Texas, Oswald leaving for Mexico and Fitzgerald briefing theJoint Chiefs.

On September 23, JFK signed NationalSecurity Action Memo 261 approving "Project Four Leaves,"assigning the "highest national priority category fordevelopment and production" a military communications "inresponse to a recommendation from the Secretary of Defense," anorder that remains classified. [15]

THE CONSERVATIONTOUR

JFK then he left September 25 on a "ConservationTour" with his Secretary of Interior, the first stop innortheast Pennsylvania to visit Mary Pinchot Meyer's mother inMilford, Pennsylvania. Mary Pinchot had met JFK thru hisschoolmate William Attwood, who would later become an intermediarybetween JFK and Castro. Mary had married Cord Meyer, an ex-Marine whofounded the World Federalists an international organization insupport of a strong United Nations, one that included Philadelphiacollege student Priscilla Johnson, Michael's mom Ruth Forbes PaineYoung and Walter Cronkite. Cord Meyer joined the CIA in 1951 andbecame one of Dulles' top assistants, replacing Tom Braden as chiefof the International Organizations Division. [17]

WhileMary Meyer had separated from Cord Meyer, she maintained herfriendship with JFK and she accompanied him on the first leg of theConservation Tour that took JFK to her mother's house inPennsylvania. JFK then moved on to Wisconsin and the Mid-West duringwhich the details of the president's November trip to Texas wereofficially announced to the press. [18]D.H. BYRD'S TSBD AND AFRICAN SAFARI
WhenOswald returned to Texas from Mexico in early October he stayed atthe YMCA before taking out a room at the Beckley Street roominghouse, at both places using the same O. H. Lee alias he used to signin at the hotel in Mexico City.

By mid-October Ruth Painehad made a phone call and helped arrange for Oswald to get a job atthe Texas School Book Depository, a building owned by D.H. Byrd, afounder of the Civil Air Patrol in Texas, an organization Oswald wasaffiliated with in New Orleans. Byrd was a Texas oil man who was onthe board of directors of LTV and good friends with Air Force Chiefof Staff Gen. Curtis LeMay. [19]
Atthe time of the assassination, when Oswald was allegedly shooting atKennedy from his building, Byrd was on an African Safari with aGerman Barron Werner von Alvensleben, who used a high poweredMannlicher rifle to hunt. [20]
Hisfather was an assassination expert and an avid supporter of theValkyrie plot. The father was sentenced to prison and concentrationcamps with those who were arrested for their participation in theplot. He also wrote a manifesto supporting the plot after it failed.[21]
Sobesides Volkmar Schmidt using the Valkyrie plot to instigate Oswaldto shoot Walker, Michael Paine's mother was a close personal friendof a key participant in the Valkyrie plot Mary Bancroft, AllenDulles' mistress, the Joint Chiefs of Staff were briefed on theCIA's adaption of the Valkyrie plot to use against Castro, and theowner of the TSBD building from which shots were fired was at thetime on a safari in Africa with a German Barron who used a Mannlicherrifle to hunt with and was the son of an assassination expert whowrote a manifesto in support of the Valkyrie plot and served time inprison with some of its participants.

VALKYRIE IN CUBA
Basedmainly on the Higgins Memo reference of the Desmond Fitzgeraldbriefing the JCS Washington attorney Jim Lesar, director of theAssassinations Archive and Research Center, filed a Freedom ofInformation Act request for the CIA documents related to the CIAstudy of the Valkyrie plot that was to be used against Castro.[22]

But we don't have to wait until we get thoserecords as we can see for ourselves from other records how the CIAtried to adapt the Valkyrie plan to be used against Castro, as theydid try to recruit some disenchanted Cuban military officers who wereclose to Castro including Rolando Cubella (AMLASH) and Gen. Almeida,both of whom have been reviewed and analyzed elsewhere. [23]

Amongthe differences in the Valkyrie plan and the post-Mafia CIA plans tokill Castro we find that the idea of using a bomb was discarded infavor of a sniper attack on Castro while he was riding in an openJeep, a common situation.

Other aspects of the Valkyrieplan that were adopted to be used against Castro, besides using themilitary, the murder of Castro and the takeover of the Cubangovernment in a coup was the control of the media and the Northwoodsstyle psych-war media campaign to blame the assassination oncommunists. [24]

When news of the CIA's plans to killCastro were made public it was at first suggested that Castroretaliated and killed JFK before the CIA could kill him, and somelike John Rosselli even claimed that one of the teams sent in by theCIA by boat was captured by the Cubans and turned and sent back tokill JFK. [25]
Butothers like Bill Turner claim it was more likely that one of the CIAplans to kill Castro was redirected to kill JFK instead, and that'swhat former CIA officer David Atlee Phillips privately surmised. [26]
Ifthat was the case then it must have been a CIA plan that utilized asniper attack on an open car motorcade, one of a number the CIA hadon the shelf ready to go, waiting for the right situation to presentitself.

Among the CIA plans to kill Castro that utilizedsnipers attacking an open car in a motorcade were the Hemingway Houseaffair [27] - discussions after the fact, and the Pathfinder plan toshoot Castro when he visited a north shore resort he was known tofrequent. [28]

Both required accurate high powered rifleswith scopes, similar to the ones they offered to Cubela and attemptedto infiltrate into Cuba on October 31, 1963 when the CIA raidership The Rex deposited anti-Castro commandos with highpowered rifles with scopes who were captured and paraded on Cuban TVthe next day. The story made the front page of the November 1, 1963New York Times, and the names of the captured commandos are mentionedin "Red Friday," the book written by CarlosBringuier, the DRE Cuban Oswald was arrested with in New Orleans.[29]

One important aspect of the Valkyrie plan was a psychwar operation to blame the assassination of Hitler on the SS andGestapo, and monitor and control the media so "only theconspiracy speaks," just as the Dealey Plaza operation includedblaming the assassination on Castro and a psych war campaign usingCIA media assets that continues today.

Besides theassassination and psych-war aspects of the Valkyrie plot that couldhave been adapted to use against Castro and may have been redirectedto JFK at Dealey Plaza, there was one other important part of theValkyrie plan that could have been used - getting the victim to signoff on the operation.

Von Stauffenberg drew up theValkyrie plan as a response to a possible revolt by slave laborers bymobilizing the home guard to quell the revolt and seize keygovernment buildings and communications facilities. Hitlerapproved and signed off on the plan without knowing the secret Phasethat required his elimination. [30]

If this part of theValkyrie plan was adapted for use against Castro it should be notedthat the National Security Council and JFK did approve a number ofviolent covert operations against targets in Cuba, but JFK rejectedthe assassination plans. RFK however, did pressure Des Fitzgerald andothers to step up their Cuban ops against Castro and RFK waspersonally introduced to some of the anti-Castro commandos who werebeing sent to Cuba to attack strategic installations and infiltraterifle teams. [31]

The National Security Action memoauthorizing a special military communications project Four Leavescould also be revealing once it is declassified.

The useof Phase One and Phase Two parts of the plan is another interestingparallel between Valkyrie and Dealey Plaza as they are the same termsused by Von Stauffenberg for Valkyrie and Peter Dale Scott todescribe the official response to the assassination of JFK.
Accordingto Scott's analysis the original Phase One is the disinformationcover story to blame the assassination of JFK on Castro, that couldhave instigated a full scale US military attack on Cuba, which wassubsequently superseded by the Phase Two promotion of the derangedlone assassin being responsible for the act. [32]

DESFITZGERALD BETS AGAINST CASTRO

As the CIA officerresponsible for covert operations against Cuba, Des FitzGerald wasthe person who briefed the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the CIA's"detailed" study of the Valkyrie plot to kill Hitler.FitzGerald was also the case officer for Rolando Cubela (AMLASH), oneof the military officers they were recruiting to kill Castro.
Soit is interesting that FitzGerald, like the military officers in thefictional "Seven Days in May" used a bet and a gamble onthe Preakness stakes as a way of communicating their willingness togo along with the coup plans. In "TheVery Best Men" Four Who Dared: The Early Years of the CIA" EvanThomas writes: "….Halpern, FitzGerald's assistant,regarded him (Cubela) as an assassin and claims that FitzGerald didas well."
SamHalpern: "Des was really more interested in starting a coup, and hehoped that Cubela could organize other army officers. But in coups,he understood, people die. The way to start a coup is to knock offthe top man. Des felt it was a long shot, but it might work. We weredesperate. Des was willing to try anything."
EvanThomas writes: "FitzGerald did not think it was such a long shotthat he was unwilling to make a small bet, giving reasonable odds.Just six days before he formally signed off on a high-powered riflefor AMLASH (Cubela), he accepted a little wager from MichaelForrestal, an official on the National Security Council staff who wasa member of the Georgetown crowd (his father, James V. Forrestal, hadbeen the first secretary of defense). A memo in FitzGerald'spersonal files records a $50 bet with Forrestal on the fate ofFidel Castro during the period 1 August 1964 and 1 October 1964.(Apparently, Fitzgerald saw a window of vulnerability for the Cubanleader that was roughly coincidental with the 1964 U.S. presidentialelection campaign.)"
"Mr.Forrestal offers two-to-one odds ($100 to $50) against Fidel'sfalling (or being pushed) between the dates 1 August and 1 October1964. In the event that such a thing should occur prior to 1 August1964 the wager herein cancelled. Mr. FitzGerald accepts the wager onthe above terms."
Memois dated November 13, 1963, "One day after FitzGerald briefedKennedy on the progress of the Cuban operation and one day before theSpecial Group approved his plan of continued covert operationsagainst the Castro Regime."
Thomas:"Nine days later the assassination of John F. Kennedy dramaticallyincreased the odds that FitzGerald would lose his bet."
Accordingto Thomas, "On November 22, 1963, Des FitzGerald had just finishedhosting a lunch for an old friend of the CIA, a foreign diplomat, atthe City Tavern Club in Georgetown, when he was summoned from theprivate dining room by the maître d'. FitzGerald returned aswhite as a host,' recalled Sam Halpern. Normally erect andpurposeful, FitzGerald was walking slowly, with his head down. ThePresident has been shot,' he said."
"Thelunch immediately broke up. On the way out the door Halpern anxiouslysaid, I hope this has nothing to do with Cubans.' FitzGeraldmumbled, Yea, well, we'll see.' In the fifteen minute car rideback to Langley, FitzGerald just stared straight ahead. He was wellaware that in Paris, at almost the moment Kennedy was shot in Dallas,one of his case officers had been handing a poison pen to a Cubanagent to kill Castro. It was at the very least a grim coincidence.FitzGerald knew that, in September, Castro threatened to retaliateagainst attempts to kill him. United States leaders should thinkthat if they are aiding in terrorist plans to eliminate Cubanleaders, they themselves will not be safe,' the Cuban leader hadpublicly declared."
"Thewarning that Cubela might be a dangle,' that he might besecretly working for Castro, took on an ominous new meaning. NowFitzGerald had to wonder: Had Castro killed Kennedy before Kennedycould kill him?" [33]
Or,as WillIam Turner suggested, was one of the plans to kill Castroturned on Kennedy at Dealey Plaza?
Inconclusion, if the CIA plans to kill Fidel Castro had anything to dowith the assassination of JFK at Dealey Plaza then the CIA's detailedstudy and proposed adaption of the Valkyrie plot to be used againstCastro is one that should be given close examination.
Notes Valkyrie at Dealey Plaza Revisited - "The conspiracyalone must speak."
1) Talbot,David. "The Devil's Chessboard" (HarperCollins, 2015)Re: Valkyrie, p. 134. "Dulles arranged for Mary….to work with thetall, imperious double agent Hans Bernd Gisevious….(who) becameinvolved in the July 20, 1944 bomb plot against Hitler, barelyfleeing with is life to Switzerland when it failed."
2)Kelly, William. Review of Devil's Chessboard: [http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-devils-chessboard-and-new-political.html ]
3)Shenon, Phil "A Cruel and Shocking Act" (Picador,2015)
4)Kelly, William. Review of Phil Shenon's "Cruel and ShockingAct." [http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2015/03/phillip-shenons-cruel-and-shocking-act.html ]
5)Kelly, William. January 1995 Telephone conversation with VolkmarSchmidt.http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2008/01/volkmar-schmidt-interview.html.Schmidt said that Dr. Wilhelm Keutemeyer of Heidelberg served as afoster father whose associates Frederick von Halen and Von Trott weredirectly involved in the Valkyrie plot. Schmidt: "….naturallyit was a terrible responsibility, and for years when I drove past theunderpass I literally had to cry because, you know. But I exoneratemyself completely because I had the best intent, embarrassed Kennedy,and I certainly didn't tell him to take a pot shot at him."
6)Magnolia Oil. Jim Braden, who was arrested as a suspect at DealeyPlaza, and his associate Victor Pierre were evicted from Dallas bySheriff Bill Decker and branded the "Honeymooners" for trying toswindle the heiress of a founder of Magnolia Oil. Volkmar Schmidtlived with two others who worked for Magnolia Oil, including the sonof a Radio Free Europe administrator.
7) Warren Report, p. 730. Ruth Paine drove Oswald's familyand belongings to New Orleans and back to Texas in late September.Also see Ruth Paine's Summer Vacation report by Carol Hewett,Barbara Lamonica and Steve Jones, 1995 COPA Conference presentation.
8) Ford,Gerald, with John Stiles "Portrait of the Assassin" Re:Marina's letter to Ruth Paine in care of Arthur Young, Paoli, Pa.(BK: This is the only published reference I know of that mentionsthis letter).
9)Cronkite, Walter. "North by Northwest" (Tabletop book)Also note that Woods Hole nautical acoustics lab was a very busyplace on April 10, 1963 when Oswald was supposedly taking a shot atGeneral Walker, the USS Thresher submarine went down. Later a groupJustice for the Crew of the Thresher (JFCOTT) reportedly threatenedJFK.
10)Young, Arthur. Inventor of the Bell Helicopter47A.http://www.arthuryoung.com/about.html (BK: I also have an extensive three hour tape recorded interview withYoung from when I sat with him for hours in his library.)
11)Bancroft, Mary. "Autobiography of a Spy" (Wm. Morrow,1983) p. 55, for Ruth Paine Forbes' association with Mary Bancroft.(p. 202-240) for the roles Dulles, Bancroft and Gisevius played inthe July 20, 1944 Valkyrie Plot to kill Hitler.
12) Braden,Tom. Talbot, David."Devil's Chessboard" (p. 369,p.547 JFK Library interview), p. 553 (Rockefeller financial supportfor covert ops). Bancroft, Mary. "Autobiography of aSpy" (Wm. Morrow, 1983)
13)Hewett, Lamonica, Barber. Ruth Paine's Summer Vacation. The Confessions of RuthPaine- DPQ http://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2015/10/steve-jones-confessions-of-ruth-paine.html /http://www.manuscriptservice.com/DPQ/dparchiv1.htm- RUTH
14)HigginsMemo: http://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2014/04/higgins-memo-numbered-w-bullet-points.htm - 13."He commented that there was nothing new in the propagandafield. However, he felt that there had been great success in gettingcloser to the military personnel who might break with Castro, andstated that there were at least ten high-level military personnel whoare talking with CIA but as yet are not talking to eachother, since that degree of confidence has not yet developed. Heconsiders it as a parallel in history; i.e., the plot to kill Hitler;and this plot is being studied in detail to develop anapproach."
15)Four Leaves http://whd.jfklibrary.org/Diary/ - WhiteHouse Diary - For Monday September 23 1963 SUBJECT: Assignment ofHighest National Security Priority to Project FOUR LEAVES. Inresponse to a recommendation by the Secretary of Defense, thepresident, under the authority granted by the Defense Production Actof 1950, today established the program listed below as being in thehighest national security priority category for development andproduction. "President Kennedy assigns the highest nationalsecurity priority to Project FOUR LEAVES to develop and produce amilitary communications system." FOUR LEAVES McGeorgeBundy THE WHITE HOUSE DIARY SEPTEMBER 23 1963 [http://www.jfklibrary.org/White%2BHouse%2B...eptember/23.htm]
17)Meyer, Cord. "Facing Reality: From World Federalism to theCIA." Also see:[https://jfkcountercoup.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/jfk-and-mary-p-meyer/ ]
18)Texas Trip officially announced. "President Kennedy's trip toDallas was first announced to the public in September 1963." Associated Press Timeline.
19) Byrd, DavidHarold. [http://spartacus-educational.com/MDbyrdDH.htm ];[https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fby13 ]
20)Von Alvensleben, Werner. Baron In Africa -"Hunting history is rife with the tales of derring-do with 6.5mmcartridges. W.D.M. Bell whacked many elephants and Werner vonAlvensleben slew hundreds of buffalo with what they termed a"small-bore rifle," namely, the 6.5×54 Mannlicher-Schönauer."Readmore: http://dailycaller.com/2015/08/12/gun-test-alexander-arms-6-5-grendel-hunter/#ixzz3qMkGtu2F DallasMorning News 1-9-64; 1-19-64; "Time Out From Safaris"Alsosee: OSS X2 Report on Werner von Alvensleben (Code name DRAM - thefather as assassination expert)[http://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2015/10/oss-x-2-report-on-werner-von-alvensleben.html ]
21)Metacas, Eric. "Bonhoeffer Pastor, Martyr, Prophet,Spy"(Thomas Nelson Pub. 2010 p. 502)
Amongthose there (in prison) were "....the nearly seventy year oldCount Werner Von Alvensleben, who in 1934 had refused to take theinfamous oath of allegiance to Hitler, and who had been persona nongrata with the Nazis ever since." (p. 507) At Buchenwald "CountVon Alvensleben was in cell number four...was typical of manyarrested after the July 20 plot in that he had done nothing more thanbe on friendly terms with some of the plotters. Thousands had beenarrested for this crime. Anyone related by blood was guilty ofSippenhaft (liability of kin), whereby relatives of the accused werearrested and punished: wives, parents, and children too. Some smallchildren were taken away from their parents, never to be seen again."
22)Lesar, Jim. AARC FOIA Request to CIA for records related to the studyof the Hitler plot as mentioned in the Higgin's report of DesmondFitzGerald's briefing of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, September,1963.
23)Waldron, Lamar. Series of books on JFK of how CIA plot to kill Castrowas hijacked by mobsters "Ultimate Sacrafice," "Legacyof Secrecy" and "The Hidden History of the JFKAssassination." Also note: "John Rosselli said it wasalso his theory that Castro was behind the assassination…He said heknew that a team had been sent to kill Castro, had been captured andtortured, and turned to kill Kennedy." Bayard Stockton in"Flawed Patriot The Rise and Fall of CIA Legend Bill Harvey"(Potomac Books, 2006)
24)Psych War aspect to the plan. Dan Hardway: "You have to lookat the JFK assassination as an operational plan….withdisinformation. (If) the assassination was a mob hit, it wasn't amob hit like the ones they had done previously. They used a differentMO in JFK, they used a patsy, and they used disinformation, both ofthese techniques they had learned from the Agency."
PeterDale Scott: on Managed Oswald Stories: "In the daysafter the murders in Dallas, the U.S. Was flooded with dubiousstories, most of them swiftly discredited, linking Oswald to either aCuban or Soviet conspiracy. Those which most preoccupied the FBI andCIA all came out of Mexico. These stories exhibited certain commoncharacteristics. 1. They all came from either directly froman intelligence source, or from someone in the hands of anintelligence agency. Nearly always the agency involved was theMexican DFS or secret police. The DFS, along with the Nicaraguanintelligence service, which was also a source, were under CIAtutelage. 2. The Stories changed over time, to support either apro-conspiratorial hypothesis ("Phase One") or a rebuttal of this("Phase Two"). 3. The Warren Commission was led to believethat the"Phase One"stories were without basis. In fact a numberof unresolved anomalies suggest that behind them was some deepertruth, still not revealed. 4. As just noted, the two mainsources, Silvia Duran and Gilberto Alvarado, gave varying storieswhile detained by the DFS. Of the two, Duran was actually tortured,and Alvarado reportedly threatened with torture… In retrospect,these stories should not have been taken seriously. In fact the CIAwas able to rely on them, not as a source of truth, but as a sourceof coercive influence over the rest of the government. It will helpus to understand what was going on if we refer to the stories, not asinformation' or even as allegations,' but as MANAGEDSTORIES."
25)The Rex. New York Times, November 1, 1963, page 1.[http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2012/04/rex-blows-collins-radio-cia-cover.html ]
26)Phillips, David Atlee: "I was one of the two case officers whohandled Lee Harvey Oswald. After working to establish his Marxistbona fides, we gave him the mission of killing Fidel Castro in Cuba.I helped him when he came to Mexico City to obtain a visa, and whenhe returned to Dallas to wait for it I saw him twice there. Werehearsed the plan many times: In Havana Oswald was to assassinateCastro with a sniper's rifle from the upper floor window of abuilding on the route where Castro often drove in an open jeep.Whether Oswald was a double-agent or a psycho I'm not sure, and Idon't know why he killed Kennedy. But I do know he used precisely theplan we had devised against Castro. Thus the CIA did not anticipatethe President's assassination but it was responsible for it. I sharethat guilt." From unpublished novel.
27)Hemingway House; The Old Man and the CIA: A Kennedy Plot to KillCastro? The Nation.[http://www.thenation.com/article/old-man-and-cia-kennedy-plot-kill-castro/ ]
28)Pathfinder Documents. Dupont Estate. Re: Pathfinder records - ARRBinterviews with NPIC employes stationed at JMWAVE, where the CIAofficers kept the Pathfinder documents filed separately from regularstation files by keeping them in the NPIC section. ARRBMemo: (a) A folder, stored in the Photo Interpretation...Area atJMWAVE contained materials related to a plan to assassinate Castro inthe Bay of Pigs Resort area where he maintained a yacht and was knownto vacation. The plan, possibly with the code wordPATHFINDER...apparently had been disapproved and not under activeconsideration at the time. Our people did not participate actively inthe plan in any regard. (b) While assigned to the ImageryAnalysis Service, a number of our photo interpreters supported CarlJenkins of the DD/P concerning a plan to assassinate Castro at theDuPont Veradero Estate, east of Havana. Castro was known to frequentthe estate and the plan was to use a high powered rifle in theattempt. The photo interpreter support was restricted to providingannotated photographs and line drawings of the estate. To ourknowledge this plan was never implemented
29)Bringuier, Carlos. "Red Friday" (C. Hallberg,1969)
30)Forman, James. "Code Name Valkyrie Count Von Staufenbergand the plot to kill Hitler," who quotes Gisevius: "I justhave the feeling we'l never succeed. I'm not speaing throughfear. But I have a feeling very few of us will be alive this timenext year, regardless of what happens with your bomb."
31)Ayers, Bradley. "The War that Never Was" (Bobs-Merrell);"TheZenith Secret" (Vox Pop/Drench Kiss Media);[Excerpts:http://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2012/12/excerpts-from-zenith-secret.html ]
32)Scott, Peter Dale. "Deep Politics" Series, the mostrecent being "Dallas '63: The First Deep State Revolt Against theWhite House."[ http://www.amazon.com/Dallas-63-Against-Forbidden-Bookshelf-ebook/dp/B013S42VFQ ]

33)Thomas, Evan. "The Very Best Men Four Who Dared: The EarlyYears of the CIA"(Simon & Schuster, 1995 p. 303)
ValkyrieII at Dealy Plaza
Asa research technique, while reading the HSCA volumes, I began openingfiles on subjects that came up repeatedly in diverse areas - morethan twice - taking Ian Fleming's adage - "First time ishappenstance, second time is coincidence, but a third time is enemyaction."

That's how I got onto Collins Radio, Pan AmBank of Miami, Southland Center, International Rescue Committee andnow Valkyrie.

In the course of my research the Valkyrieplot to kill Hitler has come up five times - in diverse areas andmakes me think I may be on to something.

1) The first timethe Valkyre plot came up was in a phone conversation I had withVolkmar Schmidt, who acknowledged that in his February 1963conversation with Oswald at a party at his house, he mentioned theValkyrie Plot and suggested to Oswald that General Walker should beassassinated as Hitler should have been. Schmidt said he personallyknew some of the participants in the Valkyrieplot.

http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2008/01/volkmar-schmidt-interview.html

2)Then I read Mary Bancroft's "Autobiography of a Spy," inwhich she details her role in Valkyrie - assisting Dr. Hans BerntGisevius escape and then translating hismemoirs.

http://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2012/08/mary-bancroft-autobiography-of-spy.html

3)In late September 1963 Ruth Hyde Paine visited her husband Michael'smother - Ruth Forbes Paine Young, who was Mary Bancroft's closefriend and traveling companion to Europe. After leaving the Young'sresidence near Philadelphia Ruth Paine drove to New Orleans andpicked up Marina and the rifle and drove them to Texas while Oswaldwent to Mexico.

4) On the same day Oswald left New Orleansfor Mexico, the CIA's Desmond Fitzgerald briefed the Joint Chiefs ofStaff - Gen. LeMay presiding - on covert ops against Cuba that neededmilitary assistance - including a plan to adapt the Valkyrie Plot touse against Castro.


(SeeHiggins Memo- http://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2014/04/higgins-memo-numbered-w-bullet-points.html )

5)The 11/22/63 alibi for the owner of the TSBD - D. H. Byrd was that hewas on a hunting safari in Africa with a German "Baron"whose father was reported by OSS X-2 to possibly be an "assassinationexpert" and after World War II lived with one of the ministersselected for the new government after Hitler's overthrow and was avaluable double agent for OSS in Africa who co-authored a manifestoin support of the Valkyrie plotters.

Now my threshold forbingo was three but here we have five separate cases where theValkyrie plot to kill Hitler comes up in the course of eventssurrounding the assassination of JFK.

Alsosee: https://jfkcountercoup.wordpress.com/2009/01/10/valkyrie-at-dealey-plaza/

Nowthese are not six degrees of separation- they are two degrees - andthey are not happenstance or coincidence - but clearly enemyaction.

Now I just got James Forman's book "CodeName Valkyrie - Count Von Stauffenberg and the plot to killHitler"

http://hub-e.com/content/james-d-forman-fb2-ebook-get-code-name-valkyrie-count-von-stauffenberg-and-plot-kill-hitler

that notes:

"The plan had a code name Valkyrie, andit would be developed at two levels with two sets of orders.Officially Valkyrie was a scheme to activate units of the Home Armyto seize population centers in case of a rebellion by the foreignslave laborer sin Germany. Behind this facade the plan was to evolveinto a complete takeover of the government by the Army.

"PhaseOne - plan for mobilizing the Reserve Army. Purpose: to crush mutinyof slave laborers.

This part of the plan was submittedthrough channels and approved by Hitler himself.

"PhaseTwo - the second, secret plan: Item 1- Disposal of Hitler. Item 2 -Preparation of orders upon Hitler's death...Direct the Reserve Armyto undertake the following - Occupy first the city ofBerlin...Principle objectives: Imprisonment of key Nazi and SSofficials, occupation of vital government buildings, railroadstations and other government centers, especially broadcast stations.Immediate command of the mass media, newspapers, wireless radio -cannot be over stressed. The conspiracy alone must speak. Orders fromHitler's East Prussian HQ must be entirely isolated andcontained."

"The conspiracy alone mustspeak."

Another twist to the Valkyrie plan was aPsychwar aspect to blame the assassination of Hitler on the Gestapoand SS as an excuse to round them up.

Forman says thatwhile Dulles agent Gisevius supported the coup he was againstthe bomb plot. He told Von Stauffenberg "I just I have thefeeling we'll never succeed. I'm not speaking through fear. But Ihave a feeling very few of us will be alive this time next year,regardless of what happens with your bomb."

And hewas right.

But the adaption of Valkyrie as carried out atDealey Plaza succeeded.