John Armstrong's Harvey and Lee

[Jim Hargrove]

Perhaps, as a co-originator of the Evica-Drago model, I can provide some degree of clarity.

In that model, Angleton, Harvey and Helms, along with Phillips and Hunt, are appropriately placed in the Facilitator Level.

Those who designed the conspiracy and drove it to the point of execution (pun intended) are Facilitators. This segment of the conspiracy model is by far the largest; it encompasses a broad range of players, from the brilliant and powerful planners to the three stooges who rang Sylvia Odio's doorbell.

In the Evica-Drago model, the term "Mechanics" narrowly and for the sake of clarity refers to the Dealey Plaza shooting teams and individuals providing their immediate E and E support.

Why wouldn't, say, the murderers of David Ferrie appropriately be labeled Mechanics? After all, the term commonly is used to describe hired killers who take out designated targets.

Because the raison d'etre of the conspiracy which they served was to kill JFK; the act of taking out Ferrie, like the act of ringing Sylvia Odio's doorbell, facilitated efforts to bring the designated target under the Mechanics' guns.

Hi, Charles,

Those definitions seem extremely logical ... so, let's talk Facilitators.

For Angleton, it's hard to believe the Oswald project would escape the radar of the CI/SIGgers, if there wasn't even more intimate involvement. And with the number of statements released over the years from CIA veterans about Oswald, it's easy to imagine surprisingly broad knowledge of the Oswald project at the Agency.

But turning a Cold War spy effort into an assassination operation is a whole different issue. Is there real evidence connecting the higher level officials to the assassination? (I'm not as well read as many of the people here, so I hope someone will correct me if I'm missing something obvious.)

But the circumstantial evidence, at least, for Hunt and Phillips seems a lot clearer. During the whole Mexico City business, whatever it was, Hunt was, according to Hunt, temporarily running the American embassy there and Phillips was in charge of the Cuban mayhem. Perfect! Who better to hatch a plot to murder a president and blame Cuba?

And almost as if it was planned in Mexico City, a matter of weeks later we have Oswald at the Sports Drome rifle range, Oswald at the Statler Hilton, Oswald at Dial Ryders to get his scope mounted (again!!--and despite the fact that a certain rifle from Kleins already had a scope--sloppy, but surely not part of the original plan), Oswald at Downtown Lincoln Mercury, Oswald at the Southland Building, always creating enough of a scene to make a lasting memory. It's a tidy package, but lacking in proof.

It seems exceptionally unlikely that Hunt and Phillips hatched the whole plot on their own, and I would expect higher Agency involvement, as well as some of the officials David Josephs is brainstorming about, but I'm just not aware of much evidence, sadly.

Jim