Nosenko Virus?

[Albert Doyle]

I was wondering if Nosenko might have been a hot potato sent over here by KGB in order to foment discord over the Assassination?

While Nosenko's defection might have been a victory for the west on the surface, his knowledge of Oswald would serve as a problem to the cover-up that would work as a silent disrupter by causing those involved in the cover-up to react to Nosenko in a way that would instigate doubt. By just coming over here and causing Angleton to put him in a torture vault he would bring doubt down on the cover-up and cause it problems. Perhaps KGB thought Nosenko would be a hot potato serving the purposes of those who doubted the Warren Commission and just by being here would serve as a catalyst and source of momentum for those working to expose the US government.

If I have this right Angleton tortured Nosenko in order to press him to admit Oswald was a KGB operative. Nosenko refused to do it and eventually said KGB determined Oswald was a nebbish and was mentally unstable and of no consequence to them. By doing this Nosenko would very subtly serve the purpose of going against the Mexico City Kostikov ruse. So, once again, while offering something that appears to back the Lone Nut premise, Nosenko is actually offering something that will work against the cover-up in the long term and foment discord at the deep level.

So while appearing to be a victory for the west, the Nosenko defection could actually be a shrewd KGB attempt to destabilize the US government by sending a hot potato in to disrupt the cover-up. I believe Angelton's actions towards Nosenko may reveal his awareness of this and need to contain it.

[Pamela McElwain-Brown]

I was wondering if Nosenko might have been a hot potato sent over here by KGB in order to foment discord over the Assassination?

While Nosenko's defection might have been a victory for the west on the surface, his knowledge of Oswald would serve as a problem to the cover-up that would work as a silent disrupter by causing those involved in the cover-up to react to Nosenko in a way that would instigate doubt. By just coming over here and causing Angleton to put him in a torture vault he would bring doubt down on the cover-up and cause it problems. Perhaps KGB thought Nosenko would be a hot potato serving the purposes of those who doubted the Warren Commission and just by being here would serve as a catalyst and source of momentum for those working to expose the US government.

If I have this right Angleton tortured Nosenko in order to press him to admit Oswald was a KGB operative. Nosenko refused to do it and eventually said KGB determined Oswald was a nebbish and was mentally unstable and of no consequence to them. By doing this Nosenko would very subtly serve the purpose of going against the Mexico City Kostikov ruse. So, once again, while offering something that appears to back the Lone Nut premise, Nosenko is actually offering something that will work against the cover-up in the long term and foment discord at the deep level.

So while appearing to be a victory for the west, the Nosenko defection could actually be a shrewd KGB attempt to destabilize the US government by sending a hot potato in to disrupt the cover-up. I believe Angelton's actions towards Nosenko may reveal his awareness of this and need to contain it.

You may be on the right track, but it seems to me the strategy of KGB was greater than just Nosenko. Golitsyn had already defected, and JJA listened to whatever he had to say. There was a thorough gutting of not only our operatives, but those of the SDECE based on what he said. Nosenko may have been fed information by the inner KGB to troll JJA and CIA on their supposed lack of interest in LHO. Of course, JJA refused to believe Nosenko, though he was eventually recompensed for his imprisonment and relocated. JJA and CI were pretty thoroughly discredited, and the KGB two-pronged approach may have been more successful even than we realize. So, yes, I agree that there was a KGB initiative to destabilize our intelligence system and Nosenko was an unwitting part of it as he could only speak of which he knew or had been told. But an even larger question might be why this was done and what connection there was to the JFK assassination? JJA never found his mole, and few believed that LHO was a lone assassin. Was there even more?

[Albert Doyle]

If Nosenko cracks and admits Oswald was working for them it then becomes an internal secret that firms the conspiracy. It could never be told to the public because the cover-up is trying to prevent WWIII.

Nosenko acts as a trojan horse. He is sucked-in gladly because he's a propaganda victory against the Soviets. His information that KGB determined Oswald was a nut is also gladly welcomed (on the surface) because it firms the Lone Nut image. A high-level KGB member is too tempting a high profile figure and is therefore able to penetrate more deeply because he can't be ignored. The virus is delivered.


The virus is now acting in the background eating away at the hidden Mexico City secret about Oswald. The Russians don't produce world-class chess players because they're dummies. The cover-up now has a problem because a person whom KGB determines is a useless nut is not someone secretly meeting with KGB head of assassinations in Mexico in order to arrange a serious international playing field assassination. So, knowing psy-ops works best at a subtle unconscious level, KGB has now destroyed the main cover-up story. KGB forces a move where people are going to ask "well, if Oswald wasn't taken seriously and had no KGB contact, and CIA is trying to paint him as having that contact, then who was Oswald in contact with?" Common sense tells you once Oswald goes to Mexico City but has no KGB contact he then can't be a Lone Nut. A true Lone Nut doesn't need to go to Mexico for anything. The CIA sheep-dipping becomes too obvious.

If KGB forces the American public to doubt the Warren Commission to the point of public challenging of government it works in their favor. At the very least KGB could add to the lack of confidence in the government and force it to take authoritarian measures that were incompatible with democracy - all working in the KGB's favor. The Kennedy Assassination precedes an unprecedented public revolt against an ongoing unpopular war. It probably also gives Daniel Ellsberg the spite that causes him to divulge internal government documents. All delivered by a prize defector and propaganda victory for the government that swallowed the bait.

It could be that Nosenko spent that time in the torture chamber because Angleton knew he was too good a prize.

[Pamela McElwain-Brown]

If Nosenko cracks and admits Oswald was working for them it then becomes an internal secret that firms the conspiracy. It could never be told to the public because the cover-up is trying to prevent WWIII.

Nosenko acts as a trojan horse. He is sucked-in gladly because he's a propaganda victory against the Soviets. His information that KGB determined Oswald was a nut is also gladly welcomed (on the surface) because it firms the Lone Nut image. A high-level KGB member is too tempting a high profile figure and is therefore able to penetrate more deeply because he can't be ignored. The virus is delivered.


The virus is now acting in the background eating away at the hidden Mexico City secret about Oswald. The Russians don't produce world-class chess players because they're dummies. The cover-up now has a problem because a person whom KGB determines is a useless nut is not someone secretly meeting with KGB head of assassinations in Mexico in order to arrange a serious international playing field assassination. So, knowing psy-ops works best at a subtle unconscious level, KGB has now destroyed the main cover-up story. KGB forces a move where people are going to ask "well, if Oswald wasn't taken seriously and had no KGB contact, and CIA is trying to paint him as having that contact, then who was Oswald in contact with?" Common sense tells you once Oswald goes to Mexico City but has no KGB contact he then can't be a Lone Nut. A true Lone Nut doesn't need to go to Mexico for anything. The CIA sheep-dipping becomes too obvious.

If KGB forces the American public to doubt the Warren Commission to the point of public challenging of government it works in their favor. At the very least KGB could add to the lack of confidence in the government and force it to take authoritarian measures that were incompatible with democracy - all working in the KGB's favor. The Kennedy Assassination precedes an unprecedented public revolt against an ongoing unpopular war. It probably also gives Daniel Ellsberg the spite that causes him to divulge internal government documents. All delivered by a prize defector and propaganda victory for the government that swallowed the bait.

It could be that Nosenko spent that time in the torture chamber because Angleton knew he was too good a prize.

Your theory carries the axiom that Nosenko knew more than he said. At this point I tend to disagree. I think he would have spilled the beans if he had. I don't think Nosenko was part of the 'inner KGB', though he probably thought he was. I think he was less of a trojan horse than a stumbling block to JJA's understanding of their interest in LHO as well as their control over CI/CIA. Of course, that begs the question of why it was so important to troll someone like Nosenko at the time of the assassination in the first place.

[Phil Dragoo]

Jim DiEugenio referred to Phillips' part in Mexico City, and we know from Newman and Pease of Angleton's manipulation of Oswald's file.


The use of the term virus relates to CIA's creation of Oswald as agent of Kostikov, which he obviously was not.


Hoover's marginalia regarding having been fooled by CIA reflects he was onto the ruse and not amused.


Enter Nosenko whom I don't see as "sent" in the way Chicago "don't want nobody nobody sent."


Angleton was caught with his gambit on the floor and spent fourteen hundred days pouting until Helms stamped his foot.


And priceless is the Angleton two-year-old tantrum in re "not privy to who struck John."