50

Conclusions of U.S. Intelligence Agents

Although it may not technically qualify them as a “witness” to an event, when an intelligence officer forms a conclusion about a specific event to which they may have direct knowledge, their testimony is valid, as in the case of courtroom expert witnesses. So I’ll acknowledge right up front that not every one of the conclusions that follow is from someone who witnessed the crime. But I’ll also point out that every one of them is an opinion that I’m damn interested in knowing.

Military intelligence operative Richard Case Nagell

Nagell, the main topic of The Man Who Knew Too Much, was the veteran military intelligence operative who was tracking Oswald’s movements. Nagell was monitoring a JFK assassination plot which included Oswald, exiled anti-Castro Cubans, and probably conservative Texas millionaires. Nagell even went so far as confronting Oswald to convince him he was out of his depth and being set up by some very clever conspirators. Oswald didn’t believe him.

Nagell realized that he himself had been set up in the process and that if he didn’t take extreme action, he was destined to “take the fall” with Oswald.

So he sent a registered letter to J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, warning them very specifically of a plot involving Oswald and two Cuban exiles.

Then he walked into a bank, fired two shots from his pistol up at the top of the wall, calmly walked out to his car, and waited to be arrested, so that he could talk to the FBI. Officially, nobody believed him and they threw him in prison. But at least he had his alibi.

And the FBI supposedly never got that letter; even though Nagell had kept proof it was sent.⁴⁹⁰

Why should we believe Nagell? When he got himself arrested, the FBI seized a notebook that he wanted them to find. When the Bureau finally let the contents become public in 1975, that notebook had listings remarkably similar to Oswald’s—for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City, not to mention six names of CIA agents! And Nagell also turned over to his lawyer a military ID card for none other than Oswald himself—a card that had never surfaced publicly before! It even had a Department of Defense overstamp. You can see the card in the photo insert section of The Man Who Knew Too Much.⁴⁹¹

Secret Service Special Agent Abraham Bolden

Bolden documented three previous attempts on the President’s life in the weeks just prior to his death in Dallas. His book gives an excellent account of the details of that Chicago plot and how very closely it resembled the set-up of Oswald in Dallas.⁴⁹² You can also watch his story, told by himself, in this video clip: echofromdealeyplaza.net/id5.html

As his reward for coming forward to try to help the Warren Commission, Bolden was framed on false charges and thrown in prison.⁴⁹³ His story is also detailed in the book, Ultimate Sacrifice.

Military intelligence operative William Robert “Tosh” Plumlee

In case you’re wondering what happened to that military Intel veteran who was on that failed rescue mission, Tosh Plumlee was thrown in jail during that period as well, on a forged check charge that was totally trumped up. He figured it was to keep him “on ice”—prevent him from presenting any information that conflicted with the official government version—just like Nagell and Bolden. Starting to notice a pattern here?

CIA contract agent John Martino

Martino was an electronics expert who had worked with the mob, was imprisoned by Castro, and then wrote a book about the experience. You might say he was an anti-Castro writer for the CIA. He had Agency connections with their anti-Castro operations out of South Florida, was involved in some of those operations, and had close mob friends, such as Johnny Roselli, who were also directly involved in those black ops.⁴⁹⁴

At first, after the assassination, Martino was very public in trying to even further set up Oswald as a Castro pawn, spreading false stories about Oswald’s ties to Castro’s Cuba in the process.⁴⁹⁵

But later in life, when he knew death was near, Martino confessed his involvement several times.⁴⁹⁶

Martino’s confession does two very important things:

1. It confirms Richard Case Nagell’s appraisal of how Oswald was being set up as the patsy and hadn’t figured that out;

2. It summarizes for us, in short form, the thinking behind some of the most important aspects of the assassination plot.

Here’s what Martino said:

The anti-Castro people put Oswald together. Oswald didn’t know who he was working for—he was just ignorant of who was really putting him together. Oswald was to meet his contact at the Texas Theatre. They were to meet Oswald in the theatre, and get him out of the country, and then eliminate him. Oswald made a mistake . . . . There was no way we could get to him. They had Ruby kill him.⁴⁹⁷

Martino also told his wife, Flo—before it happened— that a plot was on to kill Kennedy in Dallas:

Martino’s wife also mentioned that she could tell, from overhearing a flood of phone calls he received on the afternoon of the assassination, that her husband had been involved. Martino confessed his involvement—delivering money, serving as a courier, other support activities—to a friend when Martino knew that he was dying.⁴⁹⁸

Martino’s son said that on November 22, 1963, his father told him to stay home from school and listen to the news on the radio instead— they listened to the assassination reports together and his son said it wasn’t shock for his father: “It was more like confirmation.”⁴⁹⁹

CIA Officer David Phillips

Phillips is often mentioned as a possible conspirator but it has never been proven. It was believed by Gaeton Fonzi—investigator for the House Select Committee on Assassinations—that Phillips was also known as “Maurice Bishop,” Oswald’s intelligence handler for the CIA.⁵⁰⁰

In any event, Phillips was deeply involved in the CIA’s anti-Castro efforts out of Mexico City and its huge JM/WAVE station in South Florida and rose to become Director of Western Hemisphere Operations at CIA. So he obviously knew what the hell he was talking about. Here’s what Phillips concluded:

My final take on the assassination is there was a conspiracy, likely including American intelligence officers.⁵⁰¹

CIA Officer E. Howard Hunt

Officer Hunt was dying of cancer and made tape recordings for his son’s book, which effectively equate to his deathbed statement.

Hunt also said that the assassination was planned from the nexus of the CIA’s anti-Castro operations and was referred to by those in the know as “The Big Event.” Hunt confessed to his knowledge of the planning but maintained that his own role was basically just “on the sidelines” unless he was needed.

Hunt even diagrammed out a document in his own handwriting called “Chain of Command” which detailed who was behind the assassination, to the extent of his direct knowledge. Lyndon Johnson was at the top (as far as Hunt knew, at least) and was followed by veteran CIA official Cord Meyer. It’s interesting to note that Meyer’s ex-wife, Mary Pinchot Meyer, was having a serious affair with President Kennedy, which was common knowledge amid Meyer’s Washington circles. That Chain of Command document reads as follows:

LBJ (Lyndon Johnson)

Cord Mayer (Meyer)

David Morales Bill Harvey

French Gunman Grassy Knoll⁵⁰²

I’d like to point out that one of the men on that list, William Harvey, was in charge of the CIA assassination unit codenamed ZR/RIFLE and is also on record as not only hating the Kennedys, but in preferring to use Corsican (French Mafia) killers for assassination purposes because they didn’t lead as directly to the Mafia like Sicilians did.⁵⁰³

CIA Agent David Morales

Morales—specifically named as a conspirator by Hunt—was also a high-ranking agent out of the CIA’s JM/WAVE station who was on record as hating the Kennedys. He too had a great deal of experience in CIA black ops. Morales even alluded to his own probable involvement in the assassination in comments that he made about his hatred for JFK:

Well, we took care of that son-of-a-bitch, didn’t we?⁵⁰⁴

In reference to the assassinations of both JFK and RFK, Morales reportedly said:

I was in Dallas when we got the son of a bitch and I was in Los Angeles when we got the little bastard.⁵⁰⁵

Los Angeles and “the little bastard” refer to the assassination of Robert Kennedy after he took the California primary during the 1968 race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

CIA Chief of Station, John Stockwell

John Stockwell was a CIA officer who became a station chief for the Agency and was awarded the CIA Medal of Merit for his work in Vietnam. But he became disenchanted with the Agency’s policies as a result of his experiences and resigned from the CIA. Stockwell was openly critical of the CIA’s “secret wars.”

Stockwell had a military background and a lot of friends in the “spy trade”; he researched the JFK assassination very thoroughly and came to some very specific conclusions:

A team of CIA, Cuban exile, and Mafia-related renegades organized a simple military ambush in Dallas and successfully gunned him down. The ambush and its cover-up were brazen and astonishingly open.⁵⁰⁶

You will probably start recognizing some names that keep popping up, as well as that infamous ZR/RIFLE assassination program:

I personally believe, from my knowledge of the CIA that elements of the CIA’s ZR/RIFLE program [an assassination group that was a component of OPERATION MONGOOSE] were probably involved in the conspiracy, along with Cuban exiles, and Sam Giancana, John Roselli, and Charles Nicoletti of organized crime. ZRRIFLE was exposed by the Senate Church Committee. The CIA’s Chief of Operations, Richard Bissell, admitted to its existence as did its founder, a rough impetuous man named William Harvey, who boasted of his criminal connections.⁵⁰⁷

Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty

You know him as the mysterious “Mr. X” in Oliver Stone’s film, JFK (the Colonel was a consultant for that movie). To say he knew his way around the intelligence community would be a pretty big understatement. Colonel Prouty was the main liaison between the CIA and United States Air Force, and at another time in his career, was Briefing Officer for the Secretary of Defense.

Suffice to say that he knew of what he spoke. And what did he say, you might ask?

Oswald was a patsy. There’s no question about it.⁵⁰⁸

CIA Finance Officer James Wilcott

Wilcott was a finance officer for the CIA. He served in Tokyo during the time that Oswald was stationed in the Far East. Wilcott testified to the House Select Committee on Assassinations that Oswald had been recruited by the CIA for a double agent assignment in the Soviet Union. Wilcott said that he had handled funding for the project Oswald was on.⁵⁰⁹

The CIA, Wilcott asserted, had some kind of ‘handle’ on Oswald and recruited him ‘from the military for the express purpose of a double agent assignment to the USSR.’⁵¹⁰

Gary Powers

When you think of Gary Powers, you usually think of the downed spy pilot incident with the Soviet Union, because his U-2 spy plane was brought down in Soviet territory in a highly publicized event usually referred to as the “U-2 Incident” in 1960.

But Powers was actually a veteran CIA agent who was one smooth operator. He was “Top Gun” way before anybody even thought of making the movie.⁵¹¹ In fact, I love his line that he always used when reporters would ask him how high he was flying in his U-2 when he was brought down. Powers would just smile and say: “Not high enough.”⁵¹²

Powers—and many others—suspected Lee Harvey Oswald played a role in providing the Soviets the information about the U-2 to bring it down because Oswald had been at the CIA’s Atsugi base where the U-2’s were launched and then was in Russia in 1960 as a phony defector.⁵¹³ In any case, Powers did not believe the official version and found Oswald’s role much too coincidental.⁵¹⁴

⁴⁹⁰ Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much, 11.

⁴⁹¹ Russell, The Man Who knew Too Much, XVII.

⁴⁹² Bolden, The Echo From Dealey Plaza; Waldron & Hartmann, Ultimate Sacrifice.

⁴⁹³ Ibid.

⁴⁹⁴ Larry Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked (JFK Lancer: 2010): jfkfacts.org/tag/john-cummings/feed/ and The Mary Ferrell Foundation, “John Martino’s Confessions,” retrieved 16 May 2013: maryferrell.org/wiki/index.php/John_Martinos_Confessions

⁴⁹⁵ Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked: jfkfacts.org/tag/john-cummings/feed/

⁴⁹⁶ Ibid.

⁴⁹⁷ Ibid.

⁴⁹⁸ Ibid.

⁴⁹⁹ Ibid.

⁵⁰⁰ Gaeton Fonzi, The Last Investigation (Mary Ferrell Foundation: 2008).

⁵⁰¹ Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked.

⁵⁰² Saint John Hunt, Bond of Secrecy: My Life with CIA Spy and Watergate Conspirator E. Howard Hunt (TrineDay: 2012).

⁵⁰³ Lamar Waldron & Thom Hartmann, Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination (Counterpoint: 2008).

⁵⁰⁴ Fonzi, The Last Investigation.

⁵⁰⁵ Shane O’Sullivan, “Did the CIA Kill Bobby Kennedy?,” November 20, 2006, The Guardian: spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKmorales.htm

⁵⁰⁶ John Stockwell, The Praetorian Guard: The U.S. Role in the New World Order, (South End Press, 1999).

⁵⁰⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁰⁸ Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty, “The Col. L. Fletcher Prouty Reference Site,” retrieved 16 May 2013: prouty.org/

⁵⁰⁹ Russell, The Man Who Knew Too Much, 83.

⁵¹⁰ Ibid.

⁵¹¹ Roadrunnerslnternationale, retrieved 16 May 2013: roadrunnersinternationale.com/powers_gary.html

⁵¹² Ibid.

⁵¹³ COPA (Coalition on Political Assassinations), “Powers, U-2 Pilot Captured by Soviets, Awarded Silver Star,” retrieved 16 May 2013: politicalassassinations.com/2012/06/powers-u-2-pilot-captured-by-soviets-awarded-silver-star/

⁵¹⁴ COPA, “CIA documents show US never believed Gary Powers was shot down,” retrieved 16 May 2013: politicalassassinations.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/cia-documents-show-us-never-believed-gary-powers-was-shot-down/