The Three Barons

by J. W Lateer

  So, in 1975, Frankhouser told LaRouche, his followers and the NCLC that he had a pipeline to the CIA (or some special source inside). He called this imaginary source “Mr. Ed” after the TV show by that name which featured a talking horse. Of course, in 1974 two Washington Post reporters, Woodward and Bernstein, turned up with a mysterious source in the FBI called “Deep Throat,” which led to the resignation of Richard Nixon. So this sort of thing must have been in the wind in 1974-1975.

  Roy Frankhouser was hired by LaRouche as a security staff member. The most prominent authors who write about LaRouche claim that Frankhouser spent the next 14 years inventing the information he claimed came from “Mr. Ed” and feeding it to the LaRouche organization. This seems a ridiculous assumption. Despite his faulty thinking, Lyndon LaRouche was nevertheless an extremely intelligent person. He would have known the difference between information coming from the CIA compared to things invented by Frankhouser, especially over a 14-year period.

  The followers of LaRouche who populated the NCLC were always described in the mainstream media as cult members. They were portrayed as being similar to the Hari Krishna group which was quasi-religious or the followers of the Reverend Sun Young Moon, a deviant religious sect.

  To understand why this happened, one must realize that by the mid-1970’s the liberal wing of the Democratic Party had succeeded in wresting power away from the Republican/Southern Democratic coalition for the first time since the New Deal. This was manifested in the investigation of the CIA by the Church Committee of the Senate in 1975 and the creation of the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1976. Next came the election of the truly liberal (and honest) Jimmy Carter.

  For the intelligence agencies, the perfect solution to avoid investigations and embarrassments like the Church Committee was to delegate a significant part of its function to LaRouche and his group. In this regard, the most important feature of the LaRouche NCLC was the publication of a weekly newsmagazine called “Executive Intelligence Review.” This magazine was, as its title suggests, full of intelligence related information.

  As mentioned above, Lyndon LaRouche had a unique way of thinking and theorizing. One way to describe it is “stream of consciousness” a la James Joyce or William Falkner. Another way to describe it is somewhat like Soviet propaganda. Soviet propaganda was presumably used to brainwash political dissidents in the U.S.S.R. and so LaRouche used his rambling and disconnected theories to brainwash the members of his group, the NCLC.

  An example of “LaRouche-speak” would be “Adolph Hitler was a friend of the Jews. He did them a favor by expelling them from Germany before they could be exploited by the capitalists. Henry Kissinger is a tool of the capitalists, therefore Henry Kissinger is the main enemy of the Jews and Hitler was their friend but they didn’t realize it.” And so on. Although the ideology of LaRouche was reported in the press as fascist, when it is examined objectively, it was mere gibberish. Another claim by LaRouche was that the CIA created the ghetto culture of blacks in America and that jazz music is a form of brainwashing directed at blacks. LaRouche became anti-Semitic but he used the name of Henry Kissinger as a code-word for his anti-Semitism. Similarly, he blamed countless things of which he disapproved on the “British.” He wasn’t really either anti-Semitic or anti-British. He merely talked in these nonsensical code words to create a facade of having a dogma. Really, his only dogma was his likely acceptance of funding from the intelligence community.

  In 1977-1978, 25% of the NCLC were Jewish. The two most important “security” workers for LaRouche were Jeffrey Steinberg and Paul Goldstein. Goldstein had problems with LaRouche’s anti-Semitism but was brainwashed to accept it again.

  LaRouche’s biographer Dennis King claims that LaRouche was some sort of genius when it came to the subject of fascism. Per King, LaRouche was the first thinker to deal with the following together (a) the state (b) the economy (c) culture (d) race and (e) the military. But in all likelihood, this would be because in his speech and in his writings, he threw together totally unrelated things with no rhyme or reason. LaRouche was likely being funded by the intelligence agencies, possibly the CIA, so whatever ideology which he may have had in his mind likely made no difference at all in his actions on behalf of these agencies.

  Of interest to the JFK assassination researcher is the fact that LaRouche recruited ex-Nazi scientists like Hermann Oberth, the German inventor of the rocket. The LaRouche magazine EIR published an article by retired General John B. Medaris, who is associated by some with the JFK assassination. In this article, Medaris defended Nazi scientist Arthur Rudolph who was deported back to Germany in 1989 as a war criminal. Brigadier General Paul-Albert Scherer, former chief of West German military counter-intelligence, joined the bandwagon of support for LaRouche.

  In the 1980’s, LaRouche began to push the idea of an anti-missile system, usually called an ABM system or in the 1980’s, “Star Wars.” In doing so, LaRouche’s people became a front for the same old military-industrial complex that had always sought military weapons boondoggles.

  It is truly amazing when the entire stretch of intelligence policy is examined starting in 1918 through the LaRouche era. As reported in his book The Jewish Threat by Bendersky, between the World Wars, military intelligence was concerned with 1) the Jewish influence on our government coming from Jewish international banks, and 2) the influence of British intelligence figures like Sir William Wiseman (who was also a partner in the Jewish bank, Kuhn, Loeb). After World War II, the OSS and the CIA recruited Nazi spies like Reinhard Gehlen and Nazi scientists like Wernher von Braun. One of the main reasons that the CIA was established was so the U.S. would not have to be dependent on British intelligence as it was in most of World War II.

  In focusing on the British and Jews and linking up with former Nazi’s around the world, LaRouche and his organization merely continued the themes that U.S. intelligence had followed ever since World War I. This was not ideology, it was plain vanilla U.S. intel policy.

  So now we come to the point of this chapter. On November 14, 1981, the EIR of LaRouche published an iconic article naming 144 names and claimed to have the truth regarding the JFK assassination. In 1978, the EIR published the book entitled Dope, Inc., which contained mostly the same information.

  In the biography of LaRouche, author King describes the tactics of LaRouche. King says that LaRouche tended to cast blame for various evils on such Jewish people as the Bronfman family, philanthropist Max Fisher or banker Felix Rohatyn. But if non-Jews were partners or compatriots of the alleged sinister Jews, LaRouche would conveniently omit any mention of them.

  There are two things that are very likely. First, the information about the Kennedy assassination published in EIR in November, 1981 was probably fed to LaRouche by Frankhouser, who had inside knowledge and CIA sources regarding the assassination. Second, the EIR information follows the LaRouche pattern. If one eliminates the Jews mentioned in the EIR article such as Tibor Rosenbaum and Hans Seligman, and also the British names such as Sir William Stephenson and Winston Churchill, then the EIR article is largely accurate regarding the information on the JFK assassination and likewise the information in the book Dope, Inc.

  The information is incomplete. But eliminating Jewish and British names, it is accurate as far as it goes. And because of the Roy Frankhouser connection to LaRouche, the EIR article has to be considered CIA disinformation of the highest quality. Discussing the Permindex organization, the article calls it “an international band of protected killers, drawn from the ranks of the Nazi and fascist gestapos of World War II…” But then the article proceeds to bring in the British SOE and alleged assassins in the pay of the British crown along with many Israeli banks and bankers who had nothing at all to do with the assassination.

  The article could have stopped with “Nazi and fascist gestapos” and quit while it was ahead.

  Notes:

  Most of the information in this chapter is available in the single best book on the subj
ect of Lyndon LaRouche. That book is Lyndon Larouche and the New American Fascism by Dennis King.

  Also referred to in this chapter is a well-known JFK assassination resource in a periodical called the Executive Intelligence Review in an article published in November 14, 1981entitled “Permindex: Britain’s International Assassination Bureau,” by Jeffrey Steinberg and David Goldman.

  Much of the same information presented by Steinberg and Goldman in the EIR article cited above can also be found in a book called Dope, Inc.: The Book That Drove Henry Kissinger Crazy, by Executive Intelligence Review.

  Chapter 17

  The Army, The Air Force and The Assassination

  On November 26, 1963, James Webb, the NASA administrator called LBJ and said, “We have “a real problem with the military.” He said this problem was that the military, specifically the Air Force, wanted approval of a manned military space program. Of all the phone calls involving 92 persons in the week following the assassination, there were only four contentious issues discussed. Two were the tax bill and the Civil Rights Bill. Another was additional secret service protection for Jackie Kennedy. The only issue that was discussed in this period which was “coming out of left field” was this issue of militarization of space.

  In less than three weeks after the assassination, on December 12, 1963, Robert McNamara approved the creation of a manned military space station. This space station would consist of a Gemini capsule with a cylindrical space station attached. The military personnel on board would have a 90-inch telescope with which to spy on the Soviets. This concept was sometimes called “Blue Gemini.” This program lasted on paper until the late 1960’s but as far as it is known, no actual military space station was ever created. The concept became obsolete as unmanned reconnaissance satellites greatly improved and served the same function of the Blue Gemini program.

  JFK had managed to achieve three major agreements which worked to stop the militarization of space. One was “open space” which was a tacit agreement with the Soviets whereby reconnaissance satellites were allowed. The second was the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty which would eliminate testing of nukes in space. A third was a Soviet-U.S.-U.N. agreement banning WMD in space. John J. McCloy was JFK’s arms control negotiator. McCloy wound up running the Warren Commission.

  Immediately after the assassination, LBJ stopped any efforts to de-militarize space. This held true throughout his presidency. His only achievement was a treaty in 1967, which only formalized the tacit agreement which JFK had already reached with the Soviets.

  The major issue on space weaponization was reconnaissance. For this purpose, the National Reconnaissance Office was set up. This was a very large organization which no one in the U.S. outside of the military even knew about. It was set up in 1961 and the first time any information about it came out in the press was 1973. It goes without saying that this type of Pentagon/CIA absolute secrecy would provide the ideal environment to discuss or plan for a role in an assassination plot with little fear of reprisal.

  The only military figure named in the Torbitt document as either a first or second-level JFK conspirator was Major General John B . Medaris. Medaris was head of the Army Ballistic Missile program at Redstone Arsenal and Mussel Shoals, Alabama. Medaris was the supervisor of this program until he resigned after NASA was created in order to, among other things, write a book about military/missile issues. Medaris had supervised Wernher von Braun and his rocket team for four years. Von Braun was also named by the Torbitt file as a JFK conspirator. Von Braun had made a statement to the effect that space was the high ground and that whoever controlled space militarily, would control the world. Von Braun conceived the idea of a military space station with a giant telescope with which to spy on the Soviets.

  The JFK assassination author who was in the best position to have accurate information about the assassination was Colonel L Fletcher Prouty. Prouty had served as the CIA-Pentagon liaison at the time of the assassination and was in charge, at one point, of briefing Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara on defense issues. In his book JFK: The CIA, Vietnam and the Plot to Assassinate John F. Kennedy Prouty blames the “military-industrial complex” i.e. defense contractors, for the assassination.

  In his own book Countdown for Decision, General Medaris demonstrates unique understanding of the dynamics of the military hierarchy, the federal bureaucracy, and the science of the missile program. Medaris was intellectually brilliant as would be expected of someone who was head of the U.S. missile program and supervisor of Wernher von Braun. Medaris emphasized that, while the Army had arsenals, such as the Redstone Arsenal which he commanded, the Air Force by contrast had no research infrastructure. As a result, Air Force missile and space programs were entirely held captive by, and were dependent on the defense contractors with whom the Air Force dealt.

  Among the small number of major defense contractors working on the main Air Force contracts in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s was RCA. RCA was run by General David Sarnoff. Sarnoff was one of the 92 persons LJB talked to in the week following the assassination. Both Sarnoff and RCA were reputedly connected with British Intelligence and by that connection also to the JFK assassination according to the Executive Intelligence Review. In their iconic article on the assassination, according to the EIR, General Medaris together with RCA and von Braun actually put President Eisenhower in a state of fear and under a threat because of the creation of NASA. Apparently, the military and contractors wanted the space program to be under military command, not civilian control as with NASA. According to EIR, it was this fear of RCA, Medaris and von Braun which prompted the infamous “military-industrial complex” warning in Ike’s farewell address.

  One of the other largest Air Force missile contractors was Bell Aircraft. The head of development for Bell was Dr. Walter Dornberger, lifelong best friend of Wernher von Braun and a brilliant scientist/engineer in his own right. Dornberger was also the supervisor of Michael Paine at whose house Lee Harvey Oswald slept the night before the assassination.

  Many authors now believe that the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee was heavily involved with Lee Harvey Oswald as well as the assassination. The long-time acting chairman of SISS, Senator Thomas Dodd, was censured by the Senate. In the hearings regarding his censure, it was discovered that Dodd was intimately involved both politically and financially with General Julius Klein. Klein was, according to an article in the leading German newsmagazine, Der Spiegel published on 10-04-1963, the West German “Shadow Ambassador” to the U.S. In his testimony, Klein made specific reference to his business relationship with the retired General John Medaris. Klein was also the public relations representative of Lionel Corporation. Lionel was also a minor defense contractor and was owned by JFK conspiracy suspects Roy Cohn and Joseph Bonanno.

  William J. Gill was biographer for State Department employee Otto Otepka. Otepka was, like General Klein, heavily involved with the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. In writing the Otepka biography, which is titled The Ordeal of Otto Otepka, Gill reveals an intimate knowledge of the events surrounding the assassination. Gill was well-connected to William F. Buckley, Richard Mellon-Scaife, the Barry Goldwater campaign manager and other right-wing interests. It should be mentioned that assassination author Joan Mellen in her book Farewell to Justice, connects Otto Otepka to the assassination.

  Among other pertinent facts, Otepka had been investigating Lee Harvey Oswald. Otepka felt his firing from the State Department was because of his Oswald investigation. The important issue in connecting the Otepka case to the space weaponization issue is the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty of 1963. Biographer Gill cites the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty negotiated by JFK as the straw which broke the camel’s back between JFK and the military. Gill reports that General Thomas Power, commander of the Strategic Air Command, was the only active-duty military figure to speak out against the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty.

  To summarize, it is the opinion of this author that all of the major special interest groups in 1963
got their payoff by, at least, agreeing to turn their backs on the assassination. The Civil Rights groups got the Civil Rights Act. The foreign interests like the British and West Germans got rid of a President who had a very “independent” foreign policy agenda which went against the reunification of Germany and dealt in a friendly manner with the Soviets.

  The military got a new President, LBJ, who froze arms control and pandered to the military contractors such as Bell Helicopter and escalated Vietnam, which the military thought was a necessity.

  Finally, although it can’t be said that weaponization of space was the cause or the issue which alone brought about the assassination, if was probably true that space weaponization was the litmus test which made LBJ much more “military friendly” than his predecessor, JFK.

  Chapter 18

  The International Bankers

  Clarence Dillon

  In the opinion of this author, the most important international banker in the story of the JFK murder is a person of whom few have ever heard. His name was Clarence Dillon. He was the father of C. Douglas Dillon, Treasury Secretary under JFK: and C. Douglas Dillon was in charge of the Secret Service in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

  The most outstanding fact about Clarence Dillon is that his life story ran in an uncanny parallel to the life of Joseph P. Kennedy, father of JFK. Both were considered financial geniuses in the 1920s with reputations for aggressive financial deals. Both foresaw the Crash of 1929 and got their money comfortably out of the market before the crash.