by David Wayne
Mr. MARCHETTI: “But I had no evidence of the CIA’s involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy. I will go a step further. I will volunteer that in my opinion, the CIA, as an institution, was not involved in that assassination. That does not mean that certain other individuals acting on their own may not have been involved somehow, some way.”
QUESTION: “ ... Well, why would the CIA need to resort to a limited hangout if it had no role in that assassination?”
Mr. MARCHETTI: “To protect its role in the cover-up that began shortly after the assassination in the withholding of information and the deceiving of the Warren Commission and the subsequent hemming and hawing on the part of the Agency and its refusal to come clean for its own reasons, which I do not know. I can only speculate ... I think there was some sort of a connection in the assassination with CIA personnel, either officers, agents, or former officers or agents, that the Agency wanted to cover up, for one thing.”300
Dr. John Newman—who was privy to high levels of intelligence while serving as Executive Assistant to Director, National Security Agency—agrees with Victor Marchetti’s opinion that the documentary evidence does not suggest that the CIA, as an agency, was behind the assassination. However, he also notes that: “we can finally say with some authority that the CIA was spawning a web of deception about Oswald weeks before the president’s murder, a fact that may have directly contributed to the outcome in Dallas.”301
David Phillips, former Director of Western Hemisphere Operations at CIA, concluded basically the same—rogue intelligence agents were involved, but not the CIA as an agency:
“My final take on the assassination is there was a conspiracy, likely including American intelligence officers.”302
It has also been documented that a Military Intelligence “Abort Team” (operating with CIA logistical support) succeeded in bringing Johnny Roselli to Dealey Plaza in an attempt to thwart the assassination of President Kennedy.303Presumably, the intended role of bringing Roselli (who was very active in U.S. Military Intelligence) was to, in effect, cancel the assassination, by making it known that the “game was up.”
“A few key officials . —like Bobby Kennedy, Richard Helms, and others—would also believe that Oswald had done it (at least initially), but not for the reasons most others did. They would think that a US asset like Oswald had ‘turned,’for some reason. Yet that reason couldn’t be publicly revealed—or even fully investigated ... “304
“In a memo kept classified for ten years, the Warren Commission lawyers wrote that ‘the motive of’ the ‘anti-Castroites’ using Oswald ‘would, of course, be expectation that after the President was killed,” that ‘Oswald would be caught or at least his identity ascertained. Law-enforcement authorities and the public would then blame the assassination on the Castro government, and the call for its forcible overthrow would be irresistible.’”305
The apparent reason for all the misrepresentation and the massive cover-up that ensued was that it was necessary for purposes of national security to avert war with Cuba and the Soviets, which had been the apparent intention of the assassination. Those “several CIA agents” mentioned above apparently hijacked a “black op” planned for Castro and redirected it against President Kennedy. David Atlee Phillips, CIA Director, WHO (Western Hemisphere Operations), alluded to that when he wrote:
“I was one of the two case officers who handled Lee Harvey Oswald ... we gave him the mission of killing Fidel Castro in Cuba ... I don’t know why he killed Kennedy. But I do know he used precisely the plan we had devised against Castro.”306
That is further supported by the fact that, in a scenario surpassing the Seven Days in May thriller, moments after the President was shot, a false statement blaming Cuba was sent from U.S. Army Intelligence in Texas to the U.S. Strike Command in Florida and armed fighter planes were actually launched to attack Cuba.307
FBI agent James Hosty (who was Oswald’s “handler” for the FBI), wrote that he learned of the near attack from two independent sources, and that shortly after Oswald’s arrest:
“... fully armed warplanes were sent screaming towards Cuba. Just before they entered Cuban airspace, they were hastily called back. With the launching of airplanes, the entire U.S. military went on alert.”308
The United States military went to the alert level “DEFCON 3” (Defense Condition 3) immediately after the assassination of President Kennedy. DefCon 3 is an extremely elevated formal defense posture; it is “the equivalent of loading and locking your weapon, and then placing your finger on the trigger. The power cells within Washington were in a panic.”309 War planes were “sent screaming towards Cuba” from the U.S. Strike Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. They were then suddenly called back at the last moment before breaching Cuban air space—”the Air Force and CIA sent a ‘Flash’ worldwide alert” for U.S. flights to immediately “return to their bases lest the Soviet Union be provoked.”310
USSTRICOM (United States Strike Command) apparently launched the Cuba-bound aircraft after it received an extraordinary cable on November 22, 1963:
“The cable, from the Fourth Army Command in Texas to the U.S. Strike Command at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida, linked Oswald to Cuba via Cuba’s alleged Communist ‘propaganda vehicle,’ the Fair Play for Cuba Committee. It also transmitted two statements about Oswald, both false, which had come via army Intelligence from the Dallas police.”
* “Assistant Chief Don Stringfellow, Intelligence Section, Dallas Police Department, notified 112th Intelligence Group, this Head-quarters, that information obtained from Oswald revealed he had defected to Cuba in 1959 and is a card-carrying member of the Communist Party.”311
Fortunately, cooler heads prevailed. For obvious reasons, the event has never been publicized. As Professor Peter Dale Scott observes,
Therefore, “ . one can see the abundance of reasons behind the consensus, apparently generated by Hoover, for establishing that Oswald was just a nut who acted alone.”312
Luckily, the recall code was issued before that strike was initiated and— there you have it, folks—a full-scale national security cover-up, resulting in The War That Never Was. And if that scenario is correct, then:
It was not the assassination of the 35th President of the United States that the government cover-up subverted; what the cover-up precluded was the military confrontation that was intended as a result of the assassination—hence the term, “national security” cover-up, which was even acknowledged by Robert F. Kennedy.
Rogue elements of the CIA, however, most probably were actively involved in the JFK assassination; and that actually is where the evidence truly leads.
Elements of Mafia, US. Intelligence in the anti-Castro effort & Texas Millionaires
In a brief but astute article entitled Toward a JFK Assassination Theory, longtime JFK researcher Martin Shackelford makes a very coherent case for the melding of various factions whose “blended” interests are all present in the events of November 22, 1963:
1. CIA agents
2. Anti-Castro Cubans
3. Mafia figures
4. Lyndon Baines Johnson
5. “Texas Oil”313
Shackelford’s right. All those factions appear to have played a role in the assassination. All of the above seem to contain elements of truth. Therefore, what clearly appears to be the most likely actual scenario, and what many researchers have come to believe, is that a “mix” of these various elements was responsible for the assassination: Mobsters like Charles Nicoletti and Johnny Roselli with strong links to Military Intelligence (from the crime families of Sam Giancana, Carlos Marcello, and Santos Trafficante), working in concert with several “renegade” U.S. Intelligence agents, and financed by the same group of Texas millionaires who had the very corrupt Texas politician Lyndon Johnson “in their pockets” and wouldn’t at all mind seeing him become the next president who oversaw a Cold War, hijack a plan from within the anti- Castro operations.
“
the assassination was probably the work of a conspiracy involv-ing elements of the CIA, Mafia and anti-Kennedy Cuban exiles—a cabal that was working to terminate Castro’s reign (by any means necessary) and turned its guns instead against Kennedy. This is precisely what Robert Kennedy himself immediately suspected on the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963 ... “314
To CIA veteran John Stockwell, it all seemed obvious:
“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 coverup were brazen and astonish-ingly open. In fact several plots, in Chicago, Miami, and Houston, to kill Kennedy had misfired or been thwarted.” “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.”315
OPERATION MONGOOSE was the conglomeration of CIA, military, and Mafia resources that were directed at Cuba’s leader Fidel Castro. Based in south Florida, it was this program that included many of the “renegades” suspected of turning their sights against President Kennedy.
Other evidentiary indications are that, much like a Shakespearean drama, Lyndon Johnson, the 36th President of the United States, was directly involved in the “removal” of the 35th President. Johnson had a long and sordid political career that was littered with murdered adversaries and corruption involving mobsters. And once you’re President of the United States States, you’re very well- positioned to control a cover-up.
“Robert Kennedy ‘regarded the Warren Commission as a public relations exercise to reassure the public.’ According to a variety of reports, Kennedy suspected a plot as soon as he heard his brother had been shot in Dallas. And as he made calls and inquiries in the hours and days after the assassination, he came to an ominous conclusion: JFK was the victim of a domestic political conspiracy.”316
In fact, Robert Kennedy sent a special envoy to the Soviet Union shortly after the assassination with a message that read, in part:
“We know that it was a domestic high level political conspiracy ... “317
Veteran CIA officer E. Howard Hunt testified in a deathbed statement that President Lyndon Johnson coordinated the assassination operation- codenamed “The Big Event”- through CIA agents Cord Meyer (JFK was having a serious affair with Cord Meyer’s wife), David Morales and William Harvey, who also contracted a French assassin who fired from a location ahead of the limousine. Hunt even diagrammed the “Chain of Command” in his own handwriting (the bottom entry reads “French Gunman Grassy Knoll”)318:
Courtesy of Saint John Hunt, www.SaintJohnHunt.com
Johnson’s deep resentment of President Kennedy is well-documented. Sometimes a picture really is worth a thousand words—check out the two which follow:
Employing French mafia for the assassination would be consistent with the documentation from Bill Harvey, leader of the U.S. assassinations unit and a man who, for obvious reasons in that profession, left very little in writing. But the following notation from Harvey did survive:
“William Harvey’s notes recommend using Corsicans, since ‘Sicilians could lead to the Mafia’’319
Michel Mertz, a ruthless professional assassin for the Corsican Mafia who often used the alias of his arch-enemy and former freedom-fighter Jean Souetre, is often mentioned as the Corsican assassin that “Wild Bill” Harvey hired.
“Mertz was part of the French Corsican Mafia, though not Corsican himself (the same way the Jewish Jack Ruby worked for the Mafia).”320
There is evidence that Mertz was in Dallas on November 22, 1963, again using Souetre as his alias.321
“Twenty-four parallels (lettered A-X) between the CIA’s acknowledged European assassin recruiter (1960 to 1964) code-named QJWIN and Michel Victor Mertz, whom a CIA memo said was deported from Dallas shortly after JFK’s murder. Michel Mertz was an experienced assassin and a kingpin for the French Connection heroin network that involved both Carlos Marcello and Santo Trafficante.”322
This mix of professional assassins and renegade Intelligence agents from the anti-Castro project in Florida appears to be responsible for the ambush in Dealey Plaza that was orchestrated with military precision. It should be noted that the U.S. Military Intelligence team that attempted to stop the assassination was looking for exactly that: A military-style ambush with 3 shooter teams in triangulated fire from the north knoll, south knoll, and the area of the Dal- Tex Building. They arrived too late and had bad communication between team members that day—and we know what happened then.323
The fact that the Military Intelligence abort team flew Johnny Roselli into Dallas on the morning of the assassination is a highly probable indication that Roselli (who in addition to being hooked up with the Chicago Mob, was also very hooked up with U.S. Intelligence and its anti-Castro ops) was crucial in the penetration of the plot to kill JFK. The intent of bringing him to Dallas with the abort team is indicative that he was to inform his co-conspirators that the game was up and to abort the assassination. Johnny Roselli apparently did what U.S. intelligence had told him to do, bringing in that message—right into Dealey Plaza itself—that “the CIA had called the hit stopped.”324 As a result, Roselli also reportedly balked at being specifically involved in the shooting. As Chuck Nicoletti, the premier hit man in the entire country at the time, put it:
“Well, he doesn’t want to go against the orders of the CIA. What he wants, he wants to call it off. He flew in here as an abort team. They flew a plane in here especially with him on it, to tell us to call it off.”325
U.S. intelligence knew about the assassination attempt, even to the point of being aware of the specific location for the planned hit—having penetrated the plot through Roselli—so they frantically rushed in an elite Military Intelligence unit to abort the assassination, and even got the message to “stand down” to the shooting team.326 However, according to the scenario from the Chicago Mafia’s James Files—subscribed to by former FBI Special Agent and Organized Crime expert Zack Shelton—Nicoletti countered with an argument of his own: that it was “The Man” (Sam “The Man” Giancana, head of Chicago Mafia) who had written this “contract” and only The Man himself could call it off:
“ ... you know we can’t call this off. Only one man can stop it ... I’m not going on somebody else’s word ... As far as it is right now, I have a go from the boss.”327
So the hit was a “go” anyway. According to the hearsay evidence (Nicoletti told his bodyguard, who then told it to us)—in what was arguably one of the most important conversations of the entire twentieth century—Nicoletti trumped Roselli’s argument with history—changing logic that could be traced straight back to the streets of Chicago:
“Fuck ‘em. We go.”328
And then, reportedly, they “went”—it was “a go.” And in the messy manner in which history actually happens, that’s quite possibly what took place. With a willing accomplice sitting right in the White House Oval Office, any so-called investigation would clearly be in name only.
Two of the men who were closest to President Kennedy get the “last word” here:
Dave Powers, Special Assistant to the President of the
United States (in car behind President Kennedy):
“Dave Powers, Special Assistant to the President, was riding only ten feet behind Kennedy’s limousine in Dallas. He clearly saw at least two shots from the infamous grassy knoll in front of the motorcade—evidence of a conspiracy, since Oswald was allegedly firing from the rear, on the 6th floor of the Texas ok Depository building. Powers felt they were “riding into an ambush” and said that he was pressured to change his story by the W
arren Commission.”329
Kenny O’Donnell, Special Assistant to the President of the
United States (in car behind President Kennedy):
The following is an excerpt from a book by former Speaker of the House, Tip O’Neill:
I was having dinner with Kenny O’Donnell and a few other people at Jimmy’s Harborside Restaurant in Boston, and we got to talking about the assassination.
I was surprised to hear O’Donnell say that he was sure he had heard two shots that came from behind the fence.
“That’s not what you told the Warren Commission,” I said. “You’re right,” he replied. “I told the FBI what I had heard but they said it couldn’t have happened that way and that I must have been imagining things. So I testified the way they wanted me to. I just didn’t want to stir up any more pain and trouble for the family.”
“I can’t believe it,” I said. “I wouldn’t have done that in a million years. I would have told the truth.”
“Tip, you have to understand. The family—everybody wanted this thing behind them.”
