Saturday, June 7, 2008

Active Measure: JFK Assassination Conspiracy


This has long been a favorite among conspiracy theorists. I relied heavily on Mitrokhin's book (see previous post) to sum up the basics.
JFK's assassin, as we are well aware, was Lee Harvey Oswald. What many people do not know or have forgotten was that Oswald defected to the USSR in 1959 over "disgust" with the American system and admiration for the Soviet system. After subsequently annoying the Russians, he returned to Texas in 1962 with a Russian wife in tow. Various accounts claim that Oswald was unstable and a nuisance. But the fact that he had indeed previously defected proved to be an embarrassment to the Soviets; an embarrassment that they wanted to go away.
After the Warren Commission concluded that Oswald had indeed acted alone and was not part of some Soviet conspiracy per se, the KGB sponsored the services of Carl Aldo Marzani, an American citizen, yet Italian born Communist codenamed NORD through his book publishing company Liberty Book Club (affiliated with book selling network Prometheus Book Club), codenamed SEVER, with a $15,000 grant to publish pro Soviet materials.
Upon this, Joachim Jösten (Joesten), a German author, later published a book called Oswald: Assassin or Fall Guy? Joesten supported Moscow's assertion that the blame be place upon a group of racist right-wingers, most notable among them was "oil magnate" H.L. Hunt. Joesten's quotation inducing story basically asserted that the "right-wingers" were wary of Kennedy's wish to squelch the "military-industrial complex", thus starting the basis for a theme that would reoccur for the next 30 years: Oswald had ties to the FBI and CIA and was killed by the US Government to prevent him from talking.
Around this time, the Warren Commission's findings were drowning out Joesten's assertions. In rebuttal,  the KGB identified and financially supported New York lawyer Mark Lane as the most able conspiracy theorist to propagate said theme.




Mark Lane is well known as a person with close ties to Democratic Party
circles in the US. He hold liberal views on a number of current American
political problems and has undertaken to conduct his own private
investigation of the circumstances surrounding the murder of J.F. Kennedy.
(Mitrokhin Archive vol. 6 ch. 14, part 3.)

After the Watergate scandal, a new life was given to the CIA involved conspiracy theory where Service A was responsible for an active measure against E. Howard Hunt (not to be confused with H.L. Hunt, despite the fact the press did just that) a former CIA officer involved with the Watergate scandal. Thus, a letter, codenamed ARLINGTON, was forged to a Mr. Hunt "signed" by Oswald. This was actually fabricated by the Soviets based on phrases and expressions Oswald had used in the USSR. The forged letter is as follows:
Dear Mr. Hunt,
I would like information concerning my
position. I am only
asking for information. I am suggesting that we discuss
the matter fully before
any steps are taken by me or anybody else.
Thank-you
Lee Harvey Oswald
(Ibid).
There was much confusion and speculation as to who Mr. Hunt was. The KGB wanted to spin the story into a yarn of CIA involvement, hence focusing on E. Howard Hunt vice H.L. Hunt, the Texas oil man. It is unclear whether the KGB itself had confused the two names, but one thing is clear: the USSR's conspiracy theory, made possible through KGB active measures and the US government's own inadvertent confusion, could rightfully claim that even in the late 1970s more Americans believed the KGB orchestrated conspiracy theory than did believe the official findings of the Warren Commission. Now if somebody could just tell that to Oliver Stone.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Another sugestion:

book by Pacepa
Programmed to Kill

books by Anatoliy Golitsyn(a must read but not easy to understand)

New Lies for Old

perestroika deception

---
and since your blog sujests you are a marine veteran:
RESPECT!

Anonymous said...

Thank you XYU,

I will look into the those books. I appreciate the tip!