CIA's Richard Helms on Lee Harvey Oswald

[Octafish]

In 1978 former CIA Director Richard Helms exited from his executive-session testimony before the House Select Committee on Assassinations. He paused to talk with the press. Washington Post reporter George Lardner, Jr. described the encounter in his paper's August 10 edition:

Helms told reporters during a break that no one would ever know who or what Lee Harvey Oswald, named by the Warren Commission as Kennedy's assassin, represented. Asked whether the CIA knew of any ties Oswald had with either the KGB or the CIA, Helms paused and with a laugh said, "I don't remember." Pressed on the point, he told a reporter, "Your questions are almost as dumb as the Committee's."

SOURCE: Spy Saga: Lee Harvey Oswald and U.S. Intelligence, by Philip H. Melanson, 1990, Prager Publishers, New York.



In happier times, before Tricky Dick fired him
for refusing to block Watergate probe.

[Octafish]

1. Helms Interview with Edward J. Epstein...

Richard M. Helms, Exile

EXCERPT...

Helms kindly invited me to stay at his embassy residence. He and Cynthia had just returned from the oasis of Bam, and brought back delicious dates. At dinner, Helms talked about his own journalistic career in Germany in the late 1930s. When he was a stringer for United Press he got a luncheon interview with Hitler in Nuremburg. He left for journalism for intelligence service, having been in on the creation of the CIA. As we got to the dessert— the Bam dates— he asked me, finally, why I had come to see him in Iran. "I have been interviewing Yuri Nosenko..."

SNIP...

I told him that the CIA had arranged his interview with me.

Helms shook his head, visibly distressed. He said that the CIA "had no business giving you Nosenko in this way." He assumed (correctly, as it turned out) that Nosenko had been given a carefully-rehearsed brief by the CIA to pass on to me. He said using Nosenko was sure to re-open "old wounds."

When I then began telling him about my meetings with Angleton, he cut in, wearily, as if to save time "Angleton thinks Nosenko was sent by Moscow to mislead us but "it goes much deeper." In June 1964, he said "Nosenko's reliability was key to determining what the KGB had to do with Oswald." Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy knew this fact, as did Chief Justice Earl Warren, who was considering calling him as a witness before the Commission he headed on President Kennedy's assassination. This added tremendous urgency to the situation. Finally, Helms went to see the chief justice in his chambers. It was a private meeting with no notes taken. He warned Warren then that there were two schools of thought on Nosenko within the CIA. The first held that he was a legitimate defector and could be believed about Oswald. The second held that he was still a KGB agent, under instructions to misinform the commission about Oswald. Until the matter was resolved, he advised the Chief Justice not to see Nosenko-- or base any of his conclusions on his information. Warren nodded his assent.

CONTINUED...

http://edwardjayepstein.com/diary/helms.htm

[9215]

9. So Helms contradicts himself

he laughs and says he doesn't remember Oswald link to KGB or CIA then discussess it openly with Epstein.

[Octafish]

10. Helms said what Helms wanted Epstein to hear.

The guy was a master manipulater. His record shows he was a master warrior. Does that make him a mass murderer, I cannot judge. What I do know, Richard McGarrah Helms knew more than he ever said.

What I'd like know is what he knew regarding the Oswald impersonator in Mexico City. Helms, then acting CIA station chief in Mexico City, reported to the Warren Commission that an "unidentified man" had identified himself as Oswald at the Cuban and Soviet embassies. Strange how the CIA did not want to identify this man and explain his behavior a couple of months before Dallas. He also said the CIA cameras were not in operation that day. So, why did he never publicly have to explain this unidentified man?



...and the unidentified man on a different occassion in Mexico City...



An additional concern is why did someone go through all the trouble to eliminate this photo's background? Does anyone have a complete version?



Sobering background for the lurking Freeper and occassional FBI agent...

Byrds, Planes, and an Automobile

EXCERPT...

Most ominously, however, the essential theme of the false stories spread by INCA and others, predates the assassination. The false stories are prima facie evidence of a conspiracy to cover up the assassination. And the fact that they predate the assassination is prima facie evidence of the conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy. According to Scott, "Beginning in October 1963 the CIA disseminated to other agencies a series of CIA messages about `a man who identified himself as Lee Oswald, may be identical to Lee Henry Oswald' who had `contacted the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City.'" These messages alleged that Oswald was in contact with the KGB assassination department. There is substantial evidence that Oswald was being impersonated in this incident. Meticulous research by Paul L. Hoch clearly shows that the CIA was devoting considerable energy to obstructing a public resolution of this matter by the Warren Commission. Spearheading that effort was Deputy Director of Central Intelligence Richard Helms435 -- Howard Burris' close friend.

As of late 1992, evidence of this alleged impersonator was actively being kept secret. Among the files yet to be released on the assassination is a lengthy report by HSCA investigator Edwin Lopez which reportedly shows that Oswald was being impersonated in Mexico City. The "President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992" specifically excluded the Lopez report. The act began as a bill jointly sponsored by former Warren Commission attorney Arlen Specter, former HSCA Chairman Louis Stokes, and Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee David Boren.

At the same time Helms was reportedly obstructing the truth about an Oswald impersonator in Mexico City, he was leading the Warren Commission on a wild goose chase. The story of "D" -- a prime target of the Red Ripper -- alleged that Oswald was paid $6,500 by a "a tall, thin Negro" in Mexico City to kill Kennedy. After the story failed to hold water, "D" retracted his claim, then recanted the retraction, then failed a polygraph test. The story first came to the Commission's attention in a memo from Richard Helms, who never identified "D". The FBI later discovered he was Gilberto Alvarado, an agent of Nicaraguan intelligence -- another link to Second Naval Guerrilla and its leading participants, future Watergate figures Bernard Barker, James McCord, and E. Howard Hunt.436

CONTINUED...

http://spot.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back_issues/17th_Issue/rambler3.html

BTFW: Who named Helms Director of CIA? Lyndon B Johnson.

PS: Anyone know about the connection of Gen. Curtis (Kennedy is a coward) LeMay and Dallas?

[9215]

11. Frontline did a two hour show on Oswald

a couple of days ago and got into his visiting the Soviet Embassy. Three KGB agents interviewed stated this and a woman at the Cuban consulate. Oswald was trying to go to Cuba and was very upset when he was denied a visa. There were hidden CIA cameras monitoring people going into the Soviet embassy but the CIA came up with the pictures you show as those of OsWald.

IMO the CIA has those pictures of Oswald's visits to the embassy.

Also Frontline interviewed the women who met Oswald accompanied by two Right-Wing types Leopoldo and Angel in Dallas a short time before the assasination. These women were adamant that it was Oswald who came with the other two CIA hit squad ("Alpha 66") members. Dick Russell in "The Man Who knew" gets into this. check the index for these guys names.

The show also got into Oswald's purported attempt to kill rabid righty Gen. Edwin Walker.......then I thought that George Herbert "Walker" may possibly be related.


Oswald's post office box: "2915"......

[bobthedrummer]

2. Richard McGarrah Helms maternal grandfather Gates McGarrah

was the first President of the Bank for International Settlements/BIS.
The BIS was created by the world's central banks {including Federal Reserve} in 1930.

The BIS was the realized vision of future Nazi Minister of Economics Hjalmar Schacht.
http://www.spiritone.com/~gdy52150/waryearsp5.html

Richard McGarrah Helms was the driving force behind US mind control research known as MK ULTRA. This "research" was his proposal and Allen Dulles approved it on 4-13-53, eventually MK ULTRA involved 149 sub-projects at 80 instituitions.
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2002/0819kellyv.html

Richard McGarrah Helms as CIA Director approved domestic operations designed to fracture the New Left on 8-3-67 {such as MH CHAOS}-a violation of the law against CIA domestic involvement in US.

The head of MH CHAOS was Richard Ober. On 12-5-72 {just 17 days before Helms "resignation" as CIA Director} Richard McGarrah Helms ordered an operational description change for MH CHAOS from "political dissidents" to "international terrorists" and MH CHAOS became the International Terrorism Group headed by Richard Ober.
Source:NYT article by Seymour Hersh published 12-22-74.

Richard McGarrah Helms niece, Lalia Helms, was the US advocate for the Taliban from her New Jersey home prior to 9/11 continuing the pattern of involvement with "the enemy" by the elite-similar to the Bush family's record.

All in all I wouldn't take Richard McGarrah Helms comments on Lee Harvey Oswald seriously-Helms was evil IMHO.

[Octafish]

3. Death-Squads-R-US.

Thanks for the important reminders from history, bobthedrummer! From the fascist government (BFEE) that brought you Operation Phoenix:

Plan Condor, the Sequel

Toni Solo,  October 30, 2003

When Shimon Peres celebrated his 80th birthday last month, there at the top of the guest list, ahead of Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, South Africa's F.W. De Klerk, and Australia's Bob Hawke, was Carlos Bulgheroni. Bulgheroni is head of the Argentinian energy company Bridas (1). If terrorism cropped up in their conversation, Bulgheroni and Peres had plenty to reminisce about. Israel and Argentina served as U.S. proxies training terrorists in Central America through the 1970s and 1980s.

Argentinian death squad trainers based in Guatemala were reported to have masqueraded as Bridas employees. During that time Peres served as Israel's Defence Minister, Prime Minister, deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister - well aware of Israeli military commitments in the Americas. Reviewing the background to U.S.  sponsored Argentinian and Israeli terrorism reveals how the fictional "war on terror" is just another pretext for the pillage of Latin America by the U.S. government and its favoured multinational corporations.

Argentina - 30,000 reasons to cry

Three years after destroying democracy by instigating the military coup against Salvador Allende in Chile in 1973, Henry Kissinger was in Santiago for a meeting of the Organization of American States. There he met the Argentinian military junta's foreign minister. According to Robert Hill, then U.S. Ambassador in Argentina, "Kissinger asked how long it would take ... to clean up the (terrorist) problem....Kissinger gave the Argentines the green light ... The Secretary wanted Argentina to finish its terrorist plan before year end." (2) Hill should know. It was he who served as intermediary between organizers of the Guatemalan death squads and leading figures in the Argentinian government (3).

Between 1976 and 1983, under the military dictatorship, the Argentinian armed forces killed over 30,000 civilian members of the country's political opposition. Around 500 babies of women who gave birth in detention were distributed among their parents' murderers. In over 300 camps and detention centres, victims were tortured to death and then dumped in mass graves or flown out to be dropped into the Atlantic from military transport planes. Their property and goods were divided up among their torturers and murderers - over US$70m worth.

CONTINUED...

http://www.guerrillanews.com/war_on_drugs/doc3057.html

[seemslikeadream]

4. Death Squads, how about Executive Outcomes

The ability of Executive Outcomes to thrive as privatized warlords, it is believed is in part due to the privatization of US intelligence services by George Bu$h, who as VP beginning in 1981 carried out executive order 12333, which placed all US intelligence operations under Bu$h's personal control.
The links between Executive Outcome and Ranger Oil point operational ties with the Bronfman family of Canada, where scion, Edgar Bronfman of Toronto Corp., sits on the board of directors of Ranger. Recently, the Bronfman family merged its mammoth real estate firm Trizer, with Barrick Gold, where senior advisory board includes Sir George Bu$h. Barrick Gold is deeply involved in northeastern Zaire (Congo) where it has purchased 83,000 square kilometers of land. Zairean sources report that so-called Zairean rebel Kabila is no more than a mercenary for Barrick and Anglo American Corp. sponsored by the British Crown-backed Ugandan and Rwandan militaries.

http://www.aboutsudan.com/action/geopolitical/executive_outcomes.htm

Octafish have you had a chance to read "Barrick Decision Stuns Bullion Markets" thread in LBN. I think georgie's visit to the queen
had more to do with gold and the upcoming BNL trial than anything else.

The Holocaust continues
THREE MILLION LIVES LOST IN CONGO SINCE 1998

[Octafish]

5. Knew about Khashoggi and Barrick. EO 12333 is news to me, though...

From your most interesting link, seemslikeadream:

Executive Outcomes ties lead to London and Bush

EXCERPT...

     The entire nexus designated, was part of the covert death squad unit of the South African military policy, called C-10. Executive Outcomes is from similar turf. Its executive director, Eeben Barlow, is a former South African special forces officer, who organized Executive Outcomes from the ``Koevoet,'' according to well-informed South African sources. The Koevoet is a small police unit that carried out assassinations during Apartheid, and was also named by {EIR} as involved in ``Third Force'' operations to provoke black-on-black violence. Craig Williamson was the primary trainer of Koevoet.

      In its October 1996 {Special Report,} ``George Bush and the 12333 Serial Murder Ring,'' {EIR} took note of Williamson's direct ties to Executive Outcomes. Williamson was a key on-the-ground organizer for Operation Lock, the brainchild of the Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands and Prince Philip of England, to carry out ``wetworks'' on behalf of their World Wildlife Fund in Africa. The {EIR} report documents that ``another outfit, employed by Williamson, to funnel manpower to Crooke and Operation Lock, was Executive Outcomes, headed by Eeben Barlow, a former South African military officer who had been active in Angola, providing support to Savimbi's Unita, but later contracted his `private' security services to the Angolan government.''

     Evidence points to Executive Outcomes being a direct and likely the biggest spin-off of the British Special Air Services (SAS), formed in 1941 by the late Lt. Col. David Stirling. The SAS lies outside the British government's official military structure, and is accountable to the Sovereign Queen only. According to the British Army handbook, the SAS--similar to EO today--is ``particularly suited, trained, and equipped for counter-revolutionary operations,'' specializing ``in ``sabotage,'' ``assassination,'' as well as ``liaison with organization, training, and control of friendly guerrilla forces operating against the common enemy.''

      Among the sister-firms of Executive Outcomes operating out of Chelsea Plaza 107 is Capricorn Systems Ltd. As the {Observer} writes: ``It is suspected that the name Capricorn originates with the `Capricorn Africa Society,' established by the eccentric military hero who founded SAS, Sir David Stirling, and who was himself involved in mercenary operations before his death in 1990. Another company which took the name was CapricornAir,'' which delivered the first EO troops into Angola in 1993.

CONTINUED...

http://www.aboutsudan.com/action/geopolitical/executive_outcomes.htm

And a bit on Barrick and Khashoggi, for the newcomers to the BFEE:

So, what is Barrick? According to Palast- the initial stake came from none other than Adnan Khashoggi- the Saudi arms dealer who arranged the Iran-Contra arms for hostage deal.

One of the companies Barrick owns is Vancouver-based Sutton Resources Ltd. In 1996- Sutton drove out anywhere between 30,000 and 400,000 local miners from the Bulyanhulu mining field in Tanzania. During the process- Sutton's bulldozers allegedly buried 52 people alive.

Barrick steadfastly denies the allegations.

Greg Palast, BBC investigative reporter and author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

Joan Kuyek, National Coordinator of MiningWatch Canada, which has called for an independent investigation of the Bulyanhulu mining massacre.

Link: http://www.gregpalast.com/ - Greg Palast Homepage http://www.miningwatch.ca/ - MiningWatch Canada

CONTINUED... with lots more Barrick news and BFEE criminality at ...

http://www.rainforestinfo.org.au/gold/barrick.html

And gregpalast.com has a butload more on Barrick.

[John_H]

6. What did helms say about the election coming up in less than a year?

[Gin]

7. Oswald had CIA connections (according to a PBS show) so...How does

a person defect to Russia and then come back easily to the US 2 years later? Something is not right with that picture.

[Octafish]

8. Helms did what Nixon wanted -- to the letter -- in Chile.

Is this what Helms did for Unka Milhous?

RICHARD NIXON'S GREATEST COVER-UP

EXCERPT ...

Nixon's secret Mafia buddies, already enraged by Kennedy's anti-crime crusade in this country, were furious that their lucrative gambling casinos — shuttered by Castro — would not be returning to Cuba.

E. Howard Hunt, of course, went on to become President Nixon's chief dirty trickster and secret intelligence operative. In 1972, five Hunt-recruited former CIA men — all veterans of the Bay of Pigs invasion planning — were caught by police while burglarizing Democratic headquarters at the Watergate office building in Washington. Fearing that Hunt's role would soon be learned — and the burglary traced back to the White House —Nixon immediately set out to blackmail the CIA into halting an FBI investigation of the break-in. He had his chief of staff, Bob Haldeman, tell CIA Director Richard Helms that Hunt, if apprehended, might spill the beans about a major CIA secret. On one of the original Watergate tapes, the president rehearsed Haldeman on exactly what to tell the intelligence chief: "Hunt knows too damned much ... If this gets out that this is all involved ... it would make the CIA look bad, it's going to make Hunt look bad, and it's likely to blow the whole Bay of Pigs thing ... which we think would be very unfortunate for both the CIA and the country ... and for American foreign policy."

In a generally overlooked revelation in a post-Watergate book, Haldeman said: "It seems that in all those Nixon references to the Bay of Pigs, he was actually referring to the Kennedy assassination. (Interestingly, an investigation of the Kennedy assassination was a project I suggested when I first entered the White House. Now I felt we would be in a position to get all the facts. But Nixon turned me down.)" Haldeman added that the CIA pulled off a "fantastic cover-up" that "literally erased any connection between the Kennedy assassination and the CIA."

On a White House tape made public in the 1990s, Haldeman fingered Nixon as the source of his information that the CIA had reason to fear Hunt's possible disclosure of "Bay of Pigs" secrets. The newest Nixon tapes are studded with deletions — segments deemed by government censors as too sensitive for public scrutiny. "National Security" is cited. Not surprisingly, such deletions often occur during discussions involving the Bay of Pigs, E. Howard Hunt, and John F. Kennedy.

CONTINUED (Warning: GRAPHIC GRISLY Photos at source)...

http://crimemagazine.com/2003/richardnixon,20031014.htm