Morley: Major Break Coming in the JFK Assassination Story

[Steve M. Galbraith]

I appreciate Morley's attempts to get the news media to cover the JFK files issue but yeah, I think he over sold the event that was held today.

Until the files on Joannides and others are declassified, we can only speculate on his theory that LHO was an intelligence asset.

As Tracy points out in his story linked above, the personnel files* on Joannides were reviewed/read and they show nothing about a "Oswald Operation" or anything related to the assassination. Sure, release them but the evidence for me is that Morley is completely and wildly speculating about this. He's trying to jam the assassination into his "the CIA and Angleton were an American Gestapo" view.

* These files may have been just Joannides' "personnel" files and not other "operational" ones. So maybe Morley is referring to something else. It's very confusing as to what files people are referring to: the redacted/withheld files that the ARRB saw or others.

For me any explanation as to what happened begins with Oswald as a willing participant. He was not some innocent bystander framed for this. One cannot explain his actions before, during and after and reasonably argue that he was just some poor guy in a dead end job who decided to leave work for the heck of it. Almost all of the country was fixated on the shooting. And this very political person decides to go see a movie? He's not interested in what happened? Sure there are some people who don't care about events like this. But he was not one of types.

Does it end with him? Did he have help? Was he manipulated? At this point I don't think we'll ever know for certainty. But I don't think Morley has anything other than wild tabloid type speculation. He's a former journalist for the Post. He knows how to package a story, what phrases and words to use. This was another attempt at it. But he's running on fumes at this point; his conspiracy gas tank is empty.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

Here is a classic, perfect example of the disingenuous of Morley. He wrote this in his e-book "Morley vs. CIA: My Unfinished JFK Assassination". AMSPELL was the code term/name for the CIA's funding/work with the anti-Castro group DRE. He's repeated it several times elsewhere too.
 
"The effectiveness of the AMSPELL apparatus in spreading the story of Oswald's pro-Castro activities cannot be underestimated."

Then later: "Thanks to Joannides, the AMSPELL program had delivered a message that many Americans believe to this day: Kennedy was killed by a Castro supporter."

Well, that is just malarkey. The "AMSPELL apparatus" did no such thing and he's got no evidence for it. It was members of the DRE, Bringuier and others, who ON THEIR OWN were telling the media about Oswald's pro-Castro activities. Which, of course, were true. There's no evidence - and Morley will admit this elsewhere - that Joannides or CI or the CIA had any role in promoting this. This was done by DRE members on their own volition. His reasoning is that the CIA funded DRE, DRE promoted this story about Oswald's pro-Castro work, therefore the CIA/Joannides were behind this.

This is really tabloid journalism at its finest. Or worst.

[Jon Banks]

As Tracy points out in his story linked above, the files on Joannides were reviewed/read and they show nothing about a "Oswald Operation" or anything related to the assassination. Sure, release them but the evidence for me is that Morley is completely and wildly speculating about this. He's trying to jam the assassination into his "the CIA and Angleton were an American Gestapo" view.

Given that the CIA lied (by omission) to the HSCA about Joannides, why should we be satisfied with those answers before we see his files for ourselves? And he’s not looking for evidence that Joannides was involved with the Kennedy assassination so the ARRB’s statement about his files not mentioning “Kennedy” isn’t really relevant. What’s relevant is that Joannides had a residence in New Orleans in 1963 (which suggests that he spent time there around the same time as Oswald) and most likely was aware of Oswald. It’s certainly worthy of further investigation.

I’m not sure if there’s a “smoking gun” in the classified files but it seems probable that the CIA and maybe the FBI have some embarrassing secrets hidden in the files  of intelligence agents who are already dead. Files that they’re violating the law to keep secret.

And it’s reasonable to speculate that Oswald did some sort of intelligence work based on what is known already.

I don’t see Morley’s theory as baseless or without merit for further investigation.

Joannides has been dead for a long time. If there’s nothing to hide or no incriminating stuff in the files, they should all be declassified.

[Jon Banks]

The evidence of domestic CIA operations is overwhelming. They’re involved in almost everything from Hollywood, to the news media, and academia.

Because it’s illegal, the CIA seems very secretive about their domestic intelligence operations. And that may be part of their continued fight to keep JFK-related files secret. They don’t want to confirm suspicions about the extent of their domestic spying even if the stuff happened decades ago.

It’s not far-fetched at all to speculate that the CIA was very interested in Oswald prior to 11/22/63 and knew far more about him than they let on initially.

Whether he was merely a domestic surveillance interest for them, or an intelligence asset, are questions that the remaining classified files may answer…

[W. Tracy Parnell]

My newest article addresses confusion after the Morley presser:

http://wtracyparnell.blogspot.com/2022/12/morley-disinfo-leads-to-misleading.html

[Steve M. Galbraith]

The evidence of domestic CIA operations is overwhelming. They’re involved in almost everything from Hollywood, to the news media, and academia.

Because it’s illegal, the CIA seems very secretive about their domestic intelligence operations. And that may be part of their continued fight to keep JFK-related files secret. They don’t want to confirm suspicions about the extent of their domestic spying even if the stuff happened decades ago.

It’s not far-fetched at all to speculate that the CIA was very interested in Oswald prior to 11/22/63 and knew far more about him than they let on initially.

Whether he was merely a domestic surveillance interest for them, or an intelligence asset, are questions that the remaining classified files may answer…

Give us the evidence for this "very interested" surveillance of Oswald. Or that he was an asset. Why would they be "very interested" in this oddball, this unemployable unstable person with no connections to anything? You're presenting Oswald as some sort of valuable commodity, as someone useful for the CIA. And there's nothing there for me to indicate it. He's agitating for Castro for the FPCC in the South, in areas where there was almost no pro-Castro support. Why be interested in this nothing?

You yourself argue that he wasn't a Marxist because he didn't associate with any Marxists, didn't attend any meetings, didn't have any relationship with Marxist or pro-Castro groups. So what's the benefit of using Oswald? For what? He's a loner, a nobody, an erratic unstable person that is worthless.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

My newest article addresses confusion after the Morley presser:

http://wtracyparnell.blogspot.com/2022/12/morley-disinfo-leads-to-misleading.html

That "Newsweek" story was stenography not reporting. There are zero challenges to Morley's allegations, no understanding of the background of the claims he made, or of the history of the documents he's referring to. It's as if all of these past investigations, the release of the documents, the evidence found doesn't exist. It's like JFK was murdered in 2013 not 1963 and we're only learning this stuff recently.

Was Oswald an "asset"? Or was he unknowingly used? Morley can't tell us what Oswald actually was or was doing. Morley suggests that his pro-Castro beliefs were fake, a "legend", a cover and only began in the Summer of '63 in New Orleans. Really? As you pointed out Oswald held pro-Castro beliefs back when he was in the Marines in 1958 and 1959. And when he was in the Soviet Union. Marina said he wanted to name their first born "Fidel" and that he sang pro-Castro songs. I'm sure Morley knows this.

Tracy, one question: Where did Morley come up with this "Oswald Operation" phrase? That's new isn't it? New from him. Is this from the Wilcott allegations about hearing people discuss an "Oswald Operation"? Would the CIA use the actual name of a asset/agent? Give it the name "Oswald Operation"?

Morley's an ex-reporter for the Post. He knows how to sell a story, how to feed the media, how to give them the "sexy" stuff. This is an example of it.

[Joe Elliott]

Major Break Coming in the JFK Assassination Story

Thoughts?

I refuse to believe any major announcements on the JFK assassination made by Benny Hill.