Oswald at the Radio Factory in Minsk

[Steve M. Galbraith]

I don't believe Titovets was aligned with the KGB. Moreover, the incident took place in Oswald's KGB-bugged apartment (hence no need for reporting) and Titovets was astounded by the whole discussion. I don't think he took Oswald seriously; his astonishment was at the foolhardiness of the discussion. In his book, the focus is on what he later learned about the curious tube being part of a classified radar device. Based on what I know about the factory, my belief is that the whole thing was a KGB set-up just to see what Oswald would do if afforded an opportunity to "steal" the tube.

When Oswald first arrived in Minsk the KGB in Belarus watched him 24/7, very intensely, like he was Trotsky returned. After all, that's why they sent him there, away from Moscow to a more isolated area. They didn't know who he was, whether an agent or an oddball who tried to commit suicide but knew they had to monitor him. Many of the people who associated with Oswald said the KGB later talked to them, debriefed them on what they knew. This was both before and after the assassination (they were all ordered after the assassination to never talk to anyone about Oswald). They were terrified about the KGB; look up "Kurapaty Forest" for details of how the people of Minsk experienced "The Great Terror". It was only later that the surveillance was less intense. They grew tired of him, wanted him to go away.

Given all this I can't believe that the KGB wouldn't question someone close to Oswald like Titovets. Does that make sense given the other coverage they did? Granted, the Mailer book doesn't mention any such relationship. But Mailer said he asked Titovets seven times for an interview and was turned down each time.

[Tom Mahon]

FWIW, authors Hancock and Boylan in The Oswald Puzzle do a very thorough analysis of all this and conclude that (1) Oswald was not a false defector or a witting participant in any intelligence activities but (2) may well have been an unwitting tool in one of Angleton's mole hunts. In other words, he wasn't "sent" at all, but his "going" may have served a mole-hunt purpose of which he was completely unaware.

We know that Angleton was duped by the British traitor Kim Philby, yes?

Well, Newman says father-figure-requiring Angleton was also duped by his mole-hunting superior, Bruce Solie, and that Solie very probably visited Philby -- to learn from The Master how best to manipulate Angleton -- in Beirut in February 1957, as indicated by some old travel documents which were published on geneology.com in 2010 and found by Newman around 2017.

Factoids: We know that Solie "cleared" KGB false defector Yuri Nosenko in October of 1968, that he helped another probable mole by the name of Leonard V. McCoy "lose" former defector Nicholas Shadrin to KGB kidnappers in Vienna in 1975, and that, according to British researcher and National Archives habitue Malcolm Blunt, he was "all over the Kennedy investigation and all over Clay Shaw for Jim Garrison" Read Tennent H. Bagley's Spy Wars for the details for the first two and watch Blunt's 10 September YouTube interview on Yuri Nosenko for the latter.

Oh yeah, and that Solie hid Office of Security documents on Oswald from the Church Committee and the HSCA.

Heck, even Joan Mellen writes about that, but blames it on Angleton of course.

Rhetorical question: Can you not countenance the possibility that Angleton's confidant, mentor, and mole-hunting superior, Bruce Solie in the mole-hunting Office of Security, was a KGB mole, and that he sent (or duped Angleton into sending) Oswald to Moscow in 1959 as an OSTENSIBLE "dangle" in what Angleton thought was a "normal" CIA mole hunt -- for "Popov's U-2 Mole" / "Popov's Mole" -- but which was really a planned-to-fail "mole hunt" controlled by the KGB with the two-fold goal of 1) protecting the mole (Bruce Solie), and 2) tearing the Soviet Russia Division apart?

[Lance Payette]

When Oswald first arrived in Minsk the KGB in Belarus watched him 24/7, very intensely, like he was Trotsky returned. After all, that's why they sent him there, away from Moscow to a more isolated area. They didn't know who he was, whether an agent or an oddball who tried to commit suicide but knew they had to monitor him. Many of the people who associated with Oswald said the KGB later talked to them, debriefed them on what they knew. This was both before and after the assassination (they were all ordered after the assassination to never talk to anyone about Oswald). They were terrified about the KGB; look up "Kurapaty Forest" for details of how the people of Minsk experienced "The Great Terror". It was only later that the surveillance was less intense. They grew tired of him, wanted him to go away.

Given all this I can't believe that the KGB wouldn't question someone close to Oswald like Titovets. Does that make sense given the other coverage they did? Granted, the Mailer book doesn't mention any such relationship. But Mailer said he asked Titovets seven times for an interview and was turned down each time.

Certainly, the KGB would have questioned Titovets extensively, and I assume he would have cooperated even while maintaining his friendship with Oswald. I thought you were suggesting something more official in the relationship. Believe me, since my wife is a native Belarusian with family roots going back to the Revolution, I know all about the NKVD and KGB. Belarusians still live in terror of what remains of the KGB. I've been warned every time I've visited and always assumed I had no privacy anywhere.

[Lance Payette]

We know that Angleton was duped by the British traitor Kim Philby, yes?

Well, Newman says father-figure-requiring Angleton was also duped by his mole-hunting superior, Bruce Solie, and that Solie very probably visited Philby -- to learn from The Master how best to manipulate Angleton -- in Beirut in February 1957, as indicated by some old travel documents which were published on geneology.com in 2010 and found by Newman around 2017.

Factoids: We know that Solie "cleared" KGB false defector Yuri Nosenko in October of 1968, that he helped another probable mole by the name of Leonard V. McCoy "lose" former defector Nicholas Shadrin to KGB kidnappers in Vienna in 1975, and that, according to British researcher and National Archives habitue Malcolm Blunt, he was "all over the Kennedy investigation and all over Clay Shaw for Jim Garrison" Read Tennent H. Bagley's Spy Wars for the details for the first two and watch Blunt's 10 September YouTube interview on Yuri Nosenko for the latter.

Oh yeah, and that Solie hid Office of Security documents on Oswald from the Church Committee and the HSCA.

Heck, even Joan Mellen writes about that, but blames it on Angleton of course.

Rhetorical question: Can you not countenance the possibility that Angleton's confidant, mentor, and mole-hunting superior, Bruce Solie in the mole-hunting Office of Security, was a KGB mole, and that he sent (or duped Angleton into sending) Oswald to Moscow in 1959 as an OSTENSIBLE "dangle" in what Angleton thought was a "normal" CIA mole hunt -- for "Popov's U-2 Mole" / "Popov's Mole" -- but which was really a planned-to-fail "mole hunt" controlled by the KGB with the two-fold goal of 1) protecting the mole (Bruce Solie), and 2) tearing the Soviet Russia Division apart?

Sure, I can "countenance the possibility" of almost anything. From all evidence known to me, however, I regard the possibility as pretty much zilch. I was gratified that Hancock and Boylan, who are surely among the premier researchers, seem to as well.