VALKYRIE at Dealey Plaza III - The Saga Continues

Valkyrie at Dealey Plaza III - The Saga Continues  
By Bill Kelly (Billkelly3@gmail.com)



Count Claus von Stauffenberg (far left) and Hitler

For more on July 20 1944 Bomb Plot see: The 20 July Bomb Plot - the attempt on Hitler's lifeHistory in an Hour

Valkyrie in Dealey Plaza - The Case Goes to Court

As Eva Fedderly reports in the Courthouse News (CN January 27, 2017), the Washington D.C. based Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC) has filed a civil suit against the CIA for failure to provide Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for CIA documents related to a study they did on the July 20, 1944 German military plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler.

AARC: [ Center Seeks CIA Documents on Plots to Kill Hitler, Castro]

Because the CIA said they were conducting the study in order to adapt it to be used against Fidel Castro of Cuba, the records related to this study could shed light on the still secret government records on the assassination of President Kennedy.

CN reported that Dan Alcorn, the center's attorney said the case "stems from a joint chiefs of staff document that the organization acquired," and the document "contained an intriguing reference to the CIA basing a plot to kill Fidel Castro in 1963 on an earlier plot to kill Adolph Hitler crafted by the Office of Strategic Services during World War II."

Now refered to as the Higgins Memo [RIF# 202-10001-10028 ], declassified in 1997-98 and found among the Joint Chiefs of Staff Files (Set J-3) of the JFK Collection as posted at Mary Ferrell Archives [showDoc.html ], and reposted at my blog [JFKCountercoup2: Higgins Memo Numbered w/ Bullet Points ] - a September 25, 1963 Memorandum for the Record on a Joint Chiefs of Staff  briefing by Mr. Desmond Fitzgerald on the subject of CIA Cuban Operations and Planning.

Except for the Chief of Staff General (Maxwell) Taylor, who was on a special mission to Vietnam, and Admiral McDonald, the joint chiefs were present as were the Directors and Secretariate, and with the absence of chairman Taylor, the chief of staff of the Air Force General Curtis LeMay ran the meeting. The notes indicate "Colonel Higgins from SACSA was the only other officer in attendance."

And it is Colonel Walter M. Higgins, Jr. who wrote this Memo. Higgins, aide to General Victor (Brute) Krulak, whose distinguished career includes the Pentagon stint of managing SACSA - Special Assistant Counterinsurgency and Special Activities.

The gist of the meeting was to assess military support for covert CIA activities against Cuba, a job that Krulak's SACSA was responsible for, and it was Fitzgerald who was explaining the CIA covert ops against Cuba and what role the military should play.

Fitzgerald was head of the Cuban desk at the CIA, having replaced William Harvey, who had a falling out with Robert F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Fitzgerald had the Kennedy charisma and was known as a Kennedy insider.

Among the items under the propaganda shop report Fitzgerald told the Joint Chiefs that, "he felt there had been great success in getting closer to the military personnel who might break with Castro, and stated that there were at least ten high-level military personnel who are talking with CIA but as yet are not talking with each other, since that degree of confidence has not yet developed. He considered it as a parallel in history, i.e., the plot to kill Hitler, AND THIS PLOT IS BEING STUDIED IN DETAIL TO DEVELOP AN APPROACH." (emphasis added).

"And this plot is being studied in detail to develop an approach" - an approach to kill Castro.

While the CIA's study of the July 20, 1944 - plan "Valkyrie" to kill Hitler certainly is the hot spot in this "smoking document," it is not the only thing that stands out and deserves followup. There are also references to a special communications technique developed for the Air Force, a security protocol called Pendulum and a letter from National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy on "secrecy measures necessary related to Cuba CIA operations," that was so secret that it was read orally and then returned to Mr. (Roswell Gilpatric).

It is the reference to the plot to kill Hitler that stands out - "and this plot is being studied in detail to develop an approach," - an approach to kill Castro that may have a bearing on what happened at Dealey Plaza.

"This was new information to us when we saw it," Alcorn said. "This is of great interest to people studying history because it's new information."

"Alcorn explained that in terms of its timing, the plot to kill Castro, who died of natural causes at the age of 90 in November, coincided with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Jim Lesar, the AARC director filed the first FOIA request on August 25, 2012, "seeking documents related to the plot to assassinate Hitler as well as the CIA's review of that plot as part of its effort to try to topple Castro."

According to Alcorn, "Originally the CIA told us they had no records. Then they rescinded, saying they were wrong and they do have the documents. But then they came back again and said they don't have records."

"Frustrated," the CN reports, "the center sued the CIA in the federal court in Washington D.C. on January 25 (2017)."

"It contends the CIA is obligated to provide it with the documents it requested, and by not doing so, it is violating the FOIA."

The complaint reads: "The CIA's failure to comply with the FOIA harms the AARC's ability to provide full, accurate and current information to the public on matters of high public interest. Absent this critical information, the AARC can not advance its goal of informing the public on documentary records on critical public issues related to political assassinations and related subjects."

"It is seeking a determination that the agency violated the FOIA, and an order compelling it to release any documents it has that are relevant to the center's request."