Did the CIA Blackmail Oswald?

 DID THE CIA BLACKMAIL OSWALD? 

In his CAPA conference presentation at the Dallas Marriot Courtyard, former 20 year CIA officer Rolf Mowart-Larssen said that if the CIA knew before the assassination that Lee Harvey Oswald had a rifle and was a suspect in the shooting of General Walker, it could have used that to blackmail him into doing their bidding. 

Larssen specialized in recruiting targeted subjects as witting or unwitting assets, operatives and agents, so he knows what he is talking about. He served as the CIA Chief of Station Moscow, the agency's most coveted post, so he is well known and respected within the agency and out. 

Which begs the question - did they?  A prior question, more easily answered is - Did the CIA know before the assassination that Oswald had a rifle and was a suspect in the Walker shooting? 

Well we know George deMornschilts checked in with the head of the CIA Domestic Contacts Division in Dallas before visiting the Oswalds. He knew Moore from his travels and reported regularly to him, the two having dinner together on special  occasions. 

Moore gave deMorn the okay to see Oswald, and on his first visit to Oswald's apartment, deMorn was accompanied by a Colonel (Lawrence?) Orlov, who kept his rank from fighting in the White Russian army who. fought the Reds - communists. Orlov often played racket ball with Moore, so they were both Moore's willing assets.

DeMorn was Oswald's best friend in Dallas, some say his babysitter, and when deMorn  was preparing to leave for Haiti, he arranged for his friend Volkmar Schmidt to host a house party in order for the Oswalds to meet the Paines. So their association was prearranged. 

While Marina and Ruth talked in Russian  and became fast friends, Volar Schmidt engaged Oswald in a lengthy two hour long conversation.

Schmidt told me he used a "reverse psychology" technique on Oswald that he learned from his surrogate father, a professor at the University of Heidelberg, Germany.

Schmidt said he suggested to Oswald that fascist General Walker should be killed as Hitler should have been. 

(I will post a link to a transcript of my recorded interview with Schmidt ASAP.)

Im his last visit to Oswald's apartment before going to work for Papa Doc, deMorn saw the rifle in the closet, and jokingly asked Oswald, 'How did you miss Walker?"

Before deMorn left, Oswald returned a box of classical records that deMorn had loaned him. In the box of records deMorn later found a copy of the backyard photo inscribed by Marina, "Hunter of Fascists, ha, ha."

After he left Dallas, deMorn first stopped in New York City, where he visited the offices of (still living) John Train, who was responsible for CIA propriety companies, like air lines.

Train's associate Thomas Devine had previously been partners in the Zapata oil business with George H. W. Bush.

While they ostensibly discussed a friend of deMorns who wanted to overthrow Papa Doc, their meeting  did deMorn tell them the single most valuable piece of intelligence he had - that Oswald had a rifle and was suspect in the Walker shooting?

From NYC deMorn went to DC where he met with Dorothie.  Matlack and US At Col. Sam Kail, who had previously been stationed at the US Embassy in Havana with David Morales when Castro came to power.

Both of them represented ACSI - the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, a spy agency run out of the Pentagon and reported to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

While they discussed deMorn's friend trying to depose Papa Doc, did deMorn offer them the single most important piece of intelligence that he had - that Oswald had a rifle and was suspected of shooting at Walker? 

I don't know.

Did the CIA and or ACSI know Oswald had a rifle and was a suspect in the Walker shooting?

I don't know but they certainly could have, if deMornschilts talked about it.

DeMorn had contact with Moore, Train, Devine, Matlack and Kail, and could have we told any of them.

As a side, there are a number of documents on Matlack among the most recently released records. 

Did the CIA blackmail Oswald? I don't think so. He was certainly a willing assets and covert operative for someone or some agency.

And I think Oswald was recruited into some  secret intelligence network long before the Walker shooting, probably in the CAP in New Orleans or in the USMC. 

For Oswald to be set up as a patsy they didn't have to blackmail or recruit him, they just had to keep track of him, know where he was and what he was doing, and the documentary record clearly shows they had him covered.

SIDEBAR - Moore and Ford.

As an aside to this story, I find it interesting that J. Walton Moore, like many CIA agents and officers of that era, had previously served in Gen. Bill Donovan's Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during WWIi.

After extensive testing and training, Moore was sent on his first mission to China, and was accompanied by Princeton man Charles Ford, who also got entwined in the JFK drama. 

Ford was assigned to the CIA Training branch, and worked primarily at Quantico, aka "The Farm," where the most intense secret training was conducted for the CIA, FBI and the military.

Ford was with the Training section his entire career, except for one key year when he was reassigned to JMWAVE in Miami, where he was said to report directly to Attorney General RFK. 

Some anti-Kennedy baiters falsely claimed Ford served as a middle man between RFK and the Mafia bosses who were involved in the CIA Mafia plots to kill Castro. That story was deflated when Ford's Congressional testimony was released under the JFK Act.

Then Ford was given custody of the first generation Secret Service copy of the Zapruder film, as it was officially noted, "for training purposes only.'