JMWAVE Investigation of Assassination Updated

JMWAVE Investigation of Assassination 

JMWAVE INVESTIGATION OF ASSASSINATION 

A number of the documents released in the December 15, 2022 batch have caught my attention, but none as much as what is being called the Heath Memo, named after its author Donald R. Heath, Jr., who served as a JMWAVE case officer in the Foreign Intelligence (FI) branch from 29 March 1962 - 20 August 1966. 

This document has been released before, with names and key aspects redacted, but we now have the complete document, and I believe it has been entered into evidence as an exhibit in the Bill Simpich-Mary Ferrell v. Joseph Biden-NARA trial that is currently underway. 

I intend to add it to my list of Top Ten Records Released Under the JFK Act, that is now up to more than a dozen. 

https://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2018/11/top-ten-jfk-assassination-records.html?m=1

Many thanks to Jefferson Morley for calling our attention to it, and having a JFKFacts podcast dedicated to it, that I missed but will post a link to it when it is archived. 

JFK Facts Podcast: What We Learned from the Last JFK Release - billkelly3@gmail.com - Gmail

This is Morley's article - a link to the original document is in the second paragraph. 

https://jfkfacts.substack.com/p/memo-reveals-how-cia-investigated?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Besides introducing us to the Foreign Intelligence branch of JMWAVE, headed by Mr. Warren Frank, along with the Information Management and Planning Group, and Cuban Melendez Bach, who they questoned about the assassination. Heath mentions a few familiar names, like Rolando Masseferrer, who he tells us was based in New Jersey, Smani Cienfuegos, and Anthony Sforza, who was also a JMWAVE case officer and appears in other areas of this story. '

Heath was one of 12 case officers in the FI Branch, out of some 200 case officers assigned to JMWAVE overall. And he gives us the code names for a number of Cubans, some of whom were his cases, including AMWEE-1, AMGABE-1, AMPAN-22, AMING-3, and AMBLEAK-1, all of whom we will eventually identify by their real names.

We knew that the US government asked all of its agency personnel to contact their sources to learn anything about the assassination, and now we know how JMWAVE conducted its investigation. 

Under the title of Miami Station Operation Procedures for Crash Investigations - Heath tells us that "Soon after his arrival at the Miami Station Mr. Shackley organized several fast reaction procedures for coping with rapid developments in Cuba or in the Cuban exile community in Florida which required speedy and augmented reporting. The fast reaction procedures involved alerting officers of the Station- a. Query resident agents in Cuba who had W/T commo with our Station or a combination of W/T to the agent and telephonic response from the agent to a cutout in the Miami Cuban community. b. Use of singleton Cuban exile support agents and the AMOT Intelligence service in Miami to communicate with lists of on-island contacts by phone or with lists of Cuban exiles in the uS who were irregular sources of information." 

"At the time of the Kennedy assassination....Mr. Anthony Sforza, AMOT case officer, told later that he had received specific instructions from Shackley about how the AMOT service was to go about aiding in the investigation. I also recall quite clearly that there was communication from HQs. to our Station about the need to query our assets...There was also some communication from the FBI and other agencies to our Station asking for information about possible Cuban involvement in the Kennedy murder." 

FYI - the AMOT Intelligence Service was established to debrief refugees and defectors from Cuba, and was based on German General Reinhard Gehlen's Operation Wringer, set up during World War II to debrief and question refugees from communist countries in Europe. A similar system was set up in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam era. 

According to Heath, the questions he posed to his agents and assets were: 

a. Get me all possible data on any Cuban exile you know who disappeared just before or right after the Kennedy murder and has since been missing from Miami under suspicious circumstances. '

b. Bet me data on Cuban exiles who approached you or your associates during the fall of 1963 for assistance in getting sizeable amounts of funds, weapons or cars. 

c. Give me a list of all Cuban exiles or Cubano-Americans you consider to be capable of orchestrating the murder of President Kennedy in order to precipitate an armed conflict between Cuban and the USA. 

d. Give me a list of the richest Cubans in exile, Cubans possessing sufficient personal wealth and the possible inclination to bankroll the murder of the President. "The questions above," notes Heath, "were not my own invention but the result of talk sessions held in the FI Branch of my Station." 

In any case, it is quite clear that the JMWAVE station conducted a very thorough investigation of the Cubans who we are very interested in, in the immediate aftermath of the assassination, and those case officer reports should be released under the JFK Act and made part of the JFK Collection at the NARA and open to the public. But they aren't

Billkelly3@gmail.com 

 Billkelly3@gmail.com

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.'

PLANS NOT PLOTS

PLANS NOT PLOTS

Most conspiracy theorist and counter-conspiracy debunkers attempt to describe conspiracy at Dealey Plaza as a plot, similar to what was portrayed in the movies “Executive Action” and “JFK” – where the conspirators sit around smoking and drinking and discussing how they are going to wack JFK.

Well it didn’t go down that way.

The CIA doesn't plot assassinations, it plans them. And like the military, they have contingency plans for everything. 

Rather it was a detailed and distinctive plan, practiced, expertly conducted and mostly successful.

Actually it was two plans, one strategic – the Valkyrie plan, the other tactical – the Pathfinder plan, that were originally aimed at killing Fidel Castro, and redirected to JFK in Dallas.

We know about the Valkyrie plan from Desmond FitzGerald’s September 1963 briefing of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the CIA’s covert operations against Cuba that required military support. FitzGerald told them that the CIA was making a “detailed study” of the July 20, 1944 German military plan to kill Hitler – co-named Valkyrie, in order to use it against Castro.

FitzGerald told the Joint Chiefs, then chaired by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Curtis LeMay because Maxwell Taylor was in Vietnam on a special mission for the president, that while they had identified a number of disenchanted Cuban military officers who didn’t like Castro’s communist leanings, they were not confident enough to talk among themselves.

That was not a problem with the US military, as the Joint Chiefs of Staff, other than Maxwell Taylor, were united in their distaste and downright hatred of the president for both the betrayal of the Cubans at the Bay of Pigs and the failure to use force to remove the Soviet missiles from Cuba, as well as the Nuclear Test Ban treaty.

In answer to a FOIA request by the Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC), the CIA said it has no record of the “detailed study” of the July 20, 1944 German military plan to kill Hitler, and among all of its files, could only find one reference to it in a Cold War era propaganda pamphlet that blamed the failure of the operation on Communists.

Well we now know that the Valkyrie plan led to the use of Dr. Rolando Cubela (AMLASH), who recently died, and it now appears that he was acting as a double-agent and reporting what the CIA was doing to Castro.

As former FBI agent Bill Turner said years ago, "We now know to a fairly good degree of certainty what happened at Dealey Plaza. The motives were piling up - the Bay of Pigs, Cuban Missile Crisis, Vietnam, the back channel to Cuba, - the motives were piling up to the point they had to assassinate him. I think it’s' pretty obvious, with the compilation of the information we have today, that the mechanism of the crime came out of the allegiance between the CIA and the Mafia. They already had an assassination apparatus set up for killing Castro and they just switched targets and killed Kennedy instead."

This opinion was shared by former military investigator Gene Wheaton, who operated a CIA propriety airline and lived in Washington DC with Carl Jenkins, a Bay of Pigs trainer and leader of the Pathfinders at both the Bay of Pigs and JMWAVE.

If that is the case, then we can eliminate most of the 600 or so documented cases of failed plots to kill Castro  by poison, exploding cigars and seashells, tainted diving suits, etc., and focus only on those that were to shoot him in the head with high powered rifles as he rode by in an open jeep, and Pathfinder fits that bill to a tee.

The Pathfinders were the most elite of the Bay of Pigs Cubans who were specially trained and sent in to Cuba weeks before the invasion to set the groundwork. Some were killed, others captured, and a few, like Felix Rodriguez and Chi Chi Quintero, managed to escape and make their way back to the JMWAVE base in Florida. There they were again led by Carl Jenkins, and infiltrated into Cuba on special missions, one of which was to execute the Pathfinder plan to kill Castro.

As far as I can tell there were three Pathfinder teams, each with its own boat, trainer, training area and private supporter in addition to the CIA payroll. The three millionaire private patrons and supporters were Clare Booth Luce, William Pawley and Mafia hoodlum John Rosselli, who actually worked at JMWAVE under the cover of a CIA Army Colonel Rawlston.

Rosselli’s crew were trained as snipers at Point Mary, near Key Largo, by US Army Ranger Edward Roderick and CIA trainer John “I.F.” Harper.

Since the Pathfinders were the most elite of the anti-Castro Cuban commandos trained at JMWAVE, they were given the Pathfinder plan, and practiced it over and over.

Only one CIA document that mentions the Pathfinder plan managed to make it through to the public via the JFK Act, and that was mistakenly or intentionally placed, or misplaced in the middle of the CIA Security File on Frank Sturgis, who had nothing to do with the Pathfinder Plan and didn’t work for the CIA but rather Air Force Intelligence.

This National Photo Interpretation Center (NPIC) document from 1975 was sparked by the Church Committee’s investigation that included CIA plots to kill Castro. Eight NPIC technicians came forward to tell their boss – Dino Brugioni, that they were aware of a plan to kill Castro – the Pathfinder plan, because they had worked on it and the folder was kept in the NPIC section of JMWAVE instead of the Operational File where it belonged.

The NPIC technicians said the Pathfinder plan was to shoot Castro with high powered rifles as he rode by in an open jeep on his way to Xandau, the DuPont’s exclusive and confiscated estate in the resort town of Veradero on the north shore east of Havana, where Castro was known to frequent.

The Pathfinder plan, the NPIC employees reported, was led by Carl Jenkins, but was never implemented because it was “disapproved by higher authority,” with the higher authority being JFK, RFK and the National Security Council, that had to approve all CIA covert operations. But that didn’t stop the Pathfinders, or their leaders, who sent them in to carry out the plan anyway, as Felix Rodriguez described in his book “Shadow Warrior.”

“I was given a weapon… a beautiful German bolt-action rifle with a powerful telescopic sight, all neatly packed in a custom-made padded carrying case… a box of ammo, twenty rounds. I was told that I wouldn't have to sight the rifle, as it had already been zeroed in. Apparently the resistance had obtained a building facing a location that Castro frequented at the time....We were supposed to debark onto a Cuban boat near Varadero Beach, an area I knew from my childhood. From there we would be taken to rendezvous with members of the anti-Castro resistance…..We would be provided a safe house, then move to the room where we'd be able to shoot Fidel….”

It just so happens that Dr. Rolando Cubella (AMLASH) apparently had an apartment overlookig the only road that led to Veradero that was going to be used as a staging area for the attack on Castro that never came.

As John Rosselli told Congress in executive session, and then Jack Anderson afterwards, his team of Cuban commando were sent in three times, but recalled each time, though one time they were captured, and Rosselli believes they were sent back to kill JFK.

When the AARC asked the CIA for the Pathfinder records, they were told there was nothing on Pathfinder in the CIA files, but we pretty much know what became of them. As the NPIC employees said, the Pathfinder folder was kept in their section of the JMWAVE station and not in the Operational File where it belonged, Then we know that the Dino Brugioni’s report on the NPIC description of Pathfinder was mistakenly placed in the middle of Frank Sturgis’ CIA Security File. Then a NPIC secretary was tracked down by the Assassinations Records Review Board  (ARRB).

She told them that the Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy told her to pack the NPIC assassination records in boxes and have them delivered to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. The ARRB staff questioned her on that, - didn’t she mean the National Archives? No she said, she was positive it was the Smithsonian because she called them to make the arrangements for them to be delivered.

When I asked the National Archives JFK Collection official if the ARRB followed up on that information and checked with the Smithsonian to see if they had the NPIC records, they simply responded, no.

The bottom line is that we shouldn’t be considering silly plots to kill the president, but instead looking closely at the Standard Operating Procedures of the day – detailed contingency plans that were developed to kill Castro, frequently practiced and expertly and successfully  implimented at DealeyPlaza, specifically the Valkyrie strategic plan and the tactical Pathfinder plan. 

JFK Assassination Records in Private Hands

NARA Seeks Check for Classified Docs in Private Hands 

As reported by CBS News: 

National Archives asks representatives of past six administrations to check for classified documents - CBS News

"The National Archives and Records Administration is asking representatives of the six most recent past presidential administrations to comb through their personal records again to check for any classified or other presidential records, according to the text of a letter obtained by CBS News."  

"The request comes after documents with classification markings were found at the private residences of former Vice President Mike Pence, former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. CNN was first to report the requests from NARA to past presidents and vice presidents." 

"The Presidential Records Act, passed during former President Jimmy Carter's administration but not effective until the Reagan administration, outlines requirements for the preservation and turning over of all presidential records upon leaving office. The National Archives is responsible for the storage and safekeeping of those records. Letters were sent to representatives of the Trump, Obama, W. Bush, Clinton, H.W. Bush and Reagan administrations." 

"Over the last year there have been several instances reported in the media where records containing classified information and subject to the Presidential Records Act (PRA) have been identified outside of the physical custody of the National Archives and Records Administration," the letters say. "... The responsibility to comply with the PRA does not diminish after the end of an administration. Therefore, we request that you conduct an assessment of any materials held outside of NARA that relate to the Administration for which you serve as a designated representative under the PRA, to determine whether bodies of materials previously assumed to be personal in nature might inadvertently contain Presidential or Vice Presidential records subject to the PRA, whether classified or unclassified."

Now this is turning into a big deal and the new Republican Chairman of the House Oversight Committee - James Comer (R. Ky), is making it a political issue. 

But there's no reason why they should focus on the enforcement of the Presidential Records Act (PRA) while ignoring the JFK Act of 1992, that is not being enforced or given any oversight. 

I have a number of good examples of how significant government records related to the JFK assassination are still in private hands when they should be in the JFK Collection at the National Archives and open to the public - 1) The SS Tampa Advance Report; - 2) Mrs. Lincoln's Oval Office records, and - 3) the HSCA files of the first chief counsel G. Robert Blakey. 

When former SS agent Abraham Bolden correctly noted that the Secret Service intentionally destroyed JFK assassination records AFTER the Congressional passage of the JFK Act, including the Tampa Advance report, another former agent, Gerald Blaine, wrote in his book on the Kennedy Detail, that he personally wrote the Tampa Advance report and kept a copy in a box under his bed all these years, over his wife's objections. 

When I called the attention of the NARA to this passage in his book, they contacted him, obtained numerous documents from him, including the Tampa Advance report, and sent me copies of some of it in appreciation. 

In reading the Tampa Advance report I didn't notice why it was so sensitive the official copy had to be destroyed, other than the fact that the local police were investigating a threat on the life of the president and that the Tampa Sheriff's office stationed deputies with shotguns on every overpass along the motorcade route as well as sharpshooter with rifles on major building. 

What I don't understand is if Blaine had these documents in his possession, why weren't all of the still living SS agents questioned as to whether or not they had any similar documents in their possession. 

From what I understand, until the law was changed under the Carter administration, it was a common practice for government employees to take records home with them, especially when they left office and cleaned out their desks. So why not ask all the SS agents if they have any records?

JFKCountercoup2: James Mastrovito - Destroyed USSS Records and JFK Evidence

 Post - Vince Palamara's Posts 1 - Quora- SS Records Destroyed 

JFKcountercoup: Secret Service Records Previously Thought Destroyed Turned Over to NARA

Papers of Gerald S. Blaine | National Archives

JFKcountercoup: The Tampa Plot in Retrospect

JFKcountercoup: Gerald Blaine’s handwritten notes

- MRS. LINCOLN'S OVAL OFFICE RECORDS 

When JFK was killed, the SS agent who installed it unplugged the tape machines that recorded all of the Oval Office conversations and phone calls made by the president. 

Mrs. Lincoln was then put in charge of cleaning out the Oval Office and with RFK's permission, took pretty much everything home with her, including the tapes, the rocking chair, JFK's watch, etc. 

Then when RFK was killed, she kept most of the items, and when she was not invited to Caroline's wedding, she made out a last will giving all of what was left to a celebrity autograph hound, Robert White, a will that held up in court. White put together a sort of mini-museum that opened at the Trump Towers in New York City, and then moved to the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City where I was asked to write an article promoting it. When I figured out what was going on I declined, but kept up on the story. 

White wasn't very wealthy, and when he needed money he sold off some of the items to his construction company friend, including the Oval Office recordings and the watch. 

White died early on at the age of 54, and the rest of the material was set for auction in New York City when some of the Kennedy family complained and took back some personal items, while the NARA confiscated classified documents that were to be sold at auction. 

Mrs. Lincoln also had two cargo trunks of documents sent to her personal lawyer and friend in Nebraska. The lawyer turned the trunks over to the local Sheriff, who placed them in a secure location - the evidence locker, but when he retired, he took them with him. When I located him and talked with him on the phone, he would not tell me what became of the contents of the two trunks and said he wouldn't respond to anyone or anything other than a court or congressional subpoena. 

JFKCountercoup2: Mrs. Lincoln's Trunks

JFKCountercoup2: Mrs. Lincoln's Trunks - The NARA Never Got Them

Robert L. White, 54, collector of JFK items – Baltimore Sun

JFKcountercoup: The Inheritance - What Became of Mrs. Lincoln's JFK Memorabilia - Updated

JFKcountercoup: The Inheritance - Reconsidered

JFKCountercoup2: Christopher Fulton's Controversial Sale of Second Watch

Bouck, Robert I.: Oral History Interview - JFK #1, 6/25/1976 | JFK Library

JFKCountercoup2: The Oval Office Tapes

JFKCountercoup2: Oval Office Tapes - Where are they today?

RICHARD SPRAGUE, ESQ. 

When I learned that Philadelphia attorney Richard Sprague was named chief counsel of the HSCA, I read in the papers that he had his staff read a book - Legacy of Doubt - by CBS TV editor Peter Noyes (Who is still alive).The book concerns one Jim Brading - aka Braden, who was taken into custody as a suspicious person at Dealey Plaza in the moments  after the assassination. Noyes learned that Brading had legally changed his name to Braden a few weeks before the assassination, and was a swindler, con-man and possibly money man for the Meyer Lansky syndicate. 

Noyes mentioned that Brading was arrested for gambling in Camden, NJ in 1948 but the Camden police would not respond to his requests for a copy of the arrest report. Since my father was a Lieutenant in the Camden police department at the time, I showed him the passage in Noyes' book and the next day he came home from work and handed me Brading's original arrest report and mug shot, that I made copies of and shared with Noyes, Bill Turner, other researchers and I took a copy to Sprague's Philadelphia law office and left it for him. 

I didn't think much of it until after Sprague was fired and replaced by G. Robert Blakey, the founder of the Cornell Institute on Organized Crime and author of the RICO statute to prosecute organized crime conspiracies. After the HSCA folded, I received a phone call from Blakey who said he heard I had obtained Brading's Camden arrest report and asked for a copy. I told him I gave a copy to Sprague and it should be among the HSCA records, but Blakey said that Sprague took all of his files with him, and I said I was glad he did since Blakey locked away the HSCA records for 50 years and as Congressional records, they were not subject to the FOIA. 

Blakey then proceeded to write a book blaming the assassination on organized crime. 

Jim Braden was interviewed for two days behind closed door but those transcripts were sealed until the JFK Act was passed. 

When I contacted the NARA JFK Collection and asked them for any records they in Sprague's files, they referred me to their on line data base for Richard Sprague, but I informed them that was a photo and film consultant to the HSCA, not Richard Sprague, Esq., the first chief counsel. 

While they had thousands of documents in G. Robert Blakey's file, they had nothing at all for Richard  Sprague, Esq.

I informed them when Sprague was still alive that he had his HSCA files in his Philadelphia law office, and they wrote him a letter that he didn't respond to. 

Sprague's son Thomas Sprague is now in charge of that office, but no one seems interested in getting him to search for and turn over the government records that belong in the JFK Collection at the NARA. 

Donated Papers of Richard E. Sprague | National Archives

JFKcountercoup: Double Identities in Historical Research and the HSCA Records of Richard A. Sprague, Esq.

Richard A. Sprague

Attorney Richard A. Sprague — the ‘fearless, fearsome, and feared’ giant of the Philadelphia legal world — has died at 95

Sprague Law, LLC – Philadelphia and NJ Law Office

They are only three examples, there are many more, but my point is made. 

Billkelly3@gmail.com 

Oversight Committee's Anti-Biden Agenda

 Oversight Committee's Anti-Biden Agenda 

Federal Judge John Tunheim, former chairman of the Assassinations Records Review Board (ARRB) recently said that the next step in getting full release of the government's JFK assassination records and full enforcement of the JFK Act is for the House Oversight Committee to hold open public oversight hearings to determine why the act is not being upheld, why so many records are missing and why have so many been destroyed, and who is responsible. And he said more than one hearing would be necessary. 

Now with the Republicans in charge of the committee, it will be up to the chairman Rep. James Comer (R. Ky) to schedule such hearings, and with the next Biden imposed deadline of October 31 - Holloween, such hearings should be held before then. 

hat the Conservative Republican caucus, that held up the Speaker of the House nomination for so long, has stacked the Oversight Committee with anti-Biden activists who are out to nail him. 

https://palmer.house.gov/media-center/in-the-news/dream-team-oversight-committee-stacked-conservative-firebrands

"The House Republican Steering Committee on Tuesday selected several conservative firebrands to serve on the Oversight Committee during the 118th Congress, including multiple members who previously had their committee assignments stripped by House Democrats during the previous Congress...... Along with investigating Biden’s handling of classified documents, the Republican-led Oversight Committee has also pledged to investigate the Biden White House for several things, including the ongoing border and fentanyl crises, the energy crisis, Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, Hunter Biden’s business dealings, and the origins of the coronavirus." 

To that we must add the fact that President Biden has failed to enforce the JFK Act, and has continued to withhold records that Congress ordered released in 2017, and he is being sued, along with the National Archives, for not enforcing the act or releasing the records, as the law provides. 

That is the strategy we must take.and make our case quickly. 

If you are a constituent of any of the members of the House Oversight Committee  - Republicans or Democrats, you should contact them and make them aware of how important oversight hearings on the JFK Act are. 

As the ever vigilant Jefferson Morley has recently pointed out at his JFKFacts blog: 

" The Public Interest Declassification Board (PIDB) is hosting "America’s Secrets: Classified Information and Our Democracy," a two-day event featuring a public meeting of the PIDB and a keynote conversation with the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines on Thursday, January 26th, and a full-day conference featuring a keynote address from Senator John Cornyn on Friday, January 27th." 

"As Director of National Intelligence, Haines oversees the work of the entire U.S. intelligence community. She is a former deputy director of the CIA, which continues to withhold information from more than 4,000 records related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy."

"Established by statute, the seven member PIDB advises the President of the United States regarding issues pertaining to national classification and declassification policy, including the JFK assassination files."

"The PIDB’s blog: Transforming Classification has more information about the Board’s activities." 

You can also write to the Oversight Committee yourself, using the letter I wrote posted below as an example. Keep your comments short, not more than one page, and be polite. 

Letter to House Oversight Committee Re: Hearings on JFK Act

 LETTER TO HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE

Now if everyone who is interested in this will write, email, fax and send a letter to the House Oversight Committee requesting to be notified when a hearing is scheduled, it might encourage them to do their duty and hold such oversight hearings on the JFK Act, as the law requires and as Judge John Tunheim has requested. Tunheim says that this is the next step. 

House Oversight Committee

2157 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515

Phone (202) 225-5051

Fax (202) 225-4784

http://oversight.house.gov/contact

Rep. James Comer (R. Ky) Chairman

As you represent the committee responsible for oversight of the JFK Act and President Biden has set a deadline of October 31, 2023 for the final release of the still withheld government JFK assassination records, it is time to hold an open public hearing on the matter.

Since the law stipulated all of the government records on the assassination of President Kennedy should have been released in October, 2017, and the last hearing on the JFK Act was held over 20 years ago, it is imperative that open public hearings are held to determine why the law was not upheld. There are many other questions such as why records were destroyed, some after the passage of the law, why previously released on full are now being redacted, and who is responsible for the continued withholding of these records.

As a journalist who was at the last hearing, and was a member of the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA), I followed the work of the Assassinations Records Review Board closely and will also follow the oversight hearings, that are required by law.

Since Rep. Comer the chairman of the Oversight Committee is the only person who can schedule a hearing, he should be aware of Judge John Tunheim’s request for more than one public hearing.

So please inform me when any oversight hearing on the JFK Act is scheduled.

Thank you,
William E. Kelly, Jr.
P. O. Box 250
New Lisbon, N.J. 08064
(609) 346-0229

billkelly3@gmail.com 

Dr. Fredrich Wilhelm "Fritz" Remmler - With LeMay on Nov. 22? Updated.

 Dr. Fredrich Wilhelm "Fritz" Remmler (1890-1972) - Hunter and Falconer 

Thanks to Leslie Sharp for turning us on to Dr.Fredrich Wilhelm "Fritz" Remmler, the German raised in Finland who was  possibly with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Curtis LeMay at the time of the assassination.

Leslie helped get Hank Abarellie's book Coup In Dallas published (by Skyhorse) after he died, and she is continuing to research important leads.

Fritz was a big game hunter and falconer who was the gamekeeper at the General Motors owned island in north Michigan where some believe LeMay was at the time of the assassination.

Key excerpts from the article posted, with Pictures of Remmler: (  JFKCountercoup2: More on Dr. Fritz Remmler /  Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm "Fritz" Remmler Big Game Hunter & Falconer | AfricaHunting.com  ) : 

“After WWI Remmler ran a business in Finland, collecting wild animals live for zoos and collections around the world, pioneering the safe trapping of elk." 

As they were contemporaries in Finland at the same time, and both hunters, I wonder if Remmler was friends with or knew Simo Hayha - the most prolific sniper of all time. When the Russians invaded Finland, Hayha took up his rifle and donned a white snow hoodie and began shooting Russians. Know as the White Death. According to the Russians, Hayha had over 500 confirmed kills. And he lived to 2002. 

"Remmler came to Canada from Germany in 1951 and was employed as a gamekeeper for General Motors, where he helped maintain land owned by the automaker on Griffith’s Island on Georgian Bay, near Owen Sound,..."

A number of researchers have identified this General Motors hunting resort on Griffith's Island on Georgian Bay as where General LeMay was at the time of the assassination, though others say he may have been at a cabin owned by Jimmie Hoffa. I think it was Griffith's Island. While it is a first class resort, it was quite spartan, didn't have telephones but did have a short wave and Ham radios, LeMay's preferred choice of communication.

At first LeMay had sent for an Air Force executive jet to pick him up in Toronto, but when he learned there was a former Canadian Air Force field nearby in Whairton, he diverted the plane there to meet him and return him to Washington. 

"Remmler... also spent four years working as an officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Eventually, he and his family emigrated to rural Ontario where he wrote this memoir.”

Someone might check to see if the RCMP have a file on Remmler or LeMay.

Although his memoirs seem to be limited to his hunting up until 1930, he might mention his work in Canada as well, and it would be nice if someone who can read and translate German would obtain this book. 

“The Memoirs of a Hunter- Experiences in Finland and Russia, 1904-1930” (published in August 2009.) The book is a true tale of hunting in the frozen wilderness of another time. Friedrich describes his adventures in graphic detail. His words are complemented by illustrations by Russian artist Vadim Gorbatov. Ingmar Remmler was doing a little housecleaning when he came across a hidden gem that had been buried for more than 35 years. It was a 450-page manuscript, written in German, that was completed by his father Friedrich, shortly before he died at 82 years of age in 1972 “I found the manuscript at home,” Ingmar said as he held up the work. “My father had originally written it back in 1972. He submitted it to publisher but they rejected it. They said it was too long.”

Remmler's son should be located and questioned about the GM resort. 

It has been pointed out to me that in 1953 General Eisenhower appointed Charles Erwin Wilson Secretary of Defense when Wilson was CEO of General Motors, and that Wilson and LeMay were close allies on military spending.   

In addition, it appears that hiding out at hunting lodges was a popular trend. Max Holland's wife advised him to look for patterns, and while I don't think he does, I think this is quite a pattern - the senior von Alvensleben hiding out at a hunting lodge during the mass execution of Hitler's enemies, Alvensleben being one, D.H. Byrd and the junior Alvensleben at Safari land at the time of the assassination and LeMay and Remmler at the General Motor's hunting lodge in Michigan at the same time. 

     From the Wikipedia entry for the senior Werner von Alvensleben:

"After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, von Alvensleben belonged to the conservative opposition. He refused to swear the oath of allegiance to Hitler prescribed by law as he was a captain of the reserve. Prior to the "Night of the Long Knives", the purge of the SA leadership around Ernst Röhm and the conservative opposition on 30 June 1934, a hunting companion of earlier times, Graf von Helldorf [1], a member of the SA and one of the organizers of the purge (who eventually turned against Hitler and was executed after the 20 July plot) warned von Alvensleben to spend the coming weekend at his hunting lodge, as he then did, escaping certain assassination; it was thereupon that he was first condemned to death. He had been the go-between for Schleicher to Hitler and had made fun of Hitler for his ambition to be the new Napoleon."

We are also comparing the photos of Remmler in the linked article with those of Safariland to s]ee if he hunted there with Alverslaben or Byrd.

I find it peculiar that while LeMay was away hunting in Michigan, the rest of the Joint Chiefs of Staff were at the Pentagon meeting with the East German General Staff that included two generals who were involved in the July 20, 1944 Valkyrie assassination attempt on Hitler, but escaped retribution. When Chief of Staff General Maxwell Taylor was notified that the president had been shot, he continued the meeting for another two hours, and when notified the president was dead, took a nap. See Manchester's account: 

JFKCountercoup2: The Joint Chiefs of Staff meet with German General Staff 11/22/63