General Krulak SACSA and JFK

General Krulak and JFK


Marine Gen. Victor H. Krulak 

Colonel Walter M. Higgins, Jr. wrote the memo of the minutes of the September 25, 1963 meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that detailed the briefing Desmond FitzGerald gave on CIA Cuban operations and planning, including the study of the July 20, 1944 plot to kill Hitler to  be used against Castro.

Higgins wrote that FitzGerald “felt that 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 to each other, since that degree of confidence has not yet developed. He considers 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.”

Higgins worked for the Special Assistant for Counterinsurgency and Special Activities (SACSA) under General Victor "Brute" Krulak, one of the most decorated Marines and combat hero of three wars, World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

In the South Pacific, Krulak allegedly crossed paths with JFK when the PT boat skipper took 50 of Krulak's marines off an island under fire, and one of the marines died in JFK's bunk, prompting Krulak, as the legend goes, to promise JFK a bottle of Three Feathers whiskey.

As chief of SACSA, Krulak reported directly to the Secretary of Defense, and often briefed the President on his specialty - counter insurgency warfare, but his focus was on Vietnam, not Cuba, which was something of a CiA side show that the military assisted the CIA with supplies and training.

Krulak used to tell the story of how once, late in the day, he visited JFK in the Oval Office, delivering the bottle of Three Feathers whiskey he had promised him nineteen years earlier for taking his men off that island in the South Pacific. Krulak said that they reminisced about the war and the marine who died in JFK’s PT boat bunk while drinking whiskey.

According to biographer Robert Coram, (“Brute – The Life of Victor Krulak, U.S. Marine, Little, Brown, 2010), “Over the years there would be many stories about how Krulak went from San Diego back to Washington. The true story is that JFK read General Maxwell Taylor’s “The Uncertain Triumph,” which convinced him to move away from Eisenhower’s nuclear doctrine of massive retaliation and instead to embrace the concept of smaller wars. Kennedy urged the military to place far more emphasis on counterinsurgency as a way to handle what was becoming a growing problem in Vietnam and in other locations around the world….To sidetrack Kennedy’s ideas – not to implement them – the Joint Chiefs of Staff came up with a new job, special assistant for counterinsurgency and special activities – SACSA,…and be among those who met regularly with the president.”

Krulak had successfully developed the use of the helicopter in combat in Korea, delivering troops and supplies and evacuating the dead and wounded and he envisioned their use in combat in Vietnam, where counter insurgency meant not only defeating the enemy on the battlefield, but "winning the hearts and minds of the people."

As his biographer put it: “Reduced to basics, Krulak’s job was to develop America’s techniques for fighting a counterinsurgency war in Vietnam and to develop programs that would enable JFK to measure America’s progress and the progress of South Vietnam as an ally. To do this, Krulak had to push not only the reluctant American military and the slow-moving State Department but also the American people to undergo a radical shift in their thinking about the war. This war was not about taking the hill…”

Krulak is quoted as saying, “Protection is the most important thing you can bring. After that comes health. And after that, many things – land, prosperity, education, and privacy to name a few.”

According to Coram, “In the counterinsurgency part of his White House job, Krulak was an abject failure. He never got across to the American military or the American people what a war of national liberation was all about, what the Vietnam War meant to the United States, and why America had a stake in Southeast Asia. One reason he failed was that the government itself did not understand these issues.”

 “During these meetings, Krulak was duel-hatted. As the special assistant for counterinsurgency, he was the government’s top expert on counterinsurgency matters. As the special assistant for special activities, he held one of the most sensitive jobs in the U.S. government: liaison between the military and the CIA. This was the blackest of the black holes and involved some of the most highly classified matters of national defense. It meant that in Vietnam (and Cuba), Krulak was in charge of psychological warfare and covert activities against the enemy, a job that in a few years would be turned over to a much larger group with the innocuous name Studies and Observation Group (SOG).”

After one briefing where there were reports of large desertions by South Vietnamese regular army troops, JFK sent Krulak and a mid-level State department officer, both going in different directions when they got there,  with Krulak flying by helicopter to remote military bases close to the combat. When they returned and gave such disparate reports, JFK asked if they went to the same country.

“The arcane, secretive, and highly sensitive practice of ‘disinformation’ was Krulak’s responsibility during the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962. Even today it is difficult to sort out what was real and what was a ruse during those days when the world came close to nuclear war. And despite a host of books about the crisis, the CIA, and clandestine operations, it is difficult to know exactly which of the black arts Krulak was practicing. That he was involved is made clear in several books. But doing what? Dis the war planes being moved to Georgia and Florida herald an attack on Cuba, or were they a diversion? Was there really a host of American submarines in Cuban waters, or was that a rumor designed to pull the Cuban navy offshore?”

Krulak, it appears, could have been like the Marine hero of “Seven Days in May,” played in the movie by Kurt Douglas, a mid-level officer who picked up on the coup d'etat the Joint Chiefs of Staff were planning, and warned the president, except Krulak apparently wasn't paying close attention to the Cuban affairs, where the coup plans to be used against JFK were brewing.

“According to the White House visitor log, his first one-on-one meeting with Kennedy came on August 21, 1963. Between then and November 1, he had ten private meetings with the president, which lasted anywhere from twenty minutes to more than two hours. The subject of most of those meetings is listed simply as ‘Vietnam.’ No topic is listed for others.”

Colonel Fletcher Prouty (USAF) was the first to call attention to Krulak and the SACSA office in the Pentagon was just down the hall from Prouty and the ACSI – Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (US Army Reserves) - the intelligence unit that was keeping tabs on what was going on in Dallas.

After the death of the President Prouty sent Krulak a photo of a man in suit and tie walking past the Texas School Book Depository on the day of the assassination, asking if he recognized the person, to which Krulak replied that it sure did look like their old friend Gen. Lansdale, who like Krulak, specialized in covert ops, counter-insurgency and psychological warfare in Cuba and Vietnam.

John Newman traced Lansdale's movements and learned Lansdale was in Fort Worth that morning, possibly in the same hotel JFK and LBJ stayed that night.

Was Lansdale in Dallas that day? Both Prouty and Krulak thought so.

While Krulak was preoccupied with Vietnam, Cuba was the subject that comes into play in regards to the assassination, and the Higgins memo, besides calling attention to the CIA’s study of the July 20, 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler, and its adaption to use against Castro, there are other bullet point issues that come into play.

Other issues in the Higgins Memo – that was written for General Krulak by his assistant concerning communications, planning, security and a letter that was so secret it could only be read and returned to sender:

 14. General LeMay then questioned the advisability of utilizing a communication technique to install a radio capability which would permit break-in on Castro broadcasts. He stated that an Air Force officer named McElroy was available to talk to Mr. FitzGerald on the matter, and Mr. FitzGerald accepted this offer.

• 15. The conference closed with General LeMay directing that Mr. FitzGerald's planners meet with General Krulak's people and work out the details as to how the military can assist in supporting these operations. After Mr. FitzGerald departed, General LeMay gave added directions to Colonel Higgins to initiate necessary steps for planning.

• 16. After the JCS meeting Admiral Riley called Colonel Higgins into his office and read a letter from Mr. McGeorge Bundy which discussed secrecy measures necessary related to Cuba CIA operations. Admiral Riley directed Colonel Higgins to have the nature of this letter put out through SACSA control to SACSA contact points to insure an adequate system for secrecy within the military services. Admiral Riley stated he was returning the letter to Mr. Gilpatric as he did not want written communication by SACSA, but to put this out orally. This was transmitted to Colonel Wyman who will take the action to prepare an appropriate memorandum for the record to be filed with General Ingelido in accordance with further direction by Admiral Riley.

• 17. General Wheeler, Chief of Staff of the Army, called and questioned us concerning SACSA's access for the knowledge of such operations as mentioned in the McGeorge Bundy letter. I advised him that our Pendulum system was in being but that I would look into it in greater detail to determine that it met the letter as well as the spirit of the memorandum. I stated I believed this was so but had not had reason to do it until this date and therefore did not give him a positive answer at that time.

Of Plots and Plans - How JFK was Murdered - the MO

Of Plots and Plans - How JFK Was Murdered - the MO 

By William E. Kelly

After decades of study there may not be a consensus as to who killed President Kennedy but we can come to a firm determination as to the mechanism of murder - how it was planned and conducted - the MO - the modus operandi being that of a covert intelligence operation. (1) 

That is a specially designed operation that is meant to remain secret if successful and shield those actually responsible by using certain covert operational techniques such as case officers, cut outs and psychological deceptions.

According to the U.S. Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, "a covert operation (also known as covert ops) is 'an operation that is so planned and executed as to conceal the identity of or permit plausible denial by the sponsor.' It is intended to create a political effect which can have implications in the military, intelligence or law enforcement arenas affecting either the internal population of a country or individuals outside of it. Covert operations aim to secretly fulfill their mission objectives without any parties knowing who sponsored or carried out the operation." (2)

For the law that supposedly governs the use of covert ops by the U.S. government see:

50 U.S. Code § 3093 - Presidential approval and reporting of covert actions 

[ https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/50/3093 ]

The names of those actually responsible for what happened at Dealey Plaza isn't the secret the government is trying to protect, it's the method of their madness that must be kept under wraps, and the mechanism is something that can be exposed - the means by which President Kennedy was disposed of and deposed.

There were plots and there were plans.

The movie "Executive Action" has Texas oil men sitting around plotting to get rid of JFK, Oliver Stone has an odd assortment of covert characters sitting around plotting to kill JFK, (3) and even Matthew Smith - who recognized the second part of the plot to blame the assassination on Castro communists himself speculates about a group of renegade agents and mobsters plotting to kill JFK. (4)

Mobsters are frequently perceived as plotting the Dealey Plaza hit, and the sniper murder of Bugsy Siegel establishes a president, (5) but the FBI's extensive audio surveillance of the suspected mobsters failed to come up with any such plotting or even foreknowledge of the crime. (6) 

The CIA and the Mafia plotted to poison Castro and even put the plot into motion even before the Kennedy administration, (7) but it never materialized and such plotting was cut off after J.E.Hover informed RFK of these shenanigans. (8) 

After William Harvey was removed from the CIA's Cuban operations task force and replaced by Desmond Fitzgerald, some of the earlier plots were kept functioning, and a new round of more serious planning began. (9) 

There were plots that failed, and then there were plans - detailed, prepared, calculated, tactical contingency plans to attack and kill Fidel Castro, spark a full scale invasion and restore some semblance of democratic capitalism to Cuba. 

On September 25, 1963, when Air Force chief of staff Gen. Curtis LeMay was temporarily chair while General Taylor was in Vietnam, Desmond FitzGerald briefed the Joint Chiefs on Cuban operations, including the "detailed study" they were making of the July 20, 1944 Valkyrie plot to kill Hitler to apply it to Castro and Cuba. (10) 

Some of the plans to kill Castro included a psychological warfare ploy - a " Remember the Main," Tonkin Gulf, Northwoods style provocation designed to spark a full scale invasion of Cuba that Operational Plans - what they call 'Oplans" were already in place. (11) 

Some of the plans to kill Castro included planting evidence to implicate Russians and communists in the assassination in order to protect the real assassins, just as the Dealey Plaza operation included the black propaganda provision to blame Castro communists.

Oswald's brother (on Front line) said Lee - the accused assassin, didn't "plot" things, didn't plot with others, that wasn't his style, he "planned" things - planned on defecting to USSR, planned to shoot Walker, planned to go to Cuba, and his plans failed, said Robert. (12) 

But his plan - if it was his plan to kill JFK - succeeded - and if he was solely responsible for the deed, Oswald should be viewed as the world's best Lone Wolf assassin rather than the deranged loser his accusers portray him as.

What happened at Dealey Plaza, regardless of what you believe the details are, was not so much a plot, as it has previously been perceived, but was a plan - a covert operational plan that had the psych war twist of blaming the action on Castro, with the intention of sparking an invasion of Cuba.

The difference between plots and plans is that plots are basically hatched by people sitting around socially or at meetings talking about committing a seemingly worthwhile crime, while a plan is set in detail, engineered, planned and choreographed down to the minute if not second, using trained operatives and specialists who practice in advance and conduct a plan that is approved by higher authority - as they put it, and is financed and then executed to precision, with a cover-story prepared and put in place to protect the perpetrators.

Lots of undocumented plotting went on, but only a few specific plans were prepared, few enough for us to keep track of and concentrate on the most relevant ones.

Since there were too many plots and plans to kill Castro to keep track of we will focus only on the limited number of documented plans. And of them we will be concerned only with the ones that include using a sniper firing at an open moving vehicle. They include the Pathfinder plans for a sniper with high powered rifle with scope to shoot Castro as he rode by in an open jeep, and the Hemingway House plot - not a plan, to get Castro when he visited the Hemingway House, as he was known to have done when Mary Hemingway visited. (13) 

While the Hemingway House plot was almost an afterthought, - an opportunity missed, Pathfinder was a very specific plan for a sniper with a high powered rifle and scope to soot Castro when he rode in an open jeep to or from the DuPont Xanadu estate, as he frequently did. (14) 

We only know about the Pathfinder plan because a number of National Photo Interpretation Center (NPIC) employees assigned to JM\WAVE station in Miami told the Assassinations Records Review Board  (ARRB) that the Pathfinder records were kept in the NPIC section apart from regular office files. The NPIC supplied detailed photos and layouts of the DuPont estate in support of the Pathfinder plan, but it was "Disapproved," and according to ARRB records the NPIC files were then sent after the assassination to the Smithsonian on orders of RFK.

There are also reports that indicate Rolando Cubela (aka AMLASH) lived next door to the North Shore resort, and the CIA did give him a poison pen and offered a high powered rifle to kill Castro.

Cubela’s case officer, Desmond FitzGerald falsely claimed to represent RFK, and was the same officer who briefed the Joint Chiefs of Staff (on September 25, 1963) on the detailed study of the 1944 plot to kill Hitler to be adapted and used against Castro.

While Pathfinder was a specific tactical plan that was "disapproved," Valkyrie was a strategic plan to kill Hitler, take over the German Nazi government and end World War II, and included a number of participants that became involved in the assassination of President Kennedy.

Pathfinder - Rosselli & RFK at JMWAVE

As Bill Turner concluded, it is now apparent that one of the CIA plots to kill Castro was redirected to JFK at Dealey Plaza, but it hasn't been determined which plan it was, something that I believe can be done.

David Atlee Phillips even said that what happened at Dealey Plaza was the plan they had devised for Castro. (15) 

John Rosselli, who first revealed the CIA - Mafia plots to kill Castro to Jack Anderson, was talking from personal knowledge when he said that one of the CIA anti-Castro Cuban commando teams, trained by JMWAVE and sent in to Cuba was captured, tortured and sent back to kill JFK at Dallas. (16) 

That RFK or JFK knew of or approved that operation is what Peter Dale Scott calls the Phase Three version of events. (17) 

There were numerous such teams that were trained, armed and dispatched to Cuba.  As Watergate burglar Rolando Martinez, a JMWAVE boat Captain said, he took many such teams to Cuba armed with high powered rifles with scopes, “not to be used to hunt rabbits.” (18)

Most significant is the JMWAVE team sent in on October 31, 1963 - David Atlee Phillips birthday. That team and their weapons were captured and paraded on Cuban TV, and their names are published by Carlos Bringuier in his book, Red Friday. (19) 

That mission also exposed Collins Radio on the front page of the New York Times  as a cover-company for the CIA. (20) 

Rosselli would have first hand knowledge of these affairs because of his close personal and professional association with William Harvey, head of the CIA's Cuban Task Force W until he was replaced by Desmond FitzGerald. Harvey was Rosselli’s CIA case officer and drinking buddy. (21)

Known as "Colonel Rosselli" at JMWAVE training bases in the Everglades and remote regions of the Florida Keys, Rosselli "sponsored" one of the commando maritime teams, as did Clare Booth Luce and William Paley. (22) 

In support of these Cuban operations the Army assigned two US Army Rangers, Captain Bradley Ayers and Major Edward Roderick, to train the Cubans in small boat handling, explosives, firearms and basic sniper techniques. (23) 

Ayers detailed his work at JMWAVE in two books, The War that Never Was and the Zenith Secret. While Ayers as a soldier was exempt from the CIA's publishing review rules, his first book was edited and censored in parts by his publisher Bobs-Merrell, who maintained offices at the Texas School Book Depository, and whose legal attorney was William Harvey after he left the CIA. (24) 

While Ayers trained a team led by Julio Fernandez, one of Clare Booth Luce's "boys," as she put it, Roderick trained Rosselli's team at Point Mary, near Key Largo. While Roderick's specialty was explosives and ordnance, Point Mary was known as the remote range were they trained the snipers. (25) 

Ayers said that he saw Colonel Roselli at a paramilitary training base in Florida, where RFK once visited by helicopter and personally met some of the commandos being trained for infiltration missions. And Ayers says he was personally introduced to RFK at a CIA JMWAVE safe house mixer on a golf course where RFK met some of the senior JMWAVE officials and case officers who were to carry out these plans on infiltration missions. (26) 

While Pathfinder was officially “disapproved,” other missions were approved by the National Security Council, including destruction of industrial economic targets such as oil facilities, missions that Ayer’s teams were trained for. (27) 

Just as RFK’s close association with some of the Bay of Pigs survivors jeopardized his security, so did his meeting Cuban commandos and JMWAVE case officers who supervised them.

At the time of the Garrison investigation in New Orleans, Jack Martin (Scruggs), the first to call attention to Oswald’s association with Guy Banister and David Ferrie, later wrote a series of articles for a Houston, Texas weekly co-authored with David Lewis, who also claimed to have known Oswald. In one of these articles - the other Martin and Lewis wrote about the “Homme Report,” a Congressional Report they said implicated RFK in the CIA plots to kill Castro.

(28) 

The Phase Three scenario, another fall back position, after the Castro Commie Conspiracy and Lone Nut scenarios are dismissed, is that JFK was killed by a conspiracy his brother Robert knew about and approved.

[For footnotes - see below - still in progress] 

The Strategic Plan - Valkyrie II

If Pathfinder was the tactical "off the shelf" sniper plan to kill Castro that was officially "disapproved," and turned on JFK at Dealey Plaza, then Valkyrie was the overall strategic plan that was originally designed by Nazi military officers to kill Hitler, that was studied by the CIA to be used against Castro, but turned up in Dealey Plaza instead.

From what we know happened at Dealey Plaza it fits the Pathfinder tactical plan as a sniper ambush of a target riding in a moving open vehicle, an in the field - on the ground operation that was part of a larger strategic plan to not only kill the president but psychological deceptions to ensure the tactical operators escaped and those actually responsible were never identified or brought to justice.

This overall strategic plan would also see to the takeover of the federal government, control vital  communications and the news and media so in the words of the Valkyrie planners "only the conspiracy speaks."

There were five specific aspects of the Valkyrie plan that appear at Daley Plaza - five aspects that fits like a glove and constitute what Senator Richard Schweiker called "the fingerprints of intelligence."

The five attributes that Valkyrie shares with the Dealey Plaza operation are:

1) There were a number of key characters who were personally involved in the original Valkyrie operation and also with what happened at Dealey Plaza - including Mary Bancroft, best friend of Michael Paine's mother, who Ruth Paine was with when she invited Marina to live with her, Mary Bancroft's lover Alan Dulles who helped design the original Valkyrie plan with Hans Bernd Gisivious, and Volkmar Schmidt, who mentioned the Valkyrie plot to Oswald when he first met him.

2) The operation would piggy back on an already approved operation and be conducted in mutable phases one part of which would be approved by the victim. Just as Hitler approved the Phase One part of Valkyrie for the Home Army to take over the major capitol buildings if foreign slave laborers rioted, JFK, RFK were asked to approve the covert operations against Cuba including Pathfinder and other plans to kill Castro, that would backfire against them. 

3) The operation would utilize the Home Guard in Germany to carry out the original Valkyrie plan while the US Army Reserves units in Dallas would carry out the operations on the ground at Dealey Plaza. Exactly how this was done will be explained in detail.

4) Just as the original Valkyrie plan included a deception plan to blame the assassination of Hitler on the SS and Gestapo, evidence planted at Dealey Plaza would implicate Communists and Castro with the intention of sparking a full scale invasion of Cuba.

5) Unlike the Valkyrie plan that included the takeover of radio and newspapers by the Home Guard,  "so only the conspiracy speaks," this was accomplished on 11/22/63 by the Collins Radio company control of the Air Force One radio communications, and the management of the major media by the CIA's ongoing Mockingbird program.

This fifth attribute comes into play during the flight home aboard Air Force One when the radio communications were controlled by Collins Radio, the same company that provided corporate cover for the CIA radar ship Rex, and after touchdown by LBJ's use of his Executive Office phones to ensure the planed Phase One scenario - of a Cuban Communist conspiracy was replaced with the Phase Two lone but case.

The Phase One deception plan failed to take hold not only because it was clearly transparent and untrue, but it was rejected by LBJ personally because he recognized it would lead to a full scale invasion of Cuba and nuclear missile exchange with the Soviets. This Phase One plan is still brought out and paraded before the public on occasion. 

ACSI - Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence - US Army Reserves

While the use of the Home Guard in Germany as part of the Valkyrie plan is clear, - I can hear the groans of those who are unfamiliar with the role at Dealey Plaza of the officers and men under the command of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence - ACSI. 

Like the CIA and ONI, ACSI is a full-fledged intelligence agency run out of the Pentagon, but unlike the CIA it is not prevented from operating within the USA. 

According to the Church Committee ACSI is also the office where the military's MKULTRA drug testing experiments were conducted. 

ACSI is the intelligence section of the Army Reserves - the weekend warriors who are called up to serve during domestic disasters, civil riots and disturbances, as well as deployed overseas.

ACSI comes into the Dealey Plaza picture multiple times.

1) I wasn't aware of ACSI until I read a book, Our Man in Acapulco, the autobiography of Colonel Frank M. "Brandy" Brandstetter, the Dallas resident and manager of the Havana Hilton when Castro first took over and made the Hilton his residence and headquarters. Brandy was proud of the fact that he was a Colonel in the Army Reserves and the fact he didn't take orders through channels but reported directly to Lt. Colonel William Rose, chief of the Army Reserves intelligence branch - ACSI.

2) I picked up interest in ACSI when I discovered that after George deMohrenschildt visited Oswald, saw the rifle, suspected and joked about Oswald taking a shot at Walker, he left for Haiti. DeMohrenschildtz later found a backyard photo Oswald gave him holding the rifle inscribed "Hunter of Fascists, ha ha." Before going to Haiti DeMohrenschiltz visited CIA officers in New York City and then went to Washington DC where he met with Dorothie Matlack and Colonel Sam Kail of ACSI, Kail had been previously posted to the US embassy in Havana where he worked with Brandy, David Atlee Phillips and David Morales. Did DeMohrenschildtz tell them about Oswald, the rifle and Walker? 

3) While deMohrensciltz went to Haiti, Oswald went to New Orleans where he got an apartment on Magazine Street. A week before Oswald himself knew he would be living there, his future residence would be known by Dr.\Col. Jose Rivera, of US Army Reserves ACSI, who also expressed knowledge of Oswald shooting at Walker. How did he know that if DeMohrenschildt didn't tell them? 

4) Back on the ground in Dallas, a few days before the assassination, on November 19, Ruth Paine and Marina were visited in Irving by Colonel James "JD" Wilmerth, USAR-ACSI, who questioned them for hours.

5) Although he wasn't approved by the Secret Service, the Pilot car that drove a half mile ahead of the motorcade included a backseat passenger Lt. Colonel George Whitmyer, who was responsible for all US Army Reserve operations in that region of Texas, the guy Colonel Brandy didn't report to.

6) The driver of the pilot car, Dallas Police Captain Lumpkin, did report to him, as did most of the DPD Special Services Unit that worked out of a special office at the Texas State Fairgrounds. The Pilot car was responsible for observing the motorcade route to determine if everything was safe and to look for any possible hazards or potential problems. None were seen. When Lumpkin made the turn from Houston to Elm he pulled to the curb in front of the Texas Schoolbook Depository to tell one of the three traffic policemen that the motorcade was a few minutes away, inadvertently informing the Sixth Floor sniper sixty feet above them, rifle in hand.

7) Then in the hours after the assassination, Col. Jack Crichton, 488th Military Intelligence detachment, USAR-ACSI, provided the Dallas Police with an interpreter, who misinterpreted key elements of Marina Oswald's statements. Crichton was also responsible for operating the Emergency Management Command Post that was located in a nuke proof underground bunker at the Texas State Fairgrounds, near the DPD Special Services Unit offices.

8) Another DPD Special Services officer who served in the Army Reserves (Springfellow), based on Marina's statements, sent an official message to the US Air Force Tactical Strike Command in support of the Phase One - Castro Cuban Conspiracy, apparently before LBJ put the skids on it and reverted to the Phase Two lone but scenario.

So while there were many domestic intelligence agencies represented at Dealey Plaza, ACSI was all over the place, and their files and records should reflect the key roles their officers played before, during and after the assassination.

Actionable Intelligence on Valkyrie and Pathfinder Plans 

      1  - Support Jim Lesar's Valkyrie FOIA; maybe use July 20 as a promotional date;

      2 -  Support Tony Bothello's FOIA appeals on Rosselli, et al;

      3 - See that relevant records are included in JFK Collection and review them including ACSI, JMWAVE, Task Force W, JCS, NPIC, Pathfinder, Hemingway House, DuPont Estate, NPIC records at the Smithsonian, etc.;

     4 - File new FOIA requests under the new revised FOIA law for military and CIA records on US Ranger Capt. Bradley Ayers, Maj. Edward Ridderick and all of the ACSI Colonels.

      5 - Get a copy of the so-called Homme Report from Congress; (possibly a Canadian Senate report).

      6 - Get all information available on each of the three dozen or so examples - case studies of the specific attempts to blame the JFK assassination on Castro and apply the STASM formula for detecting and exposing such black propaganda. 

      7 - The co-author of Brandy's autobiographies lives in DC and says that he has boxes of Brandy's papers that could shed some additional light on these matters. 

Footnotes to Of Plots and Plans - Pathfinder and Valkyrie 

(1) See: MO - Modus Operandi 

(2) Covert Op - defined and law 

(3) Executive Action - the movie 

(4) Mathew Smith - The Second Plot 

(5) Bugsy Siegel shot by sniper. 

(6) HSCA testimony of mob expert on FBI tap tapes. 

(7) CIA and Castro under Eisenhower 

(8) RFK and the plots. When he learned of them he said, "I put a stop to it." 

(9) William Harvey replaced by Desmond FitzGerald. 

(10) Desmond FitzGerald briefs JCS - See: Higgins Memo

(11) OpPlans for invasion of Cuba - See: Mary Ferrell 

(12) Robert Oswald - Frontline and book - "Lee" 

(13) Hemingway House plot - See: The Old Man and the CIA - The Nation.

(14) Pathfinder 

(15) David Atlee Phillips on Oswald 

(16) John Rosselli on turned teams.

(17) Peter Dale Scott on Phase III - Blame Bobby 

(18) Rolando Martinez as JMWAVE boat captain.

(19) Bringuier, Red Friday list of commando names 

(20 ) New York Times, November 1, 1963, page 1, article and photo on the Rex. 

(21) William Harvey and John Rosselli - 

(22) Clare Booth Luce and William Pawley as Cuban commando team boat sponsors 

(23) Ayers, Bradley - "The War that Never Was" and "Zenith Secret" re: US Army Ranger Capt. Ayers and Maj. Edward Rodderick assigned to CIA JMWAVE. 

(24) William Harvey at Bobbs-Merrell

(25) Point Mary sniper team training. 

(26) RFK at JMWAVE and Op Training Base in Everglades. Ayers, Bradley 

(27) Pathfinder "disapproved" while others approved by National Security Council. 

(28) Martin, Jack (Scruggs) writes about the Homme Report. 

Matthew Smith - The Second Plot - Brings Dealey Plaza into Focus

JFK - The Second Plot - by Matthew Smith (Mainstream Press 1992)

"Escalante's interest in the Kennedy assassination, I later learned, stemmed from his belief that Oswald's association with the FPCC and his visit to Mexico City to obtain a visa to Cuba prior to the assassination were CIA planned ploys to established a link between the Kennedy murder and Fidel Castro. This false link, Escalante figured, was designed to arrouse the American people to demand retaliatory action against Castro."  - Gaeton Fonzi - 1996

 - And Why, By the away, Is Fidel Castro Still Live? - The Inside Story of Cuban Intelligence -
Mary Ferrell Foundation - Essays 


Castro and JFK - the Second Plot was to blame Castro for JFK's assassination.

There is more at stake in finding Kennedy's killers than the satisfaction of curiosity. It has to do with the power of good and the power of evil. The power of good took a nasty knock on 22 November 1963 in the Dealey Plaza. Evil certainly triumphed that day. But there is something innate in us all which demands this be put right. This, above all, is why the Kennedy conspirators must be unmasked, and this is why those researching and conducting investigations into the assassination will never cease their work until their task is done.

Perhaps the most important feature of my own research has been how clearly it has matched that of researchers in the United States. My own technique, from early days, has been largely concerned with recognizing patterns in the evidence. I drew conclusions which, time after time, were confirmed by my colleagues working close to the scene of things in the United States, which was gratifying since, for so long, I had to be content with being the 'armchair detective'. When my most recent work produced the pattern which advertised the existence of the second plot, it was natural that this should be the subject of a book.

Once I recognized what it represented, a pattern crystallized immediately, and development of the pattern answered questions which had remained unanswered since Day One. The pattern embraced every part of Lee Harvey Oswald's role in the assassination and indicated what was intended for him had the plan not gone awry.

Once the existence of the second plot was recognized the remainder of the conspiracy assumed a new perspective. It finally made sense, and for the first time Oswald was clear to me.

Oswald, blamed for the assassination, was not expected to be investigated personally. There was a hint here of what the second plot was all about. Oswald, in their plan, escaped to Cuba. The Cubans had sent him. It was as plain as the nose on your face. There was nothing to investigate.

To assassination researchers, investigators and to others concerned with seeking the truth, Lee Harvey Oswald was the great enigma. He provided the central (piece) to the  puzzle to all that happened that day in the Dealey Plaza, and many have tried, without success, to identify his role in the conspiracy to kill the President. The trouble was reminiscent of completing a jigsaw puzzle and finding pieces left over. Different people putting the jigsaw together produced different pictures, but always there was a residue of pieces that did not fit.....There is only one thing about which every researcher is in agreement: Oswald was involved in the murder of the President, but on the subject of exactly how there is no accord.

The trouble the researchers have met in grappling with the conspiracy to kill the President was that it was simply overwhelming in its proportions and its complexity. It was a monstrous conundrum, the likes of which, in all the annals of crime, had never before been encountered. But the basic problem with examining the assassination data was the conspiracy was perceived as one enormous plot and the perception of it was calculated to make it appear overwhelming.

The fact that researchers brilliantly compartmentalized the vast available data did not change the basic concept of one crime - one plot.

The tantalizing jigsaw pieces would simply not lock together onto one picture, and there was a very good reason for it: they made two pictures, not one. To complicate matters, the pictures overlapped, and shared an area which was common to both, much in the same way that two overlapping circles feature a segment common to both..

To recognize this is to take the first step towards unravelling the complexities of the plan to kill the president. In the planning, preparation and execution of the crime there were two plots which worked independently of one another.

The first - the main tier - plot was at least simple on concept. A team of marksmen were to be assembled in various positions in Dealey Plaza, and they were to ambush the President as his limousine made its way down Elm Street, catching him in a crossfire from which there would be no chance of survival.

The second plot provided not only for the escape of the marksmen, but for the concealment of the identities of those who had sent them by the laying of the blame at the door of Fidel Castro.

It is when this detail of the second plot is understood that the framework of the entire conspiracy is exposed.

The details of the second plot forms a complete, recognizable pattern which interlocks with the main tier plot in such a way as to show the full intentions of the conspirators.....not merely exposing the Grand Plan, we have accounted for its execution to the point where it broke down.

It is not that all aspects of it are entirely unheard of - Senator Richard Schweiker was quoted by author Anthony Summers as saying as long ago as 1978: 'I personally believe Oswald had a special relationship with one of the intelligence agencies, but which one I'm not certain. But all the fingerprints I found during my eighteen months on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence points to Oswald as being a product of, and interacting with, the intelligence community.'

As a HSCA investigator put it: 'In the months leading up to the assassination....Oswald was no longer quite sure who he was working for, or why. Somebody was using him, and they knew exactly how and why.'

The notion that the second plot existed was derived from a logical progression of the observed pattern created by established data, combined with and supported by the available factual indications. The observed pattern was, in basis, a relatively simple one, which recommended it at the outset. In the very best tradition it was discovered by accident and quickly recognized as embracing all those known facts about Oswald which have proved so hard to comprehend.They are now in the context which can be understood, a context that makes sense.

There was a common belief, in the period immediately following the assassination, that Fidel Castro was responsible for Kennedy's death....The assassination of Kennedy was seen as a straightforward case of the boot being put on the other foot, with Castro obtaining a mighty retribution against the bully United States. If evidence came to light that this was the case, a war would have been the more likely outcome.

The student of these matters...will have recognized, looking at the evidence through a different pair of eyes, indications of the activities of the renegades through all the stages of the second p!ot as they have been traced.

The main tier plot was principally concerned with providing a well-rehearsed team of marksmen and law enforcement officers in position to plant evidence that would incriminate Oswald. The main tier plot probably required no more than one or two 'arrangers' to organize and supervise the carrying out of these tasks.

Having analyzed the conspiracy as far as our present knowledge allows us, it is an interesting exercise to try and work out, on a partially, but not entirely speculative basis, exactly how the conspiracy came to be. Here we are referring as much to the actual participants, witting or unwitting, but the shadowy people behind the shooting of the President. The conspirators had names and it is likely all of them at one time or another had shaken the hand of the President.

From the way the second plot activities were carried out, it can be recognized that the CIA renegades were fairly senior - or even highly placed - operatives, who were able to command obedience from a large number of people within the Agency....A significant number of agents were deployed by them and CIA resources of many kinds were used in the mounting of the plot. It is unlikely that the agents at ground level were in any way taken into the confidence of those who were illegally running them, and the orders they carried out would be indistinguishable from legitimate instructions. The very nature of the intelligence operation made it easy for it to be 'borrowed' for illicit purposes by those who worked for it.

So the two plots were meticulously put into operation. The team of marksmen were recruited and drilled. Weapons were prepared, heights and distances calculated in relation to motion: this was to be a once-only event and it must succeed the first time. There must be no escape from it. But for all its precision and careful planning, the first plot by itself added up to little more than a bunch of hi-tech bandits lying in wait to spring an ambush on the President.

All the real sophistication lay in the planning and execution of the second plot. Without the second plot the shooters would have been exposed. But then all was well with the second plot. It was  as meticulously planned as the ambush. All the right ingredients were there and, like the first plot, it was timed with great accuracy. As with the marksman's operation, there was no margin for error. It must dovetail with precision into the overall plan.

END Matthew Smith

Bill Kelly Notes: Oswald a key player as the Patsy what happened at Dealey Plaza was a covert operation, it was a plan not just a plot and the plan included the caveat of blaming the murder of Oswald and Castro, a part of the plan that failed.