Morley: Major Break Coming in the JFK Assassination Story

[Paul J Cummings]

Jefferson Morley makes reckless and unsubstantiated claims? If anything Morley is the opposite and backs up with what he writes. IMO Morley doesn't go far enough.

[Jon Banks]

It seems there are two people: one is Jefferson Morley who makes reckless and unsubstantiated claims and a second is Morley Jefferson who, as he did on the Beck show, is more cautious and careful. With a tip of the hat to John Armstrong.

The "COINTELPRO-was-a-joint-CIA/FBI operation" is another new claim. Seems that both figures can't resist making that one. I suppose the CiA received intelligence from FBI operations - the suspicion that I've read somewhere was that FPCC was funded/directed by Havana - but sharing intelligence is not, for me, a joint operation. I guess Morley/Jefferson thinks differently.

I don’t know if it’s accurate to say COINTELPRO was a “joint FBI-CIA operation” but the two agencies did collaborate on some COINTELPRO operations.

Both agencies had an interest in the Fair Play for Cuba organization and may have collaborated on a psychological operation targeting the group. Lee Harvey Oswald may have wittingly or unwittingly been used in one of their psy-ops. A mountain of circumstantial evidence supports Morley and John Newman’s theory.

Author David Kaiser on the COINTELPRO-FPCC operation:

“I wrote in The Road to Dallas that Oswald’s whole FPCC operation was evidently part of the COINTELPRO operation the FBI was running against that organization.  I also said, though, that that did not mean he was working directly for the FBI, which frequently subcontracted COINTELPRO to right wing groups.

“Oswald’s operation, it seems to me, had two goals: 1) to identify pro-Castro activists in New Orleans (this was a failure, he never smoked out anyone), and 2) to discredit the FPCC as a Communist front (which is what the radio debate did.)

“I do think that the New Orleans’ FBI reaction to Oswald’s arrest, etc., showed that they knew the whole FPCC chapter was fake.  They made no real attempt to run it down–whereas that very same summer, when a chapter of SANE, I believe, a ban-the-bomb group, was formed in New Orleans, they were all over it.  What is even more interesting, to me, is that none of the reports that the FBI did file on Oswald and the FPCC actually said, ‘there wasn’t any chapter. He was acting on his own, period’.”

https://jfkfacts.org/oswald-fair-play-cuba-committee/

[Steve M. Galbraith]

I don’t know if it’s accurate to say COINTELPRO was a “joint FBI-CIA operation” but the two agencies did collaborate on some COINTELPRO operations.

Both agencies had an interest in the Fair Play for Cuba organization and may have collaborated on a psychological operation targeting the group. Lee Harvey Oswald may have wittingly or unwittingly been used in one of their psy-ops. A mountain of circumstantial evidence supports Morley and John Newman’s theory.

Author David Kaiser on the COINTELPRO-FPCC operation:

“I wrote in The Road to Dallas that Oswald’s whole FPCC operation was evidently part of the COINTELPRO operation the FBI was running against that organization.  I also said, though, that that did not mean he was working directly for the FBI, which frequently subcontracted COINTELPRO to right wing groups.

“Oswald’s operation, it seems to me, had two goals: 1) to identify pro-Castro activists in New Orleans (this was a failure, he never smoked out anyone), and 2) to discredit the FPCC as a Communist front (which is what the radio debate did.)

“I do think that the New Orleans’ FBI reaction to Oswald’s arrest, etc., showed that they knew the whole FPCC chapter was fake.  They made no real attempt to run it down–whereas that very same summer, when a chapter of SANE, I believe, a ban-the-bomb group, was formed in New Orleans, they were all over it.  What is even more interesting, to me, is that none of the reports that the FBI did file on Oswald and the FPCC actually said, ‘there wasn’t any chapter. He was acting on his own, period’.”

https://jfkfacts.org/oswald-fair-play-cuba-committee/

Kaiser: "I do think" and "it seems to me" and "was evidently part of". That's pretty weak stuff, don't you think? It's okay for a blog post but in a published book?

He also believes that Oswald was pulling a Herbert Philbrick and pretending to be a leftist; in reality he was a gung-ho patriotic American working with the FBI (but not the CIA apparently) who was protecting us from Marxism. Everything up is really down.

Anyway, why in the heck would the FBI need a person like Oswald (not exactly Prince Charming) to infiltrate and discredit a non-existent FPCC movement in New Orleans? There's nothing to infiltrate.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

Morley admits on some occasions (as with Beck) that he is guessing and speculating about Joannides and whether Oswald was used in a covert operation but on other occasions makes unqualified absolute claims on the same matter. He says he/we need access to the files on Joannides to be sure.

Here's an example (from his book Morley v. CIA): "I saw that George Joannides played a significant but secondary role in the story of the killing of JFK."

He doesn't have the slightest idea as to what role Joannides played in the killing much less a significant one. This is why he is asking for the files; to see if he did have any role. There's lot more of these types of unproven claims involving Angleton and others.

That's most emphatically not someone who is being cautious about making unproven claims. Does he know what Joannides/CI did or doesn't he? He can be one or the other but not both.

[W. Tracy Parnell]

Morley admits on some occasions (as with Beck) that he is guessing and speculating about Joannides and whether Oswald was used in a covert operation but on other occasions makes unqualified absolute claims on the same matter. He says he/we need access to the files on Joannides to be sure.

Here's an example (from his book Morley v. CIA): "I saw that George Joannides played a significant but secondary role in the story of the killing of JFK."

He doesn't have the slightest idea as to what role Joannides played in the killing much less a significant one. This is why he is asking for the files; to see if he did have any role. There's lot more of these types of unproven claims involving Angleton and others.

That's most emphatically not someone who is being cautious about making unproven claims. Does he know what Joannides/CI did or doesn't he? He can be one or the other but not both.

100 percent right.

[Jon Banks]

He also believes that Oswald was pulling a Herbert Philbrick and pretending to be a leftist; in reality he was a gung-ho patriotic American working with the FBI (but not the CIA apparently) who was protecting us from Marxism. Everything up is really down.

None of us can know for certain what Oswald really believed.

What we do know is:

- He had many rightwing or anti-communist associates, but no Leftist associates.

- He portrayed himself publicly as supporting both the Communist Party and the Socialist Workers Party. The problem with that is that the groups were bitter rivals in Oswald's time. So it makes little sense that someone would support both. It would be like supporting the Libertarian Party and the Republican Party. And maybe Oswald revealed his true feelings about the Communist Party when he ridiculed them in the Summer of 1963. With his contradictory statements about Communism, Socialism, and Marxism, it's legit to ask questions about what he really believed.

Anyway, why in the heck would the FBI need a person like Oswald (not exactly Prince Charming) to infiltrate and discredit a non-existent FPCC movement in New Orleans? There's nothing to infiltrate.

The FPCC was a national movement with supporters everywhere. While there may not have been a Chapter in New Orleans, it's possible that there were supporters of the FPCC movement in New Orleans. Or maybe they were baiting Communists? Both groups were targeted by the FBI's COINTELPRO operations.

And the FBI uses weird individuals and criminals all the time as informants or assets.

One of the founders of the FPCC, Richard Gibson, was outed as a CIA asset:

CIA Reveals Name of Former Spy in JFK Files—And He's Still Alive

In a strange twist, on April 26, when the National Archives released thousands of documents pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, they included three fat CIA files on Gibson. According to these documents, he had served U.S. intelligence from 1965 until at least 1977. This was well after Wright wrote his book, and it's not clear if Gibson had engaged in espionage before that period. But his files revealed his CIA code name, QRPHONE-1; his salary (as much as $900 a month); and his various missions, as well as his attitude ("energetic") and performance ("a self-starter").

https://www.newsweek.com/richard-gibson-cia-spies-james-baldwin-amiri-baraka-richard-wright-cuba-926428

Gibson was alive at the time when that Newsweek article was published. It was indeed odd that the CIA published the name of an asset while the person is still alive.

[Paul J Cummings]

Morley admits on some occasions (as with Beck) that he is guessing and speculating about Joannides and whether Oswald was used in a covert operation but on other occasions makes unqualified absolute claims on the same matter. He says he/we need access to the files on Joannides to be sure.

Here's an example (from his book Morley v. CIA): "I saw that George Joannides played a significant but secondary role in the story of the killing of JFK."

He doesn't have the slightest idea as to what role Joannides played in the killing much less a significant one. This is why he is asking for the files; to see if he did have any role. There's lot more of these types of unproven claims involving Angleton and others.

That's most emphatically not someone who is being cautious about making unproven claims. Does he know what Joannides/CI did or doesn't he? He can be one or the other but not both.

How long has Morley been researching Joannides? How long was he in the courts trying to get his file? Morley has been researching Joannies for quite a while so if he's speculating he sure isn't pulling it from his ass.