Who made the 10/1 call to the MC Sov Emb: LHO, a CIA impersonator or a KGB one?

[Lance Payette]

Additional Russian language trivia:

1. EVERY letter is pronounced. There is no mystery. You can make a good stab at pronouncing a Russian word even if you have no idea what it means, or writing a Russian word you can speak as long as you simply know the alphabet.

2. Many Russian words are simply bastardizations of their English equivalents. The old term for camera is "apparat" (i.e., apparatus). A car is a "machina." Gasoline is "benzina." I remember diligently learning the Pimsleur phrase "I want to play chess" - "Ya haichoo egrat shockmatey." It was long after I learned it that it dawned on me that the mysterious "shockmatey" was simply "checkmate."

3. I have observed, and my wife has strongly reinforced, that Russians from that era were and are WAY more reticent than Americans about engaging in small talk or revealing personal information (because that was a dangerous thing to do). My wife is still aghast at the level of personal information that I and some Walmart cashier will exchange in the course of a checkout. My guess is that what we picture as clever banter at the dance with Marina looked and sounded nothing like an American college party of that era.

[Tom Graves]

Additional Russian language trivia:

1. EVERY letter is pronounced. There is no mystery. You can make a good stab at pronouncing a Russian word even if you have no idea what it means, or writing a Russian word you can speak as long as you simply know the alphabet.

2. Many Russian words are simply bastardizations of their English equivalents. The old term for camera is "apparat" (i.e., apparatus). A car is a "machina." Gasoline is "benzina." I remember diligently learning the Pimsleur phrase "I want to play chess" - "Ya haichoo egrat shockmatey." It was long after I learned it that it dawned on me that the mysterious "shockmatey" was simply "checkmate."

3. I have observed, and my wife has strongly reinforced, that Russians from that era were and are WAY more reticent than Americans about engaging in small talk or revealing personal information (because that was a dangerous thing to do). My wife is still aghast at the level of personal information that I and some Walmart cashier will exchange in the course of a checkout. My guess is that what we picture as clever banter at the dance with Marina looked and sounded nothing like an American college party of that era.

From the "useful idiot" known as Fancy Pants Rants, the Traitorous Orange Xxxx supporter / master of trivia and heart-warming Byelorussian homilies.

[Lance Payette]

It occurred to me: Why did Rimma Shirakova say that Oswald's Russian was so rudimentary that they communicated in English? Why did Ernst Titovets, his closest friend, say that he spoke Russian poorly? Why did no one at the hospital to which he was taken after his dubious suicide attempt report that he was able to communicate in surprisingly good Russian? Why did his would-be fiance, Ella German, describe his communication in Russian as "functional" but his grammar as "horrific"? Why did none of his many, many coworkers and acquaintances who were interviewed by people like Norman Mailer and Peter Vronsky report that his Russian was surprisingly good? Makes no sense. Oh, wait, it does at the Harvey & Lee site: Harvey (or Lee, as the case may be) carefully disguised that he was absolutely fluent and, indeed, a native Russian speaker! Up is down, black is white, Lee Harvey Oswald was actually a native Russian speaker.

Perhaps you folks have seen this, but I hadn't. It is a translation provided to the ARRB of a series of pieces that appeared in Izvestia, one of the two primary Russian newspapers, in August of 1992. It's quite a straightforward piece of reporting about the Belarusian KGB files on Oswald and the intense, 24-hour-a-day surveillance of him: https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10336-10032.pdf. It's surprisingly candid (it seems to me) about the secrecy surrounding the Soviet KGB files and claimed lack of interest in Oswald. The Resident Crazy Person will, of course, claim that it's just a KGB fluff piece, but you can judge that for yourself.

What I found interesting is that the article refers to Oswald's poor Russian language skills in several places. In one, an upstairs neighbor had accidentally left the water running, and it trickled down to Oswald's apartment. He came screaming upstairs to complain, but his Russian skills were so poor that it was difficult to understand him. As time went by, his Russian got "better." This kind of thing is far more telling than anything to which those claiming he had proficiency in Russian can point. A CTer is almost forced to H&L "logic," where his lack of proficiency is actually proof of his fluency.

[Tom Graves]

It occurred to me: Why did Rimma Shirakova say that Oswald's Russian was so rudimentary that they communicated in English? Why did Ernst Titovets, his closest friend, say that he spoke Russian poorly? Why did no one at the hospital to which he was taken after his dubious suicide attempt report that he was able to communicate in surprisingly good Russian? Why did his would-be fiance, Ella German, describe his communication in Russian as "functional" but his grammar as "horrific"? Why did none of his many, many coworkers and acquaintances who were interviewed by people like Norman Mailer and Peter Vronsky report that his Russian was surprisingly good? Makes no sense. Oh, wait, it does at the Harvey & Lee site: Harvey (or Lee, as the case may be) carefully disguised that he was absolutely fluent and, indeed, a native Russian speaker! Up is down, black is white, Lee Harvey Oswald was actually a native Russian speaker.

Perhaps you folks have seen this, but I hadn't. It is a translation provided to the ARRB of a series of pieces that appeared in Izvestia, one of the two primary Russian newspapers, in August of 1992. It's quite a straightforward piece of reporting about the Belarusian KGB files on Oswald and the intense, 24-hour-a-day surveillance of him: https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/104-10336-10032.pdf. It's surprisingly candid (it seems to me) about the secrecy surrounding the Soviet KGB files and claimed lack of interest in Oswald. The Resident Crazy Person will, of course, claim that it's just a KGB fluff piece, but you can judge that for yourself.

What I found interesting is that the article refers to Oswald's poor Russian language skills in several places. In one, an upstairs neighbor had accidentally left the water running, and it trickled down to Oswald's apartment. He came screaming upstairs to complain, but his Russian skills were so poor that it was difficult to understand him. As time went by, his Russian got "better." This kind of thing is far more telling than anything to which those claiming he had proficiency in Russian can point. A CTer is almost forced to H&L "logic," where his lack of proficiency is actually proof of his fluency.

Dear Fancy Pants Rants,

If one of your beloved KGB* officers impersonated Oswald over the phone on 10/1/63, what does it matter how good or bad Oswald's Russian was?

Don't you think your beloved KGB* officer could have intentionally spoken "terrible, hardly recognizable" Russian in doing so?

*Today's SVR and FSB

-- Tom

PS Given the fact that "former" KGB* officer Vladimir Putin installed The Traitorous Orange Xxxx as our "president" on 20 January 2017 and 20 January 2025, do you still think Yuri "The KGB Had Nothing to Do With U-2 Radar Operator Oswald in the USSR" Nosenko was a true physical defector to the U.S. in February 1964?

How about in June 1962 in Geneva?

Was he a true defector-in-place to the CIA in June 1962 in Geneva?

If so, why did he, claiming to have come from a different part of the highly compartmentalized KGB* than then-recent true defector Anatoliy Golitsyn, say so many things that contradicted what Golitsyn had told the CIA six months earlier?

What about KGB* Major Aleksei Kulak, J. Edgar Hoover's shielded-from-CIA FEDORA?

Do you think he truly spied for the FBI for fifteen years?

Do you really think GRU Lt. Col. Pyotr Popov was uncovered by the KGB* in 1959 because it happened to see Embassy employee George Winters mail a letter to him?

Do you deny that an article in a Communist-owed Italian newspaper that was published three days after Jim Garrison arrested Clay Shaw on suspicion of having organized a homosexual "thrill kill" assassination of JFK motivated Garrison to change his theory against Shaw to "He did it for the CIA!!!"?

If so, I've got the proverbial bridge for you in Brooklyn.

[Lance Payette]

The Resident Crazy Person has resorted to what we in the weirdness trade call the Omniscient Villain Ploy. There is essentially no inconvenient fact that the proponent of a wacky theory cannot tap-dance away from by hypothesizing an Omniscient Villain. The Omniscient Villain KGB, you see, had an entire training program whereby agents were trained to speak in clumsy, broken Russian because ... because ... well, hey, because you never know when this facility might come in handy, even in an unlikely spot like Mexico City, and the Omniscient Villain anticipates every conceivable eventuality. I have a hard time trying to picture myself intentionally speaking clumsy, broken English without giggling, but then I didn't undergo the intensive KGB training.

The Omniscient Villain Ploy is very similar to the Up Is Down, Black Is White, True Is False Ploy that one finds throughout the Conspiracy Game. I'll have to add it to my little "Beginner's Guide."

The Resident Crazy Person seems to have an inordinate fondness for Grok, as though it were some Delphic Oracle and he were actually communing with a mind having the capacity for independent thought. I tend to regard AI as little more than a high-tech Ouija board. The notion that a mindless program roaming Everything On the Internet is likely to generate rational answers to complex questions strikes me as self-evidently comical.

But what the hell, I'll play along: I asked Mr. AI, "What is the likelihood that the Russian KGB was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy?" Not quite the same as asking the date of the assassination or how long to bake a potato, which is the sort of thing for which I tend to rely on AI, but certainly more straightforward than the Resident Crazy Person's Mexico City question. Mr. AI replied, in a veritable burst of artificial sanity, as follows:

"Official investigations and historical evidence suggest that the likelihood of the KGB being behind the assassination of President Kennedy is very low. Major governmental reviews and declassified intelligence indicate that the Soviet Union not only lacked a motive but was deeply concerned about being blamed for the event."

Thank you, Mr. AI, you can return to your nap now.

[Tom Graves]

The Resident Crazy Person has resorted to what we in the weirdness trade call the Omniscient Villain Ploy. There is essentially no inconvenient fact that the proponent of a wacky theory cannot tap-dance away from by hypothesizing an Omniscient Villain. The Omniscient Villain KGB, you see, had an entire training program whereby agents were trained to speak in clumsy, broken Russian because ... because ... well, hey, because you never know when this facility might come in handy, even in an unlikely spot like Mexico City, and the Omniscient Villain anticipates every conceivable eventuality. I have a hard time trying to picture myself intentionally speaking clumsy, broken English without giggling, but then I didn't undergo the intensive KGB training.

The Omniscient Villain Ploy is very similar to the Up Is Down, Black Is White, True Is False Ploy that one finds throughout the Conspiracy Game. I'll have to add it to my little "Beginner's Guide."

The Resident Crazy Person seems to have an inordinate fondness for Grok, as though it were some Delphic Oracle and he were actually communing with a mind having the capacity for independent thought. I tend to regard AI as little more than a high-tech Ouija board. The notion that a mindless program roaming Everything On the Internet is likely to generate rational answers to complex questions strikes me as self-evidently comical.

But what the hell, I'll play along: I asked Mr. AI, "What is the likelihood that the Russian KGB was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy?" Not quite the same as asking the date of the assassination or how long to bake a potato, which is the sort of thing for which I tend to rely on AI, but certainly more straightforward than the Resident Crazy Person's Mexico City question. Mr. AI replied, in a veritable burst of artificial sanity, as follows:

"Official investigations and historical evidence suggest that the likelihood of the KGB being behind the assassination of President Kennedy is very low. Major governmental reviews and declassified intelligence indicate that the Soviet Union not only lacked a motive but was deeply concerned about being blamed for the event."

Thank you, Mr. AI, you can return to your nap now.

Dear Fancy Pants Rants,

I'm sorry that, Traitorous Orange Xxxx-lover that you are, you find it so difficult to deal with anything that might suggest that the KGB* was involved in the JFK assassination -- difficult for you because it suggests that it was a lot more powerful back-in-the-day than you want to believe -- and, despite what your beautiful Byelorussian wife has probably led you to believe -- was still sufficiently powerful in November 2016 as to be able to install your hero, the aforementioned Traitorous Orange Xxxx, as our nation-rending "president" on 20 January 2017.

*Today's SVR and FSB

-- Tom

[Lance Payette]

These are available in bulk. Possibly more effective than flooding a JFKA forum with dire warnings? They could probably add your phone number and email address for a modest charge.

[Tom Graves]

These are available in bulk. Possibly more effective than flooding a JFKA forum with dire warnings? They could probably add your phone number and email address for a modest charge.

Dear Fancy Pants Rants,

I'm sorry that, Traitorous Orange Xxxx-lover that you are, you find it so difficult to deal with anything that might suggest that the KGB* was involved in the JFK assassination -- difficult for you because it suggests that it was a lot more powerful back-in-the-day than you want to believe -- and, despite what your beautiful Byelorussian wife has probably led you to believe -- was still sufficiently powerful in November 2016 as to be able to install your hero, the aforementioned Traitorous Orange Xxxx, as our nation-rending "president" on 20 January 2017.

Given the fact that "former" KGB* counterintelligence officer Vladimir Putin did install the Traitorous Orange Xxxx as our nation-rending "president" on 20 January 2017, do you still think Yuri "The KGB Had Nothing to Do With U-2 Radar Operator Oswald in the USSR" Nosenko was a true physical defector to the U.S. in February 1964?

How about in June 1962 in Geneva?

Was he a true defector-in-place to the CIA in June 1962 in Geneva?

If so, why did he, claiming to have come from a different part of the highly compartmentalized KGB* than then-recent true defector Anatoliy Golitsyn, say so many things that contradicted what Golitsyn had told the CIA six months earlier?

What about KGB* Major Aleksei Kulak, J. Edgar Hoover's shielded-from-CIA FEDORA?

Do you think he truly spied for the FBI for fifteen years?

Do you think GRU Lt. Col. Pyotr Popov was uncovered by the KGB* in 1959 because it happened to see Embassy employee George Winters mail a letter to him?

Do you deny that an article in a Communist-owed Italian newspaper that was published three days after Jim Garrison arrested Clay Shaw on suspicion of having organized a homosexual "thrill kill" assassination of JFK motivated Garrison to change his theory against Shaw to "He did it for the CIA!!!"?

Do you think KGB Col. Vitaly "HomesicK" Yurchenko was a true defector to the U.S. in 1985?

If so, I've got the proverbial bridge for you in Brooklyn.

What about Anna Chapman and the Eleven (or was it Twelve?) Dwarfs who were finally rolled up by the gumshoe FBI in 2010?

2010??

Wasn't the Cold War supposed to have ended in 1991 or so?

What about Maria Butina and the NRA?

And what about Igor Danchenko, the Brookings Institution scholar who was being investigated by the FBI as a possible KGB agent from May 2009 to March 2011 when he up and disappeared, only to come back and give mostly worthless "intel" to gullible and/or money-hungry Cristopher Steele?


I could go on and on, but that's enough for now, Fancy Pants Rants.


*Today's SVR and FSB


-- Tom