CIA admits George Joannides role with DRE before JFK assassination

[Jon Banks]

Axios: CIA admits shadowy officer monitored Oswald before JFK assassination, new records reveal

For the first time since President Kennedy's assassination nearly 62 years ago, the CIA has tacitly admitted that an officer specializing in psychological warfare ran an operation that came into contact with Lee Harvey Oswald before the Dallas killing.

Why it matters: The disclosure Thursday — nestled in a batch of 40 documents concerning officer George Joannides — indicates the CIA lied for decades about his role in the Kennedy case before and after the assassination, according to experts on JFK's slaying.

The linchpin document: A Jan. 17, 1963, CIA memo showing Joannides was directed to have an alias and fake driver's license bearing the name "Howard Gebler."

Until Thursday, the agency had denied that Joannides was known as "Howard," the case officer name for the CIA contact who worked with activists from an anti-communist group opposed to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro called the Cuban Student Directorate.

For decades, the agency also falsely said it had nothing to do with the student group, which was instrumental in having Oswald's pro-Castro stances published soon after the shooting.

Zoom out: The new documents don't shed any additional light on Kennedy's shooting or settle the controversy over whether Oswald acted alone. Nor is there any evidence showing why the CIA covered up Joannides' ties to DRE.

All the records disclosed so far show how the CIA lied about financing or being involved with DRE. That includes the agency's interactions with the Warren Commission (1964), the Church Committee (1975), the House Select Committee on Assassinations (1977-78) and the Assassination Review Board (until 1998).

The intrigue: Joannides didn't just have knowledge of Oswald before the assassination — afterward he played a central role in deceiving the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

At the time, the CIA appointed Joannides to be its liaison with the committee. But he and the agency hid the fact that he was involved with DRE and therefore the Kennedy case, slow-walked the CIA's production of records, and lied.

The committee's chief counsel, Robert Blakey, testified in 2014 that he asked Joannides about "Howard" and DRE, and that "Joannides assured me that they could find no record of any such officer assigned to DRE, but that he would keep looking," Blakey said.

A former committee investigator, Dan Hardway, testified before a House Oversight committee last month that Joannides was running a "covert operation" to undermine the congressional probe into the assassination.

Two years after stonewalling the committee, Joannides was awarded the Career Intelligence Medal by the CIA in 1981. He died in 1990.

Link - https://www.axios.com/2025/07/05/cia-agent-oswald-kennedy-assassination


This new revelation doesn't prove the CIA was involved with the JFK assassination. At worst, it proves that they lied in order to cover up an operation in 1963 which directly or indirectly involved Lee Harvey Oswald.

The innocent speculation is that Oswald's fake Fair Play for Cuba chapter in New Orleans in 1963 and his public confrontation with Cuban exiles was part of an operation which was unrelated to the JFK assassination. Perhaps the CIA covered this stuff up due to embarrassment over being associated with the President's assassin.

The more conspiratorial speculation is that Oswald was unwittingly being framed as a devout Cuba/Castro supporter in the weeks leading up to November 22, 1963. Joannides was the case officer for the Cubans that Oswald interacted with and was later confronted by in New Orleans. The same group of Cubans published press releases in 1963 linking Castro to the JFK assassination via Oswald.

Kudos to Jefferson Morley for finally getting more of the Joannides documents de-classified.

Questions for the LN'ers on the board:

- If the CIA didn't assign Joannides to be the liaison for the HSCA for the purpose of obstruction, what's the innocent explanation? Of all the employees they could've given that job to, they brought Joannides out of retirement for what other reason?

- Why has the CIA waited more than 30 years since Joannides' death to confirm his role in running the DRE group?

[Tom Graves]

Axios: CIA admits shadowy officer monitored Oswald before JFK assassination, new records reveal


Link - https://www.axios.com/2025/07/05/cia-agent-oswald-kennedy-assassination


This new revelation doesn't prove the CIA was involved with the JFK assassination. At worst, it proves that they lied in order to cover up an operation in 1963 which directly or indirectly involved Lee Harvey Oswald.

The innocent speculation is that Oswald's fake Fair Play for Cuba chapter in New Orleans in 1963 and his public confrontation with Cuban exiles was part of an operation which was unrelated to the JFK assassination. Perhaps the CIA covered this stuff up due to embarrassment over being associated with the President's assassin.

The more conspiratorial speculation is that Oswald was unwittingly being framed as a devout Cuba/Castro supporter in the weeks leading up to November 22, 1963. Joannides was the case officer for the Cubans that Oswald interacted with and was later confronted by in New Orleans. The same group of Cubans published press releases in 1963 linking Castro to the JFK assassination via Oswald.

Kudos to Jefferson Morley for finally getting more of the Joannides documents de-classified.

Questions for the LN'ers on the board:

- If the CIA didn't assign Joannides to be the liaison for the HSCA for the purpose of obstruction, what's the innocent explanation? Of all the employees they could've given that job to, they brought Joannides out of retirement for what other reason?

- Why has the CIA waited more than 30 years since Joannides' death to confirm his role in running the DRE group?

Haven't you read W. Tracy Parnell's thoughts on the Axios article?

https://wtracyparnell.blogspot.com/search/label/Jefferson%20Morley

[Jon Banks]

Haven't you read W. Tracy Parnell's thoughts on the Axios article?

https://wtracyparnell.blogspot.com/search/label/Jefferson%20Morley

We're back to strawman arguments I see.

No one is suggesting that this new information is a "Smoking Gun". At worst, it proves that the CIA lied and obstructed investigations into their role in running the DRE operation.

In a healthy Democracy, citizens should be outraged to learn that a government agency lied and obstructed justice in a matter related to the murder of a head of state.

[W. Tracy Parnell]

We're back to strawman arguments I see.

No one is suggesting that this new information is a "Smoking Gun". At worst, it proves that the CIA lied and obstructed investigations into their role in running the DRE operation.

In a healthy Democracy, citizens should be outraged to learn that a government agency lied and obstructed justice in a matter related to the murder of a head of state.

The "smoking gun" refers to Morley's 2022 claim that has mow been debunked. He said the 44 documents (now released) would prove an "Oswald Operation." They do not.

This article tries to clear up a few things:

https://wtracyparnell.blogspot.com/2025/07/morley-and-followers-revel-in.html

[Jon Banks]

The "smoking gun" refers to Morley's 2022 claim that has mow been debunked. He said the 44 documents (now released) would prove an "Oswald Operation." They do not.

This article tries to clear up a few things:

https://wtracyparnell.blogspot.com/2025/07/morley-and-followers-revel-in.html

If you want me to give your blog clicks, first take a stab at my questions:

Questions for the LN'ers on the board:

- If the CIA didn't assign Joannides to be the liaison for the HSCA for the purpose of obstruction, what's the innocent explanation? Of all the employees they could've given that job to, they brought Joannides out of retirement for what other reason?

- Why has the CIA waited more than 30 years since Joannides' death to confirm his role in running the DRE group?

[W. Tracy Parnell]

If you want me to give your blog clicks, first take a stab at my questions:

Questions for the LN'ers on the board:

- If the CIA didn't assign Joannides to be the liaison for the HSCA for the purpose of obstruction, what's the innocent explanation? Of all the employees they could've given that job to, they brought Joannides out of retirement for what other reason?

- Why has the CIA waited more than 30 years since Joannides' death to confirm his role in running the DRE group?

One explanation for your first question is that Joannides may not have been brought out of retirement at all.  Several researchers are looking into this as we speak. Morley stated this many years ago and everyone accepted it. But now we have found out that Joannides was working for East Asia division just before he took the HSCA assignment. An alternative explanation for assigning him to the HSCA job was simply that Breckinridge (his boss) assumed he would be good at it.

The CIA did not wait 30 years after Joannides' death to confirm his role in running the group. Indeed, they supplied documents to ARRB researcher Michelle Combs in the late nineties that not only showed Joannides ran the group but also that his registered CIA pseudonym was Walter Newby. What has taken many years is the release of documents showing Joannides was "Howard." The reason for this is unclear.