A Question for Steve M. Galbraith

[Tom Graves]

Dear Steve M.,

About six years ago at "Google Groups" you asked me about Ivan Obyedkov, the KGB security officer at the Mexico City Soviet Embassy who on 10/1/63 volunteered to a "forgetful" Oswald or an Oswald impersonator the Department 13-radioactive name "Kostikov" over a sure-to-be-tapped-by-CIA phone line, and whose name James Angleton (or the transcriber) misstated / mis-transcribed as "Byetkov(?)" in his 19 June 1975 Church Committee testimony in which Angleton said, in so many words, that Obyedkov / "Byetkov" was a Kremlin-loyal triple agent whom the CIA mistakenly believed it had successfully recruited.

On 5 January 2016, I had posted on David Von Pein's "Oswald and Mexico City" thread:

I believe that, whether or not Oswald went to Mexico City, he was impersonated by a KGB agent in the 10/01/63 phone call to triple-agent
Ivan Obyedkov at the Soviet Embassy so that Obyedkov ("Byetkov"(?)) in Angleton's June 19, 1975 Church Committee testimony) could plant a WWIII Virus in Oswald's CIA file by "volunteering" the radioactive name "Kostikov" to him. There's a torn scrap of paper in CIA files that suggests that this "Oswald" spoke bad *English* and Russian in an earlier phone call, and I believe this can be explained by the Russian impersonator's being unable the correctly pronounce the English words in his script, and his concomitant inadvertently overdoing Oswald's supposed dificulties with the Russian language.

That same day you replied:

The KGB agents/embassy officials who met Oswald in person also said his Russian was poor and broken. As far as I know, neither of the CIA translators who listened to the call - Boris Tarasoff and his wife - said he (or the caller) spoke broken English. Boris did say that the Russian was poor and barely recognizable. Can you cite/link/quote Angleton mentioning this Byetkov figure? I've done a search of the Church Committee hearings and the name "Byetkov" doesn't come up. Neither does Obyedkov. Here's the testimony of the Tarasoff's re the calls: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=258&search=Tarasoff#relPageId=12&tab=page

Having probably missed your reply, I finally got around to replying on 22 April 2019:

Steve [M],

Look at the very first word on this page. 8/12/25 EDIT: I either forget to put the MFF "link" here, was unable to put the link here, or it was deleted. Regardless, here it is.

Scroll down to digital page 63 / paper page 61.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/157-10014-10005.pdf

The name "Obyedkov" (pronounced ahh-bee-ED-cough) 8/11/25 EDIT: Or "ohh-bee-ED-cough" does not appear in Angleton's June 1975 or February 1976 Church Committee testimony transcript.

Why?

Because Angleton evidently said (or tried to say) Obyedkov's name only once (and that was in his June 19, 1975 testimony and it got written down as "Byetkov," instead.

He talks about this triple-agent for about five pages, though, in his February 11 [EDIT: sic; February 6], 1976 testimony, but unfortunately only refers to him as "another hangnail," or some-such thing, i.e., not by name.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=1434#relPageId=50&search=hangnail

It's interesting to note that Angleton and/or the transcriber also had a devil of a time getting the last name of (my "Blond Oswald In Mexico
City"), Nikolai Leonov, correct throughout Angleton's [EDIT: 19 June 1975] testimony [Edit: But not his 6 February 1976 testimony], so it's not so surprising to me that they would stumble on Obyedkov's name, too.

. . . . . . .

Regarding Angleton's statement that "Byetkov(?)" / Obyedkov was a Kremlin-loyal triple agent when Oswald (or an Oswald impostor?) was in Mexico City, here's his CIA 201 file. It's so highly redacted as to suggest to me that Angleton was correct in saying, in so many words, that the CIA mistakenly believed it had successfully recruited him.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=157254#relPageId=1&search=201-779495

Enjoy!


-- Tom

PS Given the fact that you never thanked me for the information on Obyedkov / "Byetkov(?)" I provided you with at "Google Groups," and the fact that you never respond to my rejoinders here, I'm thinking about starting to refer to you as "Hit-and-Run Galbraith" (but I must confess that I really, really like "Steve M.", too).

[Tom Graves]

Where has "Hit-and-Run" Steve M. run away to, now?