Possible indications of intelligence involvement by Marina Oswald

[Tom Graves]

CIA report: Possible Indications of Intelligence Involvement by Marina Oswald

1. Mystery of fatherless patronymic. Could be deliberate to obscure a cover-damaging father.

2. Apparently-unexceptional reason for requesting specialized training, and apparent ease with which request granted.

3. Habitual eating out and avoidance of stepfather’s family circle. Would one-third of a death pension support that plus her other expenses such as clothes?

4. Refusal of first job assignment, with no apparent ill-effects.

5. Two-month vacation. What did she live on, even if pension continued? It would be expected that the pension would cease once she was through school and able to support herself.

6.. Discrepancy between Marina’s voluntary move to Minsk and easily-found job there AND her later request to live in Leningrad if allowed to return to the USSR because there are more pharmacies there and it is easier to find work there. It may be suspicious that she found a job as a pharmacist immediately in Minsk.

7. Uncle’s (supposedly innocuous) MVD status and obvious importance as shown by VIP apartment, vacation in Gagra, etc.

8. Questionable aspects of her move to Minsk in 1959: where did she get travel funds? What did she expect to do there, since job prospects were poorer and she did not know in advance that she could stay and live with the Prusakovas? At the time she went there, did she intend to bury herself in Minsk, when she was used to and apparently preferred the big city (Leningrad)?

9. Casual attitude about ignoring Komsomol; no apparent ill effects.

10. Refusal to identify certain individuals in her story, while identifying and giving information on others. Cover story incomplete or forgotten?

11. Several vacations in Minsk while she was still living in Leningrad. Finances? Time off? Why?

12. Complete uncheckableness of her story.

13. Her easy circumvention of hospital regulations merely because she wore a white uniform, especially since visiting Oswald would have drawn special attention because of his being American.

14. Her line of questioning about his motivation, citizenship, plans, etc., when he was in the hospital in Minsk. Knowing that their conversation might be overheard (even if she was unaware of bugging), she would probably have hesitated to put him through this catechism just out of curiosity or in line with a growing romantic interest in him.

15. Discrepancies in various statements attributed to her (such as father unknown OR died when she was two, childhood “gruesome” or just considered unhappy because of her unmanageableness after going to live with her mother and stepfather, etc). Could all of these discrepancies be due to garbling inherent in many interviews (FBI, press, Secret Service)?

16. [MVD Colonel] Prusakova's approval and encouragement of her relationship with Oswald, when he was not only a turncoat American but also a known misfit whom “everybody hated.”

17. Marina's statement that she had not been interviewed by any officials in connection with her marriage and that the only documentation necessary was registration of intent and then certification ten days later. Even Oswald said in the diary that he had to get permission to marry a foreigner.

18. Failure to mention many apparent relatives whom we have managed (or been allowed?) to ferret out from the letters and documents available.

19. Possible open code in letters to her from USSR: the cemetery go-round, coincidence of two correspondents suddenly getting pet dogs and writing her enthusiastically about them (one consuming summer delicacies – hard to get even in summer – in winter), etc.

20. Her quick trip to Moscow in July 1961. How did she get time off? Travel permit? What did she tell friends and relatives, since Oswald was apparently keeping the whole thing quiet (or thought he was)? If she just took off and burned her bridges, it looks as though she might have had reason to believe that they WOULD get out of the USSR and therefore have no consequences to suffer.

21. Her surprisingly quick decision to marry an ill-tempered misfit foreigner.

22. Possibly-strange fact that the Prusakovas were the only relatives to write to her in the US.

23. Whereabouts while briefly separated from Oswald in fall 1962.

24. Possibility that that she was not at Aunt Polina’s for a month in fall 1961, since we have only heard word that she was -- or even that Aunt Polina exists: Oswald, and Aunt Valya are our only say-so.

25. Is it significant that it was Marina who was called to the Minsk passport office 25 December 61 and was told that the visas were granted, when it was Lee who had been dealing with them?

26. Any conclusion to be drawn from the fact that she told the Soviet Embassy in Washington that she would have no one to go to in the USSR because her family and friends had not wanted her to leave, although their letters to her had indicated excitement, curiosity, encouragement parentheses in general and about returning to USSR (a request from one friend to come to Minsk if they returned and were allowed to, etc.?

26 Moroccan student episode, early 1961. If her story is true, it is impossible that she was the girl in this episode, since her residence in Minsk, daily visits to Lee during his hospital stay, etc., would preclude her being in Moscow and dating the Moroccan four-times-a-week till late May. But we have only her words for her story up till the meeting with Lee and only their stories for the subsequent period, and one one way or another, the Moroccan could have been slightly off on his dates, too, and/or could have confused the exact time of his transfer of interest from Marina to Loussa.

27. On 28 July 1961, [KGB defector Pyotr] Deryabin points out, her work booklet shows that she was transferred (apparently promoted) to assistant druggist. This seems very strange, in light of the facts 1) she had just made her visit to the American Embassy and was being subjected to heckling at her place of work (to the extent, Oswald said, that she was hospitalized five days for nervous exhaustion), and 2) plans to leave the USSR, in addition to casting suspicion on her, would remove her from the job shortly.

28. Irregularities in her trade union booklet: 1) no dues from 1956 to 1959, hence she must have had another booklet; Why? How? Where? 2) why no year given in registration and deregistration entries regarding pharmacy school?

29. Length of validity of her passport. Why was it valid from 11 January 62 to 11 January 64, when she was expected to use it just once, before the end of 1962, to immigrate to the US? Even if she asked for long validity with the idea of returning for a visit (but where would she get the money, being married to a man who even had to borrow passage money home?), would the Soviets normally accede to such a request?

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=95568#relPageId=79

[Tom Graves]

https://www.jfkassassinationforum.com/index.php/topic,4747.0.html

Marina Oswald, The Most Interesting Woman in the World. And briefly married to The Most Interesting Man in the World, too. What a coincidence!

I must say, that's a hell of a "non-intelligence agent" act Marina has been pulling off for the past 60+ years.

Dear Fancy Pants Rants,

It sounds as though you've been watching too many old James Bond movies.

-- Tom

[Tommy Shanks]

Tom, I just don't buy that Marina had any connection to Soviet intelligence. Let's say for the sake of argument that she did. Did the KGB just promptly abandon her once she and Lee moved back to the U.S.? Marina lived a miserable life of poverty and abuse from that point forward. So, what changed?

[Tom Graves]

Tom, I just don't buy that Marina had any connection to Soviet intelligence. Let's say for the sake of argument that she did. Did the KGB just promptly abandon her once she and Lee moved back to the U.S.? Marina lived a miserable life of poverty and abuse from that point forward. So, what changed?

Putative KGB staff officer and false defector-in-place in Geneva in 1962, Yuri Nosenko, may have been a rogue physical defector to the U.S. in February 1964 who used the Kremlin-absolving "intel" on LHO he'd been told to share with Tennent H. Bagley and (probable mole, imho) George Kisevalter in Geneva as his ticket to The Land of Milk and Honey.

Point being: Maybe being allowed to marry her Handsome Prince Charming and move with him to The Land of Milk and Honey was sufficient payment for her intel services, if any.

Btw, did you know that a CIA counterintelligence analyst by the name of Clare Edward Petty determined, by reading some WW II VENONA decrypts in the early 1970s, that George DeMohrenschildt was very likely a long-term NKVD/KGB "illegal"?

[Steve M. Galbraith]

Tom, I just don't buy that Marina had any connection to Soviet intelligence. Let's say for the sake of argument that she did. Did the KGB just promptly abandon her once she and Lee moved back to the U.S.? Marina lived a miserable life of poverty and abuse from that point forward. So, what changed?

The McMillan book "Marina and Lee" and the Mailer book "Oswald's Tale" goes over almost all of these claims. For example, Marina didn't want to join the Komsomol but you had to in order to get a good job and references and other state benefits ("If you live with wolves then you have to howl like one" went the line). When they found out she was leaving they berated her, kicked her out. Her co-workers turned their backs on her too (they pretty much had to). The Oswalds had enormous problems first getting married and, particularly, being allowed to leave (about 8 months). The bureaucracy, something Oswald detested, gave them additional trouble because he was an American. Nothing was easy.

Obviously, if someone believes Marina lied and the KGB lied and the friends and associates of the Oswalds lied (Mailer interviewed them), that it was all part of a KGB operation, then there's no place to go. *Whatever* evidence is shown that Marina wasn't a "swallow" or working for an intelligence service is simply evidence that she was. Because it's all part of that operation. In this world, up is not only up but down too. And down is both up and down. This is classic Garrison's deranged worldview; only substitute the KGB for the CIA.

Mailer included transcripts of the KGB's recordings of Marina's and Lee's conversation on the Komsomol meeting and other problems they had. You can read it online here: https://archive.org/details/oswalds-tale/mode/2up

Here's a transcript of Marina discussing the Komsomol meeting she had to attend:

[Tommy Shanks]

Excellent post, Steve. Thanks for the reminder about this info. Mailer's book is really underappreciated for its level of new details.

[Tom Graves]

Excellent post, Steve. Thanks for the reminder about this info. Mailer's book is really underappreciated for its level of new details.

"It's a Small World" Factoid: On 29 November 1956, evidently while on her way home from Moscow, Priscilla Johnson checked in with Army Major Alexander Sogolow in Frankfurt. Sogolow was Chief of CIA's SR/10 (Soviet Russia Division's Branch 10) which interviewed American "legal travelers" to the USSR as they were coming and going. Interestingly, Sogolow was a KGB "mole" and was the CIA's boss of another "mole," Golitsyn's SASHA / Sasha, Igor Orlov, aka Alexander "Sasha" Kopatzky, who was "uncovered" four years after he'd retired from the Agency by probable mole Bruce Leonard Solie (look him up) based on a "hot tip" from Kremlin-loyal triple agent KGB Major Igor Kochnov. Sogolow confessed and wasn't prosecuted because he allowed himself to be "played back" against the KGB.

When Golitsyn was being exfiltrated from Helsinki by the CIA on 15 December 1961, his plane was diverted to Frankfurt either intentionally so Golitsyn could be debriefed and have his bona fides assessed or due to bad weather. Golitsyn freaked out and told one of his escorts that he was afraid he'd be assassinated by SASHA / Sasha in Frankfurt, and the escort unwisely sent an unlimited-distribution cable to CIA to that effect. Orlov / Kopatzky got wind of the cable in Washington and sent a letter to CIA headquarters saying Sogolow was a "mole."

I say SASHA / Sasha because Golitsyn mistakenly believed Kopatzky's codename was SASHA when in reality it was his nickname. (The nickname for Alexandr in Slavic countries is "Sasha.")

One can only wonder what Sogolow and Priscilla spoke about . .  .

Scroll down to the last entry on page 4.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32272679.pdf

Scroll down to page 7.

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2018/180-10145-10441.pdf

[Zeon Mason]

Maybe there’s something here with this KGB angle that Tom is delving into which is more than what the WC was willing to reveal.

So why was “Mexico Man” (= Pro KGB assassin) sent?  Was Oswald  to facilitate helping this guy enter USA or was the KGB guy coming to STOP Oswafd from carrying on with an earlier directive from KGB that was given during the 62 Cuban Missile crisis, which order had been removed after the diplomatic resolution of the crisis.

Perhaps the KGB were worried their Marxist American Oswald puppet might ignore the new stand down order and on his own carry out the previous terminate JFK order which was no longer necessary. Kruschev got such a  good deal from JFK in resolving the 62 crisis that Kruschev considered JFK a US President that the USSR could work with towards establishing a less hostile stance with regard to use of nuclear weapons. It was essentially the beginning  of the MAD doctrine.