Was Shaw a highly paid CIA contract source or a highly valued contact source?

[Tom Graves]

Which is more likely:

1) Clay Shaw was, as the chief of CIA's History Staff, J. Kenneth McDonnald, wrote on 10 February 1992 after a rushed three-week examination of all of the HSCA's CIA documents on the JFKA, "a highly paid CIA contract source until 1956." 

--OR--

2) Clay Shaw was a highly valued CIA contact source until 1956?

[Benjamin Cole]

It is too bad "J. Kenneth McDonnald" (aka McDonald) is no longer alive, and we can't ask him.

McDonald was a highly regarded historian, writing in-house for the CIA, and using info the CIA, and the HSCA, provided to him.

McDonald never issued a correction to his statement on Shaw, and neither did the CIA.

I am not sure if McDonald also relied on OTR info, or info classified as "eyes only." Perhaps even information relayed only verbally.

All in all, I accept McDonald's work.

[Tom Graves]

It is too bad "J. Kenneth McDonnald" (aka McDonald) is no longer alive, and we can't ask him.

McDonald was a highly regarded historian, writing in-house for the CIA, and using info the CIA, and the HSCA, provided to him.

McDonald never issued a correction to his statement on Shaw, and neither did the CIA.

I am not sure if McDonald also relied on OTR info, or info classified as "eyes only." Perhaps even information relayed only verbally.

All in all, I accept McDonald's work.

J. Kenneth was more likely an overworked dude (given only three weeks to examine all of the documents the CIA had given to the HSCA on the JFKA) who unfortunately relied on his overworked (skeleton crew?) staff which had probably just seen Comrade Stone's KGB-approved movie, "JFK."

Question: Did the Domestic Contacts Division write any reports that were based on Shaw's observations in other countries?

Answer: Yes, it did.

Question: How many?

Claude AI:

Eight reports were written based on Shaw's information. This occurred after Shaw was contacted by the CIA's New Orleans office in December 1948. Between 1949 and May 25, 1956, Shaw was contacted a total of thirty-six times. Six of those eight reports were "on hand" and described in a 1992 memorandum. Three concerned a trip Shaw made from March through May 1949 to the West Indies, Central America, and Northern South America, and a fourth concerned a 1951 trip to Central and South America and the Caribbean area. The reports primarily dealt with international trade matters, reflecting Shaw's expertise in that area.

A question for Benjamin "Flash-Bang-In-The-Bushes" Cole:

Do you think Shaw's voluntary "work" for the Domestic Contacts Division was a cover for his evil, evil attempts to put Fascism back into power in Itally, etc., etc., etc?

Regardless, do you think -- as overly ambitious, scandal-plagued, and revengeful Jim Garrison did until shortly after a French knock-off of a March 4, 1967, Communist-owned "Paese Sera" article was provided to him by Joan Mellen's ex-hubby in 1967 -- that Shaw masterminded the homosexual thrill-kill assassination of JFK?

(After reading the translated-into-English French version, Big Jim changed it to "The Evil, Evil, Evil CIA Did It!!!")

[Lance Payette]

Oh, dear, the loop in someone's head has reached the end and is now replaying.  Talk about a topic in which there is literally nothing further to be said - so let's say it all again.

[Michael T. Griffith]

Which is more likely:

1) Clay Shaw was, as the chief of CIA's History Staff, J. Kenneth McDonnald, wrote on 10 February 1992 after a rushed three-week examination of all of the HSCA's CIA documents on the JFKA, "a highly paid CIA contract source until 1956."

I doubt that the CIA gave the HSCA all of the CIA documents relating to Clay Shaw, so McDonnald's sources may have been incomplete.

It should be noted that former HSCA investigator Edwin Lopez has revealed in interviews that while investigating the CIA, he saw a CIA document that revealed the CIA planted moles in Jim Garrison's  office after Garrison charged Clay Shaw in 1969 with conspiring with CIA operatives to assassinate JFK. Two other HSCA investigators, Larry Delsa and Robert Tanenbaum, also said they saw the CIA document.

It should be further noted that Victor Marchetti, a former high-ranking CIA official, revealed in 1973 that he heard CIA director Richard Helms express sympathy for Clay Shaw in high-level meetings after Garrison indicted Shaw, and that he heard Helms tell the CIA's general counsel to help Shaw. Marchetti was no low-level workabee in the CIA. He was the executive assistant to the Deputy Director of the CIA, and as such took part in high-level meetings that included Helms.

Marchetti later damaged his credibility by publishing an article in the anti-Semitic rag The Spotlight that claimed the HSCA found evidence that E. Howard Hunt, Frank Sturgis, and Gerry Patrick Hemming were involved in the JFK assassination, and that Maritz Lorenz confirmed this to the HSCA.

Nevertheless, I tend to believe Marchetti's 1973 claim about Helms' interest in helping Clay Shaw.