JFK Assassination Forum

"Well ... in 1970, in his capacity as Chief of the European Division, Hart was enthusiastically recommending Bagley for "supergrade" promotion to GS-17 (page 7 of the above PDF).

According to Hart, Bagley was "one of our very finest station chiefs, possessed of imagination, intellect and ability personally to handle operations which very few of his colleagues can match. He is one of those on whom the future of the Organization is going to depend, and I believe that the promotion is more than justified." --LP, citing Hart.

Something is fishy here. Obviously, and by all accounts, Bagley was a smart guy, experienced, knowledgable, and earnest. Give him that.

One would think that someone in the CIA would say (even if this were true), "OK, Bagley went overboard on Nosenko. One mistake in a lifetime of high-quality service. Assign Bagley to an equal position elsewhere."

But instead Bagley is jettisoned.

Reminds me of the US Ambassador to Mexico, Mann, and Charles Thomas, the State Department guy in MC, both of whom thought LHO was a G2 asset.

They were jettisoned too.

There was streak there in the 1960s-70s when even suspecting KGB-G2 in the JFKA was radioactive.

That is normal?

Seems fishy like the National Aquarium.

FWIW, here is "KGB mole" Bruce Solie's massive 1968 report exonerating Nosenko and refuting earlier reports that he was a false defector:

https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/2025/0318/104-10150-10004.pdf

I'll have to admit, I just can't get my mind around the "Solie as KGB mole" stuff. It seems like one of those up-is-really-down CT things: he was so obviously not a KGB mole that he must have been a KGB mole. (Both Angleton and Bagley were likewise suspected of being moles.)

I include the following just for some slightly humorous perspective. This is the obituary of Bruce Solie's wife. Is this the life of the wife of a "KGB mole"? As with Ruth Paine and numerous others we could mention, CTers in their dark and sinister speculation completely lose sight pf the fact that they are talking about real people who led real lives that just don't mesh with their dark and sinister CT portraits. (On Bruce Solie's Find-a-Grave site, CT wacko Linda - I can't remember her last name - has gratuitously inserted that he was "recently outed as Popov's mole." It almost seems like a form of mental illness. Because one good turn deserves another, here is wacko Linda's biography wherein she sets forth her theory of a South Knoll gunman and Prayer Man and whatnot: https://www.findagrave.com/user/profile/48291572. Yes, Linda, Find-a-Grave visitors really need to know your theory of the JFKA.  .)

Mary Solie
March 21, 1918 — March 7, 2009

Mary Elizabeth Matthews Solie was born March 21, 1918 on a farm near Peru, Nebraska. She was the daughter of Homer L. Matthews, Jr. and Clara Hosterman Matthews. Mary attended one room country school London District 66 and Peru Training High School. She graduated from Peru State College in 1939 with a Bachelors Degree in Education. Mary then taught school in Taylor, Nebraska. During the summer months she worked with the 4-H Club. She also attended Iowa State University for one year.

In 1943 she was employed by the Special Service of the U.S. Army at Rosecrans Field at St. Joseph, Missouri. It was here that she met Lt. Bruce L. Solie. They were married February 22, 1944 in Marion, Arkansas. The newlyweds lived in Memphis, Tennessee and Homestead, Florida until Bruce was stationed overseas. While he was serving overseas, Mary worked for United Airlines. At the conclusion of WW II, Mary and Bruce moved to Badger Village, Wisconsin where he attended the University of Wisconsin.

In 1951 they relocated to the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. where Bruce began a career with the CIA until his retirement in 1979. Mary was active in the schools where her children attended and at Viers Mill Baptist Church. She was a Cub Scout Den Mother and a Brownie Scout Leader. She worked in Jobs Daughters and was Worthy Matron of Montgomery Chapter Order of the Eastern Star. Genealogy was a lifelong interest. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution serving her Maryland chapter as Regent and the State Society as State Chaplain. She belonged to the Daughters of the War of 1812, and Colonial Dames of Seventeenth Century. She took pride in her membership in the Daughters of Founders and Patriots. After the death of her husband, Mary moved home to their farm near Brownville, Nebraska in 1995.

She belonged to the Brownville Historical Society, serving on the board and volunteering at the museum. Mary also served as Regent of Otoe Chapter of DAR. She was a member of the O.E.S. Brownville Chapter #263. She attended the Peru Community Church and Bethel Community Church.

I will admit, I care nothing about Bagley. However, in reviewing the vast thread that Jim DiEugenio created at the Ed Forum in 2018 specifically to deal with TG's KGB stuff (or "mole madness," as Jimbo called it), I stumbled briefly down the Bagley rabbit hole.

Here is our lad's entire CIA personnel file, from his employment in 1949 until his forced retirement in 1972: https://documents3.theblackvault.com/documents/jfkfiles/jfk2025/104-10222-10038.pdf.

You will see that, until 1972, Bagley practically walked on water.

You will recall John L. Hart, the supposed "Bagley character assassin" who in 1976 came out of CIA retirement to write a huge report lambasting Bagley's handling of Nosenko (and who testified to similar effect before the HSCA in 1978). Well ... in 1970, in his capacity as Chief of the European Division, Hart was enthusiastically recommending Bagley for "supergrade" promotion to GS-17 (page 7 of the above PDF).

According to Hart, Bagley was "one of our very finest station chiefs, possessed of imagination, intellect and ability personally to handle operations which very few of his colleagues can match. He is one of those on whom the future of the Organization is going to depend, and I believe that the promotion is more than justified."

Wow, huh? "Bagley character assassin" indeed. This was, of course, written after the Nosenko dust had settled and Nosenko had been officially acknowledged as a genuine defector.

Hart's recommendation and glowing fitness report were sent to the Clandestine Service Career Board, which was responsible for promotion decisions, in May of 1970. What could do wrong?

Alas, Bagley's promotion was denied by the Board. Less than two years later, he was on his way out the door - forced into retirement as "surplus" to the Agency's needs. There is nothing in Bagley's personnel file between Hart's glowing recommendation in 1970 and the 1972 retirement paperwork.

However, it's pretty clear what happened. From 1964 to 1974, the CIA Director of Security was Howard L. Osborn. In this role, he had his fingers in all sorts of pies - the HT/LINGUAL mail intercept program, the Nosenko affair, and eventually being forced to resign for withholding Watergate material from the FBI and the Congressional investigating committee.

In October of 1970, Osborn wrote a memo to the file documenting his October 7 briefing of Col. L. K. White, Executive Director-Comptroller, concerning "certain reservations" he had about Bagley's promotion. He emphasized that his reservations had nothing to do with Bagley's security status.

Here is that memo: https://www.archives.gov/files/research/jfk/releases/docid-32359254.pdf.

Osborn believed that Bagley was "almost exclusively responsible" for the way the Nosenko affair had been (mis)handled. Bagley "lacked objectivity" and "displayed extremely poor judgment over a two-year period." He had handled the Nosenko matter with "extreme prejudice," with the result that the SR Division had failed to follow up on several leads provided by Nosenko which were then followed up by his office (Solie, he said) with the result that these individuals confessed to being recruited by and working with the Soviets over extended periods of time.

He also said that Bagley had exercised "extremely poor judgment" while Nosenko was held in isolation. As the individual responsible for Nosenko's care, he (Osborn) had "refused to condone" Bagley's instructions to his (Osborn's) staff who were guarding Nosenko. He cited the example of Bagley wanting Nosenko to be limited to "black bread and water" three times daily.

White assured Osborn that he would "refresh the Director's memory" about Bagley's handling of Nosenko.

What an amazing fall from grace. Because TG abolutely worships Bagley, as well as his book Spy Wars and his posthumously published article "Ghosts of Spy Wars" - literally worships, just read TG's online stuff - he will surely have his Bagleyesque explanation as to why all this isn't really what it looks like.

As for me, I have no difficulty seeing Bagley's writings as most likely a bitter old man attempting to save face and settle grudges.

Back out of the rabbit hole for me. Does anyone but TG actually care about any of this stuff?

You are conveniently ignoring that he also said he was an FBI informant, knew Oswald was an FBI informant, saw Oswald with Warren DeBrueys, and saw Oswald 10-12 times in Pedro's restaurant, often in the company of Customs and INS agents. His claims about seeing Ferrie and Shaw are not, on their face, outlandish, although they are at odds with pretty much all the evidence and difficult to believe in the context of Shaw's life. It's Pena's other stuff that would make me put his Ferrie-Shaw stuff in the category of a tall tale. If the same thing had been said by some banker who had no connection of any sort with any JFKA stuff, that would be one thing - but Pena was knee-deep in JFKA stuff and clearly trying to implicate Shaw via innuendo for some purpose known only to him.

I don't see anything unusual with LHO being in the company of FBI and customs. Oswald was ingratiating  himself with lots of people in that timeframe that he would be ideologically opposed to such as Bringuier and the Walker rally in October.

And it just happens that if LHO was in the company of the FBI that summer, it would explain why he called them when he was in jail.

It should be remembered that the customs building was directly opposite Penas bar so if one was to see LHO with customs, it would most likely have been in the vicinity of Penas bar.

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.