JFK Assassination Forum

Just to add to the mystery: Angleton was still on board when Bagley was sent packing. Did he kick and scream and march in protest, or was he happy not to be (at that point) one of the sacrificial lambs? According to Wikipoodia, in 1974 three of Angleton's senior aides resigned the week it was made clear they would be reassigned to Siberia, and the counterintelligence staff was reduced from 300 to 80. I know nothing about all the intrigue, but it seems pretty clear that Bagley was scarcely the only one who was deemed "surplus." I read that it was Stansfield Turner who brought Hart out of retirement to investigate the handling of Nosenko. Turner did not join the CIA as Director until 1977, so he seemingly had no Nosenko axe to grand. My guess would be that Hart was chosen precisely because he wasn't involved either and obviously had no bias against Bagley. The subsequent history of Nosenko's information proving true and other defectors vouching for his bona fides would seem to make Bagley the odd man out unless the KGB was indeed the Omniscient Villain that the KGB Virus demands it to be. Virtually every article on Bagley mentions that his late-in-life supposed KGB informants were always conveniently unnamed.

I really don't think it's fishy at all. Bagley had been almost solely (no pun intended) responsible for the handling of Nosenko. The CIA reached a conclusion that Bagley's handling and conclusions were flat-out wrong. The CIA put its weight solidly behind Nosenko's bona fides. Bagley, as we well know, wouldn't let the matter rest. It had been extremely divisive within the CIA, and the Agency finally said "Enough." Bagley willingly took retirement as an alternative to being terminated. How many other Nosenko unbelievers met the same fate, I don't know. I just thought Hart's recommendation less than two years before the forced retirement was interesting. My guess would be that he, as the European Division Chief, had no real knowledge of the Nosenko affair or of how badly Bagley had handled it. Perhaps that's precisely why Hart was brought back out of retirement to write his report.

I have posted this previously. It's a 2012 event at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars and Georgetown University entitled "Moles, Defectors and Deception: James Angleton and His Influence on US Counterintelligence" -

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/media/documents/event/moles_defectors_and_deceptions_james_angleton_conference_report.pdf

Bagley, Royden and many others participated. No fistfights erupted.

Bagley noted that unnamed - always unnamed - KGB sources had described to him their "handling" of Nosenko's false defection. Royden responded politely:

In response, to Mr. Bagley’s saying that he’s had
contacts in the East with former KGB officers who
have told him that, in fact, Nosenko was run by
them; I would hope that you would all have healthy
skepticism for former KGB officers telling the truth
to Tennent Bagley, who of course has always been a
supporter of the Angleton thesis. I have not found
that former KGB officers sitting in Moscow have
been good sources of honesty about their operations
against the U.S.

But I realize that attempting to bring a rational perspective to these discussions is fruitless. The KGB stuff is a virus like every other CT virus. Once it takes hold, there is no cure. (Gotta add that to my "Beginner's Guide," too!)

Malcolm Blunt is a hard man to find...but we have this from Alan Dale, over at the (otherwise declining) Ed Forum:


Hello gentlemen,

Here are links relevant to this discussion.

For evidence that Bruce Solie was all over the Garrison investigation, these and much more are to be found and explored within Bart Kamp's breathtaking Malcolm Blunt Archive scans:
 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cJhAREwuF9evRJWInO9rO-N2IAKeqewv/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JrjkAJh0eUTDFgl8LbU7y6OAhKnnPi54/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vreLRAQnYbqfUVfgusFByET8AXBci24H/view?usp=sharing
 
From Malcolm: "Solie was point man on jg (Jim Garrison) ... He should also look for the 22 page Mrs Handly letter in Philby's FBI file on which she identifies Shaw as Victor di Maria."
 
We are deeply indebted to Malcolm Blunt (https://www.amazon.com/Devil-Details-Malcolm-Assassination-President-ebook/dp/B08MQTCNFX/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1) and my dear brother, Bart Kamp, (Prayer Man: More Than  Fuzzy Picture https://www.amazon.com/Prayer-Man-More-Fuzzy-Picture/dp/B0CH2PPB36/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1 ) for Herculean work to make Malcolm's files available to all.
https://aarclibrary.org/2021/11/23/the-malcolm-blunt-archives/

For Dr. Newman's exhaustive examination of Bruce Solie as a legitimate suspect in questions associated with Oswald's sojourn into the Soviet Union and the search for Popov's Mole, click HERE: https://www.amazon.com/UNCOVERING-POPOVS-MOLE-ASSASSINATION-PRESIDENT/dp/B0BJN2XFX1/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1

Malcolm Blunt is a hard man to find...but we have this from Alan Dale, over at the (otherwise declining) Ed Forum:


Hello gentlemen,

Here are links relevant to this discussion.

For evidence that Bruce Solie was all over the Garrison investigation, these and much more are to be found and explored within Bart Kamp's breathtaking Malcolm Blunt Archive scans:
 
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cJhAREwuF9evRJWInO9rO-N2IAKeqewv/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JrjkAJh0eUTDFgl8LbU7y6OAhKnnPi54/view?usp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vreLRAQnYbqfUVfgusFByET8AXBci24H/view?usp=sharing
 
From Malcolm: "Solie was point man on jg (Jim Garrison) ... He should also look for the 22 page Mrs Handly letter in Philby's FBI file on which she identifies Shaw as Victor di Maria."
 
We are deeply indebted to Malcolm Blunt (https://www.amazon.com/Devil-Details-Malcolm-Assassination-President-ebook/dp/B08MQTCNFX/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1) and my dear brother, Bart Kamp, (Prayer Man: More Than  Fuzzy Picture https://www.amazon.com/Prayer-Man-More-Fuzzy-Picture/dp/B0CH2PPB36/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1 ) for Herculean work to make Malcolm's files available to all.
https://aarclibrary.org/2021/11/23/the-malcolm-blunt-archives/

For Dr. Newman's exhaustive examination of Bruce Solie as a legitimate suspect in questions associated with Oswald's sojourn into the Soviet Union and the search for Popov's Mole, click HERE: https://www.amazon.com/UNCOVERING-POPOVS-MOLE-ASSASSINATION-PRESIDENT/dp/B0BJN2XFX1/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1

Nosenko could have sued the US government, the CIA, and would have won if not hundreds of thousands of dollars many tens of thousands for the abuse they inflicted on him; viz., the denial of due process, of habeas, for the isolation and harsh treatment. He could have really embarrassed the CIA - Bagley and Angleton specifically (although Angleton denied knowing about the mistreatment) - in open court to the world and done severe damage to it and the US. I'm sure the government would have to tried to settle out of court; but he could have insisted otherwise.

But he didn't. And he said he wouldn't either. I would think that a genuine KGB double agent, someone working for the Soviets and against the US, would have done exactly that. Sued, gone to court. Why wouldn't one?

In 1975, Nosenko was asked to speak before a group of CIA agents at Langley. Here's the account in part (taken from Tom Mangold's book on Angleton):