Did G-2 Encourage LHO to Perp the JFKA?

[Benjamin Cole]

AI-version:

Investigative journalist and assassination expert Gus Russo maintains that elements of the Cuban intelligence service (known as the G-2, or DGI) likely encouraged Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate President Kennedy in retaliation for continuous U.S. plots to overthrow or assassinate Fidel Castro.

Russo, along with other researchers, argues that Oswald—a fervent Castro supporter—traveled to Mexico City in September 1963 and made contact with Cuban diplomats and intelligence operatives. According to Russo's investigations (detailed in his book Live by the Sword), members of the Cuban regime were made aware of U.S. attempts to assassinate Castro, and they may have in turn accepted or encouraged Oswald’s offer to eliminate Kennedy.

Russo's research builds on declassified documents and interviews with Cuban defectors. For instance, a controversial 2006 documentary co-authored by Russo (Rendezvous with Death) further alleged that Cuban intelligence contracted Oswald to carry out the assassination.

---30---

I have watched the Rendevous With Death documentary, and it is pretty good.

---30---

Due the cadence or sequence of bullet strikes on JBC-JFK, the LNT-SBT JFKA theory does not hold water.

Most JFKA researchers, being lefties, then fabricate elaborate tales of a Deep State JFKA.

Some righties, such as James Woolsey, blame Moscow.

Seems to me a low-level plot involving LHO and some G-2'ers, or Alpha 66'ers (who may have been G2 double agents), is more probable.

---30---

Remember:

Connally: I was knocked over, just doubled over by the force of the bullet. It went in my back and came out my chest about 2 inches below and the left of my right nipple. The force of the bullet drove my body over almost double and when I looked, immediately I could see I was just drenched with blood. (1 HSCA 42)

Explain to me when this happens, in what frames of the Z-film?

[John Corbett]

AI-version:

Investigative journalist and assassination expert Gus Russo maintains that elements of the Cuban intelligence service (known as the G-2, or DGI) likely encouraged Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate President Kennedy in retaliation for continuous U.S. plots to overthrow or assassinate Fidel Castro.

Is there a certification process for becoming an assassination expert?

Russo, along with other researchers, argues that Oswald—a fervent Castro supporter—traveled to Mexico City in September 1963 and made contact with Cuban diplomats and intelligence operatives. According to Russo's investigations (detailed in his book Live by the Sword), members of the Cuban regime were made aware of U.S. attempts to assassinate Castro, and they may have in turn accepted or encouraged Oswald’s offer to eliminate Kennedy.[/quote}

I guess the Cubans and Oswalds were just hoping that one day Oswald would have a job at a building overlooking a presidential motorcade route.

Russo's research builds on declassified documents and interviews with Cuban defectors. For instance, a controversial 2006 documentary co-authored by Russo (Rendezvous with Death) further alleged that Cuban intelligence contracted Oswald to carry out the assassination.

---30---

I have watched the Rendevous With Death documentary, and it is pretty good.

---30---

Due the cadence or sequence of bullet strikes on JBC-JFK, the LNT-SBT JFKA theory does not hold water.

As Trump said to his Energy Secretary yesterday when he started speaking incoherently, "Nobody cares".

Most JFKA researchers, being lefties, then fabricate elaborate tales of a Deep State JFKA.

Some righties, such as James Woolsey, blame Moscow.

Seems to me a low-level plot involving LHO and some G-2'ers, or Alpha 66'ers (who may have been G2 double agents), is more probable.

That's like saying it is more probable that I will win the Mega Millions this week than that I will win the Powerball.

---30---

Remember:

Connally: I was knocked over, just doubled over by the force of the bullet. It went in my back and came out my chest about 2 inches below and the left of my right nipple. The force of the bullet drove my body over almost double and when I looked, immediately I could see I was just drenched with blood. (1 HSCA 42)

Explain to me when this happens, in what frames of the Z-film?

JBC begins to double over and dip to the right at about Z234. It's very obvious.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

AI-version:

Investigative journalist and assassination expert Gus Russo maintains that elements of the Cuban intelligence service (known as the G-2, or DGI) likely encouraged Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate President Kennedy in retaliation for continuous U.S. plots to overthrow or assassinate Fidel Castro.

Russo, along with other researchers, argues that Oswald—a fervent Castro supporter—traveled to Mexico City in September 1963 and made contact with Cuban diplomats and intelligence operatives. According to Russo's investigations (detailed in his book Live by the Sword), members of the Cuban regime were made aware of U.S. attempts to assassinate Castro, and they may have in turn accepted or encouraged Oswald’s offer to eliminate Kennedy.

Russo's research builds on declassified documents and interviews with Cuban defectors. For instance, a controversial 2006 documentary co-authored by Russo (Rendezvous with Death) further alleged that Cuban intelligence contracted Oswald to carry out the assassination.

---30---

Gus Russo's book "Live By the Sword" can be read online here (you'll need a free account for full access): https://archive.org/details/livebyswordsecre00russ

Nowhere in the book does he make any of the claims stated above about G-2/Cuban intelligence meeting Oswald and encouraging him to shoot JFK. Nowhere. Don't trust me, just go to the address above and read it for yourself. You can do a quick search for "G-2" or "Cuban intelligence" and be taken to those sections. If you do that you'll see that Russo never says Oswald met with Cuban intelligence and/or they encouraged him to shoot JFK or angered him enough to him shoot JFK.

What Russo does say in the book is that there were numerous rumors and allegations, some more solid than others, that Oswald may have met with either pro-Castro people or, more important, Castro's agents (note the important difference between a pro-Castro person and a Cuban agent/officer). And that in these meetings they may, again may, have told him about the covert war on Cuba, the assassination plots, and that the Kennedy Administration was preparing an invasion of Cuba. Finally, as a result of these supposed meetings Oswald was angered enough to strike back at JFK. However, Russo admits that Oswald may have learned on his own about some of the above anti-Cuban efforts and then acted on his own without any influence, directly or indirectly, from these pro-Castro people. Most important in all of this is: Russo admits he simply doesn't know.

Russo's complaint is that these rumors or allegations were never fully investigated. That's his main argument. Why not? He says for a number of reasons: fear of a possible war that would follow, fear that the assassination plots would be revealed, fear that intelligence sources and methods would be exposed, fear that the "Camelot myth" of JFK would have been destroyed.

Here's a good summary (page 347) from the book of what he believes may have happened (again, note his qualifiers):



In any case, I gave the link to the book. You can read for yourself what he argues.

[Lance Payette]

That is true about Russo's book, which I very recently reread. I was surprised when Ben posted a piece on another thread in which Russo seemed to refer to much more explicit claims based on interviews with G2 or former G2 types. I said at that time that I wished Russo would reveal more in terms of names, notes, etc.

The G2 angle has major hurdles for me. WHY ON EARTH would pro-Castro types recruit a participant whose sympathies would point directly to Castro? WHY ON EARTH would Castro invite the end of his regime, if not the end of his entire nation, if not WW3, by whacking JFK soon after making veiled threats to do so? For me, the "plausibility" factor is close to zero.

One could play the game that CIA-did-it fans play: These were "rogue" G2 types, but presumably even they could see the likely consequences set forth above.

[Steve M. Galbraith]

That is true about Russo's book, which I very recently reread. I was surprised when Ben posted a piece on another thread in which Russo seemed to refer to much more explicit claims based on interviews with G2 or former G2 types. I said at that time that I wished Russo would reveal more in terms of names, notes, etc.

The G2 angle has major hurdles for me. WHY ON EARTH would pro-Castro types recruit a participant whose sympathies would point directly to Castro? WHY ON EARTH would Castro invite the end of his regime, if not the end of his entire nation, if not WW3, by whacking JFK soon after making veiled threats to do so? For me, the "plausibility" factor is close to zero.

One could play the game that CIA-did-it fans play: These were "rogue" G2 types, but presumably even they could see the likely consequences set forth above.

In Ben's defense Russo is a little "sloppy" (for me) with these claims of Oswald's contacts with either pro-Castro people or Cuban agents (and again as should be obvious, there's a huge difference between the two). He tends to make a claim and then walk it back later with qualifiers and limits. The allegation about an Oswald meeting such as the "Twist Party" is made and then later mentioned as "possibly" happening and not fully investigated. So what he says can be easily misunderstood as definitive when it's conditional.

As to Castro: Russo explicitly says that Castro did not order Oswald to shoot JFK or have his agents encourage Oswald to do so. He says



That September threat was the one Castro made at the Brazilian Embassy where he said:

       "If US. leaders are aiding terrorist plans to eliminate Cuban leaders, they themselves will not be safe. Let Kennedy and his brother Robert
        take care of themselves since they too can be the victims of an attempt which will cause their death."

If Oswald did read that I wonder what he thought?

[Benjamin Cole]

The AI version on Russo's narrative is mostly on target. Remember, after Russo wrote the book, he made the documentary. The published book may have generated leads, as often happens in journalism, and he included additional info in the documentary, which is fun to watch anyway and I advise you do so.

Also, make sure you book-search by other terms such as---

DI (Dirección de Inteligencia / Intelligence Directorate): The official current name of Cuba's primary foreign intelligence and espionage agency.DGI (Dirección General de Inteligencia): The historical name of Cuba's foreign intelligence service. The agency was officially known by this acronym from its creation in 1961 until it was reorganized and renamed in 1989.DSE (Departamento de Seguridad del Estado / Department of State Security):

I cannot seem to open the whole book, have to set up an account.

I did find this nugget (see below). 

Maybe you can fill us in on the rest of it.



---30---

I agree with Russo that G2, or Cuban intel JFKA leads were never followed up, due to LBJ's instructions. I have posted elsewhere on this.

Due to the cadence of shots on 11.22, I am skeptical that a lone gunsel armed with a single-shot-per-bolt-action rifle (or carbine) perped the JFKA.

So who were LHO manipulators or confederates?