Did the MSM really read the newly declassified JFK files? Or are they just ignorant with how they connect to the established facts of the JFK case? In this limited review, we show how relevant they are.
The MSM is at it again. The New York Times, for example, is saying that there is nothing notable in the declassified files released by executive order of President Trump. Well, if you know anything about the case, that is not an accurate statement. Which is what one would expect from The Grey Lady about the JFK case.
I make no claim to having gone through all 77,000 pages of these documents. But I did go through a few hundred files at random. I have already explained the paramount importance of Arthur Schlesinger’s memorandum about President Kennedy’s desire to reorganize the CIA in the wake of the Bay of Pigs fiasco. (Click here https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/the-schlesinger-memo-jfk-v-cia) That plus the revelations by attorney Andre Iler about how the CIA did not want anyone to see that memo anywhere near in its entirety—a matter which I noted before the Luna Committee– is an important story in and of itself. (Click here for that addendum https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/the-schlesinger-memo-jfk-v-cia-addendum)
When these newly declassified files appeared, they were not in OCR form, that is, they were not accessible by optical character recognition. Which meant they were not easily accessible for search functions. But the Mary Ferrell Foundation, under Rex Bradford, has cured that problem, and Rex has also arranged them by agency. He deserves credit for doing so.
In appearances on Len Osanic’s Black Op Radio, Coast to Coast with Richard Syrett, and Katie Helper’s podcast with Oliver Stone, I have shown that, just in a random sample—before Rex made the files truly accessible– there were several notable things in these files. Which I believe have been ignored by the MSM. So let us take up some of them.
First, as most people engaged in this case know, Fidel Castro was very curious about what happened to President Kennedy. Within 24 hours of the assassination, he went on Cuban TV and said he had suspicions about who Oswald really was. He predicted he was a likely FBI undercover agent. He also predicted that Cuba would be blamed for the assassination. (Click here for that speech https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/fidel-castro-s-first-speech-on-the-jfk-assassination-11-23-1963) Five days later, he was talking to a group of students. He detoured from his original subject and said that he was familiar with rifles from his experience in the Cuban revolution against Batista. He could not understand why an assassin would use a manual bolt-action rifle. (Click here for that speech https://www.kennedysandking.com/news-items/castro-figured-out-the-jfk-case-in-five-days-speech-of-november-27th-1963)
Well, according to the new documents, in 1969, Castro was still bothered by the JFK assassination. He was speaking to another group of students, explaining all the problems with the Oswald scenario. After which, he ordered a reconstruction. He wanted his three best marksmen to try and duplicate what Oswald did.
None of them could do it. To my knowledge, this is the third time this was attempted—and it was the third failure. In his book, Kill Zone: A Sniper Looks at Dealey Plaza, Craig Roberts describes consulting with Carlos Hathcock about the subject. He asked Carlos if he thought Oswald could have done what the Commission said he did. Hathcock was the greatest sniper of the Vietnam War. He had 95 confirmed kills. He was so lethal that Hanoi put a bounty on his head. For about two decades, he held the record for the longest kill shot: he hit a man from a mile and a half away. After he retired from the service, he opened up a SWAT team school with an obstacle course. He replied to Roberts that they had tried it more than once. And they did everything according to the book. They could not accomplish what Oswald did.
As I noted in my article about the CBS special of 1967, their original sniper could not achieve it either. So what they did was they cheated in the tests by enlarging the target. (Click here for that story https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/why-cbs-covered-up-the-jfk-assassination) If America had an objective media on the JFK case, this latest revelation about Castro would be more dirt on the grave of the Warren Commission.
Another fascinating memo has been noted by some other critics and on YouTube. As most of our readers know, one of the most incriminating pieces of information that the CIA released in the wake of Kennedy’s assassination was that, while in Mexico City, Oswald had met with a Soviet agent under diplomatic cover, namely Valeri Kostikov. And further, that Kostikov was secretly a part of the KGB’s Department 13, which handled liquidations in the Western Hemisphere. (The Assassinations, edited by James DiEugenio and Lisa Pease, p. 223). This then suggested that Oswald had killed Kennedy for the USSR.
Well, in 1971, the CIA wrote a memo about this subject. In that memo, they said they had no credible evidence that Kostikov was part of Department 13. To say that this is fascinating is really an understatement. Because it would seem to indicate that the CIA, in 1963, was using the Kostikov story as a prop in an attempt to frame Oswald. In fact, J. Edgar Hoover, just a few weeks after the assassination, wrote a note saying that the FBI should not trust the CIA anymore since the Agency had given them a “false story re Oswald’s trip to Mexico….” (ibid., p. 224). If this recently declassified memo is accurate, it would appear to be incriminating of the Agency.
Related to this, in blind memos the CIA wrote during the House Select Committee on Assassinations, this is the way they referred to Oswald in Mexico City. Referring to the visit to the Soviet embassy, it was “Oswald allegedly visited the Soviet Embassy.” Referring to the visitor himself, it was “alleged to be Oswald”.
During that House Select Committee on Assassinations inquiry, it turns out that Chief Counsel Robert Blakey made requests to the Agency for the reasons they would open a 201 file on any subject. He then asked for the Oswald file at the CIA, prior to the opening of the 201 file.
This is indicative that Blakey was aware of the work of his investigator, Betsy Wolf. Wolf’s monumental discoveries about the Oswald file were first unearthed by Malcolm Blunt. They were not declassified by the ARRB. They were placed on a time-stamped basis and not released until the new millennium. They were featured in Vasilios Vazakas’ seven-part series “Creating the Oswald Legend”, most prominently in Part 4. (Click here for that essay https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/creating-the-oswald-legend-part-4)
Wolf’s work was only released in handwritten notes form. To my knowledge, they were not typed up into official memoranda. Why they were not is inexplicable. For, as revealed in these requests by Blakey, they are of utmost importance. Therefore, it is perfectly logical as to why the MSM does not note Blakey’s requests or why he made them. Because they have no idea what Wolf was pursuing.
Wolf was given the assignment of analyzing the Oswald file at the CIA. After requesting all the charters and taking notes on them, she figured out what the Oswald file should do. As noted above, Blakey then requested the file. Wolf was surprised to discover that it did not do what it should have. It did not go to the Soviet Russia (SR) division as, according to its own charters, it should. It went to the OS division, or Office of Security. Further, no 201 file was opened on Oswald for 13 months. This is why Blakey was asking for the reasons a 201 file is opened, because Wolf has discovered there was not one on Oswald, even though the CIA knew he had defected and had threatened to turn over radar secrets to Moscow.
Once Wolf got this list, she determined that there should have been a 201 file opened on Oswald. She called in CIA retirees to discuss her quandary. They all agreed with her: 1.) Oswald’s file should have gone to the SR division, and 2.) There should have been no 13-month delay in the opening of the 201 file. She eventually got to the then-current OS Director, Bob Gambino. He said: It did not matter how many documents came in or if they were pre-stamped. If the client has gone to the first gate, the Office of Mail Logistics, then the papers will go there and there only.
In other words, someone had rigged Oswald’s file from the time he went to Russia. Why? How did they even know about him? And why did Blakey not include this vital information in the HSCA volumes? He seems to have known about Wolf’s work due to these specific requests.
Let me briefly make note of two other matters of interest.
It still seems to me like trying to shot someone from behind would be difficult from the 4th story of a Building and easier from the Ground Level like Grassy Knoll