1HE EFFEC11VENESS OF PUBUC LAW 102-526, 1HE PRESIDENT JOHN F.
KENNEDY ASSASSINATION RECORDS COlLECTION ACT OF 1992
HEARING BEFORE THE
LEGISLATION AND NATIONAL SECURITY SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE
COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED THIRD CONGRESS FIRST SESSION NOVEMBER 17, 1993
Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Operations
U.S. GOVERNMENT PWNTING OFFICE 75-321
cc
WASlnNGI'ON : 1994
For sale by the U.S . Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402
I SBN 0-16-043551-X
171 ·. :- ·' ·.--. •;:, ·;v .. ..,.
~ '
;. ·.. ·~ ! ~i\g" :. ··, ; ._ \··. ".,\J ... '·
INDEPENDENf RESEAR.rn ASSOCIA'IES 'POB 2091 NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10013-2091 212-520-3680 6 November 1993
The Honorable John Conyers Chainnan, Legislation And National Security Subcommittee Room373 Rayburn Office Building Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Sir: This letter concerns the implementation of the John F. Kennedy Records Act of 1992. After having spent 200 hours examining all of the relevant records released to the NARA by the CIA, USSS, OOS, Rockefeller Commission, DIA, NSA and HSCA, I have made certain observations I wish to share with your Connnittee. My interest in the JFK assassination revolves around "the tramps" and certain figures connected to Watergate namely: Howard Hunt, .Frank Sturgis, James McCord, Bernard .Barker along with their associates - David Phillips, David Crist (AKA Daniel Carswell) and James Angleton. I have noticed that many docwnents dealing with the aforementioned figures have been withheld ·from research as indicated by numerous "JFKAssassination Collection Reference Prototype System Identification Forms." I. These forms indicate that the FBI may be withholding numerous documents concerning these personages, however, the FBI is in general, six to eight months behind the September deadline it set for itself to transfer its documents to NARA. The bulk of the documents generated about the Kennedy assassination originated with the FBI, so it makes sense it would take the FBI longer to transfer documents to the National Archives. 2. The CIA has released numerous increments of its assassination and Oswald file, along with its sequestered collection containing CIA security tiles. These """'"""""''"'" contain numerous deletions and access restriction insertions. I have ~~c~sea some of the Access Restricted pages dealing with HO\.vard Htmt They are
\
\
\
\ \
172 marked A'ITAOJMFNI' A Some of these documents surfaced in other parts ofthe record group in redacted fonn, others did not. The HSCA referred numerous HSCA documents about CIA-related individuals to the CIA for release approval. The CIA has not acted on them and these documents are absent from the HSCA files. I have enclosed the results of a National Archives these documents as A'ITAOJMFNI' B. Note how many mos. have been withheld. Several CIA originated docwn in Sturgis and the tramps have also been referred to the CIA The RoC e e ler Commission documents on this subject have similarly been routed to the CIA These are ATIAOIMENT
c
It is interesting to note that the CIA is withholding docwnents that are, by law, public information. Enclosed as A'ITAaJMENTD is a document which indicates that the CIA is withholding HWlt's deposition in Hunt v. Webennan, a libel lawsuit This document is public record. It is also interesting to note that some of the CIA docwnents I obtained from the CIA under FOIA and gave to the HSCA are being withheld by the CIA Enclosed as ATIAOJMFNI' E are a few of these insertions. I submit these NARA documents as evidence that the CIA is selectively withholding information concerning the involvement of certain specific individuals in the Kennedy assassination. I also contend that the CIA is deliberately footdragging in releasing its docwnents.
This letter is focused on what is being withheld by the CIA I must aclmowledge ho\Vever, that many significant documents have been released. Should your Committee have any interest in these documents I would be happy to send copies along. I would also like to bring to your attention that the Reading Room in the National Archives is ctutailing its hours, making it more difficult for researchers to study the JFK and other record groups. May I request your assistance in persuading the NARA to retain its old schedule. 'Thank you for your attention.
NARRATOR: Powdrill's analysis was not conclusive, but he found nothing to indicate the prints were not Oswald's. A former high-ranking FBI fingerprint expert who examined the prints for FRONTLINE said they were simply not clear enough to make any identification. But Vincent Scalice, the House Assassinations Committee expert, came to a very different conclusion. Mr. SCALICE: There were a total of four photographs in all. And I began to examine them and I saw two faint prints and as I examined them, I realized that these prints had been taken at different exposures and it was necessary for me to utilize all of the photographs to compare against the ink prints. As I examined them, I found that by maneuvering the photographs in different positions, I was able to pick up some details on one photograph and some details on another photograph. Using all of the photographs at different contrasts, I was able to find in the neighborhood of about 18 points of identity between the two prints. Well, I feel that this is a major breakthrough in this investigation because we're able for the first time to actually say that these are definitely the fingerprints of Lee Harvey Oswald and that they are on the rifle. There is no doubt about it. Mr. BLAKEY: The prosecution case against Oswald is open and shut. If he'd shot his brother-in-law in the back seat of a convertible and not the President of the United States, he would have been tried, convicted and forgotten in three days. But for the fact that it's the President, this is
ROBERT OSWALD: This is a struggle that has gone on with me for almost 30 years now. This is mind over heart. The mind tells me one thing, the heart tells me something else. But the facts are there. And I say to people who want to distort the facts and pick them out, I say, "Wbat do you do with his rifle? What do you do with his pistol? What do you do with his general opportunity? What do you do with his actions?'' To me, you can't reach but one conclusion. There's hard physical evidence there. It's good that people raise questions and say, "Wait a minute. Let's take a second look at this." I think that's great, you know? But when you take the second look and the third and the fortieth and the fiftieth- hey, enough's enough. It's there. Put it to rest.
NARRATOR: There will always be one final mystery: Why did Oswald choose Kennedy? But the solution cannot be found in the dark corridors of crime, espionage and power. That question can only be answered by one young man and his answer will always be silence. ANNOUNCER: Next time on FRONTLINE, the story of how the AIDS virus entered the nation's blood supply. · · · 1st VICTIM: Nobody had the decency to tell us2nd VICTIM: -to tell us there was any risks involved. ANNOUNCER: "AIDS, Blood and Politics" on FRO}.'TLINE. Copyright -199:
an easy case.
NARRATOR: Three days after the assassination, Washington and the world mourned President J ohll Fitzger8.!d Kennedy. In Dallas, the police honored Officer J.D. Tippit. And on that same day, in Fort Worth, the remains of Lee Harvey Oswald were laid to rest. But the questions about his role in the assassination have Jived on for 30 years. ROBERT OSWALD: True, no one saw him actually pull the trigger on the President, but his rifle's there. His presence in the building was there. What he did after he left the building is knovm- bus ride, taxi ride, boarding house, pick up the pistol, shoot the police officer. Eyewitnesses there, five or six. You can't set that aside just be-. cause he is saying, "I am a patsy." I'd Jove to do that, but· you cannot, in my mind, set that aside. Mr. BLAKEY: The question is not, "Did Lee Harvey Oswald shoot the President?" The question is, "Did he have help?" Within 30 hours of the assassination, that was the question. Thirty years later, that remains to be the question. NARRATOR: John Kennedy had many enemies. The Mafia and many Cuban exiles celebrated his death and Lee Harvey Oswald's life may have intersected with those forces. But there is no evidence that they changed the trajectory of his life and they cannot be found in Dallas influencing him to act. In the end, there is only Oswald, a man who chose his ovm politics, invented his ovm secret life and made himself into an assassin, a man whose real life never measured up
to the scale of his dreams until the day the President ofthe United States passed right in front of him.
WRITTEN, PRODUCED AND DIRECTED BY ................... . SENIOR PRODUCERS .......................................... MICHAl REPORTERS W. ASSOCIATE PRODUCER .................................................... . CO-PRODUCER ................................................................... . PRODUCTION MANAGER .................................................. . .. PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS ........ :.................................. ~ ., . ' .. . .. EDITORS CHRIS LYSAGHT, PI .' • PHOTOGRAPHY .................. :.. :.................................. MAR} NARRATED BY .................................................................... . ORIGINAL MUSIC BY ......................................................... . . CONSULTANTS .................................................. JOHN M.: GARY MACK, DALl ROBERT GONSAJ EDWARD J. EPSTEIN, VINCENT SC RESEARCH COORDINATION ............................................ . RESEARCHERS ........................................ MARY FERREl KAY STANLEY, ALE: DAVE PERRY, PAUL: ALAN J. WEBERMAN, TOM ALEXANDER LUKAE IRINA CHERNOZIPUNNIKA, OLGA DENJ\'IS LE MICHAEL MCGA FILM RESEARCHERS ....................................................... . ANNE 0. CRAIG, KATH
-24-
\
I
..
1
..
Retyped: 8-23-79
RLK:PTW:GMcN:jkw 129-11
Mr. Alan Jules Webennan
Independent Research Associates
6 Bleecker Street New York C1ty, Hew York
10012
Dear Mr. Weberman: Attomey General C1v1letti ~s asked me to thank you for your recent lettar enclosing a copy of a biography of Jack Rlby you ~tled from doct~~~~nts released by the Federal Bureau of Investigation under the Freedom of Information Act.
Your 1ntarest and concern are appreciated.
You NY be sure
that all available materials w111 be carefully cons1dered as the Final
Report of the House Select Colml1ttee on Assassinations 1s reviewed.
Sincerely.
.•
Robert L. ICeuch
Spec1 a 1 Counse1 to the Attorney Genera1
~ ~~I ~
·. '
~~ · ~les
ll McNemar
~
.
·~
Keuch :·
,·.
'· '
I
'
•I
I
;. ! I
·,r
.f; ··:
'Aif'-thJ1~'1tif~o. .c:Icw3s
And Just Where Were You That Mternoon?_ be Warren Coinmission said Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone to shoQt JFK. Edward Epstein sug· gests in "Legend" that Oswald might have been a KGB ·agent out of control. Michael Eddowes argues in "The Oswald F'de" that the ~ who returned from Minsk was a Soviet changeling and had the Oswald body exhumed. lincoln Lawrence says in "Were We ControDed?" that Oswald was robotized in Minsk with a device in ·his brain, that Jack Rnby was hypnotized and that somebody made a lot of money that day on Wall Str~l In 1967, a Puerto Rican named Luis Castilloiwas arrested in the Philippines for trying to shoot Marcos; while hypnotized. be blurted out that he ·was a programmed assassin in Dallas. In 1980, Charles Harrelson (father of actor Woody) shot a Texas judge. Harrelson. high on.cocaine. told police he shotJFK. He recentlY claimed be was in Houston that day. Harrelson; said to be a mob hit man; is thought by, many to be one of the famous "tramps" arrested and photographed after the shooting. In 1985, ex-<:on Robert Easterling told author Henry Burt that he shot JFK for Castro. In 1965, the parents of Charles Rogers were found dismembered in their refrigerator. J9hn R Craig and Phil A Rogers argue in "The Man on the Grassy Knoll" (a new book) that Charles.Rogers was a CIA agent. that he and Harrelson shot JFK from the Grassy Knoll, that they and Chauncey Holt are the tramps and that Rogers murdered his . parents when )lis. lll?\her deduced he'd killed JFK Q;Iolt and
T
··--·--······ .-.
Harold Doyle have said this year they are in the tramp photos.
David Ferrie planned.''the hit and Clay Shaw involved. Holt says he was with Harrelson; Doyle says he and two other Morrow says one team was led by a French gunman named men were not involved in the shooting.). John Michael Mertz. Gary Shaw says.CIA records indicate Alan J. Weberman and .Michael Canfield argue !n "Coup that French gunman Jean SOuetre ~ In Dallas on Nov. 22, d'Etat in America" (updated and reissued) that the1tramps and was expelled froJD the country the day after. The FBI says were the triggermen and that two of them look like Watergate that was a Frenchnian named Michel Rnux. Souetre used burglars Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis; the third iS a CIA "Roux" as aa alias, notes Anthony Summers in "Conspiracy," man. }im·.Marrs writes in "Crossfire" that the caStdof Jack though 'ROwe is a real person. Souetre said in 1983 that the Lawren~ "deserves serious study." Lawrence, a Dallas car man in Dallas was M~ using Souetre's In "The Man salesman, came to iwrk on Nov. 22 after the shooting, muddy, Who Knew Too Much," (a new work) Dick. Russell writes pale and sweating, and vomited; his ·car was foUnd behind the about Richard Case NageD, wlio says he Was a ~ouble agent Grassy KnolL Uiwrence. said to have been an Air Force expert told, perhaps by the KGB, to stop Oswald. Rlissell writes of marksman, left town after police released him. the Souetre-Roux-Mertz link, noting the role :of Mertz .(or Geneva White, a former Ruby stripper, said before she died whoever) in the Corsican mafia. Souetre bas a card in Paul in 1990 that her late husband, Roscoe, a Dallas cop in '63;had · Brancato's d~ af"Coup d'Etat" as5as$ation trading cards. · ooce been a hit man. and that he and Ruby discussed killing · Bonar Meninger's "Mortal Error" (released this year) JFK. Ricky White; their son, said last .Year he found his describes the theory of firearms expert lioward Donahue: father's diary, which contained evidence the CIA had ordered The head shot was fired from the car behind JFK Donahue , RoSc.oe to shoot.JFK; he was U118Qle to produce the diary. says a Secret Service agent grabbed a firearm on ·bearing In 1975, Hugh C. McDonald wrote in "Appointment in shots, tried to stand, but feU an.d squeezed off the round. . Dallas" (reissued) tllat a European assassin nam~ Saul told A man seen waving an umbrella, Robert Cutler argues, him he'd shot JFK on con!tact for a private group. Steve Rivele shot JFK with an umbrella-home biodegradable dart hi 1978, cooduded the gunmen were three French Corsican mobsters. Louis Steven W'rtt said he Was Umbrella Man and waved it to Robert Morrow, a contract CIA man. writes in ''First Hand • Knowledge• (a new book that is a rewrite of his 1976 work, heekleJFK. "Betrayal") that he bought three rifles used in the shooting. -:~~. ~.F~ .
------ - -
1 ,.
i';· I
name:
.
-
- - --= .
- -- :·
.
.
· -..vu.ua...utttw• t ':hr UltliJ..UUWJUlu;JUJ
J
:": -"
• ...,
when he docs it with his fingers? .JAG<:t::tc \\'<:11. it takes quite a little time; 0 it.~ e~ half an hour. : · ~ ·· I'LAYUO\': What do you con.sidcr still too jill . expensive to .bu y? . . . . c JAGGER: A Concorde. hn'r.it funny to say such a stupid ;m~wcr? I'I.A \'1\0Y: C"u ld you c\'cr rough i t? .JAC<."l:l<: \\'h at is tha t?. PLAvnov: Co out into the woods, live In a tent? · JAGGER: Yes! Yes. You think I 'couldn't? You kno w, I was horn in l':icaragua. A wild coutltr)'· Besides, I love nature and ~1e country. I lived in Montauk on. Long Island for months and months, on my own, with no o ne, in the middle o'- uowhere. Pt.AYliOY: Was there ~ver ..somehody you .fancied who didn't respond to you? JAGGEil: Oh . yes, when I was in school.]. fell in · Jove with somebody who was· much older ·than J w::ts, and he wouldn't even look at me. I don't like many meit, you know? I mean, I don't fall in love with many peo ple. PLAYBOY: Have you C\'Cr faked an orgasm~· .JAGGER: Never. . PLAYBOY: \Vome n wan t to ha,·e as many orgasms . as men lta \'e these da )·'· you know. .JACCER: They do ? They should! PLAYIIOY: T hen why do girls fake orgasms? J AGGER : They do it j~tst to be nice. Ot· ma ) be IJccau ~e they're bored. and that's a war tn end it. HU! normally, women fake orgas m ~ I.Jecause they feel so much for the gur. that tl1cy want to make him [eel that he could have given th~m a n orgasm. PLAYBOY: How do you · tell a girl to leave in the morning? · JAGGER.: You should not wait until the morning. You should send her home the middle of the evening! . PLAYBOY: How do you do that? JAGGER: You tell h er your mother is coming to see you in the morning,;-
DON'T CALL ME IN THE MORNIN~ A woman who was suffering from the flu obeyed her doctor's orders to ·s tay in bed until she got better.. She stayed in bed fo r 10 yea rs. T h e woman, now in her 70s, was the subject o{ an item in The Lancet, the Dritish medical journal, by Dr. Peter Roc. Roc wrote that her condition had .'no m cn.tal <ir plt )'iral ram1· and that " all o f m , no ll<;ubt. ex.hihit rni nor form~ or tit i ~ at times ... . RACK OF AGES
28
The Re,·e rend \\' illiam \Vendt. presi· de lit of the nonprolit \•Va ~ lt i ngton . D.C.J,a,ed Sr. Franri ~ Burial· a nd Co11n seling Societ}, o ffer~ a n <tlterna tivc to the high cost and high waste of coffins. His plain wooden models arc eq uipped with wine ratk\ and bookshe lves. so that yo u can pu t them to u'e hdorc ) OU really put
~fartha Mitchell. They had s.e parate ·gar· bage and John Mitchell had a lot of . boot<' bottle.~ in h is. l got J udg<" Si t·ica ·~ g-.uhage. He happcncll 10 be filling out his income tax that da y. so l h ave his total fin ances. He also threw o ut these dice made o( foam ruhher you hang in ~our car. r have Roy :'11. Cnhn. •.· ' ·n is an anally ret entive type who ltoanh his gar· bage until the end of the montl1. I had WOMEN SEEK HUNG JURY [n the past, . people h ave avoided j~ry · to go back every day! I've got Jackie duty as passionately as they avoid root- Kennedy Onassis, which is just beauticanal work. But in New York, some un· ful-all different co lors. nice packagings. pcrf!Jffie bottles. I'm not worried about ~ttadted . sing~es :trc; finding tl1at jury duty getting sued this time, because a re· 15 the ea5iest way to l" eet ocher unatcent Supreme Court decision indicated taclt~d si.n gles. A writer of our ae<r aintance explains, "Married people have that garbage is in t he public d omain. good reas<;ms why they can't serve, singles They said . a safety-deposit box is the don't. The duty itself lasts at least two place for valuables, n ot a garbage ca n. "My greatest moment in Carhology weeks and you basically just sit around was the fir~t time I ever went into a ca n . I o pened it up and .took out a rt unfin. ished letter from Dylan to J o hnny Cash. l was like a m ouse pressing the har on a Skinner box and being inundated hy food pellets. I knew f would have; w keep coming back [or more. "\\' hat I'm doing now is w-riting an· other book on the Kennedy ass;tssin:ni on . The 'first q ne, Coup d'E.trll i11 AmeTiw , was a bout Oswald's in vo l-veme nt w •th the CIA. This one is about organi'zed uirne's connection and might be called jack ·Ruby: Ail Mol, bed U fJ. ''I'm exposing the National C aucus of Labor Commi.ttees. I'm comparing N.C.L.C.'s organ, Nt:w Solida1·it y-l call it New Slobidartty- to Signr1 l, Hitler's magaline. These people· remind me of Hitler and the. Nazis. Once I expose · tltem, if Dylan doesn't forgive. me for any alleged previous transgt·essions, then I fucldn' give up. . ·- I have . Freedom of Information Act .. ~ req¥ests out on Phil Ochs, Woody Guthin a big room with nothing to do. After( rie, Jim Morrison, Joplin, H endrix, Joe a few days. everybody sta.rts thinkingJ McCarthy-they're all dead and you can about scoring.: Then, · too, when .twt@. get whatever dpcument.s the FBI has on people who have struck up a rela tio.n!hi .by sending a · death certificate or arc assigned to different cases, the gua other proof of death. The FBI has beeQ. { -l sometimes can be. persuade~ to pass not.. incredi~}y_ ..E2.CW.£t.aJ.Lve'.- Soiiii!'imes t~y . between them. It s pretty gtddy romanu~ '(c')I'JlllTam and sax,_..:W-chcrman :you:r.c stuff-like ~eing in high school." On~ .1!9~!-~IC~s-j>liice. ~~l.!.,.!<;_q~!csts!.'_L~ lady, who ~s now_ engaged to so~~n~\jlaJ~_lli!~...I[J..iJJ<1•.l..!~ they'd s he met wlule on jut·y duty, cooed, You nav~.J..o_g(LQJJ.L.and..luwL..k.iili..:lt.:lw....sto.J . can even volunteer! " cars. • · . '-:rthrew a tomato at Nixon when te BLOOD ON THE TRASH visited New York. I hit a cop and did a .Feeling d o,~· it in lit<' clumps one after- day .in jail for assaulting an ollircr ancl lh ll >ll. \\'(" n :lllll'<tll \ began WOIItkrillg f'O\!>C~'iOII of a dan~-;ertHI~ \\T ajlllll h<· ahnut .\ . .J. \V c benuan . the fanatic " D yl- cause they fo und a n o ther tomato on me . :molnJ.(ist " who a l<·w years a~o attracted I mganized a • Ft"Cl' Abbie H o lfman national attemion hy sa lvaging cultural i\f;irch . \\'e mai:thed from \Va~hingtou relics from the tra'lt rau> of Dylan and Square to Battery Park, 'whe re we had a mhcr, . \\' e ca ll ed A.J. at his Greenwich smokc·in. [ ga\'C' marijuana cigarettes to Vi ll;t!{C ltcadquaner; to find o ut what e\·el)·o uc and the cops didn't do a fuckin ' .\nwri<a· , for (' lllm l ga rl..lgt· colkctor thing. I'H· ;ibo been clo ing a lot of pic· might bc inw now. ing- throwing pies at people. l work ":\1y book- it's ca lled My Life .in Gar- · with Aron Kay, l'ic Man. /Jo/ogy- is corn ing o ut this June . I d o "1 kee p lmsy. It's like Dylan says. 'You scu lp t ur e~ o( famou s people exclusiYelv o n almoq think you're seein' d o uble · lri)m their garbage. I go1 J o hn and .()!(. man . :\icc talki n' to yo u. B ye."
them to usc. \\·<· :tre n:m ind nl that Andre Simon, the noted \\'inc ex pert, once remarked thn a true win e co nnoisseur . .,aw to it th at lt c left onlv a (ew bottle' of' wine i.n his cellar wlt~n he died . Tf the. go9d Reverend has hb way. yo u'd ha\·c to .follow 'iimon's a(h i1 c . o tltcrw isl' thnc'd I.Jc no room for you.
I
.I
them
r.
!lli!hal:dly_
the