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COSMIC REALITY - 2
THE KENNEDY CONNECTION CONTINUED...

Lee Harvey Oswald

Who was Lee Harvey Oswald? That question led me to look in David Lifton's bibliography of BEST EVIDENCE for more information on this supposed crazed killer. The most interesting listing was a book entitled LEGEND: THE SECRET WORLD OF LEE HARVEY OSWALD written by Edward Jay Epstein. The book was out of print and my bookstore clerk said it would take months to locate an available copy. I decided the expense and time were not worth getting a book I was not positive would be of value. Perhaps I would have gone to a library in hopes of finding the Epstein book, but more likely I would have just forgotten the whole thing. As it was, I left the bookstore and continued on to my next stop, a large discount store. As I was making my way through the store, I came upon a section of discount books. On a whim, I searched and found a $1.98 copy of Epstein's critical data on Oswald!

In October 1956, Oswald entered the Marine Corps where he finished seventh in his basic training class. In August 1957, he set out for Atsugi Air Force base, 35 miles southeast of Tokyo, Japan. Atsugi was also the location for the Joint Technical Advisory Group containing one of the CIA's main operational bases in Asia, as well as the homebase of the ultra-secret spy plane, the U-2.

In November 1958, Oswald redeployed to the United States where he was honorably discharged from the Marines. A year later, in September 1959 Oswald defected to the Soviet Union. In response to the defection Oswald's discharge was downgraded to dishonorable in September 1960. Secretary of the Navy at the time was John Connally, later with Kennedy in the Dallas motorcade as the Governor of Texas.

Oswald stayed in the Soviet Union for two-and-a-half years until June 1962, when he returned to the United States with his Soviet wife Marina and his daughter. A year-and-a-half later Oswald was killed in Dallas while in police custody for the killing of President Kennedy and the wounding of Governor Connally.

There are facts which could lead one to believe Oswald was an assassin working for the KGB. He had, after all defected to the Soviet Union. In addition, in October 1963 a month before the assassination, Oswald went to Mexico and the Soviet Embassy where he talked with a member of the KGB. In fact, the evidence of Soviet complacency in the Assassination was compelling enough that on June 24, 1964 Richard Helms, manager of covert CIA activities, met with Chief Justice Warren to inform him of the possible KGB connection. It is probable that the Warren Commission may have believed in the KGB link.

It is important that we do not underestimate the amount of planning that went into the Assassination. In covert operations, a good plan is to create two or more deceptions. The backup deceptions are there in case the primary cover story is blown. In the Assassination, the primary cover story is that Oswald was a crazy, disaffected individual working alone to kill the President of the United States. If someone dug deeply enough and broke through the lie concerning Oswald's sanity, a second protective lie had to exist. In the Kennedy killing, the planners needed Oswald specifically as the patsy to effectively create the second Assassination cover story - namely that Oswald was working for the Soviets.

By making the Warren Commission members believe Oswald was a KGB agent any piece of data that did not fit the Oswald-crazy-man scenario could be overlooked by individuals believing they were working in the best interest of the nation. In those dark days following the Assassination with the fear associated with the Cuban Missile Crisis a year before not forgotten, some of those covering up important data concerning Kennedy's death may have firmly believed they were protecting the American people from being informed of a Soviet involvement in the Assassination. In protecting Americans from the truth, some may have believed they were protecting the world from nuclear crisis.

Another set of evidence has been interpreted in two ways. The evidence is derived from Oswald's activities upon his return to the United States beginning in April 1963 when he went to New Orleans. During that time, Oswald has been linked to the Mafia, as well as both Pro-Cuban and Anti-Cuban activities. This leads to the possibility that the Mafia planned and executed the Assassination due to their perceived need to stop John and Attorney General Robert Kennedy from further pursuits against organized crime. Or one could argue Fidel Castro was out to get the President because of a CIA plot to assassinate the Cuban leader. A number of books have been written supporting both these interpretations. However, all such theories are based upon the assumption that the disaffected Oswald, while he did not act alone, was part of the assassination team.

For a number of years I was a Personnel Security Officer for the United States Military. That position provided knowledge concerning the requirements for obtaining and keeping a security clearance, which gave me a unique perspective on Lee Oswald. In fact, I came to believe Oswald was working as an American spy when he defected to the Soviet Union. If Oswald was still working for the American Intelligence Community when he returned to the U.S., his activities in New Orleans takes on an entirely different interpretation. Perhaps he was spying on the Cuban and Mafia organizations, rather than a mentally disturbed participant.

Oswald's unit in Japan was the Marine Air Control Squadron One, codenamed"Coffee Mill", which assisted in tracking America's super-secret spy plane the U-2. As a member of this unit, Oswald must have held at least a Secret Clearance, probably even a Top Secret Clearance.

While assigned to Coffee Mill, Oswald did certain things which should have been grounds for immediate revocation of his clearance and, therefore his access to secret U-2 information.
* October 27, 1957: Oswald grazed his own upper arm with a derringer's .22 caliber bullet and was charged with having an unregistered weapon. Confinement was suspended.
* June 1958: Oswald was convicted in a summary courtmartial for using "provoking words" and was sentenced to 28 days in the stockade.
* October 1958: Oswald went for medical treatment after an apparent nervous breakdown which should have resulted in revoking of his clearance but did not.

This failure of authorities to take any security precautions concerning the erratic, irresponsible, and certainly not trustworthy Oswald is baffling. This apparent breakdown in normal security practice was particularly glaring in light of the September 1958 complete compromise of the U-2 IFF radar system. This situation would have been considered a major security breach involving Oswald's unit and should have brought all unit members under intense scrutiny.

Such an investigation should have uncovered Oswald's regular attendance at the local bar where the hostesses were believed to be possible communist agents. The soldier's monthly $85 could not have supported the $60-$100 cost of a date, never mind frequent visits.

In light of the rest of Oswald's background, I began thinking it is likely he was acting as an American informant, in some capacity. With this working theory of Oswald being an American agent, I began looking for other evidence that could paint Oswald as a spy, or when he went to the Soviet Union as a double-double agent. After all, Oswald's favorite television program was the story of an FBI double-double agent, "I Lived Three Lives".

In October 1959 a month after arriving in the Soviet Union, Oswald met with the Senior Consular Officer in Moscow Richard E. Snyder. Oswald wanted to renounce his U.S. citizenship. Snyder testified that Oswald made remarks concerning valuable information he intended relating to Soviet authorities.

On May 1, 1960 Francis Gary Powers had his U-2 shot down by a missile that probably homed in on the spy-plane's radar. Oswald had access to information which could have assisted the Soviets in downing Powers. The U-2 incident and Oswald's stated intention to Snyder to provide the Soviets information,naturally leads one to believe Oswald could have been guilty of releasing secret information on the U-2 project. Such action would have put him in a position of being indicted under U.S. espionage acts. Even if innocent, Oswald would have come under suspicion by competent American authorities.

On the face of it, Oswald should have feared the consequences of returning to America where he should have been brought up on espionage charges whether guilty or innocent. Yet Oswald did return to America and was never even questioned about the U-2 incident and his possible compromise of classified data.

This all seemed confusing until one piece of data was brought to light: as of May 1959 the CIA had been informed by the most valuable undercover American spy in the USSR that the U-2 program had already been compromised. Any information Oswald could have provided the Soviets was already dated by the time of his defection six months later. Thus, before his defection, Oswald was an ideal candidate for playing double-double agent: he could endear himself to the Soviets by releasing classified information the U.S. knew had been compromised while posing no real security hazard.

Consul Snyder in Moscow had continued contacts with Oswald and one episode in particular made Snyder believe there was some sort of unofficial-official communication with Oswald outside State Department channels. Oswald's mother Marquerite obtained an appointment with two State Department officials in Washington concerning her missing son, which resulted in a query letter being sent to Moscow by diplomatic pouch on February 1, 1961. While Snyder had still not responded to the query on February 13 a letter from Oswald arrived postmarked February 5. The only explanation Snyder could offer regarding how Oswald knew about Marguerite Oswald's concerns was to assume he was in communication with someone outside official State Department channels. If Oswald was still a loyal American in spite of his Soviet defection, that channel would be someone working for the U.S. Intelligence Services. Marguerite herself later suggested on the night of November 22, 1963 during an FBI interrogation of her that her son was a government agent.

Based upon the U-2 incident, the logical probability that Oswald would be brought up on espionage charges did not dissuade the defector from requesting a return to the United States. He also made the request that his Soviet family accompany him.

On May 31, 1962 as Oswald prepared to leave the Soviet Union, FBI headquarters ordered Oswald be interrogated upon his return. The FBI already had an open file on Oswald since his defection. An initial questioning of Oswald's associates had been conducted five months after his defection, a month before the U-2 was shot down. There exists an FBI memorandum that was supposedly sent to the State Department indicating that an impostor could assume Oswald's identity - although it is unclear why this message was sent. The lookout card that was supposed to have been placed in Oswald's State Department file in response to the memorandum was never found. Another reported FBI action taken regarding Oswald was on November 10, 1959 when a "flash" notice was placed on Oswald's FBI fingerprint card to preclude an impostor.

Upon his U.S. return, Oswald was interrogated by FBI Agent John W. Fain who suggested the ex-defector be reinterviewed and took it upon himself to requestion Oswald on August 16, 1962. Four days later the Oswald case was closed, although it is not known whether a finger print check had confirmed Oswald's identity. Dropping the case is perhaps not extraordinarily suspicious except in considering the FBI's decision not to question Oswald's Soviet wife as part of its ongoing program of interrogating Russian émigrés; even more suspicious due to the wife's uncle being a ranking member of the Soviet Military Intelligence Service.

Dropping the Oswald case in light of the U-2 incident, his defection, supposed fear of an impostor, along with the FBI failure to question Oswald's wife borders on criminal neglect unless the FBI knew Oswald worked for another intelligence agency.

Even the CIA acted strangely upon Oswald's return - failing to follow through on procedure for interviewing returning expatriates. Yet, while the CIA would have been interested in Oswald's remarks concerning anything the Soviets had done, the FBI was the agency which should have shown the most concern that Oswald or his wife could be working as a KGB agent and that Oswald may have broken his security oath and passed classified information to the Soviets.

The evidence indicates the CIA and FBI were either very incompetent regarding Oswald or that they knew he was an agent for some other U.S. intelligence agency. If it was incompetence, it stretched throughout the intelligence community: after four months in Fort Worth, Texas Oswald became an employee of Jaggars-Chiles-Stoval a firm working on classified military maps. The ex-defector who could have already broken his security oath was once again given access to American secrets. The Soviets considered map work so important that every map of the Soviet Union was classified and any released for public use had built-in errors.

From the Soviet point of view, Oswald's return to the U.S. particularly with a Soviet wife would have presented a bad image. Perhaps the Soviets just wanted to be rid of the Oswald problem and did not consider image. On the other hand, suppose Oswald convinced the Soviets that he could return to the U.S. and be a friend to the Soviets in some role.

At the map firm, Oswald could have been a Soviet agent passing on vital secrets. Or he could have been working as a double-double agent passing information with U.S. built-in errors. In any case, Oswald was in a critical position. If he was an agent for either country, only some mission of greater importance would have taken him away from Jaggars-Chiles-Stoval. Epstein could not determine why Oswald was fired from the firm in April 1963.

It was then Oswald went to New Orleans and became involved with Cuban and Mafia activities. The increasingly agitated activities of Cubans and the growing anger of the Mafia against Robert Kennedy's Attorney General activities were a threat to the Administration if not Kennedy himself. As New Orleans was a central hot spot, it would have been advantageous to get a government agent into New Orleans to spy on the Cubans and Mafia. Lee Oswald had grown up in New Orleans, his uncle had Mafia connections, and Lee was a supposed communist sympathizer. If he was an agent for the U.S., Oswald had unique credentials for infiltrating the on-goings in New Orleans.

Who was Lee Harvey Oswald? I believe the evidence indicates he was an agent for the United States government. Just as it took a neurosurgeon to uncover what autopsy surgeon Dr. Humes had really said to the Warren Commission, it took a Personnel Security Officer to see something was very suspicious concerning Oswald's continuing access to classified information.

But what agency? The United States Intelligence Community is comprised of both a military and a civilian branch. The civilian branch is further divided into the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) responsible for foreign espionage and counterespionage and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which looks at domestic intelligence and counterintelligence. The military branch is overseen by a control group at the Department of Defense level with each service (Army, Air Force, and Navy) operating independent intelligence operations.

Oswald, as a Marine, was in the Navy which operated the Office of Naval Intelligence or ONI. While serving as a Marine, the most critical data Oswald had access to was on the U-2 and that project had been under the security jurisdiction of the Air Force and not the Navy. However, the airbase where Oswald was stationed was also the location for CIA activities.

If Oswald was a American agent, the ONI is front contender. Epstein's book on Oswald connects various documents relating to Oswald to the ONI. For instance, Oswald's October 1959 Moscow meeting with Consul Snyder to renounce his U.S. citizenship was reported in a State Department telex with copies forwarded to the CIA, FBI, and the ONI. Interestingly, the Commander of Naval Operations in Washington was additionally notified in a separate cable sent by the Moscow naval attaché.

Another strange connection to the ONI was made after Oswald's return a month before the Assassination. Oswald supposedly made a trip to Mexico where he went to the Cuban and Soviet embassies, in hopes of returning to the USSR after a visit to Cuba. The CIA's Mexican agents were watching the Soviet Embassy and on October 10 informed the FBI, ONI, and the State Department about Oswald's activities.

While there was no request made for further investigation into the matter, something continued to bother the CIA field agents: on October 23 the CIA Mexican office requested a photograph of Oswald from the ONI. The ONI failed to respond. (After the Assassination a photograph appeared, supposedly taken outside the Soviet Embassy in Mexico by the CIA and purported to be Oswald - although it clearly was not. The CIA was to later claim that photograph was not theirs and that no pictures had been taken during that timeframe. For although photographic records were standard procedure, for some unexplained reason the day Oswald was supposedly at the Soviet Embassy no pictures were taken.)

And, remember the "lookout" card that was supposed to have been placed in Oswald's State Department file in response to the FBI memorandum concerning a possible Oswald impostor? While the lookout card and memorandum was not located in State Department records, the ONI Oswald files did have a copy of the memorandum.

The possibility the Office of Naval Intelligence had a certain Lee Oswald in its employment is very interesting if one accepts David Lifton's belief that Kennedy's body - the best evidence as to what had really happened in Dallas - had been tampered with before the autopsy. The Assassination's planners would have attempted to gain absolute control over the official autopsy report. It is interesting to note that not only were the attending doctors absolutely ignorant about Forensic Pathology, all the doctors were Naval officers. None of those officer reported any perceived problems with the autopsy.

Granted the doctors were there because of their positions at Bethesda. In addition to Admiral George Burkley, the President's doctor, in attendance was the Surgeon General of the Navy, Commanding Officers of the Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, the Bethesda Naval Hospital, and the Navy Medical School.

However, none of the problems with the autopsy would have existed if the law had been carried out. The Dallas Medical Examiner did not autopsy the body as was stipulated by law. As the Medical Examiner attempted to claim Kennedy's body, Secret Service agents at the scene had emphatically refused to release the remains. To some, this action appears a bit odd and quite unauthorized; did the Secret Service agents take this great responsibility upon themselves because they were afraid someone would try to further harm an already dead President?

This final controlling effort on the part of the Secret Service is suspicious in light of the whole plan. To have succeeded in the complex scenario envisioned by the planners of the Assassination, they would have had to:
* possessed detailed information concerning the Dallas trip well in advance;
* depending upon the number of wounds incurred by the occupants of the automobile, planted the correct number of bullets linkable to the Carcano rifle;
* controlled the limousine to eliminate any adverse physical evidence;
* set up the sniper's nest tied to Oswald and facilitate its finding;
* and gained control over Kennedy's body.

David Lifton identified one group fully having the opportunity to accomplish all these varied tasks - the U.S. Secret Service. The Secret Service planned the details of the Dallas trip to include the route the motorcade would take. Control of the limousine was in their hands, and it was Secret Service agents who discovered the two bullet fragments in the car after the autopsy had been conducted some nine hours after the Assassination. Lifton also makes a case that the limousine's windshield may have been switched to eliminate evidence of a bullet having come from the front glass. Even the one intact virtually perfect, infamous One Bullet, Bullet 399, was discovered in the immediate vicinity of a Secret Service Agent on a stretcher at Parkland Memorial Hospital.

And moments before Lee Oswald was shot to death while in Dallas Police custody by Jack Ruby, Oswald conversed with Secret Service Inspector Thomas J. Kelley, who went on to brief the Warren Commission on the x-rays taken of the President's body at the autopsy. If Lifton is correct in his assessment of the evidence indicating there was a great deal wrong with the autopsy, interpretation of the x-rays was a critical element. Why was a Secret Service agent used to brief this data instead of some objective qualified expert?

When all is said and done, if you believe there was a conspiracy to kill Kennedy and frame Oswald, you have to accept that members of the Secret Service, Navy, and Dallas Sheriffs' Department were implicated and the resulting cover-up further implicates the CIA and FBI. What common element could unite such apparently divergent agencies and men in such an awesome event. What could bring two or three dozen men to willingly participate in the assassination of a President of the United States?

This may be the crucial problem for all the "conspiracy buffs". The amount of planning and control over all aspects of the Assassination implicates too many people. How could these people keep the secrets for over forty years? The very concept of this vast conspiracy stretches the imagination.

And there was one more piece of the puzzle that was very perplexing and bothersome....

The Nazi Connection

If we assume Oswald was not an insane killer who acted alone, we must also assume he was manipulated into playing the patsy. Someone had to be the manipulator. In espionage parlay, we are looking for a "handler". We are looking for someone who placed Oswald at the right place at the right time, that is the Texas School Book Depository on November 22, 1963 at 1 PM.

Ruth Paine informed Oswald of a job opening at the Texas Book Depository and her neighbor Buell Wesley Frazier gave Oswald a ride to work on Assassination Day. Frazier later testified Oswald carried a package with him which could have contained a rifle. Frazier said Oswald claimed it was curtain rods. But this is the end and beginning of Frazier's involvement.

Ruth Paine, on the other hand, was involved with both Lee and Marina Oswald before and after the Assassination. Ruth was working with the East-West Contact Service arranging cultural exchanges between the U.S. And USSR when introduced to the Oswalds in February 1963. In July, Ruth offered to have Oswald's wife Marina live with her and promised to give Marina $10 a week. In October, Ruth told Lee about the job at the Texas Book Depository. After Lee had been killed by Jack Ruby, Ruth provided critical evidence linking Lee with yet another assassination attempt.

A would be assassin fired out of the night, through a window at Major General Edwin A. Walker on April 1963. Walker had been forced to resign from the Army due to his extremist right-wing activities. Although no motive for the attempted murder of Walker has ever come to light, Ruth Paine provided a direct link between Oswald and the Walker incident.

Ruth claimed to have found a note supposedly written by Oswald to his wife implicating himself in the Walker shooting. Ruth turned this note over to authorities after finding it where Maria Oswald was supposed to have hidden it. It is not known why Marina kept such a note (if she did) after Lee told her to destroy it along with other incriminating evidence she had destroyed.

The proof in Lee's own handwriting that he had shot at Walker was used to further demonstrate Oswald's capability to murder and his unbalanced mentality. If Oswald was being set up as a patsy Ruth Paine was very influential in leading him there. But how did Ruth get into the picture?

Ruth and her estranged husband Michael were introduced to the Oswald's by Volkmar Schmidt. Schmidt had come from Germany in 1961 to do geological research in Texas. During his interview with author Epstein, Schmidt felt it was important to let Epstein know that in Heidelberhg, Germany Schmidt had lived with Dr. Wilhelm Kuetemeyer, supposedly involved in the plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler at the end of World War II. Schmidt went on to paint Oswald as a totally alienated individual who verbally attacked President Kennedy's foreign policies and who compared General Edwin A. Walker to Hitler. Oswald, Schmidt claimed, had added that both Kennedy and Walker should be considered murderers.

Schmidt certainly substantiated Oswald's supposed disillusionment with America and Kennedy, links him to Walker by way of a motive, and introduced Ruth Paine into the unfolding scenario. But how had the German come to play his critical part?

Schmidt was introduced to Oswald by George DeMohrenschildt in early February 1963. DeMohrenschildt had come into Oswald's life just after the defector returned to the U.S. in the summer of 1962. DeMohrenschildt had arrived in America in May 1938 from Germany. During the war he was connected to three suspected Nazi agents:
* through a letter from Nazi Baron Knostantin Von Maydell;
* through contact with Saburo Matsukata believed to be coordinating German and Japanese intelligence activities in the United States;
* through the address book of a suspected Nazi agent where DeMohrenschildt's name was listed.

Not only was DeMohrenschildt associated with known or suspected Nazis, he had been investigated at one time or another by the FBI and CIA. According to CIA files, the Office of Naval Intelligence had investigated DeMohrenschildt during the 1944 timeframe. The ONI denies it ever investigated the man.

DeMohrenschildt married into the Texas oil community in 1952 and worked in the oil business. Judging from some of his known acquaintances, DeMohrenschildt possessed influential contacts in both finance and the Navy. In May 1963 DeMohrenschildt left the United States for Haiti. Years later after returning to the U.S. DeMohrenschildt agreed to a March 1977 meeting with Epstein to talk about the Kennedy murder. During the second day of interviews with Epstein, DeMohrenschildt went home for lunch and supposedly committed suicide. It is to be assumed DeMohrenschildt's full role in the Assassination died with him.

What was bothersome about DeMohrenschildt was the potential Nazi link. Could a Nazi oath have bound all the seemingly diverse people involved in the planning, execution, and cover-up of the Assassination? This was initially just a passing thought. Too bazaar to be considered. Required too much imagination.

Except for one thing: my imagination had already been stretched beyond any science fiction novel. I had reason to suspect modern day Nazis had developed psyonic weapons commonly referred to as psychic weapons. Not only that, the U.S. Navy was involved in the initial experimentation that led to these weapons and that experimentation was conducted in 1943. A year later was the time frame the Office of Naval Intelligence was supposed to have investigated DeMohrenschildt.

COSMIC REALITY - 3

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