Victor Marchetti, The Spotlight (14th August, 1978)
A few months ago, in March, there was a meeting at CIA headquarters in
Langley, Va., the plush home of America's super spooks overlooking the
Potomac River. It was attended by several high-level clandestine
officers and some former top officials of the agency.
The topic of
discussion was: What to do about recent revelations associating
President Kennedy's accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, with the spy
game played between the U.S. and the USSR? (
Spotlight, May 8,
1978.) A decision was made, and a course of action determined. They were
calculated to both fascinate and confuse the public by staging a clever
"limited hangout" when the House Special Committee on Assassinations
(HSCA) holds its open hearings, beginning later this month.
A
"limited hangout" is spy jargon for a favorite and frequently used
gimmick of the clandestine professionals. When their veil of secrecy is
shredded and they can no longer rely on a phony cover story to misinform
the public, they resort to admitting - sometimes even volunteering some
of the truth while still managing to withhold the key and damaging
facts in the case. The public, however, is usually so intrigued by the
new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter further.
We
will probably never find out who masterminded the assassination of JFK -
or why. There are too many powerful special interests connected with
the conspiracy for the truth to come out even now, 15 years after the
murder.
But during the next two months, according to sensitive
sources in the CIA and on HSCA, we are going to learn much more about
the crime. The new disclosures will be sensational, but only
superficially so. A few of the lesser villains involved in the
conspiracy and its subsequent coverup will be identified for the first
time - and allowed to twist slowly in the wind on live network TV. Most
of the others to be fingered are already dead.
But once again the
good folks of middle America will be hoodwinked by the government and
its allies in the establishment news media. In fact, we are being set up
to witness yet another coverup, albeit a sophisticated one, designed by
the CIA with the assistance of the FBI and the blessing of the Carter
administration.
A classic example of a limited hangout is how the
CIA has handled and manipulated the Church Committee's investigation of
two years ago. The committee learned nothing more about the
assassinations of foreign leaders, illicit drug programs, or the
penetration of the news media than the CIA allowed it to discover. And
this is precisely what the CIA is out to accomplish through HSCA with
regard to JFK's murder.
Chief among those to be exposed by the
new investigation will be E. Howard Hunt, of Watergate fame. His luck
has run out, and the CIA has decided to sacrifice him to: protect its
clandestine services. The agency is furious with Hunt for having dragged
it publicly into the Nixon mess and for having blackmailed it after he
was arrested.
Besides, Hunt is vulnerable - an easy target as they
say in the spy business. His reputation and integrity have been
destroyed. The death of his wife, Dorothy, in a mysterious plane crash
in Chicago still disturbs many people, especially since there were
rumors from informed sources that she was about to leave him and perhaps
even turn on him.
In addition it is well known that Hunt hated
JFK and blamed him for the Bay of Pigs disaster. And now, in recent
months, his alibi for his whereabouts on the day of the shooting has
come unstuck.
In the public hearings, the CIA will "admit" that
Hunt was involved in the conspiracy to kill Kennedy. The CIA may go so
far as to "admit" that there were three gunmen shooting at Kennedy. The
FBI, while publicly embracing the Warren Commission's "one man acting
alone" conclusion, has always privately known that there were three
gunmen. The conspiracy involved many more people than the ones who
actually fired at Kennedy, both agencies may now admit.
A.J.
Weberman and Michael Canfield, authors of Coup d'Etat in America,
published pictures of three apparent bums who were arrested at Dealy
Plaza just after President Kennedy's murder, but who were strangely
released without any record of the arrest having been made by the Dallas
police. One of the tramps the authors identified as Hunt. Another was
Frank Sturgis, a long time agent of Hunt's.
Hunt immediately sued
for millions of dollars in damages, claiming he could prove that he had
been in Washington D.C. that day-on duty at CIA. It turned out, however,
that this was not true. So, he said that he had been on leave and doing
household errands, including a shopping trip to a grocery store in
Chinatown.
Weberman and Canfield investigated the new alibi and
found that the grocery store where Hunt claimed to be shopping never
existed. At this point, Hunt offered to drop his suit for a token
payment of one dollar. But the authors were determined to vindicate
themselves, and they continued to attack Hunt's alibi, ultimately
completely shattering it.
Now, the CIA moved to finger Hunt and
tie him to the JFK assassination. HSCA unexpectedly received an internal
CIA memorandum a few weeks ago that the agency just happened to stumble
across in its old files. It was dated 1966 and said in essence: Some
day we will have to explain Hunt's presence in Dallas on November 22,
1963 - the day President Kennedy was killed. Hunt is going to be hard
put to explain this memo, and other things, before the TV cameras at the
HSCA hearings.
Hunt's reputation as a strident fanatical
anti-communist will count against him. So will his long and close
relationship with the anti-Castro Cubans, as well as his penchant for
clandestine dirty tricks and his various capers while one of Nixon's
plumbers. E. Howard Hunt will be implicated in the conspiracy and he
will not dare to speak out-the CIA will see to that. In addition to Hunt
and Sturgis, another former CIA agent marked for exposure is Gerry
Patrick Hemming, a hulk of a man-six feet eight inches tall and weighing
260 pounds. Like Sturgis, Hemming once worked for Castro as a CIA
double agent, then later surfaced with the anti-Castro Cubans in various
attempts to rid Cuba of the communist dictator. But there are two
things in Hemming's past that the CIA, manipulation HSCA, will be able
to use to tie him to the JFK assassination.
First, Castro's former
mistress, Marita Lorenz (now an anti-Castroite herself), has identified
Hemming, along with Oswald and others as being part of the secret squad
assigned to kill President Kennedy. And secondly, Hemming was Oswald's
Marine sergeant when he was stationed at CIA's U-2 base in Atsugi,
Japan-where Oswald supposedly was recruited as a spy by the Soviets, or
was being trained to be a double agent by the CIA.
In any event,
Hemming's Cuban career and his connection with Oswald make the Lorenz
story difficult for him to deny, particularly since the squad allegedly
also included Hunt and Sturgis.
Who else will be identified as
having been part of the conspiracy and/or coverup remains to be seen.
But a disturbing pattern is already beginning to emerge. All the
villains have been previously disgraced in one way or another. They all
have "right wing" reputations. Or they will have after the hearings.
