Framed:
America's
Patsy Tradition 
Counter-Intelligence Aspects of the JFK Assassination
Written by Mike Sylwester
" I think a group of top officials in the US intelligence organizations conspired to assassinate President Kennedy because they believed he was a threat to the national security. Some of them apparently believed Kennedy was a secret Communist. Most probably believed that he was not himself a Communist, but was negligently allowing Communists to infiltrate the Government and exert dangerous influence on American society"
- Martin Luther King
- Double Agents
- Drug Experiments
- Proposed Assassinations
- Executive Action
- Uncontrolled Abuses
- James Angleton
- Allan Dulles
- Executive Liaison
- Anatoliy Golitsyn.
- Alleged Politician Spies
- Security Violations
- Guy Banister's Motives
- Delphine Roberts' Statement
- Other Witnesses
- Banister's Background
- Investigation of Radicals
- Investigation of Law Enforcement Officials
- Secret Indexes
- Investigation Consolidation
- Communist Underground
- Emergency Detention Act
- Banister's Post-FBI Career
- An Hypothesis
- Banister and Angleton
- Banister's Index
- Martin and Lewis's Affidavit
- Kim Philby
- Robert Kennedy
- Banister's Attitude
- National Emergency
- The Failure
- Later Conversations
- Secret Cliques
- Banister and Communists
- Oswald's Motives
For example, the FBI leadership strongly disagreed with President Kennedy's opinion about Communist influence on the Negro civil rights movement. At a press conference on July 17, 1963, Kennedy said:
We have no evidence that any of the leaders of the civil rights movement in the United States are Communists. We have no evidence that the demonstrations are Communist-inspired. There may be occasions when a Communist takes part in a demonstration. We can't prevent that. But I think it is a convenient scapegoat to suggest that all of the difficulties are Communist and that if the Communist movement would only disappear that we would end this.
On the other hand, the FBI's Deputy Director for Domestic Intelligence, William Sullivan, wrote an opposite opinion in a memo dated August 30:
The Director [J. Edgar Hoover] is correct. We were completely wrong about believing the evidence was not sufficient to determine some years ago that Fidel Castro was not a communist or under communist influence. On investigating and writing about communism and the American Negro, we had better remember this and profit by the lesson it should teach us. .... We must mark him [King] now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this Nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro and national security. .... It may be unrealistic to limit ourselves as we have been doing to legalistic proofs or definitely conclusive evidence that would stand up in testimony in court or before Congressional Committees that the Commuinst Party, USA, does wield substanial influence over Negroes which one day could become decisive. [Church Committee, Book III, pp 107-108]
On October 1, 1963, FBI Headquarters disseminated instructions to its field units:
In order for the Bureau to cope with the [Communist] Party's efforts and thus fulfill our responsibilities in the security field, it is necessary that we at once intensify our coverage of communist influence on the Negro. Fullest consideration should be given to the use of possible investigative techniques. .... There is also an urgent need for imaginative and aggressive tactics to be utilized through our Counterintelligence Program for the purpose of attempting to neutralize or disrupt the Party's activities in the Negro field. [ibid, pp 110-111]
In 1964, FBI Deputy Director Sullivan sent King tape recordings of King's adulteries and an unsigned letter that King would or should soon die. According to one source, Hoover stood by as Sullivan wrote the letter. The key excerpts:
King, like all frauds, your end is approaching. .... You are done. Your "honorary" degrees, your Nobel Prize (what a grim farce) and other awards will not save you. King, I repeat, you are done. .... King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. You have just 34 days in which to do (this exact number has been selected for a specific reason, it has definite practical significance). Your are done. There is but one way out for you. You better take it before your filthy fraudulent self is bared to the nation. [ibid, pg 160-161]
Many top leaders of the FBI and CIA believed that assassination was justified for double-agents -- people who pretended to work for the US intelligence, but were really working for foreign intelligence agencies. In the CIA, responsibility for planning assassinations was combined with responsibility for determining whether CIA's agents secretly sympathized with the Communists and whether defectors to the US were genuine. The CIA's unnamed Director of Operations Planning told the Church Committee [US Senate Select Committee to Study Government Operations with Respect to Intelligence Operations, Book IV, pp 128-133, US Government Printing Office, 1976]:
In the international clandestine operations business, it was part of the code that the one and the only remedy for the unfrocked double-agent was to kill him, and all double-agents knew that. That was part of the occupational hazard of the job. So in a shadowy sort of a way, we did have in mind that possibly as a last ditch effort, [assassination] might come up.
The first known assassination program was established by Boris Pash, a US Army officer who during World War Two had managed the counter-intelligence organization for Project Manhattan, which developed the first atomic bomb. At the end of the war, Pash was reassigned to head the so-called Alsos Mission, which arrested and interrogated Nazi scientists who had developed atomic and chemical weapons in Germany. After 1947, he also became the military representative of Operation Bloodstone, which smuggled East European fascists to the West so that they could escape punishment for war crimes. (Ian Sayer and Douglas Botting, America's Secret Army: The Untold Story of the Counter-Intelligence Corps (New York: Franklin Watts, 1989), pp 71-78, 336-354)
Some of these fascist refugees were then programmed to commit assassinations for the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC), which organized the CIA's covert actions. In March 1949, the Army assigned Pash to become a full member of the OPC. The roles of OPC chief Frank Wisner and military counter-intelligence representative Boris Pash have been described as follows:
The OPC under Frank G. Wisner was in the front line of the covert war against the Soviet Union, bent on an undercover program of destabilization, subversion, and outright guerrilla war intended to roll back Soviet power in Eastern Europe and the Soviet republics of Belorussia and the Ukraine. Its director enjoyed virtually unlimited powers to pursue whatever means he thought fit to achieve policy ends -- including, of course, the employment of ex-Nazis, war criminals, former SS intelligence networks. Anything justified the OPC's dream of overthrowing the Soviet empire, operating (as a future director of the CIA was to put it) "in the atmosphere of an order of Knights Templar ....
Two of these [assassination] operations, codenamed Hagberry and Lithia, were aimed against foreign agents who had penetrated Anglo-American emigre espionage networks operating under the the umbrella codename Rusty. Operation Hagberry was designed to liquidate a Soviet intelligence net in the US Zone known as the Chikalov Ring. Operation Lithia, which began under army auspices in November 1947, authorized "the liquidation in the United States Zone of the Kindermann Ring, a large-scale Czechoslovakian net." Part of the liquidation process apparently involved the murder of all suspected double agents. ....
The most notorious assassination program, of which some accounts do exist, formed part of an operation called Ohio, which employed a squad of ex-Nazi Ukrainians to liquidate double agents and Soviet Eastern Bloc agents at a DP camp in Mittenwald in the the Bavarian Alps. .... The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) had a long history of crimes against humanity, starting with the German occupation during World War Two, when the OUN played a significant part in the extermination of the Jews and other "undesirables", often performing the dirty work of the German Einsatzkommando extermination squads (e.g. the killing of children), and continuing after the war under American sponsorship. ....
According to one report, possibly more than 100 Ukrainians were assassinated in the course of the OUN terror program [in West Europe after the War], although the exact number has never been made known. .... The assassination program was financed, supervised, and condoned by the US Army Counter Intelligence Corps, Naval Intelligence, and Air Force Intelligence under the code-name Operation Ohio, and continued in to the 1950s with the cognizance of the CIA. .... According to a Russian-born CIA employee who worked at a Displaced Persons camp at Mittenwald in Southern Bavaria ... American intelligence at the camp ... disposed of the corpses of murdered Ukrainian "undesirables" by burning them in the camp's large bread ovens. After the bodies had been cremated, the ovens when back to normal operation and were used to bake the bread for the camp's hungry inmates. A woman who worked as a secretary of the US authorities at the Mittenwald DP camp also confirmed the killings that took place there. Another informant who witnessed these incidents maintained that the keys to the Mittenwald bread ovens were held by men in US army uniforms, and the OUN murder squds had to appy to the Americans each time they wished to use the ovens. [ibid, pp 342-351; order of text slightly rearranged]
By 1950, the clandestine army raised by the Americans from the ranks of Russian and East European Waffen-SS veterans numbered some 30,000 fully trained men armed with infantry weapons and chemical warfare equipment. .... It was, of course, a major problem to conceal such a large underground army, and the solution was to hide it within the ranks of the United States' own army in Europe under the guise of Labor Service units (i.e. non-American service auxiliaries attached to the US Army in Germany).
By 1950, these Labor Service units were being used as cover by both the Counter-Intelligence Corps (CIC) and the CIA for the purpose of training a right-wing German underground organization which called itself a Technical Services unit, but whose real name was the BDJ (Bund Deutscher Jungen, or League of Young Germans.) .... One of the aims of the BDJ was to carry out ... an assassination program in West Germany in the event of a Soviet attack. BDJ squads would target selected German leaders who were deemed insufficiently anti-Communist and then murder them. The targets not only included German Communists, but members of the Social Democratic Party (the main opposition party during the Adenauer regime), including the party leader, the minister of the interior in Hesse, and the mayors of Hamburg and Bremen. [unquote] [Ibid, pp 345-346]
The OPC's Special Operations Unit, called PB/7 (Project Bloodstone?) had a written charter making it "responsible for assassinations, kidnapping, and such other functions as from time to time may be given it by higher authority." One CIA official who supervised PB/7 in the early years testified to the Church Committee that the original focus was on:
kidnapping of personages behind the Iron Curtain, if they were in sympathy with the regime, and could be spirited out of the country by our people for their own safety; or kidnapping of people whose interests were inimical to ours.
Army Colonel Boris T. Pash headed PB/7 beginning in 1949, confirmed that it planned assassinations, but claimed that none were committed. From his testimony, the Church Committee summarized the main missions as
promoting defections from Communist countries, facilitating the escape of prominent political refugees, disseminating anti-Communist propaganda behind the Iron Curtain, and contingency planning for the death of foreign leaders. .... Assassinations and kidnappings included any which might be directed against double agents. CIA's former Director of Operations Planning testified that Pash's unit would have had responsibility for the planning aspects of dealing with a double-agent problem.
According to CIA records, Colonel Pash was a CIA employee from March 3, 1949, to January 3, 1952. However, another CIA employee, E. Howard Hunt, testified that:
He was told in the mid-1950s that the CIA had a small unit set up to arrange for the assassination of suspected double agents and similar low-ranking officials. Hunt said he recalled having been told by CIA superiors in 1954 or 1955 that Boris T. Pash, an Agency official, was in charge of the assassination unit. .... [Hunt met with Pash then to discuss] a method of dealing with a situation in which the CIA suspected that a double-agent was undermining the Agency's liaison with a group in West Germany.....
The fact that Pash continued to occupy this position even after he had officially left the CIA is typical of this unit's deniability. In fact, despite these admissions of this assassination planning by the officials themselves,
The CIA has no record of documents which deal with this [assassination] aspect of Pash's unit. .... It should be noted that Pash did undertake certain projects in liaison with the CIA after his formal assignment terminated in January 1952.
These "certain projects" were to develop poisons and brain-alterating drugs. Pash worked in a secret unit in the Technical Services Division (TSD). This division's projects were identified with code names that began with the letters "MK."
The unit working on these noxious enterprises was called the Health Alteration Committee (directed by Dr Sidney Gottlieb and Boris Pash) and ... added to the collection of CIA curios a noiseless gun which the Committee had produced for firing darts smeared with LSD, germs or venom at enemy agents or foreign personalities whose existence the CIA was finding embarrassing. [Leonard Mosley, Dulles (New York: The Dial Press, 1978), pp 485-486]
The Church Committee provided an overview of those projects and of the growing role that the Office of Security played in controlling them:
Project ARTICHOKE included in-house experiments on interrogation techniques ..... Overseas interrogations utilizing a combination of sodium petothal and hypnosis after physical and psychiatric examinations of the subjects were also a part of ARTICHOKE. .... In 1952, overall responsibility for ARTICHOKE was transferred ... to the Inspection and Security Office (I&SO), predecessor to the present Office of Security. The CIA's Technical Services and Medical Staffs were to be called upon as needed. .... Information about Project ARTICHOKE after the fall of 1953 is scarce. The CIA maintains that the project ended in 1956, but evidence suggests that the Office of Security and Office of Medical Services use of "special interrogation" techniques continued for several years thereafter. ....
[Begun in 1952,] MKNAOMI was another major CIA program in this area. .... The purposes [included] to stockpile severely incapacitating and lethal materials for the specific use of the Technical Services Division. .... [The program] developed darts coated with biological agents and pills containing several different biological agents which could remain potent for weeks or months. ....
MKULTRA was the principal CIA program involving the research and development of chemical and biological agents. It was "concerned with the research and development of chemical, biologocial, and radiological materials capable of employment in clandestine operations to control human behavior." .... MKULTRA was approved by the Director of Central Intelligence on April 13, 1953, along the lines proposed by the Assistant Deputy Director for Plans, Richard Helms. ....
A special procedure, designated MKDELTA, was established to govern the use of MKULTRA materials abroad. Such materials were used on a number of occassions. .... It has been determined that the use of materials abroad began in 1953 .... Drugs were used primarily as an aid to interrogations, but MKULTRA/MKDELTA materials were also used for harassment, discrediting, or disabling purposes.
The belief that hostile powers had used chemical and biological agents in interrogations, brainwashing, and in attacks designed to harass, disable, or kill Allied personnel created considerable pressure of a "defensive" program to investigate chemical and biological agents. [Book 1, pp 387-393]
Jurisdictional conflict was constant in this area. The Office of Security, which had been assigned responsibility for direction of ARTICHOKE, consistently sought to bring TSD operations involving psychochemicals under the ARTICHOKE umbrella. ....
Because the advice of the Director of Security was needed for "evaluating the risks involved" in the programs and because the knowledge that the CIA was "engaging in unethical and illicit activities would have serious repercussions in political and diplomatic circles," the Inspector General recommended [in 1957] that the Director of Security be fully advised of TSD's activities in these areas. [ibid, pp 410]
The Senate's Report on "Alleged Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders" reported the next development:
Prior to [the spring of 1960], there had been an internal CIA committee which passed on proposals involving the operational use of drugs, chemicals, and biological agents. The purpose of this Committee is suggested by the following incident:
In February 1960, CIA's Near East Division sought the endorsement of what the Division Chief called the "Health Alteration Committee" for its proposal for a "special operation" to "incapacitate an Iraqi colonel believed to be "promoting Soviet bloc political interests in Iraq." The Divison sought the Committee's advice on a technique "which while not likely to result in total disablement would be certain to prevent the target from pursuing his usual activities for a minimum of three months.. We do not consciously seek subject's permanent removal from the scene; we also do not object should this complication develop."
In April, the Committee unanimously recommended to the Deputy Director for Planning [Richard Bissell] that a "disabling operation" be undertaken, noting that Chief of Operations advised that it woud be "highly desirable." Bissell's deputy, Tracy Barnes, approved on behalf of Bissell. The approved operation was to mail a monogrammed handkerchief containing an incapacitating agent to the colonel from an Asian country. [pg 181]
During the late spring or early summer of 1960, [CIA Deputy Director of Plans] Richard Bissell requested his Science Advisor, Mr Joseph Scheider, to review the general "capability of the clandestine service in the field of incapacitation and elimination." Scheider testified that assassination was one of the "capabilities he was asked by Bissell to research.
Scheider indicated that Bissell turned to him because he was knowledgeable about "substances that might be available in CIA laboratories" and because Bissell would have considered it part of my job as his technical aide. [ibid]
Sometime in early [January] 1961, Bissell instructed [William] Harvey, who was then Chief of a CIA Foreign Intelligence staff, to establish an "executive action capability," which would include research into a capability to assassinate foreign leaders. ... Bissell indicated that Executive Action covered a wide spectrum of actions to "eliminate the effectiveness" of foreign leaders, with assassination as the "most extreme" action in the spectrum.... The project was given the code name ZR/RIFLE by the CIA.
ZR/RIFLE was a cryptonum relating to two areas. One was the Executive Action assassination capability. The second program was genuine, but it was also meant to provide a cover for any Executive Action operation. William Harvey had been in charge of the CIA section with general responsibility for such programs. [The report gives no more direct clues about this second program. However, as we will see, it perhaps involved interception of drug-traffickers' communications.]
Harvey testified that Bissell had told him that "the White House" had twice urged the creation of such a capability. .... William Harvey testified that he was "almost certain" that on January 25 and 26, 1961, he met with two CIA officials: Joseph Scheider, who by then had become Chief of the Technical Services Division, and a CIA recruiting officer, to discuss the feasibility of creating a capability within the Agency for "Executive Action.
(As we will see, this CIA recruiting officer" was apparently James O'Connell, the Office of Security's Deputy Director for Investigations and Operational Support.)
A single agent was given the cryptonym QJ/WIN and placed under Harvey's supervision for the ZR/RIFLE project. .... QJ/WIN was a foreign citizen with a criminal background who had been recruited by the CIA for certain sensitive programs prior to Project ZR/RIFLE. Harvey used QJ/WIN to spot "individuals" with criminal and underworld connections in Europe for prossible multi-purpose use." For example, QJ/WIN reported that a potential asset in the Middle East was "the leader of a gambling syndicate" with "an available pool of assassins."
In general, project ZR/RIFLE involved assessing the problems and requirements of assassination and developing a stand-by assassination capability; more specifically, it involved "spotting" potential agents and "researching" assassination techniques that might be used. " [Ibid, pp 181-183, 189, text rearranged into chronological order]
Practically from the beginning of the CIA, the Office of Security and the Counterintelligence Staff became laws unto themselves, conducting operational projects and dispensing justice with ultra secrecy and righteousness as it alone saw fit:
The intended roles of the functional staffs ... (administrative support versus operational control) had broken down under the incentives to generate and manage projects. During this period [1953-61], both the Covert Action (CA) and the Counterintelligence (CI) Staff ran field operations. ....
The CI Staff actually monopolized counterintelligence operations and left little latitude to the divisions to develop and implement their own counterintelligence activities. The staff maintained their own communicatons channels with the field, and CI operations were frequently conducted without the knowledge of Division Chiefs or Station Chiefs.
The example of the CI Staff is the extreme. It was derived from the personal infleunce that CI chief James Angleton exercised for nearly 20 years. Nonetheless, the CI Staff is indicative of the compartmentation within the Directorate that created pockets of privilege for specific operations.[ibid, Book 4, pg 47]
Despite their self-righteousness, this CI Staff tolerated an amazing amount of personal dishonesty, gross sin and outright evil within their own ranks. In fact, I believe that to a great extent, this Staff selected many of its own personnel on this basis. The CI Staff Chief himself, James Angleton, was a brain-damaged alcoholic (Tom Mangold, Cold Warrior: James Jesus Angleton: The CIA's Master Spy Hunter (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991), pp 156-157, 239):
He was a strangely undisciplined man during much of his working day. Extremely long martini lunches were ... a trademark. .... A significant amount of business was handled during these liquid lunches, but Angleton's guests often came away astounded more by his capacity for alcolol than his counterintelligence reputation. .... A senior CIA executive and occasional lunchtime partner could not understand how Angleton stayed on his feet afterwards. .... [This executive] often told colleagues that it must have been physically impossible for the Counterintelligence chief to work in the afternoon. .... Angleton would usually start lunch with a bourbon, then move to either kirs or martinis and back to bourbons.
As [Angleton's deputy] Pete Bagley recalls, "When he went out on those legendary martini lunches -- often until three or four pm -- sometimes Jim could not work afterwards...."
Angleton's former drinking partners all marvel at the vast amounts of liquor he could consume while still appearing to be sober. They say he regularly polished off as much as two bottles of wine or whiskey in a night. ...
[His wife] says, "He drank anything he could get ahold of. He had no particular favorite -- though he drank a lot of bourbon. .... [By 1974,] his nervous system was out of wack, and his motor system had broken down. He couldn't walk or tie his tie."
The tolerated immorality for the select few were protected by Allen Dulles, who was the Director of the CIA from 1953 until 1961, when he was fired by President Kennedy. Subsequently Dulles served as a member of the Warren Commission that officially covered up the conspiracy. According to Gordon Thomas's book Journey Into Madness: The True Story of Secret CIA Mind Control and Medial Abuse, Dulles had an uncontrollable sexual compulsion and was so disturbed by his own mental health that he placed himself under the control of a Canadian psychiatrist(Chap. 5):
No party was complete for the middle-aged spymaster without its quota of models, television starlets, and the most elegant of the long-legged secretaries working on Capitol Hill. Flirting with all of them, seeing how far his intellectual superiority could seduce them, helped him relax. There was endless speculation on the city's embassy party circuit over who would be the next girl, young enough to be his daughter, he would bed. No one could be certain. He was in every sense a man of secrets.
Dotted among the guests were a number of young men in dark lounge suits. They were the pick from the latest crop of Agency recruits. Their role was to take care of the unattached girls until Dulles made his choice. They were known as the stud detail. ....
He depended on [his own Montreal psychiatrists'] clinical reports to help him arrive at any number of decisions, including who would fly the Agency planes on secret missions, who would command the Agencies' private armies, and who would lead the Agency's military campaigns. .
An additional source of Angleton's authority was his exclusive control of CIA liaison with the Israeli intelligence services, with their innumerable Jewish agents throughout the world. Jews were especially widespread and influential in the international Communist movement. The Church Committee commented that such liaison arrangements provided extra opportunities to control and manipulate information and judgements within the CIA [Book IV, pg 49]
The existence of close liaison relationships inhibited developing independent assets. First, it was simply easier to rely on information that had already been gleaned from agents. .... It was far easier to talk to [foreign] colleagues who had numerous assets in place ....
Second, maintenance of liaison became an end in itself, against which independent collection operations were judged. Rather than serving as a supplement to Agency operations, it assumed primary importance.... Often, a proposal for an independent operation was rejected because a Station Chief believed that if the operation were exposed the host government's intelligence service would be offended.
In December 1961, a KGB major named Anatoliy Golitsyn defected to the United States. In the following months, he provided information that led to the arrest of four officials of NATO countries who had been spying for the Soviet Union. By the middle of 1962, Golitsyn developed a special, fateful relationship with James Angleton. Golitsyn and Angleton were convinced that the KGB was conducting a strategic campaign of disinformation and false defectors to protect a KGB spy in the CIA leadership.
Golitsyn repeatedly requested a private audience with President John Kennedy in order to personally present his accusations about this alleged KGB plot. In mid-1962, the President's brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, did meet with Golitsyn and promised to pass the accusations to the President. However, Golitsyn was not satisfied and continued to demand an audience with the President, which was never granted.
Although many CIA offials doubted or disbelieved Golitsyn's and Angleton's increasingly incredible conspiracy theories, Angleton enjoyed the firm support of his own boss, CIA Deputy Director for Operations (DDO), Richard Helms. For example, Helms allowed Angleton to open practically all the CIA's operational and personnel files to Golitsyn in the search for fake defectors and for spies in the CIA. Angleton hid unique, valuable reports from genuine defectors in his safe and never showed these reports to anybody else in the CIA. He sent these genuine defectors to the KGB to be executed. (Tom Mangold, Cold Warrior: James Jesus Angleton: The CIA's Master Spy Hunter (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991), chapters 6, 14).
In the spring of 1963, Golitsyn traveled to England, were he consulted the British counter-intelligence organization MI-5 in a similar search for spies in the United Kingdom. MI-5 was very receptive to Golitsyn, because Soviet spies had undoubtedly infested that country's intelligence agencies, and several of them had recently defected to the Soviet Union. In England, Golitsyn presented accusation that Harold Wilson, the leader of the Labour Party and soon-to-be Prime Minister was a Soviet spy. Angleton then created a formal CIA file on this allegation, which was called OATSHEAF. (ibid, chaper 7)
David Leigh writes in The Wilson Plot (New York: Pantheon, 1988) what happened next:
The CIA was not prepared to leave the "Wilson case" alone. Instead, at the behest of some eight to ten agency counter-intelligence officers, [CIA Director] John McCone went to see President Kennedy in 1963. McCone told Kennedy there was concern about Wilson and his connections with "international socialism.." ....
Kennedy's reaction was brusque: "If you have specific proof, you pursue leads. In the meantime, as President of the US, I will deal with Wilson if he becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. And let's hear nothing more about it until something crops up. ....
In 1961-3, around the time of Harold Wilson's rise to power, the CIA itself began to consider assassination as a tool in achieving their political and Intelligence aims. [British counter-intelligence official, Peter] Wright claims that, on a visit to Washington, he offered Angleton and his pistol-toting colleague William Harvey technical tips on murder methods. It was later officially established that intended victims of the [CIA Technical Services Division's] ZR/RIFLE programme, tucked away in a covert signals eavesdropping department called "Staff D" included both Castro in Cuba and Lumumba in the Congo. [pp 85-86]
After Golitsyn returned to Washington that same spring, he made similar accusations about the leadership of France. Specifically, he charged that the KGB had recruited a top official inside DeGaulle's government, also several officials in the Ministries of Defense, Foreign Affairs, and the Interior, also 12 officials in the French intelligence organization SDECE, and also one offical in NATO headquarters in Paris. (Mangold, Cold Warrior, chapter 9)
Eventually, Angleton formally accused the following politicians of being Communist agents: British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, Canadian Prime Minster Lester Pearson, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and New York Governor Averell Harriman. [Ibid, pp 303-306]
In general, the evidence of Communist infiltration of the Western political leadership and security organizations was quite serious. During the 1980s, many books were published on this subject, especially about the infiltration of counter-intelligence in the United Kingdom. The most authoritative of these books on the general subject were Chapman Pincher's Their Trade is Treachery (1981) and Too Secret Too Long (1984), Peter Wright's Spycatcher (1987), John Costello's Mask of Treachery (1988), and William Corson's and Susan and Joseph Trento's Widows (1989).
It is also true that the Kennedy Administration grossly violated security regulations and unjustly persecuted and wrecked the careers of those honest officials who tried to uphold those regulations. The best-known victim of this abuse was a State Department security official, Otto Otepka.
Apparently, many officials also believed that President Kennedy ordered the murder of Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem on November 2, 1963. These officials believed that Diem was the only hope for defeating Communism in Vietnam.
Guy Banister's Motive- Banister's and Oswald's Association.
In the summer of 1963, Lee Harvey Oswald opened a branch of the Free Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC) with the mailing address 544 Camp Street, on the corner of Camp and Lafayette Streets in New Orleans. In this role, he passed out leaflets, appeared on a talk radio show, and was arrested for fighting with some Cuban exiles. The office space at that address that Oswald actually used was in a detective agency called Guy Banister Associates.
The House Select Committee on Assassinations noted that the Warren Commission's "overall investigation of the 544 Camp Street issue at the time of the assassination was not thorough." That is a gross understatement; the Commission concluded that Oswald did not have any rela tionship with anybody at that address. However, the Committee was not very thorough either. It believed denials, discounted testimony, and ignored leads. The HSCA report said:
[Banister's secretary,] Delphine Roberts, Banister's long-time friend and secretary, stated to the committee that Banister had become extremely angry with [the building janitor] James Arthus and [the building owner] Sam Newman over Oswald's use of the 544 Camp Street address on his handbills.
The Committee questioned Sam Newman regarding Roberts' allegation. Newman could not recall ever seeing Oswald or renting space to him. He did recall, however, asking a young many who was in the office once used by the Cuban Revolutionary Council to leave. [The CRC office was supposedly vacant during the summer of 1963.] Newman did not think this person was Oswald. Newman theorized that if Oswald was using the 544 Camp Street address and had any link to the building, it would have been through a connection to the Cuban Revolutionary Council or Banister's office. ....
The above passage indicated that Arthus and Newman themselves had some kind of relationship to Oswald, if Banister blamed them for Oswald's use of the address on his leaflets. Nevertheless, the Committee accepted Arthus's and Newman's denials of knowledge at face value. The HSCA report continues:
Roberts, who initially refused to speak with the committee staff, told the committee she was very active in anti-Communist activities in the early 1960s. She said she worked with Banister as a volunteer typing correspondence, making files and clipping newspapers because Banister was working for what Roberts believed in. Roberts claimed Banister had an extensive file on Communists and fellow travelers, including one on Lee Harvey Oswald, which was kept out of the original files because Banister "never got around to assigning a number to it." Roberts did not remember what was in the file other than that it contained general information on Oswald such as newspaper clippings. Roberts also related the incident ... in which Banister became angry over Oswald's use of the Camp Street address. ....
During another interview, Roberts told the committee that Oswald came into the office seeking employment and sometime later brought Marina [his wife] in with him. Contrary to her statements in the initial interview, that she had never seen Oswald, she stated that she saw Oswald come into Banister's office on several occasions. Because of such contradictions in Roberts' statements to the committee and lack of independent corroboration of many of her statements, the reliability of her statements could not be determined. [vol 10, pp 128-129]
Journalist Anthony Summers also interviewed Delphine Roberts, who was not only Guy Banister's secretary, but also his mis tress. In Summers' book Conspiracy he reported Roberts' knowledge much more vividly:
According to Delphine Roberts, Lee Oswald walked into her office sometime in 1963 and asked to fill in the forms for accreditation as one of Banister's "agents." Mrs Roberts says:
"Oswald introduced himself by name and said he was seeking an application form. I did not think that was really why he was there. During the course of the conversation, I gained the impression that he and Guy Banister already knew each other. After Oswald filled out the application form, Guy Banister called him into the office. The door was closed, and a lengthy conversation took place. Then the young man left. I presumed then, and now am certain, that the reason for Oswald being there was that he was required to act under cover."
The precise purpose of Oswald's "undercover" role remained obscure to Mrs Roberts, but she soon learned that it involved Cuba and some sort of charade that required deception. She says:
"Oswald came back a number of times. He seemed to be on familiar terms with Banister and with the office. As I understood it, he had the use of an office on the second floor, above the main office where we worked. I was not greatly surprised when I learned he was going up and down, back and forth. Then, several times, Mr Banister brought me upstairs, and in the main office above, I saw various writings stuck up on the wall pertaining to Cuba. There were various leaflets up there pertaining to Fair Play for Cuba. They were pro-Castro leaflets. Banister just didn't say anything about them one way or the other. But on several occasions, when some people who had been upstairs would bring some of that material down into the main office, Banister was very incensed about it. He did not want that material in his office."
One day, says Mrs Roberts, ... as she retured to the office in the afternoon, she saw "that young man passing out his pro-Castro leaflets in the street." .... She mentioned what she had seen to Banister. His reaction was casual, "Don't worry about him. He's a nervous fellow, he's confused. He's with us, he's associated with the office." Nothing Banister said indicated the slightest surprise or anger that somebody from his anti-Castro stable was out in the street openly demonstrating in favor of Fidel Castro. ....
[Roberts said:] "Mr Banister had been a special agent for the FBI and was still working for them. There were quite a number of connections which he kept with the FBI and CIA too. I know he and the FBI traded information due to his former association. ....I think he received funds from the CIA -- I know he had access to large funds at various times in 1963." [pp 324-326]
Delphine Roberts' daughter ran a photography studio at 544 Camp Street, and she has said:
I knew he had his pamphlets and books and everything in a room along from where we were with our photographic equipment. He was quiet and mostly kept to himself, didn't associate with too many people. He would just tell us "hello" or "good-bye" when we saw him. I never saw him talking to Guy Banister, but I knew he worked in his office. I knew they were associated. I saw some other men who looked like Americans coming and going occasionally from the room Oswald used. .... I got the impression Oswald was doing something to make people believe he was something he wasn't. I'm sure Guy Banister knew what Oswald was doing. [Ibid, pg 325]
William Gaudet, a former CIA agent (the CIA itself admitted this), who had an office near 544 Camp Street, told British investigator Anthony Summers (Conspiracy, pg 364-365):
I did see Oswald discussing various things with Banister at the time and I think Banister knew a whole lot of what was going on. .... I suppose you are looking into Ferrie. He was with Oswald.
What was Banister up to, and why did he get involved with Oswald? The Committee described Banister's background thus:
According to one of Banister's own biographical sketches, dated March 1964, he was born in a log cabin in rural Louisiana in 1901, the eldest of 7 children. He started his career in criminal justice with the police department of Monroe, Louisiana. In 1934, he became a special agent for the agency of the Department of Justice that was soon to be named the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Ban ister served in the FBI for 20 years, 17 of those years as special agent in charge.
He retired in 1954 to become assistant superintendent for the New Orleans Po lice Department and was assigned the task of investigating police corruption. After a falling out with the mayor of New Orleans, allegedly over Banister's attempt to have the mayor indicted on charges of "malfeasance, etc," Banister quit public service and formed his own private detective agency, Guy Banister Associates, Inc.
According to FBI files reviewed by Committee staff, Banister also became excessively active in anti-Communist activities after his separation from the FBI and testified before various investigating bodies about the dangers of communism. The CIA file on Guy Banister indicated the agency considered in September 1960 using Guy Banister Associates for the collection of foreign intelligence, but ultimately decided against it. [HSCA, vol 10, pg 126]
That passage avoided naming the organization that Banister joined in 1934 -- "the agency of the Department of Justice that was soon to be named the Federal Bureau of Investigation." Apparently, this was the Anti-Radical Division, which had been created in 1919 under the leadership of J. Edgar Hoover. By the next year, Hoover had renamed it as the General Intelligence Division (GID). A primary activity of the GID was to compile an index of radicals in order to facilitate their investigation or arrest. The Church Committee provided this background:
Mr Hoover's index separately assembled all radical matters pertaining to each city in which there were radicals. Each card recorded full details about its subject -- material regarded by the detectives as revealing each man's seditious ideas, and data needed to enable the Government's espionage service to find him quickly when he was wanted for shadowing or for arrest. .... Mr Hoover had a group of experts "especially trained for this purpose .... [and] well informed upon the general movements in the territory over which they have supervision;" they were also trained to manage and develop the intricate index; and they had to keep up with its fabulous growth.
The first disclosure by the GID showed 100,000 radicals on the index; the next, a few months later, 200,000; the third, a year later, 450,000. Within the first two and one-half years of indexing, the General Intelligence Division had approximately half a million persons catalogued, inventoried, and secretly recorded in Government records as dangerous men and women. ....
In March, 1924, the General Intelligence Division of the Bureau of Investigation began to be phased out of existence. But the interests of the GID did not fail to continue to receive attention upon its demise, if only because the unit's leader, J. Edgar Hoover, ultimately became ... the head of the entire Bureau.
Mr Hoover stated in 1926 that his Bureau's index contained 1,500,000 names. [Book VI, pp 100-101, 128; mostly quoting Max Lowenthal writes in The Federal Bureau of Investigation (New York: William Sloan, 1950), pp 90-91]
Investigations of Law Enforcement Officials.
The Civil Service Commission had managed a parallel program that concentrated on investigating applicants for positions in law enforcement. In time, the Civil Service Commission and the FBI began to collaborate in using this research of people's personal backgrounds. The Church Committee provided this background:
Law enforcement officers were next to come under the personal scrutiny of the Civil Service Commission's investigators. When Congress, in 1927, brought all positions in the Bureau of Prohibition into the classified civil service, the Commission decided the prohibition enforcers should be investigated because of the special temptations that came their way. To carry out this chore, the Commission hastily recruited and trained 40 investigators.
In two years, the investigators completed more than 3,000 investigations into the background of Bueau of Prohibition employees. The results were startling. About 40 percent of those investigated -- including many already working for the Bureau of Prohibition -- had records which showed them unfit for Federal Service.
The Commission, with the blessing of Congress, decided it had better take a look into the background of other law enforcement officers. It doubled its investigative staff and started making personal investigations of customs inspectors and border patrolmen. ....
On the eve of World War II, the Civil Service Commission had both the techniques and available loyalty-security files to again screen Federal employees. The files could have been scrutinized by other government agencies in pursuit of an intelligence objective or utilized by the Commission itself to contribute to an intelligence product. It would seem quite apparent, in any regard, that the Commission's investigative files had a potential for intelligence matters. [Book VI, pp 108-109; mostly quoting Miriam Ottenberg, The Federal Investigators (Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1962), pp 233-234]
Athan Theoharis has described the next development of the FBI's Internal Security program in his book Spying on Americans: Political Surveillance from Hoover the the Huston Plan (Philadelphia: Temple University, 1978), pp 40-41, 43-44:
In 1939, when reporting his decision to reestablish a General Intelligence Division within [the FBI, J. Edgar] Hoover claimed that this division would simply compile "extensive indices of individuals, groups, and organizations engaged in ... subversive activities, in espionage, activities, or any activities that are possibly detrimental to the internal security of the United States. ...
The standards adopted for listing "dangerous" or "potential dangerous" individuals were ... (1) should be "apprehended and interned immediately" upon outbreak of war or (2) should be "watched carefully" ...
[In 1943, Hoover directed:] "The fact that the Security Index and Security Index Cards are prepared and maintained should be considered as strictly confidential, and should at no time be mentioned or alluded to in investigative reports, or discussed with agencies or individuals outside the Bureau other than duly qualified field representatives of the Office of Naval Intelligence and the Military Intelli gence Service, and then only on a strictly confidential basis.
A Februrary 27, 1946, [FBI] memo emphasized that Communist allegiance to the Soviet Union and Communist control of key labor unions seriously endangered the internal security. To confront this danger ... the Bureau should reestablish "the original policy of investigating all known members of the Communist Party" and prepare "security index cards on all members of the Party." Such a program posed certain difficulties, the central problem being "the necessity of finding legal authorization" to apprehend all Communists in the event of war.
After World War II, there was a heightened concern about subversives infiltrating the Federal Government, especially into law-en forcement and national-security positions. Because of this, President Truman established the Federal Employee Loyalty-Security Program in 1947. The FBI campaigned to bring this entire program under the authority of Intelligence Division, specifically under its Internal Security Section. However, President Harry Truman resisted this centralization, leaving much of this work in the Civil Service Commission. Truman reluctantly did sign a statement in November 1947 that the FBI would make all loyalty investigations, but in practice the controversy continued over the next six years. (Ibid, Book II, pp 42-45)
One of the FBI employees who had been primarily responsible for implementing this consolidation of the loyalty-security program was Robert Maheu, about whom we will read more later. Maheu later stated that one of his last assignments in the FBI was "setting up a counter-intelligence network to try to get all the agencies to cooperate." It was apparently during this effort that he became acquainted with Guy Banister. For some reason, Maheu was transferred from that program to be a Special Agent in Charge in Maine, but he soon quit the FBI in 1947, because "I had difficulty in finding a Communist in the State of Maine." (Hinckle and Turner, The Fish is Red, pg 272; for the date of resignation, see Michael Drosnin, Citizen Hughes (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985, pg 66).
During this period, the FBI's Internal Security Section kept its activities very secret. Its most closely-held secret was its knowledge of the Communist underground members in the US Government. The Internal Security Section did not take action to reveal and arrest these underground mem bers, but planned to let them continue to operate until time of war. The Church Committee reported:
The FBI withheld information about espionage from the Justice Department ... In 1946, the FBI had "identified over 100 persons" whom it "suspected of being in the Government Communist Underground." Neither this number nor any names from this list were given to the Department, because Director Hoover feared "leaks" and because the Bureau conceded in its internal documents that it did "not have evidence, whether admissible or otherwise, reflecting actual membership in the Communist Party. ....
Even the President's Temporary Commission on Employee Loyalty could not get highly relevant information from the Bureau. FBI Assistant Director D. M. Ladd told the Commission in 1946 that there were a "substantial" amount of Commu nist "infiltration of the government." But Ladd declined to answer when the Commission members asked for more details of FBI intelligence operations and the information which served as the basis for this characterization of the extent of infiltration. The Commission prepared a list of questions for the FBI and asked that Director Hoover appear in person. Instead, Attorney General Clark made an "informal" appearance and supplied a memorandum stating that the number of "subversives" in government had "not yet reached serious proportions," but that the possibility of "even one disloyal person" in government service constituted a "serious threat." [Book II, pg 56]
The FBI withheld important aspects of its program from the Attorney General. FBI personnel had been instructed in 1949 that: "No mention must be made in any investigative report relating to the classifications of top functionaries and key figures, nor to the Detcom ["priority arrest list"] and Comsab [Communist Saboteur] Programs, nor to the Security Index or the Communist Index ["a comprehensive compilation of individuals of interest to the Internal Security"]. These investigative procedures and administrative aides are confidential and should not be known to any outside agency" FBI documents indicate that only the Security Index was made known to the Justice Department. [Book II, pg 55] [unquote]
In 1950, Congress passed the Emergency Detention Act, which restricted the FBI's authority to arrest people on its Security Index in time of war. The Act specified that the FBI could not arrest just any radicals, but only people "as to whom there is reasonable ground to believe that such person probably will engage in, or probably will conspire with others to engage in, acts of espionage or sabotage." It also allowed all detained persons to appeal to a review board or the courts for release under habeas corpus. The Church Committee reported the secret disobedience of this law:
Shortly after passage of the Detention Act, according to a Bureau document, Attorney General J. Howard McGarth told the FBI to disregard it and "proceed with the program as previously outlined." Department officials stated [in a 1950 memorandum] that the Act was "in conflict with" their plans, and was "unworkable." FBI officials agreed that the statutory procedures -- such as "recourse to the courts" instead of suspension of habeas corpus -- would "destroy" their program. Moreover, the Security Index used broader standards to determine "potential dangerousness" than those prescribed in the statute; and unlike the Act, Department plans provided for issuing a Master Search Warrant and a Master Arrest Warrant. [Book II, pg 54-55]
In 1951, the FBI again withheld from the [Justice] Department names of certain espionage subjects "for security reasons" since disclosure "would destroy chances of penetration and control." [Book II, pg 56]
Two subsequent Attorneys General endorsed the decsion to ignore the Emergency Detention Act [in 1952 and 1953]. [Book II, pg 55]
Banister apparently participated in the consolidation of the Federal Employee Loyalty-Security Program. In 1953, the new President Eisenhower unambigu ously designated the FBI as responsible for the full field investigation whenever Civil Service Commission or any other agency uncovered information indicating a potential security risk.
In 1954, when Banister retired from the FBI after 20 years, he thus had experience in investigating Communists and law-enforcement officers. The latter experience qualified him for his first post FBI job -- inves tigating police corruption as the assistant superintendent for the New Orleans Police Department. He took his job seriously and eventually tried to indict the mayor for malfeasance. Because of this and drunken bahavior, Banister was fired from the Police Department in 1957. He apparently then returned to his other specialty -- investigating Communists.
Banister's new employment coincided with a resurgence of the FBI's still-secret Internal Security Section's listing of people to be arrested in time of war. The Church Committee reported:
In 1955, the FBI [had] tightened formal standards for the Security Index, reducing its size from 26,174 to 12,870 by 1958. However, there is no indication that the FBI told the [Justice] Department that it kept the names of persons taken off the Security Index on a Communist Index, because the Bureau believed such persons remained "potential threats." The secret Communist Index was renamed the Reserve Index in 1960 and expanded to include "influential" persons deemed likely to "aid subversive elements" in an emergency because of their "subversive asso ciations and ideology."
Such individuals fell under the following categories: Professors, teachers, and educators; labor union organizers and leaders; writers, lecturers, newsmen and others in the mass media field; lawyers, doctors, and scientists; other potentially influential persons on a local or national level; individuals who could potentially furnish financial or material aid.
Persons on the Reserve Index would receive "priority consideration" for "action" after detention of Security Index subjects. The breadth of this list is illustrated by the inclusion of the names of author Norman Mailer and a professor who merely praised the Soviet Union to his class. [Book II, pp 55-56]
Who was Banister working for in this period? As noted above, the HSCA answered this question as follows (HSCA vol X, pp 126, 134; with footnotes as in orginal):
According to FBI files reviewed by committee [HSCA] staff, Banister also became excessively active in anti-Communist activities after his separation from the FBI and testified before various investigating bodies about the dangers of com munism. (62) The CIA file on Guy Banister indicated the agency considered in September 1960 using Guy Banister Associates for the collection of foreign in telligence, but ultimately decided against it (63) for several reasons. (64). Early in 1961, Banister helped draw up a charter for the Friends of Democratic Cuba, an organization set up as the fundraising arm of Sergio Arcacha Smith's branch of the Cuban Revolutionary Council. (65)
(62) Staff review of FBI files for Guy Banister, Oct 28, 1978, pp 1-2.
(63) CIA document.
(64) Staff review of FBI files for Guy Banister, Oct 28, 1978, pp 1-2. (Note: Coincidentally, Gerard F. Tujague, owner of Gerard F. Tujague, Inc. Forwarding C., who had employed Oswald as a messenger from November 1955 to January 1956, was also a member and officer (vice-president) of Friends of Democratic Cuba (see FBI teletype 62-109060-1668, Jan 26, 1963, p 5).)
(65) Ibid.
In another section, the HSCA reported the following information, with the respective footnote (HSCA Vol X, pp 109, 119):
The CRC in New Orleans was affiliated with the main branch of the CRC in Miami, which had been receiving funds from the US Government (106)
(106) Staff review of CIA file for Sergio Arcacha Smith, May 1, 1978, Office of Security, memo from Raymond G. Rocca, May 31, 1961, item F; also, memo from Donovan E. Pratt, Sept 28, 1967, items A, B, and C, regarding Arcacha Smith. The Sept. 28, 1967 Pratt memo also found in Office of Security file for David W. Fer rie. One local office did believe the group had the "unofficial sanction of CIA" -- Lieutenant Martello, p 10, 11-N-224, Dec 19, 1962, Exhibit FFF (JFK Document 014904).
Now, let's try to piece these clues together. From 1934 to 1954, Banister served in the FBI, apparently specializing in investigations to compile the Internal Security Section's Security Index. The primary and most secret focus of that work was to identify underground Communists who were serving in US Government positions -- apparently this was the so-called Detcom Index. The FBI did not reveal even the existence of this list to anyone, not even to the Justice Department.
After he retired from the FBI, he began testifying to "various investigating bodies about the danger of Communism," and the FBI considered this testimony "excessively active." The HSCA would not reveal which investigating bodies these were and why their identity was so secret. We can guess that these investigating bodies perhaps included the House Un-American Activities Committee and the CIA's Office of Security. Probably, he was accusing some important US officials of being underground Communists.
During the years 1954-1957, Banister accused the mayor of New Orleans of "malfeasance" and was therefore fired. The details of Banister's accusations are not revealed in the HSCA reports.
A CIA document records that in September 1960, the CIA considered using Bannister for the collection of foreign intelligence, but decided against it. Many reasons for this decision are listed in the FBI files. It seems from the note that this decision in September 1960 had something to do with one of two New Orleans citizens -- Lee Harvey Oswald or Gerard Tujague. In September 1960, Oswald was in the Soviet Union. (The note in footnote 64 actually seems to belong in footnote 65.)
By early 1961, Banister was helping the Cuban Revolu tionary Council, "which had been receiving funds from the US Government." The documentary proof for this fund source is found in CIA Office of Security memos written by Raymond G. Rocca in 1961 and by Donovan E. Pratt in 1967. Informa tion has been published about Rocca. Tom Mangold provides the following details about Rocca in Cold Warrior: James Jesus Angleton: The CIA's Master Spy Hunter:
In March 1945, [Angleton] was promoted to first lieutenant and made chief of X-2 [Office of Strategic Services {OSS} counter-intelligence] for the whole of Italy. At age 27, he was the youngest X-2 Branch chief in all of OSS. He was also the only non-Briton in Italy cleared to share the intelligence secrets of the top secret Ultra, the British breakthrough in cracking wartime German military ciphers. .... Among his staff officers was Ray Rocca, who would remain Angleton's top research assistant for the next 30 years. [pg 41]
To understand Angleton and his research methodology, one must know a little about the man closest to him throughout his working life. That man was Raymond Rocca, Angleton's former Rome OSS colleague, who led the effort to reconstruct the past as head of the staff's new Research and Analysis Department. .... Rocca was an uncritical Fundamentalist whose loyalty to Angleton was beyond question. [pp 59-60]
So, Rocca was writing a memo about Arcacha Smith in May 1961, about the same time that Banister was writing the charter for Arcacha Smith's Friends of Democratic Cuba. It seems, therefore, that Banister and Arcacha Smith may have been working for Angleton's Counter-Intelligence Staff or the Office of Security. In deed, according to the HSCA, Banister's subsequent work for the CRC involved "underground" activities and personnel investigations:
Banister described his work for the Council: "Our work was primarily to gather food and clothing for the refugees. However, because of my being known in con nection with that [and] by my background being known with Arcacha Smith and others, I have had high-ranking Cuban refugees in my office asking me how to go underground, and I gave them diagrams for that. I have talked to military and political leaders from the various provinces of Cuba that have slipped out and slipped back."
The FBI files also indicate Banister was performing another service for the Cuban exile group. He ran background investigations on those Cuban students on the campus of Louisiana State University who wished to be members of Arcacha Smith's anti-Castro group, ferreting out any pro-Castro sympathizers who might be among them. [HSCA Vol X, pp 126-127]
It seems, therefore, that Banister had left the FBI's Internal Security Section, taking along an index card system that he had copied from that Section's system. Since the FBI had refused to reveal that index system to any other agency, the CIA's Office of Security would be especially interested in Banister's knowledge. Indeed, Banister's revelation of the index system to "various investigating bodies" apparently angered the FBI.
What was Banister's motive to take the index outside the FBI? Perhaps he simply wanted to sell his knowledge to the highest bidder. Perhaps he believed that the FBI was not managing the index properly and another investigating body could do better.
Martin's and Lewis's Affidavit.
Another explanation was proposed by two of Banister's long-time employees, Jack Martin and David Lewis, in an affidavit they wrote for New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, dated 20 February 1968. Martin and Lewis said they believed Banister was a secret Communist who had conspired with other high-ranking traitors to alter the index so that in case of crisis, the wrong people would be arrested, and Communists would actually come to power.
In this affidavit, they also implied that Banister was collaborating with Robert Kennedy, but would double-cross him to bring the fateful crisis about. Specifically, Banister was collaborating with Robert Kennedy to assassinate Fidel Castro, which would boomerang into an assassination of President John Kennedy. The subsequent crisis would lead to mass arrests and the victory of Banister's Communist comrades.
Although certainly many investigators of the Kennedy assassination have read this affidavit, none (including the HSCA) have described it or quoted from it. I am going to quote it at great length. At first, the affidavit might seem difficult to believe for some readers, but I will provide supporting evidence in the following chapters that much of it was true. The fact that some of Banister's employees believed this was his real intention might help explain why Oswald was willing to work for Banister and follow his orders.
Martin and Lewis explained that Banister had somehow been involved with the Communist spy, Kim Philby. Philby had held top positions in British Intelligence and been a liaison officer to the CIA before he defected to the Soviet Union in January 1963. Martin and Lewis explain that Philby had been passing information to Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Kim Philby manipulated Robert Kennedy into a conspiracy to assassinate Castro for left-wing motivations, but Philby then double-crossed Kennedy in order to provoke a civil war in the United States.
For many years, hidden behind our Nation's beautiful scenery on Capitol Hill was the lair of that animal, the super-clandestine Machiavellian Communist counterspy, Kim Philby, who by well laid plans pulled the strings of political intrigue expediently throughout the entire world, including right here in New Orleans.
Who is Kim Philby? .... He was born in India 56 years ago, the son of a minor British government official. Philby went to the right schools, Cambridge; worked for the right newspaper, the London Times; and he traveled with the right social set. During WWII, he was employed by none other than MI-5, British Intelligence. .... Records indicate that while Philby served with the German Nazis, he may have [devoted himself to Communism], serving as a double agent. Files of the British Intelligence show that many of their own people suffered by Philby's presence at the time. Moreover, in so doing, Philby became a triple agent, inasmuch as he also served the Russians too. ....
This is ... typified in the material employed by Banister's operational procedures. Of course, he [Banister] also included the recruitment of lunatic-fringe discon tents. .... Banister too coupled this with the ... method and activities seen in the loose-knit organizational functions, but multi-unit coordination instituted by those Pseudo-Neo-Nazis here, whose headquarters are located in August, [Georgia], where Banister's records are.
Many organizations such as this are in communication with the British Nazi Party, which is headed by none other than one Field Marshal Slatter, O.B.E. (Order of the British Empire). He just happens to be the father of Michael Slatter, formerly associated with Banister and [U.S. Nazi leader George Lincoln] Rockwell. [Michael Slatter and Rockwell were clients of Banister's detective agency.] This is very interesting, because they (the Slatters) are also formerly associated with or good friends of Kim Philby. .... Because of [Philby's] successful victories in these [British Intelligence] operational activities, he was knighted, awarded the O.B.E. This occurred about the same period of time that Field Marshal Slatter was also knighted for his outstanding services.
From 1949 through 1951, Philby headed a special British Intelligence mission in Washington DC, where he sat as second in command to Allen Dulles, our CIA director. This was at the same time that Billy B. Little-Horse, alias William W. Dalzell, a former partner of ours [Banister's], was serving as a Defense Department Intelligence agent under these auspices, who was also well acquainted with Philby by this same aegis. Philby's function at this period of time was organizer of the most secret of all anti-communist operations taking place within and outside of the Communist world.
However, a cloak of silence hovers over his position, presence, and general whereabouts from 1951 until 1963. Why? There were more than enough powerful people to assist secrecy and maintain a complete blackout over it. Of course, this would be a security matter, inasmuch as Philby's most intimate "friends" were [CIA Director} Allen Dulles, LBJ, JFK, RFK, [CIA Deputy Director] Frank Wisner, and a host of others. ....
[quote continues] Senators, Congressmen, and others have said that upon occasion, they have often had sold President Kennedy on some particular legislative package or other item, when suddenly without warning, Robert F. Kennedy (R.F.K.) would burst into the conference room and whisper in the President's ear. With that, the entire deal blew out of the political window for no apparent reason. Accordingly, R.F.K. had exceptionally fine political and family intelligence. He should have. Examine all of his police powers and spy connections.
Remember, R.F.K. commanded the whole Justice Department and was ex-officio Chief of all Federal Law Enforcement during this period of time. Moreover, records indicate that he continued such a power-grabbing, mad-cap trend and mingled with numerous CIA operational functions throughout his entire tenure of office. In short, R.F.K. had more than a natural, or at least a terrific influence over the President, and coupled with Philby's friendship, he had convinced himself that he ran the whole show.
To Philby, R.F.K. as the President's little brother, fulfilled a purpose. Above all, it was good politics, especially in the spy business. This meant that Philby could always go over the Boss' head (Dulles), if he wanted to, through R.F.K. Furthermore, it had been this particular strategy which had taken Philby to the soaring heights of his triple-agent status on both sides of the Iron Curtain. ....
[quote continues] Together with the most apparent Philby puppet sophistry and organizational ability, joined unilaterally by the instigated chicanery of Banister's type Neo-Nazi movements, the following evidence should clarify ... the motive of this case. ....
Banister himself, joined the memberships and participated in several political groups. These he used in numerous ways as a front for personal stature, purposes of infiltration, and/or association, in ulterior motive. .... Additionally, we see evidence that he was linked to both Cuban factions, to say nothing of his intermittent connections with the so-called gangland-syndicate through his various clients.
As far as we can tell, it [the assassination conspiracy] was not in essence nor in-toto this gangland-syndicate, the Castro or anti-Castro Cubans, or any other politico-militant faction of this nature, as we've previously known it, which may have been involved in this crime. ... It was a sort of Banister-Philby type Pseudo-Neo-Nazi operational function! ....
We have witnessed in effect the birth of "Philby-and-company", as it were. .... It is very apparent that Philby's tactics were employed at every move and turn, as were Banister's methods! Thus all concerned became victims of either their own stupidity in most cases. In others, it was naught but pure gluttony and natural immaturity, as in the instance of R.F.K. and associates. ....
While all this was going on, President Kennedy launched an investigation into the behind-the-scenes activities involving the spy agencies and their branches. Philby entered the picture here and neatly engineered R.F.K. and others to concentrate on other subject material. .... Things had just about come to a head. There were too many ... people at hand. Far too many of these were more than well trained in professions, adept in such skills, very capable to dispatch or handling situations with the utmost proficiency, and Philby knew it. Moreover, it was many of these who were too, at that moment, organized into tight little silent groups which would cooperate with one another at the "proper time." -- New recruits into Philby and company's Pseudo-Neo-Nazism. ....
By now, Philby and company were convinced that they'd neatly engineered our country into a state where it was on the brink of near revolution if the climate was just right. That is, if they could arrange for the "right blow" to fall at "that proper moment," at the peak of events, the job would be done, and it would be a Neo-Nazi take-over, the "new" Communism. Philby and company figured that they set the wheels in motion, and did. With this target of opportunity in mind, Philby made the necessary plans before dropping behind the Iron Curtain.
Surprisingly enough, proof of this lies in a document shown us by none other than Guy P. Johnson, Banister's old liaison officer and legal advisor. We call it the "Homme Report," inasmuch as it involves one H.G. Homme, assistant legal counsel of the U.S. Senate's Committee of the Judiciary, transcript of which we last saw in the hands of Johnson a few weeks ago. This was the "little gem" which was to light the Philby "fuse." For it exposes the fact that the "genius" R.F.K. put out his own personal "contract" (order to murder) on Cuba's Fidel Castro Luz, in good old gestapo-Nazi fashion.
The gears had meshed smoothly, the wheels silently moved, and the trap had sprung! Because this was just prior to the time the President was assassinated. In short, the President was "hit" (murdered), before the "hit" on Castro could be completed. Philby's little groups had struck within, before those of R.F.K. could strike without. ... But their job was yet unfinished, there was more to come, so the little groups stood by.
From his retreat behind the Iron Curtain, Philby bore witness to the fact that he'd planted his seeds of hate well. His plan was in motion, the final stroke, the grand finale of it all was now in the making, while an entire Nation was stunned and confused. For evidence of this last move lies within the files of our Country itself. And can be found in most any public library.
We refer to the "National Emergency Reorganization Plan," found in Volume 27, Number 35, subheaded Title 3, of 20th February, 1962, which is listed in the Fed eral Register, National Archives, under Presidential Documents, Executive Orders #10995, through #11005 ff, and #11051, and Part One, Section 101-d; the brain-child sired by Philby and company, its father originally. A piece of existing standby legislation already written into and passed in Federal Statute, whereby they could invoke an immediate and instantaneous dictatorship over the United States at the stroke of a pen on any given or so-called emergency.
Yes, it had been sired by Philby, this is an existing law given birth under the Kennedy administration at their guidance and sponsorship. A law which would exchange our current way of life for one of Martial Law and direct Socialistic Rule by single party system, instituting Dictatorship under a lone American Neo-Nazi, or American Neo-Communistic Party authority.
Some people may not particularly appreciate Oliver Kenneth Goff, the former Communist who defected to the West in the cause of freedom, the American way of life. However, after reviewing his comments on this act, and his statements concerning its functions in 1962, one might be prone to take heed of his warning. He said, "Already our executive department has put themselves in a place where under the guise of an emergency, they could establish a complete dictatorship over our way of life and could commit at once, all who fought back, to either mental institutions, to concentration camps, or prisons. These are the facts of the executive dictatorial power already arranged." ....
In short, Philby with the help of R.F.K. and other Americans had set in motion the (1) murder of Castro, that (2) incited the moment for President Kennedy's assassination, which should escalate into a (3) state of national emergency from the chaos, mass hysteria, and riots fostered by those little groups that Philby had waiting to move. ....
Philby thought his "master plan" couldn't fail once it entered the operational stage. He failed to account or allow for American habit and custom, for just one thing. And primarily for this reason, it was stopped cold in its last phase: Everybody stopped to celebrate.
Something happened. Yes, the unexpected occurred. The unpredictable human element caused those -- especially those key personnel, members of Philby's little groups -- to sit back and momentarily celebrate the event following the assassination, just as Banister had done. This in itself was an instant of time which actually gave them a chance to realize the gravity of such affairs. The opportunity to think for many of them was also a Moment of Truth! Hence, the little groups of people (banded together as Philby had thought) individually split out at the last minute, going their separate ways in stark fear of their own guilt, giving rise to the mission's ultimate failure by its own organizational dispersion, as it were. Philby, not being an American, just couldn't understand it. ....
[At a celebration in Banister's office immediately after the assassination, Banister's] former gracious mood seemed somewhat changed after we had closed his door. Be that as it may, we outlined the fact in detail, how during our years in associate tenure, we had compiled and kept records of all events we had either been involved in, exposed to, or heard about, bar nothing. ... Until then, there had been no secret ... that Banister, David William Ferrie, and Lee Harvey Oswald may have known or been acquainted with one another. We reminded him of this, together with the fact that he often mentioned, "Someday somebody is going to poke a rifle out of a window," when speaking of unpopular politicians at times.
After mentioning these acquaintanceships to Banister, ... we spilled out other matters on our mind at the moment, coupled with the fact that Banister and Mrs [Delphine] Roberts [Banister's secretary] had just been celebrating President Kennedy's death. In essence, this included "dropping a nickel [making a phone call] to blow the whistle" on both he and Ferrie, concerning the assassination.
Banister warned us that this might place our family in grave danger as well as ourself, regardless of our records on this subject that meant little difference anyway. That we had better think it over, that we couldn't fight him without involving our past association together, et cetera. Our reply was that we would most likely have to remain silent regarding him (Banister), but not Ferrie under any conditions.
With this ultimatum, we [Jack Martin] turned to leave the office. However, no sooner had we opened it with our back to him in order to speak with Mrs Roberts about our papers, when by comlete surprise, we were suddenly knocked to the floor from a blow on the head! Laying there stunned, we hazely saw Banister there standing over us with a drawn pistol in his hand, and in the act of striking us a second time. We rolled, quickly rising to our knees, but it was too late, we were hit again and again.
We kept yelling, shouting out that our records would still stand, that he'd never get away with this, and just as suddenly, the blows stopped. He shoved some bills in our pocket, telling us to get to a hospital or a doctor, and we ran from the office. Banister was still standing there with a sort of "dumbfounded" look on his face and with that pistol still in his hand.
Running around the corner to the bar, Bill or someone else asked us what had happened. Our immediate reply to this was, "The dirty Nazi bastards did it to him in Texas and tried to do it to me here!" This event was witnessed by at least two newsmen then standing at the bar, as well as others. These were Erby Aucien of WVUE television station and Jim Pitts of the Times-Picayne newspaper. There were other people present, and more witnesses may be available to this statement.
From that day, we never saw Banister in person again until just a few days prior to his death in 1964. If our memory serves us correctly enough, we met him on a Tuesday or perhaps a Wednesday of the week he died. However, we did hear from him from time to time both directly and indirectly.
On the above occasion, we spoke to him after he greeted us on the street in front of Jack Mancuso's Cafe at the corner of Camp and Lafayette Streets [i.e. on the ground floor of 544 Camp Street]. He asked us to join him in his office. Our immediate reply was, "That might be rather dangerous." He laughed at that saying, "You haven't been circulating anything about me that you shouldn't, have you?" Our reply was negative, that his old FBI [Special Agent in New Orleans] buddy Regis Kennedy had pretty well taken care of things to protect him and his interests on that score. He warned us that we should continue our good behavior, or else. Upon this comment, we departed in haste. ....
However, it was really ol' "L.B.J." who saved the day. Yep, the great opportunist grabbed the reins, pulled back hard, and leveled things out, bringing ol' Nellie to a screeching halt right there in the middle of Main Street. For the Texas Cowboy, on that dark day of American history, with one masterful hand, clamped the lid down tight upon the "commode" of top-security to maintain silence and pulled hard the "chain" on expediency, flushing that entire mess down the political "sewer," known as the Warren Commission. To accomplish the same purpose as the Pearl Harbor Commission of yesteryear; i.e. to side-track, confuse, muddle, and eventually suppress the whole "stinking" matter! Thus, saving the genius of R.F.K., who blinded by his own foolish stupidity and naive asininity, accompanied by a host of "friends," all murdered his own brother! Of course, they had to cover up some other blundering facts in addition to this one, but the "bird has flown." ....
There is nothing new in our report. We've attempted to give enough material to various leading law enforcement agencies from time to time, so they could acquire the same results. However, they failed to take heed or accept what we had to say and let things ride. But by so doing, we fulfilled our obligation of citizen ship regardless of whether they acted uon it or not. For this conduct they must answer. ....
Further investigation leads us to believe that there is a very apparent but vague, gray point in organizational area, where even those of the so-called extreme LEFT wing definitely dove-tail into this very same super extremist right wing shadow fringe category of Pseudo-Neo-Nazism. In the final analysis, both of these right and left wing extremists follow the same pattern of communistic tendency. ....
Therefore, even the most qualified expert or authority might not be prone to recognize or identify such an operation for what it was ... without extended and continuous observation. Hence, these people are difficult to spot and more than often evade immediate surface detection of what they really are. Our only reason for being able to do so is because we were exposed to it for so many years without realizing it or becoming an actual part of it. Frankly, we ignored its existence and most of its operation at the time and failed to make not of these until years later.
Banister's extreme right-wing operations generally stemmed from the far more obscure in motivation. .... [His] organized clique [was] by no means an integral portion of any party faction or political group. They most always seemd to remain as an independent unit, separately aside, and totally divided from any known political organization by actual identification, with minor exception as a general rule.
One might even say that they were sort of a "secret" but an openly operated "gestapo" unit. Most of them had become so right-wing in thought and by conduct as an end result that they were no longer members or parts of their original inceptive organizations, if such membership had been the case. ....
Operational penetration of these groups is in all practical likelihood nearly an impossible situation. In fact, a person could be innocently a part of such a group as this by business or other affiliation and be totally unaware of what was really going on about them, as it was in our case. This is especially true if such an organization operated under the same guise and function as Banister's group was -- that is, using a legitimate front, such as an intelligence unit for its cover.
Efficacy and multiformity, to say the least, still exists amongst those of the former Banister clique, for we have felt their monstrous effect, which still prevails even today. For the warning of Banister's forced silence continues, as does the threat of its exposure. ....
[Kent Courtney, the publisher of the Independent American, an extreme right-wing organ,] was with Mrs Banister following Banister's death, when they allegedly burned some of the Banister records. Some, Courtney says, he sent to Atlanta. However, total microfilm copy was forwarded to Augusta headquarters. From here stems its continued extortive uses in methods of recruiting, summary-execution, and for other purposes, just as Banister had exploited this material, et cetera, originally. [Martin file, Assassination Archives, Washington DC; text rearranged slightly into chronological order; punctuation adjusted] [end of long quote]
The U.S. Government has locked up all its records of its interviews with Jack Martin until the year 2039.
In another interview, Delphine Roberts added the following (interview conducted by Detective Loisel; file on Banister, Assassination Archives, Washington DC):
Mr Banister had many different characters in and out of the office, not on the payroll. Many claimed to be private investigators. Others just were interested in giving him information, knowing his former connection with the FBI. His advice was sought at times and given sometimes in return for information or sometimes in form of a fee.
Mr Banister was connected with people associated with both the conservative element, as well as the Communist element or left wing. He often told me being in the type work he was -- security -- you rub shoulders with all kinds of characters in order to be able to get information from both sides. It was by this means he was abreast of everything taking place in and out of the country. He received information from all over. This is why his files were so huge. He belonged to a world-wide intelligence network to receive information from all areas. ....
On the day of his unexpected death, June 6, [1964,] he was to have picked me up at my home, and we were to start transferring his files and library to my house. He had already had part of the library there and had brought a few things to the house. .... When Mr Banister failed to come, and I had been waiting quite some time .... I went to his apartment on Moss Street, where I saw him laying on the bed. .... He was laying on the bed on his stomach, with only a pair of shorts on. His head was on a pillow on the left cheek, and in his right hand, he was clutching a bath towel. ....
Mr Banister had often told me in the event anything happened to him to go immediately to the office and take with me the code or key to the index file and also to get my own personal belongings. As soon as I did this, I was to leave as soon as I was able.
Naturally, being upset (we were to have been married upon his final divorce), I may have taken longer than I should have, because I was unable to see as clearly because I had so many tears in my eyes.
Later, I learned the office was padlocked against me, due to the fact that his wife, Mary Banister, resented me, because I was treasurer of the company, and she didn't want me to enter the office for fear I would take the files. She [Mrs Mary Banister] called me on the phone several times and accused me of transferring things from the office, including the automobile, which unbeknown to me, had the title transferred to my name. .... Not long afterwards, Mary Banister phoned me and told me she had the files and that I would never get them, that she was burning most of the Communist files. ....
I also learned later that the landlord, Sam Newman, had some of the files. .... Mr James Arthurs .... may have a few himself, whether he does or not, I don't know.
Oswald seems to have been involved with a group of people who planned to take over the country when a crisis allowed the opportunity. One key goal of this group was to resist Soviet intervention during the crisis. In order to act as a "safeguard" in such a crisis, his group was infiltrating domestic "opportunist" groups and foreign powers. In one undated essay, in his own handwriting, he summarized his beliefs as follows (Exhibit 97; spelling and puctuation corrected):
The Communist Party of the United States has betrayed itself! It has turned itself into the traditional lever of a foreign power to overthrow the Government of the United States, not in the name of freedom or high ideals, but in servile conformity to the wishes of the Soviet Union and in anticipation of Soviet Russia's complete domination of the American continent.
The Forsters and the Flynns of the subsidized Communist Party of the United States have shown themselves to be willing, guillible messengers of the Kremlin' Internationalist propaganda. There can be no international solidarity with the arch-betrayers of that most sublime ideal. There can be no sympathy for those who have turned the ideal of communism into a vile curse to Western man.
The Soviets have committed crimes unsurpassed even by their early-day capitalist counterparts, the imprisonment of their own peoples, with the mass extermination so typical of Stalin, and the individual suppression and regimentation under Khrushchev. The deportations, the purposeful curtailment of diet in the consumer-slighted population of Russia, the murder of history, the prostitution of art and culture.
The Communist movement in the US, personalized by the Communist Party USA, has turned itself into a "valuable gold coin" of the Kremlin. It has failed to denounce any actions of the Soviet Government when similar actions on the part of the US Government bring pious protest. Examples:
Denounced: Not Denounced: United States atom bomb tests Russia atom bomb test Cuba Hungary NATO maneuvers Warsaw Pact maneuvers U-2 Sobel Congo Eastern Germany Negro lynchings Genocide
Only by declaring itself to be, not only not dependent upon, but opposed to Soviet domination and influence, can dormant and disillusioned persons hope to unite to free the radical movement from its inertia. Through the refusal of the Commu nist Party USA to give a clear-cut condemnation of Soviet piratical acts, progressives have been weakened into a stale class of fifth columnists of the Russians. In order to free the hesitating and justifiably uncertain future activist for the work ahead, we must remove that obstacle which has so efficiently re tarded him, namely the devotion of the Communist Party USA to the Soviet Union, Soviet Government, and Soviet Communist International Movement.
It is readily foreseeable that a coming economic, political, or military crisis, internal or external, will bring about the final destruction of the capitalist system. Assuming this, we can see how preparation in a special party could safeguard an independent course of action after the debacle -- an American course steadfastly opposed to intervention by outside, relatively stable foreign powers, no matter from where they come, but in particular, and if necessary, violently opposed to Soviet intervention.
No party of this type can attract into its ranks more than a nominal number of fundamental radicals. It is not the nature of such an organization to attract such a membership as, let's say, the Republicans or even the Socialist Party, but it is possible to enlist the aid of disenchanted members of the Socialist Party and even some from more "respected" (from a capitalist viewpoint) parties.
But whereas our political enemies talk loudly now, they have no concept of what total crisis means. The faction which has the greater basis in spirit and the most far-sighted and ready membership of the radical futurist will be the decisive factor.
We have no interest in violently opposing the US Government. Why should we manifest opposition when there are far greater forces at work to bring about the fall of the United States Government than we could ever possibly muster. We do not have any interest in directly assuming the head of Government in the event of such an all-finishing crisis. As dissident Americans, we are merely interested in opposing foreign intervention, which is an easily drawn conclusion if one believes in the theory of crisis.
The emplacement of a separate, democratic, pure communist society is our goal, but one with union-communes, democratic socializing of production and without regard to the twisting apart of Marxist Communism by other powers. The right of private personal property, religious tolerance, and freedom of travel (which have all been violated under Russian "Communist" rule) must be strictly observed.
Resourcefulness and patient working towards the aforesaid goals are preferred rather than loud and useless manifestations of protest. Silent observance of our principles is of primary importance. But these preferred tactics now may prove to be too limited in the near future. They should not be confused with slowness, indecision, or fear.
Only the intellectually fearless could even be remotely attracted to our doctrine. And yet this doctrine requires the utmost restraint -- a state of being in itself majestic in power. This is stoicism, and yet stoicism has not been affected for many years and never for such a purpose.
There are organizations already formed in the United States who have declared they shall become effective only after the military debacle of the United States. Organizations such as the Minute Men -- or the opposite of a stoical organization. But these performers are simply preparing to redefend in their own back yards a system which, they take for granted, will be defeated militarily elsewhere -- a strange thing to hear from these "patriots." These armed groups represent hard-core American Capitalist supporters. There will also be small armed Communist and probably Fascist groups. There will also be anarchist and religious groups at work.
However, the bulk of the population will not adhere to any of these groups, because they will not be inclined to join any of the old factions with which we are all so familiar. But the people will never accept a new order presented by politicians or opportunists. Logically, they will deem it necessary to oppose those systems of government against whom they have been educated. But they will be against anything resembling their former Capitalist masters also. Steadfastly opposed to the revival of the old forces, they will seek a new force.
This will be the sentiment of the masses. But any organization cleverly manipulating words may sway the masses. This is where a safeguard is necessary. And not only a safeguard, but a safety valve to shut off opportunist forces from within and foreign powers from without.
There can be no substitute for organization and procurement work toward the aforestated ideals and goals. Work is the key to the future door, but failure to apply that key because of possible armed opposition in our hypothetical but very probably crisis is as useless as trying to use force now to knock down the door.
Armed defenses of our ideals must be an accepted doctrine after the crisis, just as refraining from any demonstrations of force must be our doctrine in the meantime.
No man, having known, having lived under the Russian Communist and American Capitalist system, could possibly make a choice between them. There is no choice. One offers oppression, the other poverty. Both offer imperialistic jus tice, tinted with two brands of slavery.
But no rational man can take the attitude of "a curse on both your houses." There are two world systems, one twisted beyond recognition by its misuse, the other decadent and dying in its final evolution.
A truly democratic system would combine the better qualities of the two upon an American foundation, opposed to both system as they are now. This then is our ideal.
Membership in this organization implies adherence to the principle of simple distribution of information about this movement to others and acceptance of the idea of stoical readiness in regards to practical measures once instituted in the crisis.
Immediately after that line in his essay, the rest of the paper was torn off.
In an undated speech manuscript in his handwriting, he elaborated on his belief that such a group could seize power over the United States (Exhibit 102; spelling and punctuation corrected):
Americans are apt to scoff at the idea that a military coup in the US -- as so often happens in Latin American countries -- could ever replace our government. But that is an idea that has grounds for consideration.
Which military organization has the potentialities of executing such an action? Is it the Army, with its many conscripts, its unwieldy size, its scores of bases scattered across the world? The case of Gen Walker [a right-winger who was fired for trying to distribute extremist propaganda to his troops] shows that the Army, at least, is not fertile enough ground for a far-right regime to go a very long way. For the same reasons of size and disposition, the Navy and Air Force is also to be more or less disregarded.
Which service, then, can qualify to launch a coup in the USA? Small size, a permanent hard-core of officers, and [as] few bases as necessary. Only one outfit fits that description, and the USMC is a right-wing infiltrated organization of dire potential consequences to the freedoms of the US. I agree with former President Truman when he said that "the Marine Corps should be abolished."
My second reason [for considering a coup] is that undemocratic, country-wide institution known as segregation. It is, I think, the action of the active segregationist minority and the great body of indifferent people in the South who do the United States more harm in the eyes of the world's people than the whole world Communist movement.
