No Oswald Operation

WARNING: Those who are sensitive to sarcasm please tread carefully.

The personnel file of CIA agent George Joannides has finally been released. First, let's talk about what it does not show.

It does not contain "smoking gun" proof that there was a COINTELPRO-style "Oswald Operation" as has been alleged by conspiracy gadfly Jefferson Morley for the past several years. In fact, despite what Axios reported on July 5th, the file does not provide the slightest hint that Joannides was even aware that Lee Harvey Oswald existed before the assassination much less that the CIA man "monitored" him.

The file does not show that Joannides was given a Career Intelligence Medal for "stonewalling" the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Rather, as clearer heads have maintained all along, he was given the award for "the diversity of his assignments and the way he rose to the challenge of each," and the fact that those assignments "cumulatively add[ed] up to an important contribution to the work of this Directorate."

The file does not show that Joannides received a clearance for "wiretapping" as Morley maintained when he dramatically showed a redacted memo from the CIA Chief of the Personnel Security Division during a Mary Ferrell Foundation presser regarding the alleged "Oswald Operation." Rather, as I predicted, the redacted portions of the document clearing Joannides for "special intelligence" merely discuss Joannides' Greek relatives.

The file certainly does not show that Richard Helms, James Angleton, William Harvey, David Phillips or Joannides (Morley's favorite suspects) had any involvement in the assassination of JFK whatsoever. Nor does it contain proof that "JFK's enemies made Oswald a patsy for their crime" as Morley alleged in a recent eBook.

The file does say that Joannides was issued a fake driver's permit in the name of Howard Gebler. The DRE men that Morley spoke to mentioned that their CIA contact was named "Howard" and showed him documentation to that effect. Although it is likely that Joannides was "Howard," it is still possible that the man named "Howard" the DRE met with was another individual representing he agency. In any case, if Joannides was "Howard" it still does nothing to prove Morley's various claims. Morley has made a big deal about the fact that the CIA said they had never heard of "Howard." The agency certainly could have sought to keep this fact from Morley for non-nefarious reasons. Or they legitimately could have failed to find evidence of the DRE contact during their initial search more than thirty years after the fact. How they finally managed to find the information about Howard Gebler is unknown.

The bottom line is this. The release of the Joannides file represents a breaking point for those interested in the JFK assassination. Jefferson Morley's allegations were the last being seriously considered by the media as credible even though they weren't. But Morley was given the benefit of the doubt by these news outlets because he once worked for the Washington Post and was still respected by many people. But let's be honest. Morley was also given an audience because conspiracy theories sell and stories about Oswald as the lone gunman don't.

With the death of Morley's theories, those interested in the assassination now have two choices. They can accept what the overwhelming evidence shows—that Oswald alone killed JFK. Or, they can continue to pursue the more extreme theories. Because the fact is, any conspiracy that could kill JFK and fake the evidence framing Oswald would certainly be powerful enough to continue to hide the evidence of its existence and would not allow the release of files proving otherwise.

Please see Fred Litwin's excellent article which makes some additional points.