Did George Joannides Receive a Medal for "Stonewalling" the HSCA?

Jefferson Morley has claimed that the "biggest single revelation" generated by his legal fight with the CIA was the medal given to George Joannides for his career service with the agency. Morley has repeatedly implied or flatly stated that Joannides received the medal from the CIA for "stonewalling" the HSCA in the late seventies. This example comes from a 2021 Counterpunch article:

"Fifteen years [after the assassination], [Joannides] was called out of retirement to stonewall the House Select Committee on Assassination, a performance that won him a CIA medal."

Another example from Counterpunch where Morley has often made outrageous claims:

"I believe Joannides was honored because he concealed the existence of an authorized covert operation involving Oswald that has never been publicly acknowledged."

But Morley's "Oswald Operation" did not pan out and the medal, called the Career Intelligence Medal, was awarded for Joannides' performance during the entirety of his CIA career. The citation reads in part:

It is recommended that Mr. George E. Joannides be awarded the Career Intelligence Medal for his more than twenty-eight years of devoted and effective service to the agency ... The diversity of his assignments, and the way he rose up to the challange of each cumulatively add up to an important contribution to the work of this Directorate and clearly justify the issuance to Mr. Jaonnides of the Career Intelligence Medal.

In his defense, Morley lamely told Dale Myers that the CIA citation "covers [Joannides'] work in 1963 and 1978." But the citation specifically recognizes the achievements of his complete career and does not single out 1963 or 1978.

When will Morley, who still refers to himself as a "journalist," stop making ridiculous and purposely misleading claims such as this?

See Fred Litwin's article discussing the medal citation document.