jja part 3 of 3...
art guerrilla
JFK AND THE CIA'S UFO FILES
The final straw for Angleton came when President Kennedy fired off a Top Secret
memorandum to him,17 outlining a previous discussion concerning a
classification review of all CIA UFO files that could affect national security.
It was dated November 12, 1963 - just 10 days before he would be gunned down in
the streets of Dallas, Texas.
Kennedy informed Angleton that he was setting things in motion to share
sensitive CIA UFO intelligence data with the Russians through the director of
NASA, James Webb.18 This request was made on the same day he requested Webb19
to begin Kennedy's peace overture to the Russians via joint space exploration.
Webb, being a board member of the intelligence community,19 most likely
interpreted Kennedy's program to mean the sharing of classified UFO data, which
was forbidden under the current directive.
In Kennedy's Top Secret memorandum,20 he outlined for Angleton the specific
items he wished to have disclosed to Webb, such as "[to] have the high-threat
cases reviewed with the purpose of identification of bona fide as opposed to
the classified CIA and USAF sources", and "that we make a clear distinction
between the known and unknowns in the event the Soviets try to mistake our
extended cooperation as a cover for intelligence-gathering of their defense and
space programs". Finally, Kennedy wanted Angleton to "arrange a program of
data-sharing with NASA mission directors in their defensive responsibilities".
This was unprecedented and was totally unacceptable to Angleton and the CIA.
Here, Kennedy was requesting the Central Intelligence Agency - the agency he
swore he would "break into a thousand pieces" - just to hand over the most
guarded secret ever! This memo was passed on to William Colby, who indicated to
someone in Angleton's staff in a handwritten note, "Response from Colby:
Angleton has MJ directive".21 The note is dated November 20, 1963 - just two
days before Kennedy's assassination.
It seems that Kennedy's request was bounced to and from Angleton's desk; either
consensus was being sought, or the buck was being passed back to Angleton. In
any case, it was a hot potato that Angleton had to deal with. It is also
significant that NSAM No. 271 was the last to come from Kennedy's desk, just
before he left Washington for Dallas. Whatever the real significance, it was
buried somewhere within the CIA, and Angleton spent many a day trying to figure
out who ordered Kennedy's execution.
Was Angleton set up, or did he unintentionally supply the needed ingredient for
the murder of the century? In either case, the secret remained safe.
NSA SPECIAL ACTIVITIES
One of the few former CIA officers to speak publicly on the Kennedy
assassination and the UFO secret is Victor Marchetti, who at one time was
Assistant to the Deputy for Plans and Operations under DCI William Colby. In a
rare interview with Second Look magazine in 1979, Marchetti - author of the
sensational book, Cult of Intelligence, which was vetted and censored by the
CIA prior to publication (the only book to include the redacted portions within
the text) - made some interesting observations regarding the CIA's UFO
intelligence-gathering program and why the subject is not open for discussion.
Retired Air Force intelligence officer Robert Collins produced for his website
an insightful foreword to an extract from the Marchetti interview, in which he
quotes Marchetti as saying: "My theory is that we have, indeed, been contacted
- perhaps even visited - by extraterrestrial beings, and that the US
Government, in collusion with other national powers of the Earth, is determined
to keep this information from the general public."
Marchetti alluded to "rumors" at the highest levels within the CIA that the NSA
has information as well, and that this must be kept away from public viewing.
We know now that the National Security Agency does have sensitive COMINT files,
which for reasons of national security it cannot disclose. One of these NSA
files that Marchetti speaks of might be the NSA intercept of Kennedy's phone
conversation with Khrushchev on November 12, 1963, in which Kennedy spoke of a
"situation that affects both our countries and the world" and "a problem that
we share in common".
It is believed that the UFO problem became a national security issue when
President Truman authorised the covert establishment of the National Security
Agency, whose primary responsibility bordered on "special activities" - perhaps
as outlined in an alleged Intelligence Estimate prepared by national security
officials on September 30, 1947, in which one of the concerns stated that "what
we are up against is controlled by intelligent operators" and that "these
objects are real and not illusionary".
It is not surprising that, in 1968, an NSA employee drafted a significant
analysis of the intelligence community's ambivalence towards the UFO camouflage
and warned of dire consequences unless the defence establishment woke up and
recognised the danger these phenomena pose in the nuclear age.
On a final note, the legend of James Jesus Angleton and his "wilderness of
mirrors", as he often referred to his daunting task of protecting vital state
secrets, faded into obscurity on May 11, 1987. But the secret that went with
him re-emerged almost precisely the day he died.
Perhaps Jim was not the real bad guy in the counterintelligence game. Maybe he
was its victim.
Endnotes:
1. September 25, 1943 OSS memo, released through the FOIA in September 1989.
2. US Senate Select Committee to Study Government Operations with Respect to
Intelligence Activities, Final Report, Book VI, April 23, 1976, pp. 154-55.
3. JJA personal records. Angleton took a seven-month leave of absence to remain
in Tucson, Arizona, for unspecified reasons, not substantiated by the need to
be with his wife and family - as is believed by other writers regarding
Angleton's absence from CIA's Washington headquarters during May through
December 1947. See Tom Mangold, Cold Warrior James Jesus Angleton: the CIA's
Master Spy Catcher, Touchstone Books, Simon & Schuster, 1991, p. 361.
4. On December 12, 1947, the National Security Council (NSC) adopted measures
to counter the espionage and counterespionage threat, as specified in NSCID 1,
later amended in NSCID 5, that authorised the Director of Central Intelligence
to "conduct all organized Federal espionage and counterespionage operations".
According to CIA historian Arthur B. Darling, atomic weapons research became an
overriding issue, and coordination with the Office of Scientific Research and
Development with the AEC was through CIA consultant Dr H.P. Robertson, through
General Vandenberg's directive containing an agreement between Dr Vannevar Bush
which facilitated the transfer of Manhattan Engineering District files to the
Director of Central Intelligence for proper collection of foreign atomic energy
research. Secret OSO activities in this area were not allowed to fall into
administrative control of the AEC nor FBI, as Vandenberg thought they should
remain within CIA intelligence operations. See Arthur B. Darling's The Central
Intelligence Agency: An Instrument of Government to 1950, Penn State Press,
1990, pp. 197-239.
5. The term "UFO", as defined by Air Force intelligence directives, is used
here to reflect unconventional aircraft and missiles, not interplanetary
spacecraft.
6. CIA FOIA response letter, dated March 26, 1976, to a July 14, 1975 FOIA
request made by Ground Saucer Watch of Phoenix, Arizona, in which it stated
that the NSC tasked the CIA with a requirement to determine the actual UFO
threat. The CIA responded through the Office of Scientific Intelligence by
creating the Intelligence Advisory Committee to study the threat aspects.
Military members of the IAC fought vigorously to maintain participation in
areas relating to AEC intelligence collection. The Joint Chiefs of Staff,
represented by General Todd (who is mentioned in an FBI memo regarding Joint
Staff Council ignorance of flying saucer data in 1947), were at odds with the
CIA about duplication of efforts by the Military Intelligence Division in
producing UFO intelligence data for the IAC. See Arthur B. Darling, ibid., pp.
349-356.
7. The KGB, the Committee for State Security, was a non-military arm of the
Soviet Intelligence Service. The GRU was the military arm. The KGB received its
title in 1954. When mentioning the Russian Intelligence Service, KGB and GRU
are referenced generically to include both organisations.
8. This remarkable fact is substantiated in the mistakenly downgraded Top
Secret Canadian Department of Transport intra-departmental correspondence,
dated 21 November 1950, from Wilbert B. Smith to Dr Robert I. Sarbacher, an
American physicist and science consultant in the US Defense Department's
Research and Development Board and a member of the Guidance and Control Panel.
Smith acknowledged that UFO studies were "considered by the United States
authorities to be of tremendous significance" and that the "matter is the most
classified subject in the United States Government, rating higher than the
H-bomb".
9. September 24, 1947 Top Secret/MAJIC/ Eyes Only Project White Hot Preliminary
Estimate in Five Parts (unacknowledged by the US Government). See Robert M.
Wood, PhD, and Ryan S. Wood, The Majestic Documents, Wood & Wood Enterprises,
1998, pp. 43-81.
10. November 25, 1955 Top Secret memorandum from Rear Admiral Edwin T. Layton,
Deputy Director for Intelligence, The Joint Staff, to the Chairman, Joint
Chiefs of Staff, ref. JCS 1712/5. This report deals with the Burgess-MacLean
defection, after it was learned that sensitive weapons research information had
been sent to Moscow through diplomatic means and after the CIA was informed of
the defection. Angleton was devastated to learn that Kim Philby, a longstanding
friend of British intelligence, was part of the spy ring.
11. Unacknowledged June 28, 1961 Top Secret National Security Memorandum from
President John F. Kennedy to The Director [Dulles], Central Intelligence
Agency, Subject: Review of MJ-12 Intelligence Operations as they relate to Cold
War Psychological Warfare Plans. It is a one-line request that reads: "I would
like a brief summary from you at your earliest convenience."
12. Unacknowledged CIA Top Secret/ MJ-12 Counterintelligence carbon copy of
draft directive from Director of Central Intelligence to MJ-12 members 1 to 7,
with eight tabs on government watermark onion skin paper, circa 1961.
13. Yuriy Ivanovich Norsenko was a Soviet KGB officer who defected in 1962.
Angleton had him detained and tortured for three years, believing the warning
given by another KGB defector, Anatoliy Mikaylovich Golitsyn, that Norsenko was
ordered to defect and act as a disinformation plant to spread misleading
information to the CIA regarding Soviet capabilities and intentions. Later CIA
analysis suggested that it was Golitsyn, not Norsenko, who was the real mole
planted within the CIA. Angleton was convinced that Golitsyn was a bona fide
defector and he used Golitsyn's information, but the CI mole-hunt virtually
destroyed the CIA's covert operations for some time.
14. Top Secret CIA wire-tap report, dated August 3, 1962, of discussion between
Marilyn Monroe and Howard Rothberg, with references to Project 40, Moon Dust,
the 5412 Committee and MJ-12. The report was given to Angleton and has his
signature at the bottom right-hand portion of the document, establishing that
CI was aware of Monroe's desire to blackmail the Kennedys over their
indiscretions during a sexual affair with her prior to August.
15. FBI file No. 105-40018-1, formerly classified Secret. CIA is copied on an
August 19, 1955 FBI document from Mr Dennis A. Flinn, Director, Office of
Security, Department of State. A copy was sent to Director, Central
Intelligence Agency, for the attention of Deputy Director, Plans, and was
marked Secret. It was declassified on November 11, 1978, but the subject matter
was redacted.
16. See Adela Gregory and Milo Speriglio, Crypt 33: The Saga of Marilyn Monroe
&endash; The Final Word, Birch Lane Press, 1993.
17. This would be amazing, since no one in government knew that James Angleton
worked for the CIA, much less of his existence, since there were few pictures
of Angleton and very few within the Agency knew who he was and what he did. It
is also interesting that until his appearance before the Church Committee in
1975, the public did not know about Angleton or his CIA Counterintelligence
position. His identity had been kept secret for 20 years.
18. National Security Action Memorandum No. 271, dated November 12, 1963, to
The Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Subject:
Cooperation with the USSR on Outer Space Matters. President Kennedy instructs
James Webb as Administrator of NASA to "...assume personally the initiative and
central responsibility within the Government for the development of a program
of substantive cooperation with the Soviet Union in the field of outer space,
including the development of specific technical proposals. I assume that you
will work closely with the Department of State and other agencies as
appropriate." Kennedy had requested an interim report on NASA's progress in
this adventure by December 15, 1963. Of course, after Kennedy was killed, this
program was never acted upon.
19. It should be pointed out here that James E. Webb served on President
Truman's Psychological Warfare Strategy Board and assisted in revising NSC 10/2
for the Office of Policy Coordination (Covert Operations) in 1948 for the CIA
and the Joint Chiefs of Staff for emergency plans in case of war. He also was
the author of the Webb Staff Study that worked out cooperation between the
military and the CIA concerning IAC intelligence-sharing of foreign atomic
research with the AEC, which allowed the DCI prerogatives in the dissemination
to key executive officials. Webb considered the DCI slot after Rear Admiral
Hillenkoetter left office in 1950.
20. Top Secret Kennedy memorandum to the Director [of Counter Intelligence],
Subject: Classification review of all UFO intelligence files affecting National
Security, dated November 12, 1963.
21. ibid.