'NFor a Labor o ' Who killed Kennedy and why?

By RALPH SCHOENMAN remote the old otter. These were the units which began what 's new film about the assas- became the . It was an sination of President John F. Kennedy operation coordinated by the National (J,F.X)has precipitated a firestorm of criti- Security Councils of the Eisenhower and film in the establishment press and on tele- Kennedy administrations. The military vision. The tenor and tone of the onslaught command officer was deputy head of the indicate that this film. like the investigation C.I.A., Major General Chalice Cabell. and by District Attorney lint the potitscul officer in charge was then Vice Garrison. on whose inquiry .1.F K. is based. President Richard Nixon. has touched a very raw nerve. lack Ruby and , The Warren Commission !named for its whose postal boxes were side by side in the chairperson. Earl' Warren. Chief Juelue of New Orleans post office near Camp street. the U.S. Supreme Count was established in associated with both E. Howard Hunt and 1964 by President Lyndon B. Johnson to . F.. Howard Hunt, who was the "investigate" the assassination. It was com- director of the top secret land technically posed of such figures as Alan Dulles, the illegal) Domestic Operations Division of director of the C.I.A. who was fired by the C.IA., was given the task of preparing a Kennedy after the failure of the Invasion of replacement government in Havana. Hunt Cuba ax the Bay of Pigs; John J. McCloy. set up thc "Cuban Revolutionary Council." major banker of the iron industry who toured European capitals instructing U.S. Role oh Clay Shaw chum regimes to "shut down" press specu- The operational tenter of the C.I.A.'s lation about conspiracy. and Congressman Cuban government-to- be was 544 Camp Gerald R. Ford. known as J. Edgar Street in New Orleans. It was to become a Hoover's man on Capitol Hill. famous address, the lynch pin of Jim The Warren Con:miasma had so inves- Garrison's investigation and the point of tigative staff and relied exclusively an the convergence between Clay Shaw, Lee F.B.I. and the C.I.A. to provide date and Harvey Oswald and lack Ruby. witnesses. Long before the Warren The "Who Killed Kennedy Committee" Commission ended its nominal inquiry and investigation into the assassination unsay- published its 26 volumes of testimony and reed, in particular, the activity of two orga- document'. in unpublished conclusions thnt nizations. They shared members of their a "demented loner" had done the deed had respective boards of directors and they were been orchestrated by the established meas. called Centro Mondiele Commerciale or Despite this. glib of the public disbelieved C.M.C. ( World Trade Centerl and the official fictioe shout who killed John F. Permanent Industrial Expositions or Kennedy and why. "Perrnindex." Donald's conneetions in C.I.A. C.M.C. was founded in Montreal in 1956 cad centered in Rome, to board of directors Alone among public officials, the Diann included three C.I.A. operations officers) Attorney of New Orleans. Jim Damson. former Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc upon learning that Lee Harvey Oswald had Nagy. Major L.M. Bloomfield of Montreal been living and working in •New Orleans and Clay L. Shaw_ Bloomfield was a major shortly before going to Dallas, began an stockholder. He was also a former officer of investigation. II led him to indict apromi- the Office of Strategic Services (0.S.S.), a nent society figure and international busi- ranking officer of the little-known Division nessman, Clay Shaw, who was known as Five of the F.B.I. and a personal confidante the director of the International Trade Mart of J. Edgar Hoover. in New Orleans. Clay Shaw of New Orleans listed his Damson charged him with conspinicy In directorship of Permindex in Who's Who In assassinate the president, maintaining that The Southwest (1962). Shaw had been a top Shaw was pan of a high-level governmemal officer of the Office of Strategic Services plot involving the C.I.A.. leader, of the mil- had no pan di its execution. Ruby 's role in supplying him and the (0.S.S.1. the predecessor of the Central itary and corporate niters in a coup dews Ho was. we established, an intelligence Committee with information on "subset. Intelligence Agency. assigned to the head- Serious invenigelion of the alsuonation own of the U.S. government who, dung awes" in the trade onion avasemenk quarter. of Winston Chinshili. It was while has led many to this inexorable conclusion. his arranged "defection" to the Soviet Upon his transfer to Dallas. Texas. he in the O.S.S. that Shim became director of In December 1963, shortly after the Union, maintained topsecurny ranking and continued to work far the Meyer Lansky the Intemanond Howe-World Trade Center assassination of Kennedy and of his alleged weekly contact with State Department cumporynt of the Mafia — and for J. Edgar in New Orleans, assailant, Ire Harvey Oswald, the Bertrand Intelligence. Lee Harvey Oswald was. to Hooves, notably in Cuba, F.13,L memo 105- The "trade" activity of Shaw 's organiza- Russell Peace Foundation, of which I was fact, a contract employee of the Central 3193 revealed another assignment. As tions included facilitating the banking of then Executive Director, funned the "Who Intelligence Agency and an informant of the opposition to Salina grew. the U.S. intelli- Meyer Lansky and his holdings in the Killed Kennedy Committee" in London. F.B.I. gence services began to hedge their bets. Bahamas — and Burnie, Culla. It was pall Members of the Committee included Our commute wee able to obtain Seam supporting both the brutal Batista regime of the network of the World Trade Center Bertrand Russell, Arnold Toynbee, Lord Service Report 767, which contained and its potential replacement. Association, which encompassed over 50 Boyd-Orr and Hugh Trevor-Roper. Oswald's F.B.I. number — S172 — and his "Ruby." F.B.I. directive 105-3193 stases, world trade mans. The official fiction In the United States C.I.A. number — 110669. Oswald had. OS "arranged illegal nights of weapons from The Hong Kong World Trade Center concerning the assassination of John F. well, a "crypecesecurity clearance.- consis- Miami to the Castro organization in Cuba." served as a satellite computer clearing Kennedy was that the lone assassin who tent with his assignment at Alamo Air Force Gun-running to the July 26 movement was house for du international drug cartel, a killed the president area a Manua who hail base in Japan where he monitored top-secret :Aso an important C.I.A. operation, involv- transnational tracking system for drug trade "defected" to the Slays% Union immediately U2 spy overflights of China and the Soviet ing the "Chief of Police of Hialeah. Fla.. mutes, carriers inventories and rays. It was after leaving the Marine Corps. Upon Union. Leslie Lewis, the sheriff of Dade County the point of convergence of the drug empire returning to the United Stave from the to 1959 he coordinated electronic com- and former Cuban Prime Minister Carlos of the Mafia and C.I.A. Soviet Union. Oswald had organized • munications in a major C.I.A. undertaking Poo." (ibid.) The World Trade Center in New Orleans 'branch" of the Pao Play For Cub• — the covert operation against the Sukarno Ruby 's associate in gun running to the was transmuted to the Intemational Trade COrninittee. His alleged morderoos am was government in Indonesia. which centered on Fultlietha in Cuba was soother C.I.A. liner- Man after Shaw's effective expulsion from supposed to reflect these sympathies. the Mohammad Hama armed insurrection in mire. Frank Florini. also known as Frank Italy by the Italian government. persons In the course of our own investigator. the Celebes islands. Sturgis of later Watergate fame. So rucccas- non grata. The reasons for Shaw ' s deny- we obtained 19 secret files front the offices ful lees Sturgis in organizing arms trawlers Mee from Italy are instructive. of the Danes District Attorney. along with Jack Rohr undercover operative In the July 26 Movement that after victory In 1962. French intelligence services other governmental documents which Oswald. however, was not the only intel- named Frank -Flormi" Sturgis determined that a principal conduit for the revealed a rather different story. If deeply ligence operative in the assassination sce- head of gaming and gambling in Havana arms and funds of the Organization of the involved wtth the gyrational organizers of nario. His own killer, Jack Ruby, had an and director of air forte intelligence for the Secret Army I.O.A.S.) in Algeria was the Kennedy aseaseinition, Oswald himself equally intniguing past. Ruby had organized new revolutionary government. Sturgis C.M.C. and Perrnindex. The O.A.S. had the murder of Leon Cook, the secretary of placed Jack Ruby in charge of two of the been organized by leading French generals the Scrap Iron and Junk Handlers' local of largest gambling houses in Cuba. and governmental officials opposed to Ralph Sclwertman ss the former Executive the Teamsters union in in 1939. The Cuban revolution shifted left after neocolonial solution in Algeria, which Director of the Bertrand Russell Peace (Chicago Tribune, Dec. 9, 1939). It was Fidel Castro failed to obtain financial French President Charles de Gadlle and a Foundation. In December 1963. shortly part of the takeover of militant teamster undertakings and an increase in the sugar major section of the French ruling class felt after the Kennedy susassinurion. the Rowell locals by the Mafia, an operation conducted quota from the Eisenhower almunstranon. compelled to undertake. Foundation formed the "Who Killed under the direction off. Eutaw Heaver. Sturgis and Ruby, along with Mafioai If was a strategy much opposed by U.S. Kennedy Committee," whose extensive Jack Ruby was an undercover F.B.I. Meyer Lansky„ Santos Trafficante and ruling circles, notably within the military investigation produced fey information that operative. During the beatings of the Howe Louis McWillie left Havana to prepare and intelligence. Our committee document- was made assailable to New Orleans District Unamerican Activities Committee in 1947, Alpha 66 — the C.I.A.-sponsored covert (continued on Dart Lb can yo help Shaw." A C.I.A. memo dated Sept. St. 1967, refers to 30 top secret Who killed Kennedy and why? reports by Clay Shaw to his director. Kennedy romanderted Many of those who uncovered the role of (eentiatted from page 16) the murder apparatus of the capitalist Mate in the Kennedy executions have romanti- al that the O.A.S. had undertaken to same- cized the role of the Kennedy brothers (troth simile Chitties de Gaulle. The arms and their national and international policies). funds deployed in three attempts to kill de They have attributed to the Kennedys a Gaulle were oared to Permirsdes. A specific desire for -reform" and to end the war in fund of 5200.000 was provided for the Indochina which their opponents in the atAISAiStaliCIO. and intelligence agencies resisted The data assembled regarding the role of through a round-ewe both C.M.0 end Pernundex in this murder. dim Garrison, aid Oliver Stone in his film ous assignment led de Gaulle publicly to about the Garrison investigation, cite accuse Permindex of coordinating the Kennedy declarations that he would wind attempts al his assassinatien, De Gaulle down the Indochinese war by 1965. In fact, labelled these C.I.A. fronts. Kennedy had stated on Sept_ 2, 1963. "I Duringthis same period, C.M.C. and don't agree with those who say we should Permindex handed and sided the military withdraw.... We have to participate — we coup Seam in Greece and were involved in may not like it — nn the defense of Asia" high level military attempts to take over the On Sept. 9, 1963. he repested "We should Italian government. stay. We should use our influence In as The investigation of these ACOVIIICS led effective a way as we siall, bill we should the Italian government to expel C.M.C. and nos withdraw." A week before the mistiest- Pennindes. front Italy "for espionage and natinia Ire declared, "What helps to win the fomenting a plot Reline: the State." The evi- war, we support; what interferes with the of Rome dence was published in Parse Sera war effort. we oppose." and Le Devoir of Montreal. C.M.C. and Kennedy had already shown what he Pernundex transferred their headquaners in sought foe all of Indochina through the 1962 Johannesburg, South Afrsca. Ferenc Nagy. agreements on Lassa A cross-class coalition of whom Le Deep.. concluded "has close of the tight-wing army. "neutralists" and the ties to the C.I.A. end the Miami Cuban Communists mil members of the royal fam- colony," set up offices in Dallas. Clay Shim ily!) had formed a common regime. As returned to the International Trade Mart in minor land reform was undertaken, U.S. New Orleans. Our committee supplied this special fortes began a program of systemat- information to New Orleans District ic murder of village leaders, trade unionists Attorney . and students that would claim thousands of New Orleans: center of operithme lives and become enshrined in the ?hotels program. In New Orleans, Clay Shaw worked This was the formula of Eastern capital in closely with Guy Banister, who bad sot up the United States. its alternative to massive offices at 544 Camp Street as a private U.S. military intervention. It required, as detective. It was this address which was well. the physical elimination of die old oli- stamped on Lee Harvey Oswald's one-per- garchy if they did not go along — AS the leaf ea- son Fair Play For Cube Committee Diem brothers found when they were asses. In fact. Guy Banister was the former mamma& through Peaky Plaza. sinned with U.S. collusion three weeks director of the F.B.I. office in Chicago was a constant companion of Clay Shaw It was this assemblage of a cast of charac- before Kennedy's execution In Dallas. before his mauler to New Orleans. He was, and a frequent occupant of 544 Camp II was in 1965. nearly two years alter the as well, a ranking official in the Office of Street. ters integral to the Kennedy assessiortion and in high-level National Security Council murder of his brother, that Robert Kennedy. Naval Intelligence, whose New Orleans Clay Shaw bad another associate — beediquartart wea across the WOK. In 1962, Majot General Charles Cubell. Cabell, ondenekingi that compelled Jim Garriaan M dlc While' Of Prneilsnt hymicri Ighmen, coordinated in Washington, D.C., an 1200,000 were chanabled in a cash delivery deputy director of the C.I.A. and ranking in charge Clay Shaw with being part of a Indonesten Council of Generals, who would to the accounts of Shaw's C.M.C. in Paris member of the Helloed Security Council, conspiracy to kill President John F. carry off a coup d'etat in liken*, over- by the legal counsel of The Anti- was military commander of the Bey of Pigs may. throwing the coalition government of Communist League of the Caribbean operation_ In May 1961, Shaw presented Clay Shaw was identified to Jim Garrison ■ Sukarno between the nationalists, founded by -detectiye" Ehtflittet. It was this Cabell ID the Foreign Policy Association in by 10 witnesses s the man to whom Communists and right-wing army. Nearly 1 transaction that was cited by the French New Orleans to report on the failed Bay of Banister reported. They included four million people were killed in a space of intelligence Service, in relation to the Pigs invasion. CI.A. operatives: David Ferree. F.ledio del three months in that U.S.-choreographed attempts co the life of de Gaulle. Valle, , and Richard Nagell. JFK fears ezposIng US. role Walk District Attorney Jim Carlsson was des- Ferric war found dead in his apartment the The Kennedy brother., like de Gaulle. nirbed to learn that the presumptive killer of Twenty-four hours prior to the Bay of same day that del Valle came up with a themselves presided over such operations John F. Kennedy. Lee Harvey Oswald, Pigs i11,1111311.C.IA. Director Allen Dulles severe case of hatchet in the head in Miami, and differed from dieir opponents within operated out of the offices of Guy Banister and Deputy Director Cabell &mended U.S. victim of a torture slaying. ruling circles primarily over how best to at 3-Id Camp Sneer. ale cover and troop involvement. John F. Others were kidnapped and several suppress insurgent movements among the These concerns became alarm when Kennedy refused. He did not want to expose dropped from sight. Over ISO materiel wit- poor and dispossessed. Parrtiosscally. the Gannon discovered Guy Hensster's role in the U.S. role in whet had been touted as an nesses to the Kennedy execution would die, Kennedys. as did Eastern banking capital the intelligence services and his collaberti- indigenous Cuban uprising. Above all, he people with nothing in common but their lion with E. Howard Huns. feared the consequences of a ton-Goat war relation lo that official slaying. These (whom they repreaented), preferred covert Garrison's investigation determined that — having just increased US. troops from events made a consideralste impression on operations — employing Green Berets. it was from these offices that Banister and 500 to 25,000 in Indochina — for if the other witnesses who. ursdersoodebly. decid- Pheente programs and Rangers for this pur- pose to the massive use of U.S. troops, with Hone had prepared the overthrow of Jacobi, Cuban exiles and their C.I.A. commanders ed that discretion was the better part of its attendant deficit financing and ensuing, Arbenr. its Guatemala in 1954, acknowl- could not succeed in triggering an uprising valor. "destabilizing" domestic opposition. edged by the C.I.A. Hunt and Banat& con- in Cuba. U.S. rulers faced a protracted war If, however, critical evidence was kept for profit and which tinued such operations from 544 Camp of occupation. When the invasion failed from the jury trying Clay Shaw (Cu his role Flow best to exploit murderous means to employ on a globel Street, including the coordination of gun ignominiously, Kennedy fired Dulles, in a conspiracy to ISSA3Sitille President scale ere tactical disputes over how effec- running and the deployment of a military Cabell and Hunt. John F. Kennedy, newspapers and televi- no comparable impediment. tively to service the powerful few. It is the arsenal at Houma, La. for armed interven- On Nov. 22, 1963 John F. Kennedy visit- sion today have basis of a struggle within sectors of the rul- tion into Cuba. long after the failure of the ed Dallas. Cebell's brother. Earle. was Upon ho mien:mon from the C.I.A. as ing class foe control over state power, and Bay of Pigs mvaelon. mayor and arranged the motorcade route. Executive Assistant to the Deputy Director, the materiel root for coupe rear and the The pilot who coordinated E. Howard Their father and grandfather had been Victor Marchetti disclosed that the head of assassination of heads of state. The Huet's and Guy Banister's air-runs into mayor and sheriff of Dallas before them. clandestine services of the C.I.A., Thorne. Cube was a C.I.A. operative named David Dellis was Cabell territory. Kanunessines„ acknowledged Clay Shaw as Kennedy's, in life as in death, reflect this Ferric. He had also been Lee Harvey John F. Kennedy was en route to lunch at one of his top operatives. Marchetti, the equation. of their murder, thus. has Osweld's vistructor in the Civil Au Patrol the International Trade Mart in Defies when author of The CM and the Cult of The uncovering nod the personal pilot to Carlos Marcella, he was assasainamd, a destination which Intelligence, confirmed that C.I.A. Director always been in the realm of "Who Killed head of the Mal in New Orleans. Feriae provided a pretext for the muting of his Richard Helms instructed him to "do all we Caesar' rather than the crucifixion. the :et 010ft int1agaus 1a thy file of Mir-dfi Luther King sad Malcolm X. It does not require romanticizing John and Robert Kennedy to understand the dynamics of Held over until our next Issue: their executions nor who rules America. Olivet Stone. nonetheless, has made not A series on merely a film mendable for its honest dar- ing — a rare event which has earned him "The Struggle for Black MalorIty Rule In S. Africa" the antagonism of the hired hands in the by MAW, Cristobal and Alas WOW' mass media, many of whom are intelligence "assets." His film, J.F.K., challenges Americana to FOnfrillt a reality, the massive For reasons of space, tlftd in order to update the series with the evidence of which speaks more eloquently analysts by the Azanitin People's Organization (AZAPO) of the . than the hurried hysteria of official apolo- gia. Dec. 21 constitutional talks, our special report on South Africa But pointing people to a fallen King and has been held over till next month_ Also in our next issue we his legendary Camelot belongs to the ere of will publish the promised articles on Haiti iby Mya Shone) and King Arthur. The Arnencan people will have to rely on themselves and their own Canada (by Colette Lebeaf), as well us a report on the Brazilian political instruments to wrest power from a ',Workers Puny Congress and a book review by Lee Heller_ system which is not shove devouring its own.