37: Garrison's Gumbo

 

In 1966, New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison (foreground in photo with Clay Shaw) began probing a possible connection between the CIA and the Kennedy assassination. Some observers hoped it would be a way to feast on the truth, but for the CIA it was causing high-level indigestion.

On January 12, 1967, a CIA Dispatch from Chief, WOVIEW (Cord Meyer, Jr. of the Covert Action Staff), expressed concern that Garrison’s investigation was impugning the Warren Commission, President Johnson and the CIA. 

The document outlined how to counter criticism of the Warren Commission by discussing “the publicity problem with liaison and friendly elite contacts (especially politicians and editors), pointing out ... that parts of the conspiracy talk appear to be deliberately generated by Communist propagandists.” Moreover, “employ propaganda assets to answer and refute the attacks of the critics. Book reviews and feature articles are particularly appropriate for this purpose.” During “private or media discussion not directed at any particular writer” arguments should be made that: “No significant new evidence has emerged.” Eyewitnesses “are less reliable.” 

Robert Kennedy “would be the last man to overlook or conceal any conspiracy.” Republican “Congressman Gerald R. Ford would hardly have held his tongue for the sake of the Democratic administration” of Lyndon Johnson, “and Senator Russell would have had every political interest in exposing any misdeeds on the part of Chief Justice Warren. A conspirator moreover would hardly choose a location where so much depended on conditions beyond his control: the route, the speed of cars, the moving target, the risk that the assassin would be discovered. A group of wealthy conspirators could have arranged much more secure conditions.” Bold emphasis added by D.P. Cannon.

The CIA releasing officer’s signature on the document was Cord Meyer, Jr.1 whose wife’s mysterious death became interwoven in assassination conspiracy theories because of her affair with JFK--and James Jesus Angleton's retrieval of her diary after her body was discovered along the Georgetown canal towpath.

It's rather mind blowing that the Warren Commission which included ex-CIA Director Allen Dulles wanted Americans to believe a lone nut ex-Marine could pull off an assassination at Dealey Plaza, but a CIA executive who had worked under Dulles wanted Americans to believe it was too difficult for trained CIA assassins to do.

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