Did Clay Shaw Get the Help He Deserved?, Part Four

The CIA Gets Involved

On March 4, 1967, Paese Sera, a communist-controlled newspaper in Rome began a multi-part series on Clay Shaw and the Centrale Mondiale Commerciale (CMC), a world trade center. The articles alleged that Clay Shaw was on the CMC's Board and that the CIA used the organization to funnel American dollars to ultra-rightists.

Paese Sera, March 4, 1967

This hit the New Orleans newspapers in early April:

New Orleans States-Item, April 25, 1967

The story was again mentioned in May:

New Orleans, States-Item, May 5, 1967

And Garrison saw the reports.

Here is an excerpt from the Dick Billings diary for March 22, 1967:

Story about Shaw and CIA appears in Humanite, probably March 8 . . . Giant has copy datelined Rome, March 7, from La Presse Italien . . . It explains Shaw working in Rome in '58 to '60 period . . .

Here is the article from L'Humanité:

The stories in Paese Sera were wrong. While Clay Shaw was indeed on the Board of the CMC, he never attended a meeting of the Board, and he was never in Rome during the years that the CMC existed. The articles were full of rumors and many of its facts were just plain wrong. They couldn't figure out, for example, that Louis Bloomfield was a Canadian lawyer who represented some of the CMC shareholders, rather than an American banker.

I have written extensively about Permindex (the parent company of CMC) and the fact that it was nothing more than a failed attempt at a world trade center. In February 1962, the CMC was evicted from its buildings in Rome because it couldn't pay its rent.

Some CIA front!

Here are some links on Permindex (CMC):

State Department Documents on Permindex 

The complete set of State Department documents on Permindex.

James DiEugenio Gets it all Wrong on Permindex/CMC  

Conspiracy theorists mislead people on Permindex/CMC.

Was Permindex Running an Assassination Bureau?  

Was Montreal lawyer Louis Bloomfield running an assassination bureau?

Conspiracy Nonsense Snared a Canadian  

Louis Bloomfield was a good man who raised a lot of money for Canadian charities. Unfortunately, conspiracy theorists have linked him to the JFK assassination.

Did a Life Magazine Memo Say that Clay Shaw was in Rome?

The memo only quotes from Pease Sera.

Did the FBI's Regis Kennedy Know that Clay Shaw worked for the CIA?

The information that Shaw lived in Rome and worked for the CIA originated with Paese Sera.

Clay Shaw's Permindex File  

Clay Shaw was on the Board of Directors of Permindex. Here is his file.

The Founder of Permindex, George Mantello, Saved Thousands of Jews during the Holocaust...  

George Mantello was a hero.

Patricia Lambert, in her sample chapter from her proposed book, also mentioned another story about the CIA that appeared in a Drew Pearson column:

San Francisco Chronicle, March 3, 1967

This story was actually written by Jack Anderson and will ultimately result in an internal investigation by the CIA that will reveal details about efforts to kill Fidel Castro. The article above notes that "this report may have started New Orleans' flamboyant District Attorney Jim Garrison on his investigation of the Kennedy assassination ..."

I am not sure if that is true but the article was certainly correct that Garrison was "following the wrong trails."

Garrison decided to play up allegations about the CIA in two interviews:

The CIA was not impressed:

The CIA writes that "without exception his allegations are false." Rocca's hope for "timely, energetic counteraction" was met with silence.

The CIA then set up a committee called the Garrison Group, comprised of six high-level officials to monitor the investigation:

At the second meeting of the Garrison Group, it was noted that the Department of Justice did not want the CIA to have any contact with Shaw's attorneys:

The CIA's General Counsel, Lawrence Houston, worried they might be dragged into the Shaw trial:

Money Quote:

Despite the fact that Garrison's theories are basically and preposterously false, therefore, he may well be able to involve the CIA in the Shaw trial.

Two notes were attached to this memo:

Houston writes that "there is nothing we can do at the moment," and "there is no action for the Director or any of us to take at this time."

Houston also discussed the dilemmas facing the CIA:

Houston notes that "Shaw's lawyers have no way of refuting these stories except by attacking the credibility of the witnesses or introducing other witnesses to impeach their stories. They have so far no government information which they can use for this purpose." This thus places the government in a "quandary." If the CIA denied some of Garrison's stories which were "untrue," they would also have to made some "partial admission" of connections to other people involved in Garrison's investigation.

Houston says that "in view of this dilemma, the Department of Justice has so far taken the position that if any effort is made by either the prosecution or defense to involve the CIA in the trial, the government will claim executive privilege." He concludes that "to protect the Government's position on privilege, it would appear that the Government cannot take any action publicly to refute Garrison's claims ..."

And so Houston concludes that the CIA should take no action.

If during the trial it appears that Shaw may be convicted on information that could be refuted by CIA, we may be in for some difficult decisions.

In September, Irvin Dymond approached Lloyd Ray of the New Orleans office of the CIA for some help:

The article in question referred to the allegations of Donald Norton which appeared in Canadian newspapers. Norton claimed to have been hired by the CIA to root out homosexuals, and said that Clay Shaw and David Ferrie knew each other. Even for Garrison his stories were too outlandish and he was never used as a witness.

Ray writes that "I told him I thought this would be impossible but, if he would send me a copy of the article, I would pass it on to my headquarters although I felt rather sure that they would take no action in the matter."

Unfortunately the Department of Justice did not want the CIA to help Clay Shaw.

NEXT: Ed Wegmann and Irvin Dymond Go Back to Washington.