Monika Wiesak's Dreadful History
- Fred Litwin
- 1 day ago
- 15 min read
Updated: 14 hours ago
Monika Wiesak's book, Echoes of a Lost America, is a living testament to bad research. If you have ever wondered what is wrong with JFK assassination literature, this book is Exhibit One. The book is almost totally based upon secondary sources. Not that there is anything wrong with that, except the fact that Wiesak relies upon some really bad secondary sources.
Right from the start, you can see her unfortunate biases. In her first chapter, Cui Bono, she starts, much like Oliver Stone, by looking at why JFK was assassinated.
Five leading interests benefited from John F. Kennedy's removal from office: anti-Communist interests, pro-war interests, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) interests, Israeli/Zionist interests, and powerful financial interests. Organized crime networks also benefited.
She then spend ten pages in this chapter on Israel and American Jewish Zionists. It's tendentious history as recorded by anti-Israel books like Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews by Alan Hart; Taking Sides: America's Secret Relations with Militant Israel by Stephen Green; and Laurent Guyenot's The Unspoken Kennedy Truth.
Chapter Two in her book is titled "The Alleged Assassin," and it contains 62 footnotes, forty of which tie back to Destiny Betrayed (28) by James DiEugenio and On the Trail of the Assassins (12) by Jim Garrison.
Let's look at some of what she wrote in this chapter:
One of Oswald's duties in Japan was to guard the U-2 and use state-of-the-art radar equipment to track the plane. (page 41)
Her source for this is pages 127-128 of James DiEugenio's Destiny Betrayed.
Here is what he says: (page 128)
As John Newman notes, and the Warren Report conceals, one of Oswald's duties while in Japan was to actually guard the U-2 while in hangar. Oswald also used state-of-the-art radar equipment to track the plane.
His footnote is page 28 of Newman's book, Oswald and the CIA:
Oswald and his marine companions had walked patrol to guard a supersecret espionage weapon hidden in an airplane hanger. As a radar operator, he had also tracked this dark object with advanced height-finding radar equipment.
There is no footnote for this statement. But if you start reading the next chapter you will find this on page 32:
Ok, so now we are in the Philippines, not Japan.
And Newman's source for this is an interview with John Donovan, the officer in command of Oswald's crew while in California in 1959.
Donovan only started talking about Oswald and the U-2 in the late 1970s when he testified before the HSCA and when he talked with Edward Jay Epstein, for his book, Legend, and with John Newman.
But as we have seen, Donovan was not at Cubi Point.
And there were no U-2s at Cubi Point when Oswald was there.
Wiesak, like Jim Garrison and James DiEugenio, tries to make the case that Oswald was not a Marxist: (page 41)
While many of Oswald's Marine mates said he was studying Russian language and culture, only one, Kerry Thornley, who featured prominently in the Warren Report, claimed Oswald was a Marxist.
Wiesak then mentions fellow Marine Nelson Delgado:
Nelson Delgado, who lived closest to Oswald and for the most prolonged period, stated that Oswald "Never said any subversive things." He elaborated, "He would discuss his ideas but not anything against our government -- nothing socialist."
Her footnote for the above is Jim Garrison's book.
It appears that Delgado is referring to whether they discussed socialism in Spanish.
And then there is the ever present six degrees of separation: (pages 48 - 49)
According to District Attorney Jim Garrison, among de Mohrenschildt's close friends was Jean de Menil, president of Schlumberger Corporation, which had close ties to the CIA and which, like the CIA, had an interest in the OAS, a French paramilitary organization that had revolted against President Charles de Gaulle when Algeria was in the process of winning its independence. John F. Kennedy had been strongly supportive of Algerian independence and had even given a highly controversial speech in its support in 1957, which was anathema not only to the CIA but to the Mossad as well. Dr. Menil sat on the board of a company called Permindex (Permanent Industrial Exposition}. In the only criminal investigation into John F. Kennedy's murder, Garrison charged Clay Shaw, another board member of Permindex, with conspiracy to murder John F. Kennedy.
Where does one even start with such nonsense?
The whole history of de Gaulle and Algerian independence and its relationship to Kennedy and the CIA has been completely misinterpreted by conspiracy theorists.
Her source for the fact that Jean de Menil was on the Board of Directors of Permindex is a publication by Lyndon LaRouche.
There is no evidence he was on the Board at all.
Here is a paragraph from page 52 which is referenced above:
Completely insane. Bloomfield wasn't the head of FBI Division Five, whatever that is. Permindex was never "identified by French intelligence" for anything, let alone "30 assassination attempts on the life" of de Gaulle.
And this brings me to Permindex. I happen to know a bit about Permindex and I have published on my blog Clay Shaw's file on Permindex and the complete State Department documents on Permindex. I have also examined the papers of Louis Bloomfield, a Montreal lawyer who represented several of its shareholders.
So, let's have a look at what Wiesak says about Permindex. (page 58)
On the surface, the purpose of Permindex/CMC was to offer a centralized site where businessmen could display goods and make deals. Underneath, however, Permindex/CMC was tied into various covert networks. Louis Mortimer Bloomfield, who lived in Montreal, Canada, has often been described as the founder of Permindex and its majority shareholder, but this is not entirely accurate. He was Permindex's attorney and was responsible for coordinating all the different players involved. He acted as a proxy for particular interests, effectively hiding their identities. These interests held stock in his name, and he occupied their spot on the board.
Bloomfield was not the lawyer for Permindex. He was the lawyer for a few of the shareholders in the company -- notably shareholders in Canada and the United States, like the Pascal brothers in Montreal. He was also not on the board.
The source for this paragraph is the book, One Nation Under Blackmail by Whitney Webb, published by Trine Day:.
Wiesak basically copied her paragraph from the Webb book: (page 98 online)
There is no footnote in the Webb book for this paragraph. I should add that the chapter in which this paragraph is included is titled "Mossad Goes To Rome," which gives you a flavor for what this book is all about.
Back to Wiesak: (page 58)
Bloomfield was connected to a number of Zionist organizations. He served as honorary counsel to the World Jewish Congress. He was also involved in building up the Canadian branches of the Histadrut, Israel's trade union complex, and was president of the Israel Maritime League. Both entities were involved with Zim Shipping, a key supplier of weapons to Israel. Indeed, Bloomfield was involved with smuggling arms to the Haganah in the 1930s. The Haganah was the central Zionist paramilitary organization before the establishment of Israel, when it became the core of the Israeli Defense Forces.
Wiesak's source that Zim is a "key supplier of weapons" is a footnote referencing a book by Bernard Reich and David Goldberg.
Oh my god, Zim transported arms and ammunition to the "nascent Jewish state." They weren't a supplier -- they transported stuff to Israel. Wiesak makes it sound evil.
The second part of her paragraph about Bloomfield being "involved with smuggling arms to the Haganah in the 1930s" is sourced to page 5 of Louis Bloomfield's brother's (Bernard) book, Israel Diary.
Here is an excerpt from page 5:
There Amos met a soldier whom he hadn't seen for twelve years. They were at that time involved in the same arms-smuggling plot, back in 1936, for which Amos was sent to jail.
But Amos was Bernard Bloomfield's brother-in-law, not Louis Bloomfield.
Back to Wiesak: (page 58)
Furthermore, according to a whistleblower at the NUMEC facility in Pennsylvania -- the facility that has been accused of smuggling uranium to Israel for nuclear weapons development -- it was the aforementioned Zim Shipping that transferred the material.
Supposedly some canisters of highly enriched uranium were shipped to Israel via Zim Shipping in the late 1960s. But so what? What is Wiesak's point here? That Zim is evil?
The next part of the same paragraph has nothing to do with Zim: (page 58)
Edmond de Rothschild appears all over Bloomfield's correspondence and appears to have been intimately involved with Permindex/CMC. It was Lord Rothschild to whom the Balfour Declaration was addressed. The declaration was a public statement issued by the British government in 1917 which announced its support for a "national home for the Jewish people" in Palestine.
But there was one business relationship between Baron Edmond de Rothschild and Louis Bloomfield and that was Tri-Continental Pipe Lines Ltd. This was a company, based in Calgary, Canada, which invested in a oil pipeline in Israel. Rothschild was the Chairman and Bloomfield was the firm's lawyer.
Wiesak is also mixed up about the Rothschilds. The Balfour declaration was not addressed to Baron Edmond de Rothschild --- it was addressed to Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild, who died in 1934. Edmond was part of the French line of Rothschilds.
Back to Wiesak: (pages 58 - 59)
Lastly, and most critically, Bloomfield was one of approximately twenty-five key donors to Israel's nuclear weapons program. Also among the donors was Bloomfield's brother, Bernard, as well as the British and French branches of the previously mentioned Rothschild family.
Wiesak's source for this sentence are pages 136 - 137 of Michael Karpin's book, The Bomb in the Basement:
The Sonnenborn Institute was disbanded in 1955. I can imagine that the Bloomfield brothers helped out. But note that the paragraph from The Bomb in the Basement says that "It can be presumed" that the Bloomfield brothers donated to the campaign to fund the acquisition of a nuclear bomb. That is the only mention of Bloomfield is Karpin's book.
Back to Wiesak: (page 59)
Indeed, the two Bloomfield brothers first met Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion at a celebration of Israel's first anniversary.
Good for them. What on earth is wrong with that?
Back to Wiesak: (page 59)
Permindex/CMC also had ties to the CIA as well as Italian intelligence, in addition to various connections to the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency.
Her source for this sentence is the Whitney Webb book.
No footnote and no details.
Everything is speculative. And the only source mentioned is Paese Sera -- a communist controlled newspaper that published a series of articles in March 1967 about Permindex that was full of disinformation.
Back to Wiesak: (page 59)
It received funding through J. Henry Schroder Banking Corporation, for which former CIA Director Allen Dulles had served as general counsel.
Her source for this is James DiEugenio's book, Destiny Betrayed. But he is just plain wrong.
Permindex did approach Schroder, but they did not invest. Here is an excerpt from a State Department Despatch of February 1, 1957:
And an excerpt from a State Department Despatch of October 8, 1957:
And we know from the Louis Bloomfield archive in Ottawa, Canada that Schroder never invested in Permindex. There are several hundred letters from Bloomfield to George Mantello in Italy amongst his papers. Many of them discuss financing as Permindex/CMC was always short of funds. There is not one mention of Schroder’s Bank in any letter.
But even if had Schroder invested in Permindex, so what?
Back to Wiesak: (page 59)
With Bloomberg having access to the majority of its shares, he, and those he represented who are not known, essentially controlled Permindex/CMC. Some view Permindex/CMC as a sort of intelligence apparatus functioning transnationally. Indeed, Permindex/CMC, the International Trade Mart, and those affiliated with these entities greatly supported globalism over nationalism. Their views, in general, were opposed to Kennedy's views of a more decentralized system of power where national sovereignty played a significant role. They preferred a system of international banking and transnational and multinational corporation controlling the global economy.
Wiesak is trying hard to push an 'anti-globalist" agenda here. George Mantello simply believed that the advent of the European Economic Community in 1957 provided an incredible opportunity to encourage trade. This is not nefarious -- this is just someone who understood political trends in Europe.
Back to Wiesak: (page 59)
Permindex has also been suspected in the death of Enrico Mattei, whose plane exploded in October 1962. Mattei sought to sign oil agreements with the Soviet Union, as well as Egypt and Algeria, which were, at the time, opposed to Israel. There have been multiple official inquiries into the incident. Italian journalist Fulvio Bellini turned over information to one of these inquiries alleging that Permindex had funded the assassination of Mattei.
Oy! An assassination? Really? Wiesak's source for this is the Webb book:
Enrico Mattei was killed on October 27, 1962, when his private jet exploded in mid-air and crashed near Milan. Michele Metta's book has an entire chapter on his alleged murder, but it is completely incomprehensible, and I see no evidence that Permindex was involved. He is the only source that I know that blames Permindex.
The idea of a relationship between the OAS and Permindex comes from Paese Sera and has no basis in fact.
The first person to link the alleged murder of Mattei to the JFK assassination was Thomas Buchanan, in his book, Who Killed Kennedy?
The Mattei case is malleable and can be used for any manner of conspiracy theorizing.
Wiesak's next mention of Permindex is in Chapter 8: "New Investigations and Continuing Cover-Ups": (page 203)
At the time of the trial, Garrison did not have any evidence of Shaw's links to the CIA nor his links to Permindex and its de-facto head, Louis Bloomfield.
Garrison knew about the Paese Sera articles on Permindex and Clay Shaw -- and he knew about them in March of 1967. He also knew about Louis Bloomfield.
In December 1967, a letter was sent by a professor at Sir George Williams University (by the way, which is where I did my undergraduate studies):
Professor Herrmann actually gave Garrison Bloomfield's address and informed him that "He is the donor of the Bloomfield Stadium in Israel and president of the Canadian HISTADRUTH (the principal Israeli labor union), for whose charitable and other projects he does great work."
So, the big unanswered question is why didn't Garrison just pick up the phone and call Bloomfield? Or he could have sent someone to Montreal. But he just wasn't that interested.
The entire Wiesak book is full of errors, JFK assassination factoids, and erroneous conspiracy nonsense. Virtually every page is just plain wrong. This book is emblematic of what is happening to JFK assassination literature -- the connection to reality is tenuous at best.
A short look at four horrible books on the assassination.
She turns to Clay Shaw and notes the fact that he was reliably identified by the local sheriff as being seen with Ferrie and Oswald in the Clinton/Jackson area in the late summer of 1963. (p. 57) Through the work of Whitney Webb and Michelle Metta, she then links Shaw with DeMenil and Canadian lawyer Louis Mortimer Bloomfield through Permindex. About Permindex, she advances the case that it was a hydra-headed creation: CIA, Italian intelligence and the Mossad. She fingers Bloomfield as a key figure in Permindex because he had access to the majority of the shares in that enigmatic company. (p. 59) She also states that those associated with Permindex were globalists in their views of a world economy, e.g., Bloomfield, Edmond de Rothschild and Shaw. She points out, briefly, that this was opposed to Kennedy’s nationalist views.
I couldn't resist one last example of poor scholarship.
Wiesak talks about the HSCA's final report on page 205:
As the report was originally written to put the full blame on Oswald, it still gave support to the single bullet theory and professed that the shot from the front missed. The committee reached this conclusion even though JFK's White House doctor, Admiral George Burkley, wrote a letter to the HSCA, stating that he had information that more than one shooter was involved in Kennedy's assassination. There is no record of Burkley being deposed by the HSCA.
Her source is James DiEugenio's book of his documentary series, JFK Revisited: (page 67 in the Kindle edition)
She can't even paraphrase correctly. Here is the paragraph from his book:
In 1977, through his lawyer, he wrote a letter to Richard Sprague, chief counsel of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. He said he had information indicating that others besides Oswald must have participated in the assassination. He was willing to talk about it at this time. Sprague, who made clear his intention to fully investigate the CIA’s involvement, was forced out two weeks later. Dr. Burkley submitted a written statement to the House Select Committee, but there is no official record of him being deposed as a witness.
Of course, DiEugenio is also wrong. Burkley's suspicions about the assassination had nothing to do with the medical evidence.
Dr. Burkley was interviewed by the HSCA in August of 1977. He also signed an affidavit after a second interview.
DiEugenio would never quote this paragraph from his affidavit:
I saw President Kennedy's wounds at Parkland Hospital and during the autopsy at the Bethesda Naval Hospital. There was no difference in the nature of the wounds I saw at Parkland Hospital and those I observed at the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital.
Don't miss the full series on Dr. George Burkley:
Bill Baxley, former Attorney General of Alabama, sent me a letter about Oliver Stone.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary series, JFK: Destiny Betrayed, makes several outrageous allegations about Admiral George Burkley, JFK's personal physician, as well as a slanderous accusation.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary, JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, misleads viewers into believing that JFK's doctor, Admiral George Burkley, said that there were multiple gunmen.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary, JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, misleads viewers on the context of discussions between Burkley's family and the ARRB regarding supposed papers in the possession of his lawyer.
Reckless charges are made against George Burkley with no evidence.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary, JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass, greatly misleads viewers on Admiral George Burkley and his interactions with the HSCA.
Oliver Stone's so-called documentary puts words in Burkley's mouth.
I am sure that in her defense, Monika Wiesak will point out that her book contains 968 footnotes. In this case, it's not quantity that counts, but quality.
Previous Blog Posts on Permindex
Was there a relationship between Permindex and the OAS?
Information in a Time-Life memo originated from Paese Sera.
A purported CIA memo is actually the notes of an HSCA researcher.
CMC evicted in early 1962 because they couldn't pay rent.
Many conspiracy books claim that Permindex moved to South Africa. There is no evidence that it did.
There is no evidence that Permindex plotted against de Gaulle.
The complete set of State Department documents on Permindex.
Chris Peeks interviews me about Permindex.
Conspiracy theorists mislead people on Permindex/CMC.
Many books maintain that the President of Permindex, Ferenc Nagy, lived in Dallas in 1963. He actually lived in Herndon, Virginia.
The book Coup in Dallas gets Permindex all wrong, and with no footnotes.
Was Montreal lawyer Louis Bloomfield running an assassination bureau?
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.
The memo only quotes from Pease Sera.
The information that Shaw lived in Rome and worked for the CIA originated with Paese Sera.
Clay Shaw was on the Board of Directors of Permindex. Here is his file.
If Jim Garrison wanted to learn more about Louis Bloomfield, all he had to do was pick up the phone or go to Montreal.
Exclusive - Louis Bloomfield's Secret Correspondence with George H. W. Bush...  Revealed for the first time.
Yes, a conspiracy book actually makes this claim.
Revealed for the first time.
They were involved!
George Mantello was a hero.