Morley's Non-Story Hits the Press
- Fred Litwin
- Jul 7
- 8 min read
You have to hand it to Jefferson Morley -- he knows how to get headlines. Having first crack at the Joannides' personnel files allowed him to control the narrative. Never mind that it was all vacuous -- various outlets fell for his story.
Of course, the text of the story does not support the headline. There is nothing in the new documents that add to the story about the DRE or Oswald. Nothing.
Just what operation is Caputo talking about?
I replied as follows:
And here is his reply:
But his tweet clearly discussed an "operation." Was he not aware that Morley has talked about an "Oswald Operation" for years?
Here is an excerpt from a transcript:
Mark Caputo: His name was George Joannides, and he's one of the more interesting characters to emerge later in the narrative of what we understand about the JFK assassination, and the way in which the government hid documents and evidence and information about it. For years, he was unknown. Then in 1992, the movie Oliver Stone film JFK came out, created such an uproar that Congress, in a rare act of unanimity, passed the JFK Records Act, requiring disclosure of all records from all agencies related to the JFK assassination by 2017. That got delayed by various reasons, by two presidents, President Trump and President Biden. Albeit information was slowly released, but not all the information. We're still waiting on, all the information. And in 1998 this little piece of paper caught a researcher's eye. Jefferson Morley is his name, and he noticed that there was a person named Howard who appeared in these documents, heading this student group called the Cuban student group, or known by its initials, its Spanish language initials, the DRE, based in Miami. However, they had operations in New Orleans. It was a bunch of Cuban exiles who were anti-Castro and about 105 days before the assassination in Dallas in 1962, these Cuban students went up in a confrontation in New Orleans with Lee Harvey Oswald, and then they wound up debating Lee Harvey Oswald on local television. Oswald then went to Mexico, then later on, was accused of shooting President Kennedy. But after the assassination, immediately after, partly because of the work of the student group and the media attention, everyone knew Lee Harvey Oswald as a communist. And the question was, well, do the CIA have anything to do with the student group? And the CIA, the entire time, said, "Oh no, we had nothing to do with this We didn't know anything about it." Turns out they did. George Joannides, the Miami based operative or officer who was the branch chief or Assistant Branch Chief specializing in psychological warfare -- I'm not making this up, was the guy who ran this group and went by the code name Howard. When then asked for years who Howard was, George Joannides had been appointed by the CIA to be a liaison with the house Investigative Committee 15 years after the assassination, and Joannides told all the investigators from the House Committee, I have no idea who Howard is. We have no record on him. Well, that's because Joannides himself was Howard. He was then given an award for helping obfuscate with Congress and lying to Congress about his involvement. The CIA also lied about that as well, and in 1991 he passed away. But as a result of that dogged work by Jefferson Morley, trying to unearth those files, we now know, as a result of Thursday's release, that Joannides was indeed Howard, and he did lead that group, and that's what the records show.
Much of what Caputo told MSNBC is just plain wrong.
The ARRB had looked at the Joannides personnel file and had declassified what it thought was relevant.
Lee Harvey Oswald was a self-avowed Marxist - Carlos Bringuier, without any help or encouragement from the DRE -- was talking about this right after his encounter with Oswald.
No one from the HSCA asked about Howard. No one asked Joannides.
Nothing in the text supports the headline.
The CIA has dropped a bombshell report admitting the agency had monitored former President John F. Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, before he gunned Kennedy down. CIA agent George Joannides—who specialized in psychological warfare and directed a group called the Cuban Student Directorate—had contact with Oswald in the months before the Dallas tragedy,
Fortunately, most news services did NOT pick up the story. Nothing on Fox, CNN and other major outlets.
But it does help to control the narrative, and Morley has proven to be an expert in that. The fact that his narrative is devoid of facts escapes him.
By the way, the Carlos Bringuier was the DRE delegate in New Orleans, But he was NOT paid by the CIA. Here is a document that lists the DRE salaries paid by the CIA:
Previous Relevant Blogs Posts on Jefferson Morley's Congressional Testimony
An analysis of Congresswoman Luna's Congressional Hearings
An FBI memo that quoted James Angleton is used by Morley to reach an unwarranted conclusion.
Morley misreads Angleton's testimony before the HSCA.
Morley believes a document proves the CIA did not believe that a lone gunman killed JFK.
Additional documents relevant to Part Three.
Morley claims that there is some connection between the suicides of Gary Underhill, Charles Thomas, George de Mohrenschildt, and the overdose death of Dorothy Kilgallen.
Morley believes that Agustin Guitart was spying on pro-Castro forces in New Orleans
Previous Relevant Blog Posts on Jefferson Morley
Joannides did not come out of retirement to work with the HSCA.
There is no mention of an "Oswald Operation" in the Joannides' personnel file.
Morley believes that Dr. Robert McClelland's recollections provides proof of a shot from the front. Here is the truth about McClelland.
A reply by Nicholas Nalli to Jefferson Morley.
Morley suspected a redacted file would reveal major secrets. It didn't.
Several months ago, I posted an article, in association with several researchers, that showed what was contained in the redacted section of Schlesinger's memo.
Morley somehow knows what is in the supposed 2,400 recently-discovered FBI files.
Morley discusses Israel with Tucker Carlson.
Morley believes that the United States can never be great unless it solves the JFK assassination.
An analysis of the 13 documents Morley wants to see.
Morley claims I am a CIA apologist and then misquotes me.
It would be worthwhile for the CIA to release the Joannides file just to stop the incessant posts from Jefferson Morley.
Actually, Oswald stayed at two budget-priced hotels in Helsinki.
He keeps asking the same questions, and we keep posting the same answers.
Conspiracy authors are playing fast and loose with the facts.
There is no evidence that Diaz was involved in the JFK assassination.
There are clues as to what is in a redacted section of Schlesinger's memo.
Chad Nagle and Dan Storper's article on New Orleans gets everything wrong.
Believing Michael Kurtz is problematic.
Morley wrote that there are two redacted memos on CIA reorganization, but there is only one. He wrote about Goodwin's copy as if it was a different memo, rather than a copy of the Schlesinger memo.
The phrase 'who shot John' does not refer to the JFK assassination.
Only one word is redacted in Harvey's deposition.
There are no redactions in the Operation Northwoods document.
Kilgallen had nothing to tell.
An underwhelming interview of Marina Oswald.
Morley often repeats stories and changes their meanings.
Chad Nagle claims there was an assassination plot against JFK in Chicago in November 1963. One problem: There is no evidence of such a plot.
A response to Morley's Substack post alleging that I am a CIA apologist.
A rebuttal to Morley's response to my post Was Bill Harvey in Dallas in November of 1963?
There is no credible evidence Harvey was in Dallas in November of 1963.
Morley repeats the claim that Dulles was at a CIA training center during the weekend of the JFK assassination. He wasn't.
Morley's claims about Efron are all wrong.
Morley responded to my article "The Truth about Operation Northwoods." Here is my reply.
W. Tracy Parnell is one of the best JFK assassination researchers out there. Here is his look at Jefferson Morley with several important articles.
Operation Northwoods can only be understood as part of the Kennedys' war against Cuba and Operation Mongoose.
And a response from me.
There is no evidence that Dr. West petitioned the court to examine Jack Ruby before his trial.
There is absolutely no evidence that Dr. Louis Jolyon West interfered with Jack Ruby's case.
Jefferson Morley used a fake Oswald handbill in his press conference for the Mary Ferrell Foundation.
An examination of redactions in the JFK collection of documents.
Morley doesn't understand Alecia Long's arguments about homophobia and Jim Garrison.
Jefferson Morley asks why "what the CIA knew about Herminio Diaz is still off limits."
Morley misses that a lot of redactions are actually available.
Jefferson Morley's press conference presents evidence that belief in a conspiracy has dropped.
