Robert Tanenbaum Doubles Down on Lunacy

Robert Tanenbaum, in his book That Day in Dallas, discusses in his text, and includes in his appendix, a purported memo from John McCone to James Rowley.

This memo is clearly a fake and I discussed it in my first review of his book.

Here is the letter that was included in his book:

What is interesting is that the Yellow highlights are exactly the same as the yellow highlights found in the document as printed in Robert Groden's book, Absolute Proof,

Tanenbaum doesn't comment on the document but it seems clear that he took the document from Groden.

Tanenbaum was recently a guest on Matt Crumpton's Solving JFK podcast:

Here is an excerpt from a transcript: (11:11)

Robert Tanenbaum: James Rowley was the chief of the Secret Service at the time. Rowley wrote a note to McCone, who was head of the CIA now since 61, and the letter, the letter to Rowley, which McCone wrote in response, was March 3, '64, March 3. '64. McCone responds to Rowley and McCone says, "you know, we're concerned about leaks, also about Lee Harvey Oswald, because the people, you know it had to do with his training and his suspect activity," and he said, McCone, that the leaks are very important, because if anyone believes these leaks, the wrong persons, the leaks could lead the media to erroneously claim that the CIA and perhaps others were directly involved in the Dallas action. The Dallas action is how they refer to the assassination of President Kennedy. And then on page two, the top of page two of this three page, letter, third page is a signature page, McCone wrote the following, "while the persons involved in the assassination were in the employ of this agency, the CIA," imagine that, what I'm telling you -- this is evidence. "While the persons involved in the assassination were in the employ of this agency, as well as the FBI," he brushes it aside and says "it's impossible to monitor and maintain 24 hour a day responsibility over our agents."

I checked out this document to make sure it was legitimate. It passed every test. It was found where it should have been found. The numbers on it were consistent with the numbers of the pages before and after. And the reason I mentioned this is was the government's initial reaction was, so that's a fake letter. It's a legitimate letter. It passed muster on every aspect of of what we're talking about here. It was used in 1978 and it was used in 1991 in Russell's book, Dick Russell's book. So it's not something I found and no one else has had -- it's been out there since '78. Yes, sir go ahead.

Matt Crumpton: So yeah, that the McCone-Rowley memo, like what you just laid out, that document sort of confirms all of these other things that you sort of already know. But to your point, it is, I would say disputed as a document. Now the reason it's disputed is two reasons, okay, and so I'd like to zoom in on that with you, if I can. One of those reasons is they asked the National Archives where it was. The National Archives said they can't find it. Well, on that reason, strike that out. That is not a good argument, because one of my friends, Canadian attorney Andrew Isler, who's an expert in the JFK Records Act, went to the National Archives looking for these final determination forms from the ARRB. And long story short, he was there for three days, and they couldn't find the thing that he asked for. But turns out it was in one of the boxes. It was labeled something different. So the fact that National Archives can't find something is meaningless in terms of ascertaining whether or not it exists. Their whole situation is a disaster. Also, there's a part of the ARRB that allowed agencies to turn documents over before the act was operational, and if they did that, then the documents would not be put in with the other JFK records. So so okay, that part of it is not an issue. The other part that people hang on as an argument, I just don't really know, is the it says, like, CO, like, there's some sort of numbering on in the top right corner. And say, that's not consistent with CIA numbering. I really don't know. But what I do know is there's someone else who worked on the HSCA. I'm not at liberty to say this person's name. You know this person.

Robert Tanenbaum: I have a tape from him. He found it, and he covered every issue, along with a Mr. Blunt, who was, who was regarded as the best of all the researchers. They before I ever would talk about it, I went through every aspect, including all of these numbers and so on and so forth. First of all, who would, who would lie about the content of this letter? It's another embarrassment of our government, because there are at least one, two, three, four areas where they knowingly lied and approvable, and I'll get to in a second. But go ahead, though, I think it's important to have this discussed and let out,

Matt Crumpton: Right. So so on this document, there's another person who basically told me, I know that the McCone-Rowley document is real because I was there and I saw it with my own eyes, and I obtained a copy of it for myself. And I don't want to go on the record, because I could be held, you know, criminally liable because of that. And so my question is, did you see it with your own eyes at the HSCA, or you came across it later?

Robert Tanenbaum: Oh, no, no, I did not see it with my own eyes. I was, it was described to me in accuracy. I said, explain to me how you would know it was real or not real. And they went through this with me, and they talked about all the numbers. These are serious people here. These people had nothing else to do when they found the document and if it was a phony and it just so happens to be a major admission by the head of the CIA.

This is a remarkable conversation. Notice that both Crumpton and Tanenbaum refuse to name names. Who told Crumpton the document is real? Why would that person be criminally liable? Perhaps that person wants to remain anonymous because of the embarrassment associated with the document.

Tanenbaum says he has a tape from the person who found the document. Well, who was it? He won't say. Even James DiEugenio admits that the document is phony.

I am surprised that Matt Crumpton hasn't figured out that the document is fake. He tries a little too hard to dismiss the fact that the National Archives searched for the document back in 2004 and couldn't find it. Yes, they might have missed it, but had it really existed, they probably would have found it. After all, it did have a document number - but, as the Archives found out, that number pointed to another document.

Another podcast with Robert Groden and Robert Tanenbaum discusses the document:

Here is an excerpt from a transcript: (1:39:37)

Robert Groden: But he had something, and I have it now, and you mentioned it before -- that's the smoking, why we call the smoking gun document. It's the McCone-Rowley document. This was his copy of it. This particular copy of it was said to be destroyed by the House Committee years after he left and about a week before I left.

Mark Groubert: Whose copy was it?

Robert Groden: It was the HS. I'm sorry, it was the HSCA, the House Assassinations Committee.

Mark Groubert: Okay.

Robert Groden: And this, that's the document. This is -- the copy that you're seeing here is the clear copy that I published in in my book, Absolute Proof. Bob also has it in his book, That Day in Dallas. It's perhaps the single most important document in the entire case. It blows the whistle on everything -- it gives you the who, what, where and why about Oswald and the CIA and Bob had it. Thank God he had it, because I have it too. I have two copies of it. One was sent by mail to me. The other one I got was given to me by the HSCA.

Mark Groubert: But, where do you think it came from, Bob?

Robert Groden: I think, I think it's legitimate. I think it's totally ...

Mark Groubert: No, no. I'm saying who gave it to you? In the mail, or the HSCA?

Robert Groden: Somebody, somebody at the HSCA. I was there at a Christmas party before they closed their doors, and I noticed that there was a door open to a closet,

Mark Groubert: Yeah.

Robert Groden: And there's a whole bunch of photographic stuff in there. And I asked this, can I have a look? Is any of this of mine? And he said, "yeah, help yourself. Take what you want." So, I took two things. I took I took the large exhibits that I had created for the Committee, which were shown in the hearings, and I took a file that said Lee Harvey Oswald. In that file was their copy of this. They did have it. And it was used in a book, you mentioned before Bob about The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Mark Groubert: Oh, the Dick Russell book -- but only in the first edition, I think. It was in 1991 right?

Robert Groden: But the thing is, when he first used it, he only quoted parts of it verbatim.

Mark Groubert: This is Dick Russell.

Robert Groden: Nothing of real importance.

Mark Groubert: You're talking about Dick Russell's book, The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Robert Groden: The copy that he saw was in the National Archives, and I have a feeling it was strongly redacted. Otherwise he would have used that stuff too.

Mark Groubert: In the second edition you're talking about. It doesn't have it in the second edition, it's in the first, right?

Robert Groden: Right. Yeah, that's correct, but it's very, very important. If somebody has either of our books, please look it up and read it very carefully and understand that it was simply a memorandum between one man and another, it is not an official document and does not have an official form -- of one of the things that they they talked about, It was Oswald's clearances, his security clearances. They lied about it. He was above top secret.

Mark Groubert: What is above top, what is above top secret? There's another level?

Robert Groden: At least two levels above it. One of them is crypto.

So, Robert Groden found the document in a closet. Really? The HSCA left a file on Lee Harvey Oswald in a closet and Groden took the file. Someone also sent him the file, but he doesn't say who.

Groden also brings up the factoid that Oswald had a 'crypto' clearance.

Here is a link to the document without Groden's yellow highlighting:

Groden's book, Absolute Proof, provides some information about the document: (page 7)

While the document is an HSCA document, Groden believes this Church Committee cover letter is associated with it: (page 8)

There is nothing in this cover letter that indicates it has anything to do with the McCone-Rowley memo.

Groden has a section in his book entitled, "Authenticating the Smoking Gun," (page 11) in which he notes that Dick Russell discussed the McCone-Rowley memo in his book, The Man Who Knew Too Much: (page 675)

Now, in the video above, Groden says that Russell must have had a heavily-redacted copy because he only quotes part of the memo. However, Russell didn't have the document at all -- he was quoting from an article in a monthly tabloid newspaper, Modern People.

The article was entitled "Oswald Was Brainwashed" by James L. Moore, and it contained the quote that Russell used in his book.

Researcher Gary Buell wrote:

Dick Russell, on p. 675 of his book The Man Who Knew Too Much quotes from a memo dated March 3, 1964 from CIA Director McCone to Secret Service Chief James Rowley. He says this document is "on record in the National Archives". He quotes that Oswald might have been "chemically or electronically 'controlled'...a sleeper agent. Subject spent 11 days hospitalized for a 'minor ailment' which should have required no more than three days hospitalization at best." He footnotes this with #11. Footnote #11 in the back of the book seems unrelated. This is apparently an error in the book. Footnote #10 however references an article published in the tabloid Modern People "Oswald Was Brainwashed" by James L. Moore. This article, which Dick was kind enough to send me, is apparently the actual source for the McCone-Rowley memo, which must now be considered to be questionable, lacking any independent evidence for the existence of the memo beyond a tabloid article.

The Modern People article contains further quotes from this alleged memo, of a sensational nature. I quote: "Oswald... was trained by this agency, under cover of the Office of Naval Intelligence, for Soviet assignments. In 197, subject (Oswald) was active in aerial reconnaissance of mainland China and maintained a security clearance up to the 'confidential' level. "While in the Soviet Union, he was on special assignment in the area of Minsk. It would not be advantageous at this time divulge the specifics of that assignment. Speculation within this agency--and this is only speculation at this point--is that Oswald became unstable following surgery April 1, 1961, in the Minsk Hospital."

This is followed by the "sleeper agent" passage that Russell quotes. I have been unable to find any reference to this memo that does not track back either to Dick Russell or Modern People. James L. Moore has made other claims that --while they could be true--cannot be verified. He claimed possession of a secret 350 page report on RHIC-EDOM. He has also claimed to be the real author of the Skeleton Key to the Gemstone Files, generally believed to be authored by Stephanie Caruana.

Subsequently, I obtained a scanned copy of the document from Jim Moore. He says he got it from a Tennessee FBI man and does not vouch for its authenticity. I emailed copies of this document to Debra Conway and Dick Russell, both of whom are skeptical, as I am.

By the way, I asked Moore about the Confidential stamp. He says it was not on the original document. He added it, as he said he did to other material in his office at the tabloid, I suppose to say hands-off to his office mates.

Moore claimed he was the author of a skeleton key to the gemstone file, another absurd and infamous fraud.

You can read a letter that Jim Moore wrote about the document here.

Russell dropped the reference to the McCone-Rowley memo in the second edition of The Man Who Knew Too Much. He probably realized it was not legit.

It is absolutely astounding to see Tanenbaum and Groden insist that the McCone-Rowley memo is legitimate. In fact, Groden just presented on the memo in the U.K.:

And I see that both Groden and Tanenbaum are scheduled to speak at this year's JFK Lancer conference in Dallas in November. I wonder if they will face any serious questions.