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PENN JONES T H E CONTINUING INQUIRY VOLUME V, NUMBER 5 DECEMBER 22, 1980 1 Z\\c XlalliiB ^Horning ^'pta» Monday, December 8,1980 After 17 years of silence, FBI Oswald agent speaks up The FBI agent responsible for moni-toring Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas has remained silent since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy n years ago. Now he has decided to tell his side of what happened "because one of these days they are going to have to face up and tell the public the truth." By EARL GOLZ ^Tbe DalUi MoratOK Ncwi. I9m Documents referring to Lee Harvey'Oswald's trip to Mexico City, where he met with a Soviet agent for assassination and sabotage two months before President John F. Kennedy's death, were secretly removed by the FBI from Oswald's internal security file in Dallas hours after Kennedy was shot, says the agent who monitored Oswald's activities in Dallas. A file of the FBI's pre-assassina-tion investigation showed Oswald met with Valeriy V, Kostikov in the Soviet embassy in Mexico City less than two months before the assassination, former FBI agent James P. Hosty Jr. said. But nothing he saw at FBI headquarters or other bureau field offices before the assassination indicated Kostikov was a KGB agent responsible for assassination and sabotage, Hosty said. This is the bombshell Hosty said he would have dropped if the House Assassinations Committee had permitted him to testify in 1978. The Warren Commission in 1964 could not determine what happened at the meeting between Oswald and Kostikov because the CIA apparently did not know and still does not know. The Soviets were not about to tell — if they knew. "The true identity of the man (Kostikov) Oswald was in touch ji'ith was never given to me." Hosty said. "They just didn't want to dwell on that." Hosty learned of Kostikov's espionage work when an intelligence source tipped him three years after the assassination. Neither the FBI's domestic intelligence division, where Hosty was assigned, nor bureau headquarters "authorized an intelligence investigation into possible foreign complicity in the assassination," the House Assassinations Committee said last year. The FBI "failed to cooperate fully" with the Warren Commission and provided "misleading" and "incomplete" information, the panel said. Hosty's story bolsters reports FBI director J. Edgar Hoover became committed very early to defending the idea Oswald was a lone nut who shot the president. The loner theory insulated the FBI from criticism. Lone nuts are not within the purview of the FBI, but former defectors to Russia who deal undercover with the likes of Kostikov are. Hoover sent President Lyndon B. Johnson a background report on Oswald the day after the assassination, omitting reference to the FBI's security case against Oswald in Dallas. Three weeks later, the FBI submitted its report on the assassination, concluding Oswald was the assassin and acted alone. One day later. Hoover secretly censured 17 FBI supervisors and agents, including Hosty, for negligence in the surveillance of Oswald, whom Hoover said should have been placed on the FBI subversives security index. In 1964, the FBI gave the Warren Commission a summary of 69 items in Oswald's file in Washington. Only one Item mentioned Kostikov, "who functioned overtly as a consul in the Soviet embassy" in Mexico City and who also was "known to be a staff officer of the KGB." Kostikov was a member of the KGB's "thirteenth, or 'liquid affairs' department whose responsibilities include assassination and sabotage," the report said. Hoover told the Warren Commission 10 days later he had been "unable to find any scintilla of evidence showing any foreign conspiracy or any domestic conspiracy that culminated in the assassination of President Kennedy." Hoover "resented criticism to a degree greater than any other person that I have known," former Deputy Atty. Gen. Nicholas Katzenbach told the House Assassinations Committee in 1978. If the FBI "made any mistake .or anything for which the public could criticize the bureau, the bureau would do its best to conceal the Information from anybody," said Katzenbach, who was Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy's top aide at the time of the assassination. At least four Mexico City documents were removed from the Dallas file during the afternoon of the assassination, Hosty said. At least one of the items was checked out by his supervisor, Kenneth C. Howe, he said. They were taken without Hosty's knowledge from his workbox after he was instructed to attend Oswald's interrogation by Dallas police the afternoon of the assassination. Howe, retired and living in San Diego, Calif., said he has "no recollection of anything like that. "There was nothing taken out of his box as far as I was concerned except something I may have taken out as a supervisor which I was entitled to do," Howe said. "If I did so it certainly would be in connection with business and not surreptitiously." No evidence indicates the excised Dallas documents ever reached the Warren Commission, although Hosty said they were reinserted into the file after he testified five months later before the commission. By that time, possibility of the commission demanding to see the Dallas file had faded. One day after Hosty's testimony, Chief Justice Earl Warren urged other commission members to refrain from examining the FBI headquarters file on Oswald on the basis it contained classified material. The Warren Commission concluded Oswald traveled to Mexico City and visited the Soviet and Cuban embassies in an attempt to get a visa to Russia. One month after be returned from Merico — and 10 days before the assassination — he mailed a letter to the Soviet embassy in Washington recounting his efforts in Mexico City and noting he met "with comrade Kostin," who the CIA said •probably was Kostikov. In its 1964 report, the commission said Kostikov was a member of the Soviet consular staff in Mexico City and was "also one of the KGB officers stationed at the embassy. It is standard Soviet procedure that KGB officers be stationed in embassies and in consulates to carry on the normal duties (processing visas) of such a position in addition to undercover activities." That was all the Warren Report had to say about Kostikov. The Oswald letter, intercepted by the FBI, was "no more than a clumsy effort (by Oswald) to ingratiate himself with the Soviet embassy," the report said. . The commission indicated Oswald would not have been a candidate for Soviet intelligence work because of his extensive Marxist exposure in the United States. Investigators with the House Assassinations Committee,' however, have speculated Oswald's pro-Communist demonstrations made him ideal as a double agent for VS. intelligence. The CIA's handling of the Oswald case before the assassination "was deficient because CIA headquarters was not apprised of all information that its field (Mexico City) sources had" about Oswald, the house committee said. For example, the panel was unable to determine "whether Oswald had any associates in Mexico City," the committee report said. Hosty testified before the Warren Commission in May 1964 he "was quite interested in determining the nature of his (Oswald's) contact with the Soviet embassy in Mexico City, t
Object Description
Title | After 17 years of silence, FBI Oswald agent speaks up |
Volume No. | Vol. 5 |
Issue No. | No. 5 |
Date | 1980-12-22 |
Series | V. Personal – E. Publications – 1. The Continuing Inquiry |
Uniform Title | The Continuing Inquiry |
Digital Collection | Baylor Collection of Political Materials - JFK - Penn Jones Collections - Continuing Inquiry |
Custodian | Baylor University - W.R. Poage Legislative Library |
Identifier | 15p-jfkjones-ci-v5_1980-12-22 |
Physical Description | Newsletter |
Resource Type | Text |
Rights | http://www.baylor.edu/lib/digitization/digitalrights |
Language | English |
Format |
Description
Title | Page 1 |
Series | V. Personal – E. Publications – 1. The Continuing Inquiry |
Uniform Title | The Continuing Inquiry |
Digital Collection | Poage Library - JFK - Penn Jones Collection |
Custodian | Poage Legislative Library |
Physical Description | Newsletter |
Resource Type | Text |
Full Text | PENN JONES T H E CONTINUING INQUIRY VOLUME V, NUMBER 5 DECEMBER 22, 1980 1 Z\\c XlalliiB ^Horning ^'pta» Monday, December 8,1980 After 17 years of silence, FBI Oswald agent speaks up The FBI agent responsible for moni-toring Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas has remained silent since the assassination of President John F. Kennedy n years ago. Now he has decided to tell his side of what happened "because one of these days they are going to have to face up and tell the public the truth." By EARL GOLZ ^Tbe DalUi MoratOK Ncwi. I9m Documents referring to Lee Harvey'Oswald's trip to Mexico City, where he met with a Soviet agent for assassination and sabotage two months before President John F. Kennedy's death, were secretly removed by the FBI from Oswald's internal security file in Dallas hours after Kennedy was shot, says the agent who monitored Oswald's activities in Dallas. A file of the FBI's pre-assassina-tion investigation showed Oswald met with Valeriy V, Kostikov in the Soviet embassy in Mexico City less than two months before the assassination, former FBI agent James P. Hosty Jr. said. But nothing he saw at FBI headquarters or other bureau field offices before the assassination indicated Kostikov was a KGB agent responsible for assassination and sabotage, Hosty said. This is the bombshell Hosty said he would have dropped if the House Assassinations Committee had permitted him to testify in 1978. The Warren Commission in 1964 could not determine what happened at the meeting between Oswald and Kostikov because the CIA apparently did not know and still does not know. The Soviets were not about to tell — if they knew. "The true identity of the man (Kostikov) Oswald was in touch ji'ith was never given to me." Hosty said. "They just didn't want to dwell on that." Hosty learned of Kostikov's espionage work when an intelligence source tipped him three years after the assassination. Neither the FBI's domestic intelligence division, where Hosty was assigned, nor bureau headquarters "authorized an intelligence investigation into possible foreign complicity in the assassination," the House Assassinations Committee said last year. The FBI "failed to cooperate fully" with the Warren Commission and provided "misleading" and "incomplete" information, the panel said. Hosty's story bolsters reports FBI director J. Edgar Hoover became committed very early to defending the idea Oswald was a lone nut who shot the president. The loner theory insulated the FBI from criticism. Lone nuts are not within the purview of the FBI, but former defectors to Russia who deal undercover with the likes of Kostikov are. Hoover sent President Lyndon B. Johnson a background report on Oswald the day after the assassination, omitting reference to the FBI's security case against Oswald in Dallas. Three weeks later, the FBI submitted its report on the assassination, concluding Oswald was the assassin and acted alone. One day later. Hoover secretly censured 17 FBI supervisors and agents, including Hosty, for negligence in the surveillance of Oswald, whom Hoover said should have been placed on the FBI subversives security index. In 1964, the FBI gave the Warren Commission a summary of 69 items in Oswald's file in Washington. Only one Item mentioned Kostikov, "who functioned overtly as a consul in the Soviet embassy" in Mexico City and who also was "known to be a staff officer of the KGB." Kostikov was a member of the KGB's "thirteenth, or 'liquid affairs' department whose responsibilities include assassination and sabotage," the report said. Hoover told the Warren Commission 10 days later he had been "unable to find any scintilla of evidence showing any foreign conspiracy or any domestic conspiracy that culminated in the assassination of President Kennedy." Hoover "resented criticism to a degree greater than any other person that I have known," former Deputy Atty. Gen. Nicholas Katzenbach told the House Assassinations Committee in 1978. If the FBI "made any mistake .or anything for which the public could criticize the bureau, the bureau would do its best to conceal the Information from anybody," said Katzenbach, who was Atty. Gen. Robert Kennedy's top aide at the time of the assassination. At least four Mexico City documents were removed from the Dallas file during the afternoon of the assassination, Hosty said. At least one of the items was checked out by his supervisor, Kenneth C. Howe, he said. They were taken without Hosty's knowledge from his workbox after he was instructed to attend Oswald's interrogation by Dallas police the afternoon of the assassination. Howe, retired and living in San Diego, Calif., said he has "no recollection of anything like that. "There was nothing taken out of his box as far as I was concerned except something I may have taken out as a supervisor which I was entitled to do," Howe said. "If I did so it certainly would be in connection with business and not surreptitiously." No evidence indicates the excised Dallas documents ever reached the Warren Commission, although Hosty said they were reinserted into the file after he testified five months later before the commission. By that time, possibility of the commission demanding to see the Dallas file had faded. One day after Hosty's testimony, Chief Justice Earl Warren urged other commission members to refrain from examining the FBI headquarters file on Oswald on the basis it contained classified material. The Warren Commission concluded Oswald traveled to Mexico City and visited the Soviet and Cuban embassies in an attempt to get a visa to Russia. One month after be returned from Merico — and 10 days before the assassination — he mailed a letter to the Soviet embassy in Washington recounting his efforts in Mexico City and noting he met "with comrade Kostin," who the CIA said •probably was Kostikov. In its 1964 report, the commission said Kostikov was a member of the Soviet consular staff in Mexico City and was "also one of the KGB officers stationed at the embassy. It is standard Soviet procedure that KGB officers be stationed in embassies and in consulates to carry on the normal duties (processing visas) of such a position in addition to undercover activities." That was all the Warren Report had to say about Kostikov. The Oswald letter, intercepted by the FBI, was "no more than a clumsy effort (by Oswald) to ingratiate himself with the Soviet embassy," the report said. . The commission indicated Oswald would not have been a candidate for Soviet intelligence work because of his extensive Marxist exposure in the United States. Investigators with the House Assassinations Committee,' however, have speculated Oswald's pro-Communist demonstrations made him ideal as a double agent for VS. intelligence. The CIA's handling of the Oswald case before the assassination "was deficient because CIA headquarters was not apprised of all information that its field (Mexico City) sources had" about Oswald, the house committee said. For example, the panel was unable to determine "whether Oswald had any associates in Mexico City," the committee report said. Hosty testified before the Warren Commission in May 1964 he "was quite interested in determining the nature of his (Oswald's) contact with the Soviet embassy in Mexico City, t |
Rights | http://www.baylor.edu/lib/digitization/digitalrights |
Language | English |
Format |