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New York Post
07-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Shadowy CIA operative interacted with Lee Harvey Oswald months before JFK assassination, newly released docs show
A shadowy CIA operative specializing in psychological warfare interacted with Lee Harvey Oswald ahead of President John F. Kennedy's assassination — and then ran interference against congressional investigators probing whether the US spy agency was connected to the killing, newly disclosed documents show. CIA officer George Joannides assumed the alias 'Howard Gleber' in January 1963, and led an American effort to infiltrate anti-communist Cuban student groups in the year leading up to JFK's killing that November, according to government documents released Thursday and reviewed by Axios. Oswald, 23 at the time, got into a fight with members of one of those student groups — the DRE, an organization vehemently-opposed to dictator Fidel Castro's rule over Cuba — while he was handing out pro-communist leaflets in New Orleans nearly four months before the JFK assassination in Texas. 3 Lee Harvey Oswald was on the CIA's radar months before he shot JFK dead in Dallas in Nov. 1963. © Tom Dillard/Dallas Morning New That fight publicly exposed Oswald as a Castro-sympathizer — with news outlets covering a hearing that followed, and the soon-to-be killer later debating DRE members on a local television broadcast, according to Axios. A year before that exposure, the Pentagon was looking for excuses to attack Cuba — including plotting a false flag plan known as Operation Northwoods, which drew-up a fake assault on the US that would be blamed on the communist nation. Joannides was in charge of 'all aspects of political action and psychological warfare' at a Miami CIA office that funded the DRE when it encountered Oswald, and the name of a shadowy operative named 'Howard' who worked with the group has circulated in JFK assassination conspiracy theories and investigations for decades. But until Thursday's disclosure, the CIA has always maintained 'Howard' was not one of theirs — and Joannides himself even denied it point-blank until the day he died in 1990 after earning a Career Intelligence Medal. 3 JFK was shot in the head and killed as he drove through Dealy Plaza on November 22, 1963. Bettmann/CORBIS Joannides was assigned to be the CIA's liaison with the House Select Committee on Assassinations as it probed the president's murder in 1976, and he openly lied about the identity of 'Howard' when questioned. 'Joannides assured me that they could find no record of any such officer assigned to DRE, but that he would keep looking,' the House Committees chief counsel Robert Blakely testified in 2014, according to Axios. And a former investigator with the committee, Dan Hardway, testified in June that Joannides was behind a 'covert operation' to throw Congress off the CIA's trail. 'The cover story for Joannides is officially dead,' author and JFK assassination' expert Jefferson Morley told Axios. 'This is a big deal. The CIA is changing its tune on Lee Harvey Oswald.' Thursday's release is just the latest trove of information to emerge as the government works through a mandated disclosure of its files related to JFK's killing. 3 Oswald was fatally gunned down in public after he arrested for the assassination. AP The 1992 Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act decreed that all files would be released by 2017, but by 2018 there were still tens of thousands of documents withheld. President Biden released more in 2022, and in March President Trump released another trove. Previous releases have indicated the CIA knew more about Oswald than they told the public after the shooting, with documents disclosed in March showing 'three top CIA officials lied' to investigators about their knowledge of the assassin beforehand. The files on Joannides don't indicate why the CIA lied about his involvement with the DRE. '[The CIA] has fully complied and provided all documents — without redactions — related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy to NARA consistent with President Trump's direction in an unprecedented act of transparency by the agency,' a spokesperson for the agency told Axios.
Axios
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Axios
CIA admits shadowy officer monitored Oswald before JFK assassination, new records reveal
For the first time since President Kennedy's assassination nearly 62 years ago, the CIA has tacitly admitted that an officer specializing in psychological warfare ran an operation that came into contact with Lee Harvey Oswald before the Dallas killing. Why it matters: The disclosure Thursday — nestled in a batch of 40 documents concerning officer George Joannides — indicates the CIA lied for decades about his role in the Kennedy case before and after the assassination, according to experts on JFK's slaying. The linchpin document: A Jan. 17, 1963, CIA memo showing Joannides was directed to have an alias and fake driver's license bearing the name "Howard Gebler." Until Thursday, the agency had denied that Joannides was known as "Howard," the case officer name for the CIA contact who worked with activists from an anti-communist group opposed to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro called the Cuban Student Directorate. For decades, the agency also falsely said it had nothing to do with the student group, which was instrumental in having Oswald's pro-Castro stances published soon after the shooting. The bottom line: "The cover story for Joannides is officially dead," said Jefferson Morley, an author and expert on the assassination. "This is a big deal. The CIA is changing its tune on Lee Harvey Oswald." The information comes to light as part of President Trump's order that the government meet its obligations to disclose all documents under the JFK Records Act of 1992. Little was known of Joannides' involvement in the case until disclosures in 1998 under the records act. New disclosures of previously hidden records keep adding slices of information to the story. Zoom in: Joannides was the deputy chief of the CIA's Miami branch, overseeing "all aspects of political action and psychological warfare." That included covertly funding and directing the Cuban student group, commonly referred to as DRE for its Spanish-language initials. On Aug. 9, 1963, more than three months before Nov. 22 assassination, four DRE operatives got into a scuffle with Oswald in New Orleans when he was passing out pro-Castro "Fair Play for Cuba Committee" pamphlets. The subsequent court hearing was covered by local news media. On Aug. 21 , 1963, Oswald debated DRE activists on local TV, providing more media attention to him as a communist. After the assassination, DRE's newsletter identified Oswald as a pro-Castro communist, and the Miami Herald and Washington Post covered the story. A year before Oswald became known as pro-Castro, the Pentagon formulated a plan called Operation Northwoods to stage a false-flag attack in the United States, blame Cuba and then attack it. Zoom out: The new documents don't shed any additional light on Kennedy's shooting or settle the controversy over whether Oswald acted alone. Nor is there any evidence showing why the CIA covered up Joannides' ties to DRE. All the records disclosed so far show how the CIA lied about financing or being involved with DRE. That includes the agency's interactions with the Warren Commission (1964), the Church Committee (1975), the House Select Committee on Assassinations (1977-78) and the Assassination Review Board (until 1998). The intrigue: Joannides didn't just have knowledge of Oswald before the assassination — afterward he played a central role in deceiving the House Select Committee on Assassinations. At the time, the CIA appointed Joannides to be its liaison with the committee. But he and the agency hid the fact that he was involved with DRE and therefore the Kennedy case, slow-walked the CIA's production of records, and lied. The committee's chief counsel, Robert Blakey, testified in 2014 that he asked Joannides about "Howard" and DRE, and that "Joannides assured me that they could find no record of any such officer assigned to DRE, but that he would keep looking," Blakey said. A former committee investigator, Dan Hardway, testified before a House Oversight committee last month that Joannides was running a "covert operation" to undermine the congressional probe into the assassination. Two years after stonewalling the committee, Joannides was awarded the Career Intelligence Medal by the CIA in 1981. He died in 1990. What they're saying: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican overseeing the House committee examining the newly released JFK documents, said Joannides was "1,000 percent" involved in a CIA coverup. Morley and some others who've written extensively about Kennedy's assassination believe rogue CIA agents might have been involved in the killing, but Morley's not ready to say Joannides was one of them. Others, such as author Gerald Posner, believe Oswald was the lone gunman. But all are in agreement that the CIA acted in bad faith after Kennedy was killed. "It's vintage CIA. They never provide transparency. They don't tell the truth. They obscure. They obfuscate. And when the documents come out, they look bad," Posner said. A CIA spokesperson told Axios the agency "has fully complied and provided all documents — without redactions — related to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy to NARA consistent with President Trump's direction in an unprecedented act of transparency by the agency."
Axios
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Axios
CIA agent came across Oswald before JFK assassination, newly released document reveals
For the first time since President Kennedy's assassination nearly 62 years ago, the CIA has tacitly admitted that an agent specializing in psychological warfare ran an operation that came into contact with Lee Harvey Oswald before the Dallas assassination. Why it matters: The disclosure Thursday — nestled in a batch of 40 documents concerning agent George Joannides — indicates the CIA lied for decades about his role in the Kennedy case before and after the assassination, according to experts on JFK's slaying. The linchpin document: A Jan. 17, 1963, CIA memo showing Joannides was directed to have an alias and fake driver's license bearing the name "Howard Gebler." Until Thursday, the agency had denied that Joannides was known as "Howard," the case agent name for the CIA contact who worked with activists from an anti-communist group opposed to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro called the Cuban Student Directorate. For decades, the agency also falsely said it had nothing to do with the student group, which was instrumental in having Oswald's pro-Castro stances published soon after the shooting. The bottom line: "The cover story for Joannides is officially dead," said Jefferson Morley, an author and expert on the assassination. "This is a big deal. The CIA is changing its tune on Lee Harvey Oswald." The information comes to light as part of President Trump's order that the government meet its obligations to disclose all documents under the JFK Records Act of 1992. Little was known of Joannides' involvement in the case until disclosures in 1998 under the records act. New disclosures of previously hidden records keep adding slices of information to the story. Zoom in: Joannides was the deputy chief of the CIA's Miami branch, overseeing "all aspects of political action and psychological warfare." That included covertly funding and directing the Cuban student group, commonly referred to as DRE for its Spanish-language initials. On Aug. 9, 1963, more than three months before Nov. 22 assassination, four DRE operatives got into a scuffle with Oswald in New Orleans when he was passing out pro-Castro "Fair Play for Cuba Committee" pamphlets. The subsequent court hearing was covered by local news media. On Aug. 21 , 1963, Oswald debated DRE activists on local TV, providing more media attention to him as a communist. After the assassination, DRE's newsletter identified Oswald as a pro-Castro communist, and the Miami Herald and Washington Post covered the story. A year before Oswald became known as pro-Castro, the Pentagon formulated a plan called Operation Northwoods to stage a false-flag attack in the United States, blame Cuba and then attack it. Zoom out: The new documents don't shed any additional light on Kennedy's shooting or settle the controversy over whether Oswald acted alone. Nor is there any evidence showing why the CIA covered up Joannides' ties to DRE. All the records disclosed so far show how the CIA lied about financing or being involved with DRE. That includes the agency's interactions with the Warren Commission (1964), the Church Committee (1975), the House Select Committee on Assassinations (1977-78) and the Assassination Review Board (until 1998). The intrigue: Joannides didn't just have knowledge of Oswald before the assassination — afterward he played a central role in deceiving the House Select Committee on Assassinations. At the time, the CIA appointed Joannides to be its liaison with the committee. But he and the agency hid the fact that he was involved with DRE and therefore the Kennedy case, slow-walked the CIA's production of records, and lied. The committee's chief counsel, Robert Blakey, testified in 2014 that he asked Joannides about "Howard" and DRE, and that "Joannides assured me that they could find no record of any such officer assigned to DRE, but that he would keep looking," Blakey said. A former committee investigator, Dan Hardway, testified before a House Oversight committee last month that Joannides was running a "covert operation" to undermine the congressional probe into the assassination. Two years after stonewalling the committee, Joannides was awarded the Career Intelligence Medal by the CIA in 1981. He died in 1990. What they're saying: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican overseeing the House committee examining the newly released JFK documents, said Joannides was "1,000 percent" involved in a CIA coverup. Morley and some others who've written extensively about Kennedy's assassination believe rogue CIA agents might have been involved in the killing, but Morley's not ready to say Joannides was one of them. Others, such as author Gerald Posner, believe Oswald was the lone gunman. But all are in agreement that the CIA acted in bad faith after Kennedy was killed. "It's vintage CIA. They never provide transparency. They don't tell the truth. They obscure. They obfuscate. And when the documents come out, they look bad," Posner said.
