Spartacus Educational Bio on CIA's David Atlee Phillips, a man who admitted to his brother just before he died that he was involved in the JFK assassination - https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKphillips.htm
David Atlee Phillips on Lee Harvey Oswald
and his supposed Mexico City trip:
(My take: I believe Oswald was in Mexico
City, and I think Phillips is covering up his connection to Oswald)
CIA Mexico City David Atlee Phillips: "- when the record comes out, we will find that
there was never a photograph taken of Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City. We will
find out that Lee Harvey Oswald never visited, let me put it, that is a
categorical statement, there, there, we will find out there is no evidence,
first of all there was no proof of that. Second there is no evidence to show
that Lee Harvey Oswald visited the Soviet Embassy." [1987 CA
debate, quoted in Mark Lane’s Plausible Denial.]
From “The Night Watch; 25 Years of Peculiar Service”, David Atlee
Phillips :
"Tomorrow morning, gentlemen," Dulles said, "we will go to the
White House to brief the President. Let's run over your presentations." It
was a warm summer night. We drank iced tea as we sat around a garden table in
Dulles' back yard. The lighted shaft of the Washington Monument could be seen
through the trees. . . .
Finally Brad (Colonel Albert Haney) rehearsed his speech. When he finished
Alien Dulles said, "Brad, I've never heard such crap." It was the
nearest thing to an expletive I ever heard Dulles use. The Director turned to
me "They tell me you know how to write. Work out a new speech for Brad...
We went to the White House in the morning. Gathered in the theater in the East
Wing were more notables than I had ever seen: the President, his Joint Chiefs
of Staff, the Secretary of State - Alien Dulles's brother, Foster - the
Attorney General, and perhaps two dozen other members of the President's
Cabinet and household staff....
The lights were turned off while Brad used slides during his report. A door
opened near me. In the darkness I could see only a silhouette of the person
entering the room; when the door closed it was dark again, and I could not make
out the features of the man standing next to me. He whispered a number of
questions: "Who is that? Who made that decision?"
I was vaguely uncomfortable. The questions from the unknown man next to me were
very insistent, furtive. Brad finished and the lights went up. The man moved
away. He was Richard Nixon, the Vice President.
Eisenhower's
first question was to Hector (Rip Robertson): "How many men did Castillo
Armas lose?" Hector (Rip Robertson) said only one, a courier... .
Eisenhower shook his head, perhaps thinking of the thousands who had died in
France. "Incredible..."
Nixon
asked a number of questions, concise and to the point, and demonstrated a
thorough knowledge of the Guatemalan political situation. He was impressive -
not at all the disturbing man he was in the shadows.
Eisenhower turned to his Chief of the Joint Chiefs. "What about the
Russians? Any reaction?"
General Ridgeway answered. "They don't seem to be up to anything. But the
navy is watching a Soviet sub in the area; it could be there to evacuate some
of Arbenz's friends, or to supply arms to any resisters."
Eisenhower shook hands all around. "Great," he said to Brad,
"that was a good briefing." Hector and I smiled at each other as Brad
flushed with pleasure.
The
President's final handshake was with Allen Dulles. "Thanks Allen, and
thanks to all of you.
You've averted a Soviet beachhead in our hemisphere." Eisenhower spoke to
his Chief of Naval Operations "Watch that sub. Admiral. If it gets near
the coast of Guatemala we'll sink the son-of-a-bitch. ' The President
strode from the room.
CIA David Atlee
Phillips: "My final take on the assassination is there was a conspiracy,
likely including American intelligence officers."
David Atlee Phillips, just before
his death, to Kevin Walsh, an investigator with the HSCA. Phillips died in
July, 1988. Source: Larry Hancock, the author of Someone Would have Talked.
Phillips: “My
private opinion is that JFK was done in by a conspiracy, likely including
American intelligence officers.”
Said to Kevin Walsh, former
HSCA staffer who later became a private detective. Phillips comment was made in
July, 1986
[Larry Hancock, Someone Would Have Talked, p. 152]
Larry Hancock
comment on the David Phillips comments and his conversations with Shawn
Phillips, the nephew of David Phillips – posted on Education Forum 8/27/2023
https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/29563-larry-hancock-and-david-attlee-phillips/
Larry Hancock:
QUOTE
OK Eddy, you certainly
have my attention...grin. Actually this discussion raises the opportunity
for some remarks about attribution and context that should be considered first
in these discussions.
First off, Phillips
remark to the committee staffer was made casually, he appears to have had a
good relationship with Walsh and Phillips was never shy about expressing an
opinion. We don't know the exact context of that remark but we do know
that the source, the date and we have a quote to work with. We also know
that during the HSCA period Phillips was working on a manuscript (fictional)
which would also have connected an Oswald operation to the CIA. Its pure
speculation, but his remark, the manuscript etc could have been attempts to
shift attention from him personally and towards CIA activities going on around
Oswald - something there is good reason to suspect that Phillips would have
known about.
Given that Phillips
actually wrote more books than Night Watch and that he put in the statement
that Oswald did take a money to kill JFK from the Cubans in the Consulate (the
story he and the MC station pushed days after the assassination) we can probably
assume he knew enough about bogus stories in MC and the cover up of a variety
of actions against the Cubans and the diplomatic facilities to be aware that
some games were in play during the period of Oswald's appearance there - but
that he also realized there were things going on he didn't understand, and
which were suspicious.
Its also important to
remember that Phillips actually called out David Morales (by nick name not true
name) as a really badass dirty actions operator (which is interesting since
Phillips did not have that much personal contact with Morales and against the
fact that Morales was in staff positions, not normally in back alleys -
regardless of being a badass), Morales got so upset he went to the CIA and
wanted to charge Phillips with violating his privacy (Phillips had even
directed a reporter to him) and there was no love lost between the two at that
point. Which might imply that Phillips had some suspicion of Morales -
interesting because one of their few operational linkages had to do with a
mission to bring Castro's sister out of Cuba on November 22, something which
aborted but something that did involve both Morales and Sforza.
On the second point
related to attribution and context, the remark was second hand from Phillip's
nephew (who I did communicate with on multiple occasions) so context there is
important. This was a death bed event where Phillips was literally dying
and all his brother had to say to him was to ask him about JFK...and he didn't
even ask him that outright, as I understand it he asked his brother if David
had been in Dallas. And David refused to answer him. Personally at
that point if I am dying and all my brother has to say is that- well I suspect
I would hang up (well perhaps there would be other words but not about Dallas).
So from the context its always been hard for me to see that as a
confession.
Hope some of that helps
the discussion, Larry
UNQUOTE
Excellent
Paul Bleau PDF file on the links of David Atlee Phillips to the JFK
assassination:
Web link: https://www.kennedysandking.com/images/2018/bleau-mechanism/bleau-phillips.pdf
David Atlee
Phillips – excellent Spartacus bio: https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKphillips.htm
A dying David Atlee
Phillips admitted to his brother Jim that he had been in Dallas on 11/22/63
What he is really admitting to is
involvement in the JFK assassination.
Shawn
Phillips is the nephew of David Atlee Phillips and the son of James Atlee
Phillips:
Email from Shawn Phillips to Gary Buell in
January, 2003:
The
"Confession", you refer to was not in so many words as such. I cannot
remember the time frames involved, but this was what was told to me by my father, James
Atlee Phillips, who is deceased. He said that David had called him with
reference to his (Davids), invitation to a dinner, by a man who was purportedly
writing a book on the CIA. At this dinner, was also present a man who was
identified only as the "Driver". David told Jim that he knew the man
was there to identify him as Raul Salcedo, whose name you should be familiar
with, if your research is accurate in this matter. David then told Jim that he
had written a letter to the various media, as a "Preemptive Strike" ,
against any and all allegations about his involvement in the JFK assassination.
Jim knew
that David was the head of the "Retired Intelligence Officers of the
CIA", or some such organization, and that he was extremely critical of
JFK, and his policies. Jim knew at that point, that David was in some way,
seriously involved in this matter and he and David argued rather vehemently,
resulting in a silent hiatus between them that lasted almost six years according
to Jim. Finally, as David was dying of irreversible lung cancer, he called Jim
and there was apparently no reconciliation between them, as Jim asked David
pointedly, "Were
you in Dallas on that day"? David said, "Yes", and Jim hung the
phone up.
Web Link: http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=4681
Shawn
Phillips is a musician. This is his website: http://www.shawnphillips.com
His family
tie to David Atlee Phillips is explained here: http://www.shawnphillips.com/james.html
Internet Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/19991014015111/http://www.shawnphillips.com/james.html
David Atlee Phillips in his book Secret Wars Diary
(1989), in a footnote:
“I was an observer of Cuban and Soviet reaction when Lee Harvey Oswald
contacted their embassies.” David Atlee Phillips died on July 7, 1988.
David Atlee
Phillips wrote some extremely interesting “fiction” about Lee Harvey Oswald –
see the excellent blog post by Peter McLachlin
https://peter-mclachlin.livejournal.com/22594.html
- Very good blog post by Peter McLachlin (9-9-2008) on David Atlee
Phillips and E. Howard Hunt
Peter McLachlin
QUOTE
For this sentence alone
Philip Atlee deserves an enduring spot in the annals of American pulp
fiction:
"My
rectal sphincter throbbed again, all I needed, and I said 'nuts to you' and
locked my bowels."
—
Philip Atlee, The Fer-De-Lance Contract
James
Atlee Phillips (pen name Philip Atlee) whose "Contract" series of
books was comprised of 22 novels about counter-intelligence agent Joe Gall.
Gall, a so-called "nullifier," is sent by a secretive U.S. government
agency to trouble spots around the globe in order to solve—that is, erase—the
problem. Somewhat surprisingly, Raymond Chandler wrote of him: "I admire
Philip Atlee's writing enormously, the hard economy of style, the
characterisations, and the interesting and varied backgrounds."
But there are reasons outside of his writing that make it worth
remembering Philip Atlee. For starters, there was more than one pulp novelist
in the Atlee Philips family. James Atlee Phillips was the brother of
well-known CIA officer David Atlee Phillips, long-rumoured to be an organizing
force behind the assassination of JFK.
In 1978, David Atlee Phillips published a novel about political assassins
entitled The Carlos Contract: A Novel of International Terrorism. And
then things get more interesting... here are a couple of tantalizing quotes
from the Web page http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKphillips.htm:
First,
David Atlee Phillips, who died of cancer on July 7, 1988, left behind an
unpublished manuscript entitled The AMLASH Legacy, a novel about a CIA officer working
at the Mexico City station in 1963. From the novel:
I
was one of the two case officers who handled Lee Harvey Oswald. After working
to establish his Marxist bona fides, we gave him the mission of killing Fidel
Castro in Cuba. I helped him when he came to Mexico City to obtain a visa, and
when he returned to Dallas to wait for it I saw him twice there. We rehearsed
the plan many times: In Havana Oswald was to assassinate Castro with a sniper's
rifle from the upper floor window of a building on the route where Castro often
drove in an open jeep. Whether Oswald was a double-agent or a psycho I'm not
sure, and I don't know why he killed Kennedy. But I do know he used precisely
the plan we had devised against Castro. Thus the CIA did not anticipate the
President's assassination but it was responsible for it. I share that guilt.
There’s also a January, 2003 e-mail by James
Atlee Phillips’ son (the folk rock singer Shawn Phillips) to JFK assassination
researcher Gary Buell:
The
"Confession", you refer to was not in so many words as such. I cannot
remember the time frames involved, but this was what was told to me by my
father, James Atlee Phillips, who is deceased. He said that David had called
him with reference to his (Davids), invitation to a dinner, by a man who was
purportedly writing a book on the CIA. At this dinner, was also present a man
who was identified only as the "Driver". David told Jim that he knew
the man was there to identify him as Raul Salcedo, whose name you should be
familiar with, if your research is accurate in this matter. David then told Jim
that he had written a letter to the various media, as a "Preemptive
Strike," against any and all allegations about his involvement in the JFK
assassination. Jim knew that David was the head of the "Retired
Intelligence Officers of the CIA", or some such organization, and that he
was extremely critical of JFK, and his policies. Jim knew at that point, that
David was in some way, seriously involved in this matter and he and David
argued rather vehemently, resulting in a silent hiatus between them that lasted
almost six years according to Jim. Finally, as David was dying of irreversible
lung cancer, he called Jim and there was apparently no reconciliation between
them, as Jim asked David pointedly, "Were you in Dallas on that day"?
David said, "Yes", and Jim hung the phone up.
The final word on pulp fiction, the CIA and JFK’s murder must make mention of
E. Howard Hunt, CIA operative and Watergate “plumber,” who was undoubtedly the
greatest writer of pulps (47 novels under his own name and a number of pen
names) of any government agency, ever. In January 2007, while on his deathbed,
Hunt allegedly confessed to having extensive foreknowledge of the JFK
assassination, implicating Lyndon Johnson and the CIA.
Here’s
an excerpt from William F. Buckley’s obituary of Hunt:
I remember with sad amusement an earlier experience of Hunt's with
the law, this time involving his novels. Allen Dulles, then head of CIA, called
him in one day and said, Howard, I know the rules are that this office has to
clear all manuscripts by our agents. But you write so many, you're wearing us
out. So go ahead and publish your books without our clearance, but use a
pseudonym.
Hunt handed me his latest book, "Catch Me in Zanzibar,"
by Gordon Davis. I leafed through it and found printed on the last page,
"You have just finished another novel by Howard Hunt." I thought this
hilarious. So did Howard. The reaction of Allen Dulles is not recorded.
In
a 2004 audio recording Hunt named fellow pulp novelist David Phillips as a
participant in the JFK assassination:
I
heard from Frank [Sturgis] that LBJ had designated Cord Meyer, Jr. to undertake
a larger organization while keeping it totally secret. Cord Meyer himself was a
rather favored member of the Eastern aristocracy. He was a graduate of Yale
University and had joined the Marine Corps during the war and lost an eye in
the Pacific fighting.
I
think that LBJ settled on Meyer as an opportunist like himself and a man who
had very little left to him in life ever since JFK had taken Cord's wife as one
of his mistresses. I would suggest that Cord Meyer welcomed the approach from
LBJ, who was after all only the Vice President at that time and of course could
not number Cord Meyer among JFK's admirers—quite the contrary.
As
for Dave Phillips, I knew him pretty well at one time. He worked for me during
the Guatemala project. He had made himself useful to the agency in Santiago,
Chile where he was an American businessman. In any case, his actions, whatever
they were, came to the attention of the Santiago station chief and when his
resume became known to people in the Western hemisphere division he was brought
in to work on Guatemalan operations.
Sturgis
and Morales and people of that ilk stayed in apartment houses during
preparations for the big event. Their addresses were very subject to change, so
that where a fellow like Morales had been one day, you'd not necessarily
associated [sic] with that address the following day. In short, it was a
very mobile experience.
Let
me point out at this point, that if I had wanted to fictionalize what went on
in Miami and elsewhere during the run up for the big event, I would have done
so. But I don't want any unreality to tinge this particular story, or the
information, I should say. I was a benchwarmer on it and I had a reputation for
honesty.
I
think it's essential to refocus on what this information that I've been
providing you — and you alone, by the way — consists of. What is important in
the story is that we've backtracked the chain of command up through Cord Meyer
and laying [sic] the doings at the doorstep of LBJ. He, in my opinion,
had an almost maniacal urge to become President. He regarded JFK, as he was in
fact, an obstacle to achieving that. He could have waited for JFK to finish out
his term and then undoubtedly a second term. So that would have put LBJ at the
head of a long list of people who were waiting for some change in the executive
branch.
One can’t help wondering if these dead pulp
novelists would have proven to be less dangerous if they had had less of the
pulp novelistic imagination in them: history could have been significant;y
different but for these CIA officers and operatives adhering to
a "boy’s own adventures" credo of live by the pulps, die by
the pulps. It seems fitting that Hunt may one day be best remembered through
the portrayal of him by one of JFK's greatest admirers, Norman Mailer, in
his 1991 novel Harlot's Ghost.
Some of E. Howard Hunt’s book covers:
UNQUOTE
Web link http://jfkfacts.org/assassination/experts/phil-shenons-cruel-shocking-misinterpreation/#more-19123
“I was one of the two case
officers who handled Lee Harvey Oswald. After working to establish his Marxist
bona fides, we gave him the mission of killing Fidel Castro in Cuba. I helped
him when he came to Mexico City to obtain a visa, and when he returned to
Dallas to wait for it I saw him twice there. We rehearsed the plan many times:
In Havana Oswald was to assassinate Castro with a sniper's rifle from the upper
floor window of a building on the route where Castro often drove in an open
jeep. Whether Oswald was a double-agent or a psycho I'm not sure, and I don't
know why he killed Kennedy. But I do know he used precisely the plan we had
devised against Castro. Thus the CIA did not anticipate the President's
assassination but it was responsible for it. I share that guilt.”
- David Atlee Phillips, 'The AMLASH
Legacy'. A Novel by David Atlee Phillips. [David Atlee Phillips was a Central
Intelligence Agency officer of 25 years and a recipient of the Career
Intelligence Medal. Phillips rose to become the CIA's chief of operations for
the Western hemisphere]
Dan Ryan email
(8-14-2022) to Robert Morrow on the topic of David Atlee Phillips chain smoking
while giving HSCA testimony to Richard Sprague
QUOTE
Good day Robert,
Sometime ago I mentioned that
David Atlee Phillips had smoked 3 cigarettes whilst under cross examination
by relentless Sprague, who hunted down the CIA. You asked for proof,
quite rightly.
Now I have it.
Book: The Kennedy Conspiracy,
Anthony Summers
Page 511
“When David Philips testified
under oath to the Assassinations Committee, he denied ever having used the name Bishop and
said he had never heard the name used by a CIA employee, His testimony did not
convince his audience. Phillips
reacted to unexpected questions by lighting a second cigarette, moments after
his first. On one occasion, lit a third while the first two smouldered in the
ashtray. Most seriously Phillips gave contradictory and inaccurate testimony”.
My notes, “soon after Blakey
dismissed Sprague under pressure from the CIA.”
Kind regards,
Dan
UNQUOTE
CIA media asset Hugh Aynesworth denied to Robert Morrow on Oct. 26,
2013 that he had any relationship with CIA David Atlee Phillips
I spoke
to Hugh Aynesworth yesterday (10/26/13) at the Texas Book Festival in Austin,
TX. In the Q&A I asked Hugh specifically about:
the CIA report written on October 10, 1963 when J. Walton Moore,
the head of the Dallas CIA Domestic Contacts Division reported to the Chief of
the Contact Division on “the possibility of Hugh Grant Aynesworth making a trip
to Cuba.”[4]
I read that passage and then asked Aynesworth if he had ever been a CIA media
asset, had he ever received any money or compensation from the CIA.
Aynesworth said that he had been to Cuba in 1962, and that is
expertise was covering the military and that in order to get to Cuba then one
had to go through the Czechoslovakian embassy. He said that he got a call from some CIA guy named
"Walton Moore" who offered to help out and because Aynesworth was
expert on military affairs could he see what the Cubans had as far as military
capacity, count things etc.
Aynesworth said that he had never received any money or
compensation at all from the CIA.
Later, as he signed my book, I asked Aynesworth if he had ever had any conversations
with the CIA's David Atlee Phillips. He said he had never talked to David Atlee
Phillips, had not met him, did not have any relationship with David Atlee
Phillips.
Our History
During the 1970s the Intelligence
Community was buffeted by a number of leaks and revelations, culminating in the
Church and Pike Congressional investigations. CIA officer David Atlee Phillips took early retirement
in 1975 to respond to the growing sentiment that the CIA was a “rogue
elephant.” As part of this effort, Phillips founded this organization, known
then as the Association of Retired Intelligence Officers (ARIO).
Although much attacked at the time when many people called for the
dismantlement of the CIA, Phillips toured the world to speak out in favor of
the need for a strong intelligence community. He was subsequently personally accused of being a
participant in the Kennedy and Letelier assassinations. He successfully
sued several publications for libel, retractions were issued and monetary
damages awarded. Phillips donated some of these proceeds to ARIO for the
purpose of creating a legal defense fund for American intelligence officers who
felt they were the victims of libel. This defense focus was later moved to a
separate group called Charter, which disbanded in the early 1980s, and AFIO's
focus narrowed to public education within its 501(c)3 charter.
The first ARIO convention was held
in September 1975, and the organization defined its purpose to explain to the
nation the function of intelligence and what intelligence officers can and
cannot do. From the very beginning it sought to reach out to teachers and
students across the country as well as to the media, through publications, such
as Periscope and through periodic luncheons. These early efforts have
grown into the robust academic outreach and support programs present today,
including scholarships, civic outreach, a variety of print and online
publications and media fora, an annual symposium as well as the quarterly
luncheons featuring senior officials from the Intelligence and Policy
Communities, authors and media representatives.
In 1978 the name of the
organization was changed to Association of Former Intelligence Officers to
reflect a pool of members who were not necessarily retired, which widened the
pool of eligible members and reflects the current dynamic membership. From its inception in Dave
Phillips’ living room and a few hundred members in 1975, AFIO has grown to over
5000 members, with 24 active chapters across the United States.
AFIO is more than a professional or
fraternal organization. Its distinguishing mission is educational...to reach
out to the public and explain what intelligence organizations do, and to build
a nation-wide constituency for intelligence as a profession. In many ways, AFIO
is the public face of the Intelligence Community.
CIA David Atlee Phillips told former HSCA investigator Kevin Walsh that the JFK assassination “was a conspiracy, likely including American intelligence officers”
Web
link https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKphillips.htm
QUOTE
According to Larry Hancock, the author of Someone Would Have Talked, just before his
death Phillips told Kevin Walsh, an investigator with the House Select Committee on Assassinations: "My final take on the assassination
is there was a conspiracy, likely including American intelligence
officers." (Some books wrongly quote Phillips as saying: "My private
opinion is that JFK was done in by a conspiracy, likely including rogue
American intelligence people.")
UNQUOTE
Unpublished
Novel by CIA David Atlee Phillips had this revealing nugget about the CIA and
Lee Harvey Oswald
QUOTE
When
he died on 7th July, 1988, Phillips left behind an unpublished
manuscript. The novel is about a CIA officer who lived in Mexico City. In the novel the character
states: “I was one of those officers who handled Lee Harvey Oswald… We gave him
the mission of killing Fidel Castro in Cuba… I don’t know why he killed
Kennedy. But I do know he used precisely the plan we had devised against Castro. Thus the CIA did not
anticipate the president’s assassination, but it was responsible for it. I
share that guilt.”
[Here
is a footnote: https://spartacus-educational.com/JFKphillips.htm
]
Alpha 66 Leader Antonio Veciana stated that his
CIA contact Maurice Bishop was in fact David Atlee Phillips
UNQUOTE
Antonio
Veciana on Nov. 22, 2013
QUOTE
Dear
Marie Fonzi:
You may publish the
following statement from me:
“Maurice Bishop, my
CIA contact was David Atlee Phillips. Phillips or Bishop was the man I saw with
Lee Harvey Oswald in Dallas on September 1963.”
Best
Regards,
Antonio
Veciana
UNQUOTE
- David Atlee
Phillips AKA Michael
C. Choaden AKA Maurice Bishop (Operación 40
assassin/ Fair Play For Cuba Committee infiltration commander/ Deputy
Chief of Cuban Covert Operations, CIA Mexico City Station/ CIA liaison,
Dirección Federal de Seguridad/ CIA liaison, Project LIHUFF)
Clifton C. Carter