David Atlee Phillips 7/1/86 letter to Vincent Bugliosi. Phillips later admitted to his brother that he was involved in the JFK assassination

 

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

 

Hugh G. Aynesworth and the Assassination of JFK - Page 7 - JFK Assassination Debate - The Education Forum (ipbhost.com)

 

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.

The Association of Former Intelligence Officers (AFIO) was created by a man who was deeply involved in the JFK assassination: David Atlee Phillips https://www.afio.com/01_about.htm

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 7^th 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)