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In reply to the discussion: JFK Conference: Mark Lane Addressed the Secret Government’s Role in the Assassination [View all]Octafish
(55,745 posts)88. 'SPOOKS' MAKE LIFE MISERABLE FOR AMBASSADOR LODGE
As President Kennedy worked toward peace in Vietnam, someone was trying to keep a war going.
Here's the column from the guy on the scene that was quoted by Arthur Krock in The New York Times:
'SPOOKS' MAKE LIFE MISERABLE FOR AMBASSADOR LODGE
'Arrogant' CIA Disobeys Orders in Viet Nam
Richard Starnes
The Washington Daily News, Wednesday, October 2, 1963, p.3
SAIGON, Oct.2 - The story of the Central Intelligence Agency's role in South Viet Nam is a dismal chronicle of bureaucratic arrogance, obstinate disregard of orders, and unrestrained thirst for power.
Twice the CIA flatly refused to carry out instructions from Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, according to a high United States source here.
In one of these instances the CIA frustrated a plan of action Mr. Lodge brought with him from Washington because the agency disagreed with it.
This led to a dramatic confrontation between Mr. Lodge and John Richardson, chief of the huge CIA apparatus here. Mr. Lodge failed to move Mr. Richardson, and the dispute was bucked back to Washington. Secretary of State Dean Rusk and CIA Chief John A. McCone were unable to resolve the conflict, and the matter is now reported to be awaiting settlement by President Kennedy.
It is one of the developments expected to be covered in Defense Secretary Robert McNamara's report to Mr. Kennedy.
Others Critical, Too
Other American agencies here are incredibly bitter about the CIA.
"If the United States ever experiences a 'Seven Days in May' it will come from the CIA, and not from the Pentagon," one U.S. official commented caustically.
("Seven Days in May" is a fictional account of an attempted military coup to take over the U.S. Government.)
CIA "spooks" (a universal term for secret agents here) have penetrated every branch of the American community in Saigon, until non-spook Americans here almost seem to be suffering a CIA psychosis.
An American field officer with a distinguished combat career speaks angrily about "that man at headquarters in Saigon wearing a colonel's uniform." He means the man is a CIA agent, and he can't understand what he is doing at U.S. military headquarters here, unless it is spying on other Americans.
Another American officer, talking about the CIA, acidly commented: "You'd think they'd have learned something from Cuba but apparently they didn't."
Few Know CIA Strength
Few people other than Mr. Richardson and his close aides know the actual CIA strength here, but a widely used figure is 600. Many are clandestine agents known only to a few of their fellow spooks.
Even Mr. Richardson is a man about whom it is difficult to learn much in Saigon. He is said to be a former OSS officer, and to have served with distinction in the CIA in the Philippines.
A surprising number of the spooks are known to be involved in their ghostly trade and some make no secret of it.
"There are a number of spooks in the U.S. Information Service, in the U.S. Operations mission, in every aspect of American official and commercial life here, " one official - presumably a non-spook - said.
"They represent a tremendous power and total unaccountability to anyone," he added.
Coupled with the ubiquitous secret police of Ngo Dinh Nhu, a surfeit of spooks has given Saigon an oppressive police state atmosphere.
The Nhu-Richardson relationship is a subject of lively speculation. The CIA continues to pay the special forces which conducted brutal raids on Buddhist temples last Aug. 21, altho in fairness it should be pointed out that the CIA is paying these goons for the war against communist guerillas, not Buddhist bonzes (priests).
Hand Over Millions
Nevertheless, on the first of every month, the CIA dutifully hands over a quarter million American dollars to pay these special forces.
Whatever else it buys, it doesn't buy any solid information on what the special forces are up to. The Aug. 21 raids caught top U.S. officials here and in Washington flat-footed.
Nhu ordered the special forces to crush the Buddhist priests, but the CIA wasn't let in on the secret. (Some CIA button men now say they warned their superiors what was coming up, but in any event the warning of harsh repression was never passed to top officials here or in Washington.)
Consequently, Washington reacted unsurely to the crisis. Top officials here and at home were outraged at the news the CIA was paying the temple raiders, but the CIA continued the payments.
It may not be a direct subsidy for a religious war against the country's Buddhist majority, but it comes close to that.
And for every State Department aide here who will tell you, "Dammit, the CIA is supposed to gather information, not make policy, but policy-making is what they're doing here," there are military officers who scream over the way the spooks dabble in military operations.
A Typical Example
For example, highly trained trail watchers are an important part of the effort to end Viet Cong infiltration from across the Laos and Cambodia borders. But if the trailer watchers spot incoming Viet Congs, they report it to the CIA in Saigon, and in the fullness of time, the spooks may tell the military.
One very high American official here, a man who has spent much of his life in the service of democracy, likened the CIA's growth to a malignancy, and added he was not sure even the White House could control it any longer.
Unquestionably Mr. McNamara and Gen. Maxwell Taylor both got an earful from people who are beginning to fear the CIA is becoming a Third Force co-equal with President Diem's regime and the U.S. Government - and answerable to neither.
There is naturally the highest interest here as to whether Mr. McNamara will persuade Mr. Kennedy something ought to be done about it.
Details: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6918706
You are most welcome, A-Schwarzenegger. I very much value your friendship on DU and I very much appreciate you grokking the situation.
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JFK Conference: Mark Lane Addressed the Secret Government’s Role in the Assassination [View all]
Octafish
Nov 2013
OP
I see. You're the type of person who argues that you can't prove George Washington really existed.
stopbush
Nov 2013
#69
More boring cut-n-paste from Octa who refuses to answer why they believe the HSCA
stopbush
Nov 2013
#98
Please look at YOUR post #7 in this thread: "CIA Director Bush helped destroy HSCA investigation."
stopbush
Nov 2013
#105
Blakey believes the mob was involved and will probably go to his grave believing that.
stopbush
Dec 2013
#172
Don't understand why certain DUers don't appreciate the BFEE connections to Dealey Plaza.
Octafish
Nov 2013
#106
Odd is how that same George HW Bush in Dallas Nov. 22, 1963 shows up to head CIA 12 years later.
Octafish
Nov 2013
#145
Like your exchange with Jim DiEugenio? You did all you could to drive him off.
Octafish
Nov 2013
#149
Speak plainly, sir. Are you accusing me of being here under false pretenses?
Bolo Boffin
Nov 2013
#150
Or leave these foolish games and Meta distractions aside and start dealing with the evidence already
Octafish
Nov 2013
#151
No, I have not been 'payed' or paid to write about the assassination of President Kennedy.
Octafish
Dec 2013
#179
There's a good analysis of the Parrott memo in Russ Baker's book 'Family of Secrets'
Mc Mike
Dec 2013
#186
I'm sorry that you sometimes take so much flack and displays of antipathy for posting good info.
Mc Mike
Dec 2013
#190
The problem for them is that no matter how they try to discredit ANYONE who doesn't march in
sabrina 1
Nov 2013
#53
journal.. feh. you're no REAL journalist man... you've never even been in a shootout!!1111
dionysus
Nov 2013
#57
E. Hunt was such an upstanding man. Now I'm convinced, Hunt denied it, therefore it must be true.
sabrina 1
Nov 2013
#55
"So much effort to prevent people from speaking their minds on this historical tragedy."
zappaman
Nov 2013
#56
Most of us, a majority of the people, want to see bullshit countered and don't everything their
sabrina 1
Nov 2013
#65
E Howard Hunt planted fake cables in WH safe to make it look like JFK ordered Diem assassination...
Octafish
Nov 2013
#141
CIA caught red-handed in HSCA safe, a pattern of obstruction of justice in JFK assassination.
Octafish
Nov 2013
#142
Wow, thank you for that. Tampering with evidence. Yet nothing was done about it, and some wonder why
sabrina 1
Nov 2013
#144
I don't know what Brehm said, but Lane interviewed him on videotape. It's on You Tube.
Zen Democrat
Nov 2013
#109
You've got the wrong book. The CIA went after Lane's idiocies in in his POS book
stopbush
Dec 2013
#153
Guilt by association is un-American. Lane is an attorney who represented two clients.
Octafish
Nov 2013
#28
It's easy. Mark Lane says we don't know the whole truth, but it looks like CIA conspiracy.
Octafish
Nov 2013
#38
I watched the 'Firing Line' debate between Lane and Buckley on YouTube the other day
KurtNYC
Nov 2013
#6
It doesn't matter, but I believe Mark Lane is Jewish. He also is an attorney...
Octafish
Nov 2013
#41
Mark Lane's involvement with Liberty Lobby references the JFK assassination.
avaistheone1
Nov 2013
#50
I'm pretty new to all the JFK conspiracy stuff, about the past 6-7 years or so. I was only 9 months
Ghost in the Machine
Nov 2013
#73
YOU are a DU treasure, Octafish, keep the info coming. I look forward to your next reporting.
mother earth
Nov 2013
#47
And yet when he was a part of the HSCA investigation, he agreed that the head wounds
Bolo Boffin
Nov 2013
#51
Looks like you've got a host of Hugh Aynesworth wannabees in this thread Sir-K&R, NGU
bobthedrummer
Nov 2013
#44
I finally got around to reading Lane's Rush to Judgment in the mid-70s. I usually save books but
struggle4progress
Nov 2013
#75
Seems after forty years, Lane's still working to get more than two pebbles in a straight line
struggle4progress
Nov 2013
#115
A spoon of barley tossed into a barrel of water makes mighty thin gruel. Here's the testimony
struggle4progress
Nov 2013
#129
The Chicago Plot involved a tipster named ''Lee.'' And the DIA harrassed Edwin Black.
Octafish
Nov 2013
#132
Apparently, Veciana's death was misreported, according to Vince Palamara.
robertpaulsen
Dec 2013
#193
Mr. Lane credited himself on that one! Said it should've been called 'The Mark Lane Bill.' LOL!
Octafish
Nov 2013
#120
It was, indeed, Oliver Stone's "JFK" that got Congress to pass the "JFK Act"
red dog 1
Nov 2013
#125