News Archive - Feb 2008

CIA to Respond on Joannides Files by April 30

Feb 29, 2008: In court two days ago, the CIA promised to respond to appellate court orders to supply files on George Joannides to plaintiff Jefferson Morley by April 30, or explain why such records are unavailable. This includes a search of operational files. Asked to prioritize his requests, Morley gave as his top priority the explanation of the 17 missing monthly progress reports on the DRE, the Cuban exile group which Joannides served as case officer for in 1963 when Oswald had multiple interactions with them. The second priority Morley gave was the search of 1,100 still withheld documents in the JFK collection. See Morley's story in the Washington Independent, written the day before the court appearance, for more information on the case.

Fidel Castro Steps Down

Feb 19, 2008: Fidel Castro stepped down from power in Cuba today after a long illness - see stories in the International Herald Tribune, MSNBC, and New York Times. Castro, who ousted Fulgencio Batista in 1959, and survived assassination plots and other attempts to remove him, outlasted all his enemies. Among recent US declassifications regarding the "secret" war against Castro's Cuba are the Operation Northwoods documents and 1963 contingency plans for a coup in Cuba.

Dallas D.A.'s Office Finds JFK Memorabilia

Feb 18, 2008: A safe in the Dallas County district attorney's office was opened and found to contain a cache of JFK-related materials, according to a story in the Dallas Morning News. Items include personal letters to Dallas D.A. Henry Wade (pictured at left), records from the Jack Ruby trial, and clothing possibly belonging to Ruby and Oswald. Attracting the most attention is a two-page transcript marked with a sticker "Plaintiff's Exhibit 27" which purports to be a conversation between Oswald and Ruby on Oct 4, plotting JFK's murder. The dialog, which reads like a grade B movie script ("Lee: You said the boys in Chicago want to get rid of the Attorney General.....I can still do it, all I need is my rifle and a tall building; but it will take time, maybe six months to find the right place; but I'll have to have some money to live on while I do the planning.") may be just that. Wade did work with producers on a movie entitled Countdown in Dallas, and letters discussing the film were discovered in the safe. The transcript is similar but not identical to CE 2821, an FBI report of an alleged Oct 4 meeting of Oswald and Ruby at the Carousel Club, as related by Carroll Jarnagin.

Floyd Boring Dies at 92

Feb 15, 2008: Secret Service agent Floyd M. Boring, who protected President Truman during an attack on the White House and served as Assistant Chief of the White House Detail under John F. Kennedy, died February 1 at the age of 92. See obituaries in the Washington Post and New York Times. Never interviewed by the Warren Commission or HSCA, Boring nonetheless played an important role in the planning of the Dallas trip and inspection of the limousine afterward. He was interviewed by the ARRB in 1996, and was unable to remember finding any bullet fragments in the limousine, but did remember a piece of skull being found in the follow-up car. For more on Boring and the Secret Service in regards to the assassination, see Vince Palamara's Boring is Interesting and More Boring Details.

Bush Budget Endangers FOIA Compliance

Feb 8, 2008: Not long after President Bush signed into law changes to the Freedom of Information Act guaranteeing better compliance, his new budget proposes shifting the newly-created ombudsman's position from the National Archives and Records Administration to the Justice Department. A Washington Post story quotes the National Security Archives' Kristin Adair: "Justice represents the agencies when they're sued over FOIA. . . . It doesn't make a lot of sense for them to be the mediator."

Gerald Patrick Hemming Dies at 71

Feb 1, 2008: Gerald Patrick Hemming, founder of InterPen and a continual subject of interest among JFK assassination researchers, died on Jan 29 at the age of 71. For more information on Hemming, see his Spartacus Educational page, a biographical form at Gordon Winslow's cuban-exile.com, FBI files on Hemming made available to the HSCA, and Hemming's HSCA testimony at History Matters. The HSCA's Segregated Collection of CIA files contains voluminous material on Hemming. In this Youtube video interview, Hemming repeats his claim that he was repeatedly offered money to assassinate President Kennedy.