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Posts Tagged ‘Central Intelligence Agency’

SAFE HOUSE! Are You Kidding Me?

Posted in Amuse-bouche du jour, From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 8, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Sam Shepherd

SAFE HOUSE

There was NOTHING safe about being in that house!

SAFE HOUSE, a spy-thriller-action-packed film starring Denzel Washington, Vera Farmiga, Sam Shepherd and Ryan Reynolds is scheduled to be released this coming weekend. 

If you like espionage, especially on the international level, this movie is for you. 

If you like unlikely heroes  rising to the occasion and beyond (not exactly a foreign concept), this movie is for you. 

If you like conspiracy theories (I do), this movie is for you.

If you like fast and furious editing that heightens the drama, this movie is for you.

The acting is fine, not Academy Award winning, but the characters were portrayed as believable and Ryan Reynolds is great.

Action-packed is a word often carelessly tossed around by studio public relations and marketing personnel;  However in this case it seemed as if the action never stopped.  Between the frequent,  almost constant car chases and the shoot-outs every 10 minutes or so,  I found myself cringing in my seat and gripping the arm rests for the entire 115 minutes of the movie.   The bombing of the safe house was particularly intense and loud -ACTION galore!

Trust no one.  Suspect everyone.  Believe no one.  Enemies make strange bedfellows.  Watch your back.

SAG showed Act of Valor last night;  A movie full of heroic acts, team work and a lot of  “I’ve got your back”.  Tonight’s movie had a lot “I’ve got your back” too except there was always a knife in it.

Like the movie poster says, NO ONE IS SAFE

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Conspiracy Theory Wednesday – CIA-MAFIA PLOTS

Posted in Conspiracy Theory Wednesday, Uncategorized, tagged , , , , , , , on December 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

The Cuban leader Fidel Castro.

Image via Wikipedia

Over the years there have been HUNDREDS of articles filled with speculation that the MOB, MAFIA and CIA were involved in the murder of President John F. Kennedy.  COUP D”ETAT is a conspiracy theory and the title says it all – READ on….

THE MOB

In the last months of the Eisenhower Administration, secret meetings mediated by ex FBI agent and Howard Hughes aide Robert Maheu were held between CIA agents and organized crime figures for the purpose of plotting to kill Fidel Castro.  By 1960, the Cuban leader had nationalized U.S. interest, closed casinos, shut down drug labs and deported most of the mobsters.  The gangster with the most to gain from the elimination of Castro was Santo Trafficante Jr., former Mafia boss of Havana who with his partner, casino developer and financial wizard, Meyer Lansky, had inherited Lucky Luciano‘s heroin operations.  Trafficante financed terrorist raids against Cuba run by CIA agent Frank Sturgis‘ Miami-based International Anti-Communist Brigade.  In 1962, Trafficante told Cuban exile and FBI informant Jose Aleman that “Kennedy is in trouble and he will get what is coming to him…Kennedy is not going to make it to the election.  He’s going to be hit.”  West Coast mobster Johnny Rosselli, another CIA-Mafia plotter, later alleged that Castro was warned of plans to kill him by a double-agent, possibly Trafficante, and that Castro, assuming the plots to be official US policy had killed Kennedy in retaliation.

The Kennedy brothers did not know about the CIA-Mafia plots until 1962, when Robert Kennedy found the CIA interfering in Justice Department prosecution of first Mafia leader contacted by Maheu, Chicago boss Sam Giancana.  Participation in CIA-Mafia plots wasn’t Giancana’s only protection.  His girlfriend, Judith Campbell and President Kennedy had been lovers for two years.  In 1963, the Justice Department ordered the FBI to curtail surveillance of Giancana.

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The Three Tramps

Posted in Conspiracy Theory Wednesday, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 11, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Lee Harvey Oswald 's signature

Image via Wikipedia

There are about 10 installments left to complete this conspiracy theory.  I rarely get comments on these posts so I don’t know if they’re read, understood or interesting to anyone other than myself.   I would like to hear from you on this widely accepted theory that Lee Harvey Oswald was not the sole assassin in the murder of John F. Kennedy.   I’ve said this before and will say again, you may feel this old crime done before many of you were born doesn’t hold any real  meaning for you BUT it does!  Remember the title of the conspiracy theory is COUP D’ETAT and you know what that means…. Who was behind this heinous crime and why? Stay with it because we are getting closer and closer to finding exactly WHO would benefit from eliminating this young vibrant liberal-thinking president.  The names of the characters emerging at this point are ones that we all know, have been around a long time and are also the subject of a recently released movie/documentary titled DARK LEGACY .  There are excerpts of this movie on YouTube and I have linked you to one here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jax13K4jRwY

E. Howard Hunt & Frank Sturgis

In the shadowy world of espionage, few name are more familiar than Watergate burglar and CiA agent E. Howard Hunt known as Eduardo to his Cuban exile friends.  Hunt was the political planner for the Bay of Pigs invasion and organizer of the Cuban Revolutionary Council, a government-in-exile whose New Orleans operations were run out of Guy Banister‘s office.

In the first hours after the assassination, Dallas police questioned and released many suspects without recording their identities.  Among those were three “tramps” arrested in a railroad car near the grassy knoll and photographed en route to the police station.  One of them bears a striking resemblance to Hunt, whose whereabouts on Nov. 22, are officially unknown.  It has been alleged that Hunt was stationed in Mexico City during Oswald’s Sept 1963 visit there.  In 1975, a letter thought to be in Oswald’s hand surfaced in Mexico.  Dated Nov. 8, 1963, it reads, ” Dear Mr. Hunt, I would like information conceding (sic) my position.  I am asking only for information.  I am asking that we discuss the matter fully before any steps are taken by me or anyone else.  Thank you, Lee Harvey Oswald”.

Another of the “tramps” resembles Hunt’s fellow Watergate burglar and CIA agent Frank Sturgis.  Born Frank Fionni, Sturgis had infiltrated Castro’s revolution, and was named Minister of Games of Chance when Castro came to power in 1959.   Within a year, Castro closed the casinos and the mob put up a $1 million contract on him.  After unsuccessfully attempting to poison Castro, Sturgis fled to Miami and joined Hunt and the Cuban exiles.  In 1963, he was one of the six pilots reprimanded by Kennedy for continuing  to stage terrorist rids against Cuba.

 

 

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Conspiracy Theory Wednesday – CODE NAME BISHOP

Posted in Conspiracy Theory Wednesday, tagged , , , , , , , on November 3, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Map showing the Bay of Pigs

Image via Wikipedia

I can’t believe that this is the 23rd week  we have been exploring the unfolding tale, COUP D’ETAT.    The Conspiracy Theory will continue presenting facts, MOST of which I never heard of but then again, when Kennedy was shot, I was a sophomore in high school and was not reading the newspaper or watching the news religiously – although I’m not sure the many groups were ever acknowledged in the press in those days.  The sheer number of dissident and/or anti-Castro, pro-Cuban exile organizations that have been revealed over this many weeks is quite astounding.

 

DAVID ATLEE PHILLIPS

David Atlee Phillips, a native of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, was a CIA agent specializing in propaganda.  He was on secret CIA assignment in Havana until 1960, was Mexico City covert action chief from 1961-3 (during the time of Oswald’s visit there), and was coordinator of propaganda for the Bay of Pigs invasion and for all the Cuban exile terrorist groups under the CIA umbrella.  One of these groups, Alpha 66, founded by Antonio Veciana, ignored Kennedy’s 1963 ban on terrorist action against Cuba.  Between 1960 and1973, Veciana and his CIA control officer, known to him as “Maurice Bishop“,  met more than 100 times.  Their relationship ended with a $253,000 payment from “Bishop” for past services.  Five months later, Veciana was convicted of drug smuggling.  He claimed he was set up, and suspected that “Bishop” was behind it.

In 1976, Veciana told investigators that in September, 1963 in Dallas, he had seen “Bishop” talking to a man he later realized was Lee Harvey Oswald.  Veciana added that after Kennedy’s death, “Bishop” had asked him to contact his uncle, a Cuban intelligence officer working in Mexico City, and offer him money to say he had met Oswald there in the fall of 1963.  Congressional investigators, realizing that Phillips’ career dovetailed neatly with “Bishop’s”, arranged a casual meeting between Phillips and Veciana.  Although they didn’t identify easch other, investigators felt the pair was probably lying.

Phillips, who later became CIA Western Hemisphere chief, insisted to his death that he had heard CIA surveillance tapes of the real Oswald in Mexico City, but that they had been “routinely”  destroyed.

Remember Every Conspiracy Is Not  A Theory!!!

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THE CUBA QUESTION – FIDEL CASTRO

Posted in Conspiracy Theory Wednesday, tagged , , , , , , , on October 27, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Castro, in 2002, beneath a statue of José Martí

Image via Wikipedia

Conspiracy Theory Wednesday

Cuba suffered greatly under the Kennedy Administration.  A cut-off in diplomatic relations had been followed by the Bay of Pigs invasion and terrorist acts by CIA-supported Cuban exiles.  Cuban Premier Fidel Castro knew the CIA was trying to kill him, eventually counting 24 attempts.  CIA death devices included poison cigars, exploding seashells, and a toxic wetsuit.  But the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis resulted in Kennedy telling Soviet Premier Khrushchev that, in return for removal of Russian missiles from Cuba, the U.S. Would not invade the island.  Meanwhile, the U.S.  Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC) urged an end to the economic embargo.  In the Summer of 1063 Kennedy clamped down on CIA-exile groups that ignored his order to stop terrorist acts against Cuba, and that Fall he made secret diplomatic plans for U.S<  and Cuban representatives to meet, leaving Castro little motive to kill him.  A month before the assassination Castro said, “I believe Kennedy is sincere.  I consider him responsible for everything , but I will says this…in the last analysis I’m convinced that anyone else would be worse…I’m willing to declare Barry Goldwater my friend if it will guarantee Kennedy’s re-election.”  After Kennedy’s death, the agreed-upon secret talks were scrapped by Lyndon Johnson.

Oswald’s suspect FPCC membership connected him not to Castro, but to Cuban exile  handler Guy Banister.  CIA reports on “Oswald” in Mexico City and rumors of Oswald’s meetings with Cuban agents that circulated after the assassination seemed to link him to Castro, but they originated in the propaganda mills of CIA veterans David Phillips and E. Howard Hunt.

This conspiracy theory has been around a LONG long time.  Ask anyone old enough to remember the assassination if they REALLY believe Kennedy was shot and killed by ONE man, Lee Harvey Oswald.

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Conspiracy Theory Wednesday – The Other Widow

Posted in Conspiracy Theory Wednesday, tagged , , , , , on September 22, 2010| 5 Comments »

 

Marina Oswald Porter in Minsk born Marina Alex...

Image via Wikipedia

 

Week 17 – Delving into the COUP D’ETAT conspiracy is like peeling an onion, layer by layer.  The web of omissions, contradictions, deceptions, misconceptions and LIES unravels this theory week by week.

Marina Oswald

After Oswald’s arrest, his Russian-born wife, Marina, was quoted as saying, “Lee good man.  Lee not shoot anyone.”  For the next few months she was held in “protective custody” at the Inn of the Six Flags motel and questioned by agents of the Secret Service, the FBI, and the Great South West Corporation (owners of the motel, two of whose employees later became her legal representatives).  Despite the fact that Marina “lied repeatedly” to her captors, her testimony that Oswald owned and practiced with a rifle., and had previously tried to kill General Edwin Walker, was used to buttress the case against him.

Reinforcing her testimony was that of Mrs. Ruth Paine, with whom Marian had stayed for two months prior to the assassination in addition to confirming Marina’s story.  Paine cooperated with James Hosty, the agent who had charge of Oswald’s  FBI file.Hosty had interviewed Paine and Marina twice prior to November 22, and Paine later supplied him with evidence against Oswald.  While Paine and her temporarily estranged husband Michael were self-professed liberals, his family (with whom she lived for two months prior to harboring Marina) had intelligence connections: three close relatives were directors of the CIA-connected United Fruit Co. , his great-grandfather founded Bell Telephone, and he himself had a top security clearance at Bell Helico0per.  It was Ruth Paine who found Lee Oswald a job at the Texas School Book Depository.

Today, Marina states that threat of deportation were used to compel her testimony, that her husband was a federal agent who “adored” Kennedy, that someone impersonated Lee to incriminate him, and that he was killed to silence him.

Every Conspiracy is NOT a theory

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Conspiracy Theory Wednesday – The Mysterious Traveler

Posted in BY THE WAY, Conspiracy Theory Wednesday, tagged , , , , , on September 9, 2010| Leave a Comment »

This is the 15th installment of a conspiracy theory of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  If you believe Lee Harvey Oswald was the sold killer of our young president, JFK, read on and catch up from the beginning by searching the Conspiracy Theory Wednesday category.

“OSWALD” IN MEXICO

Oswald left New Orleans on September 26, 1963, and traveled by bus to Mexico City.  Passengers remembered the man who said he was going to Havana, was quite open about his leftist beliefs and conversed with an older man who spoke with an English accent.  The latter was identified by the FBI as Albert Osborne, alias John Bowen.  FBI records from 1942 described Osborne as a fervent Nazi supporter. A member of the fanatical anti-communist American Council of Christian Churches, he ran a missionary school for orphans in Puebla, Mexico, that allegedly served as a cover for training marksmen.

Oswald registered at a Mexico City hotel frequented by anti- Castro Cuban exiles, but his activities over the next few days are cloudy.  The CIA later reported that Oswald visited the Cuban and Soviet embassies seeking a Cuban visa.  CIA surveillance photos and tapes from bugs inside the embassies were sent to the FBI on the evening of November 22.  They were of someone else (still unidentified), and the CIA has never released any photos or tapes of the real Oswald at either embassy, though 12 pictures of the impostor were made public.   The purpose of Oswald’s trip to Mexico City may have been revealed by the CIA in a memo sent to the FBI ten days before he left.  It read: “[The CIA is] giving some consideration to countering the activities of [the Fair Play for Cuba Committee] in foreign countries…CIA is also giving some thought to planting deceptive information which might embarrass the Committee in areas where it does have some support.” The House Select Committee on Assassinations sealed for 50 years its 265-page report entitled “Lee Harvey Oswald”, the CIA, and Mexico City.

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Conspiracy Theory Wednesday-Misguided Pilot

Posted in Conspiracy Theory Wednesday, tagged , , , , , on September 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »

David Ferrie

Image via Wikipedia

Week 14 of the unraveling mysterious and complex conspiracy theory about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

DAVID FERRIE

The strongest denizen of 544 Camp Street ws former Eastern Airlines pilot, David Ferrie, who, as a contract employee of the CIA, flew dozens of clandestine missions to Cuba around the time of the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.  A bishop in an obscure sect called Orthodox Old Catholic Church of North America, and a master hypnotist, Ferrie suffered from a rare condition of hairlessness called Alopecia for which he compensated with grotesquely false eyebrows and toupee.  He worked closely with Banister’s anti-Castro operations, one time leading a CIA-staged “raid” (they had the key) on a bunker containing explosives allegedly given o the Schlumberger  Corporation byt he CIA for the ultra-right French Secret Army Organization (OAS) to use in a 1962 coup attempt against French President Charles De Gaulle.  The raid allegedly enabled the CIA to supply Cuban exile terrorists while Kennedy’s ban on such activities was in effect.

That Oswald and Ferrie knew each other is certain.  When Lee was 16 he joined the local Civil Air Patrol unit led by Captain Ferrie (who was discharged from Eastern because of  his homosexual liasions with teen-age boys).  In September 1963, they were seen together at a federally supported black voter registration drive in Clinton, LA.  The evening of Kennedy’s death, Ferrie drove through a thunderstorm to Houston, where he spent hours at a skating rink making and receiving phone calls.  According to a friend, he was to have picked up tow members of a hit team who never showed up.  The FBI questioned Ferrie  a few days later, but the interview was first classified by J. Edgar Hoover and later disappeared.


Just remember, a conspiracy is not always a theory!


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