"The JFK Assassination"
Dave Ratcliffe interviews Fletcher Prouty in his home in 1989.
Fletcher was in fine form as he goes through point by point, the reasons
John Kennedy was killed and where this opposition came from.
If you only have time listen to one of the many interviews, listen to this one!
Gen. Ed Lansdale in Dealey Plaza
Col. Prouty interviewed by Dave Ratcliffe, confirms the presence of
Maj. Gen. Ed Lansdale in Dealey Plaza Nov. 22nd 1963.
Gen. Ed Lansdale had a long history as a top CIA operator
called upon for removal of governments around the world.
Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, etc. Although he wore an Air Force
uniform he was CIA. He was in charge of "Operation Mongoose", and
The Saigon Military Mission" among others.
See also Col. Prouty's letter to
Jim Garrison regarding
his views of Ed Lansdale's role in the assassination.
Understanding CIA Funding
The secret of covert operations is the control of money.
By 1949 the CIA was able to convince congress to allow a reimbursement program.
The department of defense would fully support the CIA in any of its approved operations
provided the CIA would reimburse the DOD for all out of pocket costs.
Since the CIA has a completely, totally, classified budget and almost non-accountable.
The Director of Central Intelligence has the authority to spend that money
simply on his signature.
This (black budget) is very rare thing in budget process, but the congress goes along with it.
Understanding CIA Funding
More important than the dollars the Agency gets, is what it can do with those dollars,
to make them cover all sorts of research, development, procurement,
real estate ventures, stock piles, and anything else money will buy.
Including tens of thousands of people, who do not show on any official rosters.
One of the most interesting results of this horizontal application of
money or reimbursement. Is that it could be used to pay salaries
without explaining that they were for salaries.
It was just an expenditure of money.
The DCI would just sign it off as an expense,
but it might have paid for the salaries of 100 people
Money in this method of operation truly concealed
in the budget. Congress doesn't know where it is.
I don't think they have made any attempt
to try to find out where it is.
They allocate a bulk sum... then just sit back.
There's no end to the things you can do with money that way.
In order to maintain cover for example the Air America operation,
they would have to do some commercial work.
The income from these operations became very large sums of money.
That money would be hiding in the stock market.
They had an account with the big banks on Wall St. That was Cede inc.
(Street name accounts)
The CIA had an street name account called 'suydam'.
When money was in the 'suydam' account few knew this was CIA's money.
The CIA as a Forth Force
Col. Prouty discusses the growth of the CIA as a function of
the Forth Force, (Army, Navy, Air Force, CIA) in support of the DOD warplans.
See also The Forth Force
Hiding weapons thru reimbursement of funds
Col. Prouty assumed that there were things that the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
of Staff wasn't aware of. But he never expected the blanket answer that
the Chief had no idea there were over "600" CIA cover units supporting CIA activities
around the world.
When 42,000 rifles were transferred from base to base, on paper,
and money reimbursed back to the army to cover the cost. In a very short time
they disappeared from any records.
Early days of the Bay of Pigs
At the time my office had just been moved from the office of the Secretary of Defense
into the Joint Chiefs of Staff structure.
By the time of the Bay of Pigs operation the CIA was part of a greater team,
Which used the agency and other parts of the government to carry out almost any
secret operation it wanted.
By that time this organization had the equipment, the facilities, the men, and the funds,
to carry out clandestine operations that were so vast that at even on the basis simple definition, they were no longer truly secret. Nor could anyone hope that they might be
Its one thing to have an approval to carry out a covert operation. And then to be able go to the
Defense department or any other part and get support, for that operation
It's a completely other thing to have warehouses full of equipment, ships, aircraft, people all over the world,
And be able to carry on covert operations in a regular basis.
Oliver North and Secret Team CIA units
When Col. North believed that he had been ordered to take 2008 TOA missiles
and deliver them to Iran, see...
There has to be some way that the supply system can let those go.
You can't just drive down there with a truck in San Antonio at the
warehouse and say "I want 2008 missiles"
You have to have a authority,
And 2008 TOA missiles, I don't know what one of them cost but it is an awful lot of money
And somebody had to prepare the paperwork for the authorization to let the supply officer release those,
and it has to look like every other letter of authority he has ever seen.
And I'm sure they went to a cover unit that North was using for that purpose
Its seems to me the jurors realize they did.
They think Reagan was involved, Bush was involved, Weinburger was involved...
They had to be involved.
How the Secret Team can acquire any material without a trace
One of the things done was the creation literally hundreds of
false military organizations. We could take rifles out of a Marine storage
facility and have the Marines transfer them to the Air Force.
Now that a perfectly legitimate action within the military.
The Air Force credits the Marines with a certain amount of money.
The Marines are happy. Now the Air Force has these 1000 rifles.
The Marine Corp will be reimbursed. So that's the end of it for them.
So the Air Force has a unit called say, the 1 2 3 4 logistics squadron at Fort Meyer.
A base where we have many other units.
And the Air Force assigns the rifles to this 1 2 3 4 logistics unit.
But that unit has nobody except this one man with a phone, and that unit
really belongs to CIA.
The CIA unit has a fiscal account. Enough money is transferred to
cover the cost of reimbursement of the rifles back to the Air Force.
The Marine corps come out even, now the Air Force comes out even,
And now the Agency has the rifles to use,
or give to anyone they please, without any accounting.
We have put it in the hands of the CIA thru the use of the National Economy Act principles.
CIA and the Secret Team
An explanation how a "secret team" has grown within the CIA and no one can control it.
Congress and the NSC are both unable to put limits on this secret team.
The CIA was supposed to be a coordinating organization, but very quickly it became
an outlet for covert operations that have no checks for rogue activity.
How the CIA acquired the Helio Courier Aircraft
Col. Prouty describes how procurement for secret items has been carried out
The Courier, like the U2, was bought by the Air Force but paid for by the CIA.
Doctored paper work covers up how much the CIA spends, and no one can trace these expenditures
Hundreds of CIA units exist to support clandestine operations.
They get material when ever they need and there are no records to show where the funds went.
CIA and the structure of the Secret Team
Today the role of the CIA is performed by an ad hoc organization that
is much greater in size, strength, and resources that the CIA has ever been
visualized to be. There is no law, there is no structure for covert operations.
The CIA has been given the authority to create cover organization within other parts
of the government.
How the CIA can infiltrate other agencies at will
The CIA can place man power in any agency they want. Then over the years these
CIA men stay and are promoted in their "cover assigment".
Soon they are in controlling positions and offices,
some even as high as in the White House.
Prebrief in the Pentagon
A rare glimpse into how the intelligence is presented and the reactive nature of government.
Col. Prouty was one of 52 men out of 35,000 in the Pentagon cleared for this Prebrief.
The CIA can control the government if they 'color' the information presented each day.
"The Arab Oil Embargo"
Col. Prouty explains the Arab oil embargo.
"I can show you copies of the Congressional Record in which oil
experts from the middle East reported that, exactly at this time of the Arab oil embargo.
The storage tanks at the Arab facilities whether it is Kuwait, Iraq, or Saudi Arabia
were over loaded and bursting with oil waiting for ships to come"
"There was no shortage of oil.
What happened was that, a very well planned system was
applied though the tanker industry and they arbitrarily and absolutely
controlled the movement of oil by not picking it up until the price was right".
"Background to the MIA's
Background to early Vietnam, The MIA in Vietnam being passed off to be handled by
wives and families explained, Origins of NSAM #263
"The Report From Iron Mountain"
A discussion of "The Report From Iron Mountain" with Sean Mackenzie.
Fletcher explains his own views of Leonard Lewin's novel.
From a lecture at Yale 1970's. "By the summer of 1963, there were papers coming across my desk,
at that time I was working in the Office of Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Papers with no 'Top Secret' stamps on them, no 'Eyes Only' stamps on them,
no register numbers on them. That meant they were really secret.
And if they were really secret you don't put anything on them."
HSCA and the CIA
From the interview with Dave Ratcliffe and Patrick Fourmy. Fletcher reveals
the House Select Committee on Assassinations was infiltrated by the CIA.
Fletcher later explained, once he saw this CIA man, there was no reason to come
forward, as he knew the whole thing would amount to another 'Warren Commission'.
Under Robert Blakey this is exactly what happened.
LBJ and Vietnam
Col. Prouty interviewed by Dave Ratcliffe, relates the pressures on LBJ and escalation
in Vietnam. Fletcher describes that LBJ had nowhere to go to win the war.
Gen. Abrams was instructed by LBJ to "get over there and do it".
When asked, "Mr. president please define 'it', what is it, that we can do to win"?
LBJ put his arm around him, lead him to the door.
He was off to Saigon and not another word was said.
The origins of the Vietnam conflict
As far back as 1954 the CIA had begun destabilization of South Vietnam
by moving an estimated 1 million from the north to the south.
These people were promised money and property which never materialized.
