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38 Oswald's Cuba Connections Went Deep

Former CIA Operative

Argues Lee Harvey

Oswald's Cuba

Connections Went Deep

By Olivia B. Waxman

After Lee Harvey Oswald shot President John F.
Kennedy shortly after noon on Nov. 22, 1963,
things moved quickly. About an hour later,
Oswald fatally shot Dallas police officer J.D.
Tippit. Thirty minutes after that, police found
Oswald and arrested him. Two days later, on
Nov. 24, Jack Ruby shot Oswald. And just a day
after the assassination, FBI Director J. Edgar
Hoover had already expressed his preliminary
finding that Oswald had acted alone. What are the biggest revelations in the use or possible Russian involvement in the
The full Warren Commission report documentary? campaign prior to the election last fall. It’s
would later back up that finding — but more this question of how and whether intelligence
than a half-century later, polls have found that Our hypothesis was that the Cubans knew officials should talk about something that’s
most Americans are not convinced of that fact. [about Oswald’s plan] in advance. We have still ongoing.
That’s why former CIA operative Bob eyewitnesses putting Oswald with Cuban
Baer launched an investigation into the intelligence in Mexico City. And the last people Yeah it’s exactly like that; If you can’t prove it,
declassified government files on the case. As the that Oswald was hanging out with before the don’t drag it out to the public. Except the
above clip shows, on his six-part series JFK assassination were Alpha 66. I do believe that, [Oswald] evidence is stronger than so far what
Declassified: Tracking Oswald — debuting after the assassination, Oswald was heading for we’ve seen on Russia and its connections to the
Tuesday night on the History channel — Baer a safe house that was owned by Alpha 66. Now, Trump campaign.
(seen in the clip above with former LAPD according to the FBI, CIA and Cuban
police lieutenant Adam Bercovici) attempts to intelligence sources we talked to, in November What was going on in Cold War history at
demystify the link between Oswald and Cuban 1963, info about anything that Alpha 66 did in this point that caused this controversy to play
and Soviet operatives. It’s no secret that, for the U.S. was sent back to Cuba. So if, in fact, out the way that it did?
example, Oswald went to a meeting at the Oswald told Alpha 66 he was going to kill the
Soviet embassy in Mexico eight weeks before president — and we do have witnesses saying My assumption at the end is that Castro had
he assassinated JFK, or that he tried to defect to he told them this — then Castro knew. And the every reason in the world to [want to] kill
the Soviet Union in 1959. But Baer pursues borders were all shut down at that point, so our Kennedy. It’s risky if there are actual Cuban
those leads, and further investigates Oswald’s assumption is he was going to this Cuban safe agents shooting the President, that’s
connections to the Cuban dissident group Alpha house, where he had been before. Whether the Armageddon, nuclear war. But if you simply
66, which had been infiltrated by Cuban Cuban dissidents of Alpha 66 knew he was hear rumors of this, you don’t do anything. I’ve
intelligence officials who were reporting their coming or not, we don’t know. seen that happen in the CIA, where we heard
activities back to Fidel Castro’s government. But I do not think that [Castro] furthered stuff and didn’t pass the details to another
His conclusion is that, while Oswald acted the plot. I think the Cuban dissidents reporting government because it was a hostile
alone when he fired the bullets that killed the back to Havana informed him that there’s this government.
President, his connections to Cuban and Soviet American, Lee Harvey Oswald, who says he’s
officials were deeper than is often assumed. going to kill the president. The fact that this What about the Soviet side? Did you find any
Ahead of the debut of his series, Baer stuff has never been looked into I find evidence that they encouraged Oswald?
spoke to TIME about why Oswald could have extraordinary.
wanted to work with the Soviets and Cubans: There’s no evidence that the Russians took that
Why didn’t they? risk, providing him money weapons or training,
TIME: Why did you start looking into and I don’t think the Russians encouraged him.
declassified government files on Lee Harvey The Warren Commission did mention it, but What we think is that they were like three times
Oswald? they just said that it was a coincidence that he removed. I think they simply monitored Oswald
met with the KGB’s head of assassinations for as best they could. The Russians probably
BAER: I went through CIA files on it when I North America in Mexico City. They didn’t look thought, “We can’t afford to deal with an
was working there, and there was Cuban-related into how peculiar it is for an American, on a American crazy person,” but Cuban intelligence
stuff that didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. weekend, to meet with three KGB officers deals with a lot of crazy people. The Cubans
When I got into the CIA, George H.W. Bush during their time off. The Warren Commission didn’t give money or guns to agents; they were
signed a release [of files] to me, and the said he only went to the Cuban consulate in just looking for fellow believers.
archives came back and said they couldn’t find Mexico City and met a local employee. But I
[the files I requested] anymore. Documents on it believe his Cuban connections are much deeper (Continued on Page 39)
that shouldn’t have disappeared had than the Warren Commission shows. I think [the
disappeared. So that raised an alarm bell. But commission] just didn’t want to make that
what really got me into it was meeting a public. Johnson told the FBI that if they can’t
defector from Cuba and one of the best agents prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the
the CIA has ever had. He said that on the 22nd Russians and the Cubans were involved in this,
of November 1963, four hours before the then they shouldn’t drag their suspicions into
assassination, he was at an intelligence site in the public eye. But they sort of suspected it.
Havana when he got a call from Castro’s office,
saying, “Turn all of your listening ability to high That reminds me of the discussion of whether
frequency communications out of Dallas the FBI should have shared its news from its
because something’s going to happen there.” investigations into Hillary Clinton’s email