(ADDITION TO NSIA SPEECH)

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80B01554R003200090031-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 5, 2005
• Sequence Number: 31
• Publication Date: October 2, 1979
• Content Type: SPEECH

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Tape 49
Side A, 0 - 1/2 OCT 1979
(Addition to NSIA speech)
No intelligence officer will ever complain about being swamped with
information, however. The essence of our business is being able to separate
the wheat from the chaff. Perhaps a better way to put it would be to say
that we are always trying to put together a picture puzzle when we have only
20% or 30% of the pieces. Identifying those pieces which are most likely
to give shape to the puzzle., as opposed to those which could fit in almost
anywhere,is the vital part of our task. With your help we have been working
on ways to employ computers to screen large quantities of data for us and
surface those which make them worthy of further human screening. We need
much more sophistication in this area to ensure that important information
is not overlooked. Yet there will always be a limit on the number of humans
we can apply to processing this growing body of data.
The importance of being able to screen information quickly and efficiently
with computers is apparent when we realize why intelligence officers would
be reluctant not to collect all of the data that is available. Even if screening
of such data today does not reveal any reason that we should be interested in
it, we never know when we may want to go back to it tomorrow. Today perhaps
we will apply 25 indicators to axhodyxai< information that we have collected;
tomorrow perhaps we will want to go back and rescreen that same data with
a 26th or a 27th indicator. Perhaps somewhere else we have received a new
clue; perhaps international events have brought new attention to bear on some
portion of a problem that was previously overlooked.
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Although Lane was among those in PETER DALE SCOTT and Paul
strumental in the reopening of the in. Hoch, both faculty members at the
vesrgation, especially into the Martin University of California, Berkeley, are
the editors of an anthology, "The As-
Luther King Jr. assassination,. he says sassinatians; Dallas and Beyond"
he feels no sense of personal vindica- (Random House, 1976). Both men are
tion by the committee's conclusions. It:. critical of what they say was the com
was one that could have been reached. mittee's failure to investigate a cover-
years ago, he insists, by a careful . up of the assassination evidence.
reading of 'tile forensic evidence in the "There obviously was a. cover-up,
Kennedy assassination.. and-they're trying to say there
"It comes at a time when it is prob- wasn't," Scott. said. "It may have been
ably too late to find who was respons- ? for security reasons, innocent reasons,
ible. The intelligence agencies and or whatever. But there was a cover-up.
police agencies who should have been I think it wohld. have been more
responsible to go find the killers turned- constructive to-look at the undeniable
their backs on the evidence.-, instances of cover-up and. put pressure
tape is convinced that. the commit..- - .
h
o or-
tee's conclusion on involvement, of. low. -on those people and find out w
er-echelon. organized crime-figures was dered the. cover-up and why..
politically inspired by public -opinion, Hoch agrees, but he believe the
polls showing a wide majority-of - committee may have overplayed the=
Americans believe there, was a conspi- case for- involvement- of organized
racy crime figures, although he withholds fi-
fi
ment
reads
he
--r-
"So t.~:ey.had to come up with a .
ong
any
-.
-ever
't. " think there - was
statement there was a conspiracy if Id
they were going to run for re- doubt- that organized crime had the
election," Lane said. "They, had . to motive and means to get rid of Ken-
nedy. The sticky point has always been,
come up with an acceptable enemy, sa -
'they came out with. the. Mafia.. Nobody in the evidence: I think we're seeing
likes the Mafia. Theypicked a target. more of an emphasis on organized
that can't answer."-- crime than the evidence might-war-
.. HOWARD ROFFMAN. a Washington rant. They seem to- absolve the. Cuban
attorney, was only 21 when, he wrote ' ' and Soviet governments entirely. I'd
"Presumed Guilty" in 1974,. which fo like to see how thoroughly they pur- -
cused on the evidence against Oswald. sued that-sort-of thing."
He does not think the. House committee- Both men, however, are pleased
has come up with any concrete evi- - overall with: the job the committee did.
dence of-any direct-connection- with' "My bottom line reaction is increased
any of the groups it looked at, and the optimism," Scott said. "We may never
assassination. _ know the identity of the second gun-
Roffman is especially critical of man at Dea
t ley the Plaza, American but I feel political. I
what he says was the. committee's fail- prer abou.
tire to order an acoustical examination process. It took a lot o courage for
of the three out of four shots that did this committee to o do what. it has
? done."
not appear. to come from. the grassy Added Hoch: "In a sense all my
'
"
knoll
It
s almost. laughable that they friends and I feet. somewhat vind Bated.
came up with this major piece- of?evi-. that it?wasn't kooky to. go around all
dence at the last minute and didn't these years saying there was a conspi.-
subject it-. to more analysis, he said`` : racy.
make me believe the trail is hot
The only real difference is in the gen-
-The-only-
eral public's opinion at the
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The issue that is on the front pages of our newspapers today regarding
ground
the Soviet brigade in Cuba is an example of this. In 1963 we felt the/combat
forces which the Soviets had introduced into Cuba had all been withdrawn. It
was not until 1978 that we began to have strong suspicions that this was no
longer the case. It was only in August of this year that we were able with
an intelligence breakthrough to adduce persuasive evidence that there is now
Soviet combined arms
a/gx Md combat brigade in Cuba. With today's evidence, however, we are
reexamining all of the data from 1962 until present. We have new clues with
which to probe into old data. These probings still persuade us that the combat
at least the
capability was withdrawn in 1963-64, but that by/tha mid-1970s such a
capability had been reestablished in'essentially its present form of a
combined arms brigade with three motorized infantry battalions, one tank
battalion, and all the normal artillery, anti2aircraft , anti tank and
other support elements common to a Soviet combatant unit of this size.
(Typed at EOB & given directly to
for NSIA speech) 25X1
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He is severely critical of the com-
mit:ee's work and. methodology. "This
committee hasn't even come close....
It never conducted an investigation of
either assassination. The committee del
dicated itself to putting down private
citizens (Warren Report critics), and
to ending all criticism. With the tape
of. Dealey -Plaza (the acoustical evi-
dence of a fourth shot), the committee ,
was saved from its own bankruptcy.
And that tape had to be forced on
them."
Still. Weisberg. is begrudgingly
pleased with the committee's conclu-
sion chat conspiracy is probable ("It
was their only chance to avoid bank-
ruptcy."). But he disagrees with its
reading of Oswald as an assassin
somehow in league with lower-echelon advertently stumbled on a small piece Harvey Oswald" (McGraw-Hill, 17ts) oria-;?od crime figures
"With all th
" depicts Oswald as a i~GB-tra'
i
f
.
racy:
Cotlsp
proof o
..expert ...it men they could draw orb; of the truth- way a aumo-sumo nice uswata who But it has tried to confine it to a agent. {
couldn't shoot straight?" narrow, low-level conspiracy, while. I The committee's conclusion that
AH THOMPSON, 44, is a San see it. as a broad, high-level conspira- :there was a second rifleman, mcst
JOSIAH ? '
Francisco private investigatos; former. cy. And I don't accept that Oswald likely on the. grassy knoll, troubles
had meaningful links (to the FBI, CIA. . Epstein. "How 'could someone have.;
Naval officer, and Yale graduate (Ph.D.) `..,and Offfis of Naval. Intelligence) fired a shot and escaped . with the-
who once taught philosophy at "I do think the House comnutteeTas, ` rifle? How do you run away with a
Haverford "College. as 1967 book, ,Six'. produced some impressive evidence, Vie"
Seconds, in Dallas," is"-a detailed, anal Wit. organized crime was-involved, and ' "I think the so-called acoustical evi-
ysis of what happened at Dealey plaza probably utilized Oswald as a .. dence is a' hoax. I think the key to the
the day of the assassinaton. the com- -scapegoat. But if he was used as'', Kennedy assassination is Lee Harvey-
mittee's- conclusion that there were, "scapegoat, I 'think it is likely, tha.it Oswald, I think he tried to assassinates
four shots instead: of the three believed was a government source working with Walker (U.S. Army Gen. Edwin - Walk
by the-Warren Commission, is in organized, crime -and anti-Castro Cu- er); and I think there is evidence be.
agreement with those of Thompson's bai>s."I `can't believe that organized... - had an associate there. If he did,.. it
book (although he believes- the shots--.,. crime alone could do that-" ... : might explain a great deal where his
were fired by three
y gunmen, not two). PENN JONES JR. is. the. retired sympathies lap." - .Y. _..
While Thompson expresses admira- -'editor of the Midlothian Mirror, a four Epstein discounts the committee's be;
tion for the committee's courage iii- page weekly serving a small Texas lief that Oswald somehow worked with
reaching the conclusions it did, he-be- town 25 miles south of Dallas and:. lower-echelon organized crime figures-.
sieves its members were driven to the 'Dealey Plaza. He is the author of 'a "The evidence is so overwhelming tiiat~
ti
i
bef
h
e assass
na
on,
ore t
least political conclusion they could ar-?? Oswald,
series of four self-published books on
rive at by strong, impossible-to-ignore ' the Kennedy assassination titled, "For wanted to. prove..to Fidel (Castro) her
scientific evidence. give My Grief," and editor of a news-
He disagrees, however, with the con- letter "'The T,...,,;,., he saw his uncle only twice (Charles
crime figures, were probably the acting
" . One of.the prime tasks of the news I identifies as amiaar New Orleans or
conspirators. If one concludes that the.
letter is. to publish a massive index { ganized crime figure and a surrogate
y
.r._.
pus low-level members of organized _ _?_.. _ rell , whose files on the assassination-:. ~.; "He (Oswald)- saw himself as a con-4
crime, it remains an apolitical- assassi-. (:are- regarded by most writers and spirator working. secretly with the FBI,J
nation, and.that is only one step above vestigators as. the best.:in'the country Soviets, and CL-X," Epstein continued,r.1
the lone nut.theory we have had. with . 4-The index'consists of 50000 3 by5-inch' "and I - think all the intelligence agen- I
us all these- years,'.' he said. cards. "We're in .Volume 4; No. 1, "and'. cies know more than: they" have said.:
"
Here is the initial problem in my
- Q,,,,.,,: still in the r'cPr Jonessaidi'tt "But to be perfectly frank. we're.
has some connection to this killing- ?.:... p a "--' -- ~- -
But as far- as I know, -his connection ..',.- But: his reputation : nationally owes' to
to organized crime has never been his compilation of what_has come- to
shown, while. his connection to intelli? be, known as the "strange- deaths list.'
gence agencies has beem demonstrated. On the list-originally 15- names- are
"So the question remains: If this . those
associated with the assassination
.
,
u
o
u
gmen
.
e
s a
r
was a low-level killing by organized one way of another whose deaths buted with keepmg public interest high
t
crime
wh
Oswald? How would the
talking about an event that happened 1
16 years ago: We. could have a conspir
ator who died of old age."
MARK LANE HAS been the most
vocal and public of Warren Report
critics since the 1966 publication of his;
book
"R
sh t
J
d
t
" H
i
tt
i
,
y
.- . Jones regards as suspicious. He has in the. further investigation of the as..
committee's theory explain a guy as " added steadily to.tb+a-list:over the
-
sassination throu
h his lecture tour
,
g
s
,-
,
odd as Oswald being involved in the
assassination, if those. (intelligence) records, films, and books,. and also
with being the prime cause of much of
agencies themselves had no connec- the criticism' leveled at the critics for
tion? How did organized crime know V
that Oswald had all these interesting his commercial opportunism and, say
would m Yin the field, his sloppy schol-
(intelli
ence) connections? Wh
g
y
organized crime ' pick Oswald, of all
people.-to be the patsy?
SYLVIA MEAGHER. (pronounced ? "I'm certainiy happy they finally
bly
irac
'
t i
a cons
Y
id
p
y.
s
,
es. i
Mah-er), a former United Nations Bair sa
son officer, is author of the highly re- God, it has taken them 16 years to sap;
garded "Accessories After the Fact" ? that. But then on the same day they
(Bobbs Merrill, 1967), and the first in. said it was a conspiracy, they ad-
dex to the Warren Report. Her one- journed and abandoned the committee.
bedroom apartment on the west side of That's the day they should have gone
New York's Greenwich Village shows to work. Instead, they discontinued
their efforts.'.' " G
the effects of her commitment to- find-
ing answers to the President's murder. EDWARD J. EPSTEIN is one of the
There- are two file cabinets, three clos- youngest of the-first-generation critics.
ets, and four bookcases holding mate- He has written three books on the as- j
rial relating to the assassination. sassination. The first, "Inquest: The I
Like. most of the critics, Meagher Warren Commission and the Establish.
has not yet had, a chance to read the meat of Truth" (Viking, 1966), grew
686-page summary report. But from out of a thesis he wrote at Cornell
what she knows of its conclusions University for a master's degree in
through- newspaper accounts, she thinks political science. His most recent book,1
CONTIITUED
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