Wednesday, July 16, 2008

CIA “Discovers” More Joannides Documents

by DALE K. MYERS

The CIA asked for an extension earlier this month in the wake of discovering additional documents related to deceased agency operative George Joannides.

The substance of those discoveries is unknown and won’t be known, according to journalist Jefferson Morley, for several weeks.

In June, the agency had asked Judge Richard Leon for an additional extension (the first one granted back in April) by which to respond to Morley’s lawsuit surrounding documents withheld by the agency relating to secret operations involving Joannides and members of several anti-Castro Cuban exile groups, including the Miami-based DRE.

Judge Leon agreed to give the CIA until July 2nd to respond in writing.

At the latest hearing (July 2), the CIA asked for a further extension after reportedly discovering additional documents related to the Morley lawsuit.

Conspiracy advocates suspect that Joannides might have learned about Lee Harvey Oswald in the summer of 1963 (the official record shows that Oswald’s name was brought to Joannides’ attention immediately after the assassination), and that this knowledge may have been passed on to other agency operatives who might have used Oswald in the weeks prior to the assassination.

In response to the 2003 Morley lawsuit, a three-judge appellate court panel ruled in December 2007 that the CIA had to search its files for records of Joannides’ secret operations in 1963, when he served undercover in Miami running "psychological warfare" operations against the government of Fidel Castro. The court also ordered the CIA to explain why 17 reports on Joannides' secret operations in 1962-1964 are missing from the National Archives.

Mr. Morley expects to learn more about the CIA’s latest document discoveries and the long sought after explanation for withholding documents on Joannides sometime next month.

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