At Tuesday's House Oversight Committee hearing, Dan Hardway, a former staffer on the Select Committee on Assassinations, alleged that the CIA has obstructed information surrounding the actions of Lee Harvey Oswald in investigations into the JFK assassination.
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00:00for five minutes. Thank you for your testimony. Mr. Hardaway, it's clear that you faced firsthand
00:09the obstruction by the CIA. Would that be accurate to say in your investigations? Yes.
00:17And specifically, they used methods like use of sealed envelopes, redacted file,
00:25redactions that violated the 1977 Memorandum of Understanding. My question really is about
00:33what seems to be evident is that they were very much obstructing any information about
00:39Oswald's interactions in Mexico City. Is that accurate? That's correct. Why do you think that is?
00:46I believe that we can draw reasonable inferences from the evidence that is of record and that is
00:54very persuasive and clearly of record that are facts and not theories that clearly point to the
01:02fact that Lee Harvey Oswald was being used in an operation in Mexico City in September of 1963
01:10and early October of 1963. The nature of the operation was a dangle and a propaganda operation
01:18designed to discredit the Fair Play for Cuba committee. It was designed and ran by George
01:24Gionides under the supervision of David Attlee Phillips, who had been leading the CIA's anti-FPCC efforts since 1958.
01:39And it was a very successful operation. The Cuban consulate had just recently opened. The operation allowed them to observe from a distance the interactions and reactions of the, not just the Cuban consulate, but the Soviet embassy to Oswald's presenting himself.
02:01And it also went a real long way to discrediting the FPCC. In addition to that, you can see the exact same pattern of operation was conducted using Oswald in New Orleans in August of 1963, in which he encountered the DRE, also encountered student groups. It's almost the exact, it's a shadow of what they then did in Mexico City.
02:29Now, the fact that, in my opinion, the fact that they ran Oswald operationally in Mexico City, does not mean necessarily, or even inferentially, that they were involved in the actual assassination.
02:46It's entirely possible that on November 22nd, two of the most surprised men in the world were David Attlee Phillips and George Gionides.
02:57And, consequently, the one doesn't necessarily lead to the other in any way, shape, or form.
03:09But, stop and think about it. If they were running an operation in which the accused shooter was involved as an asset, either witting or unwitting, think about the motivation for cover-up.
03:24It had to be something extraordinary that they were covering up in order to violate their charter, and in spite of the Houston agreement that agrees not to prosecute CIA officers for crimes committed in the furtherance of their duties in the United States,
03:41In spite of that, they feloniously obstructed a congressional investigation.
03:48There had to be something significant that they were covering up, and what that significance was.
03:54And, basically, David Robarge, the CIA historian, has, in a backhanded way, admitted that in things he's written, was the use of Oswald in an operation in Mexico City.
04:06So, you think that it was, if you had to be pressed on it, it sounds like there's two scenarios.
04:11One is that Oswald, I mean, both scenarios, Oswald had some involvement and connection with the CIA.
04:18But, in one scenario, he's being directed by individuals in the CIA to commit the assassination.
04:25And, then, the other scenario is that he did it, and they just flubbed.
04:29They didn't pick up on the fact that he was planning this assassination.
04:34I don't think we can draw any inference from the evidence on any of that.
04:38As to whether or not he was being directed in the assassination, I don't think that David Phillips and George Gionides were directing him in the assassination.
04:47I don't think they would have been using him in Mexico if they did.
04:50Some of the documentation indicates recently, from the 2017 release, that he was not alone when he went to Mexico City.
04:57There, I can't say that he wasn't alone from the research we did in Mexico City.
05:02What we couldn't rule out was that he was imitated, or that another person was there pretending to be Oswald.
05:09Or, that some of the telephone conversations that were recorded on the taps at the Russian and Cuban facilities were actually Oswald speaking.
05:21In fact, it's pretty clear that some of the calls that claimed to be Oswald were not Oswald.
05:27Wow. Thank you. My time has expired.