Y2K Bug Bites SF

jfk-assassination-a-cia-insiders-view-by-jim-wilcott "...CIA was coming of age, developing into a sophisticated disciplined corps of specialists. TSD (Technical Services Division) was beefed up. Bazaar and esoteric techniques were developing through the use of chemistry, photography, graphics, psychology, etc., and particularly, electronics. Computer sciences were widely applied on an enormously expanded scale.
At Tokyo Station this was manifested in a great clamping down. At lower levels we saw it in the form of speed-up. Jobs were cut leaving offices short handed requiring us to work harder. Allowances for housing, rugs, drapes and personal vehicle mileage reimbursement, etc., were more carefully audited. Housing, in particular, was not the juicy fringe extra that it formerly was. There was much grumbling about jobs being filled by "outsiders" rather than promotions from within. In operations, greater reliance on deep cover assets outside the station cut into the more sensitive projects that bought the higher promotions. Sweeping changes in the Cryptonym and coding system made more work for everyone. More strict enforcement of security, compartmentalization and need-to-know were imposed. Security violations became more serious. Fun and games that were formerly a fringe benefit (with booze, women and expensive nightclubs) in the guise of operational necessity were not as easy to pull off. Safe houses were more restricted to operational uses. Criticism in earshot of supporters became unwise. These were the developments that occurred from the invasion fiasco to November 23, 1963. With the assassination came more criticism and talk outside the confines of the "need-to-know" principle especially after a few drinks away from the station, to let off steam. Lee Harvey Oswald was a favorite subject. He had been trained at Atsugi Naval Air Station, a plush, super secret, cover base for Tokyo Station special operations. As I understood it, SR Branch had the responsibility for it with much special expertise and direction from Headquarters. The U-2 flights that originated from there were a major project or CIA. The Chief of Station, William V. Broe, and later Pete Wheeler also supervised it closely.
Oswald was recruited from the military for the express purpose of becoming a double agent assignment to the USSR. It was said that they had some kind of special "handle" on him. Perhaps, went the speculation, they had discovered that he had murdered someone or committed some other serious crime, during a routine lie detector test. In any case it was a very risky assignment. CIA taught him Russian and it was said that he had been to the farm (CIA's agent training camp, Camp Peary, Va.) although probably not in one of the regular agent training programs. He may not have even known that he had been there. (That was often done with very special cases. They would be put to sleep and wake up in a strange place and be told that it was some other place than the farm). Although they said that he knew he was, working for CIA, he was kept rigidly compartmented from any of the normal contacts that a regular CIA employee would have. The operational people that I knew never admitted that they were working on the project, although some hinted at it. Jerry Fox, an SR agent who purchased Soviet information, may have been one of them. The Deputy Chief of SR, (first name was Dave, I've forgotten his last name) may also have been one, too. (We went drinking once in Shinjiku with a small group of other people). More than once, I was told something like "so-and-so was working on the Oswald project back in the late 50's."
Conversations with the SR people were not numerous, however. Very few took place and were short. While Support, Korea Branch, China Branch and Japan Branch people talked more SR was quite tight-lipped about it. This was once offered as proof that there was such an SR project. It was, also, not a topic of continual or loose discussion or chatter. I was somewhat cautious in talking about it except with my closest friends and then always away from the building. Some others would say that this was a subject that was better not discussed.
It was said that they had many difficulties with Oswald, the exact nature of which has been forgotten. Critics said that it was a stupid project from the start. They should have known that the Soviets would never buy the story. He was a poor subject for such a deep cover operation. There were too many compromising facets to his background, which would make it a difficult story to sell.
When Oswald returned from the USSR in June of 1962, either on his way back or after he got back, he was brought back to Japan to either Atsugi or Yokosuka for debriefing, it was assumed. At one point, soon after Ruby shot Oswald, I was talking with someone, I can't recall whom for sure and I expressed disbelief about Oswald even being a CIA project. I was told something like "Well, Jim, so and so drew an advance sometime in the past from you for Oswald "or" for that project under such and such a crypto. It was a familiar cryptonym to me at the time, which I have since forgotten, as well as the time that the advance of funds were drawn.
Among the close circle of friends with which I discussed all this openly, there was no doubt that Ruby was paid by CIA to do away with Oswald, and Oswald was a patsy. Information from other rather tight social circles would occasionally come our way and we would seize upon it and try to fit it into our own version of the scenario. There was no doubt that CIA was in "as thick as thieves" with the Dallas Police. Several different individuals or firms in Dallas had been involved in one way or another with acting as cutouts for arms shipment to Cuban exiles for the invasion. This we concluded from putting various pieces of information together. I remember hearing about some CIA people, who had somehow helped the right-wing Minute Men in Texas to get arms, originally intended for the invasion.
One of the reasons given for the necessity to do away with Oswald was the difficulty they had with him when he returned. Apparently, he knew the Russians were on to him from the start, and this made him very angry.
After one discussion we had, it seemed quite likely that the original assassination project may have been to kill Kennedy and blame it on Oswald, who would be solidly linked to Castro as a pretext for another invasion attempt or build up. "