Publication Spotlight: Scorpions’ Dance — The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate

For the 50th anniversary of the Watergate break-in: The untold story of President Richard Nixon, CIA Director Richard Helms, and their volatile shared secrets that ended a presidency.

Scorpions’ Dance by intelligence expert and investigative journalist Jefferson Morley reveals the Watergate scandal in a completely new light: as the culmination of a concealed, deadly power struggle between President Richard Nixon and CIA Director Richard Helms.

Nixon and Helms went back decades; both were 1950s Cold Warriors, and both knew secrets about the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba as well as off-the-books American government and CIA plots to remove Fidel Castro and other leaders in Latin America. Both had enough information on each other to ruin their careers.

After the Watergate burglary on June 17, 1972, Nixon was desperate to shut down the FBI’s investigation. He sought Helms’ support and asked that the CIA intervene―knowing that most of the Watergate burglars were retired CIA agents, contractors, or long-term assets with deep knowledge of the Agency’s most sensitive secrets. The two now circled each other like scorpions, defending themselves with the threat of lethal attack. The loser would resign his office in disgrace; the winner, however, would face consequences for the secrets he had kept.

Rigorously researched and dramatically told, Scorpions’ Dance uses long-neglected evidence to reveal a new perspective on one of America’s most notorious presidential scandals.

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE

Editorial Reviews

Review

“In this, his third biography of a senior CIA official, Jefferson Morley’s pen is sharp as a surgeon’s scalpel, his prose honed by years of sifting through information citizens were never meant to see. He gives us hidden history.”
—Anthony Summers, author of The Arrogance of Power and Pulitzer Prize finalist for The Eleventh Day

“Just when you think you’ve read everything there is to read about Watergate, along comes another analysis seen through a different lens. This is particularly true of Jefferson Morley’s new book Scorpions’ Dance: The President, the Spymaster, and Watergate. Mr. Morley’s lens is the relationship between President Nixon and Richard Helms, CIA Director through all but a few months of the Nixon presidency and it reveals a number of unexploded hand grenades previously undiscovered. The central issue is whether these two men enabled each other. No doubt, there is still more to be learned.”
–Gary Hart, United States Senator (Ret.)

“No historian today understands the Cold War White House better than Jefferson Morley. His decades of research into the Kennedy assassination, the intelligence agencies, and national security policy-making in the Vietnam era make him especially well equipped to untangle the complex of narratives, overlapping and conflicting, that comprise the Watergate scandal. Plumbing archival documents and other new evidence, Morley brings sensitivity and probity to his examination of the ill-fated Nixon-Helms relationship, and thereby makes Scorpions’ Dance a must read for students of those tumultuous times.”
–James Rosen, Newsmax chief White House correspondent and author of The Strong Man: John Mitchell and the Secrets of Watergate

“Jefferson Morley has written a fascinating account of the relationship between President Nixon and CIA Director Richard Helms. The book enriches our perspectives on Watergate while explaining how these two towering American Machiavelli’s aided each other’s corrupt ventures, to their own downfall and the disgrace of the high offices they held. It’s a warning to the governing elite in any era.”
–Larry J. Sabato, author of The Kennedy Half-Century and A More Perfect Constitution

“Jefferson Morley’s taut, descriptive prose transports us back in time to relive the momentous events of the 1960s and 1970s, entering the minds of the colorful characters who shaped history to feel what they felt and to reimagine for ourselves the decisions they made and why. His purpose is evident in his open-minded yet relentless pursuit of the truth about the corrosive impact of intelligence covert action on individuals and organizations, and on democracy itself―and to reflect on the consequences of sacrificing truth for the sake of power.”
–Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, former CIA operations officer and senior fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs

“Jefferson Morley has captured, in all its surreal conspiratorial glory, the last sinister tango of a pair of wicked Richards. A riveting story that will make you chuckle and shiver.”
— John Aloysius Farrell, author of Richard Nixon: The Life

“A work that sheds new light on Watergate half a century after the fact.”
— Kirkus

“Eye-opening…Packed with lucid analyses of complex geopolitical events, this is a vital reconsideration of recent American history.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Thoroughly researched…With a complex cast of characters, Cold War espionage, and tense courtroom drama, Morley’s timely book will appeal to readers seeking an in-depth understanding of both Watergate and CIA history.”
—Library Journal

“Morley (The Ghost: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton, 2017) shares more of his insights into the role of the CIA in America’s recent history….The centrality of Nixon and Helms to so many pivotal moments in history makes Morley’s revelations about their sparring even more intriguing.” ―Booklist

“Morley adds rich context to Helms’s half-truth, offering new and fascinating details to what he calls a decades-long ‘clandestine collaborative’ relationship between [Helms and Nixon] … Scorpions’ Dance thoughtfully explores the relationship of the presidency to the intelligence community.” —SpyTalk

About the Author

JEFFERSON MORLEY is a journalist and editor who has worked in Washington journalism for over thirty years, fifteen of which were spent as an editor and reporter at The Washington Post. The author of Our Man in Mexico, a biography of the CIA’s Mexico City station chief Winston Scott, Morley has written about intelligence, military, and political subjects for Salon, The Atlantic, and The Intercept, among others. He is the editor of JFK Facts, a blog. He lives in Washington, DC.

Congressman Cohen Asks President Biden to Release Remaining Documents Relating to the Assassination of President Kennedy

March 29, 2022

Press Release

Doing so would restore public trust by promoting transparency

WASHINGTON – Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) today led a letter to President Biden asking him to release the remaining records related to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The letter was signed by Representatives Anna Eshoo (CA-18) and James McGovern (MA-03).

The letter reads in part:

“We write to express and reiterate our concern regarding the delayed release of the more than 10,000 remaining partially redacted or entirely withheld documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. We urge you to release all remaining documents related to President Kennedy’s assassination pursuant to and in accordance with the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, also known as the ‘JFK Act.’

“The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was among the greatest tragedies in our nation’s history, however, nearly 60 years after that horrific day, the American people are still waiting for the government to fulfill its promise to release the remaining relevant documents. Congress unanimously enacted the JFK Act in 1992 to establish a presumption for immediate disclosure of documents related to the assassination. The purpose of such a law was to restore the public’s trust in government and prevent the spread of conspiracy theories bolstered by secrecy. Fostering transparency and facilitating public scrutiny of the remaining records relating to President Kennedy’s assassination is crucial…

“Although we commend the Biden Administration for the release of a select number of the remaining documents related to President Kennedy’s assassination, we believe it is imperative that the remaining documents be released as soon as possible. We have previously requested a briefing with the appropriate Executive Branch official with knowledge and relevant information of the decision to postpone the release of the remaining records. We write to reiterate that request, and again urge you to reconsider your decision to delay the release of the remaining documents.

“It is our hope that you take this opportunity to exercise the authority vested in you to restore public trust in our government by promoting transparency. We have waited for well over 50 years for the release of these documents, and time is of the essence.”

See the entire letter here.

Publication Spotlight: Josiah Thompson’s Last Second in Dallas

In this long-awaited follow-up to his critically acclaimed 1967 classic, Six Seconds in Dallas, Josiah Thompson reveals major new forensic discoveries since the year 2000 that overturn previously accepted “facts” about the Kennedy assassination. Together they provide what no previous book on the assassination has done—incontrovertible proof that JFK was killed in a crossfire.

Last Second in Dallas is not a conspiracy book. No theory of who did it is offered or discussed. Among the discoveries: The test showing that all recovered bullet fragments came from Oswald’s rifle was mistaken. Several fragments could have come from bullets of any manufacturer and any caliber. The sudden two-inch forward movement of the president’s head in the Zapruder film just before his head explodes is revealed to be an optical illusion caused by the movement of Zapruder’s camera. This leaves without further challenge clear evidence that this shot came from a specific location to the right front of the limousine. Detailed analysis of film frames matched by the newly validated acoustic evidence show a second shot struck the president’s head from behind less than a second later. Result: two killing shots to the head from opposite directions in the final second of the shooting—hence the book’s title.

At once a historical detective story and a deeply personal narrative by a major figure in the field, Last Second in Dallas captures the drama and sweep of events, detailing government missteps and political bias as well as the junk science, hubris, and controversy that have dogged the investigation from the beginning. Into this account Thompson weaves his own eventful journey, that of a Yale-educated scholar who in 1976 resigned his tenured professorship in philosophy to become a private investigator in San Francisco, developing a national reputation.

Profusely illustrated, Last Second in Dallas features dozens of archive photographs, including Zapruder film frames reproduced at the highest clarity ever published.

* * * * *

Dr. Josiah Thompson investigated numerous high-profile murder cases during his thirty-five-year career specializing in criminal defense, including the Oklahoma City bombing as defense investigator for Timothy McVeigh. Thompson’s publications include two books on the Danish existentialist thinker Søren Kierkegaard and a memoir about his jump from professor to detective, Gumshoe. He and his wife Nancy live in northern California.

* * * * *

Author and former private investigator Josiah Thompson holds his new book “Last Second in Dallas” while sitting in the office of his home in Bolinas, Calif. Friday, March 19, 2021. Thompson, a former tenured philosophy professor turned private investigator (now retired) may have just cracked the Kennedy Assassination case. He doesn’t know who did it, but he makes a compelling case for what happened at Dealey Plaza in his late book “Last Second in Dallas.” [Credit, San Francisco Chronicle]

“What Thompson’s narrative contributes to the nation and the field is original forensic data, and the most comprehensive, up-to-date study every published on both the science and the scientists behind the scene of the investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy.”—The Brooklyn Rail

“An eminently worthwhile addition to the literature that includes some game changing research into one of the Kennedy assassination’s key pieces of evidence.”–Martin Hay in Kennedys and King

“Thompson presents the reader with new observations which should erase all doubt of a single gunman in Dealey Plaza. . . . It is highly recommended reading and should be regarded as a significant book in the history of the JFK assassination.”–Dr. Randy Robertson in Kennedys and King

Purchase Last Second in Dallas at Amazon by clicking HERE

Josiah Thompson is back to tell us what really happened to JFK in 1963

San Francisco Chronicle, 5 April 2021

Rebuttal: SUMMARY OF ROBERTSON’S SALIENT MISTAKES

Dr. Gary Aguilar, Dr. Doug DeSalles, Bill Simpich, JD.

[Following is in response to AARC Board member, Dr. Randy Robertson’s review (published 10 March, 2021 at Jim DiEugenio’s website, Kennedys and King) of Last Second in Dallas by Dr. Josiah Thompson. Dr. Robertson’s review may be read by clicking here.]

Mary Ferrell Foundation: State of the JFK Releases 2021

20 March, 2021|Courtesy of Rex Bradford:

This essay discusses the state of the JFK Records Collection as of March 2021. It describes the background and results of the declassifications which occurred in 2017 and 2018, and alerts readers to the re-review which is taking place this year. Particular focus is placed on 3,598 “withheld in full” records which the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) declared would be finally released. Some were, and some weren’t, as will be explained.

A companion page, 2017 Document Releases, discusses the set of records that were released in 2017 and 2018, along with links to read and search them all.

Another companion page, Withheld in Full – 2021 Update, contains an interactive table where the not-released portion of the 3,598 “withheld in full” records may be explored.

Background: The JFK Records Act and the Assassination Records Review Board

Following public outcry over Oliver Stone’s film JFK, Congress in 1992 passed the JFK Records Act. This law created the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB), which from 1994 until 1998 oversaw the declassification of a large number of documents related to the assassination of President Kennedy and the various investigations into his murder; this broad effort included a wide swath of formerly-secret records on Kennedy foreign policy on Cuba and Vietnam, and FBI and CIA and other agencies’ files on myriad related topics and individuals.

The revelations from the declassifications of the 1990s have rewritten the story of the formation of the Warren Commission, thrust into prominence Lee Harvey Oswald’s trip to Mexico City in the fall of 1963 and the allegations of Communist conspiracy emanating from that city, and turned that story on its head with the stunning news that Director Hoover – in a memo to the Secret Service and a now-erased presidential phone call – relayed the FBI’s determination that someone had impersonated Oswald there. Also released were formerly-secret notes of Oswald’s interrogation which include an alibi for his whereabouts, buried testimony about the nature of JFK’s wounds (and thus the direction of shots) which was taken by Congressional investigators and then hidden, documents revealing that CIA officers lied about their knowledge of Oswald before the assassination, a Pentagon false-flag operation named Northwoods outlining terrorist acts which could be implemented and then used to justify a U.S. invasion of Cuba, written plans kept secret for 35 years to withdraw U.S. forces from Vietnam, and so much more, far too voluminous to even summarize here.

The JFK Records Act has been in many ways a great success in reaching toward a fuller history of Kennedy’s murder and its context.

The JFK Collection now sits at over 300,000 records comprising over 5 million pages, plus abundant photographic and audiovisual records. The records processed in the 1990s and later all have a unique 13-digit record number assigned to them and are represented in a master collection database. A substantial portion of the 5 million pages, including voluminous Warren Commission files, predate this system, have no record numbers, and do not appear in the database.

But while the ARRB oversaw a massive declassification effort, it also deferred in many cases to government agencies desiring continued secrecy; tens of thousands of JFK records were released with “redactions” (blackouts) – sometimes as small as a name, sometimes entire pages. And thousands of records remained “withheld in full.”

The JFK Records Act mandated that, 25 years after the passage of the Act, all such records should be released in full, barring a determination by the president that “continued postponement is made necessary by an identifable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations” and “the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.”

The 25-year deadline came on October 26, 2017. But when the 25-year deadline finally arrived, the remaining records were not released in full. Instead, under a process approved by then-President Trump:

Over 34,000 documents were released, or re-released with fewer redactions, in 7 batches in 2017 and 2018.
Hundreds of documents were declared sealed in accordance with Sections 10 and 11 of the JFK Records Act (IRS and Social Security Administration records are exempt from public disclosure, as are those sealed by court order or donated to the Archives under a restrictive “deed of gift”).
On the date of the last batch of releases, April 26 2018, another Trump memorandum authorized a process whereby the more than 15,000 records with remaining redactions would be subject to re-review in 2021.

It is now 2021.

CONTINUE READING AT MARY FERRELL FOUNDATION

Was Khruschev Behind the Assassination of JFK? by Bill Kelly – 5 March, 2021

JFK and Kruschev • Cuban Missile CrisisCuban Missile Crisis John F Kennedy wanted Moon mission to be joint venture with Soviet Union

NO. An emphatic No!

And for many reasons.

For starters, Lee Harvey Oswald was not the sixth floor assassin, was not on the sixth floor of the TSBD at the time of the assassination and therefore the false assumption made by former CIA director James Woolsey, is untrue, so his accusation that Khrushchev told Oswald to kill Kennedy is just as absurd as the on-going CIA disinformation campaign to blame the Dealey Plaza Operation on Fidel Castro.

Every covert intelligence operation has a cover-story, a believable but untrue distraction that is part of the deception aspect of every operation. The original cover-story for the Dealey Plaza Operation, as Peter Dale Scott has pointed out, was what he called the Phase One cover-story to blame the assassination of JFK on Castro Cuban Commies. Evidence of this not only comes from the “so-called evidence” – ie. rifle, that implicated Castro loving Oswald, but by the backgrounds of those who make this claim.

When HSCA investigator Dan Hardway compiled a list of dozens of people who tried to pin the tail on Castro’s donkey in the immediate aftermath of the assassination, he noticed that many if not most of them were friends, associates, agents, operatives or media assets of David Atlee Phillips, the CIA spymaster who specialized in psychological warfare and was the psych war director for Operation Success (Guatemala) and the Bay of Pigs. When Hardway asked Phillips about this when he testified under oath before the HSCA, Phillips acknowledged he knew those people but couldn’t understand why they did what they did.

The Phase One Cuban Castro Commie cover-story was squelched by LBJ himself on Friday evening, between 7 pm and 9 pm, from his Vice President suite in the Executive Office Building next door to the White House. That’s where he learned that the radio news was broadcasting the fact that Dallas D.A. Henry Wade was going to charge Oswald with being part of communist conspiracy, so he had his top aide call around Texas, beginning with Texas Attorney General and order them not to charge Oswald with anything to do with conspiracy. “It could lead to war,” was the excuse not to do it.

As Vincent Bugliosi describes in detail in his book Reclaiming History, Assistant Dallas D.A. William Alexander was being persuaded by Philadelphia Inquirer reporter and editor Joseph Goulden to charge Oswald with “furthering a communist conspiracy,” and Alexander told Goulden he was considering just that.

By the Way, Joe Goulden was not only a media asset of David A. Phillips, he is now responsible for Phillips’ private papers.

Henry Wade was tracked down at a Dallas restaurant and he returned to his office immediately and confronted Alexander about the allegation and Alexander got the message and denied he was going to do that. So then the Phase Two and equally wrong cover-story of the assassination being arranged by a deranged lone nut case began to take shape.

Visit Bill Kelly online at JFK Countercoup to read the entire article

JFKcountercoup: The Tipping Point

JFKcountercoup: The Tipping Point – Revived

JFKcountercoup: Disinformation at Dealey Plaza

Black Propaganda & the JFK Assassination | JFKCountercoup

Now, as this silly game continues, we have former CIA director R. James Woolsey and a former Communist intelligence official Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, write a book that tries to blame Nikita Khrushchev for the assassination.

What this is proof of is that the CIA still continues to believe the real and total truth of the assassination is so important that it has to continue to deceive today.

While I have yet to read the book “Operation Dragon: Inside The Kremlin’s War on America”, and will review it in full ASAP, there were two mainstream newspapers that wrote sensational news reports with headlines like – “Lee Harvey Oswald was told by Soviet Leader to Kill JFK” and “Le Harvey Oswald ordered to kill JFK by Soviets, ex-CIA chief claims.”

For those seriously interested in such disinformation tactics I have posted both UK Daily Mail and the NY Post articles at my alternate blog, JFKCountercoup2:

JFKCountercoup2: Khrushchev and the JFK Assassination – CIA Disinformation Campaign Continues

As I point out in my list of the Top Ten Newly Released Records on the assassination, Khrushchev’s true feelings about the assassination were to ridicule investigative journalist Drew Pearson for believing the silly Phase-Two cover-story that a deranged lone nut case killed the President.

JFKCountercoup2: Kelly’s Top Ten Newly Released Records

3) Drew Pearson’s interview with Khrushchev – 104-10003-10064 DOCID-32105956.PDF. Khrushchev disbelieves the Warren Report and criticized American intelligence agencies. “Pearson repeated that the reaction of Chairman Khrushchev and his wife was one of flat disbelief and archetypical of the universal European belief that there was some kind of American conspiracy behind the assassination of President Kennedy and the murder of Oswald….could not believe that the affair had happened as it apparently did and Mr. Pearson made no headway whatsoever in trying to change their belief that something was not on the level. Chairman Khrushchev greeted Mr. and Mrs. Pearson’s efforts with a tolerant smile…”

And thanks to Jeff Morley for promoting this entry in my list at JFK Facts – JFK Facts » #NewJFKfiles: In 1964 Nikita Khrushchev schooled Drew Pearson on the JFK conspiracy question

It is ironic and sad that Pearson would share the details of his dinner with Mr. and Mrs. Khrushchev with the FBI, but not with the readers of his Washington-Merry-Go-Round column, that was eventually taken over by his assistant Jack Anderson. And Anderson is not a disinterested party in all of this either, as he broke the story of mobster John Rosselli’s involvement in the CIA-Mafia plots to kill Castro run out of JMWAVE.

JFK Facts » #NewJFKfiles: In 1964 Nikita Khrushchev schooled Drew Pearson on the JFK conspiracy question

The original docs thanks to the Blackvault.com

READ Drew Pearson’s report on Nikita Khrushchev‘s thinking about JFK: 5-27-64 Drew Pearson NK DOCID-32105956

RELATED:

Ex-CIA Chief Gives JFK Assassination Some QAnon-Style Spin

WHAT GIVES?

Something fishy is going on here. Any former CIA director knows better.

SpyTalk

Updated Feb. 25, 2021 10:32PM ET / Published Feb. 25, 2021 10:28PM ET

By Gus Russo

Over the last four decades I have navigated the murky shoals of the JFK assassination, seeking to ascertain the truth with an open mind to all possibilities. The multitude of theories that have crossed my transom over all these years range from the ludicrous (Jackie did it) to the most plausible (Oswald did it.) On these treks, and in literally thousands of interviews, I have come to admire—with some exceptions—the men and women of our intelligence services.

So it was with a degree of shock that I recently learned that former CIA Director R. James Woolsey had co-authored a new book that posits a conspiracy theory that resides much closer to the ludicrous side of the JFK spectrum than the plausible, i.e. Khrushchev did it.

In Operation Dragon, co-authored with a former head of Romanian intelligence, the writers channel Qanon-style nonsense by contending that the Warren Commission concluded that Khrushchev hired Lee Harvey Oswald to kill Kennedy, and the proof is in the secret “code words” embedded in the report.

Seriously? Please, Mr. Woolsey, say it ain’t so.

Now, I have to confess I’m relying only on a detailed New York Post review of the book. (I’m busy on Earth.) But according to the Post reportage, the “decoded” Warren Report says the following:

US Marine Oswald was recruited by the KGB when he was stationed in Japan in 1957, whereupon he gave his KGB case officers vital technical details on the CIA’s super-secret U-2 spy plane, info that would help the Sovs shoot down a U-2 flight in May 1960. After Japan, Oswald defected to Moscow, where he became a KGB assassin chosen by Nikita to murder Kennedy. In June 1962, Oswald and his KGB-assigned wife exfiltrated to the US in order to murder Kennedy. In September 1963, two months before doing the deed, Oswald went to Mexico to meet with his Soviet case officer to finalize details.

Note: There is zero evidence for the paragraph you just read.

As Carl Sagan famously said: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” Without even reading the book I feel safe in predicting that Woolsey and his co-author, defector and former Romanian spy chief Gen. Ion Pacepa, not only have no extraordinary evidence, they don’t even have mediocre evidence—that is unless you reside in the “everything is fake news” world, in which case I recommend the Jackie-did-it-with-help-from-aliens theory. It’s the most entertaining. However, if you believe that the Earth is round, let me throw out some actual historical facts.

First, this is not new territory for Gen. Pacepa, who authored a 2007 book, Programmed to Kill, which also named Nikita K. as the bad guy. I did read that book, whose publication was said to have sent Sagan’s poor corpse spinning so fast that there was some belief that it caused a rash of earthquakes that year. In that book, it is clear that Pacepa so desperately wanted Khrushchev to be the bad guy that he piled innuendo upon suspicion upon unfounded allegation upon hearsay in order to convict a man who by all actual accounts respected and admired President Kennedy. To wit:

• At the height of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Khrushchev read JFK’s critical settlement proposal letter aloud to his advisers, then appealed to them for over an hour to trust the American president. Thankfully, they did. Khrushchev later wrote of the crisis: “I’ll always remember the late President with deep respect…he showed himself to be sober-minded…He showed real wisdom and statesmanship…”

• After Kennedy gave his landmark “Peace Speech” at American University in June 1963, Khrushchev called it “the greatest speech by an American President since Roosevelt.”

• Khrushchev’s son Sergei, who later became an American citizen and scholar at Brown University, said in a 2003 interview that his father trusted JFK much more than Nixon or Johnson, whom he considered more of a hawk.

• Sergei, a 28-year-old when Kennedy was killed, was with his father when the news came. He said that his father was so shaken that he wanted to attend the funeral himself, but decided that he didn’t know how the Americans would take it. So he and his wife sent a letter of condolence to Jackie, then he sent his top aide Anastas Mikoyan in his place. In the receiving line, Mikoyan was one of only two men who broke down weeping, so much so that Jackie had to console him as he cradled his head in both his hands. When Khrushchev learned that Kennedy’s killer Oswald had lived in the Soviet Union for two years, Sergei watched as his father immediately picked up the phone and called the KGB to find who this man was and what they knew about him.

• Regarding Oswald, where to begin? Let’s start with the fact that Oswald’s radar assignment in Japan gave him zero information on the U-2 spy planes. His Marine Air Control Squadron-1 unit had nothing to do with them. That was also the conclusion of Soviet defector Yuri Nosenko, KGB Chief Vladimir Semichastny and numerous others.

• Why would the Soviets hire an unstable man such as Oswald for the murder of the century? Oswald slashed his wrists just five days after arriving in Russia; he had a horrible work record at a radio factory. When he returned to the U.S., Oswald did everything he could to draw attention to himself by going on the radio and television in New Orleans, preaching the gospel of Fidel—just what Nikita would want.

• And why would Oswald kill Kennedy for a country he had grown to despise? He left Russia because he hated Soviet Communism once he came into the thrall of Cuban Marxism. One of the biggest arguments he had with his pregnant Russian wife Marina was when he dictated that their child would be named Fidel if it were a boy. Fidel Oswald, there’s something to chew on. Later, when Marina tried to hang herself, Oswald caught her and beat her with his fists. Jason Bourne and James Bond had nothing on this assassin.

Oswald only went to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City because he was told they had to approve his travel to Cuba. There is zero evidence that the Soviet agents he met there were his “case officers.” Like everybody else, they thought he was nuts.

Woolsey and Pacepa seem to have no idea who Lee Oswald really was, a damaged 24 year old who had reached the end of his rope, so he thought he’d go out in a flash and do a simultaneous favor for his hero, Fidel Castro. I could go on for another 5,000 words on the errors just alluded to in the Post treatment of their book.

But here’s the thing: Woolsey has to know all this, and more. He’s no fool. He was a defense policy lifer with a specialty in arms control before Bill Clinton named him to the CIA. Some online critics assert that he is a Russophobe. Others say he just wants to make a buck. Then there’s that Turkey mess. I’ll let the Internet parse that out, but something fishy is going on here. Any former CIA director knows better.