Nov. 23 1963: The CIA Paid for the First JFK Conspiracy Theory

Cuban students supported by the Agency linked Oswald to Castro.

On November 23, members of the Cuban Student Directorate, a CIA-funded organization based in Miami, published a special edition of their monthly magazine, Trinchera (Trenches), in which they linked the accused assassin Lee Oswald to Cuban president Fidel Castro.

This was the first JFK conspiracy scenario to reach public print.

According to declassified CIA records, it was paid for by undercover officer, George Joannides.

The leaders of the Directorate, also known by its Spanish acronym DRE, received $51,000 a month from the CIA, according to this April 1963 memo found in the JFK Library in Boston.

Within the CIA, the Directorate was known by the code name AMSPELL. The group was "conceived, created and funded by the Agency in September 1960 and terminated in December 1966," according to an CIA memo, dated April 1967.

"Members were used through 1966 as political action agents for publishing propaganda ... and producing radio propaganda and special propaganda campaigns,' the memo states.

Joannides, chief of psychological warfare operations in the CIA's Miami station, handled contacts with the group, according to his July 31, 1963, job evaluation. In return for CIA support, the group engaged in "intelligence collection, political action and propaganda."

The DRE publication emphasized remarks Oswald had made during debate on a New Orleans radio program with DRE delegate Carlos Bringuier in August 1963. Oswald and Castro, the group, concluded were "the presumed assassins."

The CIA recently admitted for the first time that Joannides maintained a residence in New Orleans, while stationed in Miami.

Thus the first JFK conspiracy theory, paid for by the CIA, was published within 24 hours of Kennedy's murder.

Background:

CIA admits undercover officer lived in New Orleans (Nov. 11, 2013)

 5 Decades Later Some JFK FIles Still Sealed (Associated Press, Aus. 18. 2013)

Justice Dept. denies CIA officer was honored for coverup (JFK Facts,Dec. 17, 2012)

Court uphold public benefit of disclsoure about CIA officer in JFK story (JFK Facts, June 19, 2013)

CIA Still Cagey About Oswald Mystery (New York Times, October 17, 2009)

Morley v. CIA: Why I sued the CIA for JFK assassination records (JFK Facts, Feb. 23, 2013)