Week in Review: Explaining the Epstein Files and Debating Oswald's Surveillance
Guest contributors gave JFK Facts readers the lowdown on Jeffrey Epstein, while site editor Morley detailed the CIA's surveillance of the JFK's accused killer
Any news from the JFK files this past week took a back seat to the furor over release of the so-called Epstein files. From the back of the bus, we reached out to journalists with far more knowledge of this matter than we possess.
From JFK to Epstein
Nina Burleigh is a journalist and author of eight books, including “The Trump Women: Part of the Deal” and “A Very Private Woman: The Life and Unsolved Murder of Presidential Mistress Mary Meyer,” and executive producer for the Peacock documentary series "Epstein's Shadow: Ghislaine Maxwell.” She contributed a guest post, describing how the national mistrust of the official narrative of the deceased financier/trafficker now complements the cynicism still resonating from Dealey Plaza.
The Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy has now mushroomed into a bigger political and social episode than the JFK assassination in the American imagination. Or maybe the Epstein conspiracy is just Part Two in the great, multi-generational American eruption of distrust in The Official Story that the ambush in Dallas initiated more than 60 years ago.
JFK Facts also crossposted a piece from Burleigh’s American Freakshow on Substack, setting out a chronology of the “Known Knowns of the 20-year friendship between Donald and Jeffrey.” Read “Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein: A Timeline of Their Long Bromance” for the facts.
The Israeli Intelligence Connection?
A recurring topic of comments appended to stories on JFK Facts and widely visible on social media relates to the yet-unproven connection of Israeli intelligence to the JFK assassination story — and now in the Epstein controversy. We crossposted a piece from investigative journalist Jon L. Denby’s Substack entitled All the President’s Children: Trump's Epstein Files Cover-up and the Israeli Intelligence Connection describing a cover-up of the connection between Epstein, Maxwell, and Israel's intelligence services, the Mossad and Aman.
JFK Facts editor Jefferson Morley explained:
Two narratives now drive conflict in the American political class. 1) Epstein Affair: Trump has lost control of the pedophile narrative to his critics, MAGA and otherwise; 2) Russiagate: the Obama/Biden narrative of Trump's Russia dealings now face legal challenges. And both of these narrative struggles take place in the shadow of a third, 3) the JFK files. With the recent Washington Post story the "lone gunman" narrative is decomposing. Where all this is going, I don't know. But I do know that the intelligence dimension of the Epstein Affair is key. Jon Denby lucidly summarizes what we know.
CIA Surveillance of Oswald 1959-1963
Back to our coverage of the latest release of JFK documents resulting from House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets’ requests: The JFK Facts report that accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was under CIA surveillance from 1959 to 1963 has been challenged by national security reporters Michael Isikoff and Gus Russo.
Morley responded with a detailed fact-check. He concluded:
what is certain is that the CIA officials who kept track of Oswald for four years — and knew every detail of his biography in October 1963 — failed to prevent JFK’s assassination six weeks later. And that is true whether JFK was killed by Oswald or by others.
After reading Morley’s explication, you can vote in our informal poll: Was Lee Harvey Oswald under CIA surveillance?
On a personal note, I felt it necessary to respond to what I see as a coordinated attack by proponents of the CIA’s “nothing to see here” position that has involved not only denial of the facts, but insults to the journalistic integrity of JFK Facts’ editor Morley, repeatedly referring to him as a “conspiracy entrepreneur.”
It’s posted on my Desk Set Research Substack.
New on the JFK Facts Video Channel
Ryan Carter continues to add to our video content to our YouTube channel.
Watch as Bernard Le Grelle, veteran French JFK author, reveals what French president Charles de Gaulle thought privately about JFK’s murder. With superb connections in the French elite, Le Grelle tells of CIA-backed assassination plots against de Gaulle along with an amazing story: Robert Kennedy told the French president that his brother’s murder was a “coup d’etat.” Podcast link is here.
JFK Facts editor Morley joined “Elizabeth Vargas Reports” to discuss the newly declassified files and whether there was a larger cover-up surrounding Kennedy’s death than previously suspected. See the clip from NewsNation here.
Tweet of the Week
243,496 pages are a lot to read. You can read them here. We’ll be looking and learning from MLK experts on what’s new in these files.
The CIA became addicted to stifling FBI investigations while JE Hoover was in charge and the practice taunts us this very day. Even worse DOJ seems to have been owned by CIA since 2010 when chief crook rendered the SCOTUS opinion in favor of big money controlling politics in overturning a previous ruling in the Citizens United case. I always enjoy this info.