Oswald and JFK UNSOLVED CASES — Part 2: The Chessmaster - NHK WORLD PRIME

[Music] what is the us government hiding about president kennedy's assassination decades later the world is still seeking the truth the u.s government has long withheld key kennedy-related files from public disclosure [Music] president trump vowed to release them all then suddenly backtracked was he afraid of something [Music] nhk worked with a group of 66 campaigners for the truth and unearthed information that challenges the official account one organization stands out in the emerging picture [Music] the cia america's central intelligence agency it has always denied any involvement in kennedy's death [Music] from documents and testimony we reenacted lee harvey oswald's path to dallas [Music] so japan is the genesis while serving as a u.s marine oswald was stationed in atsugi japan marx again you dirty soviet's fine crush authority never thought i'd meet a bunch of revolutionaries in japan that's where he was approached by a man who said he was with the cia there are a woman in here whose strings are being pulled by the soviets midori lived in yokohama come set my soul mom have you heard of manifesto of the communist party mom [Music] in oswald's life the shadows of poverty and loneliness loom you can get large it's not too right he became a devoted marxist and even defected to the soviet union however oswald is a pawn pawns are disposable [Music] [Applause] that both sides begin anew the quest for peace in january 1961 john f kennedy became the 35th president of the united states it was an event that set oswald hurtling toward a devastating finale the trigger was pulled on the kennedy assassination six months earlier when dallas witnessed another shooting i've left whatever money i can't you and the baby have enough to live on ten dollars a week for two months if i'm alive if i'm alive and in jail [Music] i'll be in the jail at the end of the bridge we always cross to go into town [Music] boom lee what in the world is going on what have you been what is this hey you're shaking your face is so pale tell me lee lia tell me i shot general walker you what i don't know if i hit him or not ask me anything else he told me not to ask any more questions please he said he was very bad man that he was leader of fascist organization maybe if hitler be killed sooner many life would be saved i said it may be true but it is not right to use rifle to take someone's life did he say how long he'd been planning this he said two months but i think perhaps based on behavior maybe more would you like to take a short break right now no thank you better get it over with oswald's true motive remains obscure but marina testified that soon after the walker shooting something puzzling occurred several days later the modern shield stopped by george the mooring shield said to be oswald's closest friend helped the oswalds on their return from the soviet union sure lee why did you miss i could see lee look at me he suspect i tell maureen shields about it but i thought lit told maureen schultz what are you talking about general walker come on man i'm joking lighten up i could see his expression change he was he was speechless [Music] years after kennedy's assassination and right before a government inquiry demorenshield died in an apparent suicide but before his death he revealed crucial details when kennedy assassination researcher dick russell interviewed george de moranshield he got a name jay walton moore was a friend of demoren shields cia agent j walton moore moore was the cia representative in dallas it's my understanding that he asked demoren shield to take care of this young man on behalf of the cia and you know make sure what's that what he's see what he's up to see what he's doing help him get connected in in texas in the fall of 2019 came a major new development the setting was a conference featuring the 66 key in canada campaigners situation you see his head look back and his back follows what people say attending was oliver stone director of the hit film jfk and one of the 66 as well as journalists doctors lawyers and other experts one presenter in particular made a huge impact ralph larson is going to be the closest person that you probably are ever going to come across that's going to resemble james bond former cia official ralph morat larsen was formerly the cia for 23 years he had a variety of domestic and this is the novel version i would write of how a handful of cia officers did it so it's kind of a road map there's something key about walker moet larsen says the walker shooting prompted a rogue faction in the cia to start plotting against the president well so these are different medals we get in the in the cia for different things [Music] larson former chief of the cia's europe division has a distinguished reputation in the intelligence community he retains deep loyalty to the cia and believes that the organization itself was not involved in jfk's assassination so why does he point the finger at cia personnel [Music] the one thing i am embarrassed about as a cia officer are unwillingness to look into this seriously and the cover-ups that occurred historically into not coming clean on what the agency's testimony should have been the hunt the search the intellectual curiosity is so important for our country because it involves truth it impales our identity it involves doing the right thing does he have documents that prove it no according to moet larsen there is virtually no chance that documents proving rogue cia personnel were involved still exist so what leads him to suspect cia elements it was 23 years as a cia case officer who knew a lot of crazy people in the cia he bases his suspicion on his own long years of experience as a cia case officer [Music] it is case officers he says who plan covert operations recruiting and manipulating human assets to carry them out that is why the walker shooting is key de morin short would have told the cia that oswald was the culprit but they took no action that indicates a cia case officer's involvement [Music] i think the key was he wasn't arrested uh in the in the sense that he has the wood called the pitch pitch pitch a pitch in general a pitch is when you recruit someone to work for you if the cia made the pitch to oswald this is moet larsen's interpretation of how it may have gone i'm gonna take a piss um who are you hey i know what you did [Music] my name is maurice bishop and just say i'm uh maurice bishop i just made that name up you tried to kill edwin walker did you not yeah you listen you know the rifle you know everything you have the evidence you have two options you could turn yourself into the dallas police the fbi accept your punishment or you work with us and live a new life are you trying to threaten me no we're presenting you with an opportunity you were discharged from the marines you defected to the soviet union and when you came back with no job you shot walker that's three strikes you're done a lot of other things that were disloyal this is your last chance you work with us and you work with us you do what we tell you to do you do what we tell you to do for your country you won't just save yourself lee save yourself please you will be a hero they've literally blackmailed them and he essentially became an agent off the books if it's a cia rogue operation to kill the president from april to november it's elegant and simple it's not complicated it's not a moving plan it's not an oliver stone movie with respect for him it's not that it's a cia operation planned by professionals a retired high-level cia officer making a bombshell case with his insight as an insider how do other cia insiders assess his version this is retired cia senior official milton bearden like mowad larsen he has years of experience as a case officer and i have a lot of respect for uh young ralph moore larson if he's studied it very intensely and thinks it's something else and that it was possibly rogue members of the agency and and and and that pulled together a great conspiracy on this yo he can have that you know i let him have that idea my one problem is that after decades since kennedy was shot in dallas if it was a conspiracy it never leaked they came in a checkmate good morning good morning david hunt is a former cia new york station chief who had recently joined the agency at the time of the assassination i was really very surprised and the assertion that an agency officer uh would be involved in a in a plot to assassinate the president just to me is uh not possible what do you think of the the conclusion of warren report do you believe that no i don't why could you tell me i i just i just think it's not realistic other cia veterans have grave doubts but mowad larsen says certain people do at least fit the profile of someone who might have been behind the assassination one of the things culturally i don't know if i've emphasized enough is there so few case officers in the agency anyway particularly case officers with common backgrounds and languages and serving in a certain division area everybody knows each other [Music] a case officer is responsible for operations in a specific region in the 1960s it seems there were a few hundred case officers around the globe [Music] who could have accessed the oswald file mowad larsen focused on case officers in the domestic contacts and western hemisphere divisions [Music] i would say there couldn't have been more than a dozen to two dozen people who would fit the description of a credible mastermind and then you begin to look for evidence by looking deeper at each of the potential suspects personal motives and connections could hold the key how might that work in practice so the one you want to look at is you know if you take a name you could look at someone like jake ester line and the other one was was walton moore here are two people that are at least circumstantially implicated as people you would want to focus on a man closely linked to demoran shield dallas station representative j walton moore and jacob jake esteline there's probably something personally binding between those persons they have to be people who really trust each other one of the things i found that's just striking is the number of people that are in the covert action business in the early days of the agency who came right out of the office of strategic services in world war ii and transferred over to cia as walter moore was in oss with ester line in the same battalion in burma estherline is one example of a case officer who could be imagined to have a clear motive he was cia project director for the bay of pigs invasion in cuba under castro's rule cuba embraced communism and aligned itself with the soviet union the u.s military and the cia among others wanted to bring down castro's regime but president kennedy did not authorize full air cover the operation failed and many of estelline's operatives died any unilateral american intervention in the absence of an external attack upon ourselves or an ally would have been contrary to our traditions and to our international obligations [Music] moreover kennedy forced out his then cia director and deputy director to take responsibility for the bay of pig's failure the president even considered breaking up the cia the resentment toward the president among the cia was about to explode another former intelligence official familiar with the atmosphere inside the agency at that time is ray mcgovern when i entered the agency we were treated to a lecture by a operations officer uh he uh gave us several accusations about how john kennedy had no guts had no courage and was soft on communism and didn't live up to his promises at the bay of pigs and i at the time being a young young 20s said well you know this is really bizarre this fellow works for president kennedy like i do why all this hatred why all this uh uh oil is invective the soviet nuclear weapons program in cuba was advancing rapidly if nuclear war were to break out global casualties were projected to reach tens of millions mcgovern says elements within the cia were developing a warped patriotism that justified any and all means in the name of defending america you don't know about soviet attitudes we have to do everything we can to make sure that the communists don't get anywhere near the western hemisphere and cuba and that when we have a chance to zap them we zap them even if it costs 10 million u.s lives crazy this is a patriotic thing we get rid of this guy and then we can protect ourselves against these goddamn communists if there were rogue cia agents stoked by a sense of patriotic duty what linked them to oswald and the kennedy assassination [Music] the warren commission's official finding was that oswald was a lone assassin to mow at larson this has the hallmarks of a typical piece of intelligence tradecraft a great chess player always thinks through the end game and then plans the the game to get go towards that end game the end game was to kill the president and have everybody believe it was a lone gunman and make lee harvey oswald look like the lone person involved in every operation cover story is essential the cover story a scheme to conceal the true identity and activity of operatives three months until the dallas parade we need to make our decision soon age 24 grew up in dallas he's our guy his family father died before he was born mother changed jobs and husbands numerous times he's a lonely kid who grew up in poverty most of his life poverty and lack of affection have made him an escapist a lonely boy who ran away into an imaginary world very good he moved around a lot got picked down in school became anti-social stopped going to school and became obsessed with spy movie excellent his inferiority complex made him obsessed with heroism anything else by age 15 he was identified as a marxist wow hey mom have you ever read manifesto of a communist party mom mom we're starting to develop a clear image of our perpetrator said he wanted to kill eisenhower that's rather vicious okay he's got a deep-rooted resentment against authority he constantly seeks new environments and denies his current circumstances at age 18 while serving as marine and atsugi criticized u.s imperialism now he may have been under the influence of a japanese woman his first love turns out the girl was kgb clever bastards the light still shine for you ten thousand years from now people will read about us in history books i want history to see me as a hero and the desire to play some kind of role in history after that he defected to the soviets he sought out kgb spies who had infiltrated us oh my god no and he went of his own volition he followed his tenants of communism why do you wish to defect to the soviet union it's based on my political beliefs i'm a marxist disillusioned by the soviet union he returned home ussr if his dreams had been shattered he was labeled a traitor when he came back his laugh was real hard you can't leave the baby alone even for a moment do you understand stop it a mother can't leave her child never his resentment pushed his political ideology into violence now walker is an anti-communist extreme rad winger crystal clear line of reasoning how's the investigation into the case it's going nowhere there are no suspects are there any witnesses none great after the finale the perpetrator will be identified will be the same individual as the walker incident a vicious crime motivated by political ideology so [Music] we have checkmate and they promise him if i were handling him it's like it's hard to imagine this is a cia officer sounds so monstrous but if i'm his handling officer i'm reassuring him i'm saying once you we do this lee and we save the country remember what we're doing here we're saving the country this will save our country this will save our country we've got to do this for the country the vice president's awareness whatever that's what i would do anyway you can't check no fact checks i said don't worry after you're done you're gonna get exfiltrated don't worry once you're done you'll be exfiltrated [Music] the day before kennedy was shot oswald then living apart from marina visited her at the home of a friend with whom she was staying when he came on the weekend yes he would have been in that room over there together with marina yes exactly and the first one child and then two children marina testified about her final encounter with her husband that night [Music] let's run an apartment and live together again i told you i don't want to it's much better if you visit us here at ruthson weekends much cheaper to live this way we'll start a new laugh tomorrow real life new life with proper yes i promise [Music] because i discovered a light on in the garage i figured he probably was in the garage for a while that evening i learned later that he had made a wrappings of paper to wrap the rifling to go back to the school book depository [Music] and on the fateful day the same model of rifle used to shoot at walker was taken into the texas school book depository was oswald instructed to do that was he being made to look like a lone [Music] wolf oh where's my jacket and my smokes where's my jacket and my smokes i was heading to lunch and i had gotten downstairs and had realized that i left my cigarettes and my jacket upstairs so i went back upstairs to go get it and yes forgot summit yeah yeah man i forgot my jacket and my smokes and what are you doing up here just taking a break shut the door by the elevator on your way down will you uh looking from every window here in downtown dallas and it was a wonderful welcome man oh look vr pc hey way that way i know you know you have to see kennedy you just want to see jackie [Applause] the warren commission the u.s government's official investigation concluded that after the president had passed oswald fired three shots at him from a window on the sixth floor warren commission said without any doubt that they expressed no doubt that oswald was the one who uh fired all the shots i doubt him working with researchers nhk investigated the series of events on the day of the assassination a lot of the evidence indicates that it was right here at the grassy knoll some of those witnesses were eliminated but there was definitely a gunman seen in this area we combed through the depositions of some 200 eyewitnesses interviewed by the government 55 heard shots from the direction of the book depository behind the president's car but 30 said they heard shots from the vicinity of the grassy knoll ahead of the car but the warren commission report did not incorporate these accounts stating there is no credible evidence that the shots were fired from any other location than the book depository building three two one [Applause] stop get over here do you know this man yes yes yes he does work here he does and you're sure absolutely 100 let's go eyewitnesses placed oswald in the second floor lunchroom 90 seconds after jfk was shot and on the sixth floor 35 minutes before the shooting according to the report but we now know that the government suppressed disclosure of records that differ from the warren commission account [Music] notes taken by an fbi agent who interrogated oswald after his arrest states oswald then went outside to watch the parade [Music] and testimony from others who worked in the building backs up his account one woman is said to have seen oswald on the first floor at 12 25 pm five minutes before the assassination crucial information why would it be excluded from the official findings [Music] only problem is this guy has not directly criticized our man not even once that isn't necessary anymore we can lead him there with this file we'll never find a better fit than him [Music] good was it perhaps a cover story created by rogue cia agents that would match moet larsen's [Music] if analysis had really acted on his own it is hard to explain his perplexing actions after kennedy was shot [Music] narrowly avoiding being hit by a car oswald boarded a public bus then quickly got off and caught a taxi examination of the events suggests he was panicking as he tried to escape he doesn't plan his own escape and my contention is a good explanation for why he didn't plan his escape because he didn't think he would need to have an escape plan i've planned exfiltrations of agents myself the way it works is you you give them a plan ahead of time in a sedan it's this color this license plate and and we're going to get you to an exfiltration site you're going to be taken to latin america [Music] and the plan for oswald would have been very simple leave your rifle in the texas book depository walk down the stairs nonchalantly walk to the street corner here and here x marks the spot and you'll be picked up [Applause] pandemonium [Applause] [Music] he realized he didn't set up he goes i was a patsy and now it's i'm going to be set up for this whole thing one hour and 20 minutes after the assassination of kennedy oswald was arrested just confirmed that texas governor john connolly also was shot at the same time as president kennedy as the two men rode in the same car in a motorcade who do you work for did you shoot the president did you shoot the prisoner but he denies we'll start a new laugh tomorrow [Music] i promise [Music] did you should be president no they're taking me in because of the fact that i lived in a soviet union i'm just a patsy immediately after the arrest a bulletin was sent to media across the u.s it labeled oswald a pro-castro communist this instantly established an image of oswald as the culprit reporter jefferson morley has been trying to identify a possible ringleader the bulletin was distributed by a new orleans-based anti-castro group called dre nhk's research uncovered clues linking the dre with the cia in fact before the assassination the cia was lavishly funding the dre with 51 000 per month the dra which is completely a cia asset and funded by the cia that whole chain of events we now know was set up and orchestrated by cia people oswald as the patsy and cuba killed kennedy to follow up that lead morley helped us contact a significant former dre figure a former spokesperson for dre jose antonio la noosa he is the one who forwarded the oswald information to the media right away what happened is that cia i think based on what we have learned now they wanted to have control of the delegation i did i did what a dog is supposed to do with a bone and i did that lanosa acknowledges that he acted on behalf of the cia he also reveals who ran the dre under the cia's control in 1963 his name was howard and the nom de gea the name that he used and that was george ionines george jonidas a case officer active in new orleans at the time [Music] internal cia documents identify his operational specialty joanidas made use of dre to conduct what the cia called psychological warfare propaganda joe aniti's paid the dre for propaganda political action and intelligence collection we're making public the idea that this guy was a communist a castro supporter somebody who was on the other side that's what this whole operation did and that that was joe anita's job our reporting in this matter spotlights a group of cia agents gone rogue good work who might have been positioned above rogue case officers of this kind good work thank you molly's search to pin down a figure who might have pulled the strings continues sometimes history takes a long time to resolve itself and uh this is what we're going on 60 years you know might take longer than that it will take longer than that [Music] the warren commission report concluded that there was no evidence that lee harvey oswald was part of any conspiracy domestic or foreign but it contains nothing attributed to oswald about any motive at all i never i never heard lee say a bad word about president kennedy not once he never heard say a bad word against him clay was never happy no matter where he was i think perhaps we would be happy on the moon [Music] there is come said my soul such verses from my body let us rock for we are one that should i have to return or long long hence in other spheres there to some group of mates the chants are zooming ever with pleasing smile i may keep on ever and ever yet the verse is owen as first are here and now signing for soul and body said to them my name every thoughtful citizen who despairs of war and wishes to bring peace should begin by looking inward by examining his own attitude towards the possibilities of peace and towards freedom and peace here at home our problems are man-made therefore they can be solved by man and man can be as big as he wants no problem of human destiny is beyond human beings man's reason and spirit have often solved the seemingly unsolvable and we believe they can do it again 57 years have now passed since the kennedy assassination [Music] the cia responded to nhk's inquiries by stating that some materials cannot be released for reasons of national security the cia has never denied or affirmed any involvement in the assassination [Music] [Music] me [Music] you

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Length: 50min 5sec (3005 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 04 2020