Another piece of the jigsaw puzzle has been made public in the decades-long drip, drip, drip of information regarding the JFK assassination. Newly released documents reveal -- as was long suspected -- that a CIA operative was tailing Lee Harvey Oswald. This comes despite multiple denials that anyone from the nation’s chief intelligence agency had been lurking around the 23-year-old who has held the title of lone assassin since John F. Kennedy’s murder in Dallas, TX, on Nov. 22, 1963.
One document from the 40 released on July 4 detailed surveillance of Oswald by CIA operative George Joannides operating under the alias “Howard Gebler.” In the memo dated Jan. 17, 1963, Joannides was instructed to obtain a false Virginia driver’s license under the “Gebler” name. Additionally, his cover would include representing himself as an “attorney” who lives in Northwest DC and wears glasses.
JFK Assassination -- Tangled Web of Deceit
“Gebler” was assigned to infiltrate (and some say fund) student-led anti-Castro organizations, such as the Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil, more commonly known as DRE. This permitted Joannides, aka Gebler, to come into contact with Oswald, who self-identified as a pro-Castro Marxist. In fact, a camera recording of a street fight in New Orleans between the DRE and Oswald, who was handing out Fair Play for Cuba pamphlets, was unearthed later.
Despite all this activity, the Central Intelligence Agency repeatedly denied any involvement with the DRE or Oswald. JFK assassination expert Jefferson Morley was quoted in Axios, saying, “The cover story for Joannides is officially dead,” adding, “This is a big deal. The CIA is changing its tune on Lee Harvey Oswald.”
To make matters worse, Joannides played a part “in deceiving the House Select Committee on Assassinations” and hiding “that he was involved with DRE and therefore the Kennedy case, slow-walked the CIA's production of records, and lied,” according to Axios. This extensive deception was always suspect but could not be proven as false until last week's document release.
Oswald: Conspirator or Chief Patsy?
Nothing in this newly released file directly implicates the CIA undercover operative as taking part in the murder of JFK. Still, it does raise questions about the agency’s involvement with Oswald and the ensuing cover-up. As for Joannides, he received a meritorious commendation from the CIA in 1981 and subsequently passed away in 1990.
Ever since that fateful day in Dallas, TX, the American public has been sharply divided about who was really behind the assassination of the 35th president. A survey by Gallup in 2023 held that 65% of Americans believe there was a conspiracy with the US government, “named most often as co-conspirator (20%), up from 2013.” Countless books have been written, and numerous television documentaries have been made, either fostering conspiracy theories or attempting to dispel them. This latest document dump is likely to fuel further speculation rather than quell it.
