http://www.nexusmagazine.com/articles/angleton.html
The CIA, UFOs, MJ-12, JFK & JAMES JESUS ANGLETON,... ANY CONNECTION TO
"Project SERPO?"
FLASHBACK THROUGH TIME: As the CIA's Counterintelligence Chief, James
Jesus Angleton had access to the Agency's most closely guarded secrets,
including MJ-12 files on UFOs –
Extracted from Nexus Magazine, Volume 7, Number 4 (June-July 2000).
James Jesus Angleton was born on December 9, 1917 in Boise, Idaho, to
NCR businessman/OSS Colonel James Hugh Angleton and Mexican-born Carmen
Mercedes Moreno. Upon graduation from Yale in 1941, Angleton moved to
Harvard Law School where he met his future wife, Cicely d'Autremont, of
Duluth, Minnesota.
Inducted into the U.S. Army on March 19, 1943, Angleton was recruited
into the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in August through the
efforts of Angleton's father and Norman Pearson, his old English
professor from Yale who at that time was head of the OSS
Counterintelligence division in London.1
OSS COUNTERINTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS DURING WW II
James Jesus Angleton was assigned the Rome desk after Italy's
capitulation to the Allies, and was made an OSS Lieutenant who ran
counterintelligence (CI) activities in such countries as Austria,
Germany, Spain and Switzerland as well as the Mediterranean area. As
part of OSS operations in the European theatre, Angleton mastered the
arts of "black" propaganda and "playback" -- that is, the method of
reading the effectiveness of one's own disinformation on the enemy.
In 1944, he was given charge of the OSS Special Counterintelligence Unit
Z, made up of U.S. and British agents, and was the youngest member of
X-2 and the only American member allowed access to the top-secret
British ULTRA code-breaking intelligence.
After the war, Angleton was promoted to Captain and was awarded the
Legion of Merit from the U.S. Army which cited him for successfully
apprehending over a thousand enemy intelligence agents. He was also
decorated by the Italian Government and was awarded the Order of the
Crown of Italy, the Order of Malta/Cross of Malta and the Italian War
Cross for Merit.
In October 1945, President Truman dissolved the OSS and had all research
and analysis units moved to the State Department and operational units
to the War Department, and redesignated it as the Strategic Services
Unit (SSU).
Angleton stayed on in the SSU in Rome and became the vital station chief
in charge of the 2677 Regiment, which made Angleton the senior US
intelligence officer in Italy until the SSU became the Central
Intelligence Group (CIG) in 1946, forerunner of the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA).2
THE MAKING OF JAMES ANGLETON AS A MASTER SPY HUNTER
Angleton's war experience in counterintelligence operations had affected
him to the extent that he became absorbed into the "hall of mirrors"
world of intelligence and refused to leave the service, despite much
insistence and disappointment from his father. James would pour over the
many CI files he had amassed while in Italy and was forever changed by
the intrigue and the possibilities of a career in the CIG.
In the summer of 1947, Angleton returned to the United States to live in
Tucson, Arizona, to be with his wife and family, but his love for the
service was overpowering. On December 30, 1947, he was hired by the CIA
as a senior aide to the Director of the Office of Special Operations
(OSO).3 It was during this period that Army G-2 and other intelligence
agencies were trying to crack the Soviet Venona code, used by espionage
agents operating in the United States to send back sensitive information
regarding the Manhattan Project based at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
It is possible that Angleton was on special assignment prior to
officially reporting to the OSO, which had the responsibility of running
counterespionage operations.4 Angleton's primary mission in the OSO
included overseeing a classified component that operated espionage and
counterespionage activities abroad, and reading all sensitive material
coming across his desk and passing it to OSO operators in countries
where the CIA had interests.
In 1949, he moved up the chain of command within the OSO and held a
GS-15 position. Angleton developed the philosophy, "If you control
counterintelligence, you control the intelligence service." He quickly
realised the significance of the B-29 detection of Joe-1, the Soviet's
first atomic weapon detonation in August 1949, and knew that the
technology acquired by the Soviets was not home-grown but the product of
espionage.
He immediately set out to discover who the moles were who passed on
America's most guarded secret to Moscow. As with all covert actions,
counterintelligence operated without specific mention in the National
Security Act of 1947, so Angleton set out to acquire information on the
most guarded secret of all.
ANGLETON AS CHIEF OF COUNTERINTELLIGENCE
Aside from the theft of atomic secrets, the most guarded secret within
the CIA was the scientific and technical information regarding new
weapons developments, including the planned use of a new generation of
thermonuclear weapons and high-altitude reconnaissance platforms for
spying on countries hostile to U.S. strategic interests.
One of the technical secrets was the study and transfer of advanced
electronics gleaned from U.S. Air Force studies of unconventional
aircraft and missile research carried on at several Atomic Energy
Commission facilities and proving grounds.
The FBI and the CIA were aware of Soviet espionage rings operating in
the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. The main task of these
rings was to provide any and all technical and scientific information on
advanced technologies which would give an advantage to the Soviet Union
in the event of another world war breaking out.
By 1949, military intelligence authorities had classified the "flying
saucer" phenomenon as Top Secret, and the Army Counter Intelligence
Corps (CIC) had passed on information that the Soviets could have
developed saucer-shaped aerial weapons, capable of delivering atomic
bombs or dissipating radioactive materials over NATO countries, as a
stopgap measure to make up for the nonexistent nuclear weapons arsenal.
In early 1947, the nonexistent nuclear arsenal in the United States was
a closely guarded secret as well; and no doubt this fact set in motion
the nuclear arms race, which terrified Angleton. The OSO was probably
aware of Soviet knowledge of the bomb gap existing within both
superpowers.
Moreover, the flying saucer invasion of the United States -- reports of
which crossed Angleton's desk -- put a scare into Angleton's psyche
which is reflected in a credo he shared with other OSO staff members:
"You who believe or half believe, I can say this now, that I do believe
in the spirit of Christ and the life everlasting, and in this turbulent
social system which struggles sometimes blindly to preserve the right to
freedom and expression of spirit. In the name of Jesus Christ, I leave
you."
After General Walter B. Smith was appointed Director, Central
Intelligence (DCI), Angleton continued on with OSO Staff A (foreign
intelligence operations) inside the CIA's clandestine division. In 1951,
he was assigned the all-important Israeli desk, which he held under
tight control for 20 years because it was a vital source of Soviet
information in the Middle East.
As more and more UFO sighting reports made their way to CIA
headquarters, unevaluated reports were forwarded to Counterintelligence
when the locations were identified as coming from Soviet Bloc countries.
During this period, Angleton established good links with FBI contacts
who were equally concerned with protecting vital atomic research
facilities, and no doubt he read many domestic reports as they came
across his desk in the "L" Building across from the Lincoln
Memorial.
When Smith was coaxed away from his power base as DCI, Allen Dulles --
Angleton's friend from OSS days -- became the new Director. In late
1954, he promoted Angleton to the position of Deputy Director and Chief
of Counterintelligence, with direct access to Dulles and all foreign UFO
intelligence from the Intelligence Advisory Committee (IAC) which had
been established to look into national security implications involving
the UFO phenomenon.6 In order to cement Angleton's counterintelligence
charter, Dulles commissioned General James H. Doolittle to conduct an
outside survey of CIA counterintelligence operations.
Doolittle concluded that the CIA was losing ground to the KGB, and
recommended that more stringent and ruthless measures be taken against
Soviet penetration. Dulles endorsed the Doolittle Report by ordering a
more powerful tool to stop and interdict the moles within the CIA, and
he personally chose Angleton to head the CI Staff. Perhaps this is why
foreign and domestic UFO sighting reports diminished in number shortly
afterwards.
During Dulles's tenure as DCI from 1953 to 1961 (the longest in CIA
history), Angleton enjoyed a privileged position not shared by other
directors. This was despite the fact that Angleton reported to the
Deputy Director of Operations (DDO), and on many occasions bugged the
phones and residences of various high-ranking U.S. Government officials
and foreign dignitaries with Dulles's approval and over the objection of
the DDO.
If the situation called for it, Angleton could go around proper channels
to acquire personal data on anyone within the CIA and other agencies,
which was clearly outside the CIA charter and violated FBI jurisdiction.
As the new head of CI, Angleton had to organise a staff, write the rules
and oversee all clandestine operations aimed at the Soviet Intelligence
Service military and security organs, the GRU and KGB.7
The CI Staff was primarily tasked with preventing penetrations at home
and abroad and protecting CIA operations through careful research and
analysis of all incoming intelligence reports. By keeping the most vital
and sensitive files to himself, Angleton became a storehouse of secrets,
which helped him consolidate his power base. Officially, Angleton was
allowed access to everyone's personnel, operational and communications
files within the CIA, and he reviewed all proposed and active operations
and approved the recruitment of agent assets.
This did not engender trust or cooperation, but Angleton did not concern
himself or his staff with such intrusions. One of Angleton's former
Chief of Operations, "Scotty" Miller, described the environment in which
CI Staff operated as that of a "watchdog" snooping around, sniffing out
Soviet deception and manipulation.
ANGLETON AND THE MJ-12 DIRECTIVE
Among the controversial documents leaked to the public in the last 20
years regarding state secrets and the UFO phenomenon, are the CIA's
unacknowledged Majestic Twelve/MJ-12 files which disclose the most
guarded of all classified subjects: extraterrestrial life-forms and
their technologies.8
In order to secure this knowledge and prevent foreign countries from
learning this vital secret and getting an edge on the United States,
President Harry S. Truman signed a directive that basically said that no
one (including a chief executive) was to be in possession of or disclose
the finding without a "need to know" clearance which was above Top
Secret.9
The directive was secretly implemented without the knowledge or consent
of Congress and was concealed by the wording of the National Security
Act of 1947, which prohibits the disclosure of classified matters
without presidential approval and prior agreement by the Department of
Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency, as amended in later
versions of the National Security Act.
Knowledge of the finding was limited to only a select few within the
government's intelligence and scientific communities. As long as the
secret remained unresolved, there would be no official acknowledgement.
The only official study program, Project Blue Book, was taken over by
the CIA in 1953 as a public experiment and used as a debunking tool to
discount the extraterrestrial reality, and possibly to quash any
attempts by the KGB and GRU to glean any technological or defence
secrets from the study.
Like the Manhattan Project group, Majestic Twelve or MJ-12 (as used in
some leaked documents) was a joint government/military/private-sector
undertaking that encompassed every facet of national security functions.
The CIA was the premier intelligence agency tasked with maintaining the
first line of defence of the United States during the 55-year Cold War
between the capitalist West and the communist East.
When Angleton assumed his throne as Chief of Counterintelligence, no
doubt Truman's directive was a most inviting instrument, allowing him to
carry on his mole-hunting career within the CIA against the KGB and GRU.
Majestic Twelve [MJ-12] enjoyed greater protection than did the hydrogen
bomb program of the early 1950s. With that, the Soviets were driven to
penetrate not only the secrets of the H-bomb program itself, but the
ultimate prize that lay scattered throughout the U.S. Government's
maximum security research facilities located in the southwestern and
eastern United States.
The shocking truth of the Soviet atomic weapons espionage program,
Enormous, dealt a tremendous blow to U.S. and British security when it
was learned that British diplomats operating within the U.S. State
Department, as well as U.S. Army technicians at Los Alamos National
Laboratories, had not only supplied blueprints and materials for the
atomic bomb to their KGB handlers in New York, but had stolen the
proposed plans for the hydrogen bomb as well. Security officials were
left guessing as at what else the Soviet spies had stolen from under
their noses.10
As far as we know, there was no successful penetration by KGB or GRU
agents into the CIA's UFO program -- in large part, due to the
disgraceful and unlawful actions taken by Angleton's CI Staff. After the
fallout from the Burgess-MacLean-Philby defections and the execution of
the Rosenbergs, Angleton tightened security and dedicated himself to
safeguarding whatever secrets still eluded the Soviets. Thus he embarked
on a vicious mole-hunt that would almost paralyse the CIA until his
departure in 1974.
During the time of the Eisenhower administration (1953-1960), the CIA
was at its apex in covert operations, piling up one success after
another where cores of Soviet moles were detected and sent home to
Moscow. However, comments from the White House were nil when it came to
the UFO problem, although Eisenhower's supposed meeting with
extraterrestrials in 1954 was given some publicity.
While it was largely discounted by the Press, some did try to connect
Eisenhower's heart attack with the meeting. The national media were
downplaying the UFO sightings in the U.S. and abroad as part of a Cold
War hysteria that accompanied the "duck and cover" scare that seemed to
grip the country.
No real problems popped up until the 1960 presidential elections when
Democratic candidate Senator John F. Kennedy accused the Republican
incumbent President Eisenhower of allowing a "missile gap" to exist, and
charged that the United States was getting too close to the Soviet Union
through détente.
Soon after Kennedy became President, he began to needle the CIA for
information on UFOs, which was unnerving at the outset to Allen Dulles
after he was burned over the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Castro's
communist-enslaved Cuba in April 1961. The once cordial relationship
that had existed fell apart, and Dulles knew his time as DCI was short
-- as evidenced in his 1961 draft directive to MJ-12.
He knew that the explicit instructions contained in the September 24,
1947 Truman directive -- prohibiting the DCI from making disclosures to
a chief executive who obviously did not have a "need to know" clearance
-- would compromise the CIA, but also that the lengthy and costly UFO
program, deemed so necessary to national security by all involved,
simply could not be jeopardised for anyone -- not even the President of
the United States.
Knowing the character of Allen Dulles and James Angleton, I can only
speculate as to what kind of response Kennedy got. The DCI Top Secret/
MJ-12 document leaves no doubt that Dulles was not going to cooperate
with Kennedy's request of June 28, 1961, which he forwarded to Angleton
for consideration and feedback.
Majestic Twelve/MJ-12 included spin-off projects that were obviously
equally sensitive activities of the CIA, such as Parasite, Parhelion,
Enviro, Psyop, Green, Spike and House Cleaning.
Other sensitive and covert programs could be affected as well, such as
MK-ULTRA, Artichoke and Domestic, which all appear to have been
operational projects associated with Majestic Twelve. The full
implications of the above are not clear at present, but it is obvious
that the other projects were held in readiness for some kind of mass
indoctrination and deception undertaking in a national crisis.
MARILYN MONROE AND MURDER, INC.
The pressure put on the CIA by Kennedy was reaching a flashpoint of
wills; and with the Noresenko affair13 driving Angleton to obsession, a
UFO leak crisis brought new strains on Angleton.
He learned that Hollywood screen star Marilyn Monroe's phone
conversation with a New York art dealer14 -- in which she discussed
Kennedy's secret visit to an undisclosed military base to see alien
artifacts, and her disdain over her soured relationships with President
Kennedy and his brother, the United States Attorney General -- had been
recorded by CIA domestic electronic surveillance experts.
Since 1955, Monroe had been under surveillance by the CIA, and the FBI
had maintained a security dossier on her because of her marriage to a
well-known American writer suspected of having communist affiliations,
and her trip to Russia and the Press coverage she received while she was
there.
The wire-tap report also mentions nationally recognised New York
syndicated reporter Dorothy Kilgallen as having conversations with
Monroe regarding the Roswell UFO crash of 1947 and President Kennedy's
politically motivated NASA Apollo Moon program.
Dorothy Kilgallen made headlines in 1955 when she disclosed a private
conversation with a British Cabinet official who told her that UFOs are
real and that the U.S. and British authorities consider the matter as of
the highest importance.
The significance of the wire-tap has to do with the fact that Monroe was
murdered the following day in her Brentwood condo. According to Milo
Speriglio, internationally recognised private investigator and director
of the Nick Harris Detective Agency, Monroe was the victim of a national
security management hit by the CIA and the Mob.16 The suggestion that
somehow the CIA was involved in a domestic murder of an American citizen
is not too far-fetched when considering the past abuses coming from
Angleton's CI program with its "absolute security at any cost"
philosophy.
Whether Angleton authorised the hit is not known, but the modus operandi
of the way her body was found and moved around, the fashion in which the
autopsy records were changed to reflect suicide, and the theft of her
secret red diary one day after her autopsy, all have similarities to the
methods used by Angleton's covert CIA Counterintelligence operators.
JFK AND THE CIA'S UFO FILES
The final straw for Angleton came when President Kennedy fired off a Top
Secret memorandum to him,17 outlining a previous discussion concerning a
classification review of all CIA UFO files that could affect national
security. It was dated November 12, 1963 -- just 10 days before he would
be gunned down in the streets of Dallas, Texas.
Kennedy informed Angleton that he was setting things in motion to share
sensitive CIA UFO intelligence data with the Russians through the
director of NASA, James Webb. This request was made on the same day he
requested Webb to begin Kennedy's peace overture to the Russians via
joint space exploration. Webb, being a board member of the intelligence
community, most likely interpreted Kennedy's program to mean the sharing
of classified UFO data, which was forbidden under the current directive.
In Kennedy's Top Secret memorandum, he outlined for Angleton the
specific items he wished to have disclosed to Webb, such as "[to] have
the high-threat cases reviewed with the purpose of identification of
bona fide as opposed to the classified CIA and USAF sources," and "that
we make a clear distinction between the known and unknowns in the event
the Soviets try to mistake our extended cooperation as a cover for
intelligence-gathering of their defense and space programs."
Finally, Kennedy wanted Angleton to "arrange a program of data-sharing
with NASA mission directors in their defensive responsibilities."
This was unprecedented and was totally unacceptable to Angleton and the
CIA. Here, Kennedy was requesting the Central Intelligence Agency -- the
agency he swore he would "break into a thousand pieces" -- just to hand
over the most guarded secret ever! This memo was passed on to William
Colby, who indicated to someone in Angleton's staff in a handwritten
note, "Response from Colby: Angleton has MJ directive."
The note is dated November 20, 1963 -- just two days before Kennedy's
assassination. It seems that Kennedy's request was bounced to and from
Angleton's desk; either consensus was being sought, or the buck was
being passed back to Angleton.
In any case, it was a hot potato that Angleton had to deal with. It is
also significant that NSAM No. 271 was the last to come from Kennedy's
desk, just before he left Washington for Dallas. Whatever the real
significance, it was buried somewhere within the CIA, and Angleton spent
many a day trying to figure out who ordered Kennedy's execution.
Was Angleton set up, or did he unintentionally supply the needed
ingredient for the murder of the century? In either case, the secret
remained safe.
NSA SPECIAL ACTIVITIES
One of the few former CIA officers to speak publicly on the Kennedy
assassination and the UFO secret is Victor Marchetti, who at one time
was Assistant to the Deputy for Plans and Operations under DCI William
Colby.
In a rare interview with Second Look magazine in 1979, Marchetti --
author of the sensational book, "Cult of Intelligence," which was vetted
and censored by the CIA prior to publication (the only book to include
the redacted portions within the text) -- made some interesting
observations regarding the CIA's UFO intelligence-gathering program and
why the subject is not open for discussion.
Retired Air Force intelligence officer Robert Collins produced for his
website an insightful foreword to an extract from the Marchetti
interview, in which he quotes Marchetti as saying: "My theory is that we
have, indeed, been contacted -- perhaps even visited -- by
extraterrestrial beings, and that the U.S. Government, in collusion with
other national powers of the Earth, is determined to keep this
information from the general public."
Marchetti alluded to "rumors" at the highest levels within the CIA that
the NSA has information as well, and that this must be kept away from
public viewing.
We know now that the National Security Agency does have sensitive COMINT
files, which for reasons of national security it cannot disclose. One of
these NSA files that Marchetti speaks of might be the NSA intercept of
Kennedy's phone conversation with Khrushchev on November 12, 1963, in
which Kennedy spoke of a "situation that affects both our countries and
the world" and "a problem that we share in common."
It is believed that the UFO problem became a national security issue
when President Truman authorised the covert establishment of the
National Security Agency, whose primary responsibility bordered on
"special activities" -- perhaps as outlined in an alleged Intelligence
Estimate prepared by national security officials on September 30, 1947,
in which one of the concerns stated that "what we are up against is
controlled by intelligent operators" and that "these objects are real
and not illusionary."
It is not surprising that, in 1968, an NSA employee drafted a
significant analysis of the intelligence community's ambivalence towards
the UFO camouflage and warned of dire consequences unless the defence
establishment woke up and recognised the danger these phenomena pose in
the nuclear age.
On a final note, the legend of James Jesus Angleton and his "wilderness
of mirrors," as he often referred to his daunting task of protecting
vital state secrets, faded into obscurity on May 11, 1987. But the
secret that went with him re-emerged almost precisely the day he died.
Perhaps Jim was not the real bad guy in the counterintelligence game.
Maybe he was its victim.
------------------------------------------
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FOR FURTHER UPDATES AND REPORTS, SEE:
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Timothy S. Cooper is an independent researcher and writer who has worked
in security and investigation fields for 15 years. A Vietnam veteran, he
began researching military UFO intelligence operations in 1988 and has
collected extensive CIA and NSA files. He has also acquired the largest
collection of MJ-12 documents and privately owned, original Project Blue
Book files in the USA.
© 2000 by Timothy S. Cooper
PO Box 1206
Big Bear Lake, CA 92315 - USA
Telephone: +1 (909) 878 5929
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