Roff
Mowat-Larssen names former CIA official Jacob "Jake" Esterline as a major suspect in the assassination of President Kennedy
Director
of the Intelligence Project – Belfer Center
Rolf
Mowatt-Larssen, a former CIA station chief in Moscow, told a conference of
intelligence professionals that his study of JFK’s assassination indicated that
the president was killed by enemies in the CIA’s Miami station
According
to an account on Medium by veteran Washington reporter Nina
Burgleigh, “Mowatt-Larssen, using his access to classified CIA files, went
looking for officers who would have had a motive, and access to information
about Oswald.
“It
takes an agent to find a mole,” he said. “Who would betray his country? We were
looking for a team of rogues.”
Mowatt-Larssen’s
prime suspect is a senior officer in agency’s failed Bay of Pigs invasion. His
alleged motive: JFK’s Cuba policy.
“The
rogues must be expert, and they need a motive,” Mowatt-Larssen explained. “To
me, JFK is the motive. He pulled the plug on the Bay of Pigs. And he was
reckless. He almost got us into a thermonuclear war with the Soviets.”
Mowatt-Larssen’s
conclusions are hardly definitive but his reasoning is logical. Given his
expertise, his work deserves to be checked. He is asking the right questions….
On the
conference’s closing day, the white-haired Mowatt-Larssen walked us through his
theory on who killed JFK. He started out with a key
idea — that if the CIA killed Kennedy, the plot would have
necessarily involved three people: a mastermind and two others — one to handle
Lee Harvey Oswald and one to deal with Jack Ruby, the Dallas nightclub owner
who shot and killed Oswald before he could be interrogated.
Then
Mowatt-Larssen, using his access to classified CIA files, went looking for
officers who would have had a motive, and access. “It takes an agent to find a
mole,” he said. “Who would betray his country? We were looking for a team of
rogues.”
After
going through the names of ranking officers during the years before the
assassination, and then cross-referencing them, he settled on Jacob Esterline,
the CIA’s project director on the failed Bay of Pigs assault on Cuba, as the
likely mastermind, the man with the best motive, and the probable ringleader.
In his role as the CIA’s director of Western Hemisphere, he would have had
access to Oswald, as well.
“The
rogues must be expert, and they need a motive,” Mowatt-Larssen explained. “To
me, JFK is the motive. He pulled the plug on the Bay of Pigs. And he was
reckless. He almost got us into a thermonuclear war with the Soviets.”
Esterline
went on to serve as chief of the CIA’s Miami office, and as deputy director of
the CIA’s Western Hemisphere Division. He died in 1999. Of course, there is no
shortage of conspiracy theories about the death of JFK, but Mowatt-Larssen
currently serves as director of the Belfer Center’s Intelligence Project — at
Harvard’s Kennedy School, no less — so his speculation carries some weight.
BK NOTES: Not a silly conspiracy theorist:
Mr. Rolf Mowatt-Larssen is the Director of the Intelligence Project at the Belfer Center.
Prior to assuming the Director of the Intelligence Project at the Belfer Center position, Rolf served as a senior fellow at the Center and served over three years as the Director of Intelligence and Counterintelligence at the U.S. Department of Energy. Prior to this, he served for 23 years as a CIA intelligence officer in various domestic and international posts, to include Chief of the Europe Division in the Directorate of Operations, Chief of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Department, Counterterrorist Center, and Deputy Associate Director of Central Intelligence for Military Support. Prior to his career in intelligence, Mr. Mowatt-Larssen served as an officer in the U.S. Army. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY. He is married to Roswitha and has three children. He is a recipient of the CIA Director's Award, the George W. Bush Award for Excellence in Counterterrorism, the Secretary of Energy's Exceptional Service Medal, the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, Secretary of Defense Civilian Distinguished Service Medal, and the National Intelligence Superior Performance Medal, among others.
Harvard
Kennedy School Belfer Center - https://www.belfercenter.org/
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JFKCountercoup:
Fascinating, never thought much about Esterline. I read on another site that this agent thinks it was Esterline, not David Phillips who was Maurice Bishop that met with Veciana and Oswald in Dallas.
ReplyDeleteI wish you had questioned his assertion about JFK almost getting us into nuclear war; the opposite is true, and the military was itching for just such a confrontation, as we all know.
ReplyDeleteAllen, I haven't met him Larson yet. I hope to question him at the CAPA Conference in Dallas this November 22-23 - You should be there to question him in person. - BK
ReplyDelete