Newly declassified records from the Central Intelligence Agency show the agency seemingly lied about the extent of its knowledge of Lee Harvey Oswald prior to the killing of President John F. Kennedy as well as the identity of an intelligence officer who was likely aware of him.
The Washington Post reports that the documents shed new light on the involvement of George Joannides, a Miami-based CIA officer, in a student group organized against Cuban leader Fidel Castro that previously came into contact with Oswald. Joannides was tasked with funding and overseeing the “Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil.” He was known to group members as only “Howard” and was said to communicate exclusively with the group’s leader, Luis Fernandez Rocha. The CIA had long denied the agency’s involvement in the group as well as the existence of “Howard.” Among the documents is a memo confirming that Joannides obtained a Washington, D.C., driver’s license under the alias “Howard Mark Gebler.” Joannides was also awarded a “Career Intelligence Medal” and received praise for his work as the “deputy chief of the Psychological Warfare Branch.”
Per the Post, the DRE later came into contact with Oswald in New Orleans after he publicly claimed membership with the pro-Castro group Fair Play for Cuba Committee. DRE members and Oswald had a physical confrontation that later involved the police. The group later challenged Oswald to a debate that aired locally in the city. In an interview with the Post, Jose Antonio Lanuza, who was once a DRE member, said Oswald later reached out to the group, looking to provide assistance despite the previous altercation. “He indicated he might be interested in helping us train for military operations,” Lanuza told the outlet.
Lanuza said Oswald also wrote a letter to the organization which he kept, but said the DRE never followed up with him. But the Post reports that reports of the Kennedy assassination brought Oswald back on their radar:
But when the news hit that Oswald had been arrested three months later, Lanuza and Rocha called Howard. Lanuza said Howard told them to call the FBI and provide the letter, and then alert the media to Oswald’s pro-Cuba leanings. The FBI came and took Oswald’s letter with a promise to return it, Lanuza said, but never did.
According to Axios, Joannides was later appointed to serve as the CIA’s liaison with the House Select Committee tasked with investigating the assassinations of both Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., but worked to obscure both his connection to the DRE and his identity as “Howard.”
In 2023, New York reported on the work of Jefferson Morley, a former Post reporter pursuing documents on the Kennedy assassination and the extent of the CIA’s knowledge of Oswald. Morley sued the CIA, obtaining heavily redacted documents related to Joannides and later learning of the existence of additional documents that the CIA declined to make public.
Speaking to the Post, Morley called the new information about Joannides “a breakthrough” and suggested there was more to come.
“The burden of proof has shifted. There’s a story here that’s been hidden and avoided, and now it needs to be explored. It’s up to the government to explain,” he said.
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