CIA admits shadowy officer monitored Oswald before JFK assassination, new records reveal

[noumoe]

For the first time since President Kennedy's assassination nearly 62 years ago, the CIA has tacitly admitted that an agent specializing in psychological warfare ran an operation that came into contact with Lee Harvey Oswald before the Dallas assassination

The disclosure Thursday — nestled in a batch of 40 documents concerning agent George Joannides — indicates the CIA lied for decades about his role in the Kennedy case before and after the assassination, according to experts on JFK's slaying.

The linchpin document: A Jan. 17, 1963, CIA memo showing Joannides was directed to have an alias and fake driver's license bearing the name "Howard Gebler."

Until Thursday, the agency had denied that Joannides was known as "Howard," the case agent name for the CIA contact who worked with activists from an anti-communist group opposed to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro called the Cuban Student Directorate.

For decades, the agency also falsely said it had nothing to do with the student group, which was instrumental in having Oswald's pro-Castro stances published soon after the shooting.

Joannides was the deputy chief of the CIA's Miami branch, overseeing "all aspects of political action and psychological warfare." That included covertly funding and directing the Cuban student group, commonly referred to as DRE for its Spanish-language initials.

https://www.axios.com/2025/07/05/cia-ag ... assination