CIA has spent decades saying it knew little of Oswald before he killed JFK. New docs show that isn’t true
New documents unearth what CIA knew about Lee Harvey Oswald
- Newly released CIA documents reveal that Lee Harvey Oswald was on the agency's radar months before the assassination of John F Kennedy.
- The files disclose that a CIA surveillance officer, George Joannides, ran a group that had contact with Oswald in August 1963, a fact the agency had long denied.
- Joannides, operating under the alias "Howard Mark Gebler," directed covert operations to infiltrate anti-communist Cuban student groups and disseminate anti-Castro propaganda.
- The CIA repeatedly denied the existence of an agent named 'Howard' to investigators in 1964 and 1978, and again in 1998, despite honouring Joannides in 1981.
- This disclosure, unearthed by the House Oversight Committee, undermines the CIA’s previous claims and lends weight to theories of a broader cover-up, though it does not provide new details on the shooting itself.