I usually try to avoid throwing cold water on conspiracy theories about the assassination because it probably does no good. But as a staff lawyer in a major, adversarial investigation of the CIA, the Church Committee, I feel I should address those theories that say the CIA was involved. It wasn't. Plus, I figure that this posting will certainly prompt rebuttals.
Theories about CIA involvement, such as Jim Garrison's, commonly say that a small group of low-level people in the CIA were involved although some theories claim a cover-up by more senior CIA officials.
There is no credible evidence of either such involvement by the CIA despite four outside investigations. First was the Warren Commission. Those who say there was a conspiracy and cover up have to explain why the Warren Commission didn't uncover it. After all, the FBI, not the CIA, did the bulk of the investigation.
Second was the Rockefeller Commission in 1975. David Belin was its chief counsel and he had been a staff lawyer on the Warren Commission. He in fact was very interested in whether the CIA might have withheld information from the Warren Commission, but he found nothing.
Third was the Church Committee. As has been documented in books by Loch Johnson and James Risen, the Church Committee staff consisted both of adversarial lawyers and CIA-friendly academics. Even lawyers in an adversarial role, like I was, had plenty of contact and were cordial with senior CIA officers. We talked them both on the record and in casual conversations. I found James Angleton, head of CIA counterintelligence in 1963 and point man for CIA contact with the Warren Commission, quite forthcoming in private. Ted Shackley, who ran JMWAVE, struck me as especially forthcoming among the CIA officers. Then there was Seymour Bolton who had been executive officer for Desmond FitzGerald. He was CIA liaison to the Church Committee. He wasn't forthcoming, but I never felt he lied. I felt the same way about Harold Swenson, who headed counterintelligence against Cuba under Desmond FitzGerald. He wasn't forthcoming , but he seemed to answer questions truthfully.
What do I conclude from this? None of these individuals knew of a conspiracy within the CIA, and it was certainly their responsibility to know. Granted, it might be possible to hide things from them, but the CIA had very good controls to prevent employees from going rogue. The short of it is that although the Church Committee's adversarial lawyers and CIA-friendly academics spent a year in close contact with those who had been at the CIA in 1963, the Church Committee never got so much as a whiff of high or low level CIA involvement in John Kennedy's assassination.
Fourth and last was the House Assassinations Committee under Congressman Pike and later Congressman Stokes. My sense is that that committee's staff did not enjoy such close contacts with 1963 CIA personnel as the Church Committee did, but in any event the committee did not claim to find CIA involvement.
