Final_Judgment

[358] Final Judgment 455
found floating in the Chesapeake Bay on November 1, 1978, dead from a
bullet in the head. Although his death was ruled a "suicide," few believed it
then and few believe it today.
It was not only the similar circumstances of the deaths of the two men
that observers found so intriguing. What was more notable is that Paisley—
like Colby—had adamantly tried to resist high-level Israeli intrigue.
Paisley had discovered—and tried to block—a major Israeli penetration
operation targeting the CIA's Office of National Estimates, where the
command-level intelligence summaries guiding U.S. presidential decisions were
compiled.
What's more there is no question but that Paisley—perhaps even more
so than Colby—had good reason to know long-hidden intelligence secrets
relating to the CIA's manipulation of JFK's alleged assassin, Lee Harvey
Oswald. It is thus probably no coincidence that Paisley died at a critical
juncture during the House Select Committee on Assassinations
Investigation at which time the committee was exploring—or at least
pretending to explore—possible CIA links to Lee Harvey Oswald and the
assassination of President Kennedy.
PAISLEY AND OSWALD
Although Paisley's name never came up during the House
investigation, one of its reports said an ex-CIA employee had revealed that
"the CIA maintained a large volume of information on the [Soviet] radio
factory in which Oswald had worked. The information was stored in the
Office of Research and Reports" 913 —which would have been Paisley's
office at the relevant time. Thus, if Oswald were in fact a CIA asset while
posing as a "defector" in the Soviet Union, as many have suggested, John
Paisley—if anyone—would have known it.
PAISLEY AND ANGLETON
There's another detail relating to the Paisley saga that's probably worth
noting: According to veteran intelligence journalist Tad Szulc, the 25-year
old Paisley was recruited into the CIA in 1948 when he went to Palestine as a
radio operator for the UN peacekeeping mission. And according to Szulc, it
was none other than Israel's friend at the CIA—James Angleton—who
recruited Paisley into the CIA at this time. 914
This is interesting inasmuch as, according to journalist Jim Hougan,
"Under oath before the Senate, and over drinks with a member of Paisley's
family, Angleton swore that he himself had never met Paisley." 915
However, as Hougan points out, there are many who find it "incredible" 916
that Angleton and Paisley, both career CIA officers with counterintelligence
responsibilities involving the Soviet Union should never have met.
Angleton's denial of having known Paisley recalls Angleton's similar
denial (documented in Chapter 16 of Final Judgment) of having known E.
Howard Hunt when all evidence would suggest otherwise.