Final_Judgment

635 Questions & Answers [539]
After all, Oswald was a former U.S. Marine who had ostensibly
"defected" to the Soviet Union—not a common venture, by any means. So
obviously the CIA would have had an interest in Oswald–whether he was a
genuine defector at the time or not. And if Oswald's defection was genuine,
it is entirely conceivable that he did a turn-about and then went to work for
the CIA rather than against it.
So as much as I am sorry to say, I don't think that John Newman has
contributed anything substantial in his new book. Everything he's told us
we've already known about for years. People have been arguing for years
that Oswald was recruited as a Marine to work for the CIA. And there are
those who say that he was not actually recruited as a phony "defector" by
the CIA but instead by the Office of Naval Intelligence. Then again, it's
entirely possible that he was working for some other secret government
agency that was running agents into the USSR.
Was Oswald an FBI contract operative of some sort? Because of
Oswald's profile as a "defector"—whether genuine or not—it is no surprise
that the FBI would have an interest in Oswald. If Oswald was a CIAsponsored
"defector" the FBI might not necessarily have known that and
may have believed that Oswald was "the real thing," so to speak, and upon
his return may have put him under surveillance for that very reason. And if
Oswald had been a genuine defector who ultimately recanted upon his
return to the United States, it is possible that he volunteered his services to
the FBI or was actually recruited by the bureau.
Shortly after the assassination a story circulated that Oswald may have
been on the FBI's payroll as an informant, but there's a good deal of
evidence to suggest that this story simply isn't true at all. However, if the
story isn't true it has still taken on a life of its own and frequently pops up
in literature about the JFK assassination.
The very fact that Oswald was working for Guy Banister in New
Orleans does put him in the FBI's sphere of influence, inasmuch as Banister
was a long-time high-ranking FBI official. The Banister connection also
puts Oswald in the CIA's sphere of influence, not to mention that of Naval
Intelligence (ONI), inasmuch as Banister was also not only a CIA contract
operative, but, additionally, formerly with the ONI.
There have been those who have suggested that perhaps Oswald was
even working as a Treasury Department informant, investigating the interstate
sales of firearms. There have been some who have devoted a great deal
of research to this topic.
My own inclination is that the CIA connection (through Banister) is the
area that we need to focus on and I will discuss that further in a moment.
However, it is likely that if Oswald's work for Banister was being
coordinated by the CIA, Oswald himself didn't know it.
Ultimately what we find is that Oswald was operating in many spheres
of influence and for that reason alone he was an ideal patsy since he could
be pinned to any or all of the different groups which then, in turn, would
have reason to want to cover-up their association with an alleged
presidential assassin.