For the first time in over six decades, the CIA has essentially admitted that one of its psychological warfare officers, George Joannides, was involved in an operation that had direct contact with Lee Harvey Oswald in the months leading up to President John F. Kennedy's assassination.
Why it matters: This quiet revelation, tucked inside a recent release of 40 documents about Joannides, contradicts years of CIA denials about his role in the Kennedy affair — both before and after the assassination. Experts now say it's clear the agency misled investigators for decades.
The smoking gun: A CIA memo dated January 17, 1963, shows that Joannides was ordered to use an alias, "Howard Gebler," and carry a fake driver’s license under that name. The agency had long claimed that Joannides had no such alias, even though “Howard” was the same code name used by a CIA officer working with the Cuban Student Directorate — a group opposed to Castro that, it turns out, the CIA was secretly funding and guiding.
This same group clashed with Oswald in New Orleans just months before the assassination and later helped publicize his pro-Castro views right after Kennedy was killed. For years, the CIA insisted it had no ties to the group — that claim is now clearly false.
Bottom line: "The cover story for Joannides is officially dead," said Jefferson Morley, a journalist and historian who has followed the case closely. “This is significant. The CIA is now shifting its story on Oswald.”
This revelation is part of an ongoing release of JFK records required by a 1992 law and reinforced by a directive from President Trump. While Joannides’ involvement was first hinted at in 1998, each new batch of documents adds more layers to the story.
Here’s the backdrop: Joannides was a top official in the CIA’s Miami station, responsible for political and psychological operations — including the covert management of the anti-Castro Cuban student group known as the DRE (Directorio Revolucionario Estudiantil).
On August 9, 1963, members of the DRE got into a street fight with Oswald as he handed out pro-Castro pamphlets in New Orleans. Local media covered the incident. A couple of weeks later, Oswald even debated DRE activists on live TV. After JFK was shot, the group quickly labeled Oswald a communist, a message that was picked up by major newspapers.
Interestingly, just a year before all of this, the Pentagon had floated Operation Northwoods — a proposal to stage a fake attack on the U.S., blame Cuba, and justify an invasion. Though unrelated, it shows the kind of Cold War thinking at the time.
Wider context: These new records don’t solve the mystery of who killed Kennedy, nor do they prove whether Oswald acted alone or not. But they do confirm the CIA was dishonest about its ties to Joannides and the DRE — not just with the public, but with multiple government investigations over the decades.
From the Warren Commission in the ‘60s to congressional probes in the ‘70s and ‘90s, the CIA consistently denied any connection. In reality, Joannides not only had knowledge of Oswald before the killing, but later played a key role in misleading a House committee investigating the assassination.
How? Joannides was made the CIA’s liaison to that committee — but never disclosed that he himself had been involved in the case. He withheld records, gave false assurances, and slowed the investigation. In a 2014 interview, the committee’s chief counsel recalled asking Joannides about "Howard" and the DRE. Joannides claimed no such person existed — though it was him all along.
Another former investigator testified just last month that Joannides actively worked to sabotage the committee’s work. Despite this, the CIA gave him a Career Intelligence Medal in 1981. He died in 1990.
What people are saying: Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a Florida Republican currently reviewing the JFK files, said there’s no doubt Joannides was part of a CIA cover-up.
Morley and other assassination researchers believe there’s a real chance rogue elements within the CIA may have played a part in Kennedy’s death — though even Morley stops short of accusing Joannides himself.
Others, like Gerald Posner, still believe Oswald acted alone. But even he agrees: the CIA’s handling of the case was deceptive and shady.
“It’s classic CIA,” Posner told Axios. “They don’t tell the truth, they cloud everything, and when the documents finally come out, it always looks bad.”
The CIA, for its part, insists it has now complied fully with the law and released all JFK-related records to the national archives without redactions.