An impersonation of Oswald does not rule out him actually having visited Mexico City.
Why on earth would the imposter be needed if Oswald was there anyway, submitting a visa application and providing a photo? Did whoever was running this operation have an unlimited budget?
Last I checked (2 years ago or so), Simpich was maintaining that Oswald did go to MC, but was impersonated at one point on a phone call to the Russian Embassy...
So Oswald applied for a Cuban and Russian transit visa, but somebody else placed the follow-up call to the Russian embassy? Why wouldn't Oswald do that? The real Oswald applies for the Cuban and Russian visa, right? What on earth is gained by having someone else follow-up, pretending to be Oswald? There's plenty to be lost if the ruse is exposed, so why bother?
...and that Silvia Duran was also impersonated.
Say what? She worked at the Cuban embassy. I would think her co-workers would have noticed if some different woman just showed up for work one day pretending to be Sylvia. Don't you? (Note: Duran isn't mentioned in the article by Simpich cited). Maybe it would be easier to just note the people with a connection to the assassination that weren't doubled.
The photos of the "Mystery Man" are also a separate issue.
Nyaah. The CIA didn't have photos of Oswald available to compare to the people entering the embassy, so at the time of the request, they forwarded photos of the person they thought could be Oswald. He wasn't.
State Secret is a long read, but worth it.
Not from what I can see. It is 10% factual, 90% speculation. Here's just one paragraph, see if you can spot the speculation (ok, I've bolded it to make it easy on you):
"But maybe there was more at stake. Perhaps they wanted to see whether the Soviets thought that Oswald might be useful as a possible way to draw out Popov. Or maybe the idea was to dangle Oswald as bait to draw out the mole that had exposed Popov."
I count four speculations in three sentences. The whole article is like that.
Here's an excellent early example of where Simpich goes wrong, and has absolutely no evidence to support his statement. And he's so far off the mark it's funny. Simpich wrote:
"Here’s a good way to start this story. Why did this man Oswald try to defect to the Soviet Union, come back saying he had seen the light, and then try to go back again a year later?
Something was going on with this man. Was he being used in some way?"
That last sentence above becomes Simpich's unstated conclusion he is seeking to prove. But he ignores totally a simple reason for Oswald's desire to gain access to Cuba & Russian for both himself and his wife and child. He had attempted to kill General Walker in April of 1963, and he hadn't abandoned that; just put it on the backburner while he tried to open up an excape hatch for himself and his family. When he wrote the Russian Embassy attempting to re-enter the Soviet Union, he asked that his wife's application be considered *Separately* from his own. He had no intention of accompanying Marina and his daughter June back to Russia, nor of going there himself. But he knew enough to know that just dumping a pregnant Marina (already with one child) on the Soviet Union as a ward of the state wouldn't fly. Hence the pretense to apply himself for re-entry. Instead, he would ship them there, kill Walker, defect to Cuba via Mexico City (once he had the visa in hand), and then get re-united in Cuba with his family as the Cubans hail him as a national hero for killing Walker.
That was his plan as I see it, in any case.
There's nobody there guiding him, there's no master plan to uncover moles using Oswald, there's nothing but a lone nut plotting the assassination of General Walker and attempting to evade U.S. punishment by escaping to Cuba. He had tried once before without the escape hatch in place and his immediate action was to quit his job (telling Marina he was fired) and leave for New Orleans "looking for work". Note in every application thereafter he left Dallas out of the equation. For example, this is the information Officer Francis Martello was told by Oswald after his arrest in New Orleans for disturbing the peace:
"The notes of my interview reflect that OSWALD gave his date of birth as October 18, 1938 at New Orleans, Louisiana; that he served three years in the U.S. Marine Corps and stated he was honorably discharged on July 17, 1959 from Santa Ana, California. His wife's name was MARINO PROSSA, a white female, age 21. OSWALD stated he had one daughter, JUNE LEE OSWALD, white female, 17 months of age, and he had been residing at 4907 Magazine Street with his wife and daughter for the past four months. OSWALD said that since 1959 he resided at 4709 Mercedes Street in Fort Worth, Texas and had also lived in Arlington, Texas. OSWALD said his mother's name was MARGARET OSWALD, his father, ROBERT LEE OSWALD, being deceased. He told me he had two brothers, ROBERT OSWALD, living in Fort Worth, Texas, and JOHN OSWALD, Arlington, Texas. He also stated he lived somewhere on Exchange Place in New Orleans but could not remember the address, and that he had attended Beauregard Junior High School and Warren Easton High School, both in New Orleans, and that he attended Riegeala West Elementary School in Fort Worth, Texas. OSWALD told me he had moved to New Orleans from Fort Worth about four months [ago]".
Note he claims he lived in Fort Worth, not Dallas, and note he says he moved from Fort Worth, not Dallas, to New Orleans.
He was smart enough to leave Dallas out of the equation entirely. Oswald wasn't a dummy. After his arrest following the assassination, he left the Neely Street address he lived at (Neely Street is where the backyard photos were taken) out of his history he gave to everyone who interrogated him. Two people gave sufficient detail that it is clear Oswald was concealing he lived at Neely Street like he earlier concealed living in Dallas.
http://historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wr/html/WCReport_0317b.htm
http://historymatters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wr/html/WCReport_0321a.htm
Hank
