NODULE X7 OSWALD IN MINSK AND THE U2 DUMP: JANUARY ...

Petty commented, "While the CIA considered Nosenko to be a dispatched agent from
the word go, actually from before he ever arrived, the CIA could not hold back word of
what Nosenko had to say about OSWALD from the Warren Commission." The CIA told
the HSCA: "CIA was unable to resolve satisfactorily the question of his bona fides until
well after the Warren Commission had completed its work. The point is that CIA, per se,
did not reach an agreed position on Mr. Nosenko until late 1968." Former President
Gerry Ford was Yuri Nosenko's foremost opponent:
Ford: I have been led to believe, by people who I believe know, that there
is a grave question about the reliability of Nosenko being a bona fide
defector...I feel so strongly about this that I just think the Commission has
got to make a decision on it.
Warren: I am allergic to defectors...So I think exactly as you do, Gerry.
Dulles: I concur in what you said. Over the weekend I had an opportunity
to discuss the Nosenko matter in some detail with my former colleagues...
Ford: It is my best recollection that he was actually a defector some time
in December, at a disarmament meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. And the
original press releases were to the effect that he was a highly significant
catch as far as we were concerned...There was a great mystery about his
particular defection, because the Soviet Union made such a protest - they
went to the Swiss Government and raised the devil about it. Now
subsequent information has developed that he doesn't appear to be quite
as big a catch, if any, as far as we were concerned. Having absolutely no
faith in what the Soviet Union tries to do in these cases, he might have
been dangled for one reason two or three months before the
assassination, but pumped last th (illegible) the assassination, and a man
that was as high as he allegedly is, with the mental capacity he is
supposed to have, could very well be filled with all the information which
he is now giving us in reference to the OSWALD case. As I say, I am a
complete and total skeptic and cynic about these kinds of people, and
there would be no better way for the Soviet Union to try and clean its own
skirts than to have a high ranking defector come and discount OSWALD'S
importance, OSWALD'S significance while in the Soviet Union." [WC
Proceedings 6.23.64]
BRANIGAN'S DOUBTS ABOUT NOSENKO
William Branigan pointed this out to William Sullivan:
With respect to the points that are to be elaborated on, Nosenko stated
that he next heard about OSWALD two hours after the assassination of
President Kennedy when he was summoned to the KGB center in
Moscow. The time element of two hours is highly unlikely. Elsewhere,