Role of Vancouver, Canada, in Disinformation re the Garrison Investigation

by Donovan E. Pratt

MEMORANDUM FOR	:	C/E/BC/C
SUBJECT	:	Role of Vancouver, Canada, in Disinformation re the Garrison Investigation
REFERENCE	:	OCOW-6315, 22 August 1967, subject: KEYWAY/Garrison Investigation of Kennedy Assassination: Donald P. NORTON, file 100-300-17.

1. Reference forwarded a CI/R&A memorandum about NORTON to   Since that date FBI reports have shown that NORTON is a con man, and U. S. Air Force Medical records have revealed that he was discharged in July 1950 as a result of psychiatric problems, having tried on two or more occasions to commit suicide. NORTON's lies about CIA first appeared in the Vancouver Sun on 5 August 1967.

2. The attached FBI report, DBB 77295, 10 April 1967, concerns another example of disinformation appearing in Vancouver, involving the Sun, and related to the Garrison case. A check of agency files showed that we have no record of Trevor LAUTENS, Mario GRACIAS, or Miss Dorothy WHITTY. The reference of the unidentified caller to GRACIAS may have been a garble for Manueal GARCIA Gonsales, whom Garrison has named as one of the assassins of President Kennedy but who appears to have disappeared or to be non-existent. There are no Agency traces (including JMWAVE) on GARCIA.

3. The Communist press generally and Soviet news media specificall⟨y⟩ have given Garrison's story enthusiastic coverage and support, because it is obviously in their interest to maintain that President Kennedy was assassinated not by pro-Communist Lee Harvey Oswald but rather as a result of a right-wing conspiracy involving CIA.

4. The surfacing of two such allegations in or through the Vancouver Sun seems to place a strain on coincidence. Do you have say information about the Sun in other surfacings of MHORDER propaganda against CIA? Is there any information about contacts between employees of the Sun and representatives of Soviet intelligence? If no such information is at hand, it would be appreciated if these questions were forwarded to the Station. Although Headquarters has no record of Trevor LAUTENS, it is conceivable that Station files may also hold information about him.

Donovan E. Pratt DC/CI/R&A

Attachments
Distribution
Orig &	1 - Adressee
	1 - A/DCI (Mr. Goodwin)
	1 - General Counsel
	1 - Office of Security (Atta: Mr. Paul Gaynor)
	1 - CI/R&A Chrono
	1 - DP for file (New Vancouver file)
	1 - CA/R&A (Miss Smith)