Oswald LeWinter

Oswald LeWinter   (spook, academic, poet)
Born	1931/04/02
Died	2013/02/13 (Age 81)
Parents	• Louis LeWinter • Regina LeWinter
A shady character who issued a lot of conflicting statements and claimed to be ex-CIA. The official narrative about him - "it's all lies, he's a complete fraud" - scores for simplicity, but does not explain how he could have been so well informed on such a wide range of deep state operations.

Official narrative

As of August 2015, Wikipedia highlighted allegations that LeWinter is a "convincing storyteller", and reports that "he was best known for his role in the October Surprise controversy". Wikipedia cites a 2001 article in the Washington Post by Vernon Loeb and Bill Miller entitled "He's Played the Part of an Ex-CIA Agent for Years Now. It's a Convincing Act", including such testimony as Vincent Cannistraro's claim that "The guy is a chameleon. He can show up and pretend to be anyone." LeWinter is portrayed as a charlatan, whose career of fraud goes back at least as early as a 1953 FBI arrest for illegally wearing a Marine Corps uniform to hitch a ride on a Coast Guard plane to Florida.

Official denials

LeWinter is mentioned in the 1998 Assassination Records Review Board report, which claims that "FBI and CIA files indicate that LeWinter is a well-known fabricator with an interest in intelligence and law enforcement activities who frequently makes claims related to sensational or unusual news events. The records that the Review Board examined did not show that Oswald LeWinter was ever employed by or worked for the CIA in any capacity." It appears not to treat this with a hint of scepticism, as if official denials of involvement were proof positive - ignoring the evidence of history, as provided by cases such as Edwin Wilson.

Career

LeWinter pursued a shady career involving a lot of fake identities, military/intelligence contacts and international drug smuggling - consonant with work as a spook. Trowbridge H. Ford claimed that LeWinter was "Duane Clarridge's deputy for European operations." The official narrative that he was just a high flying and gifted con man does not explain the various deviations from standard operating procedure, such as officials deciding not to arrest him on multiple occasions.

1971 London Arrest

He was reportedly "Arrested in London in 1971 after authorities caught him with a New York City police detective's badge and papers suggesting he was a diplomat. One certificate proclaimed he was the Honorable Dr. Oswald LeWinter, ambassador extraordinary, who should be afforded diplomatic privileges because he was with the Sovereign Order of the Knights of Malta. British authorities jailed LeWinter briefly before deciding not to pursue charges."

1980s German Military contacts

"In the early 1980s, LeWinter was divorced, working as a University of Maryland professor teaching psychology to American military personnel in Germany."

1984 Drug Smuggling arrest

In 1984, LeWinter was arrested by German authorities and extradited to Newark, N.J., where he pleaded guilty of taking part of a $100 million scheme to smuggle into the United States a chemical used in the illegal manufacture of methamphetamine. He was sentenced to 6 years but released after 2 years.

Testimony

LeWinter - especially in retrospect - was fairly widely hailed as a disinformation specialist. One commentator noted "Oswald Le Winter is an article unto himself, and only a single asset, one of hundreds feeding mystery meat into the sausage grinder of History". This does not mean that his information should be disregarded, but caution is advised - not least because so many of his statements contradict one another.

October surprise conspiracy

In 1988, LeWinter, using the alias "Razine" emerged as a key source for at least two authors and numerous journalists when he testified about the October surprise conspiracy that he had "provided security during a meeting in Paris that involved William Casey, soon to become CIA director; vice presidential candidate George Bush; and CIA official Donald Gregg". He later claimed his testimony "had been a complete fabrication."

Gladio

Alan Francovich was apparently convinced enough of "Colonel Oswald LeWinter"'s credibility to include him extensively in his BBC Timewatch programme on Operation Gladio, where he is introduced as "CIA - ITAC Liason Officer, Europe". The ITAC is the Intelligence Tactical Assessment Center of the DIA, which was assigned to a CIA officer.

Lockerbie

Oswald LeWinter appeared in another Alan Francovich film, The Maltese Double Cross - Lockerbie, where he is identified as "CIA, 1968-85."

Twenty five minutes into the film LeWinter talks about Pik Botha:

"The South Africans particularly Pik Botha were booked on flight 103 and changed pretty much at the last hour or so. The South Africans had been warned by the Bureau for State Security to change reservations. BOSS is close to two very important services: the Israeli Mossad agency and also to the American Central Intelligence Agency.

Marwan Khreesat at 35 minutes:

"There's a German reporter who refuses to go on camera but is close to Federal German intelligence sources who assured me that Khreesat was an agent of the Jordanian service and an asset of the CIA."

Vincent Cannistraro at 51 minutes:

"What is that famous saying about 'putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop'? For Vincent Cannistraro to be put in charge of investigating Lockerbie would be funny if it weren't an obscenity."

Drug smuggling for Oliver North at 1 hour 55 minutes:

"I was contacted by a fellow who worked for Oliver North and asked to develop an operation laying a trail that would lead back to Libya making it look as though it was a Libyan effort behind this putting drugs into the United States. The way to do this is to make it look as though the material had been shipped from Europe to Libya and then from Libya to the United States. I was buying a precursor for the manufacture of benzyl ketone which has the same chemical formula as cinnamic acid. I would buy that and the labels would be switched to acyl ketone. It would be shipped to the US where the mafia would pay for it in advance. My instructions were to use Frankfurt since that was where all the contacts were. I was given stationery and bills of lading. Libyan Arab Airlines were to be used. I received the funds to do this through the military banking system. Here's a receipt for 317,100 German Marks. The street value of the drugs I imported was about $350 million."

The blatantly fraudulent 'hotel room scene' featuring Oswald LeWinter between 02.12 and 02.15 has been heavily criticised by Lockerbie campaigner Barry Walker.

Olof Palme

LeWinter has been termed "the disinformant who did most damage in the Palme murder investigation. He kept the Police Investigation Group (PU) working for four years. LeWinter led an incredible double life."

OKC Bombing

It has been claimed that LeWinter was aware of the Oklahoma Bombing.

Diana, Princess of Wales

After Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed were "unlawfully killed" in an August 1997 car crash, Fayed's father, Mohammed Al-Fayed, became convinced that their deaths were not accidental, and offered a reward for information leading to the arrest of those responsible. LeWinter, claiming to be a CIA officer, offered Al-Fayed what he said were CIA documents that showed that MI6 had arranged the assassination at the behest of Buckingham Palace.. Negotiations for the documents took place in the United States and were conducted between Al-Fayed's security head John Macnamara and an American lawyer and a journalist.^[Who?]

LeWinter reportedly demanded $US4 million for the documents and insisted on meeting outside the United States, whereupon Al-Fayed suspected fraud and notified the FBI, the CIA, and police in Vienna, where the meeting was to take place.

When LeWinter produced the documents at the meeting in Vienna, he was arrested. The documents were judged forgeries and LeWinter was convicted of fraud. He served over two and a half years in prison, and was released in December 2000. The US government chose not to press charges, leading Mark S. Zaid, one of Fayed's Washington lawyers, to speculate that LeWinter might indeed "have served the CIA in some capacity that the agency would just as soon forget".

Fayed hired Terry Lenzner, former assistant chief counsel for the United States Senate Watergate Committee, in the Fall of 1998 to investigate the claims of LeWinter and his associates to determine whether the British government was involved in Diana's unlawful killing. Lenzner stated that the "evidence we collected supported the conclusion that Oswald LeWinter was not a credible source."

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References

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