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(Testimony of Prof. Revilo Pendleton Oliver)
Mr. Jenner.
there he married the daughter of a colonel in the Soviet military espionage system (and possible also in the Secret Police. )"
That is starred, indicating a footnote. The footnote reads, "If you missed the detail about Mrs. Oswald's father, see the Congressional Record for December 4, page22215." Have I read it correctly?
Mr. Oliver.
I believe so.
Mr. Jenner.
What is the source of your statement that Oswald was trained in sabotage, terrorism, and guerrilla warfare, including accurate shooting from ambush in the well-known school for international criminals near Minsk?
Mr. Oliver.
It would be a number of sources. The first, a radio broadcast on an international hookup made, as I recall, on the Saturday following the assassination from Vienna by a reporter
Mr. Jenner.
Excuse me, that would be the next day, the 23d of November, 1963. The 22d was a Friday. That is the day of the assassination. The 23d was a Saturday. The 24th was Sunday, and was the day on which Mr. Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald. All I am seeking to clear up, Doctor, is I gather, that the Saturday you have in mind is the day immediately following, or in other words, the day after the assassination, rather than the succeeding week.
Mr. Oliver.
That is right In other words the Saturday and Sunday immediately following that Friday. This was a broadcast from Vienna by a correspondent for, I believe, the Hearst newspaper named Flieders.
Mr. Jenner.
Would you spell it for me, please?
Mr. Oliver.
As I heard it, I would assume that it was F-l-i-e-d-e-r-s or F-l-i-e-g-e-r-s, I was not quite sure, which. Who stated----
Mr. Jenner.
Your understanding, it was a broadcast from Germany?
Mr. Oliver.
No; Vienna.
Mr. Jenner.
Thank you.
Mr. Oliver.
The man stated that he had learned from underground sources that Oswald under cover of employment in a factory at Minsk, was trained in the school for sabotage and terrorism--that I believe was the phrase used--at Minsk. That was, of course, an extremely plausible statement. It has been a matter, I believe, of general knowledge for some time, that such a school was operated in the vicinity of Minsk. It is comparable perhaps to the school in the vicinity of Prague at which Raul Castro was trained. It would be difficult for me to say where I first learned of the existence of such a school.
Mr. Jenner.
When you say "such a," you mean this particular one? This one at Minsk?
Mr. Oliver.
It is my recollection it was in connection with some inquiries I was making into the careers of some Communists in Latin America, but I do not recall it clearly. I believe that references to that school are also to be found in the memoirs of some defectors. I am thinking particularly of Granovsky, the author of a book entitled "I was an NKVD agent."
Now, Granovsky himself was trained at Bykova. But my recollection is not clear in what connection he mentions the school at Minsk, and I cannot be sure that he mentions it at all. There are a large number of memoirs, as you know, of people who were associated in one way or another with the Russian secret police.
Mr. Jenner.
Or at least claimed.
Mr. Oliver.
It would take me quite some time because most of those books do not have indices. It would be quite some time to run down the references, but the statement that he was trained at Minsk seemed to me to be a perfectly reasonable statement.
Mr. Jenner.
Is this a fair statement of the import of your testimony, that when you heard the broadcast during the morning .or late evening hours of the 23d-24th from Vienna, that that awakened in your mind so far as the school at Minsk is concerned, some things that you had read prior to that time?
Mr. Oliver.
Oh, yes.
Mr. Jenner.
Other than having read the memoirs you have mentioned and hearing the broadcast to which you have referred, did you have any other source, that is personal in nature, let us say, that there actually existed while Mr. Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald was there, or since or prior, a school for international criminals in which sabotage, terrorism, and guerrilla warfare was taught?
Mr. Oliver.
No personal knowledge. I never attended the school.
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