Bernard le Grelle (born July 7, 1948) is a Belgian investigative journalist, political adviser, author, former United Nations expert and public affairs executive. He is known for his long-term investigation into the 1963, John F. Kennedy assassination. He is a member of the noble Le Grelle family.
Inheritance of a noble family
Le Grelle Le Grelle was born in Aalst (Belgium) into the Le Grelle family, a wealthy family dating back into the 17th century, ennobled in 1794 by Francis II, the last Holy Roman Emperor. His direct ancestor, Joseph J. Le Grelle, founded the Joseph-J. Le Grelle bank in 1792 at the age of 27. The Bank was minting its own currency.
His son, Count Gérard Le Grelle, the first Mayor of Antwerp, member of the National Congress and the Belgian House of Representatives, saved the Vatican from bankruptcy and received in 1852 the title of Roman Count from Pope Pie IX. By order of King Leopold I of Belgium the title of Belgian Count was registered and extended to all descendants in 1853. Le Grelle's grant-uncle Monsignor Count Stanislas Le Grelle (Antwerp 1874 – Rome 1957), friend of Eugenio Pacelli who was elected Pope in 1939 as Pius XII, Master of the House of the Pope and Papal Secret Chamberlain played an important role in the Vatican.
Agie de Selsaeten Le Grelle's grandmother belongs to the Agie de Selsaeten family. His ancestor, Pierre Agie (1757), came from France and launched in Antwerp a trading company, competing with the Dutch Compagnie des Indes. His son Charles (known as 'Charles le Chinois') went to China and became very influential at the Imperial Court in Beijing. He travelled all the way to Moscow and was the host of Alexander I the Tsar of Russia. Napoleon, while in Antwerp in February 1798, stayed in one of the Agie's houses. Charles and his son Gustave (1834–1909) were both Consuls of Russia in Antwerp.
Moyersoen Le Grelle's maternal great-grandfather was , a Belgian statesman, who was President of the Belgian Senate (1936–1939), Minister of Industry and Economy. After the liberation in 1944, he was asked to form the government by the regent, Prince Charles, but failed in his mission (Royal crisis). In 1946, Romain Moyersoen was appointed Minister of State. In his book Souvenirs politiques (1918–1951), former Prime minister Count Henry Carton de Wiart wrote that in 1939, he told King Leopold III, that in those difficult times "the best man to lead the country would be Romain Moyersoen". According to the Belgian magazine Trends-Tendance: "He was without any doubts one of the most remarkable political figure of the first half of the XX century". His son (1904–1992) was Minister of Justice, Minister of the Interior, Minister of Defense and Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Early life St Andrew's Abbey After his primary studies in Our Lady College in Antwerp, Le Grelle was educated in the boarding school of St. Andrew's Abbey (Bruges). The very strict Benedictine School, where King Philippe of Belgium studied, was reserved to the Belgian aristocracy and the political and business elite. Bernard Le Grelle won the Lyons Club of Bruges contest for his essay on the World Peace.
Touring the world
Bernard Le Grelle started his reporter and writer career while travelling. After a trip to Syria in 1968, which ended in a Turkish jail following a car accident with an army truck, he travelled 17.000 miles from Antwerp to Kathmandu (Nepal) along the Hippie trail. From the Khyber Pass to Agra, Le Grelle was on the trails of Jacqueline Kennedy's Pakistan, Indian journey seven years earlier. The expedition got press coverage on departure and Le Grelle wrote a story for the Gazet van Antwerpen and for the Dutch, French and German editions of "Bonne Route, Goede Reis" magazine and for the German magazine "Die Schnelle Information".
Studies In 1969, le Grelle got a Bachelor's degree at the Faculty of Economic, Social and Political Sciences (ESPO) from the Saint-Louis University, Brussels and in 1973, a Master's degree in Social and Political Sciences from the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL).
First steps as a journalist The 1974 class and JFK In 1973, Le Grelle entered Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. At this time, he began to focus on John Fitzgerald Kennedy, along with two of his classmates, Robert Pear and Zachary Sklar, who wrote, along with Oliver Stone, the screenplay of the 1992 film JFK. Kennedy and his legacy have influenced Le Grelle's since his early life, on November 23, 1963, deeply shocked by the President's assassination, he wrote a letter to Jacqueline Kennedy and received the funeral card of the late President. JFK has played since then a major role in his professional path.
Bernard Le Grelle is the author of the forthcoming book, “Two Brothers Executed, My Lifetime Quest for the Truth About the Kennedy Assassinations,” which details his efforts to investigate JFK's and RFK's assassinations. He was recently invited by Jefferson Morley, one of the lead advisers to the House Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets to join and contribute to “JFK Facts,” an online publication with over 20,000 subscribers, a source of JFK information that is frequently cited by the New York Times, Fox News, CBS News, NewsNation, the Associated Press, and other news organizations.
From WCBS to the United Nations In January 1974, Le Grelle was hired as a trainee reporter to work with Jim Jensen, the anchorman of WCBS Evening news. At that time, he realized the interview of the Special FBI Agent William F. Higgins, Jr. Le Grelle attended with his classmate Paul Brown the UN reporting and writing class at the United Nations with Kathleen Teltsch of The New York Times and Mike Berlin of The New York Post covering the 28th General Assembly of September 1973 and the numerous Security Councils convened during the Yom Kippur War of October. For his master project, Le Grelle interviewed UN diplomats and Ambassadors (Alexander Yakovlev from the OPI radio and television unit and a KGB agent, John Scali, who played an important role in the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, Ambassador Louis de Guiringaud, ), and heads of States and governments such as Mobutu Sese Seko.
Early career Le Grelle started in 1973 as a consultant of the United Nations Development Program Administrator on a field trip to Peru to work on urban developing projects. He worked at the ITT World Headquarters in New York for Edward Gerrity, the executive vice president, who helped the legendary Harold Geneen build ITT into America's first global conglomerate, on an analysis of the Anthony Sampson's book The Sovereign State and worked for United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) in 1974.
In 1975, Le Grelle became a field expert for UNESCO in Tobago. He founded The Tobago News, the first and only newspaper of the island of which he was the editor (1975) and publisher from 1975 to 1977. In 1977, as deputy publisher of Le Nouvel Economiste in Paris, Le Grelle organized, on the model of Time magazine CEO's Business travels, an economic mission for twenty chairmen of French major companies, with a total turnover of 30 billion dollars and employing over half a million employees, including the banker Guy de Rothschild to meet with the new Carter administration. They lobbied hard for Concorde landing rights in New York.
In 1978, he organized the first French economic mission to China since Mao Zedong and served as an intermediary between several governments, including South Korea, the Philippines, the United States and China, and major French industrial groups such as Bouygues, Framatome, Air Liquide, Air France, Accor, Essilor and Thomson.
In 1980, Le Grelle organized a mission in Korea and the Philippines under the leadership of François Giscard d'Estaing special envoy of the French President. The visit had two outcomes: Framatome won the bid for two nuclear power plants and Francis Bouygues the 1.7 billion contract to build the university of Riyadh.
In 1982, with Lee Huebner, the publisher and CEO of the International Herald Tribune, he organized the meeting of 300 businessmen, bankers and diplomats from 35 countries with members of the French Socialist government including Pierre Mauroy, Prime minister, Michel Rocard and Laurent Fabius, Jacques Delors, Jacques Attali, representing President Mitterrand, trade union leaders, members of parliament and two panels of international bankers and industrialists. The conference was covered by 200 journalists from 21 countries, 17 radio stations and a pool of 19 televisions.
In 1982, Le Grelle launched with Norman Pearlstine, The Wall Street Journal/Europe and in 1984, Le Grelle launched with Al Neuharth the International edition in Europe of USA Today.
In 1986, he organized in Monaco an extraordinary Board of the American Newspaper Publishers Association (ANPA) in collaboration with Thomas Fichter ANPA's Senior Vice-President, Allen Neurath (Ganett), Warren Phillips (Dow Jones), Arthur Ochs Sulzberger (New York Times) and Katharine Graham (Washington Post and Newsweek). At the request of Thomas Fichter to organize a major event around the Mediterranean, Le Grelle invited Vice-Admiral Edward Martin, Commander of the US Sixth Fleet based in Naples. The Vice-Admiral and General Bernard Rogers, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander came to Monaco for a conference aboard the aircraft carrier USS America which came especially with its supporting unit. The demonstration was considered as an opportunity for the White House to state its policy aims to the American press executives.
The American space program
Bernard le Grelle was appointed director of the National Air and Space Bicentennial Agency by the French Presidency in 1982. In June 1982, he was approached by Larry Mihlon, a former member of President Kennedy's space team, to set up a similar organization in the United States and became a founding member of the US Bicentennial Committee. The United States Organizing Committee of the 1983 Air and Space Bicentennial Committee included Senator Charles Mathias,"United States Organizing Committee of the 1983 Air and Space Bicentennial, The Trademarks". appointed Chairman, President Ronald Reagan, Honorary Chairman and Vice President George Bush, Honorary Vice-Chairman General Clifton von Kann (Director), President of the National Aeronautic Association, Anna Chennault, Senator John Glenn, Senator Barry Goldwater, Apollo 17 astronaut and Senator Harrison Schmitt, Scott Crossfield, Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins and Walter J. Boyne, Acting Director of the National Air and Space Museum. On July 12, 1982, Senator Mathias introduced S.J.Res.270, a joint Congressional resolution to designate 1983 as the Bicentennial of Air and Space Flight. On January 3, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the Official Proclamation to designate the year beginning January 1, 1983, as the Bicentennial of Air and Space Flight, which became Public Law (No: 97-413). On November 9, 1982, Mathias, Mihlon and Le Grelle did organize a ceremony in the Senate caucus room in the Russell Senate Office Building to launch the Bicentennial Year. The event televised life, hosted by Vice President Bush included a taped message from President Reagan
On February 7, 1983, a ceremony commemorating the Bicentennial Year of Air and Space Flight was held in the White House. The President spoke at 1:15 p.m. in the East Room to a group of leading figures in aviation, government, diplomacy, the military, and business.