Tony Summers, Not in Your Lifetime

[William Kelly]

David, I don't see any reason to delete a rational discourse, one that I don't think has played out in full. While his 9/11 book didn't satisfy many "Truthers" trying to pin the tail on the Bushes, Tony did properly label the 9/11 Commission for what it was - and elaborated on the Saudi connections when others refused to go there.

In the same vein, some conspiracy theorists are disappointed that Summers won't commit himself to any particular theory or suspect, when he tells you from the get go, that's not his game, and Not In Your Lifetime 2012 is what it is - the best objective reporting on the assassination going into the 50th year since the murder.

While I don't know his reasoning for making his decisions on what to drop or what to keep, I do know a lot about Jim Braden and other aspects of the assassination that Tony has covered, and I think he's done so exceptionally well, and that it would be good if we all payed more attention to what he has to say, rather than what he's not saying.

BK

[B. A. Copeland]

I think that some of these aspects of the case being left out is rather unfortunate....still looking forward to what is explored and analyzed however.

[William Kelly]

Tony blogs on New Yorker's swipe at Conspiracy buffs.

I refer you to:

http://anthonysummersandrobbynswan.wordpress.com

in which Tony expresses his opinions "On When to Stop Asking Questions...?" - "Correcting the Record on Herminio Diaz" and my favorite, "A Few Thoughts on the Nature of Conspiracy."

blogs

There's a lot to digest in the latest edition of "Not In Your Lifetime," and as Jeff Morley said, it is the best one book on the assassination and number one on my list.

I'm also proud of the fact that Tony acknowledges my blog as a primary research source, and will later elaborate on the issues he mentions that I worked on and am familiar with - including Peter Noyes and Jim Braden and the Tippit murder.

In the meantime, NIYL 2013 is a full meal to digest but well worth it.

BK

[David McLean]

Have just finished the 2013 rewrite of Not in Your Lifetime-an impressive analysis of many of the relevant and reliably known parts of the jigsaw puzzle that is the assassination of JFK. And many of those first located, interviewed, and put in context by Anthony Summers over many years. And now in more depth and detail.

I was however disappointed to find no reference to the work of Douglas Valentine linking the same "million dollar men" identified in NIYL - subserviently - to the CIA in the cause of "national security". As I recall, Federal Bureau of Narcotic agents interviewed in The Strength of the Wolf state Trafficante, Marcello and Giancana in particular had "Get Out of Jail Free" cards. At this late date, it seems only a more collaborative effort would now advance our understanding.

A couple of other observations-Jim Douglass' book strongly and I believe persuasively argues that after the Cuban Missile Crises, JFK was truly on the road of redemption. Did this alter his and/or Bobbie's approach to Castro, and to the National Security State, as Schlesinger Jr seems to say? I question Summers' concentration on "betrayal of the Mafia" as the main motive for the assassination, rather than just the Mob's reason to be involved. To dismiss JFK Peace Initiatives towards Russia and Cuba and policy shifts on Vietnam as not relevant is just too reductive and simplistic in my opinion.

No doubt Summers' book is a strong scaffold to be built upon and strengthened not replaced like just another theory, for theory this is not.

[David McLean]

In general, Summers is keen to point out the DUPLICITOUS behaviour of the Kennedy Brothers both in relationship to the Mafia and Castro. In his latest analysis, the Mafia emerge as most likely conspirators in league with anti-Castro Cubans. He appears to suspend judgement against the CIA, pending withheld documents.

In particular, it has always puzzled me why the AMLASH op of Des Fitzgerald and Cuban "turncoat"/ double agent Rolando Cubela is trotted out - by Summers and others - to help prove that JFK and RFK plotted the assassination of Castro, which according to the CIA-DRE-LBJ-ETC version, led to a pre-emptive strike by Castro.While Summers does not follow that logic to blame Castro, neither does he countenance the EQUALLY PLAUSIBLE possibility that the CIA USED Cubela(acknowledging he was a likely double agent) as a conduit to Castro in order to set-up Castro to take the fall for the JFK hit. When patsy Oswald was captured not killed, this scenario became infinitely risky and untenable. As I understand his recent work on LHO and Mexico City, Bill Simplich implies David Phillips may himself have been out of the final loop and "played" by the ultimate plotters. WERE DES FITZGERALD AND/OR BOBBY KENNEDY ALSO UNWITTING PARTIES TO AN ELABORATE MIS-DIRECTION PLAY IN THE AMLASH OP?

Or Am I just another Kennedy Hagiographer?

[Larry Hancock]

David, it seems to me that a number of people avoid two basic facts.

First, the initial CIA project to assassinate Castro with directly controlled CIA assets was initiated by Dulles with the tacit and possibly verbal approval of Eisenhower, in much the same manner as Eisenhower had ordered the elimination of Lamumba. Dulles himself took J.C. Kings proposal to assassinate Castro and simply substituted the word assassinate before sending it to Ike for approval - along with a new CIA project to topple the Castro regime. That's just the way they did it then.

Later, circa 1963, as part of the Fitzgerald AM/TRUNK program to generate a coup, the CIA was approaching any number of people inside Cuba to join a coup effort and all of them responded that to do

so they would only become involved if Castro could be killed in the early phases of a coup. Hence the dialog with Cubela. The documents make it pretty clear that RFK, who was driving the project, not JFK, would not have been unhappy with Castro's death in the course of events but of course nominally it would all have been a Cuban affair - again, standard practice to help the insurgents we sponsored but they are the ones who actually pull the triggers, plant the bombs...etc.

[Paul Brancato]

David - I think you are right. Summers has drawn the wrong conclusions, and does not understand the change in JFK's view on the Cold War that led to his death.

[David McLean]

Larry and Paul, thanks for your comments.

Noted in his Spartacus bio, Cubela and other internal dissidents made contact with Rafael Quintero (Operation40) in Cuba circa 1961, yet Cubela refused a lie detector test and was part of a known leaky operation. Sounds like a deeper op involving but not limited to known plotters in relation to the Odio affair and NO and MC antics BEFORE the assassination and Alvarado. DRE, Hal Hendrix, Havana letters etc AFTERWARDS. Anthony Summers finds plausible the AM/OP link to RFK and the 2012 Brian Latell book fingering Cubela as a double agent, but will not connect the dots as if we are not in the NEED TO KNOW-category. The RFK phone that called Harry Ruiz-Williams and Haynes Johnson("One of your guys did it") has been hanging off the hook for 50 years, despite whatever Bobbie said or did thereafter.

Paul, you are dead right about JFK changing on the Cold War, Mafia-CIA cooperation(more RFK than JFK perhaps) and violent overthrow of the Castro regime. And this is duplicitous? The "signal speech" is nothing if not ambiguous: in my reading it is not the "small band of conspirators" but "foreign imperialism...dictated by external powers" that the speech refers to, despite the headlines."This and this alone divides us",JFK said.

Summers egregiously overlooks the evolution of American society and JFK himself after the Freedom Rides and the Cuban Missile crisis and Vatican II Oct 11,1962, Pacem in Terra April 11, 1963, death of John XXIII June 3, the Peace Speech June 10, the Civil Rights Bill June 11,"Blowing in the Wind"(200,000 sold in one June week), the Test Ban Treaty July and ratified almost unanimously by the Senate in September. I could go on... but as far as it goes, Not in Your Lifetime is thoughtful-provoking book, wherefrom much of this polemic was drawn.

[Paul Brancato]

David - I'm sure you are aware that Rafael Quintero knew who was responsible for the killing of JFK. After going back and forth for decades on who the guilty men were, and after watching the film Dark Legacy, I view Quintero's later comment as the truth. Operation 40 is at the center of the conspiracy.

[David Andrews]

David - I'm sure you are aware that Rafael Quintero knew who was responsible for the killing of JFK. After going back and forth for decades on who the guilty men were, and after watching the film Dark Legacy, I view Quintero's later comment as the truth. Operation 40 is at the center of the conspiracy.

Paul - This film?

[Paul Brancato]

Yes. What did you think of it?

[David Andrews]

Got 1/4 through, I'll get back.

[Paul Brancato]

The best stuff is later, a least regarding the Bush family ties to the CIA.