JFK Declassified: Tracking Oswald

[W. Tracy Parnell]

8 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

No, they talked about it. In the second half as I recall. They said Oswald had been linked to Alpha 66, which was riddled with Castro informers, and that as a result Castro almost certainly knew about the assassination before it happened...but did nothing.

The program failed to point out that if Castro knew about it through Alpha 66, he would have known as well that they planned on framing him for the killing.

So...sorry...that doesn't fly...

Thanks for the info. I see from other forums too that Alpha 66 was mentioned,  so I guess my attention did lapse.  

[Larry Hancock]

Linking Oswald to Alpha 66 is a stretch unless you take it to the house on Harlandale....which had as many DRE visitors as Alpha 66.  I think "riddled" with Alpha 66 informers is a stretch although the FBI had at least one informant there - the fellow who assured them Oswald had never been there...ha...  And of course you would have had to assume the Alpha 66 guys who Oswald was associated with were openly talking about the Dallas attack....which is unlikely.  Nothing suggests that Oswald was deep inside any such tactical action...not to say he could not have been patsied by one. All in all this is a return to an old saw that has been around for ages and never proved out...so they best have something new or it will suggest Pat may be on target.  Its always interesting to have an ex CIA guy as your investigative lead, CIA support for the WC and the HSCA worked out so well. 

[Douglas Caddy]

http://capa-us.org/history-channels-jfk-declassified-fallback-original-propaganda-cover-story/

[Chris Newton]

     

Beyond the appallingly horrible narrative and disinformation, there are other alternative facts we're asked to consider in this series.

I don't know what Mexico City was like in 1963 but I lived and worked there in the late '70s as an exchange student. So I was kind of surprised to hear how much they dissed the neighborhood that Oswald's hotel was in as a super violent criminal neighborhood, a hangout of the cartels. I don't remember that neighborhood being any different than the rest of Mexico City, which was surprisingly super-safe and virtually crime free when compared to any US City.

Mexico City isn't the same today as it was 40-50 years ago. To suggest that it is, is just ignorant and lazy reporting.

[Pat Speer]

Perhaps the most irritating part of the show, for me, was the way they kept comparing U.S.--Russia relations in the 60's to U.S.--ISIS relations today. That's absurd. Al Qaeda and ISIS have openly attacked American troops--we are at war with them. Their leaders' names are on hit lists. This is nothing like U.S.--Russia relations in the 60's.

It's like comparing chess to cage-fighting. Both are competitions. But only one  is likely to end in bloodshed.

Edited April 29, 2017 by Pat Speer

[Michael Clark]

3 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

Perhaps the most irritating part of the show, for me, was the way they kept comparing U.S.--Russia relations in the 60's to U.S.--ISIS relations today. That's absurd. Al Qaeda and ISIS have openly attacked American troops--we are at war with them. Their leaders' names are on hit lists. This is nothing like U.S.--Russia relations in the 60's.

It's like comparing chess to cage-fighting. Both are competitions. But only one  is likely to end in bloodshed.

"kids these days"..... 

[W. Tracy Parnell]

7 hours ago, Pat Speer said:

Perhaps the most irritating part of the show, for me, was the way they kept comparing U.S.--Russia relations in the 60's to U.S.--ISIS relations today. That's absurd. Al Qaeda and ISIS have openly attacked American troops--we are at war with them. Their leaders' names are on hit lists. This is nothing like U.S.--Russia relations in the 60's.

It's like comparing chess to cage-fighting. Both are competitions. But only one  is likely to end in bloodshed.

+1

[Pat Speer]

5 hours ago, Michael Clark said:

"kids these days"..... 

Except Bob Baer is not a kid. He's a veteran CIA operative.

I really don't want to think the show was deliberate disinfo, but heck, that makes as much sense as Baer honestly believing the Russian and/or Cuban government wanted Kennedy dead, knowing full well they would be blamed.

It's also alarming, in my opinion, that the show has mentioned LBJ's creating the Warren Commission to de-escalate the situation, but is yet to mention the numerous instances in which propaganda or disinfo agents were employed to make it look like the Cuban government was involved.

I mean, I smelled a rat at the beginning, when they discussed Hoover's 11-23 call to Johnson without noting Hoover suspected Oswald had been impersonated in Mexico City.

P.S. Larry, your assumption is correct. As I recall, they tied Oswald to the Harlandale house and that house to Alpha 66.

[Chris Newton]

55 minutes ago, Pat Speer said:

Except Bob Baer is not a kid. He's a veteran CIA operative.

His wikipedia bio suggests that he is highly intelligent and had been the best CIA field operative in the middle East. The guy speaks five languages fluently and is conversant in three more. His opinions of 9/11 and other incidents and issues on his wikipedia page are logical, reasonable, and well thought out.

What is the "disconnect" here? Have the producers simply decided to "dumb down" the story to fit the IQ of a typical History Channel viewer?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baer

[Michael Clark]

7 minutes ago, Chris Newton said:

 

What is the "disconnect" here? Have the producers simply decided to "dumb down" the story to fit the IQ of a typical History Channel viewer?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baer

That's what I was getting at. I think there are a lot of 20-30 somethings who direct production and content. I gave up on television a long time ago. I just become an annoyance to anyone else who is trying to watch it.

Yup, I am that guy...

Edited April 29, 2017 by Michael Clark

[Larry Hancock]

One thought is that its simply a matter of History channel filling a topical slot with the lowest possible production costs.  That is suggested by the apparently limited "investigation" time involved.  The really interesting question would be how they found and selected Baer and company?   If you do a search on JFK assassination you don't turn him up.  Has he been on air before  or done something in the media to get him on a CIA talking head list (the media does prepare such things, its a call list for when certain stories come up).  If so Baer might just have taken it as a gig, been told he could only spend so much time and done a quick search online search and come up with it.  I haven't looked at the credits, who was the script writer, the producer, etc. Any clues there...are they the same folks that do other topical specials. They know their viewers are entertainment oriented rather than history oriented - that's was clear some time ago.  But how and why they would pick Baer rather than someone like Newman who certainly has superior intelligence credentials, maybe the answer is there. 

[Chris Newton]

Production Company details:

https://productionbeast.com/organizations/39385-karga-seven-pictures

 

[Chris Newton]

One interesting, and actually insightful, moment was when Bob was discussing the "Kostin" letter and he suggested that Kostikov may have identified himself as "Kostin", (to "Oswald") using the "Kostin" name as an alias or dangle. Almost every other person I've read with comments on that spelling has assumed that it was in fact a misspelling.

[Larry Hancock]

Well I think we have our answer,  the production company is indeed a general freelance firm that does all sorts of specials for the cable channel market.  If you check Karga 7 you see it ranges from Spy World to Booze Traveler so they do stuff that will sell, that's it.  They did Hunting Hitler and that is the connection to Baer.  Checking his bio you see he does all sorts freelance work leveraging his CIA background and would have been very visible to a company like Karga 7 because of the sort of call list the media maintains.  Another example of leveraging your resume in retirement...grin.

Robert Booker "Bob" Baer (born July 1, 1952) is an American author and a former CIA case officer who was primarily assigned to the Middle East.^[1] He is Time's intelligence columnist^[1] and has contributed to Vanity Fair, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post.^[2] Baer is a frequent commentator and author about issues related to international relations, espionage and U.S. foreign policy. Currently he is a reality television host on the History Channel's program "Hunting Hitler."^[3] He is an Intelligence and Security Analyst for CNN

As a former case officer he has some qualifications to look at Oswald as an asset but given the range of work he does I don't see him spending that much time on it.  It was likely an extension of his Hunting for Hitler series gig and he's just giving it a shot without any particular background in the subject. And as we know, if you just "dip into" this case its easy to take one of the easy outs. Per Pat's view though, he appears to have gotten a lot of mileage from his Agency background - and is public with it.  Given that probably remains on good terms with the Agency and might have referred to some of the Agency preferred sources on JFK....oh lets say something written by Gus Russo, admittedly tight with the CIA and an ongoing proponent of Oswald did it for Castro themes.  Just spit-balling on that of course...but it would take Baer in the direction he appears to be headed.

[Michael Clark]

thanks Larry