L. Fletcher Prouty

[Jim Root]

In November of 1994, L. Fletcher Prouty wrote an article called "The Assassination Hacks" in reply to an article written by Edward Jay Epstein.

I find portions of its content suggestive of Maxwell Taylor as a person who would be in a position to have units "stand down."

".... I was in New Zealand when I heard the news of President Kennedy's death. I was having breakfast with a U.S. Congressman. When we were able to find a newspaper, under the banner headline, "KENNEDY SHOT DEAD" it carried a quarter- page radio-photo of the Texas School Book Depository Building, the building from which Oswald is supposed to have fired the "three fatal shots." I noticed immediately that windows were open on several floors directly over-looking the small street where the President's car had been moving at a slow pace.

"I turned to the Congressman and said:

"There is something seriously wrong in Dallas. The Secret Service and the Military Presidential Protection units must not have been there. If they were not there, they must have been called off. If they had been called off, that would have required word from the highest level, and before the President traveled to Dallas."

"That act alone is evidence of a top level conspiracy, not only to assassinate the President; but to take over the U.S. Government via a Coup d'etat. That was obvious, even to a newspaper reader in far off New Zealand. Those windows ought to have been closed, sealed and under constant observation by men with radios and by snipers. They weren't. That photo proved that. How did I know that?

"Not too many years before, when I was the Chief of Special Operations for the Headquarters, U.S. Air Force, I had been sent to Mexico City with other military personnel and Secret Service men for the purpose of preparing for a visit there by President Eisenhower. We were there weeks ahead of time, and we completely checked out all the possible danger sites in the city along the planned presidential motorcade route. Working with the senior Secret Service representative, we checked and double-checked all danger spots according to their manual. At the same time we laid out plans for the placement of men on roof-tops, at prominent places where they could observe the crowd, etc. One thing became clear, we made arrangements to have enough men there so that a man could be placed beside someone with an umbrella, someone else with a coat over his arm, others who were carrying newspapers or other packages that might conceal a weapon. Such men would be in civilian clothes to blend in with other bystanders. The whole motorcade route was to be covered. Even man-hole covers in the streets were welded shut...as is done in Washington regularly. (This was not done in Dallas.)

"This was up-to-date experience for me. I had been in Cairo during the Cairo Conference in 1943 when the protection of Roosevelt, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek was a war-time military responsibility. Following Cairo, I was at the Teheran Conference when Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek met with Stalin. There the Soviets were in charge of protection, and they went to the extreme of rigging a 10-foot high heavy curtain completely around the center of the city where the conferees and their staffs would meet. Armed soldiers manned every bit of that huge curtained area. No one was allowed in except at monitored entrances....."

"....It would have been a little difficult for me to have done that in 1963, for the Kennedy motorcade, because I had been ordered to be the Military Escort for a group of industrial dignitaries who were going to Antarctica to officially dedicate a Nuclear Power Plant at the U.S. Navy Base at McMurdo Sound, during November 1963..... The military services had their own trained men who served in that capacity...regularly.

"While clarifying that record, I should make it clear, that had I been in the Pentagon at the time the assignments for Presidential Protection for Kennedy's trip to Dallas were being made, I might very well have been called...as an available and experienced senior officer...when the Commander of the Army unit that ought to have been assigned that task was told his unit was not needed in Dallas on Nov 22, 1963.

"As a matter of fact, I was called later after my return from Antarctica by an officer there who knew me, because he and his boss were extremely up-set by that call that told them not to go to Dallas. This was quite irregular, and as most people now know elements of the Secret Service had also been told that they would not be needed in Dallas that day.

"These are the important facts of the case,....After all, someone ordered those Protection units to "Stand Down." This is a serious question. We have been subjected to the Cover Story now for more than three decades. The propagation of the Cover Story is the sinister work of the Conspirators even to this day.

"It is extremely important to understand that someone in a position of high power had to have made those calls to elements of both the military and the Secret Service directing them that they were not needed on that crucial Nov 22nd of 1963, in Dallas. Few clues relevant to the assassination of the President are more important than that. Political assassinations are committed when the planned victim is unprotected, when his regular guard is down. This is an historical truth."

Thoughts,

Jim Root

[Tim Gratz]

In November of 1994, L. Fletcher Prouty wrote an article called "The Assassination Hacks" in reply to an article written by Edward Jay Epstein.

I find portions of its content suggestive of Maxwell Taylor as a person who would be in a position to have units "stand down."

".... I was in New Zealand when I heard the news of President Kennedy's death. I was having breakfast with a U.S. Congressman. When we were able to find a newspaper, under the banner headline, "KENNEDY SHOT DEAD" it carried a quarter- page radio-photo of the Texas School Book Depository Building, the building from which Oswald is supposed to have fired the "three fatal shots." I noticed immediately that windows were open on several floors directly over-looking the small street where the President's car had been moving at a slow pace.

"I turned to the Congressman and said:

"There is something seriously wrong in Dallas. The Secret Service and the Military Presidential Protection units must not have been there. If they were not there, they must have been called off. If they had been called off, that would have required word from the highest level, and before the President traveled to Dallas."

"That act alone is evidence of a top level conspiracy, not only to assassinate the President; but to take over the U.S. Government via a Coup d'etat. That was obvious, even to a newspaper reader in far off New Zealand. Those windows ought to have been closed, sealed and under constant observation by men with radios and by snipers. They weren't. That photo proved that. How did I know that?

"Not too many years before, when I was the Chief of Special Operations for the Headquarters, U.S. Air Force, I had been sent to Mexico City with other military personnel and Secret Service men for the purpose of preparing for a visit there by President Eisenhower. We were there weeks ahead of time, and we completely checked out all the possible danger sites in the city along the planned presidential motorcade route. Working with the senior Secret Service representative, we checked and double-checked all danger spots according to their manual. At the same time we laid out plans for the placement of men on roof-tops, at prominent places where they could observe the crowd, etc. One thing became clear, we made arrangements to have enough men there so that a man could be placed beside someone with an umbrella, someone else with a coat over his arm, others who were carrying newspapers or other packages that might conceal a weapon. Such men would be in civilian clothes to blend in with other bystanders. The whole motorcade route was to be covered. Even man-hole covers in the streets were welded shut...as is done in Washington regularly. (This was not done in Dallas.)

"This was up-to-date experience for me. I had been in Cairo during the Cairo Conference in 1943 when the protection of Roosevelt, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek was a war-time military responsibility. Following Cairo, I was at the Teheran Conference when Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek met with Stalin. There the Soviets were in charge of protection, and they went to the extreme of rigging a 10-foot high heavy curtain completely around the center of the city where the conferees and their staffs would meet. Armed soldiers manned every bit of that huge curtained area. No one was allowed in except at monitored entrances....."

"....It would have been a little difficult for me to have done that in 1963, for the Kennedy motorcade, because I had been ordered to be the Military Escort for a group of industrial dignitaries who were going to Antarctica to officially dedicate a Nuclear Power Plant at the U.S. Navy Base at McMurdo Sound, during November 1963..... The military services had their own trained men who served in that capacity...regularly.

"While clarifying that record, I should make it clear, that had I been in the Pentagon at the time the assignments for Presidential Protection for Kennedy's trip to Dallas were being made, I might very well have been called...as an available and experienced senior officer...when the Commander of the Army unit that ought to have been assigned that task was told his unit was not needed in Dallas on Nov 22, 1963.

"As a matter of fact, I was called later after my return from Antarctica by an officer there who knew me, because he and his boss were extremely up-set by that call that told them not to go to Dallas. This was quite irregular, and as most people now know elements of the Secret Service had also been told that they would not be needed in Dallas that day.

"These are the important facts of the case,....After all, someone ordered those Protection units to "Stand Down."  This is a serious question. We have been subjected to the Cover Story now for more than three decades. The propagation of the Cover Story is the sinister work of the Conspirators even to this day.

"It is extremely important to understand that someone in a position of high power had to have made those calls to elements of both the military and the Secret Service directing them that they were not needed on that crucial Nov 22nd of 1963, in Dallas. Few clues relevant to the assassination of the President are more important than that. Political assassinations are committed when the planned victim is unprotected, when his regular guard is down. This is an historical truth."

Thoughts,

Jim Root

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As I mentioned in the Post JFK in Key West, JFK rode through the streets of Key West in an open Lincoln convertible with no more protection than he had in Dallas. Please explain why his protection in Dallas was any different than any of the other places where he rode in open cars past tall buildings. There were several buildings lining the main street in Key West from which an assassin could eaily have shot at the President. And presumably Key West had a number of unhappy Cuban exiles so protection could have been an issue here.

Again, it does not seem to me that the protection protocols were any different in Key West in Nov 62 than they were in Dallas in Nov 63.

Edited November 29, 2004 by Tim Gratz

[Antti Hynonen]

Tim Gratz Posted Today, 11:22 AM

  QUOTE(Jim Root @ Nov 27 2004, 06:38 PM)

In November of 1994, L. Fletcher Prouty wrote an article called "The Assassination Hacks" in reply to an article written by Edward Jay Epstein.

I find portions of its content suggestive of Maxwell Taylor as a person who would be in a position to have units "stand down."

".... I was in New Zealand when I heard the news of President Kennedy's death. I was having breakfast with a U.S. Congressman. When we were able to find a newspaper, under the banner headline, "KENNEDY SHOT DEAD" it carried a quarter- page radio-photo of the Texas School Book Depository Building, the building from which Oswald is supposed to have fired the "three fatal shots." I noticed immediately that windows were open on several floors directly over-looking the small street where the President's car had been moving at a slow pace.

"I turned to the Congressman and said:

"There is something seriously wrong in Dallas. The Secret Service and the Military Presidential Protection units must not have been there. If they were not there, they must have been called off. If they had been called off, that would have required word from the highest level, and before the President traveled to Dallas."

"That act alone is evidence of a top level conspiracy, not only to assassinate the President; but to take over the U.S. Government via a Coup d'etat. That was obvious, even to a newspaper reader in far off New Zealand. Those windows ought to have been closed, sealed and under constant observation by men with radios and by snipers. They weren't. That photo proved that. How did I know that?

"Not too many years before, when I was the Chief of Special Operations for the Headquarters, U.S. Air Force, I had been sent to Mexico City with other military personnel and Secret Service men for the purpose of preparing for a visit there by President Eisenhower. We were there weeks ahead of time, and we completely checked out all the possible danger sites in the city along the planned presidential motorcade route. Working with the senior Secret Service representative, we checked and double-checked all danger spots according to their manual. At the same time we laid out plans for the placement of men on roof-tops, at prominent places where they could observe the crowd, etc. One thing became clear, we made arrangements to have enough men there so that a man could be placed beside someone with an umbrella, someone else with a coat over his arm, others who were carrying newspapers or other packages that might conceal a weapon. Such men would be in civilian clothes to blend in with other bystanders. The whole motorcade route was to be covered. Even man-hole covers in the streets were welded shut...as is done in Washington regularly. (This was not done in Dallas.)

"This was up-to-date experience for me. I had been in Cairo during the Cairo Conference in 1943 when the protection of Roosevelt, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek was a war-time military responsibility. Following Cairo, I was at the Teheran Conference when Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek met with Stalin. There the Soviets were in charge of protection, and they went to the extreme of rigging a 10-foot high heavy curtain completely around the center of the city where the conferees and their staffs would meet. Armed soldiers manned every bit of that huge curtained area. No one was allowed in except at monitored entrances....."

"....It would have been a little difficult for me to have done that in 1963, for the Kennedy motorcade, because I had been ordered to be the Military Escort for a group of industrial dignitaries who were going to Antarctica to officially dedicate a Nuclear Power Plant at the U.S. Navy Base at McMurdo Sound, during November 1963..... The military services had their own trained men who served in that capacity...regularly.

"While clarifying that record, I should make it clear, that had I been in the Pentagon at the time the assignments for Presidential Protection for Kennedy's trip to Dallas were being made, I might very well have been called...as an available and experienced senior officer...when the Commander of the Army unit that ought to have been assigned that task was told his unit was not needed in Dallas on Nov 22, 1963.

"As a matter of fact, I was called later after my return from Antarctica by an officer there who knew me, because he and his boss were extremely up-set by that call that told them not to go to Dallas. This was quite irregular, and as most people now know elements of the Secret Service had also been told that they would not be needed in Dallas that day.

"These are the important facts of the case,....After all, someone ordered those Protection units to "Stand Down."  This is a serious question. We have been subjected to the Cover Story now for more than three decades. The propagation of the Cover Story is the sinister work of the Conspirators even to this day.

"It is extremely important to understand that someone in a position of high power had to have made those calls to elements of both the military and the Secret Service directing them that they were not needed on that crucial Nov 22nd of 1963, in Dallas. Few clues relevant to the assassination of the President are more important than that. Political assassinations are committed when the planned victim is unprotected, when his regular guard is down. This is an historical truth."

Thoughts,

Jim Root

As I mentioned in the Post JFK in Key West, JFK rode through the streets of Key West in an open Lincoln convertible with no more protection than he had in Dallas. Please explain why his protection in Dallas was any different than any of the other places where he rode in open cars past tall buildings. There were several buildings lining the main street in Key West from which an assassin could eaily have shot at the President. And presumably Key West had a number of unhappy Cuban exiles so protection could have been an issue here.

Again, it does not seem to me that the protection protocols were any different in Key West in Nov 62 than they were in Dallas in Nov 63.

Your question is a good one. I bet the protocol was the same, also the same type of Secret Service protection. To answer, I can only speculate.

However, for the Dallas trip there had been several warnings. Examples of the warnings are Adlai Stevenson's visit to Dallas recently (the hostility expressed towards him) before JFK's visit, a letter given to the FBI warning of an assassination attempt on the President (sent to all FBI field offices prior to 11/22/63).

Perhaps Anti-Castro Cubans were not involved in shooting at JFK at all, because they weren't interested in him when he visited Key West nor later when he visited Dallas.

Another reason might be the fact that Dallas is possibly a more convenient location in terms of an escape (there's only one highway out of Key West, unless you want to fly out or escape by boat). Therefore a bigger city had to be chosen (many have speculated Miami and Chicago as other alternatives, based on information that became available through intelligence agencies, later.)

Edited November 29, 2004 by Antti Hynonen

[Tim Carroll]

As I mentioned in the Post JFK in Key West, JFK rode through the streets of Key West in an open Lincoln convertible with no more protection than he had in Dallas. Please explain why his protection in Dallas was any different than any of the other places where he rode in open cars past tall buildings. There were several buildings lining the main street in Key West from which an assassin could eaily have shot at the President. And presumably Key West had a number of unhappy Cuban exiles so protection could have been an issue here.

Again, it does not seem to me that the protection protocols were any different in Key West in Nov 62 than they were in Dallas in Nov 63.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

From the balconied apartment I rented a couple of weeks ago on Duval Street, down which Kennedy's motorcade traveled through Key West, there would certainly have been an easy shot to take:

Antti's point is salient: "Another reason might be the fact that Dallas is possibly a more convenient location in terms of an escape (there's only one highway out of Key West, unless you want to fly out or escape by boat). Therefore a bigger city had to be chosen...."

Tim

Edited December 1, 2004 by Tim Carroll

[Jim Root]

Tim

Are there any contempory pictures showing the open windows etc. in Key West you could share?

Jim Root

[Tim Carroll]

Tim

Are there any contempory pictures showing the open windows etc. in Key West you could share?

Jim Root

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Jim,

Actually, your question would be appropriate to the 1962 Key West motorcade, and whether the security really was comparable to Dallas regarding open windows and people out on balconies. Here is a photo of some people out on the street after leaving my room, following some heavy partying:

Here is a photo from my balcony on Duval Street (I assume balconies, with their recessed windows, would be harder to secure than merely opened windows). The photo is blurry, as my digital isn't fast enough, or needed to be tripoded, or something....

Tim

[Ron Ecker]

I recall reading that there were no requirements in 1963 for the Secret Service to have all windows closed or to man all tall buildings on motorcade routes. It would have been impossible to do. This is stated by Lawson or some other SS agent somewhere in the WC volumes.

There was also no military "stand down" order on presidential protection as claimed by Prouty. He was interviewed by the ARRB and couldn't substantiate his famous story on this. He couldn't name the person who he claimed had called him from Col. Reich's unit. Reich was also interviewed and said there was no plan at all for protection so there was no stand down, 11/22/63 was just a normal working day at the office, and he told the ARRB that Prouty "is smoking something."

The ARRB concluded that Prouty's interview should be made available in full transcript form because it was "so full of retractions, contradictions and disqualifications of his other statements - there's no way we can fairly represent the interview in summary form without it looking like a hatchet job" (Tim Wray memo, 10/23/96).

There is one standout passage in Prouty's interview, however, that is worth quoting. When I read it I couldn't help but think about Jimmy Files:

"I'm just astounded that somebody doesn't just address the fact that the assassination was clearly laid on as a plan; same as we do when we assassinate somebody. I've participated in some of that. (It's) pretty carefully planned; you don't just go send some kid down there with a pop gun."

Ron

[Al Carrier]

I recall reading that there were no requirements in 1963 for the Secret Service to have all windows closed or to man all tall buildings on motorcade routes. It would have been impossible to do. This is stated by Lawson or some other SS agent somewhere in the WC volumes.

There was also no military "stand down" order on presidential protection as claimed by Prouty. He was interviewed by the ARRB and couldn't substantiate his famous story on this. He couldn't name the person who he claimed had called him from Col. Reich's unit. Reich was also interviewed and said there was no plan at all for protection so there was no stand down, 11/22/63 was just a normal working day at the office, and he told the ARRB that Prouty "is smoking something."

The ARRB concluded that Prouty's interview should be made available in full transcript form because it was "so full of retractions, contradictions and disqualifications of his other statements - there's no way we can fairly represent the interview in summary form without it looking like a hatchet job" (Tim Wray memo, 10/23/96).

There is one standout passage in Prouty's interview, however, that is worth quoting. When I read it I couldn't help but think about Jimmy Files:

"I'm just astounded that somebody doesn't just address the fact that the assassination was clearly laid on as a plan; same as we do when we assassinate somebody. I've participated in some of that. (It's) pretty carefully planned; you don't just go send some kid down there with a pop gun."

Ron

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ron and All,

I would like to reply to this thread in regards to dignitary protection but will need to see what I can actually say without compromising protection procedures. I believe I can give input that will put alot of this misunderstanding to rest without compromising procedures that are generically used, but will have to get a go ahead first. I will post as soon as I know what I can say.

Al

[Shanet Clark]

Prouty, who I respect for his courage, is not always wholly rigorous.

He apparently believes the stand down order occurred because HE was sent away, and because his immediate reaction to the assassination was "they weren't following procedures!" which is of course broadly true.

If anyone knows of more specific documentation of a MI stand-down, please post it. He is one of the key supporters of the throat Flechette theory, which is not widely supported. The most interesting part of the Prouty story to me is the time lag between the murder in Dallas and the New Zealand newspapers about Oswald--which just simply came out too fast, in a very fishy and programmed manner, a frame which came off the shelf too quickly. He was near the south pole reading about Oswald's biography much too fast for journalistic technology of the day.

Prouty is also the source for the man in the tramps photos being Ed Lansdale, Prouty's associate.

Prouty should be read for background information and general context, and sometimes his perceptions of events are no longer on the leading edge of research.........

Is that a fair statement? He is a real leader in this field......

Shanet

[Al Carrier]

Prouty, who I respect for his courage, is not always wholly rigorous.

He apparently believes the stand down order occurred because HE was sent away, and because his immediate reaction to the assassination was "they weren't following procedures!" which is of course broadly true.

If anyone knows of more specific documentation of a MI stand-down, please post it. He is one of the key supporters of the throat Flechette theory, which is not widely supported. The most interesting part of the Prouty story to me is the time lag between the murder in Dallas and the New Zealand newspapers about Oswald--which just simply came out too fast, in a very fishy and programmed manner, a frame which came off the shelf too quickly. He was near the south pole reading about Oswald's biography much too fast for journalistic technology of the day.

Prouty is also the source for the man in the tramps photos being Ed Lansdale, Prouty's associate. 

Prouty should be read for background information and general context, and sometimes his perceptions of events are no longer on the leading edge of research.........

Is that a fair statement?  He is a real leader in this field......

Shanet

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ron is correct when he stated that it is impossible to secure all building, windows, etc., along a motorcade route. Where the confusion comes here is that these security precautions are generally made when the protected party is stationary, such as; at airport, speaking engagement, overnight stay location. The motorcade relies on the mobility for security. Recently I have been assigned to work with the USSS on motorcade composition and routes for visiting dignitaries (President, VP, and candidates). During the days proceeding the visit, I worked with the advance team running various routes and coming up with primary, alternate and emergency routes that all have to be approved by the Presidential Detail and the President's staff. In the last Presidential visit here, I put in 86 hours the week of the visit and provided five routes that were approved for a three hour visit. In the case of Dallas '63, they were limited on the route due to the need for exposure and the access from Love Field to the speaking engagement. The only alternate that would suffice would have been straight down Main through DP to Industrial, bypassing the Stemmons.

Al

[Tim Carroll]

In the case of Dallas '63, they were limited on the route due to the need for exposure and the access from Love Field to the speaking engagement. The only alternate that would suffice would have been straight down Main through DP to Industrial, bypassing the Stemmons.

Al

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Al,

Would removing a section of curb to facilitate going "straight down Main through DP" yet still getting over onto Stemmons have been unrealistic?

Tim

[Al Carrier]

In the case of Dallas '63, they were limited on the route due to the need for exposure and the access from Love Field to the speaking engagement. The only alternate that would suffice would have been straight down Main through DP to Industrial, bypassing the Stemmons.

Al

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Al,

Would removing a section of curb to facilitate going "straight down Main through DP" yet still getting over onto Stemmons have been unrealistic?

Tim

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Tim,

In hindsight it would sound reasonable maybe, but not so at the time. This would have taken considerable work to remove the island, post it to keep idiots from using it prior to the motorcade when the road was open, and then a crew to fill the island again. In dealing with it on a city government issue, they would likely to have had it approved through council reading. Considering the short period of time of setting the routes and the event, it would not have worked.

In a recent visit by the President, I had a primary route approved where we travelled on a secondary thoroughfare that was mostly outlying residential for about a mile of the route. The advance agent in charge of the motorcade and route requested that it be posted on the one side that allowed parking along the curb as NO PARKING. I arranged for temporary signs placed using lathe board. This agent was not pleased with this as he saw as it a security issue where the spectators could pull them out and throw or strike the passing limo with them. I explained to him that permanent signs would require an ordenance approved by council which would take two weeks to pass after initial reading. We went with the lathe board posts.

Al

[Tim Carroll]

Would removing a section of curb to facilitate going "straight down Main through DP" yet still getting over onto Stemmons have been unrealistic?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In hindsight it would sound reasonable maybe, but not so at the time.... In a recent visit by the President, I had a primary route approved where we travelled on a secondary thoroughfare that was mostly outlying residential for about a mile of the route. The advance agent in charge of the motorcade and route requested that it be posted on the one side that allowed parking along the curb as NO PARKING. I arranged for temporary signs placed using lathe board. This agent was not pleased with this as he saw as it a security issue where the spectators could pull them out and throw or strike the passing limo with them. I explained to him that permanent signs would require an ordenance approved by council which would take two weeks to pass after initial reading. We went with the lathe board posts.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

While I understand the slow workings of city councils, it didn't take very long for the Tague curb chip to be removed, and lost, by those benignly bumbling DPD officers, a majority of whom were also members of the John Birch Society. Given how busy they were screwing up, including the staging of the first live TV broadcast of a murder, the overwhelming response at the Texas Theater was truly remarkable.

Tim

Edited December 6, 2004 by Tim Carroll

[Shanet Clark]

Jim Root is absolutely correct, the Fletcher Prouty material and approach would place Maxwell Taylor in the position of ordering the stand-down, I believe.

Perhaps Tosh can comment on the likelihood of a stand down order circulating through the Texas based Federal defense agencies in 1963? the 111th? What am I saying, Tosh knows there were self protecting institutional abort orders at the civilian agency because of what was going on at the military-industrial ()

It is widely rumored and difficult to establish if true, but TAYLOR would have been the man on the spot there.

Taylor, along with cabinet secretary GOP finacier DILLON.,

if there was incapacity, a loss of clearance and the sense of the VP and the Cabinet were in favor of the sanction, it would be legal.

The PR guys and the attorneys like to say "That falls under the dot dot dot treaty or law.

Read the twentyfifth amendment circa 1965-1967, and this removal is in the first clause, I don't make this stuff up, I couldn't, even in a novel about Caligula and Commodus................................

[Peter McGuire]

As I mentioned in the Post JFK in Key West, JFK rode through the streets of Key West in an open Lincoln convertible with no more protection than he had in Dallas. Please explain why his protection in Dallas was any different than any of the other places where he rode in open cars past tall buildings. There were several buildings lining the main street in Key West from which an assassin could eaily have shot at the President. And presumably Key West had a number of unhappy Cuban exiles so protection could have been an issue here.

Again, it does not seem to me that the protection protocols were any different in Key West in Nov 62 than they were in Dallas in Nov 63.

Perhaps Anti-Castro Cubans were not involved in shooting at JFK at all, because they weren't interested in him when he visited Key West nor later when he visited Dallas.

Edited February 22, 2007 by Peter McGuire