Cliff Varnell

A spotter works with a shooter, no? Black Dog Man seems to have managed it. Rosemary Willis pointed out this suspicious behavior, not that anything came of it. In 2011 I attended a large Occupy Oakland protest. On my way back to my car I passed a line of TV news vans. I stopped and put my head inside an open door of a Fox News rig. I intoned: “Something is happening here but you don’t know what it is, do you, Mr. Jones?” I have no idea if there was anyone in the front of the van; or know if anyone got the Dylan reference. Didn’t matter — I was mightily pleased with myself. What may have appeared as an empty gesture was satisfying to me. I have no reason to conclude Witt didn’t make a similar statement with his umbrella.

I wasn’t responding to you. I was responding to Leslie’s comment about Rosemary Willis.

And what was UM’s role? Shooter? Spotter? Why would a perp sit down at the scene of the crime of instead of getting out of there ASAP? If you’re going to bash a witness as important as Rosemary Willis shouldn’t you have a cogent argument for her involvement?

So was 10-year old Rosemary Willis “in” on the plot?

No, not at all. Black Dog Man. The HSCA identified “a very distinct straight line feature...in the region of his hands”. Rosemary Willis identified him as a “conspicuous person” who happened to “disappear the next instant.” https://www.jfk-assassination.net/russ/jfkinfo2/jfk4/witt.htm

He has a corroborating witness, that’s for sure. Yeah.

Witt’s HSCA testimony (emphasis added): Mr. GENZMAN. What did you do when you arrived at Elm Street? Mr. WITT. Well, I ended up turning left and going down into what is known as Dealey Plaza. The only reason I can think that I ended up down there was possibly I looked down there and saw an area where there were not a large group of people. There were people in that area but there was also in this area which later became known as the grassy knoll, there was no one out in that area in any great number. Mr. GENZMAN. What did you do when you reached the grassy knoll? Mr. WITT. I think I went sort of maybe halfway up the grassy area, somewhere in that vicinity. I am pretty sure I sat down. Mr. GENZMAN. Were you waiting for the motorcade? Mr. WITT. Yes. Mr. GENZMAN. Do you recall how long you waited? Mr. WITT. I really couldn't say. I don't think I was there very long. Since I was not that all-fired determined to carry out what I set out to do, I am sure I didn't wait a great length of time. Mr. GENZMAN. Did the motorcade come soon thereafter? Mr. WITT. Yes, it apparently did. Mr. GENZMAN. What did you do when you saw the motorcade coming into the area? Mr. WITT. Well, as I recall, the motorcade had already made the turn and was coming down Elm Street going west on Elm before I became aware it was there, and it would have been from a straight- line position off to my left about like this [indicating] when I saw it. Mr. GENZMAN. What did you do when you saw it approaching you? Mr. WITT. I think I got up and started fiddling with that umbrella trying to get it open, and at the same time I was walking forward, walking toward the street. Mr. GENZMAN. You testified that you were opening the umbrella to use it as a symbol hoping to catch the President's eye? Mr. WITT. Yes, sir. </q> HSCA Report (emphasis added) Rosemary Willis...noticed two persons who looked "conspicuous." One was a man near the curb holding an umbrella, who appeared to be more concerned with opening or closing the umbrella than dropping to the ground like everyone else at the time of the shots. </q> Free Louis Witt!

Disingenuous. The prosecutor team was from the Trump Department of Justice. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_C._Weiss

Prescott Bush (Skull & Bones, Brown Brothers Harriman partner) was a key ally of Allen Dulles. So was Averell Harriman (Skull & Bones, Brown Brothers Harriman honcho). Robert Lovett (Skull & Bones, Brown Brothers Harriman partner) tried to get Ike to fire Dulles. I find this consistent with the speculation that Dulles was most useful to a Harriman/Bush enterprise Lovett knew nothing about. My bet is on a struggle for control of international narcotics trafficking.

In Denial, pg 158: <quote on, emphasis added> Based on Kennedy’s directives about lowering the visibility of the landings, Richard Bissell, apparently with Director Dulles’ support, did indeed go back to his military officers and craft a less visible plan for inserting the expeditionary force. In only three days the daylight landing at Trinidad, a town with a port and docks available, and with unemcumbered access to the Escambray Mountains, was changed to a night landing which required all men, material, and supplies to be landed directly on the beaches. To some extent the plan offered more geographic protection for a lodgment given that the beaches were surrounded by swamps, with only a few undeveloped roads offering access to them. However, the location selected moved the force well away from the mountains and effectively eliminated the guerrilla option that President Kennedy still seemed to anticipate. It also made it significantly more difficult for any indigenous fighters to link up with the volunteer force unless they quickly broke out and moved beyond the swamps, something not anticipated in the lodgment plan... (ibid, pg 159) ...A very brief Joint Chiefs assessment of the new plan limited itself to declaring that in its essentials it still did appear feasible that a force could be landed and sustained for some limited time, but that the isolated location could well restrict any indigenous support. In turn President Kennedy’s National Security Advisor McGeorge Bundy praised the CIA for the steps towards making the revised plan quiet and less “spectacular.” He also described it as “plausibility Cuban” in its essentials, with no elaboration on that point. To some extent Bundy appears to have fallen back on the standard concept of deniability, which had been in play since the CIA began its covert actions — if Americans are not involved in the combat then its not officially an American intervention. </q> So it was Elite Yalie Dick Bissell who came up with the bright idea to land where President Kennedy’s goal to incite a popular counter-insurgency would be abandoned. The Joint Chiefs saw the flaw in the plan but communicated their reservation to Kennedy by giving the operation a 50/50 chance when the odds were far, far longer. Elite Yalie Mac Bundy was a big booster of the Zapata Plan. In the Incompetence/Inertia Scenario there were major lapses in judgment by the CIA, the Pentagon, the National Security Council, the State Dept. and the White House. In the Get Dulles Scenario Bissell (protege of Uber-Elite Yalie Harriman) and Bundy (assigned his position by Uber-Elite Yalie Lovett) sandbagged Kennedy and Dulles both.

On the day before the BOP landing, JFK put the kibosh on US air strikes in support. Harriman-protege Bissell bitched about it to Lovett-selected Sec of State Rusk. Rusk offered to connect Bissell directly to the Boss. In Denial, pg 204: While purely speculative, any telephone dialog which could have occurred between Bissell and the president would have had to cover some very dicey issues in respect to Kennedy’s orders — including the fact that the complexity of the amphibious landing, the Navy landing craft involved, and the quantity of tanks, trucks and a massive amount of cargo had actually precluded any real chance of completing the landing and withdrawing all ships (including the command LCI’s) by dawn. The true extent of the remaining Cuban air threat would have also had to be disclosed, no doubt raising further questions of the plans for resupply of the beachhead over the longer term, which involved extensive flights out of the Nicaraguan base, something which would almost certainly demonstrate American involvement. The issue of the contingency plans for guerrilla action or even re-landing the force, directed as backup options by the president, might also have been raised by President Kennedy. If that sort of dialog had occurred there is certainly a possibility that the president might have aborted the landing, as he had continually reserved the right to order. At the point in time when Bissell and Cabell determined not to talk to President Kennedy the landing force was still some two to two and a half hours from its scheduled deployment off the transports. </q> Looks like it was a lot more important for Zapata to proceed than succeed. For Bissell, anyway. And Joe Kennedy? “Lucky thing they were found out early.”

In Denial, pg 52: <q> The dramatic failure of the CIA’s thirteen-month Cuba Project immediately brought into question the planning, practices, tools and the decision making associated with American covert operations in progress around the world. </q> The 1956 Bruce-Lovett Report: <q> [T]he increased mingling in the internal affairs of other nations of bright, highly graded young men who must be doing something all the time to justify their reason for being. ... Busy, moneyed and privileged, [the CIA] likes its "King Making." responsibility (the intrigue is fascinating -- considerable self-satisfaction, sometimes with applause, derives from "successes" -- no charge is made for "failures" -- and the whole business is very much simpler than collecting covert intelligence on the USSR through the usual CIA methods!)... Should not someone, somewhere in an authoritative position in our government on a continuing basis, be . . . calculating . . . the long-range wisdom of activities which have entailed our virtual abandonment of the international "golden rule," and which, if successful to the degree claimed for them, are responsible in a great measure for stirring up the turmoil and raising the doubts about us that exist in many countries of the world today? . . . Where will we be tomorrow?” </q> https://cryptome.org/0001/bruce-lovett.htm#schlesinger

Perhaps he got a better offer — one he couldn’t refuse.

Larry, your work is vastly appreciated. My critique of the JFKA Critical Community does not extend to you. The “street” in me can absolutely see in the BOP an operation to take out Allen Dulles. Joe Kennedy soon after the BOP: . "I know that outfit, and I wouldn't pay them a hundred bucks a week. It's a lucky thing they were found out early." https://www.historyextra.com/period/20th-century/bay-of-pigs-invasion-kennedys-cuban-catastrophe/ <quote on> That the United States had been behind the operation was soon reported by the press and revealed in the United Nations. Unaccustomed to setbacks in what had so far been a charmed political life, Kennedy was devastated by the Bay of Pigs disaster. An adviser who peeped into the White House bedroom as the operation was failing observed JFK crying in the arms of his wife Jackie. He called his father for advice every hour, yet did not receive the paternal support he had anticipated. “Oh hell,” Joseph Kennedy told his son,“if that’s the way you feel, give the job to Lyndon [Vice President Johnson].” <quote off> Joe Kennedy thought it was a lucky thing. He would have known...

Doesn’t the dirty end of the incompetence stick also point to Foggy Bottom, the Pentagon, the National Security Council and the Oval Office? Rusk bitched about the size of the project right up to the meeting where the plan was green-lit and he went along. Bissell did well after the BOP. His wiki: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_M._Bissell_Jr. As a face-saving exit from the CIA, John F. Kennedy offered Bissell the post as director of a new science and technology department. This would leave him in charge of the development of the Lockheed A-12, the new spy plane that would make the U-2 obsolete. Bissell turned down the offer and in February 1962 he left the Central Intelligence Agency and was replaced as head of the Directorate for Plans, by Richard Helms. Bissell became head of the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA) in 1962. IDA was a Pentagon think tank set up to evaluate weapons systems. Later he worked for United Technologies in Hartford, Connecticut (1964–74), which supplied weapons systems. He also worked as a consultant for the Ford Foundation. </q>

Looks like Richard Bissell actively sought the failure of the BOP. Why would he ignore the lack of air cover after the D-Day-2 failure to take out Castro's Air Force, and ignore the lack of preparation for a “popular uprising” — both required for success? Tapped for Skull & Bones during his senior year at Yale, Bissell turned them down. He started his gov’t career as a protege of W. Averell Harriman (Skull & Bones, Brown Brothers Harriman). During Eisenhower’s second term, Joe Kennedy and Robert Lovett (Skull & Bones, Brown Brothers Harriman) tried to get Ike to fire Dulles. https://cryptome.org/0001/bruce-lovett.htm Harriman was a big supporter of Dulles, having once hired both Dulles brothers as “his lawyers,” according to Harriman’s biography. Upon JFK’s election, Joe advised his son to give Lovett any cabinet post he wanted. Lovett wanted to stay in the “kitchen cabinet” and recommended Dean Rusk for State, McGeorge Bundy (Skull & Bones) for National Security Advisor, Robert McNamara for Defense, and C Douglas Dillon for Treasury. Are we to believe Joe Kennedy and Robert Lovett forgot about their desire to get rid of Dulles after taking power? I’m convinced the murder of Patrice Lumumba in the Congo three days before the Inauguration cost Dulles Harriman’s support. Looks to me like the real object of the BOP was to get rid of Dulles, not Castro.

Okay. From the ARRB testimony of James Sibert, emphasis added: <q> But when they raised him up, then theyfound this back wound. And that's when they started probing with the rubber glove and the finger, and - and also with the chrome probe. And that's just before, of course, I made this call, because they were at a loss to explain what had happened to this bullet. They couldn't find any bullet. And they said, 'There's no exit." Finck, in particular, said, "There's no exit." And they said that you could feel it with the end of the finger - I mean, the depth of this wound. </q> Paul O’Connor’s statement to William Matson Law: <q> O’Connor: So we used a malleable probe and bent it a little bit and found out that the bullet entered the body, went through the intercostal muscles--the muscles in between the ribs. The bullet went in through the muscles, didn't touch any of the ribs, arched downwards, hit the back of the pleural cavity, which encases the lungs, both front and back. It bounced off that cavity and stopped. It actually went down and stopped. Went through the ribs and stopped. So we didn't know the track of the bullet until we eviscerated the body later. That's what happened at that time. We traced the bullet path down and found out it didn't traverse the body. It did not go in one side and come out the other side of the body. Law: You can be reasonably sure of that? O'Connor: Absolutely. </q> O’Connor never claimed a bullet was recovered from the back wound. There is value in repetition — JFK suffered two wounds in soft tissue with no exits and no bullets recovered from those locations during the autopsy. One trick pony? Better that than a horse’s ass.

O’Connor said a bullet was removed from the back or throat wound? Okay. Why don’t you provide the quote? The assertion is yours — back it up, dude. Since the back wound was probed and found shallow, when during the autopsy was a bullet removed from the back or throat? I’ve made a well supported case that W. Averell Harriman was the CEO of the assassination. I’ll be more than happy to stand corrected if you climb off your high horse and provide the O’Connor quote. Thanks for the lecture. How about a quote from O’Connor? How many times was he shot in the head? Once? Twice? Thrice? Have at it, Bugs. Show some integrity and provide the O’Connor quote. You’re projecting. Please provide the statements of these individuals regarding a bullet recovered from the back during the autopsy. I was discussing the very possible use of blood soluble rounds in the JFKA. It’s a scenario suggested by the autopsists during the autopsy. That technology was developed at Fort Detrick for the CIA operation MKNAOMI. It’s the only hard lead in the case.

There was no bullet recovered from either the back or throat wounds. Where did he say a bullet was recovered from the back or throat? I’ll leave the head wound(s) rabbit holes to others. You’ve clearly mis-understood, David. I thought it was clear I was referring to the shallow wounds in soft tissue in the back and throat.

There’s the pooh-pooh! I knew ya had in ya, Ben. You have to witness bash—they didn’t confirm your Pet Theory. Dr. David Mantik verified the authenticity of the cervical x-ray, which shows a hairline fracture in the right T1 transverse process and an airpocket overlaying the T1/C7 TPs. Consistent with the Autopsists Scenario of a high tech ambush.

What you haven’t accepted yet is the fact it’s not my explanation. You don’t get it?

The body is the best evidence. Two wounds in soft tissue, no exits, no bullets recovered. What kind of weapon leaves such wounds?

There you go again! By ascribing this scenario to me is pure pooh.

That’s Ben Cole making faces and doing a pooh. This is what I find mystifying. All I do is point out statements in the historical record — interviews with FBI guys Sibert and ONeill — reporting what the autopsists said the night of the autopsy. What does that have to do with me? I’ve seen this for twenty years. There’s a theory in the historical record directly relating to the murder — and I own that because I point it out?

Okay, we’re making progress. Not my theory. It was the situation the autopsists faced with the body in front of them. Two soft tissue entrance wounds, no exits, no bullets recovered. A high tech ambush scenario was their idea.