Don Roberdeau

Good Day.... According to this article with information about the US National Archives, "Ladybird" recorded an audio recollection on 22NOV63 only "hours after she became first lady." http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/DESTINATION.../washington.ap/ Has anyone heard her tape, and/or read its transcript? Among other considerations, I am curious if her 22NOV63 audio-recorded memories include and distinctly match what she wrote in her 1970 book about the last 2 audible muzzle blasts and/or mechanically-suppress-fired bullet bow shockwaves she remembered hearing during the attack?.... <QUOTE> It sounded like a shot. The sound seemed to me to come from a building on the right above my shoulder. A moment passed, and then two more shots rang out in rapid succession. <END QUOTE> ("A White House Diary" by "Lady Bird" JOHNSON, 1970) Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...PINGarnold.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/GHOS...update2001.html http://hometown.aol.com/DRoberdeau T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "How did it happen they ("they"?!!) hit Connally?" - LBJ, despite the multitude of "lone nut" statements the previous 7 days, during a 29NOV63 phone conversation with his longtime crony/friend, longtime neighbor, & soon-to-be-appointed-by-LBJ-"for-life" F.B.I. Director, JOHN EDGAR "Edna" HOOVER

Good Day.... Quotes from an article about MIKE WALLACE's new book that also gives an excerpt of chapter one.... http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4992445 <QUOTE> Clint Hill The flap over the Pearson interview [by WALLACE in 1957, where DREW PEARSON claimed that "Profiles in Courage" was ghostwritten] was my only contact with the illustrious politician who had been my boyhood neighbor. During the years when Kennedy was in the White House and leading us across the New Frontier, I had various assignments that took me to cities at home and abroad, but Washington was seldom one of them. Fact is, I was going through a series of twists and turns as I jumped around from one job to another, and I didn't settle down until March 1963, when I went to work for CBS News, which has been my professional home ever since. In September of that year, CBS launched a new midmorning news show, and I was assigned to anchor it; that's what I was doing on November 22, the day the shots rang out in Dallas. Many of us who lived through the shock and the grief of that day were inclined to view the Kennedy assassination as a ghastly aberration, the kind of horrific deed that simply did not happen in a civilized society and would never occur again in our lifetime. That naive assumption was shattered by subsequent events, for instead of being an isolated tragedy, Kennedy's murder was the first in a wave of comparable assaults on political leaders that persisted over the next decade and beyond. The two most charismatic black leaders of the civil rights era were gunned down by assassins, Malcolm X in 1965 and Martin Luther King, Jr., three years later. And just two months after King was killed, a second Kennedy was slain in the midst of his own campaign for president. In 1972, at another campaign stop in another presidential race, Alabama governor George Wallace was shot. He survived that attack, but the wounds he suffered left him paralyzed for life. And in September 1975, President Gerald Ford was the target in California of two assassination attempts that took place within seventeen days of each other. Every fresh act of violence rekindled memories of the first Kennedy assassination, and not long after the attempts on President Ford's life, I interviewed the Secret Service agent who had been assigned to Kennedy's car on that dreadful day in November 1963. His name was Clint Hill, and over the years he'd refused to talk in public about what had happened in Dallas, or about any other aspect of his work with the Secret Service. But Hill had been granted early retirement in the summer of 1975, and now that he was no longer on active duty, he agreed to appear on 60 Minutes to answer questions—for the first time—about the assassination he had witnessed from such close range. In preparing for that interview, I learned that the shooting in Dallas had left Hill deeply troubled and stricken with guilt. Nonetheless, I was caught off guard by the raw, visceral anguish he displayed when I brought up the subject. WALLACE: Can I take you back to November twenty-second in 1963? You were on the fender of the Secret Service car right behind President Kennedy's car. At the first shot, you ran forward and jumped on the back of the president's car—in less than two seconds—pulling Mrs. Kennedy down into her seat, protecting her. First of all, she was out on the trunk of that car— HILL: She was out of the backseat of that car, not on the trunk of that car. WALLACE: Well, she was— She had climbed out of the back, and she was on the way back, right? HILL: And because of the fact that her husband's—part of his—her husband's head had been shot off and gone off to the street. WALLACE: She wasn't— She wasn't trying to climb out of the car? She was— HILL: No, she was simply trying to reach that head, part of the head. WALLACE: To bring it back? HILL: That's the only thing— At that point, Hill broke down; tears streamed down his face. I sat in silence for a moment or two and then gently asked if he would prefer to move away from this painful memory and talk about something else. But he made it clear that he wanted to go on, and so, after he'd regained his composure, I continued to question him about that day. WALLACE: Was there any way— Was there anything that the Secret Service or Clint Hill could have done to keep that from happening? HILL: Clint Hill, yes. WALLACE: "Clint Hill, yes"? What do you mean? HILL: If he had acted about five-tenths of a second faster, or maybe a second faster, I wouldn't be here today. WALLACE: You mean you would have gotten there and you would have taken the shot? HILL: The third shot, yes, sir. WALLACE: And that would have been all right with you? HILL: That would have been fine with me. WALLACE: But you couldn't. You got there in less than two seconds, Clint. You couldn't have gotten there. You don't—you surely don't have any sense of guilt about that? HILL: Yes, I certainly do. I have a great deal of guilt about that. Had I turned in a different direction, I'd have made it. It's my fault. WALLACE: Oh, no one has ever suggested that for an instant! What you did was show great bravery and great presence of mind. What was on the citation that was given you for your work on November twenty-second, 1963? HILL: I don't care about that, Mike. WALLACE: "Extraordinary courage and heroic effort in the face of maximum danger." HILL: Mike, I don't care about that. If I had reacted just a little bit quicker, and I could have, I guess. And I'll live with that to my grave. I've never interviewed a more tormented man. Hill's agony was so deep, so poignant, that I couldn't resist getting swept up by it, and there were times during our conversation when I could feel my own tears welling up. Many of our viewers were no less affected, as we learned from the letters that flooded into our office in the days following that broadcast. In our interview, Hill said that a "neurological problem caused by what happened in the past" had prompted his doctors to urge him to accept retirement from the Secret Service at the still-youthful age of forty-three. When the camera wasn't rolling, he was even more candid. What our audience wasn't told was that he was suffering from severe depression. In the years since our 1975 interview, I've inquired about Hill from time to time to see how he was doing and to pass along my best wishes. But I didn't have any direct contact with him again until the fall of 2003, when all the media were turning their attention to the fortieth anniversary of the Kennedy assassination. I wanted to know if Clint would be willing to revisit the subject in another interview with me. When I called him at his Virginia home just outside Washington, he greeted me warmly, and although he made it clear he did not want to talk any more about that day in Dallas, he assured me he was fine and that the misery he'd gone through was now behind him. He had finally managed to put his demons to rest, and he no longer blamed himself for the death of John F. Kennedy. <END QUOTE> Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...PINGarnold.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/GHOS...update2001.html http://hometown.aol.com/DRoberdeau T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "Because of the photograph taken by AP photographer James Altgens seeming to show a rifle shaped object protruding from the second floor window of the Dal-Tex building, several Warren report critics (including myself) felt that was a probably a firing point for one or two shots. The committee has made available to me the original Altgens negative. Using my technique of vario-density eynexing, I was able to enhance the image in the window to the point of clarity where window is now identifiable as a black man leaning the window sill with both hands, and with no gun in view." ---- ROBERT GRODEN, his HSCA-documented comments about the panels report, 1979 http://jfkassassination.net/russ/infojfk/jfk6/grodn.htm

Good Day.... President Kennedy's 1963 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/art.../511240308/1036 <QUOTE> One of John F. Kennedy's last presidential proclamations was for Thanksgiving Day in 1963. He died six days before that day arrived. On this Thanksgiving day, 42 years later, his proclamation deserves another reading: By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation: Over three centuries ago, our forefathers in Virginia and Massachusetts, far from home in a lonely wilderness, set aside a time of thanksgiving. On the appointed day, they gave reverent thanks for their safety, for the health of their children, for the fertility of their fields, for the love which bound them together and for the faith which united them with their God. So, too, when the colonies achieved their independence, our first President in the first year of his Administration proclaimed November 26, 1789, as "a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God" and called upon the people of the new republic to "beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions . . . to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue . . . and generally to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best." And so too, in the midst of America's tragic civil war, President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday of November 1863 as a day to renew our gratitude for America's "fruitful fields," for our "national strength and vigor," and for all our "singular deliverances and blessings." Much time has passed since the first colonists came to rocky shores and dark forests of an unknown continent, much time since President Washington led a young people into the experience of nationhood, much time since President Lincoln saw the American nation through the ordeal of fraternal war . . . and in these years our population, our plenty and our power have all grown apace. Today, we are a nation of nearly two hundred million souls, stretching from coast to coast, on into the Pacific and north toward the Arctic, a nation enjoying the fruits of an ever-expanding agriculture and industry and achieving standards of living unknown in previous history. We give our humble thanks for this. Yet, as our power has grown, so has our peril. Today, we give our thanks, most of all, for the ideals of honor and faith we inherit from our forefathers -- for the decency of purpose, steadfastness of resolve and strength of will, for the courage and the humility, which they possessed and which we must seek every day to emulate. As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them. Let us therefore proclaim our gratitude to Providence for manifold blessings -- let us be humbly thankful for inherited ideals -- and let us resolve to share those blessings and those ideals with our fellow human beings throughout the world. Now, Therefore, I, John F. Kennedy, President of the United States of America, in consonance with the joint resolution of the Congress approved December 26, 1941, 55 Stat. 862 (5 U.S.C. 87b) designating the fourth Thursday of November in each year as Thanksgiving Day, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 28, 1963, as a day of national thanksgiving. On that day let us gather in sanctuaries dedicated to worship and in homes blessed by family affection to express our gratitude for the glorious gifts of God, and let us earnestly and humbly pray that He will continue to guide and sustain us in the great unfinished tasks of achieving peace, justice and understanding among all men and nations and of ending misery and suffering wherever they exist. In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington this fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the one hundred and eighty-eighth. JOHN F. KENNEDY By the President: DEAN RUSK Secretary of State <END QUOTE> Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...PINGarnold.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/GHOS...update2001.html http://hometown.aol.com/DRoberdeau T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world. Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge--and more." ---- President JOHN F. KENNEDY, 20JAN61 inaugural address

Good Day.... A military service member friend of mine sent me the link to an ebay auction showing photos of OSWALD during his USMC recruit training. I have never seen these photos. The photos (FWIW, 2 of which do seem to show OSWALD handling his rifle) are from his recruit training yearbook.... http://cgi.ebay.com/JFK-Kennedy-Assassinat...1QQcmdZViewItem Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly Dealey Plaza Professionally-surveyed Map, Witnesses, Evidence, Info, etc. ROSEMARY WILLIS Headsnap Westward Towards "Grassy Knoll" Discovery BOND Photos Do Not Support GORDON ARNOLD's Presence ANTHONY SUMMERS 2001-updated, "The Ghosts of November" President Kennedy.... "4 Principles" T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "Because of the photograph taken by AP photographer James Altgens seeming to show a rifle shaped object protruding from the second floor window of the Dal-Tex building, several Warren report critics (including myself) felt that was a probably a firing point for one or two shots. The committee has made available to me the original Altgens negative. Using my technique of vario-density eynexing, I was able to enhance the image in the window to the point of clarity where window is now identifiable as a black man leaning the window sill with both hands, and with no gun in view." ---- ROBERT GRODEN, his HSCA-documented comments about the panels report, 1979 http://jfkassassination.net/russ/infojfk/jfk6/grodn.htm

Good Day.... In November of 2003, the Dallas radio station "WBAP" made available on its website (and played one on-air daily) a daily JFK assassination witness interview for 40 days. Each interview was about 2 to 5 minutes. If anyone recorded and/or transcribed any/all of the individual interviews, could you, please, contact me via email or private message? Thank You. Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...PINGarnold.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/GHOS...update2001.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "Because of the photograph taken by AP photographer James Altgens seeming to show a rifle shaped object protruding from the second floor window of the Dal-Tex building, several Warren report critics (including myself) felt that was a probably a firing point for one or two shots. The committee has made available to me the original Altgens negative. Using my technique of vario-density eynexing, I was able to enhance the image in the window to the point of clarity where window is now identifiable as a black man leaning the window sill with both hands, and with no gun in view." ---- ROBERT GRODEN, his HSCA-documented comments about the panels report, 1979 http://jfkassassination.net/russ/infojfk/jfk6/grodn.htm

Hi Larry.... Thank You. GMTA. The third action I completed after posting here was to email JOAN about FRUGE and obtaining an autographed copy of her new book. Does JOAN reference the 20NOV63 Assistant Coroner of St. Landry Parish, Doctor F. J. DeROUEN?

Good Day.... Is Louisiana State Trooper FRANCIS FRUGE still alive? Thank You. Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John," Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...PINGarnold.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/GHOS...update2001.html http://hometown.aol.com/DRoberdeau T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "Because of the photograph taken by AP photographer James Altgens seeming to show a rifle shaped object protruding from the second floor window of the Dal-Tex building, several Warren report critics (including myself) felt that was a probably a firing point for one or two shots. The committee has made available to me the original Altgens negative. Using my technique of vario-density eynexing, I was able to enhance the image in the window to the point of clarity where window is now identifiable as a black man leaning the window sill with both hands, and with no gun in view." ---- ROBERT GRODEN, his HSCA-documented comments about the panels report, 1979 http://jfkassassination.net/russ/infojfk/jfk6/grodn.htm

Good Day.... Perhaps these 5 books have been referenced already, but just wanted to post to make sure they are known.... VINCE PALAMARA told me 1-5-02 that he is updating his outstanding book "The Third Alternative“ and re-titling it to “Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service & The Failure To Protect The President" that will be re-published in 2005. (from a 4-24-04 Palamara post) “will definitely expand allot of people's minds; lots of new, important information. Whether one views the assassination as the work of a lone nut OR the result of a deadly conspiracy, "Survivor's Guilt" will add a new dimension to our thinking on the assassination (as well as the life and times of JFK). I have also established a world's record: most successful Secret Service contacts [multiple interviews and/ or correspondence] at SIXTY (the former world champion, the HSCA, spoke to and/ or corresponded with 44 agents and officials), including 21 who were on the Texas trip. Many of these former agents and officials haven't spoken to anyone. Think of this book as the "Pictures of the Pain" regarding the Secret Service.. but it's also a whole lot more. "Survivor's Guilt" is 1000 times better than the short, self-published versions: massively updated and overhauled (you won't even recognize it!). The book clocks in at approximately 700 pages with over 2000 footnotes and a quite lengthy bibliography. No stone (or "Stone" ) unturned---massive documentation/ prior sources (and much unpublished work) included, as well as much gleaned from many, many interviews and lengthy correspondence. You will be amazed...and surprised, I think.” ============================================ “A Farewell to Justice: District Attorney Jim Garrison and the Death of John F. Kennedy” Joan Mellen, (Temple Univ. English professor) biography of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison will be published by New York University Press. (2005) Mellen said, “The movie portrays Jim Garrison as a saint, as very one-dimensional. He does everything right, and he’s a family man,” Mellen says. “The real Jim Garrison was much more cerebral, complex and humane than the movie let on.” Though Mellen concedes that Stone’s film cemented Garrison’s public image, she says he should be remembered for his legacy of “demolishing the Warren Commission report and coming pretty close to figuring out what happened in Kennedy’s murder.” Over seven years, Joan Mellen interviewed over 1000 people, many of them coming forward for the first time, and analyzed documents from the National Assassination Archive. With precision and insight, Mellen moves on from a review of the evidence compiled by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison to uncovering new evidence that substantiates the role of the CIA in the assassination and its cover-up. Mellen interviewed the actual participants in the plot to kill JFK, documented their meetings, plans and their implementation. A taste of what is new in this book: *** Lee Harvey Oswald was not a loner but a government agent who worked for the CIA, the New Orleans FBI office and for U.S. Customs. Oswald was closely connected to CIA-sponsored anti-Castro figures in New Orleans, including Clay Shaw (who Garrison prosecuted), David Ferrie and a Cuban associate of Shaw¹s at the International Trade Mart named Juan Valdes. *** Clay Shaw and David Ferrie, both Garrison suspects and CIA operatives, implemented the assassination by helping frame Oswald as the murderer. Mellen proves for the first time that Ferrie, an aviator, flew to Dallas the week of the assassination with the help of a loan that was co-signed by Shaw. Ferrie¹s job was to fly the assassins away to safety late on Friday, November 22nd. *** Proof that Oswald was set up as a patsy. Thomas Edward Beckham, was trained at CIA to be the patsy should Oswald choose not to cooperate. *** Robert Kennedy was aware of Oswald and his connection to the FBI before the assassination. RFK put Oswald under surveillance and had his Cuban associates tracking Oswald¹s movements during the summer of 1963, new facts never before revealed. *** Proof that the cover-up began north of Baton Rouge before the shooting in Dallas when Oswald, in the company of Shaw and Ferrie, applied for a job at the mental hospital in Jackson, LA. Mellen has the only known interview with the director of the hospital at that time, Dr. Frank Silva. ============================================ “JFK and Sam: The Connection between the Giancana and Kennedy Assassinations” by Antoinette Giancana with co-authors are Dr. John Hughes, a neurologist, and Dr. Thomas Jobe, a psychiatrist. (2005) Published by Cumberland House Publishing. Antoinette claims in a new book that her father ordered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. ============================================ Here is the transcript of a recent interview (provided by the publisher) of GERALD McNIGHT with respect to his new book, "Breach of Trust: How the Warren Commission Failed the Nation and Why" http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/16482.html <QUOTE> Gerald D. McKnight: Interview About the Warren Commission Source: This interview was provided by the publisher, University Press of Kansas. (9-30-05) Mr. McKnight is professor emeritus of history at Hood College in Frederick, MD and the author of the new book, Breach of Trust: How the Warren Commission Failed the Nation and Why (University Press of Kansas) How did you first get involved in researching the Kennedy assassination and the Warren Commission? Harold Weisberg, who was a friend and neighbor of mine, wrested from the government under FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] almost 300,000 pages of documents and records pertaining to the JFK assassination. I had complete access to his archive, and today the Weisberg Archive is housed at my teaching institution, Hood College in Frederick, Maryland. I am a co-director of the archive-the largest private and accessible collection of government documents on the Kennedy assassination in the world. Do you see connections between the Warren Commission investigation and other recent controversial government investigations, namely the 9/11 Report? There are parallels between the WC [Warren Commission] and the 9/11 Commission. In both cases the government insisted that these commissions of honorable citizens would undertake a good faith, thorough, and impartial investigation into these history-altering events. In both cases the record demonstrates that both commissions were structured and staffed to provide politically motivated outcomes. Would you say that the Warren Commission created a blueprint of sorts for how the government can fix the outcome of a heated, controversial investigation? If so, in what ways? The key to government commissions is not the names of prominent members who appear on the marquee for public consumption, but in the chief counsels and executive directors-these are the entities that run the investigation. In the case of the WC it was the Hoover-picked J. Lee Rankin, the director's friend. Rankin was not the choice of Earl Warren. He was forced on Warren by Hoover, (then Assistant Attorney General Nicholas) Katzenbach, and a like-minded majority of the commissioners. This clique was determined to submit a report that found Oswald the sole assassin, no conspiracy. In short, to underwrite the "official truth" of the assassination, which was settled upon over the weekend after the assassination by Hoover, LBJ, and Katzenbach. As for the 9/11 Commission, the executive director was Philip D. Zelikow, a Republican with very close official ties to the Bush administration, and a close friend of Condoleezza Rice. Both Rankin and Zelikow, as a result of their positions, ran their respective investigations. They picked the areas of investigation, the topics of the hearings, what witnesses to call forth and what lines of questioning to engage, etc. Unlike the majority of literature on the JFK assassination, your book steers clear of speculation and conspiracy theories, yet you provide concrete evidence of deception and ineptitude. Was there any single incident that stands out to you as the most shocking cover-up or oversight? I think there are several telltale evasions: 1) The WC's failure to launch a real investigation into Oswald's Mexico City trip. This, I believe, is a key to what forces or interests were behind the murder of JFK. 2) The destruction of JFK autopsy materials and the writing of a second autopsy protocol after it was learned that Oswald was murdered-in short, the fabrication of the JFK autopsy protocol. 3) Lastly, the fact that the FBI and the WC had the Atomic Energy Committee (AEC) run sophisticated Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA) on Oswald's paraffin casts and other forensic materials and then failed to include those results in the final Commission Report. The fact that some of the best evidence in the case was never disclosed in the Warren Report leads to one inexorable conclusion: that results exonerated Oswald. Some people, especially those born after the assassination, seem to think this is "old news." How do you explain to them that the unanswered questions surrounding that event are still incredibly relevant more than 40 years later? A president is assassinated-there can be no more de-stabilizing crime in our system of government-and there is no good-faith effort to uncover the facts. What does this say about the legitimacy of our government? Moreover, once JFK was removed, there followed possibly history-altering changes in our foreign policy. Had Kennedy lived, would he have liquidated our involvement in Vietnam? Many credible historians speculate that he would have ended our involvement by the end of 1964. Kennedy's tentative steps toward a rapprochement with Castro's Cuba ended with Dallas. Once LBJ heated up our Vietnam involvement, the Soviet-American detente growing out of the peacefully resolved 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was terminated. This raises the foreboding question: Was JFK's assassination a coup d'etat? Will we ever get to the bottom of this mystery-or did the Commission do a good job of making sure that will never happen ? Since there was no intent by the government to solve the crime forty years ago, we will probably never know the "Who" and "Why" of Dallas. Moreover, we have to assume that official records-CIA, State, Naval Office of Inquiry (ONI), etc.-have been destroyed. There is, however, an obligation on the part of government to at least come forward and admit to the American people that the Warren Report is a fabrication of our history. A step in that direction would be to reopen the investigation by a commission of independent and nonpartisan investigators with no connection to government. So, are you a fan of Oliver Stone's film? Actually Stone's film bored me. It was clear that Stone can make movies but he knew nothing about the assassination. But the film did rejuvenate public interest in the topic and this ultimately led to the passage of the JFK Records Act and the release of 4-5 million pages of documents relating to the JFK assassination, so on that level I have to say bravo to Oliver. <END QUOTE> ============================================ http://www.chieftain.com/life/1129443128/4 <QUOTE> Mafia book long on details "Five Families: The Rise, Decline and Resurgence of America's Most Powerful Mafia Empires" by Selwyn Raab, Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Press, $29.95 By JOHN SMYNTEK KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS Face it - there seemingly will always be a market for certain books. Just choose to chronicle some facet of the Kennedys, the Nazis or, as Selwyn Raab has opted, the Mafia, and a certain sales threshold is guaranteed. Quality seldom seems an issue. Just serve it up and the buyers will come. Happily, ''Five Families'' is worth every cent, and for those who haven't gotten into Mafia reading on either the fictional - as in Mario Puzo - level or other documentary accounts, this may well be the only book you need to read. So well-written and encompassing is Raab's effort that even at 763 pages, many readers will pine for more. And of course there could be more at some point. As the title suggests, a Mafia resurgence is more than quite possible after the John Gotti era unraveling of the more traditional operations in the 1980s and '90s. The next time, it just might not be so Italian based. Raab serves up a history of the underworld that is long on coherency and understanding and short on the kind of mind-numbing detail other Mafia historians wander into. He gets right into the notoriously efficient work of Charles ''Lucky'' Luciano, whose rules of engagement ended a lot of shoot-'em-ups and kept the Mafia pointed at one goal - ever increasing the amount of money pouring into the organization and individual coffers by corrupting American government and business, not necessarily in that order. It was Luciano who advocated the organization adopt secretive, low-profile standards for thievery, extortion and other crimes as opposed to the over-the-top ''I'm just giving the people what they want'' persona that Chicago boss Al Capone advocated. And Raab pulls the thread by luring the reader to all that came after. With a reporter's love of fact and disdain for much of the fictional crap about these dark knights, we follow the organization's operations through it s real birth during Prohibition, its World War II profiteering, its '50s heyday as a union corrupter and Las Vegas force and its '80s and '90s stumbling largely attributed to a name now very familiar - Rudy Giuliani. It was Giuliani's use of RICO (the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act) that did great damage to the Mafia's traditional legal defenses in the 1980s. While he devotes a few pages to the oft-told stories like the Louis ''Lepke'' Buchalter case from the '30s and '40s, Raab scores big points for telling modern Mafia tales that are less often told but are just as magnetic as the '30s-era classics. And Raab is a constant critic of the law enforcement and justice system weaknesses for not prosecuting crimes that seemed all too obvious. And back in the beginning of this review, did we mention the Kennedys? That would propel the reader to the book's Chapter 15, titled ''The Ring of Truth.'' The title comes from the mouth of G. Robert Blakey, an expert on both the John F. Kennedy assassination and the underworld, about utterances from Frank Ragano, a lawyer who had the opportunity to defend Mafia operators Santos Trafficante, Carlos Marcello and Detroit's own labor racketeer, the still missing Jimmy Hoffa. Trafficante, Ragano said, confirmed that the Mafia had a hand in the drama of Nov. 22, 1963. The simple theory: Robert Kennedy's vigorous prosecution of racketeering had to be stopped and the best way to do that was by icing the man who appointed him to his job. Yes, there was plenty of bad feeling toward JFK himself, but Raab concludes, ''Whether or not they had a part in it, the Mafia had triumphed as a big winner after the assassination.'' One other reason to admire Raab's work: He does quite a bit of damage to the fictional image of the Mafia that is the result of Puzo's fiction and movies like ''Good Fellas,'' ''Casino'' and the most current manifestation, ''The Sopranos.'' Raab quotes organized crime boss Howard Abadinsky as saying, ''They are displayed having a twisted sense of honor, 'taking no crap from anyone,' with easy access to women and money. Such displays romanticize organized crime and, as an unintended consequence, serve to perpetuate the phenomenon and create alluring myths about the Mafia.'' That's something of which Raab could never be convicted. <END QUOTE> Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "I personally believe OSWALD was the assassin; that the second aspect as to whether he was the only man gives me great concern...I urged strongly that we did not reach the conclusion OSWALD was the only man." - J. EDGAR HOOVER, Director of the F.B.I., memo to CLYDE TOLSON, 12DEC63

Good Day Dawn.... Actually, during the 2003 fortieth anniverary assassination programmings, one of the major media corporations clearly demonstrated that it solidly supported the CT. I'll give you a couple hints.... A socialist, left-liberal-leaning government recently started "allowing" their citizens to view this corporation's broadcasts after not allowing it's citizen's to legally view the corporation's broadcasts since the corporation's inception.... In 2003 this CT-supporting media corporation was, and still is, by far, the highest-rated TV news corporation in the United States. Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "The political left is, you know, they deal in symbols, rather than reality. The general difference between conservatives and liberals is liberals like pretty pictures and conservatives like to build bridges that people can drive across. Conservatives are indeed conservative because if the bridge falls down, people die. Where as the liberals figure, 'Oh, we can always build a nice memorial to them and make people forget it happened and it was our fault.' They're very good at making people forget it was their fault, all right. The CIA was gutted by people on the political left and far-left who don't like intelligence operations, and as a result of that, as an indirect result of that, we've lost 3,000 citizens last week." ----TOM CLANCY, best-selling author, 9-14-01

Good Day Robin.... Thank You. Sending the MOORMAN copy drumscan would be Gr8. (JOSIAH sent it to me many years ago, but, the drumscan he sent is located on an older computer of mine that I have had some problems with) Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "The Committee suspected that Veciana was lying when he denied that the retired CIA officer was Bishop. The Committee recognized that Veciana had an interest in renewing his anti-Castro operations that might have led him to protect the officer from exposure as Bishop so they could work together again. For his part, the retired officer aroused the Committee's suspicion when he told the Committee he did not recognize Veciana as the founder of Alpha 66, especially since the officer had once been deeply involved in Agency anti-Castro operations." -House Select Committee on Assassinations' final report

Moorman crop of the southern end of the retaining wall. - lee <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Good Day Lee.... Three points.... First, the above quote you attached onto a MOORMAN polaroid crop, imho, has nothing to do with HUDSON also seeing a, supposed, ARNOLD.... Here is the entire quoted, related context of LIEBELER's specific questioning to which HUDSON responded in the quote answer you chose to provide without the LIEBELER question.... <QUOTE> ... Mr. LIEBELER - Do you see this little pedestal back up here? Mr. HUDSON - Yes. Mr. LIEBELER - Just above the "X" where you were standing? Mr. HUDSON - Yes. Mr. LIEBELER - Did you see anybody standing up there that you can remember, during the time the president went by? Mr. HUDSON - Oh, there was a bunch of people in there, you know, a whole bunch of them - a lot of people in there - a lot of people in here. Mr. LIEBELER - Did you se anybody standing up there taking motion pictures with a movie camera? Mr. HUDSON - Oh, yes; I seen people up there trying to get - taking pictures. Mr. LIEBELER - Did you see a man with a movie picture camera? Mr. HUDSON - Not in particular, I didn't. It was such an exciting time - now - I did notice a man back over here on this triangle. Mr. LIEBELER - Standing across Elm Street? Mr. HUDSON - Yes, sir. Mr. LIEBELER - With a motion picture camera? Mr. HUDSON - Well he had a camera - I don't know whether it was a motion picture camera or not, but he had a camera. ... <END QUOTE> Quite clearly --when one chooses to provide and consider the entire context of LIEBELOR's "anybody standing up" on the "little pedestal" specific question that HUDSON responded to, it is transparent that LIEBELER was asking HUDSON if HUDSON had noticed ZAPRUDER and SITZMAN standing on the "little pedestal" that ZAPRUDER and SITZMAN stood upon about 50' from HUDSON. Additionally, the "man back over here on this triangle" that HUDSON testified to was not ARNOLD. IMHO, more than likely, HUDSON was referring specifically to seeing either ALTGENS or BOTHUN (more than likely it was ALTGENS; during the attack ALTGENS was actually holding his camera, while BOTHUN was standing just a few feet southeast of ALTGENS--both are seen in the Z-film standing within the Main/Elm Streets "north infield grass" "triangle," about 75' from HUDSON) ....Secondly, could you please provide your MOORMAN un-enhanced scan showing a much wider area of the "Moorman crop of the southern end of the retaining wall" en-hanced crop that you provided?--your un-enhanced crop and your en-hanced/yellow-outlined crop are virtually meaningless without also first providing for everyone a much larger-view area reference for exactly which more general part of your MOORMAN polaroid copy that you cropped and en-hanced. ....Thirdly, based on ARNOLD's 1989 "SFM" oral history claims and the very specific ARNOLD 1989 "SFM" claims he made in his answers of precisely where he was standing that I quoted in the very first post of this topic, can you please mark on a professionally-surveyed DP map your interpreted specific location point --or even a small diameter circle you interpret his being within-- that based on ARNOLD's 1989 "SFM" attack location claims, you think where ARNOLD was standing when the MOORMAN #5 polaroid was captured at Zf-315.6? ....Based on all of ARNOLD's stated public claims from when he first self-proclaimed himself to be an attack witness circa 1978, to his 1995 death, in your opinion, which direction away from his, supposed, filming point did ARNOLD claim he reacted to and dove towards when ARNOLD's claimed first shot passed close to him?--did ARNOLD move/dive to his left, right, forward, or did ARNOLD move/dive backwards? (or do you interpret his claims that he did not dive, at all?) ....Just curious, what is your opinion about the HSCA-determined location for the " 'grassy knoll' picket fenceline assassin"? (HSCA-determined to be 8' to 9' west of the picket fence corner) ....What is your opinion about "seeing" from MARY ANN MOORMAN's much lower perspective captured in her polaroid's mandatory line-of-sight the, supposed, 5' 10" ARNOLD image's waistline beltline/belt buckle "seen" several inches above the 3' 4" tall retaining wall in en-hanced versions of the MOORMAN polaroid? Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...PINGarnold.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/GHOS...update2001.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "Assumption is the 'mother' of all f_ _k-ups" " 'Chance,' favors the prepared mind" ----mercenary's leader in the movie, "Under Seige 2: Dark Territory"

Good Day.... I note that since my most recent post, that most posters, still, are not evaluating what ARNOLD claims in the 1989 "Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza" oral history interview; most persons still are injecting their personal interpretation of ARNOLD's claims, versus what ARNOLD actually claims in the 1989, post-"The Men Who Killed Kennedy"-documentary interview. One example is the precise location that ARNOLD claims he was standing in when the shotS ARNOLD claimed he heard passed him.... ARNOLD's claimed location in this 1989 interview is not supported by the MOORMAN polaroid mandatory line-of-sight, and, it is not supported by any other photographic line-of-sight west of the far-west end of the retaining wall edge. Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...PINGarnold.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/GHOS...update2001.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "When you have eliminated the impossible, what remains, however improbable, must be the truth." ---- Sherlock Holmes, "A Study In Scarlet," (1887) by A.C. DOYLE

Good Day.... DRUGGER's (note the correct spelling of his name) entire article is available for all online, here.... http://www.texasobserver.org/showArticle.asp?ArticleID=1499 Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...PINGarnold.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/GHOS...update2001.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "A missile had gone in and out of the back of his head, causing extensive lacerations and loss of brain tissue." ----Doctor KEMP CLARK, Parkland Hospital Emergency trauma room #1 attending physician, "Houston Chronicle" newspaper, third edition, 11-22-63

Good Day.... Surely, ROSSELLI, was not the only person whom MAHUE initially considered approaching/enlisting to help within the CIA operations for assassinating CASTRO. I am interested in who else MAHUE considered approaching for enlisting to help within the CIA operations? Additionally, to help with the CASTRO assassination CIA operations, who else did MAHUE actually approach, arrange to meet, and actually meet and speak with? (albeit before, or, after contacting ROSSELLI; if so, when, where, through who else's help to arrange a meeting, did more person(s) than just MAHUE meet with a prospective enlistee, etc?) Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...PINGarnold.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/GHOS...update2001.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "There's other things involved that are that are detrimental to other things." - REGIS BLAHUT, ex-C.I.A. Office of Security officer and liaison to the H.S.C.A., after he was fired from the C.I.A. in 1978, after he was caught having removed the autopsy photos of President KENNEDY from an HSCA safe even though he was never given authorization to access the autopsy photos.

Good Day.... Can anyone confirm if D.P.D. motorcyclist/11-22-63 motorcade escortman HARRY R. (or "B."?) FREEMAN is still alive, or dead? Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "I looked over, and the second shot hit him in the face." ---- JAMES M. CHANEY, D.P.D. Presidential Limousine Motorcycle Escort in an 11-22-63 ABC tv interview with BILL LORD, describing the 2nd of 3 shots he remembered hearing. CHANEY also said that when he heard the 1st shot CHANEY remembered hearing that it sounded like a motorcycle backfiring & CHANEY looked to his left & saw that President KENNEDY then "looked back over his left shoulder."

Good Day James.... The motorcade stopping event that ELLIS was speaking about was, probably, the event at the corner of Lemmon Avenue and Loma Alto Drive, which was right at 12:00 PM. The limousine was ordered to stop by President KENNEDY, himself, so, technically, his ordering the motorcade to stop superceded SS guidelines/procedures. There was a crowded area where a Catholic nun was there, obviously from a Catholic school, with a group of youngsters on the right side of the car. One of the little girls held up a large sign that read, "Please, Mr. President, stop and shake our hands." President KENNEDY saw the sign and called to the limo driver, GREER, "Stop." (ELLIS, cycle-riding well ahead, would have had no idea, at the time, that the president had ordered the limousine to stop) This was also one of the four times during the motorcade (I think, the first time) when SS agent CLINT HILL mounted the rear step of limo as the limo slowed down before the stop. The entire motorcade also stopped and the President, smiling broadly, motioned to the children and asked them to, “Come and shake my hand,” which, of course, they did gleefully. The car was immediately mobbed by the youngsters (I think there is a film segment of it; as I recall, CONNALLY seems to actually recoil away from the rush of children up to the limousine at him; the event was, maybe, even also captured within the POWERS film that ended at 12:17 PM when POWERS said he ran out of film). The followup SS agents (besides HILL) had to immediately come up to the limousine. It was a very short stop, timewise. After some hand shaking, smiles, and "hello's," President KENNEDY said, "All right. Let's travel on." I have thought about what the SS agents should have done on Elm Street. If we use CLINT HILL's physical motions timestampings as a guideline, he started to first jump from the SS followup car at Zf-308. HILL first touched the limousine left handhold bar at Zf-340, about 2 seconds after he first started to jump from the followup car. If we allow 2 seconds for him to pull himself up and forward so he was standing on the bumper running board, then, if we allow about another 2 or 3 seconds for HILL to quickly move/propel himself across the limousine trunk and protectively shield President KENNEDY, that would be a total of about 6 to 7 seconds, minimum, that HILL would have needed to, possibly, have a much better chance to save President KENNEDY, meaning HILL would have had to jump from the SS followup car before Zf-183 to 202....but, then again, even if HILL had protectively covered President KENNEDY, there could have been a different warrenatti-theorized "single bullet theory", this one involving HILL. Given the physical composition impediments of the limousine combined with the distance between KELLERMAN and President KENNEDY, I do not think KELLERMAN could have done anything in time. IMHO, the person who most could have, and should have, had the most responsibility for saving President KENNEDY was the 54-year-old limousine driver, GREER, who, instead of staring towards the president at Zf-313 --for the second time during the shots-- GREER could have accelerated the limousine starting about Zf-250-260, and concurrently "juked" the limo hard left or right, at least, one time, possibly even two times, wildly, quickly throwing/moving the limo occupants bodies/heads. Both the acceleration and "juking" may have been enough to stave off target aquisition and save President KENNEDY --at least, to have saved him within Dealey Plaza.... (also consider the intel-oriented/military-oriented backup plans axioms "feints within feints" and "plans within plans).... Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "If only I had reacted, I could have taken that shot.... That would have been alright with me." ----CLINT EASTWOOD, as Secret Service Agent Frank Horrigan, "In the Line of Fire" (1992)

Good Day.... http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/sou...-home-headlines <QUOTE> New documents link Cuban militant Posada Carriles to airliner bombing By Curt Anderson The Associated Press MIAMI -- Cuban militant exile Luis Posada Carriles said shortly before the deadly 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that he and others “are going to hit a Cuban airplane,” according to a declassified CIA document released Thursday. The 1976 cable quotes an unnamed former Venezuelan official known as a “usually reliable reporter” as saying that Posada made the remark following a $1,100-a-plate fund-raising dinner in Caracas for Orlando Bosch, a leader of Cuban exiles opposed to the communist government of President Fidel Castro. The CIA documents says that during the dinner, Bosch made the comment that his organization was “looking good” after the Sept. 21, 1976 assassination in Washington of Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and that “we are going to try something else.” “A few days following the fund-raising dinner, Posada was overhead to say that 'we are going to hit a Cuban airplane' and that 'Orlando has the details,''' the CIA cable says, adding that the identities of “we” and “Orlando” were not certain. Posada, 77, was arrested May 17 in Miami and is being held by U.S. immigration authorities in El Paso, Texas, on charges of entering the country illegally in March. Venezuela plans to seek his extradition in the airliner bombing, which killed 73 people when it crashed of the coast of Barbados on Oct. 6, 1976. Posada, a former CIA operative and ex-Venezuelan security official, plans to seek political asylum in the United States and has denied taking part in the bombing. A hearing for Posada is scheduled Monday before an immigration judge in El Paso. Two Venezuelan trials failed to convict Posada in the airline bombing, and he was awaiting a third trial when he escaped from prison in 1985. Months later, he surfaced in El Salvador as part of the U.S. effort to supply arms purchased from Iran to the Contras attempting to topple the leftist Sandinista government of Nicaragua. The CIA cable is among several newly declassified documents regarding Posada that were released Thursday by the National Security Archive, a nonprofit organization based at George Washington University. Other documents include a lengthy 1992 FBI interview in Honduras with Posada about the Iran-Contra affair and a CIA summary of his activities for the spy agency in the 1960s and 1970s. Peter Kornbluh, director of the archive's Cuba Documentation Project, said the documents demonstrate the need for the CIA to declassify what it knows about Posada ``as a concrete contribution to justice for those who have committed acts of terror.'' Posada's attorney in Miami, Eduardo Soto, did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. According to the new documents: --Posada was trained in Guatemala in 1961 by the CIA to participate in the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. That training included explosives and weapons. He was in the U.S. Army from March 1963 to March 1964 in Fort Benning, Ga., rising to the rank of second lieutenant and commanding a Ranger weapons platoon. --Posada was used as a CIA source on Cuban exile activities and worked in 1965 with a Miami-based group attempting to overthrow the Guatemalan government. He was “formally terminated” as a CIA operative in July 1967, then moved to Caracas and became a Venezuelan security official. He attempted to get a U.S. visa for himself and his wife in July 1976 but was denied. --Posada saved about $40,000 from his pay as part of the Iran-Contra project. His job at an airfield in El Salvador in 1985 was mainly to “take care of all the needs of the resupply personnel” including “food and beer.” But he also flew periodically on the resupply flights, mainly because his fluency in Spanish was needed to communicate on the radio. <END QUOTE> Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "A missile had gone in and out of the back of his head, causing extensive lacerations and loss of brain tissue." ----Parkland Hospital Emergency room Doctor KEMP CLARK, "Houston Chronicle" newspaper, third edition, 11-22-63

Good Day.... There are several important details (I have annotated with ****) that STAVIS "Steve" ELLIS, the 11-22-63 D.P.D. Sergeant/motorcyclist/presidential motorcade motorcyclist lead line Supervisor detailed to Sneed in 1988. <QUOTE> Born in 1918 in Laredo, Texas, and raised in San Antonio, “Steve” Ellis graduated from Brackinridge High School and later attended college in the military. During the Second World War, he joined the National Guard and served as an MP. Ellis began his career with the Dallas Police Department in 1946 as a patrolman and became a solo motorcycle officer fifteen months later with a promotion to sergeant in 1952. Sergeant Ellis was the officer in charge of the motorcycle escort for the motorcade through Dallas. I always liked riding motorcycles and had ridden them half way around the world in the Army. I guess I liked that kind of work. You work on your own; you’re out there by yourself; you don’t have a partner that will do the driving for you. When I was a kid, my father owned a restaurant in San Antonio just a block or so from the Municipal Auditorium. Whenever the San Antonio police officers came to work traffic in and around the auditorium, they’d stop by the restaurant and drink coffee with my dad. Since I was there quite often, they became my idols. That’s why I had it in my mind to become a motorcycle officer, and it’s what I did for almost thirty-one years. ****The motorcade assignments were, I believe, made up by Captain Lawrence and Chief Lunday. I’m just guessing at that because Lawrence had been making up all the assignments, and they’d ask me a question or two about who should be put here or there in the motorcade.**** I recommended the four guys that I had to ride immediately to the rear of the President’s car: Chaney, Hargis, Martin, and Jackson because they made a neat appearance, and I knew that I could count on them and the job would be done properly. That morning was rainy. It wasn’t raining hard, but hard enough in riding your motorcycle that you needed a rain suit. So, as we left the garage on our Harleys, we put our rain suits on and headed out to Love Field where we racked our motorcycles and waited for the motorcade to begin. A few minutes after we arrived, the rain quit, the sun came out, and we pulled our rain suits off and put them in the saddle bags. Kennedy had arrived but there was a bit of a holdup. There was a huge crowd and he wasn’t ready to go right away as he had walked over to a little fence and was talking to everybody and shaking hands. Some of the Secret Service boys seemed worried about this while other agents were taking the bullet proof top off the car. When that had been rolled up, he got in, and we took off on the escort. We didn’t have any idea that anything was going to happen. Our job was to look for any kind of interruption en route: maybe some radical might run out and holler or otherwise try to stop the motorcade. We were always on the alert for that and were prepared to take quick action to get them out of the way. I was in charge of the actual escort of the President’s car. All the other officers had their assignments, but some were just assigned to us as surplus. At the airport, Chief Curry told me, “Look, you see that double-deck bus up there? That’s full of news media. Now they’ve got to get to the Mart out there where the President is going to talk, but we don’t want them messing up this motorcade. Just give them one of your men back there and tell him to escort them there on time but to keep them out of the motorcade and not to mess with us.” So I got M. L. Baker and told him exactly what the chief had told me. That put him behind us quite a bit. This motorcade was no different than many others that I had helped escort. I was riding between Curry’s lead car and the President’s. There wasn’t anybody close to me. I’d slow down and let them catch up then check to see if the interval was right in town and so forth. You want to increase the interval between the cars on the freeways and keep it tight in town; that’s your usual operating procedure. When we came through the traffic along Lemmon Avenue from Love Field, I gave them a sign to close it up tight. Everything went smoothly except for one time on Lemmon Avenue when a group of little girls from a Catholic school, dressed in those little uniforms, standing out there with the sisters, got too far out into the street. When Kennedy approached, they naturally ran out into the street, the car stopped, and Kennedy was shaking hands and touching them. While this happened, the rest of the crowd moved out in the street against the car so that it couldn’t move anymore. I made a U-turn and came back down the left side of the car to clear everybody back to the side so we could move on. Some grown people got back when they saw the motorcycle coming. Meanwhile, Curry, in the car in front of the President’s, was waiting for me to get it clear. As I approached the disruption, I looked up and saw Secret Service agents grabbing those little girls and slinging them out of the street like they were sacks of potatoes. By the time I got there, they had the street cleared and said, “OK, let’s go!” As we turned off Harwood onto Main, the crowds were bigger. Many times when I’ve escorted other presidents, there wasn’t but a handful of people on the streets and we were able to move quickly. But Kennedy wanted people to see him and he wanted to see everybody, so we traveled slowly. We came west on Main Street to Houston Street and took a right, facing right into that building. The building with the window [the Texas School Book Depository—KAR] was looking right at us as we came up to Elm Street and made a left, heading back toward the Triple Underpass. Midway down Elm I remember waving at my wife’s niece and nephew, Bill and Gayle Newman, who had apparently come out to see the President. ****About the time I started on a curve on Elm, I had turned to my right to give signals to open up the intervals since we were fixing to get on the freeway a short distance away. That’s all I had on my mind. Just as I turned around, then the first shot went off. It hit back there. I hadn’t been able to see back where Chaney was because Curry was there, but I could see where the shot came down into the south side of the curb. It looked like it hit the concrete or grass there in just a flash, and a bunch of junk flew up like a white or gray color dust or smoke coming out of the concrete.**** Just seeing it in a split second like that I thought, “Oh, my God!” I thought there had been some people hit back there as people started falling. I thought either some crank had thrown a big “Baby John” firecracker and scared them causing them to jump down or else a fragmentation grenade had hit all those people. In any case, they went down! Actually I think they threw themselves down in anticipation of another shot. ****As soon as I saw that, I turned around and rode up beside the chief’s car and BANG!…BANG!, two more shots went off: three shots in all! The sounds were all clear and loud and sounded about the same. From where I was, they sounded like they were coming from around where the tall tree was in front of that building. Of course, I’m forming an opinion based on where I saw that stuff hit the street, so I knew that it had to come from up that way, and I assumed that all the others came from the same place.**** But all the time I was moving up, I still didn’t know it was shots until Chaney rode up beside me and said, “Sarge, the President’s hit!” I asked him how bad, and he replied, “Hell, he’s dead! Man, his head’s blown off!” “All right, we’re going to Parkland,” I said. This had been the prearranged plan in the event that someone was shot or injured; it was normal procedure. Chaney and I then rode on up to Curry’s car. Curry was driving with the Chief of the Secret Service, Forrest Sorrels, in the front seat with him. “Chief,” I said, “That was a shot! The President was hit and he’s in bad, bad shape! We’re going to Parkland!” He said, “All right, let’s go!” Chaney and I then got in front of Curry’s car and I told him, “All right, we’re going to Parkland, I’m going to Code 3, everything we’ve got!” “All right, hit ‘em,” Chaney said. So we took off and headed toward Parkland with the President. Of course there was a lot of transmissions on the radio. ****Chief Batchelor was asking one of us if he was dead.**** Well, we couldn’t tell him for security reasons. We knew that this was far-fetched, but it could have been a Russian bombing raid in flight and we couldn’t retaliate if they knew our president was dead. They could make their drop in safety because we couldn’t retaliate with atomic weapons without a president. These things were going through our minds at that time. Curry, more or less, told Batchelor to shut up. But really, in a situation like that, you don’t really have time to think. All you’re trying to do is not do something wrong to fall or hurt yourself on that motorcycle. You know that you’ve got a mission to accomplish and you know that if you fail, you’re not going to do them any good because they’re not going to make it either. So you’re just sitting there tight trying and hoping that everything goes right. But it was tense, real tense. We were under terrific pressure. We knew Governor Connally had been wounded; we knew that Kennedy was dead, but we also knew that we had to get there as quickly as possible, so we gave it all she’d take. I don’t remember looking at the speedometer, but we were going way too fast! Chaney and I took the Stemmons Freeway and exited onto the service road to Industrial. The service road hits Industrial right under Stemmons, and we took a right heading toward Harry Hines where the hospital was located. As we sped by where he was to give his speech at the Trade Mart on Industrial, Sergeant Striegel was out there trying to flag us down and Batchelor was there telling him, “Stop ‘em! Stop ‘em!” Of course, we were going Code 3 and they didn’t know that we were headed to the hospital. As we approached Harry Hines, it was almost a square turn; there was a high bank over on the side. All I could see was that big, tall, green bank and hoping that I’d stay on the ground going around that. Chaney and I were side by side with Martin somewhere behind us and the President’s car right on my tail. I was kind of teed off at that agent for staying so close. Chaney would look back, and I’d look back; we’d speed up and look back and there he was on our back bumper. I don’t care how fast we went, the bumper of the President’s car looked like it was right behind us. He was directly behind us all the way to Parkland! They shouldn’t ride that close on an escort because if we had to take some evasive action or brake, they’d run over us. We didn’t like that too much but it couldn’t be helped under the circumstances. Fortunately, everything fell into place just beautifully! Nothing got in our way. After we turned onto Harry Hines, the first signal light we caught was Amelia which led to the emergency entrance. We went right through without having to shut down our engines. We just went right on in. As we entered the emergency entrance, we pulled to the left to let the car go in when they unloaded. Curry hollered to me when he went by, “Cut ‘em off right there! Don’t let anybody else in that’s not in that motorcade!” So when Martin rode up, I told him, “Bubba, when that car gets in, cut it off! Don’t let anybody in!” Man, in just a matter of minutes that place was just swarming with people around in back of the hospital. It seemed like everybody was trying to get in closer to the emergency area where they could see. There were just oodles of people climbing over high places like a bunch of ants toward the back of that hospital. That’s when the perimeter was set up. ****When the President’s car was unloaded, I was maybe fifty feet away. I wasn’t able to see much because there was a lot of people from the hospital around him.**** I don’t remember seeing Connally at all. But when the car pulled up, the hospital people were coming out the door like a bunch of ants. They were right on him. I walked by the limousine after they were taken in. The thing that impressed me was in the seat and on the floorboard there were puddles of blood. Right in the middle one of those puddles lay a beautiful red rose. I never forgot that! I can still see it, that red rose in that blood! ****Some of the jockeys around the car were saying, “Looky here!” What they were looking at was the windshield. To the right of where the driver was, just above the metal near the bottom of the glass there appeared to be a bullet hole.**** ****I talked to a Secret Service man about it, and he said, “Aw, that’s just a fragment!” It looked like a clean hole in the windshield to me. In fact, one of the motor jockeys, Harry Freeman, put a pencil through it, or said he could.**** ****I remember a little kid I had first seen out at Love Field who had a little home camera with the old reel type of film, and he had taken some pictures there. I saw him again on Lemmon Avenue where he had taken more pictures, and again in town. Well, he also showed up at Parkland and was taking some pictures of the hearse that they had brought in. He was one of a bunch of people in the back of the hospital taking pictures. A Secret Service man ran up, grabbed that camera out of his hand, opened it up, shook the film down and gave it a kick.**** You know how those reels of film unroll? I’m sure it exposed everything he had. I felt sorry for him. I got into a little hassle over it and told the Secret Service man, “I don’t think that’s right the way you did that. That poor kid’s been taking pictures ever since we left Love Field and now you’ve exposed every one of them!” He made some smart comment to the effect that he didn’t think it was right for me to say anything to him about it. But I didn’t appreciate it a bit! I understand that they were under pressure, but they were awfully uncouth, all of them! After staying at the hospital for a short while, we were told that we had to take LBJ to Love Field immediately. Chaney and I took him, and maybe Martin, Code 3. As I recall, two or three others escorted the hearse. Shortly after we got to Love Field a squad car brought Judge Sarah T. Hughes for the swearing in of Johnson. We were standing there by our motors when the swearing in took place. I’m not sure of this, but I was told that it was only thirty-eight minutes from the time the President was killed till we had Johnson out there and sworn in. Upon completion of our assignment, we then went back into service. That evening, after Oswald had been arrested, and all the news media was trying to talk with him, most of us motor jockeys were assigned to the third floor of City Hall for security where we remained until our shift was over. Since I had enough seniority, I was off the rest of that weekend. That’s when I saw the shooting of Oswald on TV, and that’s when we got a lot of unjust criticism from the news media. One of those high powered news reporters made me mad several times by putting it on us that we were a bunch of dummies because Oswald was killed. But, before that, the President was killed in our presence, and in just a few minutes, an officer sacrificed his life trying to arrest the guy that killed the President. The Dallas Police Department was back on top of the world for being a good, efficient outfit. Then, when Oswald was shot, our stock dropped right to the bottom again, as if it were our fault. But it wasn’t our fault; we had orders to move him like that. ****Chief Curry told me later that evening, “I want you and one jockey to come down here, and we’re going to move Oswald to the county jail at two o’clock and nobody will know about it.” Then what happened?**** ****Elgin Crull, the city manager, and Earle Cabell, the mayor, eventually gave Chief Curry direct orders, “No, you will not do that! You will notify the news media and the press so that they can be in the basement with their lights and cameras set up before you move him.” That’s what got him killed! But we took the blame for it, and all of us were called a bunch of dummies. It eventually cost Curry his job because somebody else laid it on him and it wasn’t him at all. But he wouldn’t speak up!**** Curry was a very close friend of mine. After he lost his job as chief, I ran into him later at Fair Park, when I was getting my radio fixed. Curry was driving a van picking up parts and other stuff for a former policeman named K. K. Stanfield, who was in the building business. That day he was wearing old clothes driving that van. I made a U-turn when he flagged me down. As we talked, I told him, “I’m not going to be one to say I told you so, but I warned you ahead of time about what was about to happen, and you said you weren’t worried about your assistant chief. All right, why don’t you do this for us? Get on national television and make a statement or be interviewed where all the people in the United States can see it and tell them that you were ordered by Mr. Elgin Crull and Mr. Earle Cabell to do what you did and get the pressure off of you and all of us?” “Oh, I can’t do that!” What had happened was that they had already offered him a job to keep his mouth shut because it wasn’t long after that they put him in charge of security for One Main Place, which was owned by all the big wheels in Dallas when it opened. In 1961 I had been recalled to the military and was in charge of counterintelligence work stationed in Columbia, South Carolina. One of the agents who worked for me in my field office was Curry’s son. Batchelor, his assistant chief, and several other chiefs at that time were trying to undercut Curry, and I told his son about it. In a couple of weeks, he came back and said, “I got a letter from Dad. He said to tell you thanks, but he thought he could trust his assistant chief.” Curry, who had a drinking problem, was asked to resign after the assassination. But we wanted him to at least tell the world what really happened and why we moved Oswald in front of all the lights and cameras and to tell how Ruby got in. But he wanted to keep the pressure off the people who were going to hire him for security at One Main Place. ****I know how Ruby got in according to what our reports showed. The orders were the same on Sunday morning as they were on Friday night when I was up there on the third floor. If a cameraman came up and said, “This is one of my crew,” I let them in as long as he identified himself as a cameraman. Ruby knew all those guys just like he knew some policemen from the Silver Spur. Wes Wise, a reporter who later became mayor, went up there. They all knew him.**** ****I’m sure that he probably talked to some of these cameramen and said, “I sure would like to see what a guy that would do something like that would look like.”**** ****And one of the cameramen probably told him, “Here, carry this can of film in,” and that’s how he got in.**** The news media turned it around by saying, “Well, a lot of policemen drank downtown with him and, on account of that, they knew him and let him in.” That’s not true! The officer that was there, Roy Vaughn, was one of the strictest and most efficient officers that we had. I’m convinced that he came in just like I said: carrying a can of film. What they should have done was to have had each one of the news media identify every one of their people with a badge or a button. What brought about this lenient attitude toward the news media was that shortly before, I had escorted Adlai Stevenson into town on the day shift. My men and I had him all day and nobody messed with him. We guarded him closely because we had heard that people were going to try to stop him. We got off at three o’clock and left him at the auditorium when Sergeant Bellah relieved me. That evening a woman spit in his face, and the news media told everyone what a bad bunch of people Dallas had. So we felt that the city fathers were trying to bend over backwards to be nice to the press to try to get a decent write up from the President’s visit to Dallas. As it turned out, the President was killed, then we really bent over backwards to be good to them, especially on the third floor of City Hall. In the dispatcher’s office, some news media guy came in, used the phone, climbed up on the table and began taking pictures. That shouldn’t have been possible! There’s a guy I know out here in Oak Cliff who believes that all this was a conspiracy: Oswald didn’t do all this; we did Oswald in; the Secret Service and the FBI put it on him because they couldn’t get anybody else. You hear people talk on the street that wonder if Oswald killed him or not. These are people who are supposed to have good common sense! ****Then you have those that saw it happen like these motor jockeys. They know where the shots came from. They know that they didn’t come from the top of a building or the grassy knoll. If there had been any shots fired from the grassy knoll, I couldn’t have missed it since I was right even with that area when the shots were fired.**** Baker said that he saw something that would indicate that somebody was shooting out of that window. When he got off his motor near the front of that building, he told the man in charge of that operation and they went inside. They couldn’t get the freight elevator down, so Baker and the man went up the stairs. ****That’s when they encountered Oswald drinking a coke on the second floor.**** Baker was told that he was all right, that he worked there. That’s where Baker messed up! He should have sealed off the building and not let anybody out till it was ascertained that nobody there had anything to do with it. He could have saved an officer’s life had he arrested him there, had he done what he was supposed to have done. We don’t say anything to him about it; officers make mistakes just like everybody else. ****On the other hand, Baker wasn’t real bright either. Before he went to Washington to testify to the Warren Commission, he went to Captain Lawrence’s office and said, “Captain, I’ve got to go to Washington. Don’t you think the city ought to buy me a suit?”**** Ain’t that some bull crap? I don’t know why, but the boys called him “Momma Son.” But he was always slow. That’s the reason I didn’t have him in a responsible position on that escort. When I got the assignment from the chief to put somebody on that press bus, I put him there to just trail along. ****We had a similar case with another officer named McLain. We had a guy come to Dallas several years ago with a sound device listening to some noise on one of the police radios. He said that he counted seven shots. McLain told them it was his radio making the noise, so he was taken to Washington and questioned. Mac didn’t know what in the hell he was talking about. He was kind of a nit wit, and when he went up there, he made an ass out of our whole department. It was disgraceful! I think he just wanted a trip to Washington.**** In a way, the Tippit shooting was closer to us that that of Kennedy. It was like family to us. If you heard about a guy being killed, that would be real bad, but if somebody from your family was killed, that would be even worse. That’s the way it was. I knew Tippit, though not very well. He wasn’t known much outside his patrol unit because he was so quiet. ****Right after he was killed, his captain, Captain Solomon, told me that the reason he was killed was that when he talked to somebody he wouldn’t keep his eyes on him; he might look off and question them. He said that many times when Tippit worked for him he had to correct him about that. It may have been the reason that Oswald was able to kill him.**** Some have suggested that it was unusual that Tippit was never promoted. It wasn’t. A lot of guys didn’t get promotions for more than ten years. Jim Chaney was about as efficient an officer as you’d ever find in all aspects of police work. He was good; he was great; and he didn’t make it. He made the sergeant’s list once after taking the promotion exam, I’m not sure how they do it now, but in those days they’d pick those who scored the highest on the promotion exam for promotion. Chaney worked himself up to number one on the list and was waiting for one of the other officers to retire. Unfortunately, the officer didn’t choose to retire and since an opening didn’t come up on the list, it was canceled and a new exam had to be given. It disgusted Chaney to the point that I don’t think he ever took another one. So there was nothing unusual about Tippit not being promoted. ****After the assassination, the FBI did their investigative work on the curb where I had seen the shot and cut off the section to analyze. However, they cut off the wrong section. We later found the place where it hit. Sergeant Harkness knows. He was a three-wheel sergeant who worked traffic downtown.**** ****He first became involved in all this several months earlier when one of his three-wheelers apparently saw Oswald passing out pamphlets about Cuba, which was illegal in the city of Dallas without a permit. Harkness was called in to investigate and, of course, Harkness was also in the downtown area when all this happened with the President.**** Most of the officers I knew spoke in favor of Kennedy, though a few didn’t. I had a great deal of respect for him because I thought he had a lot of guts, especially in regard to the missile crisis. What teed me off was that somebody like Oswald, who was so sorry that he wasn’t worth the powder it takes to blow him to hell, kills a president, a young president, who was doing a good job for us. Oswald went to Russia, stayed over two years, denounced our type of government, married a girl from over there whose uncle was in Russian intelligence, then comes over here and kills the President. The people of the United States made a big deal out of her and made her a millionaire. I was really teed off about that! And still there are these people in the United States who believe that Oswald was right. It’s ridiculous! Ellis continued to ride motorcycles until his retirement from the Dallas Police Department in 1976. After twenty years of service, he also retired as an Army major and still lives in Dallas. <END QUOTE> Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...PINGarnold.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/GHOS...update2001.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "First of three shots fired, at which time I saw the President lean toward Mrs. Kennedy. I do not know if it was the next shot or third shot that hit the President in the head, but I saw what appeared to be a small explosion on the right side of the President's head, saw blood, at which time the President fell further to his left." "When I turned around to wave the Vice President's car to come closer, at same time, trying to determine where shots had come from, I said, pointing to SA McIntyre, 'They got him, they got him,' ..." - EMORY ROBERTS, ATSAIC Shift Leader, 8am-4pm (who rode only 15' to 20' behind President KENNEDY) in his 11-29-63 report

Good Day.... http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washingt...vietnam/?page=1 <QUOTE> Papers reveal JFK efforts on Vietnam By Bryan Bender, Boston Globe Staff | June 6, 2005 WASHINGTON -- Newly uncovered documents from both American and Polish archives show that President John F. Kennedy and the Soviet Union secretly sought ways to find a diplomatic settlement to the war in Vietnam, starting three years before the United States sent combat troops. Kennedy, relying on his ambassador to India, John Kenneth Galbraith, planned to reach out to the North Vietnamese in April 1962 through a senior Indian diplomat, according to a secret State Department cable that was never dispatched. Back-channel discussions also were attempted in January 1963, this time through the Polish government, which relayed the overture to Soviet leaders. New Polish records indicate Moscow was much more open than previously thought to using its influence with North Vietnam to cool a Cold War flash point. The attempts to use India and Poland as go-betweens ultimately fizzled, partly because of North Vietnamese resistance and partly because Kennedy faced pressure from advisers to expand American military involvement, according to the documents and interviews with scholars. Both India and Poland were members of the International Control Commission that monitored the 1954 agreement that divided North and South Vietnam. The documents are seen by former Kennedy aides as new evidence of his true intentions in Vietnam. The question of whether Kennedy would have escalated the war or sought some diplomatic exit has been heatedly debated by historians and officials who served under both Kennedy and his successor, Lyndon B. Johnson. When Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, there were 16,000 US military advisers in Vietnam. The number of troops grew to more than 500,000, and the war raged for another decade. ''I think the issue of how JFK would have acted differently than LBJ is something that will never be settled, but intrigues biographers," said Robert Dallek, author of noted biographies of Kennedy and Johnson. ''Historians partial to Kennedy see matters differently from those partial to LBJ," Dallek added. ''Vietnam has become a point of contention in defending and criticizing JFK." But some Kennedy loyalists say the documents show he would have negotiated a settlement or withdrawn from Vietnam despite the objections of many top advisers, such as Kennedy and Johnson's defense secretary, Robert S. McNamara, who opposed Galbraith's diplomatic efforts at the time. ''The drafts are perfectly authentic," said Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., who was a White House aide to Kennedy. ''They show Kennedy felt we were over-committed in Vietnam and he was very uneasy. I think he would have withdrawn by 1965 before he took steps to Americanize the war." McNamara said in an interview Wednesday that he had ''no recollection" of the Galbraith discussions, but ''I have no doubt that Kennedy would have been interested in it. He reached out to divergent views." Others, however, are highly skeptical the new information signals what action Kennedy would have ultimately taken. ''It's unknowable what he would have done," said Carl Kaysen, who was Kennedy's deputy special assistant for national security. Kaysen, who also judged the documents to be authentic, believes Kennedy was just as likely as his successors to misjudge the situation. ''The basic mistake the US made was to underestimate the determination of North Vietnam and the communist party in South Vietnam, the Viet Minh, and to overstate its own position," he said Thursday. He also doubted that North Vietnam would have been willing to negotiate a deal acceptable to the United States. ''In hindsight, it would have been another futile effort," Kaysen said, because the North Vietnamese were determined to control the fate of South Vietnam. But the documents, which came from the archives of then-Assistant Secretary of State W. Averell Harriman and the communist government in Warsaw, demonstrate that Kennedy and the Soviets were looking for common ground. They also shed new light on Galbraith's role. The Harvard economist was on friendly terms with India's prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and a close confidant of Kennedy's. Galbraith sent numerous telegrams to the president warning about the risks of greater military intervention. Galbraith told the Globe last week that he and Kennedy discussed the war in Vietnam at a farm in rural Virginia in early April 1962, where Galbraith handed the president a two-page plan to use India as an emissary for peace negotiations. Records show that McNamara and the military brass quickly criticized the proposal. An April 14 Pentagon memo to Kennedy said that ''a reversal of US policy could have disastrous effects, not only upon our relationship with South Vietnam, but with the rest of our Asian and other allies as well." Nevertheless, Kennedy later told Harriman to instruct Galbraith to pursue the channel through M. J. Desai, then India's foreign secretary. At the time, the United States had only 1,500 military advisers in South Vietnam. ''The president wants to have instructions sent to Ambassador Galbraith to talk to Desai telling him that if Hanoi takes steps to reduce guerrilla activity [in South Vietnam], we would correspond accordingly," Harriman states in an April 17, 1962, memo to his staff. ''If they stop the guerrilla activity entirely, we would withdraw to a normal basis." A draft cable dated the same day instructed Galbraith to use Desai as a ''channel discreetly communicating to responsible leaders [in the] North Vietnamese regime . . . the president's position as he indicated it." But a week later, Harriman met with Kennedy and apparently persuaded him to delay, according to other documents, and the overture was never revived. Galbraith, 97, never received the official instructions but said last week that the documents are ''wholly in line" with his discussions with Kennedy and that he had expected Kennedy to pursue the Indian channel. The draft of the unsent cable was discovered in Harriman's papers by scholar Gareth Porter and are outlined in a forthcoming book, ''Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam." Meanwhile, the Polish archives from a year later revealed another back-channel attempt to find a possible settlement. At the urging of Nehru, Galbraith met with the Polish foreign minister, Adam Rapacki, in New Delhi on Jan. 21, 1963, where Galbraith expressed Kennedy's likely interest in a Polish proposal for a cease-fire and new elections in South Vietnam. There is no evidence of further discussions between the two diplomats. Rapacki returned to Warsaw a day later. Galbraith wrote in his memoirs that it was not followed up. But the newly released Polish documents, obtained by George Washington University researcher Malgorzata Gnoinska, show that Galbraith's message was sent to Moscow, where it was taken seriously. A lengthy February memo from the Soviet politburo reported on the Galbraith-Rapacki discussions. It concluded that Kennedy and ''part of the administration . . . did not want Vietnam to turn into a second Korea" and appeared interested in a diplomatic settlement akin to one reached in 1962 about Laos, Vietnam's neighbor. ''It is apparent that Kennedy is not opposed to finding a compromise regarding South Vietnam," the memo said, according to Gnoinska's translation. ''It seems that the Americans have arrived at the conclusion that the continued intervention in Vietnam does not promise victory and have decided to somehow untangle themselves from the difficult situation they find themselves in over there." It went on to say that ''neutralizing" the crises ''could untangle the dangerous knot of international tensions in Southeast Asia." Definitive reasons both the Indian and Polish attempts were not pursued further are not known. In October 1963, the South Vietnamese government was overthrown, igniting political chaos. North Vietnam may have become more certain it would prevail. Neither the Indian or Vietnamese archives are available. The would-be Indian emissary, Desai, whom records indicate still lives in Bombay, could not be reached. Kennedy had few options. Many believe North Vietnam would have swiftly prevailed over the South if the United States pulled out; that is what happened more than a decade later. It would have been extremely difficult to risk such an outcome at the height of the Cold War, fearing communism would spread to other countries under the so-called domino theory. ''There was no open debate in the Kennedy or Johnson administration about whether the domino theory was correct," McNamara said. It was simply gospel, he said. Nonetheless, the new information sheds light on Kennedy's misgivings about getting further embroiled in the Vietnam War; up to his death he refused to do as most of his advisers urged and allow US ground troops to participate in the fighting, as Johnson did beginning in 1965. Galbraith said Kennedy ''harbored doubts, extending to measured resistance, on the Vietnam War." But it was ''countered by the fact that he had such articulate and committed warriors to contend with" in his administration, he said. ''It's another clear indication that my brother was very reluctant to accept the strong recommendations he was getting to send troops to Vietnam," Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, told the Globe on Friday after reviewing the cable to Galbraith. ''It's hard to believe that Jack would ever have allowed the tentative steps he took in those days to escalate into the huge military crisis that Vietnam became." Of the cable, Theodore Sorensen, who was a special assistant to Kennedy, said: ''It is clearly consistent with what I have always thought and said about JFK's attitude toward Vietnam." Daniel Ellsberg, a former Pentagon official and coauthor of the Pentagon Papers, the secret history of US policy toward Vietnam, added that the documents ''show a willingness to negotiate [a pullout] that LBJ didn't have in 1964-66." But, Ellsberg added, ''he might not have been able to do it." Bryan Bender can be reached at Bender@globe.com <END QUOTE> Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "That’s when they encountered Oswald drinking a coke on the second floor." "We had a similar case with another officer named McLain. We had a guy come to Dallas several years ago with a sound device listening to some noise on one of the police radios. He said that he counted seven shots. McLain told them it was his radio making the noise, so he was taken to Washington and questioned. Mac didn’t know what in the hell he was talking about. He was kind of a nit wit, and when he went up there, he made an ass out of our whole department. It was disgraceful! I think he just wanted a trip to Washington." "After the assassination, the FBI did their investigative work on the curb where I had seen the shot and cut off the section to analyze. However, they cut off the wrong section. We later found the place where it hit. Sergeant Harkness knows. He was a three-wheel sergeant who worked traffic downtown." ----STAVIS "Steve" ELLIS, D.P.D. Sergeant/motorcyclist/presidential motorcade motorcyclist lead line Supervisor 11-22-63 to Larry Sneed, "No More Silence" (1988)

Good Day Pat.... In his cartoons, IMHO, Myers also did not perform a very good job --at all-- of replicating for us CONNALLY's lip movements to help us timestamp when CONNALLY screamed ("like a stuck pig," according to Mrs. KENNEDY), "No, no, no! My God, they're going to kill us all!" (after he, supposedly, had already received a sucking-air, very painful, chest wound. Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...PINGarnold.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/GHOS...update2001.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "No, no, no! My God, they're going to kill us all!" 22NOV63 (screamed during the seconds of the attack, supposedly, after he already received a painful sucking-air chest wound) "They killed the President." 24NOV63 (after the attack, while under pain-killing medications from his Parkland Hospital bed) "I knew the president had been hit." 28NOV63 (describing that after the first shot he *remembered* hearing that he then "KNEW" that the President had been hit. In his testimonies months and years later, CONNALLY would claim that he did not know President KENNEDY had been hit until after the bloody headshot explosion) "When I was hit, .... or, .... shortly before I was hit, .... no, .... I guess it was after I was hit, .... I said, first, just almost in despair, I said, 'no, no, no ...'" 1978 H.S.C.A. testimony - JOHN CONNALLY, Texas Governor, and, the Texas-based person who had the most power and control over the pre-planning of the Texas trip and Texas motorcades routes

Good Day Lee.... Thanks for the photo.... Do you have a specific date for when it was captured? (apparently at the White House) Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...PINGarnold.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/GHOS...update2001.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "No, no, no! My God, they're going to kill us all!" 22NOV63 (screamed during the seconds of the attack, supposedly, after he already received a painful sucking-air chest wound) "They killed the President." 24NOV63 (after the attack, while under pain-killing medications from his Parkland Hospital bed) "I knew the president had been hit." 28NOV63 (describing that after the first shot he *remembered* hearing that he then "KNEW" that the President had been hit. In his testimonies months and years later, CONNALLY would claim that he did not know President KENNEDY had been hit until after the bloody headshot explosion) "When I was hit, .... or, .... shortly before I was hit, .... no, .... I guess it was after I was hit, .... I said, first, just almost in despair, I said, 'no, no, no ...'" 1978 H.S.C.A. testimony - JOHN CONNALLY, Texas Governor, and, the Texas-based person who had the most power and control over the pre-planning of the Texas trip and Texas motorcades routes

Good Day Lee, & All.... With regard to GORDON ARNOLD's un-supported by anyone, and un-supported by any evidence claims, please read my studies, here.... http://members.aol.com:/droberdeau/JFK/BON...PINGarnold.html ....and, that study's followup, derived from a little-publicized, little-known, 1989 (post-"The Men Who Killed Kennedy") ARNOLD-recorded interview, that is available to anyone free-for-the-asking-from-the-"Sixth Floor Museum" .... http://members.aol.com/droberdeau/JFK/addi...noldCLAIMS.html Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/BOND...PINGarnold.html http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/GHOS...update2001.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "When you have eliminated the impossible, what remains, however improbable, must be the truth." ---- Sherlock Holmes, "A Study In Scarlet," (1887) by A.C. DOYLE

Hi Al.... FWIW, the height-above-sea-level (HASL) of the TOP north sewer grate was 424.0'. President KENNEDY's Zf-313 Elm Street point was at 418.6' HASL; adding 4' above the Elm Street Zf-313 point to represent the impact point/head would be at 422.6' HASL, so, from the TOP north sewer would be a relatively near-level shot, with targeting lead distance the paramount factor. Interestingly, the 237' distance from the TOP north sewer to the Zf-313 street point is slightly less than the 265.3' distance from the warrenatti "snipers lair" "lone nut" to Zf-313. As I am sure you know, the 2004 premiered "Discovery Channel: Unsolved History" (what I call the "Dealey Plaza II" segment) documentary lasered theoretical shots at night from both the TOP south and TOP north sewer locations. From both locations (I think the "laser assassin" was standing above the ground from each) the trajectory was shown (and filmed) to be unobstructed and target-aquireable directly onto the stand-in model upper half of the head. From the TOP north sewer, neither CONNALLY at his Zf-313 position/posture--leaning back/being pulled by NELLIE limo leftward--with CONNALLY's Zf-313 head located near limo-centerline, nor the vertical right side of the limousine chrome handhold bar would have obstructed President KENNEDY either. Where ever you place a TOP south sourced shot, that bullet trajectory would have had to pass extremely close (4" or less) to CONNALLY's profiled face/nose--also meaning that as seen from the TOP south assassin (somewhere south/southsoutheast of the slight angle on the TOP east face) CONNALLY's head left side profile would have blocked much of the view of President KENNEDY's head circa Zf-290 to 310. Additionally, that trajectory from the TOP south would have to pass not only above the upper surface of the chromed windshield frame (which it could), but would have to also pass in between the open space between the pushed-up vertical sunvisors (unless you posit a shot through ALTGENS #7 seen spider-cracks centered glass layers of the windshield.... which leads me to ask.... Do bullets entering into/passing through layered windshield glass create a backspatter of glass particulate? If so, is the glass backspatter dependednt on the bullet entry angle versus the windshield angle? Would a bullet entering/transiting windshield layered glass also first start to tumble towards the bullets first contact surface side?) Is a south TOP assassin theoretically possible?....Yes. (although I must admit, all the factors--target lead, CONNALLY's profiled head/nose, windshield frame, sunvisors, KENNEDY visibility behind CONNALLY, rearview mirror, wind, etc, would be vital to asimilate....which, as you have detailed previously, would indicate an extremely profficient/experienced shooter. Would it have been an extremely constrained, very small in time element and open spaces target aquisition/target lead window....Absolutely.... Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "(D)rehm (sic) seemed to think the shots came from in FRONT OF or BESIDE the President." (my EMPHASIS) ----CHARLES F. BREHM, a gunfire-battle experienced, WWII D-day, United States Army Ranger veteran, quoted just minutes after the attack and while still standing within Dealey Plaza ("Dallas Times Herald," 11-22-63, final edition)

Good Day Steve.... Nice job. I called Jim Conner yesterday after he provided me his phone number, but he has not returned the phone call yet. Since I had no "Conner" on my list, I reasoned that either I have not come across her name, yet, or, she gave birth to "Jim Conner" sometime before getting married (re-married?) before 11-22-63, since Jim said he was in DP, also. WHATLEY is/was mentioned on MASLAND's site (but the reference did not specify she worked at the TSBD).... http://www.jmasland.com/cd-w.htm ....but I just checked Masland's title webpage, and there is a message from Masland that the site crashed, and is "down." Masland's email is/was info@jmasland.com WHATLEY is also mentioned in CD706 Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "The shots came from the hill -- it was just east of the underpass. We were on the south side." "I thought I saw this man running, but I looked at the President and, you know, for a while, and I looked up there and I thought I saw a man running, and so, right after that I guess I didn't have any better sense -- I started running there too" ---- JEAN HILL, close DP attack witness, in a "WBAP" tv with TOM WHALEN that was prerecorded a few minutes before the interview 1:21 PM Dallas time first-showing

Good Day Ron.... Here are the names of whom I have in my files.... (in my best ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGAR "Terminator" voice.... "I have detailed files." (on most of them)) ADAMS, VICTORIA "Vickie" ELIZABETH ARCE, DANNY GARCIA ARNOLD, CAROLYN (Mrs. R. E.) ARNOLD, R. E. BAKER (nee RACHLEY), VIRGIE (Mrs. DONALD SAM BAKER) BARNUM, VIRGINIA M. (or H.) BERRY, JANE (Mrs. A. G.) BURNS, DORIS FAY (Miss) CALVERY, GLORIA (Mrs. ROBERT R.) CALVERY-friend #1, (???=mentioned in CALVERY statement) CALVERY-friend #2, (???=mentioned in CALVERY statement) CAMPBELL, OCHUS "Otis" VIRGIL CASE, EDNA (Mrs.) CASON, JACK CHARLES CASTER, WARREN CLAY, BILLIE P. (Mrs. HERMAN "Billy" M.) CUNNINGHAM, LOU DAVIS, AVERY (Mrs. CHARLES THOMAS) DEAN, RUTH HILLIARD (Mrs. JOSEPH EDDIE) DICKERSON, MARY S. (Mrs. A.D.) DORMAN, ELSIE T. DOUGHERTY, JACK EDWIN DRAGOO, BETTY J. (Mrs. BARNEY R.) ELERSON, SANDRA SUE (Mrs. RONALD G.) ELERSON-"elderly woman" (???=mentioned in ELERSON statement) FORESMAN, SCOTT FOSTER, BETTY ALICE FRAZIER, BUELL WESLEY GARNER, DOROTHY ANN GIVENS, CHARLES "Slim" DOUGLAS HAWKINS-son", ((???first name=mentioned in HAWKINS, PEGGY statement) HAWKINS, PEGGY JOYCE BIGLER HENDRIX, GEORGIA "Georgie" RUTH HICKS, KARAN (or Karen) (Mrs. JAMES DANIEL) HINE, GENEVA L. HINE-"on telephone after attack", ((???first name=mentioned in HINE statement=woman) HOLLIES, MARY MADELINE HOLT, JEANNE "Jeanie" "Gloria" HOPSON (nee Dixon), YOLA D. (Mrs. Oliver Hopson) JACOB (or "Jacobs"), STELLA MAE JARMAN, Jr., JAMES "Joe" EARL JOHNSON, JUDY MARIE (Miss) JONES, CARL EDWARD JONES, SPAULDEN EARNEST JUNKER, HERBERT LESTER KAISER, FRANKIE KOUNAS, DOLORES ARLEAN (Mrs. GEORGE ANDREW) LAWRENCE, PATRICIA ANN (Miss) LEWIS, RAY "Roy" EDWARD LOVELADY, BILLY NOLAN McCULLY, JUDITH "Judy" LOUISE MOLINA, JOSEPH "Joe" RODRIGUEZ NELSON, RUTH SMITH NORMAN, HAROLD "Hank," "Shorty" D. OSWALD, LEE HARVEY PALMER, HELEN L. (Mrs.) PARKER, ROBERTA (Mrs WILLIAM V.) PIPER, EDWARD "Eddie" REED, JERALDEAN "Carolyn" REED, MARTHA (Miss) REESE, MADDIE BELLE REID, CAROLYN (Mrs. ROBERT A.) RICHEY, BONNIE (Mrs. L. C.) SANDERS, PAULINE (Mrs ROBERT E.) SHELLEY, WILLIAM HOYT SHIELDS, EDWARD SIMMONS ("Nelson" after marrying), SHEARION "Sharon" STANSBERG (or "Stansberry"), JOYCE MAURINE STANTON, SARAH D. STYLES, SANDRA THORNTON, BETTY J. TRULY, ROY SANSOM VILES, LLOYD R. WATLEY, LEE (Mrs.), (???first name=mentioned in HINE warrenatti testimony) WEST, TROY EUGENE WESTBROOK, KAREN WESTER, FRANKLIN EMMETT WHITAKER, LUPE "Lucy" (Mrs. H. G.) WILLIAMS, BONNIE RAY WILLIAMS, MARY "Marge" LEA WILLIAMS, OTIS NEVILLE WILSON, STEVEN F. Don Roberdeau U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html T ogether E veryone A chieves M ore "I remarked to Mr. Campbell who was standing near by that I thought the shots had come from our building. But I heard someone else say 'no, I think it was further down the street.' " -TSBD employee/attack witness JERALDEAN "Carolyn" REID, who stood directly in front of the warrenatti, supposed, "snipers lair," in her earliest 11-23-63 DPD affidavit (CE2003, 24H223)