Paul Brancato

It’s interesting where this thread has gone to. I’ve been pondering this myself, not so much because of dancing Israelis but because of the qui bono aspect, which Mr. Thorne’s followup looks at. More to the point, I’d like to answer the original question by saying most emphatically NO, we cannot eliminate Ben Gurion, Dimona, Angleton from the equation. The key is Angleton, and the ever present Dulles of course. 
I may start another thread on this, but I’ll start here. A few years ago Italian journalist Michele Metta got some play in the forum, but everything he was writing about Permindex was in Italian. Jim D mentioned his book Accomplishing Jim Garrisons On The Trail of the Assassins. I’ve been reading it. The author makes a very strong case against Ben Gurion’s Mossad.  
 

1 hour ago, Kishan Dandiker said:

It's a stark contrast to the families of MLK and Malcolm X who very publicly made their opinions known. 

You are right, though I would add that the media has barely covered the MLK family or the family of Malcolm X, who I believe are about to go to trial. No one knows that the King family won a civil lawsuit against the FBI and I believe the Memphis Police. The other thing to bear in mind is that the silence after JFK was very understandable, given its shocking nature, and the possibility that the younger RFK might reclaim the Oval Office and do something about it. After his assassination they understandably and permanently closed ranks. 
btw Kirk, David Talbot answers your question in that very interview. 

Joe - I question a few points you make. The first one is defining the mostly white Trump base as having racist motives. That is part of it for sure, but I don’t think most poor whites blame increasing non white populations for their economic predicament. As a motive for the white power structure, such as Republicans in Congress, sure. But if you are the average white working class guy you probably have no sense of financial security. Faced with higher medical costs, unaffordable college tuition, lack of job security, who you gonna blame? The government, and rightfully so. Whites aren’t looking at their more wealthy black neighbors and saying wtf? Loss of faith in government is real and understandable, and crosses all race and gender lines. 
Secondly! RFK Jr is very much against illegal immigration and stopping it is one of his platform positions. 
Most importantly, and unlike any other politician he is talking with Republican voters, who are far more likely to cross over and vote for him than for Joe Biden for that very reason. The bedrock of his campaign is to heal the divide. As long as we keep thinking of Republican voters as deplorable, or racist, anti semitic, stupid - choose your unkind adjective - instead of as neighbors, family, fellow citizens, we are doomed to endless wars domestic and foreign. 

Thanks BC - this is a great interview with Talbot, who wrote one of the books mr. Koch should read, the Devil's Chessboard. 

Thanks for this truthful interview, which would be well placed on Jim D’s American university speech thread, since Talbot references it mightily.

Nonsense. Has anyone here read his private communications with Krushchev? Think any other president dared to go behind the lines like this? To agree to a withdrawal of missiles from Turkey? Sure, the public persona will contain tailored speeches. But his record in Congress - do I have to quote his 1951 Indochina Speech, or his 1957 Algeria speech? 
Why the heck are you even here Kirk, or Michael? Or numerous others - you don’t understand the man whose death we honor here. You don’t understand why it’s important, why we continue to care. The man who fired Allen Dulles and others after the Bay of Pigs, where he refused to provide air cover or do anything to save the doomed invasion which he did not originate. The man who sent more US troops to ensure James Meredith’s admission to College than there were US advisors in VN at the time of his death. You say Jim, and myself, cherry-pick in order to paint a rosy picture of the man as being different than his predecessors and followers? It’s you who cherry-pick in order to disprove the obvious - that he was a peace lover trying to end the Cold War. Apparently you are all fine with the continual wars. Would you have rooted for the JCS when they proposed Northwoods, or presented a plan to totally annihilate the Soviet Union in 1963? 

8 hours ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Right.  Hank had access to a portion of the memoir that Rene had hoped would one day be published.

Hank made at least two, possibly three trips to CA to study the White diaries. I believe both Tom O'Neill and Jeff Morley have reviewed the diaries as well. White probably provided the deepest insight into Lafitte of any of Hank's sources.

Hank had access to a portion of the memoir that Rene, Jean Pierre’s wife? Hoped one day would be published. Where is the memoir now?

There is also a section in A Terrible Mistake taken from an unpublished Lafitte memoir. And Hank refers to White’s ‘datebook’ in A Terrible Mistake’.

3 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

I have a question about George Hunter White’s diary. Where is it? Can we read it? I assume Hank read it and sourced from it.

While reading about White in A Terrible Mistake I noticed a reference to a Colonel James (Hunter) Drum, who was present at a meeting with White, Sidney Gottlieb, Angleton and others discussing using LSD on unsuspecting test subjects in 1953. Drum was head of what was known, perhaps later, as the CIA’s Technical Services Division. Maybe I’m repeating something others have already posted about. I’m thinking of the notation in the datebook ‘DUUM’. 

That’s a start - thank Ed. Do you know how to access this material? It seems to me I’ve read White’s Lafitte affidavit somewhere in one of Hank’s books. Maybe Leslie can chime in 

Maybe you forgot your meds too. That doesn’t look like the Jack Ruby from Dallas does it? Btw interesting letter.

I have a question about George Hunter White’s diary. Where is it? Can we read it? I assume Hank read it and sourced from it.

7 hours ago, Leslie Sharp said:

I think Leslie feels a certain imperative because she was a close associate of Hank’s and worked like hell to get the book finished

At the risk of my response to this comment being construed as "defensive", @Paul Brancato
once again, I began my research into the Kennedy assassination from Dublin, Ireland in 1993, when a former work colleague at Hunt family-owned Rosewood Hotels advised me to read Dick Russell's The Man Who Knew Too Much.

I spent large portions of the next two dozen years researching the Military-Industrial Complex in context of the assassination in Dallas.  In 2017, Hank Albarelli phoned to ask if I would co-author Coup with him.  So, to suggest that I am "defensive" solely on behalf of Hank, is factually inaccurate. This was a joint-work effort, picking up from Hank's extraordinary insight and gumshoe detective work to land access to some of the Lafitte private collection. I lay no claim to his decades long effort, but I take responsibility and accept accountability for having already accumulated the body of research and a solid grasp of the subject that this project required, at the right time, in the right place, in order to bring this book across the line for us both, along with Alan Kent.

 But he is not staking his work or credibility on authenticity of the diaries. 

As I've shared with Monté, I respect any and all who maintain a "wait and see" attitude toward the datebook; that said, I continue to wrestle with the logic of pursueing clues left by Lafitte, yet qualifying one's position on the authenticity, while presenting findings that originated from said clues.

The other only partly resolved issue is what happened between Major Ganis and Hank Albarelli? And as Leslie pointed out, why hasn’t Ganis released his Skorzeny documents for authentication and opened them up to researchers?

You may be at a disadvantage, Paul, or maybe you've forgotten because I'm fairly sure I explained the dissolution of the Ganis/Albarelli collaboration in a private email with you? I'm under no legal constraint to share publicly my first hand knowledge of why Hank didn't publish with Major Ganis.  In one of our first phone calls, he explained his concerns that the project might be headed in a direction that not only did he not agree with but that he was seriously uncomfortable overall. Maj. Ganis was approaching interpretation of their research through the lens that (paraphrasing here) Skorzeny was a friend of the West, and of democracy, and that in fact he was doing America a favor.   The issue culminated when the term "former" Nazi continued to surface in conversations, and ultimately Hank realized that Ganis wanted Skorzeny to be depicted as somewhat a hero. Hank's final words on the highly contentious issue: "Otto Skorzeny wasn't a "former" Nazi."


and focus on Robert’s attempts to corroborate the explosive info that the diaries led him to uncover?

To be clear, Monté doesn't represent Coup in Dallas; his attempts to corroborate some entries in the datebook have been amazing and it goes without saying how much I value his friendship, intelligence, his rugged independence, his courage, and his near savant skill sets: but, as he and I have discussed ad nauseam, they are pursued through a lens, as is natural for any of us.  Any conclusions he draws are based on his subjective interpretations of the datebook entries, and may or may not reflect Hank's investigation accurately or the material presented in  Coup or the forthcoming softcover edition.
 

I always find this kind of picking one sentence or another to respond to without taking account of the entirety of what I said less than satisfactory. You didn’t respond to large portions, the most important of which is my encouragement to take a more collaborative approach.
I presume you don’t know why Ganis hasn’t shared his Skorzeny papers with the research community. 
You are not listed as a co-author of Coup in Dallas. The first time you said that you considered yourself one was in response to a previous post of mine which, like this one, was written to express some empathy with you, to try to explain why you may be defensive or feel attacked. 
Your initial response to Greg D, shortly after publication and on the first Forum thread you initiated, was that he had an ulterior motive for asking a perfectly legitimate question, which you can see is on the minds of most everyone. That is not collaborative, and the response down the road has not been a good one for you. I stand by what I said then, and now, and wish you would backpedal a bit. I’m not your enemy as you well know, and my primary motive is to help you, not criticize.
My last question - the WHY of Lafitte writing a diary or datebook - is perhaps too difficult to answer prior to authentication, but it is an important one. 
What is the current status of authentication efforts? 

4 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

4 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:

Who is Simpson?

Simpson was a very creative and important entrepreneur who worked with the Rockefellers a lot, and used them to make Schroders into a major house.  He and Dulles were the best of buds. Dulles owed his career really to the Rockefellers.

And no I do not agree that we are somehow in the international fascist milieu with Schroder and Permindex.

As Mr. Metta has pointed out, Permindex had a lot of Israeli influence as well as the CIA.  And Bloomfield was soliciting the richest people in the world, including the Rockefellers for money.

Yes, Loftus did have some documents.  He also used a lot of nameless third person sources. Those kinds of sources can always corroborate.

 

Jim - how on earth can you quote Metta’s book and deny the international fascist nature of Permindex? I’m 100 pages in and Metta’s research completely proves my point. If you are saying that because Permindex also had Jews in their structure that negates fascist and yes, Nazi ties to Permindex? Please explain!

Didn’t Metta also prove, with documents, that Hans Globke funded Israel’s nuclear program - Dimona? 

11 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:

Lisa Pease chimes in:

The dinner with Simpson on Saturday is very interesting since he connects to Rockefeller, Schroder and through that to Clay Shaw and Permindex.

Recall, Dulles' connection to Schroder as general counsel and how they funded Permindex.

Was Dulles meeting on Saturday to check in with the level above the CIA on the progress of the plot?

Who is Simpson? 
Linda - once we link Schroeder and Dulles to Permindex we are squarely in the international fascist milieu. Ultimately when I talk about post war Nazi inclusion into US Intelligence I’m thinking that borders lose meaning. Permindex represents that totally. 
Jim - Loftus had both official document sources and whitelblowing sources who he could not name. They corroborate each other. You have Kim Philby’s father in bed with the Saudis. Sounds like we inherited that. Then there is Kim Philby who bamboozled Angleton for a decade. But did he? What about the idea that the Soviets had as many Nazis working for them as we did. Not only was the Soviet Union blown up (where are we now though?) but US empire is self destructing too. Who benefits? Stateless billionaires. Maybe a bit simplistic but Angleton, fascist that he (and Hugh, his father) was, and Kim Philby with his fathers connections, meeting regularly for a decade. Robert Montenegro has indicated that he can trace the funding for Israel’s nuclear program to Nazis. Thinking out loud. 
Steve - good post. Same milieu ultimately. Revenge as motive, Dulles, Harvey, Lemnitzer, European fascists, Gehlen Org. 

Jim - have you read John Loftus book The Secret War Against the Jews? Much of the book is about Kim Philby’s  father! It’s astounding. Do you consider Loftus an important researcher? I bring this up here of course because Allen Dulles, and McCloy too, had extensive history with Nazis and their connections to American Corporate and Banking interests. I’m going to read your article - reread is probably more accurate. Do you think any study of the Dulles brothers can ignore their connections to Industrial pre and post war Germany? 
After reading, I see that it is a short article explaining that lost Dulles files have been relocated. Have you looked into any other important figures whose personal notes have gone missing? 

I’m going to jump in here. I did make my own position clear by defending Greg’s questions as important and well meaning. I value Mr. Joseph’s contributions to the JFK research community greatly, but find it hard to see why he is arguing so vociferously against the posters who are harping on the issue of authentication. I’m a bit more inside than most of you in that I communicated with Hank several times on his research, not on the Lafitte diaries, before his untimely passing. I think Leslie feels a certain imperative because she was a close associate of Hank’s and worked like hell to get the book finished. I’ve asked her publicly not to take umbrage at Greg and others for their questions. She feels, rightly or wrongly, attacked. I too wish, and have stated, that I’d like to see her take a more collaborative approach. I know she has tried to get the diaries authenticated. She is apparently keeping some cards close to her vest because of legal issues. She has a lot at stake. For the sake of all, let’s try giving her a pass while we ask her to be less dogmatic. 
Robert Montenegro has stated publicly that he used the datebook entries as clues to research, and he has certainly started many deeply intriguing threads. We should not look at his work as an attempt to corroborate authenticity. He stated in that regard that he finds it hard to understand why a fake would yield such pertinent results. But he is not staking his work or credibility on authenticity of the diaries. 
One important issue I am concerned about is the accuracy of Hank Albarelli’s research into Jean Pierre Lafitte and George Hunter White. I wish all of us would separate this from the authenticity issue. I’d like Leslie to help here by addressing the issue of Hank’s source material. One cannot read the fascinating chapters on these two without wanting to know where Hank sourced the material. He often quotes, without quotation marks, things that Lafitte said. There is in my opinion a need to know this, because Lafitte is someone we need to know about. Again, without asking whether he was the organizer of the Assassination per the Datebook, who was he? Did Clay Shaw hire him as a chef? Did he and independent journalist James Phelan break into Garrison’s files and steal documents? I believe the source here is Phelan himself. 
The other only partly resolved issue is what happened between Major Ganis and Hank Albarelli? And as Leslie pointed out, why hasn’t Ganis released his Skorzeny documents for authentication and opened them up to researchers? But I will point out here that whatever the case is on this author’s split up, Robert has found much on Skorzeny, and we should want to get to the bottom of the research into genuine Nazi collusion with CIA operations. It’s very extensive, provable. What is the connection between JMWAVE officers and Reinhardt Gehlen? Here I would ask people like Greg, and Tom, who are clearly thoughtful researchers, as well as Jim D, Bill Simpich and others, to take a moment or two, forget the diaries for a while, and focus on Robert’s attempts to corroborate the explosive info that the diaries led him to uncover? In all this discussion I have heard very little from researchers on the Nazi links, despite some very convincing documentation. Is it too much to ask that you weigh in on this? 
My last question is why? If the diaries are really written by Lafitte in whole or even in part, why? I realize that without authentication it’s difficult to try to answer this. But it intrigues me. 
 

Can we all agree that the national security state first got rid of our leaders in the 60’s, decimated people’s power movements, and then when Congress investigated got rid of them too? It’s the only way to see clearly what has transpired since, and where we are today. We rarely see any news about CIA activities. 

Do you recall the name or any detail of the Madrid based researchers? 

23 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

A number of Presidents haven't been so pacific.

Reagan invaded Grenada after the Beirut barracks bombing.

GHWB invaded Panama, then launched the Persian Gulf War, after giving Saddam Hussein mixed signals about annexing Kuwait.

Dubya Bush launched the carpet bombing of Afghanistan after 9/11, then invaded Iraq.

I think the issue here with Biden is, why isn't he talking to Putin and endeavoring to end the violence in Ukraine?

On the contrary, Biden continues to taunt Putin, while escalating support for the faltering reconquista.

IMO, Biden and Zelensky should be trying to negotiate an end to the bloody war-- letting Putin have Crimea and a Donbas corridor.

William - is that a turn around position for you? In any case I agree, and have been repeating here and elsewhere usually to the chagrin of whomever I’m talking to. Do you agree that a deal was in reach early, when the former Israeli PM stepped in to negotiate? 

3 minutes ago, Leslie Sharp said:

Thanks, David.

 

We've been curious why a fairly sizable portion of the collection was withdrawn from auction a few years ago.  Have you come across that? I believe the price tag was close to $10,000.

Is it the group in Madrid who did the video about Skorzeny recently that has some of that collection?

I’m actually rooting for that too, though we’re he by some miracle win the Dem nomination he would crush Trump. Because Democrats screaming about him now would vote for him anyway, as would many Republicans.

The American public is in the dark and in nearly complete denial of these cold hard facts. If I bring any of this up in conversation with friends I am met with blank stares and immediately shut down. This is especially true of my many Jewish friends, who would not even watch Ken Burns America and the Holocaust, much less look at todays world through the lens this accurate history. 

That quote struck me too