Paul Brancato

Tommy - interesting idea.

And every person you just mentioned was CIA, whether contract, agent, whatever - all CIA connected. But CIA is not a monolith, nor disconnected from the military or the government. Plenty of far right folks on board in all areas of Government, elected and appointed. No impenetrable line between current and former in any branch. It's too pat Paul, too neat.

Paul - you continue to overstate Simpich's opinions. Even he left open the door to Phillips knowing what was up and being involved. And even he left open the possibility that Oswald never made it to MC. Other fine researchers with longer track records than Simpich see things differently. You also keep lumping theories into 'CIA did it', when you're the only person that calls those of us that disagree with you 'CIA did it theorists'. Simpich simply said that after Oswald was impersonated the CIA appears not to know who did it, and falsified records (Goodpasture) to smoke out the perpetrator. He knows there are other possible explanations, and you should also, the most obvious being CYA. Newman, an incredible and still very active researcher, thinks it was Angleton that ordered the falsifications, and not because he was confused, but because he was running a sophisticated deniable operation, piggybacking on an already existing one, most likely the anti FPCC effort that Oswald was clearly part of.

Doug - who is Bill Palmer? I tried googling but info is sketchy.

George - I like your logic. I've been asking a lot of questions about Lemnitzer lately. You would think Trejo would be more curious why and when Lemnitzer praised Walker, in a letter, for his Augsburg JBS indoctrinations. I'm researching this now. This also ties into Steve Thomas wondering about all the Colonels. Turns out they are all ex-army. And Lemnitzer and Walker were Army. Jack Crichton was Army, and his 488th was Army, reporting directly to the head of Army Intelligence. These people ran the COG underground communications bunker, were all over the DPD and the motorcade. The notion that somehow Walker and the guys around him like HL Hunt and Hargis were more right wing than Lemnitzer and LeMay (who ran with Wallace in 1968), or for that matter Hoover and Dulles, strikes me as an attempt to limit the damage. Yeah, it was the extreme right that killed JFK. Didn't we know that right away, once we saw through the Oswald charade? And btw, there is no gulf between the top echelons of CIA and the top military brass. And, JFK himself was worried enough about his generals that he made a point of getting 7 Days in May turned into a movie and filmed at the WH.

Steve - really interesting questions. Perhaps the answer lies in Hoover's instructions. Hosty may have been told not to attend the later interrogations when Hoover and LBJ and others decided to stick to the story that Oswald was a lone nut. Oswald's relationship with FBI has never been fully explained. The Hosty note was destroyed, so we really don't know what was in it. Hosty was supposedly officially monitoring the right wing in Dallas, and also was a bridge partner with Robert Surrey, who lived with Walker and was a Nazi. You must be right when you assert that Hosty should have had no trouble knowing how to find Oswald.

Paul - I think it might be useful to know when Lemnitzer wrote the letter. What got me started looking at this was the sheer number of retired Army Colonels active in Dallas in the DPD and reserve military. I don't think I would make too much out of other Generals keeping their distance from Walker publicly.

Paul - according to the Spartacus entry on Lemnitzer, David Talbot, in Brothers, writes that Lemnitzer wrote to Walker saying his efforts in Germany were 'interesting and useful'.

Paul - I never said that Ike was involved in a secret plan with Walker. Neither did you. But you implied, in your original post 4 years ago, that there was a secret plan, and that Walker's acceptance of the posting to Augsburg was contingent on this secret plan. Now you say the secret plan was with the JBS. There is something in your logic that doesn't add up. To whom would Walker have been saying he would only accept the post if he could indoctrinate his troops with JBS literature?

If the motive of the plotters was only to blame Castro and mount a military action to remove him, it would only have been necessary to connect the would be assassin(s) to Castro. Killing JFK would not be necessary to further that cause. Therefore killing him was the plan. And Castro remained in place for 50 years. Midhael - I think the place to look for the Seven Days in May scenario is the 488th military reserve unit, full of ex-military that were members of the DPD. They controlled the Continuity of Government underground bunker, which offered secure communications between the military and the motorcade. COG was in place specifically for emergency operations in case of nuclear war and presumably also for civilian unrest.

Tommy and Michael - I've read all three. But I am also pretty sure I read a post on a thread here where Simpich used the word 'agnostic' to describe his position on whether the real LHO was ever in MC. I'm inclined to believe that the reason we don't have any voice or visual of him in MC indicates that he was never there.

Thanks Michael. Paul - I also asked if you were aware of the Lemnitzer letter. What I am curious about is Walker's connections to other Generals both during his tenure and after his resignation. Surely, with all the effort you have put into studying Walker and putting forth the theory that he was an integral part of the assassination conspiracy, you've looked into this. I've never read anything indicating you have. I think you are the only person here who has examined any of his private papers. You've read and absorbed at least two books covering the subject. I tried to read the recent one, but was unable to get through it past about 50 pages. I'll get my copy out and peruse the index. But - don't you think looking at his professional relationships within the military is important?

I'm agnostic on the question of how often. I'm sure Marina would not want to go into detail about whatever it was.

So it was part of what Scott calls phase two? They had real photos but when someone decided to go to the phase two lone nut story the real photos were hidden? That doesn't explain Goodpasture's actions does it? Wasn't her insertion of the false photo done in October? Sorry for the intellectual laziness. I've got some serious stuff on my personal plate right now.

So if Cravens is the source for your statement that Walker was promoted to Augsburg on the secret condition that he indoctrinate his troops with JBS propaganda, could you get your copy out and fill that in a bit? Who asked him secretly to do that? Are you aware that Lemnitzer wrote to Walker praising his propaganda efforts?

I must be losing it. Could someone remind me of a reasonable explanation for not showing the photos of LHO if they had them?

Good points Tommy. The difficulty lies in discerning truth without accepting everything.

It seems obvious to me that this interview with Oprah is likely to be honest. Note she professes his innocence, yet still criticizes his bad behavior towards her. Are there any readers who think this is still worth arguing about? Abuse takes many forms. How about we just settle on the fact that he was abusive?

I'm curious Jim. Do you think the CIA had real photos of LHO entering the embassies but chose not to reveal them, or didn't have any because LHO was never there? Note - I'm leaving out the CIA explanation about malfunctioning cameras. Btw, Simpich was asked directly whether he thought LHO was ever in MC, and he said he was agnostic on that issue. At least that's the way I remember it. Anyone remember or is able to prove otherwise? Jim - you are right that the whole issue of mole hunt - using falsified Oswald 'marked card' files - comes from Peter Dale Scott. I've thought for years that Trejo misused the term molehunt to describe Simpich's position, but if he knows different, parhaps he can show otherwise. I've read the Lopez report, though only once. However, I seem to recall Lopez and Hardaway not taking a position on whether LHO was there or not. If CIA had real pics, why insert false ones unless they didn't have real ones?

Paul - Did you answer my first question? I don't see it. Who is Chris Cravens?

Huh? By the way, are you aware that Lyman Lemnitzer wrote to Walker praising his pro-blue program?

I think you're right, it was Goodpasture.

I never heard of that book, but I will try to get a copy. Thanks for mentioning it. Whenever I go into a rant about the assassinations that changed our recent history I always include John Lennon. I always ask myself, especially now - what would John say? The absence of his voice still hurts.

Absolutely none

George - I'd like to read your source or sources for your alternate view on Oswald/MC, Northwoods, Laredo, etc.