Paul Brancato

Oswald went to Mexico, but was it Oswald or the 'mystery man' that met with Kostikov?

I read through Mr. Newman's presentation, and if I understand his views correctly he is saying that whoever dreamed up the Kostikov/Oswald connection (virus) knew that it would provide cover for the actual conspirators because it would cause the massive cover-up that ensued. Isn't it also possible that the plan was cooked up by extreme anti-communists willing to gamble on the possibility of nuclear war? You know, guys like general Buck Turgidson or Jack D. Ripper? If the Kostikov story was a deliberate plant it had to at least have been conceived by someone who knew who he was. I doubt that LHO knew, because assuming he wrote the intercepted letter to the Soviets he got his name wrong. I doubt that the Soviets or Castro would have taken a gamble on a virus that implicated themselves - too dangerous - and don't think the mafia were that sophisticated. That pretty much leaves renegade US military and intelligence, retired military commie haters like general Walker, and of course LBJ himself. The advantage of the LBJ theory in this case is that he was in the best position to make sure that the virus worked as intended. But as I am sure, and history shows, that LBJ would never have sanctioned a nuclear strike on the Soviets, he would have had to be very sure of his ability once he became president to control the investigation.

To get back to Oswald in Mexico, if he wasn't trying to get a visa and wasn't meeting with Kostilov, what was he doing? I've read some of the confusing and sketchy info on this and can't make much sense of it. But I don't buy the idea that he was trying to get to Cuba.

If Walker was behind the JFK assassination, why did Ruby kill Oswald?

I enjoyed Mary's Mosaic and think Mary Pinchot's story is interesting. I think that Tom made some good points.

Question for Tom: Is it your opinion that the info you dug up is sufficient to discredit Janney's book? Do you have any other findings about mr. Mitchell that disprove the other allegations about him, such as documentation of his Georgetown U. Post, or that he stayed at a CIA-connected hotel? Are you sure that the William Mitchell who graduated Harvard in 1963 is the same one that testified in the Pinchot murder trial? Is Bill Mitchell of California the same man that testified?

I would also ask the same questions of Fetzer and Janney, if he is tuning in.

I have never seen anything to suggest Ruby knew Walker. I posed the question because I wondered what your take was on Ruby's motives in killing Oswald. I have always assumed he acted on orders from someone, but who? If Walker was behind the JFK hit and Ruby knew it, why would he kill Oswald? Did Ruby have any reason to protect Walker? Or did he kill Oswald because Oswald could have implicated Ruby in the assassination? It was Ruby's act that forever caused me to doubt Oswald's guilt.

If one follows your theory, Walker knew right after the attempt on his life that Oswald was the shooter and was protected and possibly even hired by RFK. Of course there is no concrete evidence of RFK's protection of Oswald, but Walker's belief in this regard is proven. Oswald's sojourn in New Orleans shortly after this event makes me wonder if Oswald was investigating something. Perhaps Oswald's street theater there was a misdirection of his own making to disguise his true motive, an investigation of the minutemen. I know this is stretching. Surely there is much evidence that he was up to something with the Cuban exile community there. But Miami would have been a better choice for this. Most investigators think Oswald was being played by someone, creating bonafides for his pro-castro stance. Even if that is true, it leaves me wondering who Oswald thought he was playing. Perhaps Banister, a minuteman and racist. Whatever Oswald was and whatever he believed, whatever kind of double or triple agent game he was playing, he certainly wasn't a racist.

I would also add that it is suspicious that this general theory should be under-investigated compared to others.

Paul - you have managed to keep this important theory alive on this board more than anyone else. There are of course many theories and many haters, people with motive and means. But no one could have hated the Kennedys more than Walker, and I do indeed remember that even in nyc the first suspects were Walker and the racist rightists around him. I have grown increasingly less willing to implicate the CIA eastern establishment types because Kennedy was one of them. It certainly seems odd that a collection of operational CIA types working with anti-Castro Cubans and mafiosi could be such failures when it came to assassinating Castro, but succeed in masterminding the killing of a US president. It seems to me not coincidental that the plotters chose Dallas.

If the assassination was the work of the racist Birchers and their military and ex-military cohorts it fits in with the history of the US from its inception. The perpetrators thought they were heroes in the best southern tradition. To them they lost the Civil War to the same eastern establishment internationalists that later became the Communist menace. They intersect with all the other possible parties to conspiracy, most especially the military industrial complex and the Texas oilmen. You rightly point out that covering up a conspiracy of southern racists was just as imperative as it would have been to not blame foreign communists. It might have led to another round of civil war. And we still face the same deep divisions today.

Paul - is there any evidence that Ruby and Walker knew each other?

Yes - who looked something like him. When I looked at some pics of Hendrix I thought he resembled Phillips, and fit the description by Veciana. But it was later when I reread the account of Seth Kantor, who while at Parkland hospital a few hours after JFK's death received a phone call (no cell phones, so how did that happen?) from Hendrix in Miami who was already peddling the Oswald did it story and had Oswald's official background at his fingertips, that I started looking at Hendrix. Apparently there is some evidence that he had already been working with or for the CIA for several years by that time, and flash forward a few years and he is officially working with Phillips in South America. They were already aqcuainted with each other in 1963. Of course there may be nothing here, but if anyone had more biographical info on Hendrix I'd sure like to read it.

In response to an earlier post by Christopher Hall, I would respectfully disagree that turning on a president or other powerful DC insiders to LSD indicated a flawed character. Even before I read the two books on Mary Pinchot I thought that someone had turned JFK on to a different view of the world than the one he grew up with. I used to think it was Ms Monroe, a liberal and a politically aware individual. But Mary Pinchot is a more likely choice. Her background shows her to be a free thinker and an intellectual and an idealist. Others have suspected Leary's 1983 bio of embellishing the truth, or even making something up for publicity purposes. For me it has the ring of truth. As for LSD's transformative power given the right set and setting, I have no doubts.

It was nice to get responses from a few researchers on this subject. Whether or not Hal Hendrix used the ' bishop' code name or not, and regardless of the role of David Phillips in the JFK plot, I have never been quite convinced about Veciana being directly run by Phillips himself.

John - this is a really well thought out post. Exceptions pointed out by DiEugenio may be true, but whatever the reason for it, the left media has been a very poor advocate for real investigation into the JFK assassination. This applies also to the other 'deep' events like Iran-contra and 9/11. You mention the willingness of Europeans and others to see this as a political assassination. Would you say that the European and British press do a better job of investigating their own scandals? Presuming the answer is yes, are Europeans and Brits any more able to bring the guilty conspirators to justice?

Excuse my poor english. Is there any evidence that Veciana knew Hendrix? Was Hendrix too much of a public figure to also be a cutout for Phillips?

Call me crazy. Has anyone thought to investigate the possibility that Bishop wasn't Phillips but someone who was working for him and looked a bit like him too? I am thinking of Hal Hendrix. Hal certainly knew Phillips and worked for him. He also knew an awful lot about Oswald right away as his phone conversation with fellow journalist Seth Kantor.

I was of course referring to Bob Graham of Florida.

Its not at all surprising to hear that Goldwater thought LBJ was behind the JFK assassination, and its possibly a consensus on this board as well. I certainly came to that conclusion when I wrote the Coup d'Etat trading cards, though I did not come right out and say it.

I watched the first two episodes today, mostly dealing with WW2. There was a lot of coverage of the 1944 Democratic convention in which Truman was chosen over Wallace as FDR's running mate. He makes the point that this was a crucial turning point in world history, and that it has pretty much been written out of our textbooks. There will surely be some who think Stone paints a more sympathetic picture of Stalin than he deserves. Episode 3 deals with the atom bomb, and clearly Stone is headed for a detailed explanation of how the cold war and the permanent wartime economy came about. The show is a breath of fresh air, a dose of reality in a world obscured by the fog of the military industrial congressional complex.

Have any journalists interviewed Senator Graham and asked him about Philip, or whether he was ever CIA? Did he also get invited to LBJ's ranch? His recent interest in re-opening the 9/11 investigation, coming as it does from someone in a position to know, makes me wonder what secrets he might want to tell. I don't mean this suggestion to be flip in any way.

The Guardian article was my introduction to Mark Lane, and when he started speaking publicly in NYC I went to a few of those events. I recall attending a debate between Lane and Belli sometime in 1964 at the Manhattan Center. I could not find a reference to that debate on google but I know it happened. Perhaps it was after the debate at Masonic auditorium in SF, because Belli walked out of the NYC event saying something like 'if you can't trust the FBI who can you trust'?.

You two are indefatigable.

Senator Bob Graham is the brother of Philip Graham. Anyone know something different? He was meeting with Porter Goss and Lt. general Mahmoud Ahmed on the morning of 9/11. When Graham asks for a reopening of the 9/11 investigation I think the government, if it cares at all, should listen. I couldn't believe it when I read on some post in this forum that Goss was part of Operation 40.

Colby - you are very skeptical of conspiracy claims, which is good to an extent. But you are driving Mr. Gaal out of his mind. Almost any claim of conspiracy can be contested on the basis that there could be other explanations for individual actions than the conspiratorial ones. But just because things are not proven beyond any doubt does not mean that they are untrue. I think most of us try to use our own common sense when we try to sift truth from lies and fact from fiction. But I do get annoyed when theorists start postulating ridiculous scenarios because it muddies the waters and gives a bad name to conspiracy researchers in general. Sometimes that it exactly the point, as in deliberate disinformation. I spent a lot of time on UFO stuff once upon a time, and though I certainly think there are many unexplained events and sightings I found the field crowded with so many nut jobs that it became a real chore. 9/11 seems to draw out nut jobs too. But I am sure there is much we don't know about top secret operations and UFO's too, and the more noise the more suspicious I get. Does anyone recall the hatchet jobs on Stone's movie that began months before its release?

I do know John - it was 1951 give or take a year. You are right about Stalin. My parents repeated to me often that Stalin had to make the deal with Hitler in order to by time. Their Jewish friends were unable to convince them that Stalin was a monster. In part I blame Robeson, after whom I was named, and whom my parents and others trusted. When they left the party it was not because they had seen the light. The actual story is revealing in and of itself though, so I might as well tell it. My father was sent by the party to talk some sense into an Italian grocer in east Harlem (where we lived) who claimed he had been robbed by a black youth. When my father returned from that mission he reported that the grocer was telling the truth. Sticking up for racial equality was important for my parents, but lying was not an option. The local party leaders came to our apartment and asked my mother to stay in the party while asking my dad to leave. This event is etched in my memory even though I had no idea what was happening. I was probably 3 years old. Needless to say they both left the party after that, but clouded by their idealism they continued to believe in the Soviet Union for years. Our best friend at that time, and the godfather of my younger brother, turned out to be an FBI agent. My parents, harmless idealists in every way, had quite an FBI file as it turned out. When I was a teenager nosily looking through my dad's desk I found a long questionaire that the FBI had sent to my dad when he applied for a civil service job. In it they referred to my mother by a name I had only heard in my house. When I confronted my dad about the letter he told me the story about his stool pigeon friend and the transistor radio/tape recorder he carried around.

Thanks for the link to the 9/11 myths article. I have seen it before, and have the same reaction this time as I had before. Its of course true that none of the allegations against Sheikh Omar and Mahmoud Ahmed are proven. However it is true that Pakistan has refused both Britain and US requests, multiple, for extradition. If one looks deeper into Sheikh Omar one finds that Pakistan, presumably elements of the ISI or military, hijacked an Air India jet in 1999 ( I think) in order to get Sheikh and two other prisoners held by India for terrorist acts in Kashmir released by India. It is also true to the best of my knowledge that Sheikh travelled twice to England between that release and 9/11 with no passport troubles, even though he had kidnapped a British citizen in Kashmir and was wanted by England on those charges. After 9/11 and before the Pearl kidnapping Britain asked for his extradition but was refused. Musharraf as you know calls Sheikh a double agent, or possibly a British agent, in his recent book. I don't put much faith in this assessment, but mention it because I find it interesting that Musharraf should mention him. Sure, Mahmoud's being relieved of his post may indicate Musharraf was trying to be cooperative with the US, but considering that it was Mahmoud who arrested Musharraf's predecessor in the coup makes me wonder if this wasn't simply a mutually agreeable decision to remove him for purely political purposes. It is interesting that Mahmoud was meeting with Porter Goss and Bob Graham, I believe respective heads of intelligence committees in Congress, when 9/11 occurred. It was only on this forum that I found out that Goss was part of the CIA's operation 40. I also wondered about Graham, who . has asked in 2011 for a new inquiry into 9/11 he says as a result of recent discoveries in Florida. He published a book after his experience on the first inquiry which was heavily redacted, and then more recently published a fictionalized account of a Florida Senator who was killed when he got too close to a Saudi conspiracy on 9/11. I may have a little of this incorrect but it is pretty close. I am almost amused to find out that Bob Graham is the brother of Philip Graham, ex-Washington Post editor who committed suicide? Months before JFK was killed.

When you ask questions like 'am I sure' of this or that about Mahmoud or Sheikh, the answer is of course not. But my alarm bells are ringing. What is the latest info on Musharraf? Still in 'exile' in Britain for his cover-up of the ISI-enabled assassination of Bhutto? When he held his famous post 9/11 press conference to the world's media in front of the world's cameras I thought it was kind of like hiding in plain sight. He certainly knows more than he has said about all this, and he is a most clever fellow for sure, for years the friendly face of Pakistani cooperation with the US but perhaps also the friendly front for the terrorists in ISI and the Taliban. I for one don't trust anything he says.

Sorry this very informative post by Mr. Scott devolved into this kind of rant.

The false flag argument has made sense to me from the beginning. And the footprints of intelligence are all over this thing, whether its Saudis being monitored secretly in the US but not stopped from the deadly 9/11 strikes, or the connections to Omar Saeed Sheikh and his ISI superiors like Lt. general Mahmoud Ahmed. One thing that fits into this theory is the incredible control over information gathered from the captured and tortured Al Qaida soldiers. Funny that Alec Station operatives Blee and Cambone were involved with early interrogations in Afghanistan. Khalid Sheikh Muhammed sits in his Guantanamo cell having confessed to nearly every terrorist act of the last 15 years as a result of waterboarding. The Pakistan government turned him over rather easily, as well as some 300 other Al Qaida and Taliban fighters, but refused to give us or Britain even access, much less deportation, of Omar Saeed Sheikh, who awaits his appeal on the Daniel Pearl case. I know there are other good reasons for keeping interrogation results secret. But not making any diplomatic noise when Pakistan refuses to extradite Omar Saeed Sheikh?

I would really like to know what the readers here think about this case. If this post turns out to be inconveniently placed I'll try to start a new thread.

I know this isn't germaine to the questions raised here. When I was 4 years old my parents took me to Madison Square Garden where a few thousand people had gathered in protest of the execution of the Rosenbergs. I remember it mostly because there were so many people, and all much taller than me. By that time my parents had left the communist party, having been forced out by party officials. But they were still staunch communists.

Paul Brancato is a violin teacher and a member of the San Francisco Symphony. He has authored several sets of trading cards, including Iran-Contra Scandal, Bush League, and Coup D'Etat - the Assassination of John F. Kennedy.