Paul Brancato

Kirk - I’m referring to his response. Lets assume it’s really JFK and there’s been no editorial funny business. He doesn’t actually say what you imply is the ‘essence’ of his response, and as you point out this would have been a few months prior to the assassination. It’s simply going too far to take it as a green light to killing Diem and his family. Can’t you see this is taken out of context, both in the phone call - where’s the rest of it? - and in what surely ensued thereafter.

The link is to a snippet of the call, transcribed accurately in print. It is taken out of context, and it’s a stretch to say it shows JFK green lighting an assassination.

I assume you listened to the Lodge call. It sounds to me like Lodge talking the whole time, but the second part is ascribed to JFK. Is it though? His accent is usually unmistakable. Will everyone following this thread please listen to this?

Hadn’t seen this before. I took part in earlier discussions on that here for sure. The Rankin memo seems to be saying that the German editor added the part about RFK, but it may also have come from Walker. I’ve never seen anything from or about Walker prior to Nov 22 indicating that he knew who Oswald was, or that Oswald had shot at him. But it’s certainly true that for the rest of his life he claimed the above story as his own - that Oswald had tried to kill him, had been arrested, and released on orders from RFK. I’ve long suspected that the German editor and Walker together made the story up. The Oswald note in bad Russian, forged or not, found in a book by Ruth Paine, supports the ‘Oswald shot at Walker’ story. It occurs to me that one needn’t have had the cooperation of Ruth or Marina to uncover the note, because it might have been planted for Ruth to find. Am I correct - Marina verified it as Oswald’s note to her, written on the night of the attempt on Walker? Well, Marina wasn’t a reliable witness at the time. I wonder if anyone thought to ask her about this note decades later when she went public with her latter day opinion that Oswald was innocent. I could perhaps imagine Oswald trying to kill Walker, but not both Walker and JFK. But personally I don’t believe any of it, and think the story was cleverly planted - the note, the German newspaper article, the Hunter of fascist photos - and buttressed by people like DeMohrenschildt and Volkmar Schmidt, who claimed he put the idea to shoot Walker in Oswald’s head. It’s all part of the posthumous efforts to incriminate Oswald in support of the WC findings.

I looked into his a while back. Remind me - is it absolutely clear that Walker called the Fascist newspaper, not the other way around?

Like Ron I suspect Lodge. But I’m certain that Cliff has studied Diem more than I. Does he think Jfk was killed as payback for Diem’s murder? I recall him suggesting that assassins from that Asian milieu, CIA or military covert operatives, were part of the hit team in Dealey Plaza. I don’t live far from SF if that’s where you both reside. Maybe we should talk over a glass or cup sometime.

I don’t think one needs to be a Kennedy fan boy in order to observe and analyze the posthumous assassination of the Kennedy brothers. Jim D isn’t the only one who writes about JFK’s foreign policies, but you will never see anything serious about that important perspective in mainstream media, and Jim does an excellent job explaining it with cogent references. What does being a fan boy have to do with that? It’s easy to see why BOP veterans and their supporters were angry. it’s like the blind men and the elephant parable. We each have our own unique perspectives, and it can be difficult to step back and use a wider lens. I ask - what would have happened if JFK did what these Cubans wished for? I never heard that question put forward. The main reason I object to the MM coverage and that of JFK’s private life in general is that there is no counterbalance, no wider lens. Should we write him off because he screwed around? Did they even have non disclosure agreements back then? Is there a scandal, other than the clearly ridiculous one insinuating that the Kennedy brothers had MM murdered? Will the Media writ large have the intellectual honesty to look not at the glamour, but at the substance of JFK’s Presidency? So far there’s little evidence of that. Sensationalism and parochialism rule the debate.

Off subject but can’t resist - Bill Maher pointed out last week that oddly no one knows anything about Trump’s sex life. Surely he has one.

I didn’t know that - thanks - but selling weapons to the Saudis is American policy is it not? It’s been going on for decades.

I downloaded the books and started reading volume 1. That prompted me to do a search on Whitney Webb, and on her previous work. I’m not sure what to think, and I would like to see us here engage with this. If I’m understanding this correctly she thinks that Covid-19 was developed in a US lab in Fort Dietrich - read military - and that there is a hidden agenda at work.

That makes a lot of sense. Shaw and Ferrie were involved with setting up Oswald but it looks like they didn’t have the full picture and were caught unawares. As Mort Sahl said to me backstage after one of his last talks in Mill Valley before he passed away, Garrison was a true American hero. He had the courage to pursue the truth in the face of monumental obstruction.

Glad you mentioned this. Trump did seem to buck this trend in American foreign policy, but got no credit for it.

I believe that is correct. Why are Harvey’s travel records blocked? I know you have a high bar on evidence, and respect that. Would you go a step further and speculate?

I haven’t read any Litwin. referring to Ferrie, if he had been involved in the assassination in some way it makes no sense that he would wait until after the deed was done to start worrying about paper or picture trails leading from himself to LHO. If he had any brains he would have taken care to cover his tracks beforehand.

Available on kindle too.

The Republicans will probably nominate him in the next presidential election. It will be interesting to see whether Trump bows out early or continues his own quest. I think DeSantis has a better chance to win.

Certainly true.

The book is called Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon. I saw the Fugs in NYC mid 1960’s - didn’t exactly know what was up but liked them.

As a spokesperson for the American ‘left’ he’s been a disaster. Even his supercilious tone is damaging - yawn.

Love that

I wonder if Karen Westbrook is related to Captain Westbrook, a rather suspicious Dallas Police Detective

I have a question. Why do you think all the sheep dipping of Oswald was related to planning an assassination? Painting him as pro Castro leftist had other intelligence uses.

Is it true that the ‘left’ doesn’t want to try affirmative action based on income levels? What does the ‘right’ think about this?

That’s interesting. Matt - is it your view that Oswald randomly got that job and then the plotters decided to make him the patsy? Are there posters on this thread that think Oswald was lone assassin? Or part of a shooting team? Pat thinks (?) the kill shot came from the rear. Did Oswald fire that shot?

They do indeed seem evasive, and I suppose there could be sinister reasons, or others. Her brother worked there, and lived with her. She doesn’t answer the question about mentioning TSBD, but it seems likely that she did. Is there evidence that her brother and Shelley were acquainted? I would need to comb through his testimony, but thought someone might know. It makes sense to put the patsy in place, and any that were part of doing so wouldn’t need to know why. I noticed that Matt didn’t respond to my request for clarification. He is one of many rude posters that have joined in here. What motivates them? Does anyone else wonder? Is it just a reflection of the breakdown of civil discourse in the US?