I don't know where this will go, but I was reading the other day that Afghanistan is sitting on what might be a trillion dollars worth of rare earth minerals, including lithium. The article said that Afghanistan has the world's second largest deposit of lithium after Brazil.

I wonder where that is going to leave us in the next decade or two.

Steve Thomas

1 hour ago, Larry Hancock said:

I will say though that in the early 60's the JCS consistently positioned China as the driving threat in SE Asia,...

Larry,

I was very surprised one day when I was reading a speech by one of the Generals involved in the Algerian Putsch, (I think it was Challe), when he said that the biggest threat in Algeria was the Chinese Communists.

Steve Thomas

3 minutes ago, Paul Brancato said:

What is clearly missing is whether or not Trump and his political cronies have been vaccinated. 

Paul,

That's the thing. The article points out that they all have been. It's the ultimate in political manipulation and crass hypocrisy.

Steve Thomas

12 minutes ago, Larry Hancock said:

And Biden had the nerve to cut the cord, just as JFK was beginning to.   Note the similarity between his remark (which is drawing so much hate) about the Afghans having to do it for themselves and JFK's almost identical remark about Vietnam in the fall of 63. 

Larry,

That's why I don't think JFK's move to pull out of Vietnam was the raison d'etre for his assassination.

Nobody seems to aiming for Joe Biden.

Or, has the military/industrial complex milked everything that they think that they can get out of Afghanistan, so it's ok to leave?

Or was the threat of world-wide communist domination a bigger threat than world-wide domination by Islamisists?

Steve Thomas

This is a very good article:

Why anti-vaxx attitudes fit so perfectly with far-right ideology across the globe

by Magdi Semrau, Alternet

August 21, 2021

https://www.rawstory.com/why-anti-vaxx-attitudes-fit-so-perfectly-with-far-right-ideology-across-the-globe/

“Populist movements characteristically embody the pathos of the masses in opposition to an imagined "elite." The "masses" are, typically, not representative of the public at large, but rather ethnically and culturally homogeneous. Populists are bound together by strong cultural identity and moral superiority and perceive their values as under perceived threat. The populist's opponents—including politicians, academics, scientists, ethnic and religious minorities—are not only corrupt, but actually evil. They are, quite literally, enemies of the people.”

“Notice also how, in the United States, Donald Trump and the Republican Party have been actively weaving the threads of populism throughout their own response to the pandemic, from anti-lockdowns, to anti-masking, to anti-vaccines. And they haven't stopped at merely casting doubt on science and inspiring rage towards public health. Trump has declared that those who doubt the vaccine do so because they believe the 2020 election was illegitimate, thus explicitly tying anti-science to political loyalty, as well as to distrust in government, and, indeed, in distrust of democracy itself.

Tellingly, this distrust in science extends beyond sowing doubt about vaccines. For example, when Trump was contradicted by scientists about the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine, he dug deeper in his advocacy for the treatment. Now, effective anti-virals have been developed, yet far rightists continue to tout the benefits of hydroxychloroquine, some even claiming it as part of their personal treatment. Thus, as is the case with anti-vaccination, a dubious treatment has itself become a symbol of populist resistance. Hydroxychloroquine, doubted by scientists, is glorified. Vaccination, validated by scientists, is portrayed as a tool of poopoo-esque torture.”

Steve Thomas

I think the Taliban may be getting a little nervous.

There's an old adage in history; it's one thing to take a country, it's another thing to hold it.

You need bureaucrats and worker bees to make the trains run on time, and they see all these Afghans fleeing the country. Who's going to be left to collect the taxes and pay the bills?

Somber mood as Taliban are back at Friday prayers

by Agence France-Presse August 20, 2021

https://www.rawstory.com/sombre-mood-as-taliban-are-back-at-friday-prayers/

“At mosques across the capital the overarching theme appeared to be an appeal for Afghans to give the new regime a chance: instead of fleeing the country, help rebuild it, was the message.”

Steve Thomas

U.S.-made weapons seized by Taliban could lead to regional arms bazaar

By PAUL MCLEARY and LEE HUDSON 08/19/2021

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/08/19/us-weapons-seized-taliban-506313

“In brokering the surrender of entire Afghan army divisions over the past week, the Taliban took control of billions worth of American-made weapons and equipment, including small arms, Humvees, pickup trucks, aircraft and drones.

In the chaos of the moment, however, it’s unclear to U.S. officials how much equipment the Taliban has seized and how much sits unattended on bases and small combat outposts across the country. That uncertainty over the status of a massive arsenal is sparking fears of a regional arms bazaar that could be a boon to terrorist groups and insurgents.

“What we are seeing now is these weapons, which have ended up in the hands of the Taliban, will probably circulate in the region for many decades to come,” said Nils Duquet, Flemish Peace Institute interim director. “At the moment, they’re very instrumental [because] if you want to control territory, you need small arms.”

The images that have spread across the world over the past week of Taliban fighters posing in front of captured helicopters and light attack aircraft have allowed the group to further humiliate the former Afghan and American governments. But these images don’t concern longtime extremism watchers as much as the proliferation of guns, bullets and grenades.

“I have full confidence that some of this equipment is going to end up in the hands of al Qaeda and other bad actors, it's inevitable,” said Colin Clarke, director of policy and research at The Soufan Group. “This is not going to just end with the Taliban.”

Steve Thomas

Ohio Republican Senate Josh Mandel on Wednesday called for increased gun ownership as a response to the "tyranny" of mask mandates.

Mandel made the remarks during an interview on Real America's Voice.

https://www.rawstory.com/josh-mandel-second-amendment/

"We need to have constitutional carry where patriots can carry a weapon anywhere," he said. "At the end of the day, the Second Amendment is about combatting tyranny from the government. We've got tyranny coming out of the White House with Biden. But we also have tyranny coming out of governor's mansions like right here in Ohio where this squishy establishment Mike DeWine is trying to push mask mandates and vaccine passports on the people."

Mandel added: "And that's why we have to arm up."

Shades of the American Civil War.

Why isn't this man in jail?

Steve Thomas

15 hours ago, Jessica Shores said:

  The top of the registration card says, "Discharged from US Army -- had enlisted -- never registered.

• BIRLS Death File
  • Enlistment Branch 1 - ARMY
  • Enlistment Date 1 - July 18, 1950
  • Discharge Date 1 - August 5, 1950

 

 

Jessica,

Congratulations on your research. You did a lot of work.

What do you think the 1950 business is all about?

He enlists on July 18th and is discharged on August 5th?

What is that all about?

Steve Thomas

5 hours ago, Joe Bauer said:

Is Elizabeth Cole still alive?

Joe,

Back in 2006, Lee Forman wrote,

"I think if anything else is to be learned here it will not be through Elisabeth, with whom I have lost contact, and believe she may have been re-incarcerated due to the shenanigans associated with her fleecing."

https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/5746-elizabeth-cole-prior-knowledge/page/2/

Steve Thomas

2 hours ago, David Andrews said:

Somehow, I get the itchy feeling that our long-term strategy will be to go back to Afghanistan, as we did in Iraq.

Either that, or this is a Trump deal with Putin, swapping Afghanistan for influence in the Azerbaijian-Georgia route.

David,

I don't think so.

If you look at a map, Afghanistan sits astride the major highway linking the Middle East and China on the east/west axis, and the Russian Steppes and the Arabian Sea on the north/south axis.

But everybody seems to want to go around it rather than through it. It's been called the Roundabout of the Ancient World

It's also been called The Graveyard of Empires, going back to Alexander the Great and Darius The Great. Even Genghis Khan couldn't hold it.

The Azerbaijian-Georgia oil route was designed to freeze out Russia. They wanted the oil from Central Asia to go north of the Caspian Sea across Kazakhstan.

Steve Thomas

2 hours ago, David Andrews said:

Has anybody followed the progress of the trans-Afghan oil pipeline from the Caspian Sea, which the Taliban held up for so long, prompting the 2001 invasion? 

Did oil companies get any construction underway during our occupation?

Have we allowed a Taliban resurgence because they finally made a pipeline security deal with us, since UBL's been "dead"?

Are any forces staying behind to protect a pipeline deal?  NATO?  Xe (former Blackwater) or other corporate mercenaries?

Why has Afghanistan "fallen" so fast?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/14/afghanistan-taliban-us-troops?traffic_source=Connatix

David,

You might be interested in reading this article:

The Oil Connection: Afghanistan and Caspian Sea oil pipeline routes

https://web.archive.org/web/20020615125843/http://www.newhumanist.com/oil.html

Scroll down about 2/3 of the way down the page and read through the Possible Caspian Oil Routes

I think the southerly, Afghanisatan route has been abandoned in favor of the westerly route from the Caspian through Azerbaijan and Georgia to the Black Sea.

That's why Azerbaijan has been so much on the news lately. It think it also explains Ivanka Trump's interest in building a Trump hotel in Baku.

Steve Thomas

21 hours ago, Denny Zartman said:

Thanks Steve, very interesting post. Lots to consider there.

Denny,

It is alleged that the name of the Cuban student overheard by Miss Cole has the same last name as that of a Cuban picked up and released in Dallas on 11/22/63.

See here:

http://www.maryferre...2&relPageId=112

http://www.maryferre...32&relPageId=54

Manuel Rodriguez Orcarberro:

From Oswald's 201 File 104-10015-10127 p. 2

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=1

From Mexico City:

Luis Echiverria, acting Secretary of the Gobernacion personally asked COS 23 Nov for all information on FNU Rodriguez Molina. Said heard on radio Rodriguez picked up in connection with assassination and that the Mexican...

CIA’s Segregated Collection 10067-10328 p. 2

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=2

Handwritten memo from Win Scott.

“I advised L. Echeverria later that the Rodriguez Molina arrested in Dallas had nothing to do w/ Kennedy assassination. S.

Steve Thomas

We need to go back and  re-read Mao's little red book.

Steve Thomas

On 5/12/2021 at 7:34 PM, Denny Zartman said:

 

The one I was thinking of, I believe it was a woman at a hotel lobby or maybe a college campus overhearing a man talking on the phone in a nearby booth. I'm sorry to say I can't remember the details. I'll try and look through my notes and see if I can't find anything more on that.

 

Denny,

It's possible you were thinking of Elizabeth Cole.

Elizabeth Cole – Prior Knowledge

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/5746-elizabeth-cole-prior-knowledge/

In 1975, Elizabeth Cole told the FBI that in the first week of November, 1963 she attended a Foreign Students Convention in New Jersey.

While there, she overheard a telephone conversation between a Cuban student and an unknown third party. In the phone conversation, the Cuban student related that JFK was going to be assassinated. The date of the assassination, the City of Dallas and a book company were also mentioned.

Cole said that she called the FBI when she returned to NYC, but never heard back from them.

You can read the details here:

http://www.maryferre...32&relPageId=54

It is alleged that the name of the Cuban student overheard by Miss Cole has the same last name as that of a Cuban picked up and released in Dallas on 11/22/63.

See here:

http://www.maryferre...2&relPageId=112

Posted by Lee Forman in the Education Forum November 29, 2006:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/5746-elizabeth-cole-prior-knowledge/?page=2

“Speculation says that if it's Fermin that attended, then it may have been through some Jesuit relationship - why else bother penetrating an event centered on Religion? If he did attend, it is not obvious from the information I was able to gather.”

http://cuban-exile.com/doc_326-350/doc0326.html

FAIRHOPE, ALA: By Apr 63 Alpha-66 office in. [R-759-2-161] ADD: 457 OAK STREET [R-759-3-25] May 63 [R-759-3-55]

CD 1020 p. 14.

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=11416#relPageId=16&tab=page

"He (Jim Buchanan, brother of Jerry Buchanan) advised that Jerry Buchanan would be available for a few days following the day of interview (April 30, 1964) at 457 Oak St. Fairhope, Alabama, the residence of Craig Sheldon, whom he described as Chairman of the International Anti-Communist Brigade in Alabama."

http://www.mobilebaymag.com/Mobile-Bay/January-2014/Sixties-Flashback-Lee-Harvey-Oswald-Visits-Spring-Hill/

“Addendum on Mobile Anti-Castro Activists

There has never even been alleged, nor does Mobile Bay Magazine in any way now suggest, a connection between Oswald and Mobilians engaged in anti-Castro activities. Yet we think it appropriate to note, as a matter of historical background, that Mobile, as well as New Orleans, was at least up until the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion a center of active support for anti Castro militants.

A memo filed in the F.B.I. office in Los Angeles dated May 8, 1963 quotes an informant who copied a list of headquarter cities for Alpha 66, the Cuban exile led group that staged regular raids on Castro's Cuba. One of the 13 cities in the U.S., Canada, and South America is Fairhope, Ala.

Fairhope sculptor Craig Sheldon, now in his late 70s, was an adventurous, patriotic WWII veteran and devout anti-Communist in the early 1960s. He has never made a secret of the fact that he was a member of Alpha 66”.

Posted by David Joseph in the Education Forum 1/8/2018

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/24633-oswald-in-alabama/

“ http://www.mobilebaymag.com/Mobile-Bay/January-2014/Sixties-Flashback-Lee-Harvey-Oswald-Visits-Spring-Hill/

Flashback: Lee Harvey Oswald Visits Spring Hill

Originally run in Mobile Bay Monthly's September 1993 issue, this article explores Lee Harvey Oswald's speech at Spring Hill College in July 1963, just months before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

Spring Hill College was run by Jesuits.

Is this the FBI report the Mobile Bay Magazine refers to?

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/belligerence/Alpha-66-12-FBI.pdf

Alpha-66:

FAIRHOPE, ALA: By Apr 63 Alpha-66 office in. [R-759-2- 161]

“SHELDON, Craig of Fairhope, Alabama was recruiting for A-66 on Jan 2, 1963. He says he is a member, an ex-marine. [R-759-1-841851”

Carlos Bringuer lived in Fairhope, AL

https://www.mylife.com/carlos-bringuier/carlosbrin63773vr

https://www.spokeo.com/Carlos-Bringuier/Louisiana

SS Rowley Memorandum of 4/24/64 CD 853 page 3

http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/...amp;relPageId=4

Masen told Frank Ellsworth that Rodriguez and George F. Parrel were leaders of the local DRE and also members of Alpha-66.

Masen told Ellsworth that George Parrel, an associate of Orcarberro, had also been trying to buy guns from him.

Masen told Ellsworth that Rodriguez and Parrel had made purchases from him; that they presently have a large cache of arms somewhere in Dallas; that he did not know the location.

Steve Thomas

The Trump Reinstatement Day Dance Tutorial.

https://twitter.com/Fah_Lo_Me/status/1426166195741470723

I think you have to take his Covid bleach cure ahead of time in order to master it correctly.

Steve Thomas

12 hours ago, Greg Doudna said:

The source cited for this Masen-confirmed identification of Masen as the Sports Drome rifle shooter is said to be an August, 1976 Village Voice interview of Frank Ellsworth by Dick Russell. 

 

Greg,

The "fellow" who Malcolm Howard Price saw at the Sports Drome on September 28, 1963 whom he "subsequently came to believe" was Lee Harvey Oswald, needed help sighting in his rifle.

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/russ/testimony/price_m.htm

Would Thomas Masen have needed help sighting in his rifle?

Steve Thomas

Nowhere in my long years of study, can I find a case in the recorded history of mankind, where a civilized society deliberately set out to kill its own children.

Steve Thomas

Donald Trump is going to get someone killed. I think that is his intention. Talk about incitement.

Steve Thomas

Judge signs off on new money laundering probe into Trump’s Scottish golf resorts

by John Wright August 11, 2021

https://www.rawstory.com/trump-mcmafia/

Avaaz, a US-based non-profit activism organization, petitioned Scotland's highest court after (members of the Scottish Parliament) rejected calls to pursue an Unexplained Wealth Order against the former US president's Scottish firms," the newspaper reports. "Its petition to the court stated that there are 'no reasonable grounds' to suspect that known sources of lawfully obtained income would have been sufficient to bankroll Mr Trump's acquisition of his Scottish properties."

“The Scottish judge, Lord Sandison, "has given the green light for Avaaz to seek a judicial review, a development which will reignite the debate over how Mr Trump acquired his Scottish resorts during a decade-long spending spree," the Scotsman reported.

"Since incorporating his first Scottish company 16 years ago, none of Mr Trump's companies have turned a profit, and consequently, have yet to pay a penny in corporation tax," the newspaper reports, before citing the recent indictment of Allen Weisselberg, CFO of the Trump Organization, on tax-fraud charges.”

“Following Weisselberg's indictment, he stepped down as director of Trump International Golf Club Scotland — but he is still listed as a person with "significant control" over Golf Recreation Scotland, the parent company for Trump's Turnberry resort.”

Three guesses as to who Trump is laundering money for, and the first two don't count.

Steve Thomas

7 hours ago, Paul Brancato said:

 Quote - “ He (Lumpkin) was Deputy Chief of Police at that time. But he also had an Intelligence unit.

And I, at that time, I was CO of the 488th Strategic Intelligence Unit. And I had previously been a CO of a counter-intelligence detachment here in Dallas and about 100 people in that unit and about 40 or 50 of them were from the Dallas Police Department.

Paul,

Thanks for this.

Crichton seems to speak of this "counter-intelligence unit" as being separate from the 488th. He says it existed "previous" to the 488th.

Interesting.

I was also interested in the part about Lumpkin being the Deputy Chief of Police, but also  having "an intelligence unit" as though it was separate from his duties as the Deputy Chief of Police of the Dallas Police Department.

I wonder if he was referring to Lumpkin's role as the Commandant of the 4150th U.S. Army Reserve Officer's Training School.

The Times of Shreveport, Louisiana

July 15, 1962

https://www.google.com/search?q=%224150th+ARSU%22&client=firefox-b-1-d&biw=1611&bih=944&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=mKOtZKzVDPGU4M%253A%252CiDog6xBKO5mCAM%252C_&usg=AI4_-kRzONpClhVOiPVZeNHZonVq1dA7zQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiKp5_yos3gAhX2JTQIHUVPC4wQ9QEwAnoECAYQBA#imgrc=mKOtZKzVDPGU4M:

In 1966, he was still being identified as the Commandant.

1966 Richardson (Texas) Daily News article that describes George Lumpkin as “Commandant of the 4150th ARSU Dallas United States Army Reserve School”.

https://newspaperarchive.com/tags/george-lumpkin/?pc=24581&psi=94&pci=7&pt=23960&ob=1/

Grand Prairie Daily News – Grand Prairie, TX

September 14, 1966 page 2

https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/15245830/

“Fall Reserve Duty Training Announced Col. Geo Lumpkin, Commandant of the 4150th ARSU DALLAS USAR SCHOOL, announces the beginning of fall reserve duty training assemblies. Hours of meetings will be from 1930 hours to 2140 hours on both Monday and Thursday evenings at the Muchert Armory, located at 10031 East Northwest Highway In Dallas. Officer career courses for all branches of service and Command and General Staff Courses are being offered to reserve officers at this time. Courses offered will provide reservists the opportunity to complete their military obligation and acquire credit towards their retirement. All reservists are Invited to visit the school for additional Information and enrollment now.”

Training and Organization of the US Army Reserve Components: A Reference Text for Total Force Trainers and a Guide to Other US Military Services 1988-1989. published 1991

Page 73

Fifth U.S. Army (19 USARF Schools)

4150TH USARF SCHOOL 10031 East Northwest Hwy (214) 346-6678Air Defense Artillery Dallas, TX 75238-4399

(page 78) G. Consolidated Training Facilities (CTF) Consolidated Training Facilities are under the control of the CONUSAs. They are for sustainment training of both USAR and ARNG personnel. The courses offered are for military intelligence personnel in Career Management Fields (CMFs) 05, 33, 96, and 98.

Boise Smith was a member of the faculty.

Col. B.B. Smith

Daily Palmer Rustler October 14, 1954 page 2

(Member of the faculty 4150^th U.S.Army Reserve Training School)

https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth782328/m1/2/

B.B. (Boise) Smith. Director, Civil Defense and Disaster Commission. Dallas Police Department, Deputy Chief of Police.

Reported directly to Chief Curry.

Batchelor Exhibit 5002

https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/pdf/WH19_Batchelor_Ex_5002.pdf

As Director of the Dallas Civil Defense and Disaster Commission, Boise Smith would have been in charge of the Communications Center at the Fairgrounds.

Steve Thomas

36 minutes ago, Jim Hargrove said:

Dallas Morning News, Saturday, Aug. 20, 1966, p. 4:

 

Jim,

Thanks for this. I'll have to keep my eyes open for the other man mentioned in this article, R.A. Thompson.

In 1963 he was listed in Batchelor's Exhibit 5002 as a Captain in the Traffic Division. Traffic Control

David Harkness, W.E. Barnett and Marvin Wise worked for him.

see p. 14 of Batchelor's Exhibit https://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh19/pdf/WH19_Batchelor_Ex_5002.pdf

CIA guy huh?

Steve Thomas

2 hours ago, Gil Jesus said:

Jim, didn't I read someplace where Westbrook took a job with the CIA after leaving the Dallas Police ?

Gil,

I have not found any direct connection between Westbrook and the South Vietnamese police training program at Michigan State University, but it wouldn't surprise me if one existed.

Creating the Oswald Legend – Part 5

Written by Vasilios Vazakas

in Kenndys and King

https://www.kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-articles/creating-the-oswald-legend-part-5

CIA POLICE TRAINING and THE CIS

Coming back to Captain Westbrook, a most astonishing revelation was that after he retired from the Dallas Police Department in 1966, Westbrook became a Police advisor in South Vietnam. As researcher Greg Parker found out, Westbrook was employed as a security advisor in Saigon by the U.S.A.I.D. (United States Agency for International Development).[16]

The CIA was running a police program. Its purpose was to train friendly overseas police and to allow CIA to “plant men with local police in sensitive places around the world.” Also, to bring to the United States “prime candidates for enrollment as CIA employees.”

John Gilligan, director of USAID under Jimmy Carter, said that “At one time, many USAID field offices were infiltrated from top to bottom with CIA people. The idea was to plant operatives in every kind of activity we had overseas, government, volunteer, religious, every kind.”[19] John Hannah, Nixon’s director of USAID admitted publicly that the USAID had funded CIA operations in Laos and that both organizations had co-operated in Ecuador, Uruguay, Thailand, and the Philippines.[20]

[16] Yusuf hasan, http://jfkthelonegunmanmyth.blogspot.com/2014/09/a-few-words-on-former-dpd-captain.html

[20] Colby & Dennett, Thy Will Be Done, Harper Perennial, 1995, p. 743.

This is a very interesting article:

The University That Launched a CIA Front Operation in Vietnam

How the friendship between a Vietnamese politician and an American academic led Michigan State University into a vast experiment in nation-building and pulled America deeper into war.

By ERIC SCIGLIANO March 25, 2018

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/25/vietnam-war-secret-msu-michigan-state-217705/

“Diệm promptly requested aid from his key backers, the U.S. government and Michigan State University, and asked his old friend Wes Fishel to come aboard as an adviser. Fishel did, officially serving as liaison to Diệm on the staff President Dwight Eisenhower’s special emissary in Vietnam.

Their political partnership suited the times. America’s cold warriors were scrambling to turn fragile postcolonial states into bulwarks against Marxist ideology and Soviet influence. Many universities enlisted in this effort, eager to turn theory into practice, take their missions to a global level, and rake in federal dollars. By the mid-1950s, the U.S. government was sponsoring 42 university aid missions around the world.

None enlisted more eagerly than Michigan State, whose Vietnam group became the largest of those missions. The school’s longtime president, John Hannah, was an idealist, an empire-builder and former assistant secretary of defense with deep ties in Washington, D.C. Over the 28 years he led the school, Hannah transformed the backwater Michigan State College into one of the nation’s largest universities and an important research institution, growing its enrollment more than sixfold.”

“But this nuts-and-bolts civics work took a second seat to the police program. MSU’s law enforcement instructors, mostly retired police officers and officials, worked earnestly to train Vietnam’s various police agencies in everything from professional deportment and arrest procedures to forensics and firearms. They had some success with the Saigon police, particularly in helping them tame the city’s notoriously chaotic traffic. (I delighted in watching the white-gloved officers signaling atop their crossroads podiums with the aplomb of orchestra conductors.) “

Steve Thomas

1 hour ago, Jim Hargrove said:

That’s sort of reminiscent of the phone call Tippit apparently made at the Top 10 record store right after McWatters’ bus passed the GLOCO station without dropping off Oswald.  Why was Tippit sitting idly in his car at the station immediately after the shooting of JFK?  Why did he stop to make the phone call?

 

Jim,.

I obviously can't prove it, but it does make me wonder if they weren't calling the same people, as in "I can't find him. He's not here."

Steve Thomas

1 hour ago, Jim Hargrove said:

Steve,

According to Croy's WC testimony, he just happened to hear a police dispatcher talking about the Tippit shooting while in his car at Colorado Blvd. and Zang, and that is how he was able to get to 10th and Patton before any other police.  But the timings simply do not work.  From John A's writeup on our website:

 

Jim,

From the Dispatch tapes - Between 1:16 and 1:19 PM:

DIS 211:

211.

DIS: 211.

211: We're clear, Industrial and Stemmons. We'll go out there.

DIS: 10-4, 211

We arrived in Oak Cliff and there were several squads in the general vicinity of where the shooting had occurred---different stories had come out that the person was--the suspect had been seen in the immediate vicinity.
Mr. BALL. Did you go to 10th and Patton?
Mr. HAWKINS. We drove by 10th and Patton--we didn't stop at the location.
Mr. BALL. Where did you go then?
Mr. HAWKINS. We circled the vicinity around Jefferson and Marsalis

Jefferson and Marsalis is where the Library is.

Why did Hawkins not stop at the site of the shooting when he hd been ordered by the Dispatcher to proceed there? Why did he head east from the direction of the shooting, and then circle the vicinity for close to eighteen minutes?

From the Dispatch tapes - 1:34 PM

22: They've got him holed up, it looks like, in this building over here at the corner.

22: (?) ...were you be?

85: 85, library.

DIS: 10-4.

211: 211 out at that location.

DIS: 10-4.

Hawkins is circling the area around Jefferson and Marsalis (where the Library is). (which is about six blocks east of where Tippit has been shot)

He heads west and picks up Hutson in the neighborhood of 10th and Patton. They continue west on 10th till they get to Beckley and 10th, where they make a phone call at a Mobil Gas Station. While they're in there on a phone call, Dispatch announces that a suspect has been seen at the Library, so they head back east again.

Why did he interrupt his search for the suspect of a fellow police officer to make a personal phone call?

Hutson wasn’t positive that they went to the Mobil Gas Station to make a call. Did they go there for another reason? Did Croy own that gas station? Was Hawkins looking for Croy? Did Dispatch direct Hawkins to call Headquarters on a landline?

Like I said, I don't find any record of this call from Dispatch instructing Hawkins to call in, or any record of Hawkins calling into Dispatch telling them that he was "out".

Mr. HUTSON. And Officer Ray Hawkins and Officer Baggett went inside of the Mobil gas station. And I am not positive, but I think they used the telephone to call in.
I am not positive, but I believe they gave us a call for us to call. I mean their number to call in.

Steve Thomas