John Simkin

You might be thinking of this letter, written by Harry S. Truman to the Washington Post, a month after the assassination of JFK (21st December, 1963) For some time I have been disturbed by the way the CIA has been diverted from its original assignment. It has become an operational and at times a policy-making arm of the government... I never had any thought that when I set up the CIA that it would be injected into peacetime cloak-and-dagger operations. Some of the complications and embarrassment that I think we have experienced are in part attributable to the fact that this quiet intelligence arm of the President has been so removed from its intended role that it is being interpreted as a symbol of sinister and mysterious foreign intrigue and a subject for cold war enemy propaganda.

It looks like we will be able to get a female teacher trainer from Belgium. We should have details in a couple of days.

Suzanne Goldenberg Thursday February 9, 2006 The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/st...1705597,00.html A Nasa public affairs officer who worked on George Bush's re-election campaign and was linked to a campaign to stifle discussion by space agency scientists on global warming, has resigned. George Deutsch, 24, was given a job in the Nasa press office last year after working on Mr Bush's 2004 presidential campaign. He resigned after it emerged he had not been awarded the journalism degree he claimed on his CV, the New York Times reported. Mr Deutsch had been described as a "bit player" in a politically motivated campaign to stop scientists from speaking publicly on global warming or giving interviews to the media. Scientists were also ordered to remove a posting from the agency's website which showed that 2005 was the warmest year on record. He also repeatedly told a web designer to add the word "theory" at every mention of "big bang". The New York Times quoted a Nasa source as saying his involvement was part of an intensifying effort at the agency to exert political control over the flow of public information. The effort antagonised Nasa's most senior scientists, and last week prompted Michael Griffin, the agency's administrator, to offer a review of information policy, and a renewed commitment to "scientific openness". Mr Deutsch resigned after Texas A&M University said he attended the institution but had not completed the course. In an email last October Mr Deutsch wrote: "The theory that the universe was created by a 'big bang' is just that - a theory. It is not proven fact; it is opinion. Yes, the scientific community by and large may share this opinion, but that doesn't make it correct ... It is not Nasa's place, nor should it be, to make a declaration such as this about the existence of the universe that discounts intelligent design by a creator - the other half of the argument."

Yesterday the Church of England said sorry for the role it played in the 18th century in benefiting from slave labour in the Caribbean. When parliament voted compensation in 1833 - to former slave owners rather than the slaves themselves - the Archbishop of Canterbury received £8,823 8s 9d, about £500,000 in today's money, for the loss of slave labour on its Codrington plantation in Barbados. The Bishop of Exeter received even more, nearly £13,000. A recent book, Bury the Chains, by the American author Adam Hochschild, clearly influenced the debate. It says the church's missionary organisation, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, branded its slaves on the chest with the word SOCIETY to show who they belonged to. Rowan Williams, the present archbishop of Canterbury, told the synod that the church ought to acknowledge its corporate and ancestral guilt: "The Body of Christ is not just a body that exists at any one time; it exists across history and we therefore share the shame and the sinfulness of our predecessors, and part of what we can do, with them and for them in the Body of Christ, is prayerful acknowledgment of the failure that is part of us, not just of some distant 'them'. "To speak here of repentance and apology is not words alone; it is part of our witness to the Gospel, to a world that needs to hear that the past must be faced and healed and cannot be ignored ... by doing so we are actually discharging our responsibility to preach good news, not simply to look backwards in awkwardness and embarrassment, but to speak of the freedom we are given to face ourselves, including the unacceptable regions of ... our history." The Rt Rev Tom Butler, Bishop of Southwark, told the synod: "The profits from the slave trade were part of the bedrock of our country's industrial development. No one who was involved in running the business, financing it or benefiting from its products can say they had clean hands. We know that bishops in the House of Lords with biblical authority voted against the abolition of the slave trade. We know that the church owned sugar plantations on the Codrington estates." The important point that was ignored in the debate was the role played by the Church of England in justifying slavery. The main point argued at the time was that there was no evidence from the scriptures that Jesus Christ ever argued that slavery was wrong. As he lived in a society (the Roman Empire) where slavery was the norm, the fact that he did not criticise it, meant that he must have been in favour of slavery. We should not be too surprised by this point of view. At this time, the Church of England was also arguing against democracy and in favour of repressing those demanding equality. The 19th century is just one long argument against religion. The fact that Church leaders could find passages in the Bible to justify the dominant ideology, exposes the role that religion has been used to reflect the needs of those in power.

I have managed to get a copy of William Proxmire's book, Report from Wasteland: America's Military-Industrial Complex. It includes details of how the Suite 8F Group worked (although he does not mention the group by name). Proxmire clearly explains the importance of the chairmen of the key Senate committees. Interestingly, he does not report on the role played by LBJ in this (as Majority Leader he decided on who became chairmen of these committees). In fact, the book only mentions LBJ twice. Like most figures of this period, Proxmire appeared to be frightened of LBJ. There is a good section in the book on the TFX scandal: Roswell L. Gilpatric, who served as Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1964. (He was) a member of the law firm of Cravath, Swaine, and Moore, when he became deputy to McNamara in 1961, he and his firm had represented General Dynamics in the period 1958-61. Gilpatric's fees had exceeded $100,000. Although he left his firm, he continued to receive some $20,000 a year in severance pay while at the Pentagon. In the meantime, Cravath, Swaine, and Moore continued to represent General Dynamics. Like Packard, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gilpatric had been a part of the military-industrial-law firm complex for years. He had served as Under Secretary of the Air Force in 1951-53 and as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the nonprofit Aerospace Corporation that President Eisenhower established to conduct studies on major missile systems. The storm and furor over Gilpatric's relationships were raised during the TFX investigation. It was shown that he had taken a direct part in the negotiations over the highly controversial contract, which went to General Dynamics. He was involved in discussions on the contract. He signed the letter turning down Senator McClellan's request that the formal signing with General Dynamics be delayed. Fred Korth, Secretary of the Navy in 1962, is another case in point. He had a past close relationship with the Defense Department and with the defense contractors and played a questionable part in the TFX controversy as well. His official Pentagon biography states that he rose from a second lieutenant to lieutenant-colonel in the Air Transport Command during World War II. After private law practice in Fort Worth, in 1951 he became Department Counselor, Department of the Army. In 1952, he was made an Assistant Secretary of the Army. He returned to Fort Worth where he was elected executive vice president and director of the Continental National Bank and, later, became its president. He was a director of the Bell Aerospace Corporation and active in the Navy League of the United States. Korth succeeded John B. Connally, Jr., another Texan from Fort Worth, as Secretary of the Navy. When Korth was approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee, he stated that he had resigned as president of the Fort Worth Continental National Bank. But he retained his stock valued at $160,000 in the bank and told the Committee he intended to return to the bank when he left public office. Only a few months before he was appointed, Korth had approved a $400,000 loan from his old bank to the General Dynamics Corporation. The Convair plant of General Dynamics was in Fort Worth. Although $400,000 may not appear to be a large sum for the largest defense contractor in the country to borrow, it was, nonetheless, two-thirds of the $600,000 loan limit allowed the small Continental National Bank. As Secretary of the Navy, Korth made the decision about the TFX. The Pentagon's Source Selection Board had recommended that the contract go to Boeing. Korth overruled the Board and recommended General Dynamics. Along with Secretary McNamara and Air Force Secretary Eugene Zuckert, Navy Secretary Korth signed the five-page memorandum of justification. The question of a conflict of interest was raised directly with the justice Department by Senator John J. Williams, of Delaware. In fairness to both Korth and Gilpatric, the Justice Department wrote that in their opinion there was no law violation in either Korth's or Gilpatric's role in the TFX contract. Later, Korth was so indiscreet as to write letters promoting the business of the Continental National Bank on Navy Department stationery. He resigned shortly after this matter was drawn to the attention of Attorney General Robert Kennedy by Senator McClellan.

I have managed to get a copy of William Proxmire's book, Report from Wasteland: America's Military-Industrial Complex. It includes details of how the Suite 8F Group worked (although he does not mention the group by name). Proxmire clearly explains the importance of the chairmen of the key Senate committees. Interestingly, he does not report on the role played by LBJ in this (as Majority Leader he decided on who became chairmen of these committees). In fact, the book only mentions LBJ twice. Like most figures of this period, Proxmire appeared to be frightened of LBJ. There is a good section in the book on the TFX scandal: Roswell L. Gilpatric, who served as Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1964. (He was) a member of the law firm of Cravath, Swaine, and Moore, when he became deputy to McNamara in 1961, he and his firm had represented General Dynamics in the period 1958-61. Gilpatric's fees had exceeded $100,000. Although he left his firm, he continued to receive some $20,000 a year in severance pay while at the Pentagon. In the meantime, Cravath, Swaine, and Moore continued to represent General Dynamics. Like Packard, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gilpatric had been a part of the military-industrial-law firm complex for years. He had served as Under Secretary of the Air Force in 1951-53 and as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the nonprofit Aerospace Corporation that President Eisenhower established to conduct studies on major missile systems. The storm and furor over Gilpatric's relationships were raised during the TFX investigation. It was shown that he had taken a direct part in the negotiations over the highly controversial contract, which went to General Dynamics. He was involved in discussions on the contract. He signed the letter turning down Senator McClellan's request that the formal signing with General Dynamics be delayed. Fred Korth, Secretary of the Navy in 1962, is another case in point. He had a past close relationship with the Defense Department and with the defense contractors and played a questionable part in the TFX controversy as well. His official Pentagon biography states that he rose from a second lieutenant to lieutenant-colonel in the Air Transport Command during World War II. After private law practice in Fort Worth, in 1951 he became Department Counselor, Department of the Army. In 1952, he was made an Assistant Secretary of the Army. He returned to Fort Worth where he was elected executive vice president and director of the Continental National Bank and, later, became its president. He was a director of the Bell Aerospace Corporation and active in the Navy League of the United States. Korth succeeded John B. Connally, Jr., another Texan from Fort Worth, as Secretary of the Navy. When Korth was approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee, he stated that he had resigned as president of the Fort Worth Continental National Bank. But he retained his stock valued at $160,000 in the bank and told the Committee he intended to return to the bank when he left public office. Only a few months before he was appointed, Korth had approved a $400,000 loan from his old bank to the General Dynamics Corporation. The Convair plant of General Dynamics was in Fort Worth. Although $400,000 may not appear to be a large sum for the largest defense contractor in the country to borrow, it was, nonetheless, two-thirds of the $600,000 loan limit allowed the small Continental National Bank. As Secretary of the Navy, Korth made the decision about the TFX. The Pentagon's Source Selection Board had recommended that the contract go to Boeing. Korth overruled the Board and recommended General Dynamics. Along with Secretary McNamara and Air Force Secretary Eugene Zuckert, Navy Secretary Korth signed the five-page memorandum of justification. The question of a conflict of interest was raised directly with the justice Department by Senator John J. Williams, of Delaware. In fairness to both Korth and Gilpatric, the Justice Department wrote that in their opinion there was no law violation in either Korth's or Gilpatric's role in the TFX contract. Later, Korth was so indiscreet as to write letters promoting the business of the Continental National Bank on Navy Department stationery. He resigned shortly after this matter was drawn to the attention of Attorney General Robert Kennedy by Senator McClellan.

I have managed to get a copy of William Proxmire's book, Report from Wasteland: America's Military-Industrial Complex. It includes details of how the Suite 8F Group worked (although he does not mention the group by name). Proxmire clearly explains the importance of the chairmen of the key Senate committees. Interestingly, he does not report on the role played by LBJ in this (as Majority Leader he decided on who became chairmen of these committees). In fact, the book only mentions LBJ twice. Like most figures of this period, Proxmire appeared to be frightened of LBJ. There is a good section in the book on the TFX scandal: Roswell L. Gilpatric, who served as Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1964. (He was) a member of the law firm of Cravath, Swaine, and Moore, when he became deputy to McNamara in 1961, he and his firm had represented General Dynamics in the period 1958-61. Gilpatric's fees had exceeded $100,000. Although he left his firm, he continued to receive some $20,000 a year in severance pay while at the Pentagon. In the meantime, Cravath, Swaine, and Moore continued to represent General Dynamics. Like Packard, Deputy Secretary of Defense Gilpatric had been a part of the military-industrial-law firm complex for years. He had served as Under Secretary of the Air Force in 1951-53 and as chairman of the Board of Trustees of the nonprofit Aerospace Corporation that President Eisenhower established to conduct studies on major missile systems. The storm and furor over Gilpatric's relationships were raised during the TFX investigation. It was shown that he had taken a direct part in the negotiations over the highly controversial contract, which went to General Dynamics. He was involved in discussions on the contract. He signed the letter turning down Senator McClellan's request that the formal signing with General Dynamics be delayed. Fred Korth, Secretary of the Navy in 1962, is another case in point. He had a past close relationship with the Defense Department and with the defense contractors and played a questionable part in the TFX controversy as well. His official Pentagon biography states that he rose from a second lieutenant to lieutenant-colonel in the Air Transport Command during World War II. After private law practice in Fort Worth, in 1951 he became Department Counselor, Department of the Army. In 1952, he was made an Assistant Secretary of the Army. He returned to Fort Worth where he was elected executive vice president and director of the Continental National Bank and, later, became its president. He was a director of the Bell Aerospace Corporation and active in the Navy League of the United States. Korth succeeded John B. Connally, Jr., another Texan from Fort Worth, as Secretary of the Navy. When Korth was approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee, he stated that he had resigned as president of the Fort Worth Continental National Bank. But he retained his stock valued at $160,000 in the bank and told the Committee he intended to return to the bank when he left public office. Only a few months before he was appointed, Korth had approved a $400,000 loan from his old bank to the General Dynamics Corporation. The Convair plant of General Dynamics was in Fort Worth. Although $400,000 may not appear to be a large sum for the largest defense contractor in the country to borrow, it was, nonetheless, two-thirds of the $600,000 loan limit allowed the small Continental National Bank. As Secretary of the Navy, Korth made the decision about the TFX. The Pentagon's Source Selection Board had recommended that the contract go to Boeing. Korth overruled the Board and recommended General Dynamics. Along with Secretary McNamara and Air Force Secretary Eugene Zuckert, Navy Secretary Korth signed the five-page memorandum of justification. The question of a conflict of interest was raised directly with the justice Department by Senator John J. Williams, of Delaware. In fairness to both Korth and Gilpatric, the Justice Department wrote that in their opinion there was no law violation in either Korth's or Gilpatric's role in the TFX contract. Later, Korth was so indiscreet as to write letters promoting the business of the Continental National Bank on Navy Department stationery. He resigned shortly after this matter was drawn to the attention of Attorney General Robert Kennedy by Senator McClellan.

Joachim Joesten appears to have been the first investigator to link the death of Grant Stockdale to the JFK assassination (The Dark Side of Lyndon Baines Johnson, 1968): On December 2. 1963, an AP dispatch from Miami reported: 'Grant Stockdale, former Ambassador to Ireland, plunged to his death todtiy from his offices on the 13th floor of the du Pont Building. 'The police said Mr. Stockdale, an intimate friend of President Kennedy, had committed suicide. No notes were found, however. Mr. Stockdale was 48 years old...' Note that Stockdale, according to this dispatch, did not jump out of his office window, as suicides normally do. He 'plunged to his death', a conveniently ambiguous statement that is frequently used when a person dies by a fall from a window and the authorities just don't know for sure (or don't want to say) whether the victim had jumped or had been pushed out of the window. With no eyewitnesses in the case, and no notes suggesting suicidal intent, how could the Miami police come out with a flat statement that Stockdale had committed suicide? Or did the Associated Press lend an unquestioning note to a somewhat less affirmative police statement? The question must be raised because The New York Herald Tribune in a dispatch from Washington by Dom Bonafede, published on December 3, 1963, stated: 'Police said it was an apparent suicide.' 'Miami police investigators, however, were unable to find a suicide note or provide any motive,' the Herald Tribune dispatch went on to say. No motive. But the unnatural death of a prominent personality has to be explained somehow to the public. And so we are promptly treated to a variety of 'explanations', one more implausible than the other. The AP dispatch cited above hints strongly that Grant Stockdale - a very rich man-had run into financial troubles, but substantiates this suggestion with ridiculous assertions: 'In a recent newspaper interview, he (Stockdale) said that he had borne heavy expenses by serving as Ambassador...' Stockdale's appointment as ambassador to Ireland, made by President Kennedy in March 1961, was a typical political payoff, such as follow traditionally all changes in the Administration. Stockdale was not a career diplomat. His principal qualifications for the job were his services to the Democratic Party, his great personal wealth and the fact that he was a practising Roman Catholic. The latter circumstance, incidentally, makes the suicide version look even more improbable than it would otherwise be, for the Catholic Church strongly condemns suicides and inexorably relegates them to hell. Ambassadorial appointments like that of Grant Stockdale are made primarily for two reasons: in order to reward a faithful party stalwart for substantial campaign contributions and because the nominee can afford to supplement his salary with personal income in order to meet the expenses of diplomatic high living. No rich man appointed to a political ambassadorship ever went broke in the service. The suggestion that the religious Stockdale, having ruined himself in the service of his country, saw no other way out than to commit the sin of sins is simply ludicrous. Aware of it, apparently, the AP dispatch adds some other possible sources of financial despair: 'When he left Ireland to return to his real estate business in July, 1962, Mr. Stockdale said, he found that the market had declined badly. He also spoke of the great expense of a large family. He had two sons and three daugthers.' If Stockdale found in July, 1962, that business had declined so badly that he could no longer afford to raise a large family, why did he wait another 17 months to jump out the window? And, what other big real estate operator was wiped out by the alleged 'decline' of the market between early 1961 and mid-1962? All this is just plainly absurd, and the most preposterous of all is the suicide motive Dorn Bonafede managed to dig up: 'Miarni friends said yesterday that Mr. Stockdale, who was in the real estate and investment business, was despondent over the death of President Kennedy. He is reported to have fallen on his knees and prayed when lie heard the news...' On the strength of this paragraph, the Herald Tribune actually published the Bonafede dispatch under this four-column headline: "Despondent' Kennedy Friend Dies in Plunge" Hardheaded businessinen - and Stockdale was certainly hardheaded, as his record shows - don't kill themselves because a friend has been murdered, be it the President of the United States. Besides, relations between Kennedy and Stockdale had soured considerably, as we shall see. All this is part and parcel of the official myth making that goes on day after day in the United States to gloss over the conspicuous taints in The Great Society. It has been going on at a greatly accelerated pace since the assassination of President Kennedy. The truth of the matter is that Grant Stockdale was also a wheelerdealer and had found himself caught in the Bobby Baker web, If his death was suicide, the reason was that he feared exposure. More likely, Stockdale was murdered because he knew too much and somebody else feared exposure. Dom Bonafede's dispatch indicates that Stockdale did not resign his ambassadorship of his own free will but was in effect fired by President Kennedy in May 1962, even though this was done with the usual diplomatic niceties: 'Prior to his resignation it was disclosed that he had borrowed $1,000 interest-free from Sidney Kessler, a New York and Miami builder, who was seeking an $£3,000 commitment froin the Federal Housing Administration. The petition was later approved. 'President Kennedy reportedly learned of the loan and demanded that Mr. Stockdale return the $5,000. 'In a trans-Atlantic telephone call to a Miami reporter, Mr. Stockdale reportedly commented that the President was "afraid the loan could make it look like I was finagling around with the FHA"...' So much for the allegedly warm relationship between Kennedy and Stockdale which caused the latter to kill himself out of 'despondency' after ten days of mourning over his assassinated friend. Coyly, the Herald Tribune story touches on the background to Stockdale's latest and last entanglements: 'Mr. Stockdale's name also came up briefly as a part time associate of Eugene Hancock, a vending-machine operator, mentioned in the investigation of Bobby Baker...' The New York Times of December 3, 1963, is more explicit: 'Grant Stockdale once had close business connections with vending-machine concerns that are under investigation in the Robert G. Baker inquiry... 'In an interview published in the Miami Herald last October, shortly after the Senate authorized a study of Mr. Baker's dealings, Mr. Stockdale said: "I hope I don't get cut up too bad, I haven't done anything wrong..,' 'Mr. Stockdale's responses were to questions about the similarities between the Washington damage suit against Mr. Baker, which touched off the Baker case, and a 1961 damage suit against Mr. Stockdale and others in Miami. 'In April, 1961, just as Mr. Stockdale was leaving Miami to assume his duties as Ambassador to Ireland, he was served with papers in a $131,000 damage suit. The suit alleged that he had used "undue influence" to gain contracts for Automatic Vending Services, Inc., a Miami company in which he owned stock. 'Mr. Stockdale accused the complainant, the Pan-Am Tobacco Corporation, of trying to "get some publicity because I am a United States Ambassador." He denied the charges. 'Pan-Am contended in its suit that Mr. Stockdale had been instrumental in gaining for his company the vending service contract at Erodex, Inc., an aircraft engine maintenance company in Miami. 'Subsequently, Automatic Vending Services, Inc., won contracts totalling $500,000 a year at Patrick Air Force Base and the Air Force missile test center at Cape Kennedy...' To recapitulate the many and striking similarities between the Stockdale and Baker cases: Grant Stockdale is a big wheel in the Democratic Party and a person of considerable influence in Washington; Bobby Baker is also a big wheel in the Democratic Party geared to one of the biggest and exercises even greater influence in the capital. Stockdale is also a major stockholder in a vending-machine company. This outfit garners, one after another, extremely lucrative contracts in Government installations and Government-controlled defence plants. And eventually it becomes the target of a damage suit by a competitor, charging the use of 'undue influence' in obtaining these contracts. Two years later, Bobby Baker travels exactly the same road with all its way stations, as has already been described in previous chapters. Any thought that all this could be purely coincidental is now dispelled by this paragraph in the Times story: 'Mr. Stockdale, one business associate said, was then "harassed" by newsmen concerning his connection with Automatic Vending Services and its president, Eugene A. Hrzncock...' There you have it, in a nutshell. Eugene A. Hancock is the president of Automatic Vending Services. One of his biggest assets is a prominent stockholder, Grant Stockdale, who has plenty of pull in Washington. Coincidentally, of course, profitable government contracts start tumbling out of Washington's cornucopia and into the lap of the Hancock-Stockdale enterprise. "Then, a couple of years later, the scene shifts. Hancock is now president of the Serv-U-Corporation, another automatic vending concern, with the very, very influential Bobby Baker as his principal stockholder (in fact, though not in name). Automatically, again, the cornucopia tilts and starts pouring out juicy government contracts. And, exactly as before, the new venture leads to a large damage suit in which it is charged that these contracts were obtained through the misuse of influence in Washington. Hancock is then the conspicuous connecting link between the affairs of Grant Stockdale and those of Bobby Baker. Yet after Stockdale's 'suicide', the Senate committee investigating the Baker scandal blandly declared that there was no tie at all. Stockdale, a spokesman for the committee said, was not under investigation and there had been no plans for the committee to question him. And, indeed, the committee did not ask Hancock as far as is known, any questions about Stockdale when it grilled him. Just one more of those fabulous 'coincidences', you see, that abound in every phase and facet of the Johnson regime, and most strikingly in the Oswald story: at the precise moment that the Bobby Baker investigation gets under way, an earlier high-ranking influence peddler formerly associated with the same figurehead president, Hancock, a man hoping and praying that he won't 'get cut up too bad' in the process, mysteriously plunges to his death from a tall building. Yet, in the official view, there is no link, no connection. Mystery befitting a B-grade thriller surrounds the third body in the Baker case, one that belonged, in life, to a beautiful woman. Like other housewives in the crime-ridden Washington area, Mrs. Sheila Drennan made it a standing practice to keep the doors of her home in suburban Maryland not only closed, but locked. Yet one day, early in 1964, when her children caine home from school, they were surprised to find the front door not only unlocked, but wide open. Their misgivings found horrible confirmation. On the floor of the bathroom, the children found the lifeness nude body of their 34-yearold mother. Nothing else had been touched and in the adjoining bedroom, the police found the woman's clothing and rings arrayed on the bed. Apparently, she was about to take a bath when sudden death overtook her. What had happened? Did Mrs. Drennan slip in the bathroom and break her neck, or was she murdered? The medical authorities were as puzzled as the police. County Medical Examiner Dr. John Kehoe was unable to make a firm determination of the cause of death. He noted an internal neck injury but expressed the view that this could have been caused 'by a fall or a mugging'. He thought, therefore, that the woman's death could have been 'either accidental or homicide.' And, what has this all to do with the Baker case? Simply this: Sheila Drennan was the wife of Lorin H. Drennan Jr., a government accountant who gave the Senate probers a detailed picture of Bobby Baker's financial entanglements, including the fact that he had borrowed a total of $ 1.7 million from various banks in four years. And that Lorin Drennan's testimony was followed, in a matter of days, by the mysterious death of his wife. If the 'accident' that befell Drennan's wife may possibly have been unconnected with the Baker affair who will ever be able to tell for sure? - the 'accidental' death, a few months later, of Bobby's Girl Friday, Carole Tyler, was certainly not due to mere coincidence. However, her case is so Complex and so important that we must deal with it separately in a subscqucut chapter. Remember, this book was published in 1968. He did not know that Grant Stockdale’s wife had been warned that if she contradicted the “suicide” story, her daughter would be murdered (disclosed by Anne Stockdale on this Forum on 16th June, 2004). This helps to explain the Shelia Drennan story. Was Lorin Drennan warned that his wife would be murdered if he gave evidence against Bobby Baker? Can we be really be surprised about the lack of witnesses coming forward to claim that LBJ and Bobby Baker were behind the assassination of JFK?

I apologise for Tim’s behaviour. I am afraid he often resorts to this tactic when he cannot argue against the logic of your case. He usually accused people of being anti-American or a communist sympathizer. Don’t be too hard of him, his limited education has made him a victim of the lies told by the mass media. He is suffering from “false consciousness”. He is welcome to join. Do you have his contact details?

Joesten appears to have been the first investigator to link the death of Grant Stockdale to the JFK assassination: On December 2. 1963, an AP dispatch from Miami reported: 'Grant Stockdale, former Ambassador to Ireland, plunged to his death todtiy from his offices on the 13th floor of the du Pont Building. 'The police said Mr. Stockdale, an intimate friend of President Kennedy, had committed suicide. No notes were found, however. Mr. Stockdale was 48 years old...' Note that Stockdale, according to this dispatch, did not jump out of his office window, as suicides normally do. He 'plunged to his death', a conveniently ambiguous statement that is frequently used when a person dies by a fall from a window and the authorities just don't know for sure (or don't want to say) whether the victim had jumped or had been pushed out of the window. With no eyewitnesses in the case, and no notes suggesting suicidal intent, how could the Miami police come out with a flat statement that Stockdale had committed suicide? Or did the Associated Press lend an unquestioning note to a somewhat less affirmative police statement? The question must be raised because The New York Herald Tribune in a dispatch from Washington by Dom Bonafede, published on December 3, 1963, stated: 'Police said it was an apparent suicide.' 'Miami police investigators, however, were unable to find a suicide note or provide any motive,' the Herald Tribune dispatch went on to say. No motive. But the unnatural death of a prominent personality has to be explained somehow to the public. And so we are promptly treated to a variety of 'explanations', one more implausible than the other. The AP dispatch cited above hints strongly that Grant Stockdale - a very rich man-had run into financial troubles, but substantiates this suggestion with ridiculous assertions: 'In a recent newspaper interview, he (Stockdale) said that he had borne heavy expenses by serving as Ambassador...' Stockdale's appointment as ambassador to Ireland, made by President Kennedy in March 1961, was a typical political payoff, such as follow traditionally all changes in the Administration. Stockdale was not a career diplomat. His principal qualifications for the job were his services to the Democratic Party, his great personal wealth and the fact that he was a practising Roman Catholic. The latter circumstance, incidentally, makes the suicide version look even more improbable than it would otherwise be, for the Catholic Church strongly condemns suicides and inexorably relegates them to hell. Ambassadorial appointments like that of Grant Stockdale are made primarily for two reasons: in order to reward a faithful party stalwart for substantial campaign contributions and because the nominee can afford to supplement his salary with personal income in order to meet the expenses of diplomatic high living. No rich man appointed to a political ambassadorship ever went broke in the service. The suggestion that the religious Stockdale, having ruined himself in the service of his country, saw no other way out than to commit the sin of sins is simply ludicrous. Aware of it, apparently, the AP dispatch adds some other possible sources of financial despair: 'When he left Ireland to return to his real estate business in July, 1962, Mr. Stockdale said, he found that the market had declined badly. He also spoke of the great expense of a large family. He had two sons and three daugthers.' If Seockdale found in July, 1962, that business had declined so badly that he could no longer afford to raise a large family, why did he wait another 17 months to jump out the window? And, what other big real estate operator was wiped out by the alleged 'decline' of the market between early 1961 and mid-1962? All this is just plainly absurd, and the most preposterous of all is the suicide motive Dorn Bonafede managed to dig up: 'Miarni friends said yesterday that Mr. Stockdale, who was in the real estate and investment business, was despondent over the death of President Kennedy. He is reported to have fallen on his knees and prayed when lie heard the news...' On the strength of this paragraph, the Herald Tribune actually published the Bonafede dispatch under this four-column headline: "Despondent' Kennedy Friend Dies in Plunge" Hardheaded businessinen - and Stockdale was certainly hardheaded, as his record shows - don't kill themselves because a friend has been murdered, be it the President of the United States. Besides, relations between Kennedy and Stockdale had soured considerably, as we shall see. All this is part and parcel of the official myth making that goes on day after day in the United States to gloss over the conspicuous taints in The Great Society. It has been going on at a greatly accelerated pace since the assassination of President Kennedy. The truth of the matter is that Grant Stockdale was also a wheelerdealer and had found himself caught in the Bobby Baker web, If his death was suicide, the reason was that he feared exposure. More likely, Stockdale was murdered because he knew too much and somebody else feared exposure. Dom Bonafede's dispatch indicates that Stockdale did not resign his ambassadorship of his own free will but was in effect fired by President Kennedy in May 1962, even though this was done with the usual diplomatic niceties: 'Prior to his resignation it was disclosed that he had borrowed $1,000 interest-free from Sidney Kessler, a New York and Miami builder, who was seeking an $£3,000 commitment froin the Federal Housing Administration. The petition was later approved. 'President Kennedy reportedly learned of the loan and demanded that Mr. Stockdale return the $5,000. 'In a trans-Atlantic telephone call to a Miami reporter, Mr. Stockdale reportedly commented that the President was "afraid the loan could make it look like I was finagling around with the FHA"...' So much for the allegedly warm relationship between Kennedy and Stockdale which caused the latter to kill himself out of 'despondency' after ten days of mourning over his assassinated friend. Coyly, the Herald Tribune story touches on the background to Stockdale's latest and last entanglements: 'Mr. Stockdale's name also came up briefly as a part time associate of Eugene Hancock, a vending-machine operator, mentioned in the investigation of Bobby Baker...' The New York Times of December 3, 1963, is more explicit: 'Grant Stockdale once had close business connections with vending-machine concerns that are under investigation in the Robert G. Baker inquiry... 'In an interview published in the Miami Herald last October, shortly after the Senate authorized a study of Mr. Baker's dealings, Mr. Stockdale said: "I hope I don't get cut up too bad, I haven't done anything wrong..,' 'Mr. Stockdale's responses were to questions about the similarities between the Washington damage suit against Mr. Baker, which touched off the Baker case, and a 1961 damage suit against Mr. Stockdale and others in Miami. 'In April, 1961, just as Mr. Stockdale was leaving Miami to assume his duties as Ambassador to Ireland, he was served with papers in a $131,000 damage suit. The suit alleged that he had used "undue influence" to gain contracts for Automatic Vending Services, Inc., a Miami company in which he owned stock. 'Mr. Stockdale accused the complainant, the Pan-Am Tobacco Corporation, of trying to "get some publicity because I am a United States Ambassador." He denied the charges. 'Pan-Am contended in its suit that Mr. Stockdale had been instrumental in gaining for his company the vending service contract at Erodex, Inc., an aircraft engine maintenance company in Miami. 'Subsequently, Automatic Vending Services, Inc., won contracts totalling $500,000 a year at Patrick Air Force Base and the Air Force missile test center at Cape Kennedy...' To recapitulate the many and striking similarities between the Stockdalc and Baker cases: Grant Stockdale is a big wheel in the Democratic Party and a person of considerable influence in Washington; Bobby Baker is also a big wheel in the Democratic Party geared to one of the biggest and exercises even greater influence in the capital. Stockdale is also a major stockholder in a vending-machine company. This outfit garners, one after another, extremely lucrative contracts in Government installations and Government-controlled defence plants. And eventually it becomes the target of a damage suit by a competitor, charging the use of 'undue influence' in obtaining these contracts. Two years later, Bobby Baker travels exactly the same road with all its way stations, as has already been described in previous chapters. Any thought that all this could be purely coincidental is now dispelled by this paragraph in the Times story: 'Mr. Stockdale, one business associate said, was then "harassed" by newsmen concerning his connection with Automatic Vending Services and its president, Eugene A. Hrzncock...' There you have it, in a nutshell. Eugene A. Hancock is the president of Automatic Vending Services. One of his biggest assets is a prominent stockholder, Grant Stockdale, who has plenty of pull in Washington. Coincidentally, of course, profitable government contracts start tumbling out of Washington's cornucopia and into the lap of the Hancock-Stockdale enterprise. "Then, a couple of years later, the scene shifts. Hancock is now president of the Serv-U-Corporation, another automatic vending concern, with the very, very influential Bobby Baker as his principal stockholder (in fact, though not in name). Automatically, again, the cornucopia tilts and starts pouring out juicy government contracts. And, exactly as before, the new venture leads to a large damage suit in which it is charged that these contracts were obtained through the misuse of influence in Washington. Hancock is then the conspicuous connecting link between the a(fairs of Grant Stockdale and those of Bobby Baker. Yet after Stockdale's 'suicide', the Senate committee investigating the Baker scandal blandly declared that there was no tie at all. Stockdale, a spokesman for the committee said, was not under investigation and there had been no plans for the committee to question him. And, indeed, the committee did not ask Hancock as far as is known, any questions about Stockdale when it grilled him. Just one more of those fabulous 'coincidences', you see, that abound in every phase and facet of the Johnson regime, and most strikingly in the Oswald story: at the precise moment that the Bobby Baker investigation gets under way, an earlier high-ranking influence peddler formerly associated with the same figurehead president, Hancock, a man hoping and praying that he won't 'get cut up too bad' in the process, mysteriously plunges to his death from a tall building. Yet, in the official view, there is no link, no connection. Mystery befitting a B-grade thriller surrounds the third body in the Baker case, one that belonged, in life, to a beautiful woman. Like other housewives in the crime-ridden Washington area, Mrs. Sheila Drennan made it a standing practice to keep the doors of her home in suburban Maryland not only closed, but locked. Yet one day, early in 1964, when her children caine home from school, they were surprised to find the front door not only unlocked, but wide open. Their misgivings found horrible confirmation. On the floor of the bathroom, the children found the lifeness nude body of their 34-yearold mother. Nothing else had been touched and in the adjoining bedroom, the police found the woman's clothing and rings arrayed on the bed. Apparently, she was about to take a bath when sudden death overtook her. What had happened? Did Mrs. Drennan slip in the bathroom and break her neck, or was she murdered? The medical authorities were as puzzled as the police. County Medical Examiner Dr. John Kehoe was unable to make a firm determination of the cause of death. He noted an internal neck injury but expressed the view that this could have been caused 'by a fall or a mugging'. He thought, therefore, that the woman's death could have been 'either accidental or homicide.' And, what has this all to do with the Baker case? Simply this: Sheila Drennan was the wife of Lorin H. Drennan Jr., a government accountant who gave the Senate probers a detailed picture of Bobby Baker's financial entanglements, including the fact that he had borrowed a total of $ 1.7 million from various banks in four years. And that Lorin Drennan's testimony was followed, in a matter of days, by the mysterious death of his wife. If the 'accident' that befell Drennan's wife may possibly have been unconnected with the Baker affair who will ever be able to tell for sure? - the 'accidental' death, a few months later, of Bobby's Girl Friday, Carole Tyler, was certainly not due to mere coincidence. However, her case is so Complex and so important that we must deal with it separately in a subscqucut chapter. Remember, this book was published in 1968. He did not know that Grant Stockdale’s wife had been warned that if she contradicted the “suicide” story, her daughter would be murdered (disclosed by Anne Stockdale on this Forum on 16th June, 2004). This helps to explain the Shelia Drennan story. Was Lorin Drennan warned that his wife would be murdered if he gave evidence against Bobby Baker? Can we be really be surprised about the lack of witnesses coming forward to claim that LBJ and Bobby Baker were behind the assassination of JFK?

Joachim Joesten book, Oswald: Assassin or Fail Guy? was first published by a left-wing publisher, Merlin Press, in London. Soon afterwards it was published by Manzani & Munsell in New York. The book was published before the Warren Commission report and immediately the CIA began a smear campaign against the author and the publishers. Newspaper editors were informed that the American publisher, Carl Manzani, was a former member of the American Communist Party whereas Joesten had been a communist activist in Nazi Germany. The CIA attempted to convince the Warren Commission that Joesten was an unreliable source. Here is a copy of a letter sent by Richard Helms (Deputy Director for Plans) to J. Lee Rankin, General Counsel of the Warren Commission on 1st October, 1964. Interestingly, Helms tries to smear Joesten by providing evidence that in 1936 he was being sought by the Gestapo. One can understand why the CIA was concerned that an anti-fascist was investigating the JFK assassination. 1. Attached are reproduced copies of a set of German documents seized by the U.S. authorities at the end of World War II. The documents concern Joachtm J0ESTEN, author of Oswald. Assassin or Fail Guy?, Marzani & Munsell Publishers, Inc., 1964. The captured documents in this set range in dates from July 1936 to November 1937 and contain the statement that JOESTEN had been a member of the Communist Party of Germany since 1932. You will note that the attention of the German security organs was directed at JOESTEN as early as 1936. At that time the Communist Party had been 'outlawed in Germany and the German authorities apparently had begun collecting information about JOESTEN and his activities. Their investigation seems to have culminated in the proposal for revocation of his German citizenship. 2. A two page memorandum, dated 8 November 1937, prepared by the Gestapo, included in essence all of the facts provided in the other documents in the set. Therefore, we have translated that memorandum and are attaching the translation.

In my opinion Joachim Joesten is one of the heroes of the investigation into the assassination of JFK. He was also one of the first to discover what the CIA would do to those who questioned the Warren Commission report. Joachim Joesten, the son of a doctor, was born in Germany on 29th June, 1907. He attended Nancy University in France and the University of Madrid in Spain. He returned to Berlin where he worked as a journalist for the Weltbuehne. Joesten was also an active member of the German Communist Party. After Adolf Hitler gained power Joesten emigrated to France. Later he moved to Denmark. His first book, Denmark's Day of Doom, was published by Victor Gollancz (a socialist publisher in London) in 1939. When the German Army arrived in Denmark on 9th April, 1940, Joesten fled to Sweden. After marrying May Nilsson, Joesten and his wife emigrated to the United States. Soon after arriving in New York, Joesten joined Newsweek magazine. In 1944 he became a freelance writer. Books by Joesten include Nasser: The Rise to Power (1960), The Red Hand (1962) and Spies and Spy Techniques since World War II (1963). Joesten took a keen interest in the assassination of JFK. He wrote in New Times (23rd September 23, 1964): "Americans await the long-delayed report of the Warren Commission on President Kennedy’s assassination. Indications are that it will adhere to the FBI-police version that Kennedy was murdered by a lone operator, Lee Oswald, for no rational reason. Most Europeans, and many politically-oriented Americans, believe otherwise. The suspect Kennedy was the victim of a Rightist political plot. Unofficial investigators have done much research. The Buchanan book attracted much attention in Europe, but was kept from significant circulation in the United States. Attorney Mark Lane, former member of the N.Y. State Legislature, has been the leading advocate of a real investigation." Joesten and Buchanan were both accused of being pro-communist and possibly KGB agents. (Tim Gratz is still using this tactic.) Joesten's career took a downturn as like Buchanan, he became a blacklisted writer. As someone who had been blacklisted in Nazi Germany, it was not the first time that Joesten had suffered from right-wing extremists. Joesten published "Oswald, Assassin or Fall Guy?" in 1964. Like other early authors who questioned the official version, Joesten was forced to get his book published in the England (Merlin Press). In the book Joesten claimed that the Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Dallas Police Department and a group of right-wing Texas oil millionaires conspired to kill Kennedy. He openly accused Police Chief Jesse Curry of being one of the key figures in the assassination. Other books by Joesten on the subject included Marina Oswald (1967), Oswald: The Truth (1967) and The Garrison Enquiry: Truth & Consequences (1967) and How Kennedy was Killed: The Full Appalling Story (1968). In the book he provided information that Haroldson L. Hunt was involved in the assassination. Joesten also argued that Ruby was murdered on 3rd January, 1967. Joesten later took the view that Lyndon B. Johnson and Bobby Baker were involved in the killing: "The Baker scandal then is truly the hidden key to the assassination, or more exact, the timing of the Baker affair crystallized the more or less vague plans to eliminate Kennedy which had already been in existence the threat of complete exposure which faced Johnson in the Baker scandal provided that final impulse he was forced to give the go-ahead signal to the plotters who had long been waiting for the right opportunity." Joesten's best book is the The Dark Side of Lyndon Baines Johnson (1968). He was the first person to link Clifton Carter, Billie Sol Estes and Lyndon Johnson to the murders of Henry Marshall, George Krutilek, Harold Orr, and Coleman Wade. This view was of course supported by Billie Sol Estes testimony in 1983. This is indeed a very powerful book. It is also difficult to obtain and so I will be posting extracts on the Forum. The book also includes some interesting extracts from American newspapers reporting on the JFK assassination and the corruption of LBJ.

Great work Andy. It seems to me a good use of the Forum where history teachers can feed back information on ways that they could be used in the classroom. Especially when this comes from teachers from different countries. One possibility is to produce materials with a history teacher from another country. For example, linking up with a history teacher from Germany to write about Nazi Germany, a teacher from the United States on the American Revolution, a teacher from Africa to study slavery, etc.

If anyone was in any doubt, surely it is this thread that shows that Tim Gratz is incapable of applying logic to any subject being discussed.

I have just been reading Jeb Magruder's , An American Life (1974). It includes the following passage: I knew Jack Caulfield less well. Jack was about forty, a chunky Irishman who'd started his career as a policeman in New York, but won a promotion to detective and specialized in "terrorist organizations." During the 1960 Presidential campaign he helped guard candidate Nixon when he was in New York, and he held a temporary security job with the 1968 campaign, one that led Ehrlichman to hire him, in April of 1969, to be a special investigator on the White House staff. Caulfield's office was next to Lyn Nofziger's office in the Executive Office Building and I'd see him there from time to time. He was always very hush-hush about his work, but he seemed to be particularly active during antiwar demonstrations, so I assumed he was investigating antiwar leaders and other of our political opponents. Dean, Caulfield, and I had lunch at the White House Mess. Caulfield explained that he hoped to start a private investigation firm - codenamed Sand Wedge - that could do work for both CRP and the Republican National Committee, as well as for corporate clients. The firm would provide both security services and covert intelligence-gathering, Caulfield said. John Dean added that both Mitchell and Haldeman were interested in Sand Wedge. The plan had an extra boost in that one of Caulfield's partners was to be Joe Woods, the former sheriff of Cook County, who was Rose Mary Woods's brother. I told Dean and Caulfield that they should get back in touch with me if they got Caulfield's firm started. CRP had adequate security, but I felt we needed a professional intelligence-gathering operation, and if Mitchell and the White House wanted Caulfield, he was fine with me. However, Dean called me in early November and told me to forget Sand Wedge. "It fell through," he said. "Jack couldn't put it together." We know from the testimony of Jack Caulfield and Tony Ulasewicz before Sam Ervin and the Senate Watergate Committee, that Sandwedge did take place. Caulfield was told that this was an "extreme clandestine" operation and that its main purpose was to carry out illegal electronic surveillance on the political opponents of Richard Nixon. Charles Colson suggested to Caulfield that his men fire-bomb the Brookings Institute (a left-wing public policy group involved in studying government policy in Vietnam). Caulfield sent Ulasewicz to investigate the location of offices, security provisions, etc. According to Caulfield the fire-bomb plan was eventually "squelched" by John Dean. More importantly, Sandwedge was about finding ways of persuading Edward Kennedy and George Wallace from standing in the 1972 election. Was Magruder lying or was he kept in the dark?

The interview with the psychic was the one bad thing about the documentary. However, the presenter rejected her evidence when she claimed that Marilyn Monroe had been killed by Robert Kennedy. It included some good interviews, including testimony of the detective that was involved in investigating the death of Mary Jo Kopechne and the man who photographed the assassination of Robert Kennedy. If you taped it, I suggest you watch the rest of the program.

In 2001 President George Bush imposed what has become known as the "global gag" rule. It requires any organisation applying for US funds to sign an undertaking not to counsel women on abortion - other than advising against it - or provide abortion services. As a result of this decision, millions of women throughout the Third World have been denied the best advice available. According to one report, nearly 70,000 women and girls died last year because they went to back-street abortionists. Hundreds of thousands of others suffered serious injuries. Critics of America's aid policy say some might have lived if the US had not withdrawn funding from clinics that provide safe services - or that simply tell women where to find them. The British government has recently defied the United States by giving money for safe abortion services in developing countries to organisations that have been cut off from American funding. The Department for International Development will contribute £3m over two years to the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) whose clinics across the world have suffered badly because of Bush's policy. "I think the UK is being very brave and very progressive in making this commitment," said Steven Sinding, director general of the IPPF. "We're deeply grateful for this gesture not only financially but also politically. "Tens of thousands of women who depend on our services are not able to get them. We're committed to the expansion of safe abortion because in any society no matter how efficiently contraception is made available there will be unplanned and unwanted pregnancies." The "global gag", he said, had increased the number of unsafe abortions by stopping funding to clinics that primarily provide contraception. "What I've never been able to figure out about American policy is why they persist in cutting down funding to organisations that are about preventing unwanted pregnancies." DFID asked IPPF to produce a report on the scale of the damage caused by unsafe abortion. Death and Denial: Unsafe Abortion and Poverty. It reveals that an estimated 19 million women will risk the consequences of an unsafe abortion this year, of whom 70,000 will die. This accounts for 13% of the 500,000 maternal deaths each year. Women's low status in many poor countries makes them vulnerable to sexual coercion, abuse and exploitation, says the report. Almost 50% of sexual assaults worldwide are against girls aged 15 or less. The death and injury toll is highest in countries where abortion is illegal or severely restricted, as in Kenya, where some 30% to 50% of maternal deaths are a result of unsafe abortion. The Family Planning Association of Kenya, an IPPF member, chose to forfeit US funds rather than sign the "global gag" clause. It was forced to close three reproductive health clinics, scale back others and slash outreach programmes. Many other organisations are affected by the global gag, including Marie Stopes, which is bigger in some countries than IPPF. The money from the new fund will be equitably shared among all those who have lost US funds. IPPF, which has itself lost $15m (£9m) a year for the past five years, together with the provision of contraceptives worth $2m to $4m, hopes the fund may eventually raise up to $35m.

Andy and I had a really good meeting with Andy Schofield, the head of Varndean School. He is very keen on our Citizenship Project and is willing to give us his full support in the bid for the contract. Andy is also willing to participate in the project. He is very keen on “active citizenship” and his school actually has students on the governing body. He also has contacts with a township school in Cape Town. Andy explained how they have some interesting ideas on teaching citizenship. This could be another interesting case study in Year 2.

Update on this situation. In have contacted Dora Nousia about replacing Paula Cowan. She originally put herself forward to join the project but then ceased to be active. This was her original posting: Dora Nousia, 38, Associate Director of CTI’s eLearning Sector, computer engineer. Manager of large projects on the utilization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for hundreds of schools in Greece and abroad. She has led large teams of teacher trainers and software developers, as well as technical supporters and administration personnel, and has worked with public administration institutions, the Ministry of education, pedagogical institutions, Universities, software development teams and companies. She was the consultant for studies for the application of e-learning to the entire Greek educational system, e.g. she has conducted the Technical Support Study for ten thousand schools of the Greek Ministry of Education, she has designed and managed the pilot project e-Omogeneia (2002-2005) involving computer supported collaborative distance learning and communication for Greek schools all over the world. She has a strong scientific background in natural language engineering and years of experience in managing R&D projects. She had designed and implemented software for automated language tools, and information retrieval systems. Senior manager at the Educational Technology Sector of the Research Academic Computer Technology Institute (RA CTI) (1998-todate). Manager of Research Unit "Software Engineering and Applications" of RA CTI (1994-1998). Educated in the University of Patras, Computer Engineering Dept.(1984-1989). Born in Ipiros, Greece. Has 2 children. Pedro has suggested two teacher trainers he knows from Belgium. He is currently exploring this possibility. Both Andy Davies and I have contacts at the University of Sussex and the University of Brighton. However, at this stage I think we should concentrate getting a woman from a country that is not currently represented.

The Forum is currently interviewing two important figures in history: Manuel Ray and Douglas Caddy. Both men have been reluctant to talk about their role in important events. However, they have been impressed by the way we have handled other witnesses and have volunteered to tell their stories on the Forum. Manuel Ray was born in Cuba in 1924. In 1947 the Cuban Ministry of Public Works granted him a scholarship to study civil engineering at the University of Utah. Ray returned to Cuba in 1949 and became project manager for the construction of the Hilton Hotel in Havana. Ray was opposed to the military rule of Fulgencio Batista and in 1957 he established the Civic Resistance Movement. Over the next two years Ray organized a series of sabotage and acts of terrorism against the Batista government. Fidel Castro recognised the important role Ray played in the overthrow of Batista and appointed him as his Minister of Public Works (February, 1959). Ray clashed with Castro over certain issues. This included Castro's decision to execute Hubert Matos. In November, 1959, Ray left Castro's government. In May 1960 Ray formed the Revolutionary Movement of the People (MRP) and joined the underground resistance to Castro. The MRP was a left of centre political organization that's policies included regulation of private investment and the nationalization of all utilities. The Central Intelligence Agency considered Ray an important political asset and in November, 1960, arranged for him to escape to the United States. However, the CIA was not in complete agreement about Ray. For example, E. Howard Hunt saw Ray as too left-wing and described him as a supporter of "Fidelism without Fidel". Despite these fears, Kennedy insisted that Ray should become part of the Frente Revolucionario Democratico (FRD). This upset its leader, Jose Miro Cardona, who considered Ray to be a dangerous radical. William Pawley, who believed that Ray was a communist, also objected to him becoming a member of FRD. Kennedy also wanted Ray to join the Cuban Revolutionary Council (CRC). Ray agreed to do this three weeks before the Bay of Pigs operation. Ray became Chief of Sabotage and Internal Affairs. Other members of this government in exile included Tony Varona (Secretary of War), Manuel Artime (Head of the Army), Antonio Maceo (Secretary of Health) and Justo Carrillo (Economic Administrator). Ray withdrew the MRP from the CRC soon after the failed invasion of Cuba. He gave a news conference on 28th May, 1961, where he criticised the Bay of Pigs operation. He claimed that CRC had broken a pledge to ensure that anyone closely associated with Fulgencio Batista would not be used in the invasion. Ray also argued that Castro should be overthrown by the Cuban people and was totally opposed to CIA backed invasions. Kennedy now cut off funds for the MRP. As a result, party members persuaded Ray to resign as leader of the MRP. Ray now moved to Puerto Rico. In October 1961 he became a member of the Puerto Rican Planning Board. In April 1962, Ray formed a new anti-Castro organization called the Junta Revolucionario Cubana (JURE). This organization became part of the CRC. Ray also began providing information to the CIA about the possible defection of Castro's officials. Ray made a tour of Latin American countries in an attempt to raise funds in order that JURE could mount resistance operations inside Cuba. Silvia Odio was one of Ray's supporters. On 25th September, 1963, Odio had a visit from three men who claimed they were from New Orleans. Two of the men, Leopoldo and Angelo, said they were members of the JURE. The third man, Leon, was introduced as an American sympathizer who was willing to take part in the assassination of Fidel Castro. After she told them that she was unwilling to get involved in any criminal activity, the three men left. Odio became convinced that after the assassination of Kennedy that Leon was Lee Harvey Oswald. Odio gave evidence to the Warren Commission and one of its lawyers commented: "Silvia Odio was checked out thoroughly... The evidence is unanimously favorable... Odio is the most significant witness linking Oswald to the anti-Castro Cubans." On 20th May, 1964, Ray and a crew of seven, including a reporter-photographer team from Life Magazine, landed at the Angguilla Cays, 40 miles off the Cuban coast. However, the British authorities discovered Ray and his group and their cache of weapons and explosives, arrested them for illegal entry into the Bahamas and took them to Nassau. After being fined Ray was deported to the United States. The FBI now carried out an investigation into Ray's activities and discovered that he had illegally purchased $50,000 worth of arms for JURE from a California arms manufacturer. As a result Ray was told to move all his operations outside of United States territory. Attempts were also made to stop people in the United States from financing Ray's activities. Ray continued to get involved in anti-Castro activities and in 1972 he formed the People's Revolutionary Party, but it failed to make an impact. In 1978 Ray moved to Puerto Rico when he headed his own engineering consulting firm in San Juan. http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=6083 Douglas Caddy was born in 1938. He was educated at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service (B.S. degree) and New York University School of Law (J.D. degree). While a student he developed right-wing opinions and in 1960 he established the "Youth for Goldwater" organization. In September, 1960, Caddy, Marvin Liebman and William F. Buckley established the far right group, Young Americans for Freedom (YAF). The first meeting was held at Buckley's home in Sharon, Connecticut. Caddy became YAF's first president. Its first national council included eleven members of the John Birch Society. The main mission of the YAF was to “prepare young people for the struggle ahead with Liberalism, Socialism and Communism”. After graduating from New York University School of Law in 1966 Caddy went to work for General Foods Corporation in White Plains, New York. In 1969 Caddy was transferred to corporate headquarters in Washington. According to Caddy: "The corporate plan was to open an office for Washington representation a year later. Meanwhile, I was ordered as an employee to work out of the public affairs firm of Robert Mullen and Co., which General Foods had retained for decades." Caddy met E. Howard Hunt after he joined the staff of Robert Mullen, being recommended by Richard Helms, then director of the CIA. Caddy left General Foods and joined the Washington Law firm of Gall, Lane, Powell and Kilcullen. In 1970 E. Howard Hunt became a client of the company. When Charles Colson invited Hunt to join the White House staff in 1971, Caddy provided him with a character reference. Caddy, who was an active member of the Republican Party, did volunteer legal work for Richard Nixon. In March 1972 he had a meeting with John Dean. Over the next four months he performed a number of legal tasks connected with Nixon presidential campaign assigned to him by Dean's office. Caddy also did work for G. Gordon Liddy, the counsel for the finance committee of the Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP). On the 17th June, 1972, Frank Sturgis, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, Bernard L. Barker and James W. McCord were arrested while in the Democratic Party headquarters in Watergate. Soon afterwards, E. Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy contacted Caddy for help. Caddy arranged for another attorney, Joseph Rafferty, to meet him in the next morning in the courtroom. Later that day Caddy and Rafferty arranged to represent Sturgis, Gonzalez, Martinez, Barker, McCord, Hunt and Liddy. Eleven days later Caddy was instructed to appear before the Grand Jury. Caddy answered some of the questions but refused to reply to those he claimed "involved the attorney-client, which protects confidential and legitimate communications between an attorney and his client." On 10th July, 1972, Earl J. Silbert filed a "motion to Compel Testimony of Grand Jury Witness Michael Douglas Caddy. At issue were 38 key questions that Caddy refused to answer. According to Caddy, these "38 questions was to attempt through my lips as their defense attorney to implicate and incriminate Hunt and Liddy in the break-in." On 13th July, Caddy once again refused to answer these questions and therefore John J. Sirica sent him to prison. Caddy was soon released and on 19th July, 1972, Caddy appeared before the Grand Jury and answered all the questions he was asked. He was surprised that he was never questioned about his relationship with John Dean, G. Gordon Liddy, E. Howard Hunt and the White House before the Watergate break-in. He was never asked to testify before Sam Ervin and the Senate Watergate Committee. However, when Herbert W. Kalmbach was interviewed it was discovered that Caddy had rejected attempts by Anthony Ulasewicz to pay "hush money" to his clients. In 1984 Caddy became a lawyer for Billie Sol Estes. On 9th August, 1984, Caddy wrote to Stephen S. Trott at the U.S. Department of Justice. In the letter Caddy claimed that Estes, Lyndon B. Johnson, Mac Wallace and Cliff Carter had been involved in the murders of Henry Marshall, George Krutilek, Harold Orr, Ike Rogers, Coleman Wade, Josefa Johnson, John Kinser and John F. Kennedy. Caddy added: "Mr. Estes is willing to testify that LBJ ordered these killings, and that he transmitted his orders through Cliff Carter to Mac Wallace, who executed the murders." In recent years Douglas Caddy has moved to the left. He describes himself as a "progressive-liberal" who supported Al Gore for President in 2000 and Howard Dean for President in 2004 and belongs to People for the American Way (ACLU). http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=5892

Sorry it has taken me so long to answer this point. It is true that in the late 1970s I did have some influence on the way that history was taught in schools. However, the only reason I was able to do this was because my views on history teaching was shared by so many other teachers. When we (Tressell) began publishing teaching materials using the “source” approach, we had no idea of the market. We just published materials that we had created for our own classrooms. The source approach had been pioneered by the Schools Council a few years before we started publishing. However, young teachers like me were critical of these materials. (1) They avoided controversial issues (they had come under considerable pressure from right-wing politicians to do this). (2) Except for the “What is History” course, they were aimed at grammar school pupils and this was reflected in the content and design of the materials. Although I produced two booklets (The Mysterious Case of the Mary Celeste and The Bermuda Triangle) for the “What is History” course, the rest of what we produced covered mainstream subjects like the First World War and the Industrial Revolution (we even published a book on the French Revolution). Nor did we produce books made up of very short extracts. This is something that emerged with the early GCSE history books. I have always been opposed to this approach. You will find that I have always used long extracts in my books. As a result I have been accused of only being interested in the academic student. This is untrue, however, I do believe, that to be a historian, you need to be able to read primary sources that last for more than two sentences. A couple of years ago, Andy Walker and I had a very heated debate with the young members of the History Teachers’ Forum over the teaching of subjects like Jack the Ripper. We both rejected the idea that pupils should spend several weeks studying subjects just because they appealed to students. We also strongly objected to the idea that it did not matter what you taught as long as they acquired “history skills”. As the names suggested (Tressell and Spartacus) we had a political agenda. We thought that certain subjects should be studied by all students. However, we also thought that the way you studied these subjects was also vitally important. Our books were an attempt to challenge the dominant ideology. The books published by the multinational corporations never had that intention. They of course were not interested in the “source” approach until the introduction of GCSE history. They then had no choice. However, what they have done, is to abandon the original idea of turning students into active historians (with all the consequences this would have for their political development). The movement towards the “short extract” is just part of this process.

Q 1. Can you offer any details about the anti-Batista Civic Resistance Movement that you were involved in the late 1950s? For example, details like who planned the acts of sabotage and who were recruited to carry them out would be greatly appreciated. Was there a specific militant arm to the organization? Q 2. Were you heavily involved in attempts to overthrow Castro in 1963? Did you have any groups or leader in Tampa, Chicago, New Orleans or Dallas? Did you work with other exile groups or exile leader? Q 3. Do you believe that Manolo Artime or another Cuban exile leader was trying to implicate you and JURE in the Kennedy assassination by sending Lee Harvey Oswald to Sylvia Odio’s apartment? Q4. Do you agree with the House Select Committee on Assassinations that Artime had “guilty knowledge” of the assassination? Q 5. Former Artime confederate Angel Murgado has told several researchers that he, Artime and Bernardo de Torres were keeping an eye on suspicious anti-JFK activity among Cuban exiles in 1963 and while doing this they became aware of Oswald, whom they reported on to Bobby Kennedy. Do you believe this story? Q 6. Murgado also says that he and De Torres paid a social visit to Sylvia Odio, and that while at her apartment they spotted Oswald there. Do you believe this story? Q 7. Was Luis Posada a member of the crew of the M/V Venus and, if so, what was your opinion of him? Q 8. Was Posada among those who threatened to rebel against you for lack of any action against Castro? Q 9. Do you think Posada was a CIA informant within JURE? Q10. Did you feel that there were any former Brigade members who hated JFK enough to be a danger to him. Q11. When did you learn about the coup plan that Robert Kennedy, the CIA, Artime and Harry Williams were planning? Q12. How much did they tell you about the coup plan? (When, where, who else was involved, etc.) Were you told the name of the person inside the Castro government who was going to be part of the coup. Q13. Why did you decide not to participate? Q14. If the coup had happened as scheduled, would you have considered joining the new Provisional government? Q15. Did you have any contact with CIA people during the early 1960s. For example: Bernard Barker (“Macho”), E. Howard Hunt (“Eduardo”), James McCord, Carl Jenkins, David Morales (“El Indio”, “the Big Indian”, Zamka). What were your impressions of these people, and their actions. Q16. Did you ever hear rumors or stories about Varona or Artime – or other exiles – being involved with the Mafia in 1963 or 1964? Q17. Did you ever feel threatened by any mobsters, or did they ever approach you trying to give you support? Q18. When Bobby Kennedy said, “one of your guys did it” to Harry Ruiz-Williams on Nov. 22, 1963, to whom do you think Bobby was referring? Q19. Did you ever talk to Bobby Kennedy about what happened in Dallas? Q20. Who do you think was behind the Kennedy assassination?

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Ray Steiner Cline was born in 1919. He studied at Harvard University before joining the Office of Strategic Services during the Second World War. In 1944 he was appointed as Chief of Current Intelligence. In 1946 Cline was assigned to the Operations Division of the War Department General Staff to write its history. Cline joined the Central Intelligence Bureau in 1949 and eventually became Chief of the Office of National Estimates. He also served in Britain (1951-53) under Brigadier General Thomas Betts. Cline became Chief of station in Taiwan in 1957. A post he held for over four years. In 1962 Cline was appointed as Deputy Director for Intelligence for the CIA. He became disillusioned with Lyndon B. Johnson and he requested a move from Washington. In 1966 Richard Helms managed to arrange for Clines to become Special Coordinator and Adviser to the Ambassador in the U.S. Embassy in Bonn. From 1969 until his retirement in 1973, he was Director of the Bureau of Intelligence and Research at the Department of State during the Richard Nixon administration. Cline played an important role in the forming of right-wing organizations such as the World Anti-Communist League and its U.S. chapter, the U.S. Council for World Freedom. Cline has written several books including including World War Two, War Deparrtment (1951), World Power Assessment (1975), CIA: Reality v Myth (1981), Central Intelligence Agency Under Reagan, Bush and Casey (1982), Terrorism: The Soviet Connection (1985), Secrets, Spies and Scholars: The CIA from Roosevelt to Reagan (1986), Western Europe in Soviet Global Strategy (1987), Central Intelligence Agency: A Photographic History (1989), Chiang Ching-Kuo Remembered: The Man and His Political Legacy (1993). In his book The Power of Nations in the 1990s: A Strategic Assessment (1995): "Americans must at long last face up to geopolitical verities. It is easy to recognize that the United States and the whole Western Hemisphere are outclassed by the great Eurasian-African landmass in terms of territory, economic resources, and population. To maintain access to resources and friends, Americans must have bases abroad, air power, and, above all, the mobility and power of a superior three-ocean navy." Cline also served as Vice President of the Veterans of the Office of Strategic Services and was the founder and president of the National Intelligence Study Center and president of the Committee for a Free China. Ray S. Cline died on 15 March, 1996 in Arlington, Virginia. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKclineR.htm

Interesting passage from Lamar Waldron's Ultimate Sacrifice: Richard Cain's role in the Chicago attempt can be judged based on his actions in relation to Dallas, where CIA files confirm that "in 1963" Cain "became deeply involved in the President Kennedy assassination case." Only a handful of those documents have been released, but they show Richard Cain spreading disinformation about Oswald. This includes Cain planting reports to the CIA and Chicago media that "the Cook County Sheriff's Office... had strong suspicions that Oswald was in Chicago in April" and that "the assassination of President Kennedy" had been discussed "at a secret meeting of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee held in Chicago in February 1963." The memo said that "Cain" even "inferred he might be able to get the information to the FBI 'off the record"' about those matters. If the FBI had been slow to get the mail-order records of Oswald's rifle from the Chicago firm that sold it, Cain was in a position to make sure that that carefully laid paper trail wasn't overlooked. Cain was in position to do everything he did after Dallas for the earlier Chicago assassination attempt, and more. As the story of the Chicago attempt unfolds, it's important to keep in mind Cain's role and his true loyalty to the Mafia. Much information about Cain is missing or still classified by the CIA and FBI. But one CIA document that has been released also talks about Chicago Secret Service agent Abraham Bolden. Much of what is known about the Chicago assassination attempt is due to the efforts of Bolden, who "was prevented from testifying for the Warren Commission that the Secret Service knew of a plot to assassinate Kennedy in Chicago by members of a dissident Cuban group." This 1967 CIA memo then says that "an unsavory character known as Richard S. Cain... who was in touch with the CIAs contact office in Chicago in 1963 passed information of a similar import to the CIAs Chicago office." The CIA memo briefly mentions that Bolden is in prison, but doesn't mention that Bolden was framed by a Chicago mobster on the eve of his attempt to tell the Warren Commission about the Chicago and Tampa assassination attempts. As detailed in later chapters, the mobster who framed Bolden was a close associate of Richard Cain.