John Simkin
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Posts posted by John Simkin
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John,
I suspect that the combination of this paragraph from Pearson's October 26, 1963 column, and the quote from his diaries published posthumously in 1974, naming the "household names" of the October, 1963 column, indicates that Pearson knew that Tom Clark and Earl Warren had intentionally "fixed" the Warren Commission's investigation into the possibility of conspiracy, from 1964 until his death in 1969.
Did you not include this angle because it does not impress you, or for some other reason? Why do you think it has been so underemphasized, even though PD Scott and Anthony Summers wrote about it, even without associating Pearson's description of Tom Clark's 1946 knowledge with Clark's 1956 law clerk choice and his 1963 affirmation of Albert Jenner, described by Earl Warren to his fellow Commisioners in an executive session?
The only reason I did not include it was that I was unaware of this story. I will need to do further research.
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I interviewed my mum about her war experiences when she was 72 (1986). This is part of what she told me:
We were on our honeymoon when war was declared. We had planned to have a fortnight's holiday but we had to come home after a week. It was not a very good start to our married life...
I went with my parents to London to see off my husband and brother. They had both been called up by the army. After we left them at the railway station we got caught in an air-raid. We had to get off the bus after it caught fire. We ran for shelter. While we were running I looked at my dad and he appeared to be on fire. I said: "Dad, you're alight." He nearly had a heart attack and I was not very popular when he discovered that I was mistaken and that it was only the torch in his pocket that had been accidentally turned on while he was running.
I lived in Dagenham after, I was married. I worked in a munitions factory. We had to wait until the second alarm before we were allowed to go to the shelter. The first bell was a warning they were coming. The second was when they were overhead. They did not want any time wasted. The planes might have gone straight past and the factory would have stopped for nothing... Sometimes the Germans would drop their bombs before the second bell went. On one occasion a bomb hit the factory before we were given permission to go to the shelter. The paint department went up. I saw several people flying through the air and I just ran home. I was suffering from shock and was worried about whether my own house had been hit. I was suspended for six weeks without pay. They would have been saved if they had been allowed to go after the first alarm. It was a terrible job but we had no option. We all had to do war work. We were risking our lives in the same way as the soldiers were.
First of all we had an Anderson shelter in the garden. You were supposed to go into your Anderson shelter every night. I used to take my knitting. I used to knit all night. I was too frightened to go to sleep. You got into the habit of not sleeping. I've never slept properly since. It was just a bunk bed. I did not bother to get undressed. It was cold and damp in the shelter. I was all on my own because my husband was in the army.
You would go nights and nights and nothing happened. On one occasion when my husband was on leave, I think it was a weekend, we decided we would spend the night in bed instead of in the shelter. I heard the noise and woke up and I could see the sky. They had dropped a basket of incendiary bombs and we had got the lot. Luckily not one went off. Next morning the bombs were standing up in the garden as if they had grown in the night.
Rosie, my mum's sister, had to go to hospital to have a baby. Her mother-in-law looked after her three-year-old son. There was a bombing raid and Rosie's son and mother-in-law rushed to Bethnal Green underground station. Going down the stairs somebody fell. People panicked and Rosie's son was trampled to death.
People on the whole were more friendly during the war than they are today - happier even. People helped you out. You had to have a sense of humour. You couldn't get through it without that.
The worst part was having your husband and brothers away from you. We never heard from Jack, my brother, for five months. He couldn't communicate at all because he was involved in important battles in North Africa. It was very worrying. We knew a lot of his regiment had been killed. Then we saw his picture in the "Daily Express" newspaper. He was being inspected by General Montgomery. It was not until then that we knew he was alive.
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Interesting interview with George Seldes about Drew Pearson:
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My brother has produced a life in pictures of my mum. It is not finished yet but it is already very impressive.
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John, you may want to add that Pearson was, at times. a hatchet man. Although he'd occasionally crossed swords with LBJ, he was in the process of attacking LBJ's accuser, Don Reynolds, when Kennedy was shot. If I recall, in Pearson's oral history with the LBJ Library he even intimates that he was to meet with LBJ on the night of the assassination, at LBJ's ranch, and coordinate their attacks on Reynolds. (I don't remember if he spells this out or not, but that's what I took from the two of them meeting on the very day Reynolds was to testify against LBJ.)
I think his ties to Robert Maheu are also significant. The two coordinated activities during the Hughes/Brewster feud. They worked again on the 1960 campaign, when Maheu convinced Pearson to hold the Hughes/Nixon story so that it wouldn't hurt Nixon, and Pearson ended up publishing it anyhow, after Nixon gave the story to what he believed was a "friendly" journalist, and Pearson published it so he wouldn't be scooped on his own story.
This Maheu/Pearson relationship comes into play later as well. The 1967 Pearson/Anderson article claiming Bobby Kennedy ordered hits on Castro, and these backfired, was, according to the leaker, Morgan, not leaked by Rosselli to Morgan to Pearson, as so many believe, but by Maheu to Morgan to Pearson. Maheu, who was under investigation for illegal wiretapping (his bread and butter), was trying to send a message to Washington to back off. Pearson, of course, used this to his own advantage. Not only did he tell the story to Warren, he met directly with President Johnson, and told him the story. As the story claiming Bobby was responsible for his brother's death was held for months, and then INCREDIBLY--my, what a coinkydink--published the day after RFK broke with LBJ on the Vietnam War--it seems certain Pearson coordinated the release of this story with LBJ. That the published article leads with the assertion LBJ has been sitting on this bombshell should not distract us from what's obvious--that he released the bombshell via Pearson.
Thank you for this very informative posting. According to his diaries, Pearson considered LBJ a crook. This is confirmed by Anderson's book, Confessions of a Muckraker. Most of Pearson's investigative work focused on the "right" as he was clearly on the left. Anderson admits that he tried to protect those on the right such as Joe McCarthy from Pearson.
In 1956 Pearson began investigating the relationship between Johnson and two businessmen, George R. Brown and Herman Brown. Pearson believed that Johnson had arranged for the Texas-based Brown and Root Construction Company to avoid large tax bills. Johnson brought an end to this investigation by offering Pearson a deal. If Pearson dropped his Brown-Root crusade, Johnson would support the presidential ambitions of Estes Kefauver. Pearson accepted and wrote in his diary (16th April, 1956): "This is the first time I've ever made a deal like this, and I feel a little unhappy about it. With the Presidency of the United States at stake, maybe it's justified, maybe not - I don't know."
From this point on Pearson was willing to do deals with Johnson in order to further his own liberal objectives. This included his attacks on Reynolds. LBJ knew how to play Pearson by leaking information about Reynolds' right-wing past. On 5th February, 1964, Pearson and Anderson wrote in the Washington Post that Reynolds had lied about his academic success at West Point. The article also claimed that Reynolds had been a supporter of Joseph McCarthy and had accused business rivals of being secret members of the American Communist Party. It was also revealed that Reynolds had made anti-Semitic remarks while in Berlin in 1953.
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Ring Lardner Jr. was interviewed by John Parnell Thomas, chairman of the House of Un-American Activities Committee, on 30th October, 1947.
J. Parnell Thomas: Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?
Ring Larner Jr: I could answer exactly the way you want, Mr. Chairman but I think that is a...
J. Parnell Thomas: It is not a question of our wanted you to answer that. It is a very simple question. Any real American would be proud to answer the question.
Ring Larner Jr: It depends on the circumstances. I could answer it, but if I did I would hate myself in the morning.
J. Parnell Thomas: Leave the witness chair.
Ring Larner Jr: It was a question that would...
J. Parnell Thomas: (pounding gavel) Leave the witness chair.
Ring Larner Jr: I think I am leaving by force.
J. Parnell Thomas: Sergeant, take the witness away.
Ring Larner, who later went on to win the Academy Award for MASH, had the pleasure of seeing Parnell arrive at Danbury Federal Correctional Institution where he was serving his sentence.
You can see a short video of J. Parnell Thomas here:
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Called before a grand jury, J. Parnell Thomas availed himself to the 1st Amendment,...
For purposes of accuracy, I would suggest that you probably meant the Fifth Amendment, which guarantees the right to refuse to incriminate oneself. First Amendment is frequently cited in "freedom of speech" arguments, but would seem to be irrelevant in the case being cited.
You are of course right. Whereas the Hollywood Ten used the 1st Amendment, J. Parnell Thomas employed the 5th Amendment in his defence.
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I have tried to find an example of Drew Pearson's work on television. This is the only thing I could find:
Drew Pearson Tackles the Elvis Controversy
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Drew Pearson was America's leading investigative journalist in 1963. However, as far as I can see, little has been written about his thoughts on the assassination of John Kennedy.
First of all I want to look at his record.
In 1929 Drew Pearson became Washington correspondent of the Baltimore Sun. Three years later he joined the Scripps-Howard syndicate, United Features. His Merry-Go-Round column was published in newspapers all over the United States. He soon established himself as an anti-corruption journalist. His politics came from his religious beliefs - he was a Quaker.
Pearson was a strong supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal program. He also upset more conservative editors when he advocated United States involvement in the struggle against fascism in Europe. Pearson's articles were often censored and so in 1941 he switched to the more liberal The Washington Post.
During the Second World War Pearson created a great deal of controversy when he took up the case of John Gates, a member of the American Communist Party, who was not allowed to take part in the D-Day landings. Gates later pointed out: "Newspaper columnist Drew Pearson published an account of my case... Syndicated coast-to-coast, the column meant well but it contained all kinds of unauthorized, secret military information - the name of my battalion, the fact that it had been alerted for overseas, my letter to the President and his reply, and the officers' affidavits. As a result of this violation of military secrecy, the date for the outfit going overseas was postponed, the order restoring me to my battalion was countermanded and I was out of it for good. It seems that some of my friends, a bit overzealous in my cause, had given Pearson all this information, thinking the publicity would do me good."
Pearson also became a radio broadcaster. He soon became one of America's most popular radio personalities. After the war he was an enthusiastic supporter of the United Nations and helped to organize the Friendship Train project in 1947. The train travelled coast-to-coast collecting gifts of food for those people in Europe still suffering from the consequences of the war.
In 1947 Jack Anderson became Pearson's assistant. Anderson had worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in China in the Second World War. This included working with Paul Helliwell, John K. Singlaub, Ray S. Cline, Richard Helms, E. Howard Hunt, Mitchell WerBell, Robert Emmett Johnson and Lucien Conein. Others working in China at that time included Tommy Corcoran, Whiting Willauer and William Pawley. I am convinced that Anderson was also working for the OSS that became the CIA in 1947.
Over the next few years Anderson was able to use his contacts that he had developed in the OSS to help Pearson with his stories. One of Anderson's first stories concerned the dispute between Howard Hughes, the owner of Trans World Airlines and Owen Brewster, chairman of the Senate War Investigating Committee. Hughes claimed that Brewster was being paid by Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) to persuade the United States government to set up an official worldwide monopoly under its control. Part of this plan was to force all existing American carriers with overseas operations to close down or merge with Pan Am. As the owner of Trans World Airlines, Hughes posed a serious threat to this plan. Hughes claimed that Brewster had approached him and suggested he merge Trans World with Pan Am. Pearson and Anderson began a campaign against Brewster. They reported that Pan Am had provided Bewster with free flights to Hobe Sound, Florida, where he stayed free of charge at the holiday home of Pan Am Vice President Sam Pryor. As a result of this campaign Bewster lost his seat in Congress.
In the late 1940s Anderson became friendly with Joseph McCarthy. As he pointed out in his autobiography, Confessions of a Muckraker, "Joe McCarthy... was a pal of mine, irresponsible to be sure, but a fellow bachelor of vast amiability and an excellent source of inside dope on the Hill." McCarthy began supplying Anderson with stories about suspected communists in government. Pearson refused to publish these stories as he was very suspicious of the motives of people like McCarthy. In fact, in 1948, Pearson began investigating J. Parnell Thomas, the Chairman of the House of Un-American Activities Committee. It was not long before Thomas' secretary, Helen Campbell, began providing information about his illegal activities. On 4th August, 1948, Pearson published the story that Thomas had been putting friends on his congressional payroll. They did no work but in return shared their salaries with Thomas.
Called before a grand jury, J. Parnell Thomas availed himself to the 1st Amendment, a strategy that he had been unwilling to accept when dealing with the Hollywood Ten. Indicted on charges of conspiracy to defraud the government, Thomas was found guilty and sentenced to 18 months in prison and forced to pay a $10,000 fine. Two of his fellow inmates in Danbury Federal Correctional Institution were Lester Cole and Ring Lardner Jr. who were serving terms as a result of refusing to testify in front of Thomas and the House of Un-American Activities Committee.
In 1949 Pearson criticised the Secretary of Defence, James Forrestal, for his conservative views on foreign policy. He told Jack Anderson that he believed Forrestal was "the most dangerous man in America" and claimed that if he was not removed from office he would "cause another world war". Pearson also suggested that Forrestal was guilty of corruption. Pearson was blamed when Forrestal committed suicide on 22nd May 1949. One journalist, Westbrook Pegler, wrote: "For months, Drew Pearson... hounded Jim Forrestal with dirty aspersions and insinuations, until, at last, exhausted and his nerves unstrung, one of the finest servants that the Republic ever had died of suicide."
Drew Pearson also began investigating General Douglas MacArthur. In December, 1949, Anderson got hold of a top-secret cable from MacArthur to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, expressing his disagreement with President Harry S. Truman concerning Chaing Kai-shek. On 22nd December, 1949, Pearson published the story that: "General MacArthur has sent a triple-urgent cable urging that Formosa be occupied by U.S. troops." Pearson argued that MacArthur was "trying to dictate U.S. foreign policy in the Far East".
Harry S. Truman and Dean Acheson, the Secretary of State, told MacArthur to limit the war to Korea. MacArthur disagreed, favoring an attack on Chinese forces. Unwilling to accept the views of Truman and Dean Acheson, MacArthur began to make inflammatory statements indicating his disagreements with the United States government.
MacArthur gained support from right-wing members of the Senate such as Joe McCarthy who led the attack on Truman's administration: "With half a million Communists in Korea killing American men, Acheson says, 'Now let's be calm, let's do nothing'. It is like advising a man whose family is being killed not to take hasty action for fear he might alienate the affection of the murders."
On 7th October, 1950, Douglas MacArthur launched an invasion of North Korea by the end of the month had reached the Yalu River, close to the frontier of China. On 20th November, Pearson wrote in his column that the Chinese were following a strategy that was "sucking our troops into a trap." Three days later the Chinese Army launched an attack on MacArthur's army. North Korean forces took Seoul in January 1951. Two months later, Harry S. Truman removed MacArthur from his command of the United Nations forces in Korea.
Joe McCarthy continued to provide Jack Anderson with a lot of information. In his autobiography, Confessions of a Muckraker, Anderson pointed out: "At my prompting he (McCarthy) would phone fellow senators to ask what had transpired this morning behind closed doors or what strategy was planned for the morrow. While I listened in on an extension he would pump even a Robert Taft or a William Knowland with the handwritten questions I passed him."
In return, Anderson provided McCarthy with information about politicians and state officials he suspected of being "communists". Anderson later recalled that his decision to work with McCarthy "was almost automatic.. for one thing, I owed him; for another, he might be able to flesh out some of our inconclusive material, and if so, I would no doubt get the scoop." As a result Anderson passed on his file on the presidential aide, David Demarest Lloyd.
On 9th February, 1950, Joe McCarthy made a speech in Salt Lake City where he attacked Dean Acheson, the Secretary of State, as "a pompous diplomat in striped pants". He claimed that he had a list of 57 people in the State Department that were known to be members of the American Communist Party. McCarthy went on to argue that some of these people were passing secret information to the Soviet Union. He added: "The reason why we find ourselves in a position of impotency is not because the enemy has sent men to invade our shores, but rather because of the traitorous actions of those who have had all the benefits that the wealthiest nation on earth has had to offer - the finest homes, the finest college educations, and the finest jobs in Government we can give."
The list of names was not a secret and had been in fact published by the Secretary of State in 1946. These people had been identified during a preliminary screening of 3,000 federal employees. Some had been communists but others had been fascists, alcoholics and sexual deviants. As it happens, if McCarthy had been screened, his own drink problems and sexual preferences would have resulted in him being put on the list.
Pearson immediately launched an attack on Joe McCarthy. He pointed out that only three people on the list were State Department officials. He added that when this list was first published four years ago, Gustavo Duran and Mary Jane Keeney had both resigned from the State Department (1946). He added that the third person, John S. Service, had been cleared after a prolonged and careful investigation. Pearson also argued that none of these people had been named were members of the American Communist Party.
Jack Anderson asked Pearson to stop attacking McCarthy: "He is our best source on the Hill." Pearson replied, "He may be a good source, Jack, but he's a bad man."
On 20th February, 1950, Joe McCarthy made a speech in the Senate supporting the allegations he had made in Salt Lake City. This time he did not describe them as "card-carrying communists" because this had been shown to be untrue. Instead he argued that his list were all "loyalty risks". He also claimed that one of the president's speech-writers, was a communist. Although he did not name him, he was referring to David Demarest Lloyd, the man that Anderson had provided information on.
Lloyd immediately issued a statement where he defended himself against McCarthy's charges. President Harry S. Truman not only kept him on but promoted him to the post of Administrative Assistant. Lloyd was indeed innocent of these claims and McCarthy was forced to withdraw these allegations. As Anderson admitted: "At my instigation, then, Lloyd had been done an injustice that was saved from being grevious only by Truman's steadfastness."
McCarthy now informed Jack Anderson that he had evidence that Professor Owen Lattimore, director of the Walter Hines Page School of International Relations at Johns Hopkins University, was a Soviet spy. Pearson, who knew Lattimore, and while accepting he held left-wing views, he was convinced he was not a spy. In his speeches, McCarthy referred to Lattimore as "Mr X... the top Russian spy... the key man in a Russian espionage ring."
On 26th March, 1950, Pearson named Lattimore as McCarthy's Mr. X. Pearson then went onto defend Lattimore against these charges. McCarthy responded by making a speech in Congress where he admitted: "I fear that in the case of Lattimore I may have perhaps placed too much stress on the question of whether he is a paid espionage agent."
McCarthy then produced Louis Budenz, the former editor of The Daily Worker. Budenz claimed that Lattimore was a "concealed communist". However, as Jack Anderson admitted: "Budenz had never met Lattimore; he spoke not from personal observation of him but from what he remembered of what others had told him five, six, seven and thirteen years before."
Pearson now wrote an article where he showed that Budenz was a serial xxxx: "Apologists for Budenz minimize this on the ground that Budenz has now reformed. Nevertheless, untruthful statements made regarding his past and refusal to answer questions have a bearing on Budenz's credibility." He went on to point out that "all in all, Budenz refused to answer 23 questions on the ground of self-incrimination".
Owen Lattimore was eventually cleared of the charge that he was a Soviet spy or a secret member of the American Communist Party and like several other victims of McCarthyism, he went to live in Europe and for several years was professor of Chinese studies at Leeds University.
Despite the efforts of Jack Anderson, by the end of June, 1950, Drew Pearson had written more than forty daily columns and a significant percentage of his weekly radio broadcasts, that had been devoted to discrediting the charges made by Joseph McCarthy. He now decided to take on Pearson and he told Anderson: "Jack, I'm going to have to go after your boss. I mean, no holds barred. I figure I've already lost his supporters; by going after him, I can pick up his enemies." McCarthy, when drunk, told Assistant Attorney General Joe Keenan, that he was considering "bumping Pearson off".
On 15th December, 1950, McCarthy made a speech in Congress where he claimed that Pearson was "the voice of international Communism" and "a Moscow-directed character assassin." McCarthy added that Pearson was "a prostitute of journalism" and that Pearson "and the Communist Party murdered James Forrestal in just as cold blood as though they had machine-gunned him."
Over the next two months Joseph McCarthy made seven Senate speeches on Drew Pearson. He called for a "patriotic boycott" of his radio show and as a result, Adam Hats, withdrew as Pearson's radio sponsor. Although he was able to make a series of short-term arrangements, Pearson was never again able to find a permanent sponsor. Twelve newspapers cancelled their contract with Pearson.
Joe McCarthy and his friends also raised money to help Fred Napoleon Howser, the Attorney General of California, to sue Pearson for $350,000. This involved an incident in 1948 when Pearson accused Howser of consorting with mobsters and of taking a bribe from gambling interests. Help was also given to Father Charles Coughlin, who sued Pearson for $225,000. However, in 1951 the courts ruled that Pearson had not libeled either Howser or Coughlin.
Only the St. Louis Star-Times defended Pearson. As its editorial pointed out: "If Joseph McCarthy can silence a critic named Drew Pearson, simply by smearing him with the brush of Communist association, he can silence any other critic." However, Pearson did get the support of J. William Fulbright, Wayne Morse, Clinton Anderson, William Benton and Thomas Hennings in the Senate.
In October, 1953, Joe McCarthy began investigating communist infiltration into the military. Attempts were made by McCarthy to discredit Robert T. Stevens, the Secretary of the Army. The president, Dwight Eisenhower, was furious and now realised that it was time to bring an end to McCarthy's activities.
The United States Army now passed information about McCarthy to journalists who were known to be opposed to him. This included the news that McCarthy and Roy Cohn had abused congressional privilege by trying to prevent David Schine from being drafted. When that failed, it was claimed that Cohn tried to pressurize the Army into granting Schine special privileges. Pearson published the story on 15th December, 1953.
Some figures in the media, such as writers George Seldes and I. F. Stone, and cartoonists, Herb Block and Daniel Fitzpatrick, had fought a long campaign against McCarthy. Other figures in the media, who had for a long time been opposed to McCarthyism, but were frightened to speak out, now began to get the confidence to join the counter-attack. Edward Murrow, the experienced broadcaster, used his television programme, See It Now, on 9th March, 1954, to criticize McCarthy's methods. Newspaper columnists such as Walter Lippmann also became more open in their attacks on McCarthy.
The senate investigations into the United States Army were televised and this helped to expose the tactics of Joseph McCarthy. One newspaper, the Louisville Courier-Journal, reported that: "In this long, degrading travesty of the democratic process, McCarthy has shown himself to be evil and unmatched in malice." Leading politicians in both parties, had been embarrassed by McCarthy's performance and on 2nd December, 1954, a censure motion condemned his conduct by 67 votes to 22.
McCarthy also lost the chairmanship of the Government Committee on Operations of the Senate. He was now without a power base and the media lost interest in his claims of a communist conspiracy. As one journalist, Willard Edwards, pointed out: "Most reporters just refused to file McCarthy stories. And most papers would not have printed them anyway."
In 1956 Pearson began investigating the relationship between Lyndon B. Johnson and two businessmen, George R. Brown and Herman Brown. Pearson believed that Johnson had arranged for the Texas-based Brown and Root Construction Company to avoid large tax bills. Johnson brought an end to this investigation by offering Pearson a deal. If Pearson dropped his Brown-Root crusade, Johnson would support the presidential ambitions of Estes Kefauver. Pearson accepted and wrote in his diary (16th April, 1956): "This is the first time I've ever made a deal like this, and I feel a little unhappy about it. With the Presidency of the United States at stake, maybe it's justified, maybe not - I don't know."
Jack Anderson also helped Pearson investigate stories of corruption inside the administration of President Dwight Eisenhower. They discovered that Eisenhower had received gifts worth more than $500,000 from "big-business well-wishers." In 1957 Anderson threaten to quit because these stories always appeared under Pearson's name. Pearson responded by promising him more bylines and pledged to leave the column to him when he died.
Pearson and Anderson began investigating the presidential assistant Sherman Adams. The former governor of New Hampshire, was considered to be a key figure in Eisenhower's administration. Anderson discovered that Bernard Goldfine, a wealthy industrialist, had given Adams a large number of presents. This included suits, overcoats, alcohol, furnishings and the payment of hotel and resort bills. Anderson eventually found evidence that Adams had twice persuaded the Federal Trade Commission to "ease up its pursuit of Goldfine for putting false labels on the products of his textile plants."
The story was eventually published in 1958 and Adams was forced to resign from office. However, Jack Anderson was much criticized for the way he carried out his investigation and one of his assistants, Les Whitten, was arrested by the FBI for receiving stolen government documents.
In 1960 Pearson supported Hubert Humphrey in his efforts to become the Democratic Party candidate. However, those campaigning for John F. Kennedy, accused him of being a draft dodger. As a result, when Humphrey dropped out of the race, Pearson switched his support to Lyndon B. Johnson. However, it was Kennedy who eventually got the nomination.
Pearson now supported Kennedy's attempt to become president. One of the ways he helped his campaign was to investigate the relationship between Howard Hughes and Richard Nixon. Pearson and Anderson discovered that in 1956 the Hughes Tool Company provided a $205,000 loan to Nixon Incorporated, a company run by Richard's brother, Francis Donald Nixon. The money was never paid back. Soon after the money was paid the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) reversed a previous decision to grant tax-exempt status to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
This information was revealed by Pearson and Jack Anderson during the 1960 presidential campaign. Nixon initially denied the loan but later was forced to admit that this money had been given to his brother. It was claimed that this story helped John F. Kennedy defeat Nixon in the election.
Like other political journalists, Pearson and Anderson investigated the death of President John F. Kennedy. Sources close to John McCone and Robert Kennedy claimed that the assassination was linked to the plots against Fidel Castro of Cuba.
In 1966 attempts were made to deport Johnny Roselli as an illegal alien. Roselli moved to Los Angeles where he went into early retirement. It was at this time he told attorney, Edward Morgan: "The last of the sniper teams dispatched by Robert Kennedy in 1963 to assassinate Fidel Castro were captured in Havana. Under torture they broke and confessed to being sponsored by the CIA and the US government. At that point, Castro remarked that, 'If that was the way President Kennedy wanted it, Cuba could engage in the same tactics'. The result was that Castro infiltrated teams of snipers into the US to kill Kennedy".
Morgan took the story to Pearson. The story was then passed on to Earl Warren. He did not want anything to do with it and so the information was then passed to the FBI. When they failed to investigate the story Jack Anderson wrote an article entitled "President Johnson is sitting on a political H-bomb" about Roselli's story. It has been suggested that Roselli started this story at the request of his friends in the Central Intelligence Agency in order to divert attention from the investigation being carried out by Jim Garrison.
In 1968 Jack Anderson and Drew Pearson published The Case Against Congress. The book documented examples of how politicians had "abused their power and priviledge by placing their own interests ahead of those of the American people". This included the activities of Bobby Baker, James Eastland, Lyndon B. Johnson, Dwight Eisenhower, Hubert Humphrey, Everett Dirksen, Thomas J. Dodd, John McClellan and Clark Clifford.
On 18th July, 1969, Mary Jo Kopechne, died while in the car of Edward Kennedy. Pearson was investigating the case when he died on 1st September. Chalmers Roberts of the Washington Post wrote: "Drew Pearson was a muckraker with a Quaker conscience. In print he sounded fierce; in life he was gentle, even courtly. For thirty-eight years he did more than any man to keep the national capital honest."
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This is why Tom Mooney is like Lee Harvey Oswald:
Tom Mooney, the son of Irish immigrants, was born in Chicago on 8th December, 1882. Mooney's father was a coal miner who died of tuberculosis at the age of 36. When he was fourteen Mooney started work at a local factory. The following year he was apprenticed as an iron molder and in 1902 joined the International Molders Union. When he saved enough money Mooney went to Europe and visited Ireland, England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland and Italy. While in a Rotterdam art museum he met Nicholas Klein, an American who was in Europe for a meeting of the International Socialist Congress. By the time Mooney returned to the United States he was a committed socialist and had begun reading the works of Karl Marx.
In 1910 Mooney attended the International Socialist Congress in Copenhagen and met with leaders of the Labour Party in England. On his return he settled in San Francisco where he became a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Over the next few years Mooney became friendly with some of IWW's leading figures such as William Haywood, Mary 'Mother' Jones and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.
In 1911 he became the publisher of The Revolt, a socialist newspaper in San Francisco. The paper was a great success and acquired a circulation of 1,500. Mooney also ran as the Socialist Party candidate for Sheriff.
It was clear to those in authority that Mooney posed a serious threat to the status quo. In September 1913 Mooney was asked by Edgar Hurley, a local trade unionist, to carry a suitcase from Oakland to Sacramento. Mooney had been set-up by Martin Swanson of the Pinkerton Detective Agency and when he arrived in Sacremento he was arrested and charged with transporting explosives illegally on a streetcar. He was convicted and sentenced to Folsom Penitentiary for two years.
Mooney was released on appeal and in 1914 he was active in the campaign to free Joe Haaglund Hill, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). Convicted of the murder of a Salt Lake City businessman, Hill was shot by a firing squad on 19th November, 1915.
Mooney now became one of the leaders of the Californian Federation of Labor and in 1916 became involved in a strike of streetcar workers employed by the United Railroads (URR).
On 11th June a high-voltage tower of the Sierra and San Francisco Power Company, which served the URR, was dynamited in the San Bruno hills. Soon afterwards the URR offered a reward of $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the dynamiters. Martin Swanson, who now worked for the Public Utilities Protective Bureau, became convinced that Mooney was the man responsible for the bombing. On 13th June 1916 Swanson interviewed Israel Weinberg, a jitney bus driver who had often taken Mooney to trade union meetings. Swanson offered Weinberg a share of the $5,000 reward if he could provide evidence that would convict Mooney of the San Bruno bombing.
Soon afterwards Swanson approached Warren Billings, a trade union friend of Mooney. As well as a share of the $5,000 reward Billings was offered a job with the Pacific Gas and Electric Company if he could provide information connecting Mooney with the San Bruno bombing. Billings refused and reported the approach to Mooney and George Speed, the secretary of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW).
On 22nd July, 1916, employers in San Francisco organized a march through the streets in favour of an improvement in national defence. Critics of the march such as William Jennings Bryan, claimed that the Preparedness March was being organized by financiers and factory owners who would benefit from increased spending on munitions. During the march a bomb went off in Steuart Street killing six people (four more died later). Two witnesses described two dark-skinned men, probably Mexicans, carrying a heavy suitcase near to where the bomb exploded.
The Chamber of Commerce immediately offered a reward of $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the dynamiters. Other organizations and individuals added to this sum and the reward soon reached $17,000. Offering such a large reward was condemned by the editor of the New York Times claiming it was a "sweepstake for perjurers".
On the evening of the bombing Martin Swanson went to see the District Attorney, Charles Fickert. Swanson told Fickert that despite the claims that it was the work of Mexicans, he was convinced that Mooney and Warren Billings were responsible for the explosion. The next day Swanson resigned from the Public Utilities Protective Bureau and began working for the District Attorney's office. On 26th July 1916, Fickert ordered the arrest of Mooney, his wife Rena Mooney, Warren Billings, Israel Weinberg and Edward Nolan. Mooney and his wife were on vacation at Montesano at the time. When Mooney read in the San Francisco Examiner that he was wanted by the police he immediately returned to San Francisco and gave himself up. The newspapers incorrectly reported that Mooney had "fled the city" and failed to mention that he had purchased return tickets when he left San Francisco.
None of the witnesses of the bombing identified the defendants in the lineup. The prosecution case was instead based on the testimony of two men, an unemployed waiter, John McDonald and Frank Oxman, a cattleman from Oregon. They claimed that they saw Warren Billings plant the bomb at 1.50 p.m. Oxman saw Mooney and his wife talking with Billings a few minutes later. However, at the trial, a photograph showed that the couple were over a mile from the scene. A clock in the photograph clearly read 1.58 p.m. The heavy traffic at the time meant that it was impossible for Mooney and his wife to have been at the scene of the bombing at 1.50 p.m. Despite this, Mooney was sentenced to death and Billings to life-imprisonment. Rena Mooney and Israel Weinberg were found not guilty and Edward Nolan was never brought to trial.
A large number of people believed that like Lee Harvey Oswald, Mooney had been framed. Those involved in the campaign to get them released included Robert Minor, Fremont Older, George Bernard Shaw, Heywood Broun, Samuel Gompers, Eugene V. Debs, Roger Baldwin, John Dewey, John Haynes Holmes, Oswald Garrison Villard, Norman Hapgood, Crystal Eastman, Norman Thomas, Upton Sinclair, Theodore Dreiser, Sinclair Lewis, Lincoln Steffens, H. L. Mencken, Burton K. Wheeler, Sherwood Anderson, Abraham Muste, Harry Bridges, James Larkin, James Cannon, William Z. Foster, Alexander Berkman, Emma Goldman, William Haywood, William A. White, Carl Sandburg, Arturo Giovannitti and Robert Lovett.
Mooney's defence team complained about the method of selecting his jury. Bourke Cockran pointed out that in San Francisco "each Superior Court Judge places in the box from which the trial jurors are drawn the names of such persons as he may think proper. In theory he is supposed to choose persons peculiarly well qualified to decide issues of fact. In actual practice he places in the box the names of men who ask to be selected. The practical result is that a jury panel is a collection of the lame, the halt, the blind, and the incapable, with a few exceptions, and these are well known to the District Attorney who is thus enabled to pick a jury of his own choice." It was also discovered that William MacNevin, the foreman of Mooney's jury, was a close friend of Edward Cunha, who led the prosecution. MacNevin's wife later claimed her husband was in collusion with Cunha during the trial.
The American government also became concerned about the Mooney and Billings Case and the Secretary of Labor, William Bauchop Wilson, delegated John Densmore, the Director of General Employment, to investigate the case. By secretly installing a dictaphone in the private office of the District Attorney he was able to discover that Mooney and Billings had probably been framed by Charles Fickert. The report was leaked to Fremont Older who published it in the San Francisco Call on 23rd November 1917.
There were protests all over the world and President Woodrow Wilson called on William Stephens, the Governor of California, to look again at the case. Two weeks before Mooney was scheduled to hang, Stephens commuted his sentence to life imprisonment in San Quentin. Soon afterwards Mooney wrote to Stephens: "I prefer a glorious death at the hands of my traducers, you included, to a living grave."
In November 1920, Draper Hand of the San Francisco Police Department, went to Mayor James Rolph and admitted that he had helped Charles Fickert and Martin Swanson to frame Mooney. Hand also confessed that he had arranged for John McDonald to get a job when he began threatening to tell the newspapers that he had lied in court about Mooney and Billings. Mooney's defence team now began to search for MacDonald. He was found in January 1921 and agreed to make a full confession. He claimed he did see two men with the large suitcase but was unable to get a good look at them. When he reported the incident to District Attorney Charles Fickert he was asked to say the men were identify Mooney and Warren Billings. Fickert said that if he did this "I will see that you get the biggest slice of the reward." Later two witnesses, Edgar Rigall and Earl K. Hatcher, came forward and provided evidence that Frank Oxman was 200 miles away during the bombing and could not have seen what he told the court at the trial of Mooney.
In February 1921 John McDonald confessed that the police had forced him to lie about the planting of the bomb. Despite this new evidence the Californian authorities refused a retrial. After the publication of this new evidence it was generally believed that Charles Fickert and Martin Swanson had framed Mooney and Billings. However, Republican governors over the next twenty years: William Stephens (1917-1923), Friend Richardson (1923-1927), Clement Young (1927-1931), James Rolph (1931-1934) and Frank Merriam (1934-39) all refused to order the release of the two men.
Whereas there was concern about Oswald being framed in 1963, the international campaign against the Warren Commission soon came to an end, this was not the case with Tom Mooney. In a survey carried out in 1935 and it was discovered that Tom Mooney was one of the four best known Americans in Europe (other three were Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles A. Lindbergh and Henry Ford).
In 1937 a group of politicians led by Caroline O'Day, Nan Honeyman, Jerry O'Connell, Emanuel Celler, James E. Murray, Vito Marcantonio, Gerald Nye and Usher Burdick asked President Franklin D. Roosevelt to intercede in the case. When Roosevelt declined Murray and O'Connell introduced a resolution in the Senate calling on Governor Frank Merriam to pardon Mooney and Billings.
In November 1938 Culbert Olson was elected as Governor of California. He was the first member of the Democratic Party to hold this office for forty-four years. Soon after gaining power Olson ordered that Mooney and Warren Billings should be released from prison. Rena Mooney, who welcomed her husband as he left San Quentin was quoted as saying: "These twenty-two long years have been moth-eaten. Life to me has been something like a cloak. There is little left but the tatters."
Twenty-two years after the events of 1963, the vast majority of Europe's population had lost interest in the Lee Harvey Oswald case. Of course, Mooney was still alive whereas it was too late to get Oswald justice. However, Mooney did not have long to live. A month after being released from prison he had an emergency operation to remove his gallbladder. For the next two years he had three more operations and spent most of his time in hospital. Tom Mooney died on 6th March, 1942.
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In a survey carried out in 1935 and it was discovered that Tom Mooney was one of the four best known Americans in Europe (other three were Franklin D. Roosevelt, Charles A. Lindbergh and Henry Ford).
How many people know who Tom Mooney is today? Why was Tom Mooney so famous throughout Europe in 1935? In fact, Mooney was the Lee Harvey Oswald of the 1930s.
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Mervyn Jones, the great journalist and novelist, died last week.
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During the interview Judyth Vary Baker states the following:
By the way, the reason The Education Forum's JFK forum exists is because I wrote to John Simkin and asked him to form it. He did, and for some time I posted there, until Jack White and others began attacking me.
That is not quite true. The JFK section began on 13th March 2004. See first posting:
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=511
Judyth then contacted me about my page on her:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKbakerJ.htm
I then invited her to answer my question on the Forum. She agreed and joined on 27th March 2004. However, she did withdraw because some members raised doubts about the truth of her testimony.
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History Today March 2010
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I have been asked by Chris Lightbown to post this:
Question for Greg Parker
Greg, I’ve noticed that on a couple of occasions where your posts have necessitated references to John Armstrong’s Harvey and Lee, you’ve expressed marked caution about the accuracy of Mr Armstrong’s work.
Could you please elaborate your concerns? This is a friendly request. You are a highly respected researcher and as some forum readers have invested considerable time and interest in Harvey and Lee, expressions of doubt by somebody like yourself are not to be taken lightly.
To date, most of the reaction to John Armstrong’s work has consisted of wholehearted dismissal by LN believers and – with the exception of some conspiracy believers – a quite astounding silence, given the monumental amount of research that underlies Harvey and Lee and the book's implications. A reasoned analysis of any of John Armstrong’s work would be most welcome. Thank you.
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Here is one example of relationships that have received no attention. Discovering these curious bits of disjointed history, and piecing them together, influenced me to ask why theres is such an overwhelming fixation of active posters on the forum, with photos and movies of events in Dealey Plaza, i.e., with all things Dealey Plaza. Has anything definitive resulted in this focus, lately, or even not so lately?
Looking at the threads created in the JFK Debate in the last few months, and the numbers of posts and views they've attracted, depending on the subject, I have to wonder what is going on here? It seems like almost all of the oxygen in this forum is being sucked up in a very narrow line of inquiry. I don't see how it will end up taking us where we need to go.
I don't know where to look next,, but I'll bet the fertile research ground won't be found where the focus of the majority is.
Link to Bill Kelly's 8 months old post. http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.ph...st&p=169208
This is great stuff. It was apparently released - leaked, in an attempt to defend Alex Haig from the impression portrayed on Oliver Stone's HBO TV special "The Day Reagan Was Shot," which was the raving maniac he was, saying the Secretary of State was next in line for the presidency after the Vice President (G.H.W. Bush I).Here's a guy who was in the Situation Room when JFK was killed and when Reagan was shot.
What are the odds?
In 1963 Haig was part of the Army's DOD covert ops team at the Pentagon - along with Joe Califano, Gen. Krulack, Col. Higgens, et al., who were running the "Contingency Plans for a Coup in Cuba," that was adapting the Valkyrie plot to kill Hitler to use against Castro. They ran the Task Force with the CIA that conducted all of the covert ops against Cuba, including the maritime ops from JMWAVE that became entangled with the Dealey Plaza operation.
So they released THIS transcript to support Haig?
As John Judge says, it's a transcript of "a coup in progress."
It's a shame that Ollie Stone didn't have this when they made the movie, or
they could have just used it as the dialog, something out of Marx Brothers movie.
Who's in charge here, anyway?
Who'se got the football? (You have to imagine Groucho asking this - puff puff).
Who'se on alert?
Who's on first?
It's a real scarry Rod Serling script ripe for the Twilight Zone.
I hope somebody else enjoys this as much as I did.
BK
http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articl...26/202623.shtml
Excerpts From the White House Situation Room on the Day Reagan Was Shot
NewsMax.com
Tuesday, March 27, 2001
Transcript of recordings made by National Security Adviser Richard Allen on the day Ronald Reagan was shot, March 30, 1981.
COLSON: Someone out there wants to know if you want the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
ALLEN: I don't think we need him here ... Cap is the – Cap is here.
HAIG: Cap is the – and the football is near the Vice President – so that's fine.
ALLEN: We should get one over here. We have a duplicate one here.
HAIG: Get the football over here.
ALLEN: There is one at the military aide's office. The football is in the closet ... I don't think we need the Chair of the Joint Chiefs over here, do you? Let's leave him over at the NMCC [National Military Command Center, at the Pentagon]. This is a draft statement, but I want to put something else in it.
FIELDING: Do you want any other Cabinet members?
ALLEN: No, they should all be told to stand by. Here's the copy of that draft statement [on the President's condition]. You don't want the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs over here?
WEINBERGER: Well, I want ... not over here, I want him ...
ALLEN: At the NMCC.
WEINBERGER: Yeah, and they should go on alert or be ready to go on alert. SAC [the Strategic Air Command] went on alert with Kennedy's assassination.
***
HAIG: We'll be on a straight line from the hospital. So anything that is said, before it's said, we'll discuss at this table ... and any telephone calls that anybody is getting with instructions from the hospital come to this table first [raising voice] ... RIGHT HERE! And we discuss it and know what's going on.
WEINBERGER: I have the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs coming on, Jones, in just a second. We're going to tell him to get alerts to the Strategic Air Command and such other units that seem to him to be desirable at this point.
HAIG: What kind of alert, Cap?
WEINBERGER: It's a standby alert ... just a standby alert.
HAIG: You're not raising readiness?
WEINBERGER: No, but the main thing is that he should stay there in the Command Center. Not here.
HAIG: Right.
DARMAN: Is that information not to be released up till ...
ALLEN: It'll leak ...
WEINBERGER: Well, until we know more about it. The alert, they'll probably put themselves on alert, but I just want to be sure.
HAIG: Do we have a football here? Do we?
ALLEN: Right there.
REGAN: Al! Don't elevate it! Be careful!
HAIG: Absolutely! Absolutely! That's why I toned down the message that was going out ... there's no reason for that.
WEINBERGER: Yeah, I don't think anything that talks about continuity of government or anything ... that sounds like we know a lot more than we do.
REGAN: This is apt to turn out to be a loner.
WEINBERGER: I think it was!
MURPHY: Cap, what do they mean by "alert"?
WEINBERGER: Well, an alert is ...
MURPHY: We've been down this path once before with Henry [Kissinger].
WEINBERGER: That's right. The alert simply is that there are conditions which may require very quick actions.
MURPHY: Are you sure that doesn't mean Defcon Three ... or Four?
WEINBERGER: No, no ... I'll fill in ... It's a matter of being ready for some later call ...
HAIG: Yeah, I think the important thing, fellows, is that these things always generate a lot of dope stories, and everybody is running around telling everybody everything that they can get out of their gut ... and I think it's goddamn important that none of that happens. The President, uh, as long as he is conscious and can function ...
WEINBERGER: Well, that's right ... the Vice President's in an Air Force plane.
ALLEN: Well, just let me point out to you that the President is not now conscious.
HAIG: No, of course not.
***
FIELDING: A rather technical thing is that the President can pass the baton temporarily under the law, and we're preparing that right now ... toward the eventuality ...
HAIG: That's what I was going to ask next. What are the legal ...
FIELDING: It's being prepared right now.
HAIG: That's the pass the baton to the Vice President ...
FIELDING: On a temporary basis. It passes to him in writing from the President until the President rescinds it.
HAIG: Has somebody gone into the Eisenhower precedent on this? I think we need that from a public-relations point of view.
FIELDING: Well, we may not want to put it out.
HAIG: No, the things you want to make note of are first, precisely what happened, notification of the Vice President, assembly of the key crisis Cabinet, preservation of continuity of command, and that it was handled.
WEINBERGER (on the telephone to the Pentagon): No, I think what we want to do is increase the degree of alertness so that in the event there should be anything required shortly, that could be done within a minimum amount of time ...
Gergen interrupted to ask a question, and Haig declared that he himself was constitutionally the person in charge.
GERGEN: Al, a quick question. We need some sense, more better sense of where the President is. Is he under sedation now?
HAIG: He's not on the operating table.
GERGEN: He is on the operating table!
HAIG: So the ... the helm is right here. And that means right in this chair for now, constitutionally, until the Vice President gets here.
GERGEN: I understand that. I understand that.
HAIG: Yeah.
***
WEINBERGER: We've got the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Joint Chiefs in the Military Command Center. The alert has been raised from a normal condition to a standby condition under which they can move to a much higher degree very quickly. There is no, there will be no publicity about it. And the degree of alertness at the moment is going to commanders only, so that there would not be a lot of leaks right away from the men. All of that on the basis that at this point it looks like an isolated incident, but there isn't enough information and we want to remain alert. So that's where the armed forces stand.
***
HAIG: Why don't you come with me?
Allen (to staff): Okay, I'll be back later ...
HAIG: How do you get to the press room?
ALLEN: Up here.
HAIG: Yeah ... he's just turning this into a goddamned disaster!
ALLEN: Who has?
HAIG: How can he walk into the press room ... Speakes ...
ALLEN: Did he walk in up here?
HAIG: He's up there now.
ALLEN: Christ almighty, why's he doing that?
PRESS STAFFER: They want to know who's running the government.
ALLEN: Oh, well, just a minute ...
HAIG: We'll assemble them ... we'll ...
STAFFER: You're coming back? [shouting] They're coming back again ... The Secretary of State! The Secretary of State!
***
PRESS REPRESENTATIVE: Who is making the decisions for the government right now? Who is making the decisions?
HAIG: Constitutionally, gentlemen, you have the President, the Vice President, and the Secretary of State, in that order, and should the President decide he wants to transfer the helm to the Vice President, he will do so. As of now, I am in control here, in the White House, pending the return of the Vice President and in close touch with him. If something came up, I would check with him, of course.
***
REGAN: Preliminary investigation by the FBI and the Secret Service, no plot, no reason why the suspect shouldn't be in the area. They're conducting a background investigation in Lubbock, Texas. He stayed at the Park Central Hotel here, which is one block from the Executive Office Building.
WEINBERGER: We have the SAC bases ... we have the crews who are normally on alert twenty-four hours a day move from the base to their planes. The nearest submarine is [redacted] minutes, forty-seven seconds off, which is about two minutes closer than normal.
ALLEN: Nearest Soviet sub. Al, are you listening? [Redacted] minutes, forty-seven seconds – the nearest Soviet sub.
WEINBERGER: Yeah. Not enough to worry about. They're in and out there all the time, but it is a close approach. And the bomber crews of the Strategic Air Command, they are always on the alert, certain numbers, and those that are on alert now are moving from alert in their quarters and on the post to their planes. Simply stated, that's all ...
HAIG: That's based on the Soviet situation and not on anything here?
WEINBERGER: Well, that's based on the idea that until we know a little bit more about it, it is better to be in the plane which saves three and a half to four minutes than it is to stay in their quarters.
HAIG: I said up there, Cap ... I'm not a xxxx. I said there had been no increased alert.
WEINBERGER: Well, I didn't know you were going up, Al. I think if ...
HAIG: I had to, because we had the question already started and we were going to be in a big flap.
WEINBERGER: Well, I think we could have done a little better if we had concerted on a specific statement to be handed out. When you're up there with questions, why then it's not anything you can control, and ...
HAIG: Well, we had just discussed that here at the table, and we said we were not going to increase alert.
WEINBERGER: It may not be increasing the alert from a technical point of view, but once you get the additional information which I got about the one sub being closer than they've been before, then it seemed prudent to me to save three or four minutes.
HAIG: Yeah, but I think we could have discussed it.
WEINBERGER: Yeah, well, you were not here. I didn't know that you were going to make any statement, and I don't think it was a good idea to make a statement when you are with a question period. I think the best thing ...
HAIG: Well, you have the right to say that when we discuss it, and we did talk about it and everyone agreed there wouldn't be an increased alert.
WEINBERGER: I didn't know you were going up. I didn't have the information about the sub at that time. The stuff is coming in every three or four minutes.
HAIG: Well, you're not telling me we're on increased alert.
WEINBERGER: We have changed the condition to the extent I indicated.
HAIG: Is that a Defcon increase?
WEINBERGER: No, I don't think it is formally classified as such.
ALLEN: It's a change of degree, is it not? It's a change ...
WEINBERGER: It's an increased degree of alertness, yes.
ALLEN: Within Defcon Five, I presume.
WEINBERGER: Yes.
***
HAIG: Let me ask you a question, Cap. Is this submarine approach, is that what's doing this, or is it the fact that the President's under surgery?
WEINBERGER: What's doing what, Al?
HAIG: That we are discussing whether or not to put the NEACP bird up in the air.
WEINBERGER: Well, I'm discussing it from the point of view that at the moment, until the Vice President actually arrives here, the command authority is what I have ... and I have to make sure that it is essential that we do everything that seems proper.
HAIG: You'd better read the Constitution.
WEINBERGER: What?
HAIG (laughing): You'd better read the Constitution. We can get the Vice President any time we want.
WEINBERGER: Well, one way or another, the initial steps, because he's not in a position there to take all of them without consultation, one way or another we ought to prepare at least enough so that we can move more rapidly than we could otherwise.
HAIG: Is it because of the submarine or because of the incident, that's the question I'm asking.
WEINBERGER: The reason that I asked to have them move to the planes is because of the incident, and I would continue to take that position until I know absolutely definitely that it's an isolated incident, which I think it is. But I don't know that yet, and I don't want to take any kinds of risk. The risk of some newspaper story or some rumor is a hell of a lot less than not having things in place.
http://news.google.com/archivesearch?q=GRE...n&scoring=aBanker is likely choice for Haig's assistant
Pay-Per-View - Chicago Tribune - ProQuest Archiver - Feb 10, 1981
James Greene, president of the American Express International Banking ... GREENE, WHO served as a mid-level State Department official from 1949 to 1956, ...
http://www.jfk-assassination.de/warren/wch/vol9/page278.php(Testimony of George S. De Mohrenschildt Resumed)
Mr. Jenner.
the Commercial Bank of Haiti to be of further advantage to the people of Haiti."
Mr. Jenner.
You have read the two columns appearing under that heading that you described.
Now, would you read the column to the right of those two columns?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. "Mr. C. J. Charles, honorary citizen of the city of New York. Mr. Clemard Joseph Charles, president and director of the Bank Commercial of Haiti, Port-au-Prince, has come back yesterday morning with his charming wife, Sophie, from a trip of 2 weeks in New York, and was accompanied by Mr. James R. Green, vice president of the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co., which is a large bank of Wall Street, New York.
"Mr. Green spent just a few hours in the capital, just sufficient time to visit the Commercial Bank with which Hanover Trust Co. wants to do business. Mr. Charles is very satisfied from the contacts which he has made during this trip, and satisfied with the promotion of his commercial bank. The Haitian banker was honored by Mayor Wagner of the city of New York, and has made his assistant, Mr. O'Brien, give the key of the city as an honorary citizen, to Mr. Charles."
Mr. Jenner.
Mr. Reporter, would you mark that "George S. De Mohrenschildt Exhibit No. 1"?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. This is by the way the photograph of a paper.
Mr. Jenner.
This is a photostat of two news items, in the Haitian paper in Port-au-Prince, together with a telegram.
Now, all those together comprised, did they, some of the promotion literature with respect to your Haitian venture?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. Jenner.
In what respect? Can you give us the thrust of that?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. In the respect that they acquaint the possible investor with the personalities involved.
Mr. Jenner.
All right. Who is the gentleman who sent the telegram?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Mr. Tardieu.
Mr. Jenner.
What is his first name?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Mr. B. Juindine Tardieu, who is the agent and you might say a broker who negotiated the contract with the Haitian Government.
Mr. Jenner.
Well----
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. He is domiciled in Haiti.
Mr. Jenner.
All right. Now, you had some correspondence with Clemard Joseph Charles?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. Jenner.
Is the letter I now hand you, which we will identify as George S. De Mohrenschildt Exhibit No. 2, a photostatic copy of correspondence between you and that gentleman, a copy of which you transmitted to Paul Raigorodsky?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes; that is the letter I received.
(The document referred to was marked "George S. De Mohrenschildt Exhibit No. 2" for identification.)
Mr. Jenner.
Now I will show you a series of three documents, the first sheet consisting of a photostat of an envelope addressed, I believe in your handwriting, to Mr. Paul Raigorodsky; is that correct?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes.
Mr. Jenner.
In Dallas.
The next being a personal note of yours in your longhand to Mr. Raigorodsky; is that correct?
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes, indeed.
Mr. Jenner.
The next being in the form of a copy of a letter from you, dated July 27, 1962, to Mr. Jean de Menil.
Mr. DE MOHRENSCHILDT. Yes....
Thought that this should be added to this thread.
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Alexander Haig died earlier this month. I thought it might be worth considering the possible links between Haig and the assassination of JFK.
Several of the suspects had links with intelligence activities in post-war China. Haig also falls into this category. Haig graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1947 as 214th in the class of 310. (He had been initially rejected because of his poor academic record but standards were lowered because of the Second World War.) After graduating Lieutenant Haig was sent to Japan and became aide-de-camp to General Alonzo Fox, deputy chief of staff to General Douglas MacArthur, the supreme Allied commander. Haig later married Fox's daughter. According to Harold Jackson: The experience of MacArthur's megalomania left an indelible impression on Haig." Haig admitted later: "I was always interested in politics and started early in Japan, with a rather sophisticated view of how the military ran it." Haig's next assignment was to accompany his father-in-law to Taiwan, on a liaison mission to Chiang Kai-shek.
In 1959 Haig began a master's degree program in international relations at Georgetown University. The topic of his thesis in 1962 was the role of the military officer in the shaping of national security policy. After completing his degree Haig went to the International and Policy Planning Division of the Pentagon. This brought him into contact with Strom Thurmond and Fred Buzhardt.
Haig was considered a hawk during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He later claimed that it disillusioned him with the way the doctrine of flexible response was applied. He complained that JFK "never applied one iota of force" and added "I was against this. It provided an incentive to the other side to up the ante." Soon afterwards he appointed as military assistant to Joe Califano, a lawyer in the army secretary's office. In 1963 Califano arranged for Haig to assimilate into the army some of the Cuban exile veterans of the Bay of Pigs operation.
Haig's connections with the downfall of Nixon. After H. R. Haldeman was forced to resign over the Watergate Scandal, Haig became Nixon's Chief of Staff. In the first week of November, 1973, Deep Throat told Bob Woodward that their were "gaps" in Nixon's tapes. He hinted that these gaps were the result of deliberate erasures. On 8th November, Woodward published an article in the Washington Post that said that according to their source the "conservation on some of the tapes appears to have been erased". According to Fred Emery, the author of Watergate: The Corruption and Fall of Richard Nixon, only Haig, Richard Nixon, Rose Mary Woods, and Stephen Bull knew about this erased tape before it was made public on 20th November.
Len Colodny and Robert Gettlin, the authors of "Silent Coup: The Removal of a President", claimed that Haig was Deep Throat. Jim Hougan (Secret Agenda) and John Dean (Lost Honor) agreed with this analysis. Was Haig working for the CIA in the overthrow of both Kennedy and Nixon?
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John" Would you say the 'gate keepers' of the media, create the history we record and report in our research to the generation of today?
I think the internet has undermined the power of the mass media. Therefore I do not think it has as much power as it did in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Despite what he said about the freedom of the press, it was claimed: "It was his boast that he never, no matter what the ideas of his employers were, wrote a line contrary to his honest convictions as uttered on the stump."
I have created a web page for John Swinton:
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John,
John Swinton, that socialist? Why post about him? He took up the cause of labor, over capitalism. We are conditioned in America to frown upon such ideas.
According to his obituary in the NY Times, "...held a position as chief editorial writer.....He remained with this newspaper from 1860 to 1870."
Swinton made the speech you've quoted from, in 1883, as he was launching a plan to pubilsh his own newspaper, it lasted four years.
According to this source the speech took place in 1880:
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Between 1914 and 1917 Eugene Debs made several speeches explaining why he believed the United States should not join the war. After the USA declared war on the Central Powers in 1917, several people were arrested for violating the Espionage Act. After making a speech in Canton, Ohio, on 16th June, 1918, criticizing the Act, Debs was arrested and sentenced to ten years in Atlanta Penitentiary.
Here is part of the speech on YouTube:
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John Swinton was a journalist who worked for the New York Times. Just before he died in 1901 he said: "There is no such thing, at this stage of the world’s history in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dare write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my papers, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
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Interesting YouTube video of Eugene V. Debs talking in 1904. The accent is very interesting. Did all Americans at the turn of last century speak with an English accent?
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According to him, "And his co-moderators all reviewed this posting in its entirely and decided, by a majority vote, that it should be published due to its relevance, appropriateness and its accuracy. His was the only dissenting vote..."
I disagree. IF John B was under moderation at the time (of which I am unsure), the post was approved because it did not break any Forum rules... not because accuracy, etc. We moderators do not judge on the rightness or wrongness of a post; for a member under moderation we simply ensure it does not break Forum rules.
I can say for certain there was no "vote" taken regards John B's post; most times a mod will approve a post on their own initiative if it does not violate any Forum rules.... and was Don even a mod in Jan 2009?
Moderators only vote on whether members should be placed on moderation. It would take too much time to debate whether individual posts should be allowed through.
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Robert La Follette Jr., the son of the great Robert La Follette, was one of the first victims of McCarthyism:
Judyth Vary Baker: Living in Exile
in JFK Assassination Debate
Posted
I am not relying on memory. If you look at this thread and check-out Judyth's post you will see under her name the date she joined:
http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=1435
After I criticised Judyth's story on the JFK forum I received an email from Wim attacking my views. At the time Wim had some financial interest in her story. Wim put me in contact with Judyth and over several months she answered my questions by email. She also provided me with a great deal of documentation that supported her story. At the end of this long exchange I came to the conclusion that even though some of her story was clearly true, some of it owed something to her creative imagination. I think most JFK researchers have come to the same conclusion. However, some, like Wim and Jim, take a different view. Personally, I do not hold strong views on this and I definitely do not have the time or energy to discuss Judyth's story on this forum.