W. Niederhut

Steve, Allen Dulles and James Angleton didn't want Americans to know what was really happening in the Arctic Circle during the Cold War. It was an issue of national security (and corporate retail profitability.)

I just read through this thread on the subject of CIA Operation Gladio, and wanted to mention the case of Sibel Edmonds. As most of you probably know, Edmonds worked at the FBI in 2001 as a translator of Turkish, Farsi, and Azerbaijani documents related to the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. She reported to her supervisors on suspicious activities by some of her FBI colleagues, and was fired by the FBI. She was then placed under a gag order that was upheld through Federal Court rulings. She wrote a very interesting book, Classified Woman, about her tenure at the FBI after 9/11, and then wrote a fictional narrative about Operation Gladio B -- a joint CIA/NATO covert op to implement a strategy of tension in Western Europe and the U.S. to mobilize military interventions to control Central Asia and the Persian Gulf.

I don't know if this forum has specifically discussed the history of propaganda in the twentieth century, beginning with Edward Bernays book, Propaganda-- which was, allegedly, Joseph Goebbels favorite book. Certainly, the Soviets were experts on the subject, as were the American WWII OSS/CIA veterans who seem to have been intimately involved in managing the decades-long disinformazia about JFK's assassination here in the United States. I had never read much about the subject-- including Bernays foundational writings -- until after I began to study the JFK assassination research literature a few years ago. I noticed that Laurent Guyenot also studied the work of Bernays in the process of writing his book, 50 Years of Deep State-- From JFK to 9/11. Understanding the modern "technology" of propaganda and disinformation-- including CIA Operation Mockingbird and its permutations -- seems like a kind of Rosetta Stone for the interpretation of modern U.S. history, as in Oliver Stone and Peter Kuznick's, Untold History of the United States.

Speaking of helicopters, as most people here probably know, Bell Helicopter made a fortune on U.S. military contracts after 11/22/63-- under the management of Michael Paine's stepfather, as I recall. Col. L. Fletcher Prouty went into great detail about the ill-fated, costly use of Bell helicopters in Vietnam in his book, JFK, the CIA, and Vietnam.

I'm not familiar with Sheehan's work. As I recall, Prouty described it, (from direct observation in the 50s and early 60s) as a process whereby government personnel from a wide array of departments-- including State, Treasury, and Defense-- were secretly reporting to (and working for) Allen Dulles and the Company. From his perspective as an Air Force Colonel it sounded sort of like Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

I wonder how much McNamara knew, or suspected, about the plot to murder JFK. I also wonder if he was being blackmailed or threatened to keep his mouth shut about NSAM 263 and its reversal after 11/22/63.

Jim, Any thoughts about why Robert McNamara didn't set the historical record straight years ago? Was McNamara being threatened or blackmailed by LBJ & Co.?

Lansdale became a Brigadier General in April of 1960. The increasingly blurred boundary lines between the military and CIA that you describe remind me of Prouty's writings about the "Secret Team."

Cliff, I'm a newbie here, but I'm inclined to agree with you on this one. I have nothing against freedom of expression and intellectually honest debates -- far from it-- but the "honesty" part is absent in the posts I have read by the cadre of Lone Nutter "trolls" around here. What useful purpose does it serve to engage in a debate with people who are not intellectually honest? I have also wondered whether some of the active Lone Nutters here are participants in what Cass Sunstein has promoted as government-sponsored "cognitive infiltration" of social media sites to influence public perceptions.

As I recall, PBS has colluded for decades in the mainstream media cover up of the conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. I don't recall the specifics, but I do recall being disappointed to hear Jim Lehrer repeat the bogus WCR narrative during a PBS 11/22 anniversary telecast. I also, vaguely, recall Jim Lehrer mentioning that he (or, possibly, Robert McNeil?) had been in Dallas on 11/22/63.

L.P., I don't want to hijack this thread about DiEugenio's important, accurate analysis of JFK, NSAM 263, and Vietnam. He's spot on. If you haven't figured that out yet, do your homework-- read DiEugenio, Prouty, Newman, Peter Dale Scott, et.al. As for Professor David Ray Griffin, if you can't understand his very precise, logical analysis of the data, get a dementia work up-- serum TSH, folate, B12, and cranial MRI to rule mass lesions, hydrocephalus, etc. As for popular "studies" of "conspiracy theorists," they show the precise opposite of what you imagine-- no meaningful correlations with valid psychometric variables. That's precisely what we would expect to see when studying a bogus, non-monolithic variable, like "conspiracy mindset." If you consider my example, what sort of correlations would you expect to find among all people who believe in various "historical theories" -- e.g., Hegel, Marx, L. Ron Hubbard, Jules Archer, George W. Bush, and Young Earth Creationists like Henry Morris?

L.P., In my opinion, as a Board Certified psychiatrist, there is no such thing as a monolithic "conspiracy mindset." What the CIA propagandists began to disparage in the 1960s as "conspiracy theories," while trying to defend Allen Dulles's bogus Warren Commission Report, are mostly evidence-based theories about the scientific and forensic data in the case. Most of these theories are firmly grounded in the data that was ignored or altered by the Warren Commission. They have almost nothing in common with "conspiracy theories" about aliens, UFOs, chem trails, etc. In the case of 9/11, the Swiss historian Daniele Ganser has correctly pointed out that, "all theories about 9/11 are conspiracy theories," including Phillip Zelikow's official U.S. government narrative. Hence, the term is meaningless. That is the basic fallacy underlying all of these pop psychology articles that try to make generalizations about so-called, "conspiracy theories." It's comparable to lumping all theories about history into the same conceptual basket, in order to make generalizations about people who believe in "historical theories."

This presentation should be televised on PBS, and elsewhere in the mainstream U.S. media. After all of these years, the American people need to finally learn the terrible truth about JFK and Vietnam.

I think Carl Reiner and Steve Martin made a movie back in the 80s about this subject, "The Man With Two Brains." Watching that movie is somewhat like reading posts here by David Von Pein, Lance Payette, Francois Carlier, and W. Tracy Parnell.

Ken, This is not a valid rebuttal of my central point above. I am fully aware that Hewitt died in 2009, which is why I said that Hewitt and CBS have colluded in the cover up, etc. Secondly, "Day One" in my argument refers to November 22, 1963. Third, from what I have read, there is a great deal of well-documented scientific, forensic, and historical evidence that absolutely debunks the Warren Commission Report-- not just "one piece of evidence." Fourth, I never implied that Dan Rather knew in advance about the assassination plot. In fact, I said that Dan Rather must have been ordered (presumably, by Don Hewitt) to lie about the Zapruder film. Finally, I agree that the entire mainstream media has, evidently, colluded in the cover up of the conspiracy to murder JFK-- but I wanted to inquire specifically about how that happened in the case of Don Hewitt and CBS.

Kirk, I will plead guilty to the charge of being a newbie on the forum. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. However, the central point I am raising on this thread is that Don Hewitt and CBS have actively colluded in the cover up of the conspiracy to murder President John F. Kennedy for the past 55 years-- from Day One, when Dan Rather lied about the Zapruder film. The (CBS) problem isn't a lack of bona fide evidence debunking the Warren Commission Report-- far from it. The problem is that CBS doesn't WANT to tell the American people the true story. How and WHY did that happen?

Cory, The article explores the evidence from the McCormick-Dickstein Committee hearings, and the reporting on the subject during the next 75 years. In a nutshell, the evidence for an organized Wall Street coup d'etat involving Prescott Bush in 1933 is meager, indeed.

Kirk, Your argument is a straw man-- viz., because CBS may have vetted a bogus story or two, ALL stories de-bunking the WCR were censored because they were bogus. PUH-LEEZE ! Here's a story that Don Hewitt and Dan Rather refused to report for 55 years, despite knowing that it was true-- the Zapruder film clearly shows that the fatal head shot was fired from the front and right of the limo.

Folks, Regarding the subject of General Smedley Butler and the alleged 1933 Wall Street "Business Plot" against FDR, (and Prescott Bush) I found a very well-written 2008 scholarly review article from Wesleyan University. https://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1058&context=etd_hon_theses

There was certainly a lot of GHWB mythologizing in the mainstream media this week, and nothing in the MSM about the 1963 Hoover memo about "Mr. George Bush of the CIA," (publicized by Joseph McBride.) Nor did I read any MSM articles about GHWB's ambassador to Iraq telling Saddam Hussein prior to the Gulf War that the U.S. would not interfere in Iraq's border disputes with Kuwait. Most of what I know about the real "Mr. George Bush of the CIA" comes from reading Russ Baker's book, Family of Secrets, (and Kevin Phillips' American Dynasty) and Mr. Baker published three excellent articles recently at WhoWhatWhy.org about the non-mythological GHWB history. https://whowhatwhy.org/2018/12/03/george-h-w-bush-shaped-history-but-not-the-way-were-told/ https://whowhatwhy.org/2018/12/04/elite-secret-society-tied-bush-to-circles-of-power/ https://whowhatwhy.org/2018/12/07/bush-41-the-triumph-of-manners-over-truth/

William S. Paley was appointed as a Colonel during WWII-- working with British and U.S. radio psy ops in London. Frank Stanton was one of the "Eisenhower Ten"-- chosen as a member of a designated emergency leadership group in the event of a nuclear attack. Both of those guys must have had relationships with former OSS colleagues like Allen Dulles and C.D. Jackson. As for Ben Bradlee, the most interesting factoid in Peter Janey's book, Mary's Mosaic, was the reference to Ben Bradlee and his friend (CIA exec) Wistar Janey knowing at noon that Mary Pinchot Meyer had been murdered-- two or three hours before the D.C. police ever made any radio broadcasts about the murder.

You missed your calling, Ron... 🤣 You should have been a comedy writer for SNL. I remember watching that famous "I was out-of-the-loop" GHWB interview by Dan Rather in 1988.

Kirk, I never vouched for the 2001 quote about Hewitt. I wrote, FWIW- - "For What It's Worth," like the Stephen Stills song. The reason I brought up the subject of Don Hewitt, in the first place, is that I'm curious about the process by which a major mainstream media corporation (CBS) colluded, for decades, in the cover up of a conspiracy to murder a U.S. president-- from Day One! How did that happen? For example, who did Hewitt take his marching orders from at CBS?

So, speaking as a guy who was a teenage Warren Commission Report dupe, it seems fair to say that Don Hewitt and CBS colluded in the long-term cover up of the conspiracy to murder President John F. Kennedy. Does anyone on the forum disagree with that premise?

Captain Kirk, Don Hewitt can't have it both ways. The man doth protest too much, eh? In your clip, Hewitt says, "I don't know any news man who wouldn't die to report this story (i.e., the obvious conspiracy to murder JFK.) Huh? The guy was the producer of CBS News and 60 Minutes for decades! Why, then, didn't he let his reporters TELL the damned story? Here's my question. Why did Dan Rather lie about the Zapruder film? How and WHY did that happen? Any thoughts?