Benjamin Cole

Sean- Yes, the crackpots, gadflies and the mercenary have been attracted to the JFKA. But the fact that there are some lulus around does not explain how a lone gunman armed with a single-shot bolt action rifle managed to get off his second and third shots in less than one second, or why so many people, including police and veterans, smelled gunsmoke in Dealey Plaza the immediate aftermath of the shooting. There had to be either a shooter or a decoy in the Grassy Knoll area. And that means a conspiracy.

Mark- I take issue on one point: There had to be a JFKA conspiracy, as the occupants of the limo were struck by bullets too rapidly to have been shot by a single gunman armed with a bolt-action rifle. Additionally, at least 22 witnesses, many veterans and police, smelled gunsmoke in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, in Dealey Plaza, which was upwind from LHO. At a minimum, that suggests diversionary gunfire from the Grassy Knoll area. Even diversionary gunfire translates into a conspiracy. Anyway, that is my take.

Boy, I would sure like to know about this story. Anybody in the JFKA community have more dope?

Jim H.-- Everything you cite is true, and probably understated. And don't forget John McCloy on the WC. Having Dulles and McCloy on the WC was a travesty. Interesting that none of the "good old boys"---Hale Boggs, Richard Russell and John Sherman Cooper ---bought the WC conclusions. My guess is the national security state planned for the WC Southerners not to care that much what happened to JFK, and to hew tight to the military complex. To their credit, the good old boys remained dubious and aloof. They should have issued an overt dissent, and Russell tried, but times were what they were. Still, without anything close to a smoking gun, we are left with theories. For example, some people have posited LBJ more or less arranged for the JFKA, while others posit it was not the CIA-Dulles, but other elements of the intel complex. "The Mob did it" had adherents too. I think John Newman is going to posit the JFKA was accomplished by elements of the intel complex, but outside of the CIA. My guess is the JFKA was a false flag op gone wrong, being run under David Atlee Phillips. I stay with my gut, that the number of people involved in the JFKA was necessarily small.

"To Mr. Cole – I understand your point about legal proof, but we’ll probably never get a real trial like you describe, and I’d like the world to know what the available evidence seems to show regarding what really happened." Perhaps I misstated or overstated my case. Not necessarily legal proof, but something tangible, like memos, private diaries released, somebody credible actually stating the case that Dulles ordered the JFKA. (I would require proof beyond reasonable doubt if I was sitting on jury, regarding Dulles guilt.) So far, we have suppositions based on Dulles position, character (or lack of), his political orientation, his representation of globalist interests and some meetings and whereabouts. I entirely disagree with Dulles postwar globalist machinations, which were and are costly to US citizens and taxpayers, and often conducted in an amoral and unethical manner, and led to millions of unnecessary deaths.

Clay Shaw was interesting, but probably a handler, is my guess. The actual mechanics and planning of the JFKA rested elsewhere. My point about Dulles is this: In the JFKA community we parse evidence fairly well, and look for clues that exculpate LHO. That's fine, and excellent work has been done. But how can we pronounce Dulles guilty of planning the JFKA? He had meetings? That seems a little thin. Graham Allison! Boy, that brings back memories. I read his book on the Cuban Missile Crisis as an undergrad in the 1970s. Not a bad book, believe it or not, though I am citing 40-year-old recall. The book probably lacked the deeper, more cynical take on the CIA. Might be worth re-reading.

Jon P.--- The actual direction of gunfire striking JFK remains (for me) a confounding aspect of the JFKA. Others have spent careers looking at this and remain unsure, such as Josiah Thompson. Unfortunately, the autopsy and medical evidence are so dubious and contaminated as to defy deciphering. Let us posit a throat shot to JFK from the front---and where did it exit? How did the shot get around the windshield? Yet there are smart people who 100% assert there was a front throat shot to JFK. Maybe there was. A shot from the Grassy Knoll? Yes, JFK is violently thrust back and to his left, as we see in the Z film. But many gunshot victims hardly budge. Witness the first shot to JFK's neck. He does not move at all. One can posit a frangible bullet struck JFK from the right and front (the Grassy Knoll area), and that caused the big movement by JFK. That is possible also. My guess is there were two guns, possibly semi-automatics with silencers, behind JFK, and diversionary fire from the Grassy Knoll. LHO fired his rifle harmlessly twice, intentionally missing. He was a patsy. That's my guess.

Many thanks. Yes, I penned (pixeled) the article.

That is interesting about Gloria Calvary. So, to your knowledge, was Calvary ever interviewed in depth and detail about where exactly she thought the shots came from? In other words, did anyone ever return her to the Grassy Knoll-colonnade area and ask, "Which bushes, what exactly did you see?" I actually fall into the camp of people who think the JFKA conspiracy was very small, involving at most a handful or people, maybe less than you can count on one hand. The JFKA was not investigated in its immediate aftermath, which led to theorizing about the complexity of the JFKA, and mythologies about its scale and planning. But a dreadnought investigation, and the non-death of LHO might have cracked the case back in November 1963. It might have been a CIA false flag op gone wrong with two participants and two interlopers, and the interlopers were dead by 1967. But it is interesting there were employees in the publishing companies inside the TSBD who just become invisible. I think their offices were never even searched after the JFKA. One employee at one of the publishing companies actually had been a employee of Jack Ruby's. Perhaps the true perps just hid out in the publishing offices until dark, and then left under some ruse. Wearing uniforms, etc.

Spot on, dude. You summed it up neatly.

Jim H- Just my two cents... Allen Dulles may, or may not have, directed the JFKA. We have seen a lot of people of late "convicted" in public of crimes, based on accusations and circumstances. As well as ordinary Joes accused. Maybe you despise a Trump, a Cuomo, or a Clinton or Dulles. That's fine. But until we see a vigorous defense in a court of law, and accusers grilled by cross-examination...and then a conviction before a jury of peers, then I am not convinced. My guess is the CIA perpetrated a huge cover-up after the JFKA, and that lower level CIA assets did the deed. The CIA top chiefs may have ordered the hit on LHO, using Mob assets. I am no fan of the CIA. The CIA has been instrumental in an interventionist foreign-military policy on behalf of multinational interests, that is not in US interests, as well as being fantastically expensive and counterproductive. Think Vietnam, Afghanistan. But much more too. But who actually ordered the JFKA?

I thought I had posted this on the Education Forum years ago but evidently not. Topical again. So here goes: The Grassy Knoll Events As Diversion Gunsmoke On the Plaza The 1974 book Murder From Within by Fred Newcombe may come to an unproven conclusion that Lyndon Johnson organized his predecessor’s murder, but like so many earnest researchers Newcombe waded through the documents and testimony, and registered clues that were totally missed or ignored by the Warren Commission, and even effectively overlooked by the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Give Newcombe credit; he noticed that at least nine witnesses—and many experienced witnesses no less—smelled the distinctive, telltale scent of gunsmoke in Dealey Plaza immediately after the assassination, including most famously Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough, a World War II veteran. Riding in the motorcade in a car behind the president’s, Yarborough said smelled gunsmoke in Dealey Plaza and that it clung to his car throughout the race to Parkland Hospital. Perhaps engaging in a little journalistic license, a newspaper reported that “seconds later the [presidential] cavalcade was gone [from Dealey Plaza]. The area still reeked with the smell of gunpowder.” Later, the Aussie detective Colin McLaren would say he counted 22 witnesses at street level who smelled gunsmoke that day in Dealey Plaza, for his regrettable video that concludes a Secret Service man accidentally shot President Kennedy. But the headcount was worthy yeoman duty. JFK assassination researchers, of course, are more than aware that railroad workers on the Triple Overpass (most notably S.M. Holland), and Lee Bowers in the Union Terminal Co.’s two-story observation tower in the railroad parking lot behind the Grassy Knoll, said they saw a puff of gunsmoke concurrent to gunshots, and then smoke lingering in the trees atop the Grassy Knoll shortly thereafter. Lee Harvey Oswald’s “sniper’s nest” in the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) was about 80 yards from the Grassy Knoll, and downwind that day from Dealey Plaza, as shown by women’s skirts fluttering in the breeze in various photographs and films. Gerald Posner makes a complete ass of himself by suggesting the gunsmoke in Dealey Plaza had issued from Oswald's rifle. Patrolman Joe M. Smith But perhaps Dallas Police Department Patrolman Joe M. Smith is the most interesting and best witness, “best” as he can be assumed to be very familiar with vehicular exhaust and gunsmoke. In a Dec. 9 1963 interview with the FBI, Smith, a Korean war vet and eight-year Dallas cop, said he smelled gunsmoke in the Union Terminal railroad yard parking lot next to the Grassy Knoll, after the assassination. And Smith is most “interesting” for the hysterical woman he met en route to an encounter with what was likely a Secret Service imposter. After gunshots rang out in Dealey Plaza, Smith told the Warren Commission that, [T]his woman came up to me and she was just in hysterics. She told me, “They are shooting the President from the bushes.” So I immediately proceeded up here. By “here” Patrolman Smith meant the bushes around the concrete concave-shaped pergola structure, also sometimes called a monumental colonnade, between the TSBD and the Grassy Knoll. Smith’s testimony to Warren Commission has nearly become canon in the assassination community, recounted many times, and always intriguing. As Smith further explained, I was checking all the bushes and I checked all the cars in the [railroad] parking lot. Smith then elaborates, “There was some deputy sheriff with me [probably Dallas Deputy Seymour Weitzman], and I believe one Secret Service man when I got there. Smith added, I got to make this statement, too. I felt awfully silly, but after the shot and this woman, I pulled my pistol from my holster, and I thought, this is silly, I don't know who I am looking for, and I put it back. Just as I did, he showed me that he was a Secret Service agent. [Warren Commission staffer]Mr. LIEBELER: Did you accost this man? Mr. SMITH: Well, he saw me coming with my pistol and right away he showed me who he was. Smith said he had doubts about the man actually being Secret Service: It didn’t ring true. He looked like an auto mechanic. He had on a sports shirt, but he had dirty fingernails. I should have checked the man closer, but he had produced correct identification. As JFKA researchers well know, there were no Secret Service men on duty anywhere in Dallas, except in the motorcade. Dallas Deputy Sheriff Seymour Weitzman made a similar statement to the Warren Commission about a Secret Service man in the railroad yard, and later told an interviewer that he also saw identification. The Warren Commission’s oceanic indifference to actual and potential witnesses is well-documented, and evidently no effort was made to find either the fake Secret Service man nor “the hysterical woman.” And she is worth pondering. The Hysterical Woman There are two main possibilities defining the hysterical woman who approached Patrolman Smith with word about gunmen in bushes that day in Dealey Plaza: One: She was an earnest witness. If this is the case, it is an acute loss that she was not detained and interviewed. For starters, the first question would be: “Which bushes?” Clues such as footprints or shreds of cloth on bush branches might be looked for. She seems to have had a more definite idea of the precise locations of shots and gunsmoke than most witnesses that day, most of whom could only say in general they heard shots or saw or smelled smoke in the area of the Grassy Knoll. Two: She was part of a diversion. This is an interesting conjecture, since her efforts, along with the noise, sight and smell of gunsmoke, worked so effectively to divert police resources to the Grassy Knoll and railroad yards, and away from shots fired at the president from well behind his limousine. If the hysterical woman was an earnest witness, why did she never come forward and direct authorities to the bushes she had in mind? The Diversion Indeed, the copious amount of gunsmoke released at the precise time the president was being assassinated in Dealey Plaza raises the question of intentional diversion. Sometimes Warren Commission supporters hazard that modern guns do release smoke, and so the whole gunsmoke in Dealey Plaza story is meaningless, but that is a patently incorrect and, well, also a diversion. Modern gunpowder and weapons only release less smoke than old-fashioned black powder, and even today gun enthusiasts say cheap ammo is smoky. Nevertheless, a single shot from a rifle with good-quality 1960s-era ammo would likely not leave Dealey Plaza “reeking” of gunsmoke, or leave Yarborough’s car impregnated with odor. So? A Handgun And Smokey Ammo? As it turns out, handguns are louder and smokier than same-caliber rifles, or long guns. The longer barrel of a rifle suppresses noise, muzzle flash and smoke, in comparison to a handgun. Moreover, a “snub-nose” handgun is louder yet, releasing the most muzzle flash and smoke. Interestingly, the snub-nose .38 Smith & Wesson was a common gun in the 1960s, readily available and nearly standard issue to anyone who carried a concealed weapon. In addition, the .38 is a favorite among “hand-loaders,” or gun enthusiasts who load their own cartridges, and select their own gunpowders—including varieties of smoky “black powder.” The lubing on lead bullets, as opposed to copper-jacketed or steel-jacketed bullets, is also known to increase smokiness. All that said, an individual could have hidden in the bushes by the Dealey Plaza colonnade-pergola on Nov. 22, and fired two hand-loaded lead shots from a .38 snubnose not at the motorcade, but well higher over the motorcade, indeed high enough to clear Dealey Plaza. The result would be the sound of gunshots and plenty of gunsmoke pouring toward Elm Street. Improvised Explosive Device? Modern-day commercial firecrackers use “flash powder,” a different formulation than gunpowder, and which smells different after combustion. But historically, firecrackers were made with gunpowder, and amateurs can easily fabricate same, and still do. A firecracker is little more than thick paper wound tightly around explosive powder, plus a fuse. This raises the possibility that someone fabricated one or two large firecrackers with ample amounts of gunpowder—more gunpowder than would be used in just two bullet cartridges—which they ignited as the presidential motorcade passed. This would account for Dealey Plaza “reeking” of gunsmoke after the motorcade passed. Many Dealey Plaza witnesses said the first shot sounded different from the following two shots, and many say the first shot sounded like a firecracker. Maybe it was. In summary, creating explosions and copious amounts of gunsmoke in Dealey Plaza was easily done 1963, with materials readily available at the time. Worth noting is that 21 law enforcement officers that day in Dealey Plaza thought the sound of gunshots had come from the Grassy Knoll. G Robert Blakey And The Missed Shot G. Robert Blakey, chief counsel to the 1977-8 House Select Committee on Assassinations and a conspiracy proponent, has stated that if there was a shot at President Kennedy from the Grassy Knoll on Nov. 22, then it missed. This is a possibility, but seems unlikely. Missing a head shot from 75 feet is one thing, but missing the whole stretch limousine? There is no one who says the presidential limo was struck on the side, or on the capacious rear hood, or the front hood. The front seat occupants were uninjured. No one says there was a bullet striking the grass on the south side of Elm St. (opposite the Grassy Knoll) and no witnesses were struck. If it is accepted that the head shot on President Kennedy was from behind, then a logical deduction is no one shot at the president from the Grassy Knoll. But there could have been shots from the Grassy Knoll, but not aimed at Kennedy. The Diversion Taking the above as premise, the obvious hypothesis is someone concealed themselves in the bushes near the Grassy Knoll or adjacent colonnade on Nov. 22, and then as the Presidential motorcade passed, fired an easily concealed snub-nose .38, armed with hand-loaded and intentionally smoky gunpowder and bullets. They fired well over the presidential motorcade, indeed intending to miss all bystanders and nearby buildings. Their role was diversion from the actual assassins, who were behind the president by 80 yards. Or, one or two black-powder loaded firecrackers would have also sufficed. This individual then carefully retreated to the railroad yard, not running, and perhaps feigning that he was a law-enforcement officer searching for perpetrators. There, the diversionist was accosted by DPD Patrolman Smith, but he flashed his phony Secret Service identification. Eventually, the suspect melted into the commotion, and was never seen again. Yes, “only” a diversion on the Grassy Knoll. And a successful one. But even a diversion means a conspiracy. Conclusion I did not devise the “Grassy Knoll as a Diversion” scenario merely as a debating platform. Nevertheless, there is nothing in the Warren Commission, or in the HSCA reports, or in books authored by Gerald Posner, Bill O’Reilly or Vincent Bugliosi that can refute or rebut the “Grassy Knoll as a Diversion” hypothesis. The Lone Nut crowd can offer debated medical forensics on the head shot—just one and from behind, for example—and they can justifiably recount the many clues pointing to Lee Harvey Oswald’s guilt and mental condition. They can chose to ignore links between Oswald and the CIA, or between Jack Ruby and the Mob, which are not conclusive on their own. But the indisputable facts remain that at the exact time President Kennedy was being shot, experienced witnesses thought there was the sound of gunshot from the Grassy Knoll; there was the heavy odor of ignited gunpowder; there was visible gunsmoke; and within moments there was a suspect flashing phony Secret Service identification near the Grassy Knoll. And also a hysterical woman telling Patrolman Smith that somebody was shooting at President Kennedy “from the bushes.” If there was no Grassy Knoll gunman on Nov. 22, then what remains is likely to have been an intentional diversion. Addendum: An FBI document released in 1978 reported that on Nov. 23, 1963 noted that ”Patrolman J. Raz brought into the Homicide and Robbery bureau, Dallas PD, a brown paper sack which contained a snub-nosed .38 caliber Smith and Wesson. SN 893265 . . . that had been found near the curb at the corner or Ross and Lamar Streets and was turned in by one Willie Flat …" The location is a few blocks north of Dealey Plaza—in other words, someone had tossed aside a snub-nose .38, in a paper bag, likely on the day of the assassination, mere blocks from where JFK had been shot. By one account, the paper bag was found at 7:30 am in the morning. Although the snubnose in question was a US-make Smith & Wesson, the gun had been traveled, and sent to England evidently during WWII, and then made its way back, . Someone cut down the barrel after WWII, making it a snub-nose, an inexpensive weapon—indeed, a throw-away gun, of the type to be used in a crime or ruse and then discarded. To be sure, it is mere speculation that a snub-nose .38 found in a paper bag early Nov. 23 was the same weapon that produced shots and smoke in Dealey Plaza a few hours earlier. But interesting nonetheless. .

Interesting point. It is also possible that handmade firecrackers, filled with gunpowder were used (hence the smell of gunpowder, which is distinct from the smell of firecrackers) I lean to the concealed snub-nose .38, due to DPD'er Joe Smith and Dallas Sheriff Seymour Weitzman meeting the guy with bogus Secret Service credentials near the Grassy Knoll, moments after the shooting, and a snub-nose .38 being found in a paper bag a few blocks away the next morning. Of course, the early reports were that JFK was in fact shot in the temple, so maybe the Grassy Knoll is the origin of one of the shots. For me, the rapidity of the shots is key, rather than the direction.

Ron B.-- Well...I think that may be the case. Of course, I see the violent lurch of JFK back to the left also (in the Z film). And, many people assert confidently that the throat wound to JFK was from the front, and was in fact an entry wound. Pat Speer look at the evidence long and hard, and as I recall was open to the Grassy Knoll gunfire as a diversion. But, of course, a diversion is still a conspiracy, and in fact suggests intelligent planning, rather than just setting up two guns and shooting. My guess is the cue was "when the limo gets near the Stemmons Freeway sign, we all commence firing. The diversionary fire will increase the odds of the perps escaping."

W.-- Tough question: 1. OK, you are a STEM professor on an elite campus in the US. You have an earnest opinion there are biological differences between men and women that explain differences in STEM aptitude and results. You say so, clearly, and you moreover notice and say of the top 100 chess players in the world, 99 or 100 are men at any time. That probably represents the curve of skills at the top end. 2. Another professor on the same campus says Trump was the worst and horrible person ever born, an old white male pig. Which one is run off campus? Or off the WaPo? So, we all know the answer to this one. So who are we afraid to criticize?

Can't say I am onboard with the 9/11 pre-event conspiracy, but keeping an open mind. Complicity, disinformation and war-mongering after the fact, in spades. Role models are mentioned above. Yeah, there are not any, aside from the marginalized. "Afghanistan was the ultimate symbol of the two-party consensus, the “good war” as Barack Obama deemed it, and defense spending in general remained so sacrosanct across the last twenty years that the monster, $160 billion defense spending hikes of 2017-2018 were virtually the only policy initiative of Donald Trump’s that went unopposed by a Democratic leadership. “We fully support President Trump’s Defense Department’s request,” was Chuck Schumer’s formulation in 2018, choosing then to reward the Pentagon for turning Mesopotamia into a Mad Max set and spending two trillion dollars on the by-then-inevitable fall of Kabul."---Matt Taibbi. I would get angry, but at some point resignation displaces indignation. The WaPo and the Donks are totally in bed with the globalists, multinationals, national security state, Wall Street, Big Tech and media. The 'Phants want all those groups back on their reservation.

Hello Michaleen: Testimony before the HSCA: "Connally: I was knocked over, just doubled over by the force of the bullet. It went in my back and came out my chest about 2 inches below and the left of my right nipple. The force of the bullet drove my body over almost double and when I looked, immediately I could see I was just drenched with blood. (1 HSCA 42)" ---30--- I should probably highlight this aspect of the Nov. 22 events a little more. Connally himself, and other witnesses, describe him as immediately incapacitated upon being shot. Which makes sense of course. To state the obvious, if JBC had been shot at the same moment as the first shot to JFK, then we would expect to see JBC crumpling as he emerges from behind the Stemmons Freeway sign, in the Z film. Instead, he sits bolt upright, as if startled. This seems clear to me. There is another post coming on the strange path of Connally's shirt after the JFKA. You can't make this stuff up. I am getting zero traction getting a publication to print my Connally-shirt-bullet hole story. Even with your sexy lede. So it goes....

Years ago I posted on this Forum an explanation of gunsmoke in Dealey Plaza. Modern-day gun enthusiasts will affirm guns can and do smoke, depending on the gunpowder used. Cheaper ammo tends to smoke more. Pistols and revolvers issue more smoke than long guns, due to more "muzzle blast." Snub-nose .38s smoke the most. The snub-nose .38 was the default concealed weapon of choice in the 1950s and 1960s. Moreover, many people "hand load" ammo for the .38s. That is, they save and re-use the shells, filling the shells with their own gunpowder. There are smokey gunpowders on the market for theatrical purposes. I am open to the argument that the Grassy Knoll shots were an intentional diversion. The guy with the Secret Service credentials near the Grassy Knoll had a .38 and fired twice, resulting in a lot of noise and smoke. The diversion worked well. But why three audible shots for most witnesses? Some shots may have been concurrent, or heard concurrently (due to the speed of sound). Other shots may have issued from silenced weapons or even pneumatic guns. And some people did hear four shots. Unfortunately, the medical evidence has been so monkeyed with that drawing conclusions from it is difficult. The Z film appears to show three shots hit occupants of the president limo, and in too-rapid succession to have been issued from a single-shot bolt action rifle. There may have been simultaneous shots striking JFK in frame 313. Some shots may have missed.

I sense Project Mockingbird is still in operation, if not by that name, or any name. An article that compares JFK to Harvey Weinstein? Now? Or (as pointed out by James DiEugenio recently) a WaPo article comparing JFKA researchers to QAnon riff-raff? A decent, caring, civic giant like Cyril Wecht equals QAnon? What is sad is these left-wing young punks think they know the score. Yeah, Stone is just an old white man, and JFK is like Harvey Weinstein.

It is hard not to sound like a nut these days. I was talking to old friend. BTW, I said, I thought JFK had been assassinated in plot. Careful cautious explanation by me, received dubiously. Then he mentioned RFK and Sirhan. I started in on the RFKA assassination...but I gave up. I was losing the audience with every word. One thing: People saw how the media played the Wuhan lab leak story. So even this old friend is more open-minded now.

W--Oh, I doubt Pence had much to do with anyone's reasoning. The national security state thrives highlighted dangers, foreign and domestic. Enemies abroad and subversives within--you know the old story. In this case, the national security state is working hand-in-glove with an allied major political party to amplify and exaggerate dangers. Sort of an echo of the old Barry Goldwater-GOP and national security state days. But there were probably more than a few government plants, informants and possible provocateurs in the Jan. 6 crowd. Interesting question: About 600 people occupied the Capitol. The Capitol Police department has 2,300 officers. The DC Metropolitan Police has 3,500 officers. There are other police departments in DC, such as Park Police, and any number of other federal agency departments. I assume all a phone call away. DC is a small place, I used to live there. Really? They were waiting for the National Guard? Isn't that a rather slow response to rely on? Doesn't make sense to me...

Ron B.-- https://www.reuters.com/world/us/exclusive-fbi-finds-scant-evidence-us-capitol-attack-was-coordinated-sources-2021-08-20/ Well, FBI says mostly just a bunch of kooks. That is my take from reading arrest reports and prosecutions---not relying on WaPo and other party-affiliated news media. Doing my own primary research. So why would the FBI say the Jan 6 incident was mostly a bunch of kooks? Two options: 1. Jan. 6 was mostly a bunch of kooks. So the FBI is just telling the truth. 2. There were government infiltrators and plants in the crowd, who had (perhaps even inadvertently) had enabled elements in the crowd to arrive and assemble. If you are familiar with the history of hunting terrorists and commies in the USA, and with the more recent Governor Whitmer kidnapping case, these marginalized organizations are rife with plant and informants or agents, who often provide financing or goad participants on. It is entrapment, but goes on. "Michigan governor kidnap plot dreamt up by FBI informants, accused leader claims" The whole Whitmer kidnapping case looks fishy.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/secret-jfk-mistress-diana-de-vegh-breaks-silence-almost-60-years-after-assassination These were the guys that decided that anything Oliver Stone said could be dismissed due to Stone's age, sex and color. So why now, this story about JFK's private sex life? JFK is compared to Harvey Weinstein. I am not here to defend JFK's or LBJ's private sex lives. The morals of the time were different. I do not believe a person's private sex life is all important, or that revealing private consensual sex lives is great heroism. I am old enough to remember when "kiss and tell" was regarded as low form. The release of records under the JFK Records Act is coming up for Biden's review. Stories about JFK's private sex life are getting aired. Go figure.

So, if elements of the national security state were involved in the Jan. 6 scrum...you would not expect the WaPo to inform you?

"Sirhan and his supporters point out what they say is intriguing new ballistic evidence and say it could either wipe out Sirhan or at least involve a second shooter. They are particularly enthralled by the forensic evidence suggesting that the bullets that killed Kennedy were fired at close range, an important fact as witnesses say Sirhan did not get so close to the senator."---Los Angeles Times. This is how the Los Angeles Times is reprising their coverage of the RFKA. They first printed this paragraph in 1998, and again today. Yes, I am "particularly enthralled" by "forensic evidence" suggesting RFK bullets were fired a very short range and from behind, and that all witnesses said Sirhan Sirhan was several feet or more in front of RFK. That is, County Coroner Thomas Noguchi conducted tests on RFK's body and determined there was muzzle blast behind RFK's ear, and shots entered RFK from behind. BTW, there was a move to get rid of Noguchi before he finished his autopsy. Oh, I am "enthralled." Any sane person must have reasonable doubts as to the true events regarding the RFKA. And that reasonable doubt is just on scratching the surface, just reading the Noguchi report. Like the JFKA, the more you read, the more reasonable doubts accumulate.