Benjamin Cole

I still wonder...so where are the verifiable cases of Manchurian assassins? There are many governments in the world with adequate resources to maintain spooky intel services. Maybe dozens. Knowledge is almost impossible to keep under wraps--if a method for actually creating Manchurian assassins was available...where are the assassins? It has been 60 years since the JFKA and RFK1. That is 60 years to improve and refine hypnosis techniques and drugs. Again, we see nothing. Has anyone, in a peer-reviewed journal, ever laid out replicable procedures and drugs for creating a Manchurian assassin? If not an assassin, a method for ensuring a person would become an automaton well after the hypnosis sessions are complete? Yes, we have seen cases of hypnosis "working" in the immediate sense, under controlled conditions with willing subjects. That may roughly been the case of Sirhan, though that is hardly proven. The polka-dot dress girl may have had a role. Sirhan still needs to reveal who were his co-conspirators in the RFK1A. And Sirhan may have willingly put himself into a fugue of sorts to steel up for the RFK1A, along with the four drinks. Sirhan had apparently been experimenting with self-hypnosis. The whole case needs to be re-investigated, although like the JFKA...the intel-state stalled long enough that truth is dying along with witnesses.

SW- Thanks for your collegial comments.

JD- As of now, the only candidate with even a remote chance of the winning the White House and then releasing the JFK Records is RFK2. So I brought up the topic. I wanted to know if RFK2 could release the docs...a topic the establishment media is deeply uninterested in. As for promoting the RFK2 candidacy...the readership of the EF-JFKA is minute, in relation to the voting population of the US. Nothing said he will have any influence on the pending election. Mods and participants should learn to tolerate and try to appreciate many points of view. Self-righteous animosity towards anyone who is not a carbon-copy of you....does not make the EF-JFKA a more-enjoyable forum.

LH and all--- https://www.maryferrell.org/pages/Essay_-_Incomplete_Justice_-_At_the_Ambassador_Hotel.html I just gave the above a quick read at the MFF website. Per usual, LH delivered a professional and circumspect review of the RFK1A. A few take-aways, but please the read the series. It is not long, and dense with info. My take-aways (based on LH's commentary)---- 1. Sirhan had companions, and had been stalking RFK1, sometimes in the company of those companions. Likely those companions, and others, were co-conspirators. 2. The LAPD did a snuff job on a true investigation. 3. Sirhan was a little liar. He would say he did not remember what happened in the pantry, and but would slip up and refute that he had asked anyone the anticipated time of RFK's arrival, while in the pantry. If he did not remember anything, how could he deny he had asked about RFK1's arrival, as per witnesses? Sirhan was described a lucid and intelligent by the LAPD after arrest. 4. Sirhan curiously did not carry ID on the night of the RFK1A, and refused to verbally provide his ID to LAPD, after arrest. This seems planned, and undercuts the idea that suddenly, and compulsively, Sirhan shot RFK1. 5. Sirhan hated Jews, and regarded RFK1 as a friend of the Jews/Israel. That seems to have been his motivation for the RFK1A. 6. More than eight shots were fired in the pantry. Conclusion-- 1. Not sure about attempts to exonerate Sirhan, or even give him parole. He seems to have planned out, and attempted to murder RFK1. Not only a murder, but one thwarting democratic processes to satisfy his own personal, political and racial hatreds. 2. Sirhan has evidently never identified who his companions were. Of course, maybe he was never asked, but if he wants parole, he should tell everything he knows, including who were his companions. A full confession of his true motivations and enablers. 3. The angle that Sirhan was hypnotized and a Manchurian assassin is less believable. Sirhan had been stalking RFK1. As stated, if a Manchurian assassin was possible---where are the other such assassins, in the near 60 years since the RFK1A? Other nations would also deploy such assassins, were it possible. All in all, Larry Hancock provides a snappy read and synopsis of the RFK1A.

PC- You are correct, Banister is reputed to have been a heavy smoker and drinker, and I cannot find any specific actuarial tables in that regard. On the other hand, what we consider today to be heavy smoking and drinking in the 1950s...was nearly the norm. One of amusements of watching old b/w movies on youtube is constant drinking and smoking depicted. I realize that is a factional representation, but nevertheless...

Jim D's comments are a lot broader than that. Bur even if Jim D's comments were limited to IRS docs, we we do not know why those docs are being withheld. The financial privacy rights might be a convenient explanation. It never hurts to frame comments in the most collegial way possible. We will not influence the national election from within the EF-JFKA. Be cordial to MAGA people, GOP'ers, independents, D-Partiers, lefties, lone-nutters, CT'ers.

Eladio Del Valle was found slaughtered the same night Ferrie was found dead. Guy Banister said something to the effect, "If I am found dead soon, no matter the circumstances, it was murder." I checked the actuarial tables. Men born in the year Banister was born, and who were alive in 1963, generally had another 10 years to live. If you want to read something spooky, read about barium acetate, murder and heart attacks. Creepy and easy to do. Banister died of a heart attack.

JD- Thanks for your comments. 1. Yes, Trump miserably failed the public in regards to the JFK Records Act, and after all his bogus tough-guy bluster too. Facts are facts. 2. You are suggesting that of which I am afraid: The Biden Administration, I guess under AG Merrick Garland, has designed and left behind some sort of legal construct or apparatus specifically designed to thwart the JFK Records Act in perpetuity. A lot of thought and effort must have gone into obstructing and defeating the intent of the law. 3. Why put so much effort into making sure the snuff job on the JFK Records is permanent? Because nothing is in them? 4. I conclude there is something in the JFK Records. My guess is the JFKA research community has become so skilled, that there are some docs, such as those pertaining to CIA'er Joannides work in New Orleans, that would become illuminating. We don't know what we don't know, so there may be other extremely important records also. And really...LHO was just a nobody, but of all the cities in the US, he happened to travel and temporarily re-locate to New Orleans at the very same time Joannides was working in New Orleans? Seems like a stretch....

MA- "How about you briefly pause with the conspiracy talk and deal in facts."- MA This is not a collegial comment. Maybe you disagree with James DiEugenio. That is fine. We all have points of view. Your comments in this thread insinuate other EF-JFKA participants are deluded, or have agendas, or worse. What is the good in that?

LH-- Always glad when you add to RF-JFKA conversations. Agree or disagree, you always add to the total sum.

JD--Ditto times 100. Who could possibly have the resources and influence to do a snuff job on the RFK1A investigation? On top of the Warren Commission? This seems to rule out anyone not connected to the US-intel state. --- BTW, one reservation I have about the idea of true "Manchurian assassin": It has been nearly 60 years since the RFK1, and sadly, if there are people programming other people, they will have now had another many decades to improve techniques and drugs. Yet...there are no solid stories of brainwashed killers. There must have been, not the just the US, but in many other governments, intel-types trying to create brainwashed killers. There are (again sadly) too many people in the world willing to sell any type of knowledge to the highest bidder--meaning if there was a replicable method for brainwashing people to commit specific acts of violence or sabotage or document thefts, that would have leaked out. But we see nothing. In all directions---that is, the US has not ever charged another nation with brainwashing a US spy, and vice-versa. Nor has Vietnam charged China with such, and do on. I am not convinced of the idea of a Manchurian assassin.

PS- IMHO you are serious, talented and longtime JFKA researcher, and who has put together a formidable JKFA website. I cannot fathom the slurs people are making against you, or why the EF-JFKA has become such reservoir of petty hatreds. BTW, we have disagreed on the LHO-cheek GSR issue, and then that was that. I spoke my part, you did yours. The conversation was even and collegial.

The Fermi Paradox is indeed one of my favorites...my "solution" is nothing travels faster than the speed of light, ergo there are plenty, maybe millions of other intelligent beings in the universe, but alack and alas, all too far to have ever reached earth. Their radio signals too. Even the next galaxy waaaaaayyyy too far, and as Sagan said "there are billions and billions." But, back here on earth---this means what for seeing the JFK Records opened up in 2025? Has the Biden Administration been able to construct a legal apparatus that will thwart even a future Chief Executive who wants to open up the JFK Records?

Couple quickies--- 1. Is the topic of the JFK Records Act appropriate for the EF-JFKA? 2. The RFK1A strikes me as part-and-parcel of the EF-JFKA, and has been treated as such for decades, AFAIK. Is the RFK1A topic appropriate for the EF-JFKA?

Legal Scholars and other knowledgeable parties--- I admit to being overwhelmed both by the verbiage of the Biden Administration in not complying with the JFK Records Act, and with the earnest explanations of whether what Biden is doing is legal, and if not legal will withstand legal challenges anyway. We have some legal scholars in the house, such as Andrew Iler, Mark Adamczyk, Lawrence Schnapf and Bill Simpich, and also some observers who appear to have studied the issue, such as Roger Odisio and Matt Cloud. So I want to fast-forward to an imaginary RFK2 presidency. I have lost hope for the present. If an outsider President ordered, without the slightest equivocation, the unconditional release of all JFK Records, could the outsider still be flummoxed by a recalcitrant CIA or other intel-state actors?

MC- Let me ask you this: Do you think the intel state, or the neocons, have deposed four presidents in the post-war era, being JFK, Nixon, Carter and Trump? And did away with RFK1 as well?

Are we allowed to talk about what the Biden Administration is doing on the JFK Records Act now?

MN- I hope you stick around. Many a civil collegial fellow has disappeared from the EF-JFKA. I agree 100%: All perspectives (other than hate rhetoric) should be treated with respect. I hope for collegial conversations with you. If we disagree on certain event or issues, that's fine. That is what a forum is for.

A certain self-righteous animosity towards those with different perspectives.... May not be the best way to run or participate in a forum....

MA- The people who sit on the FCC are only humans, and bring their shortcomings and biases with them. But they balance each other (it can be hoped). There are several intelligent commentators in the EF-JFKA.

This exchange affirms my sentiments that an entire fresh slate of moderators is needed, so that EF-JFKA can exit free and clear of embittered baggage. This is not a criticism of anybody. Sometimes when one runs an organization, divisions and quarrels break out, and there is no solution, so a new crew is brought in, and the existing people re-assigned, without any judgement passed. It is not necessary to assign blame, or re-hash old arguments. It the vernacular of the street, sometimes it is just better "to move on."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbmrLmGaGQ0 This is the Shane O'Sullivan doc on the RFK1A. There was another one, but I can't remember the name of it, maybe made by a Netherland guy, but the doc was in English and very well done for the time and place, about 45-50 years ago. Boy, the federal government has done a heavy-duty snuff job on the truth in the JFKA and RFK1A.

MA- I cannot imagine a trio of moderators, all liberal Democrats, or all conservative Republicans, rendering fair decisions in any forum, including the EF-JFKA. The Federal Communications Commission is one example of a body that deliberately designed to have members of both political parties on it. "The FCC is directed by five commissioners appointed by the president of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate for five-year terms, except when filling an unexpired term. The U.S. president designates one of the commissioners to serve as chairman. No more than three commissioners may be members of the same political party. None of them may have a financial interest in any FCC-related business.[3][8]" ---30--- Of course, I am sure FFC has bungled, or been corrupt at times, or biased at times. What would you think of an FCC with five commissioners all appointed by Republicans, and who are all members of the GOP? I suspect you would consider such an FCC to be biased, and I would assent. So, I cannot see any good reason to not also have a balanced EF-JFKA board of moderation. Sure, it may not be perfect. Odds on, a politically balanced board will do a better job than an imbalanced board.

All fine with me. I recommend the moderators be selected for diversity in their viewpoints and political beliefs. If a trio, then one D, one R and one independent. Or, if you prefer, one leftie, one rightie, and one middle-of-the-roader.

I know Tom Gram to be an earnest and talented JFKA researcher. Gram may come to different conclusions than me, on occasion. If so, I would check my conclusions for accuracy. There would be no need to speak disparagingly about Gram''s conclusions.