Benjamin Cole

Good one.

Lansdale is certainly an excellent example of the kind of guy who would easily transverse organizational boundaries. I may place too much faith in Antonio Veciana, who said he met David Atlee Phillips in the company of LHO. Phillips was also an expert PR guy. This leads me to suspect a small, LHO-Phillips deal on a false-flag JFKA.

So does serious researcher John Newman (think military elements were involved), but he is being a bit coy right now. So far, everything serious leads back to CIA and Cuban exiles. Larry Hancock of course has done serious work in this line. One thing I say: There are lines on pieces of paper, showing organizational structures and separate silos etc. Then there are human beings who talk and organize with each other informally, to get around suffocating organizational rules and oversight. Judging from your photo, I guess you would occasionally dabble in the informal category of behavior. So maybe to say any particular operation "was a CIA op" is roughly right, but the CIA borrowed a couple of guys from another agency, and a retiree from somewhere, and used a couple private contractors for cover, and hired a cute call-girl as a decoy. And the subsequent paperwork would not reflect the reality of what happened. I still fall back on my main view: The pre-JFKA witting participants had to be few in number. Like single-hand count, of an old woodworker.

Robert B.-- Something close to that is my take. I think the CIA (David Atlee Phillips) planned a fake false-flag JFKA. Shoot at JFK, miss, and blame Castro-ites. This would trigger a regime change operation in Cuba. But CIA-Cuban assets learned about the plan and then piggybacked on the operation, and played for real. This explains the sophisticated long-term CIA biography-build on LHO, but also why you have lesser lights like Sergio Arcacha-Smith and Rose Cheramie heading to Dallas. This also explains why the CIA was at great pains to cover everything up (to put it mildly). I surmise CIA higher-ups had to give the semaphore to mob-connections to ice LHO. Who would hire Ruby, you say? The CIA does not have infinite resources. They needed someone who could penetrate the DPD, yet had no identifiable ties to the CIA. How many people are floating around like that? And Ruby had run guns to Cuba before.

"Northwoods may have been the impetus for the rumored false flag assassination team that only intended to near-miss or wound people in the limo. That plan would have been co-opted by additional shooters, just as a defense exercise could be escalated into an invasion."---David A. Yeah, that's roughly my view of the JFKA.

W. Tracy P--There is an old saying, "Never judge a book by its cover." There seems little doubt Rose Cheramie was down on her luck, in with drugs, other vice. With a few strokes of bad luck, who could say what would happen to most of us? But more importantly, her background is not important as much as the timing of what was said. Multiple witness indicate she talked about the JFKA before it happened, and that the drug deal in which she was participating was for real. There does seem be be more than a few connections between the drug world and Cuban exiles. Antonio Veciana went to prison on a drug deal, Eladio Del Valle apparently slaughtered in a drug deal, and Sergio Arcacha-Smith was evidently in a drug deal. That's off the top of my head. I agree with you, that a high-level CIA assassination plot would have little to do with the Rose Cheramie or Smith. On the other hand, the CIA was running LHO (read John Newman), and doing a biography build on him (Newman, Dan Hardway). LHO was in the TSBD when the JFKA happened. LHO quickly left the premises and armed himself. Shots separately struck Connally and JFK in too-rapid succession to have been fired by one single-shot bolt-action rifle. Gunsmoke was heavy in Dealey Plaza. I would say LHO and the CIA, possibly another group were "involved" in the JFKA. My take is rogue CIA assets, such as Smith, learned of a fake, false-flag assassination JFKA planned by the CIA (likely David Atlee Phillips). Those assets successfully piggybacked on the CIA-public relations stunt. This is how Rose Cheramie came to hear talk about the JFKA before it happened. She was in the milieu of the CIA assets (who were also running drugs) but not in with the CIA itself.

Indeed, an arresting officer at the Texas Theater said out loud, "Shoot the President, will you?" But if the DPD wanted LHO dead, they had ample opportunity at the Texas Theater. I can tell you if any suspect attempts to brandish a weapon at an Los Angeles Police Department officer, they will be dead before their hand touches the weapon. That the DPD arrested an armed man without killing him tells a lot. In my view, someone told the DPD who to look for, the slightly off description from military records. A phone call from the CIA or FBI to the DPD. The DPD becomes unwittingly complicit in the JFKA, and starts to build a case against the assassin. I do not wish to criticize people who are earnestly trying to get to the bottom of the JFKA, as am I. McBride suggests Tippit was murdered not by Oswald, but by fellow JFKA plotters who wished to call a lot of police cars and police into the neighborhood. Tippit was sacrificed for the cause. However, McBride surmises this. I disagree with his take on the matter.

A few years back, I did read the book. I do not like to criticize members of the JFKA research community, so I am mute. But if you want to put together some compelling hard facts regarding Tippit's knowing participation in the pre-JFKA plot, I am receptive. Sheesh, 50-65 years ago when I grew in Los Angeles County, some of the county Sheriffs were corrupt, and mean-spirited as well. So it goes.

That is true. Philip Shenon, decades later, repeated the poorly supported idea that Castro or Castroites were behind the JFKA. Much more likely, the CIA handled LHO for years, did a long-term biography build, and planned a unsuccessful false-flag assassination attempt on JFK with LHO as the suspect. Then, someone piggy-backed on the false-flag plan in earnest.

Ron B.: Thanks for reading. OK, build the "Tippit was in on the JFKA" case citing from the book. .... To me, the most curious thing is the appearance of LHO's wallet at the Tippit crime scene. It seems likely the wallet was planted, although not beyond reasonable doubt that it simply fell from LHO's body somehow. I am open-minded. But even if the wallet was planted, it could have been done so by a CIA asset, not the DPD. Curiously, the DPD was telling people the wallet was in LHO's back pocket. Interesting....

Gee, and the timing of this Alecia Long book on Garrison is....right before the Oct. 26 deadline for releasing the remaining JFK files? And I see... to admire Garrison's work is to be anti-LGBTQ. The CIA is woke, btw, just watch their recruitment ads. Right. Garrison was so far off-base that CIA deputy chief Raymond Rocca was asked to investigate Garrison. On 20th September, 1967, CIA officer Wistar Janney reported: "Rocca felt that Garrison would indeed obtain a conviction of Shaw for conspiring to assassinate President Kennedy". As we now know, Clay Shaw was Clay or Clem Bertrand and was a CIA asset. Garrison made a lot of mistakes in that trial, such as putting Charles Spiesel on the stand or putting Russo under some sort of drug. Likely, Shaw was a CIA handler of sorts, not a direct or immediate JFKA plot participant. But in the bigger picture Garrison was roughly right.

Joseph M. --- In the JFKA plot, or complicit in the post-JFKA cover-up? My take is the actual JFKA had a very small number of participants. Perhaps four or five. Why include anyone from the DPD? Were local cops in Miami and Chicago brought in to facilitate possible hits in those cities? Wouldn't that start to get a bit risky? After the fact, a cover-up or the "LHO the lone commie nut" narrative was more or less directed from on high, and likely involved the murder of LHO. Foot soldiers and the media fell in line.

That is a great speech, and Castro was right in many ways. But I have reservations about such pronouncements, whether by Henry Wade, CBS, LIFE magazine, Katzenbach, Castro or whoever that were made with 24 hours of the JFKA. At that point, no one knew whether LHO was a demented lone nut, a foreign agent, a CIA operative, a mob soldier or what have you. Everyone was talking their narrative, or parroting authority. As an aside, the global security Deep State (as noted by Sen Richard Russell) quickly dropped Cuba and became obsessed with SE Asia, from Indonesia to Laos, to Cambodia to Vietnam. If the JFKA was done for a foreign-policy reason....

Paul M--- A very interesting speech and deeply insightful. I have some reservations in that Castro, like Henry Wade, like US media, like Katzenbach, was jumping to conclusions, on Nov. 23. For all anyone knew, LHO (on Nov. 23) could have been a demented loner, or a CIA operative, or part of disgruntled group of CIA cast-offs, or a Castro-affiliate with several co-conspirators unknown. The media played the role of willing dupes, Castro played his game, and the CIA played theirs. Today, I contend LHO was a CIA asset, and there were at least two, and likely three guns fired that day in Dealey Plaza. Interestingly, as even Sen. Richard Russell noted, the US Deep State lost interest in Cuba and went deep into SE Asia after the JFKA. Consider Indonesia, Vietnam and SE Asia----much more important than Cuba.

The Rose Cheramie narrative is compelling, and appears to hold water. This does raise an interesting point. The horrid little men transporting and dumping Rose Cheramie do not seem part of a sophisticated high-end JFKA operation. They were loose-lipped, vulgar, running dope and took huge chances. Maybe doped up themselves. Bragged about the pending JFKA and then tossed a witness on the roadside. This is not James Bond, unless they are purely decoys. Sergio Arcacha Smith fits more with low-end rogue CIA elements doing the hit, somehow married to or piggy-backed onto the high-end CIA LHO biography build. This is largely my scenario of what happened.

As with principles in the nation's Capital...I see nothing.

David A-- de Gaulle was the target of several assassination attempts. He also fought the good fight for a Free France against the Nazis, at real risk to himself. He was not an armchair moralizer. That said, his comments about cops are prejudiced. He may have reasons for his attitude, but I disagree that a conclusion about the JFKA can or should or does upon an anti-cop sentiment. In fact, I doubt the Dallas Police Department had much to do with the JFKA, although I think complicity and deference to the FBI set in. If, by "cops" de Gaulle is referring to intel agencies, he might rest on more-solid ground, but even so, I dislike blanket statements about any group of people. Not all cops are good or bad, or think alike, just as people of different religions are individuals, or different nationalities. The grounds for conspiracy in the JFKA, in my assessment, rest upon the readily observed sequence of shots in the Z film, and the timing between the second and third shot (not enough time that is), moreover verified by multiple on-scene witnesses. Add on, gunsmoke in Dealey Plaza. So, we know there was at least two guns firing in Dealey Plaza that day. This is what the SBT theory, and the removing from the public of the Z film was all about. That's my take. De Gaulle is a fascinating figure in history and he may have been right in his dark suspicions. But if he had some real-deal intel, he should have put it down on paper, and published it somehow.

Richard P.--Yes, I did not mean to imply you were on the righteousness bandwagon. I should try to not be so cynical. But I think you are right; money has bought media and academia, and the foundations, think tanks and our political parties. The put BLM on NBA basketball courts and go mute on China. BTW, the book "Trade Wars are Class Wars" by Michael Pettis is a great book

David A. Great news story. de Gaulle may even be right, but I suspect he was largely surmising, due to his own history (as I would in his shoes). I was trying to present people with close hands-on knowledge, like Dr. Shaw, or prominent US pols who might have "inside" knowledge, such as RFK, or Russell Long, who was from Louisiana, and might know the local network. The three WC members. Dr. Shaw's testimony is amazing. He says a clean, non-tumbling shot struck Connally. He enlarged the governor's back wound in treatment. This alone raises very serious issues with the SBT.

Richard P.---- Thanks for reading. I am not sure there is a clear delineation anymore between "right" and "left" in the US. We have Jacob Hornberger, a libertarian, active in the JFKA community and calling for a much smaller national security state and less globalism. And you have Hillary Clinton as a globalist warmonger in pant-suits. CNN and MSNBC stuffed full of former CIA and Pentagon officials making assessments on air. Rachel Maddow chortling with Sen. Schumer that the CIA will get Trump. When was the last time a prominent left-winger called for a much smaller global security budget? Who has revived the Russians as the Huge Boogeyman? (While mostly going mute on China, where Apple makes their phones, using some materials made with slave labor). Who has become censorious, the left or the right? No, I am not defending the worst elements of the American right, nor the right-wing of the 1960s-2000. But the US political scene has changed. I advise replacing righteousness with cynicism, when discussing either party.

Thanks for reading.

David A.---Thanks for reading. I am not sure how to characterize Bertrand Russell. He raises some excellent points in the piece to which you link.

The Prominent, Professional and Proximate Who Did (Do) Not Accept the Warren Commission And an easy-to-relate JFKA narrative for the public Even at this late date, there are efforts to dismiss the JFKA community, or to define the event as likely the work of long-dead Russians or Castro-Cubans. What is forgotten today is that a large fraction, perhaps a majority, of those who were prominent, professionally involved or who were proximate to the JFKA also did or do not accept the Warren Commission conclusions—including three of the seven WC members. It is striking to ponder that had someone other than ex-CIA chief Allen Dulles effectively sat atop the WC, a majority of the commission may have likely not accepted the key findings. So without further adieu, here is a list of the prominent, professional and proximate who did (do) not accept the WC or lone gunman, or even HSCA version of events— Attorney General Robert Kennedy. Shortly after the JFKA, RFK famously asked CIA Director John McCone if “they”—the CIA—had murdered his brother. RFK is quoted as saying, ”You, know, at the time I asked McCone... if they had killed my brother, and I asked him in a way that he couldn't lie to me, and they hadn’t.” Yes, the shocking reality is that a US Attorney General felt compelled to ask a CIA Director if the intel agency had assassinated a sitting US president. RFK retained doubts until his own assassination. Senator Russell Long, from Louisiana. Long’s own father, Senator Huey Long, had been assassinated in 1935. Russell Long thought New Orleans District Attorney James Garrison might be barking up the right tree. Here is fascinating footage: https://www.efootage.com/videos/90904/senator-possible-jfk-assassination-plot-1967 Warren Commission members Senator Richard Russell, Georgia; Senator Sherman Cooper, Kentucky; and Congressman Hale Boggs, Louisiana. Here is Russell, in taped conversation with President LBJ on whether LHO was the lone gunman: "I don't believe it.” LBJ responded with the words: "I don't either.” For his part, Boggs posited FBI Chief J. Edgar Hoover had constantly lied the WC, and that the CIA and FBI would never admit LHO had been an asset or informant, if true. Cooper told Kennedy family members he did not believe LHO had acted alone. President LBJ. See Russell telephone call, and comments to media. Texas Gov. John Connally. Connally consistently maintained that on Nov. 22 the first shot struck JFK, the second shot struck himself, and the third struck JFK. The Z-film bears out his recollection, which was also seconded by his wife, who was seated next to him, and several Secret Service members. The insurmountable problem is that there is well less than two seconds between the shot the struck Connally and the final shot to JFK, which is not enough time to have been accomplished by a single-shot bolt action rifle of the type LHO had. Secret Service agents Clint Hill, Paul Landis, Bill Greer, all on the scene of the JFKA, all confirm Connally’s recollection of events; three shots, three hits. All have stated they dismiss the SBT. Robert Blakey, Chief Counsel, HSCA (1977-78). At the conclusion of his investigation, Blakey believed there had been a conspiracy to kill JFKA, and two guns in Dealey Plaza, probably Mob-related. Moreover, by 2018 Blakely was citing anti-Castro Cubans and CIA assets Eladio Del Valle and Hermininio Diaz as possible Dealey Plaza gunman, and speaking of the CIA in scatological terms. Dr. George Burkley, JFK’s personal physician, present in Parkland emergency room, and then the Bethesda autopsy. In 1977, George Burkley’s lawyer contacted the HSCA and said Burkley “has information in the Kennedy assassination indicating that others besides Oswald must have participated,” and that Burkley was willing to talk. Inexplicably, Burkley was never asked to speak to the HSCA or the WC. George de Mohrenschildt. Admitted CIA asset, and LHO’s “friend” and possible handler in Dallas. De Mohrenschildt may have been clued in about the April 1963 “assassination” try on General Edwin Walker, which was also likely ersatz and part of the LHO biography-build. Later de Mohrenschildt wrote an unpublished book and said LHO was a patsy. BTW, De Mohrenschildt said Dallas Mayor Earle Cabell, who was also a CIA asset, was a personal friend. Pennsylvania Senator Richard Schweiker. Member of the Church Committee, Schweiker said the WC report had “collapsed like a house of cards,” after having let the CIA and FBI conduct the investigation. Texas Senator Ralph Yarborough. Riding in car two back in the motorcade from the presidential limo, Yarborough (also a military veteran) repeatedly said he smelled gunsmoke in the wake of the JFKA, like many other witnesses. He said that about one-and-a-half seconds elapsed between the second shots and the third shots, testimony that roughly lines up with the Z-film. Parkland Hospital treating physicians, including Dr. Charles Crenshaw, who stated that “President Kennedy was shot at least once, and I believe twice, from the front.” Jeremy Gunn, General Counsel at the ARRB, declared in conversation with JFK researcher Doug Horne, “President Kennedy never had an autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital---that was not an autopsy.” David Atlee Phillips. The veteran CIA man, chief of operations for the Western Hemisphere, organizer of PR stunts. Possible handler of LHO. In July, 1986, shortly before his death, he told an interviewer, “My private opinion is that JFK was done in by a conspiracy, likely including American intelligence officers." Dr Robert Shaw, Connally’s surgeon. Often overlooked, Shaw told the HSCA the bullet that hit Connally had struck cleanly at a slight downward angle, and had not been tumbling. Shaw enlarged the back wound in treatment, confusing some later researchers (including, embarrassingly, HSCA Chief Counsel Robert Blakey). Shaw concluded Connally had been struck by a clean, separate shot from all others. FBI agents James Sibert and Francis O’Neill, witnesses to the JFK autopsy, both have dismissed the SBT, due to relatively low position on JFK’s back of a bullet entry wound, which when probed indicated trajectory of 45 degrees to 60 degrees downward. To state the obvious, the bullet would have to make an acute turn inside JFK’s body to exit the throat, but before exiting the throat would have to make another frontward 90-degree turn in order to strike Connally. And then would have to strike Connally cleanly, sans any tumble. What comes through from even this abbreviated review of the prominent, professionals, and frontline observers and evidence, is that at least three separate shots struck JFK and Connally. (There is a probable fourth shot that struck a curb near bystander James Tague, a ricochet from which lightly injured his face.) From a review of the Zapruder film frames, it appears that Connally was struck in frame ~296. That is less than one second from the final shot(s) to JFK, at frame 313. That is not enough time for both shots to have been executed by a single-shot bolt action rifle. Most experts say 2.0 seconds to 2.3 seconds is the bare minimum between shots on a single-shot bolt-action rifle. Conclusion and an Easy-to-Relate Narrative This simple evidence, that of the short time between the Connally shot and the subsequent JFK shot, presents grounds beyond reasonable doubt that there were at least two guns firing at JFK in Dealey Plaza. Add to this evidence the dozens of witnesses, many in law enforcement or military veterans, who smelled gunsmoke in Dealey Plaza in the immediate aftermath of the JFKA. That strongly indicates, arguably beyond reasonable doubt, a gun was fired or diversionary explosive device was ignited near the presidential limousine as it passed. I contend it is the above simple story line that the JFKA should consistently and repeatedly present to the broader public, particularly as we press for full disclosure of remaining documents under the JFK Records Act of 1992, and, even at this late date, a re-opening of the JFKA case. However, I criticize no one in the JFKA. To me, criticizing fellow JFKA research and community members is akin to harping on an NFL team for not scoring a touchdown on any particular play. The JFKA research community is not alone on the playing field; rather, playing against it is our own US government. The FBI has fabricated evidence (CE399), hidden documents, intimidated witnesses. US Navy officers conducted a dubious if not bogus autopsy. The CIA also has hidden documents, bamboozled investigators (Blakey), and has hired feckless mercenaries in media to do its bidding and discredit critics. The federal government has resources and lucre. In sharp contrast, the JFKA has little money and no media backing. Yet, as David slew Goliath…. Hats off that the JFKA has achieved as much as it has.

How about JFK arriving at Bethesda in two different coffins? Again, was a drug aerosol in the air? What can explain such conflicting testimonies about what must have been a signal event in everyone's career?

From JFK to Nixon, from Trump to Biden, no President can cross the National Security State. Whether brilliant statesmen (JFK) or self-besotted lulu (Trump), or the very picture of mediocrity and convention (Biden), or even the scheming Nixon, the Deep State runs the show. On behalf of whom? The media and Congress is busy on the Jan. 6 nut-jobs. They pose a threat to America.