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Posts posted by Benjamin Cole
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12 hours ago, Steve Roe said:
Mr. DiEugenio over the years has made some highly questionable claims, here on this Forum and in his books.
Today I will focus on just one of these highly questionable and leading narratives, this time from his “Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba and the Garrison Case” (2nd edition).
To be fair, Mr. DiEugenio is welcome to respond and make his rebuttal addressing this topic. However attempts to side-track off this topic here, will be ignored.
Also this has nothing to do with Mr. DiEugenio’s arguments with Fred Litwin.
This is my own observation, nobody else.
The story begins here where Mr. DiEugenio on page 79 (Kindle version) makes this passage “The story could possibly have been even more explosive than Fruge thought. For on November 28, 1963, a Margaret Kay Kauffmann of Martinsburg, Pennsylvania, told the FBI that her mother had recovered a piece of paper in the leaves beneath her porch. It was a trailer advertisement. In handwriting scrawled across the top left was the name of a club called the Silver Slipper or Silver Bell. In the top middle of the page was the name Lee Oswald. On the top right was the name Rubinstein. In the middle was the name Jack Ruby and at the bottom was the name Dallas, Texas. A Cuban doctor named Julio Fernandez often burned trash in their backyard, under her balcony. The paper with the names on it was found about 20 feet from his last burn. Fernandez’s brother had been the captain of police under Fulgencio Batista.”
DiEugenio, James. Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case (pp. 79-80). Skyhorse. Kindle Edition.
Sounds intriguing right? Silver Slipper, same bar in Eunice, Louisiana where reportedly Rose Cheramie got into an argument with two unidentified individuals who left her stranded on a highway, eventually getting hit by a car and transported to a Eunice hospital, later to be encountered by Lt. Frances Fruge. Also we have the names of Lee Oswald and Jack Ruby thrown into the mix. To top it off, Dr. Fernandez's brother was captain of police under Batista. Wow, way up in Pennsylvania!
DiEugenio’s source for this is from DiEugenio, James. “Rose Cheramie: How She Predicted the JFK Assassination.” Probe Magazine, Vol. 6 Number 5, see also FBI Memo of 12/ 2/ 61 written by Special Agent J. Edward Kern.
So DiEugenio wrote the Probe article and researched the document (Kern memo improperly dated, should be 12/2/63).
Reading on, there’s nothing else. No further explanation given by DiEugenio on this explosive find.
So what really happened here?
You can read the actual entire FBI document https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10454#relPageId=2&search="Edward_Kern"
It involves a story that the FBI investigated when the brother of a Margaret Hoover (Robert Steele), just 2 days after the Kennedy assassination, dropped by the Pennsylvania State Police, to offer information given to him by his sister about possible information relating to the assassination. The State Police immediately turned it over to the local FBI.
The FBI did go out and interview Margaret Hoover, her daughter Margaret Kay Kauffman and her husband Gerald Kauffman and Dr. Julio Cesar Fernandez. I won’t bore you with all the details as outlined specifically in the FBI document, as you can read through the link to get the real story.
Bottom line here; there was no paper found or submitted by Margaret Hoover with the names, Jack Ruby, Lee Oswald or Silver Slipper written on a trailer advertisement to the FBI. She did submit the used Airline (or Railroad) Ticket with the envelope; however that was explained by Dr. Fernandez who stated it was his son’s ticket from Miami to Pennsylvania, who now lived in Martinsburg with his father.
As the FBI correctly surmised, this was yet another mentally stressed individual making wild claims. In fact, they even considered prosecution for providing false evidence https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10454#relPageId=17&search="Edward_Kern"
This is a classic example of “lifting information out of context” to inflate a claim. Mr. DiEugenio intentionally or through sheer negligence, failed to tell the readers the correct whole story of this affair.
Steve Roe--
I welcome examination of evidence in the JFKA, and earnest civil debate.
You did miss something in your brief dismissal of this strange episode.
If you go to this link, you will see WC document 3067
https://history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wcvols/wh26/pdf/WH26_CE_3067.pdf
Next, go to the document number Pittsburgh 107-5070, dated 12/2/63, but evidently of an interview dated 11/28/63. The first words in the document "Mrs. MARGARET RAY KAUFFMAN."
So, on 11/28/63, Mrs. Hoover's daughter confirms that her memory also is that handwritten names of Oswald, Ruby, Rubenstein and words "Silver Slipper," or "Silver Bell" did appear on the back of the trailer advertisement.
What is curious is how many people at that early date knew of Jack Ruby's connection to the Silver Spur club in Dallas? This is six days after the JFKA.
Later, the woman's daughter, evidently in a second interview, recants her initial interview. But she cannot recant that she mentioned the name "Silver Slipper" or "Silver Bell" in her initial interview.
BTW, the man in question, Fernandez, is interviewed by the FBI and he turns out to have been a prolific editor-founder-owner in Cuba, and owned many newspapers and magazines before the revolution, holds a "doctorate in political and economic science" and then was chased out by Castro.
The FBI appears to have queried Fernandez closely about Castro-ties, but not ties to anti-Castro Cubans. That was the conventional thinking of the time.
Also note that FBI agents called the US Attorney's office to see if they would prosecute Hoover and her daughter under section 1001, Title 18. Hmmm. Recanting under pressure? The US Attorney's Office declined to prosecute.
In conclusion, I would say this strange event is interesting, not conclusive. However, this event is hardly key to understanding the JFKA.
Sure would be nice to know more about Fernandez. He obviously was not just some schlub.
It goes without saying that the CIA has long been active in financing publications in Latin America.
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7 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:
Benjamin,
At the very least, LBJ was "complicit" in the JFK assassination in the sense that he was the POTUS that the Cold Warriors wanted in the Oval Office -- the guy who would escalate the war against Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, and against the PKI in Indonesia. LBJ also put the kibosh on JFK's diplomatic outreach to Khrushchev and Castro.
LBJ signed NSAM 273 on 11/25/63 and, allegedly told the Joint Chiefs in December of 1963, "O.K., gentlemen, you can have your war (in Vietnam.) Just make sure I get re-elected next year."
Who had the clout to influence J. Edgar Hoover to shut down the FBI investigation of JFK's assassination, and to actively assist the Warren Commission cover up?
And LBJ's disagreements with JFK and RFK on Vietnam and other Cold War issues were common knowledge in the JFK administration.
There is also the Altgens photo evidence, emphasized by Phillip Nelson, that LBJ was, apparently, ducking down in his limo in Dealey Plaza while Lady Bird and Senator Ralph Yarborough were waving and smiling at the crowd.
Agreed.
The LBJ ducking photo...well, if the shots were to be aimed at JFK, then LBJ would not need to duck. Perhaps he could be expected to stand up in his car to get a better view.
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1 hour ago, W. Niederhut said:
Thanks, Benjamin. Your points are well taken.
I'll probably proceed with the popular Truman, Eisenhower, JFK, and LBJ biographies by McCullough, Ambrose, Dallek, and Caro, without expecting much in the way of Deep State history.
It's somewhat funny that the only biographies of LBJ that I've ever read are Joachim Joesten's The Dark Side of Lyndon Johnson, (written shortly after JFK's assassination) and Phillip Nelson's LBJ-- Mastermind of the JFK Assassination-- both highly unflattering, to say the least.
People I know who have read Caro's hagiography have been puzzled when I have raised the subject of LBJ's possible complicity in JFK's murder.
I guess Caro would be puzzled too, and his books are great reading. Just deficient in the regards I mention.
As I have said, I think the JFKA was executed by a small number of people, but there was a great deal of complicity in the LHO murder, and then a tsunami of complicity in the entire WC-media cover-up.
LBJ had a role in the cover-up---but in the JFKA itself? Less likely, but who knows?
I enjoyed the McCullough books too. But the modern Deep State was not there in Washington's time, and just getting started under Truman.
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I think you might have to read "bit and pieces" rather than whole biographies.
Biographies tend to either become hagiographies, or hatchet jobs, or personality profiles, but all sidestep a key point: The postwar ascendance of the globalist security state, and globalist macroeconomic policies.
Forgotten today is the US demobilized after WWII, so much so the US entered the Korean War short of certain materials and weapons. It was considered normal to limit the military in peacetime.
For a window into Nixon, read Ken Hughes, "Chasing Shadows."
Don Fulsome has written about Nixon and the Mob. Another interesting window.
Caro's biographies of LBJ are pretty good history, but again, the angle that there is a Deep State with global ambitions, on behalf of multinationals, is just absent. The JFKA is not treated as a conspiracy. Caro's book on Vietnam is yet to be published, and Caro is entering the ninth inning of his life....
What is remarkable is how much the globalist perspective, and the attendant panopticon surveillance state has triumphed, in academia and media (and books you read). Today, it is considered normal for left- or right-wing news outlets to hire former CIA and intel guys as newspeople. The fine points of occupying Syria are debated.
Some news outlets appear eager to become part of the surveillance state.
Good luck and let us know if you come across some good reads.
Again, I really recommend "Trade Ware are Class Wars" by Michael Pettis for a deeply insightful perspective on "free" trade, which has defined US policy since the 1960s.
"JFK vs. Dulles" by Greg Poulgrain is essential also.
But a whole presidential biography, which includes the "Deep State" perspective....not sure that animal exists yet.
But hey, you are retired and smart. You could write such a biography.
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The doctors at Parkland also.
Curiously, the even the Bethesda autopsy team. Humes, for example, did not believe CE 399 could have struck Connally's wrist.
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1 hour ago, Steve Thomas said:
Jim,
It was kind of eye opening to me to look at Rose Cherami's story against the backdrop of the AGVA (the American Guild of Variety Artists) and what was going on the fall of 1962.
These girls were being run up and down along the circuit, shuttled from town to town.
Steve Thomas
Your post would be enlivened by photographs.
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4 hours ago, James DiEugenio said:
Michael Marcades has done a revised edition of his book about his mother, Rose Cherami: Gathering Fallen Petals.
This story is amazing every time I look at it. To think that Fritz did not think it was important, even though the Louisiana State Police did, makes it even more shocking.
Mike just about proves she was murdered by the way. The HSCA fumbled that aspect of the story.
Her, Naglell, Odio and the Chicago Plot. There was a red flight flashing. But not according to the Warren Report.
https://kennedysandking.com/john-f-kennedy-reviews/the-woman-who-predicted-jfk-s-assassination
Great article on Rose Cheramie. Her story has been pretty much verified, and it is chilling, remarkable.
Boy, what a commentary. A troubled woman, very down on her luck, afflicted by drugs, easy for her to just keep quiet...but she tells the truth.
In contrast, the combined forces of the official US security establishment, from the FBI, to the CIA, the WC....well, a different story.
As they say, never judge a book by the cover.
I still sit on the fence on Nagell. All his materials and documents disappear. So tough to confirm he worked for the KGB, or much of what he says.
As they say, trust but verify.
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15 hours ago, Dan Rice said:
Fidel Castro and Charles de Gaulle would be two more.
Dan R-
That's right. One might exclude Castro as having an agenda.
de Gaulle was the Swiss Cheese president. So many attempts were made on de Gaulle the assassins must have thought they can shoot at him but not hit anything. de Gaulle's lifetime record is tremendous.
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15 hours ago, David Andrews said:
Vincent Salandria.
David A-
Thanks for your comment.
Vincent Salandria is a real smartie, but I am excluding people from the JFKA research community.
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11 hours ago, Chuck Schwartz said:
Desmond Fitzgerald and Samuel Halpern. Per Bill Kelly, "Well Samuel Halpern was an assistant to CIA official Desmond FitzGerald, who was encouraging AMLASH to kill Castro – with a high powered rifle. Halpern and FitzGerald were having lunch together in Geogetown when they learned of the assassination, and as they were leaving FitzGerald remarked that he wondered wheather “his Cubans” – the Pathfinder Cubans trained at JMWAVE, were involved, as they were the ones paid and trained to kill Castro." DAP also wondered out loud if the Cubans trained to kill Castro ended up killing JFK.
Chuck S--Excellent, thank you.
Yes, the number of reasonable, clued-in people who immediately suspected the CIA, such as RFK, is rather shocking.
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10 hours ago, Chris Barnard said:
You could say it was just a slur on Israel, his enemies. But, I would hazard a guess that there was shared intelligence between Libya, Egypt and other nations in the region that were on a knife edge with Israel. That may have come from that region and not the US. There are a few threads running on the Israel theory but, for me, its just another reason for the ‘power elite’ to whack him. As JFK surmised himself after reading 7 Days In May; he felt it would take 3 Bay of Pigs style events to make him ripe for a coup in the USA.
I am happy to say the reasons were financial mostly and strategic. He exceeded his forecast of 3.I am interested in compiling a list of well-connected US figures, or on-the-scene professionals (Secret Service, technicians at the autopsy) who thought WC fell down on the job, but not researchers and journalists, though the latter two categories are important.
Evidently, Vincent P. has compiled such a list.
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4 minutes ago, Chris Barnard said:
This guy went on record stating he thought Israeli’s were behind it over Dimona and the Ben Gurion row.
Gaddafi, well....not sure he was clued in on the JFKA.
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5 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:
This kind of depends on the difference between " who did not believe the Warren Omission" and those who knew it was horse dooky.
Just about everybody listed so far Knew. If you suggest Phillips then probably Morales, Harvey, Dulles and Angleton should be included. As well as Nagell and more.
Ron B.
Thanks for your comment.
It may be that the Morales, Harvey, Dulles and Angleton believed the WC was "horse dooky," but did they ever say so?
Angleton made the "wilderness of mirrors" comment, but that is vague.
I have always had reservations about Nagel. Trust but verify as they say.
BTW, you have heaped calumny on the useful "horse dooky," an excellent fertilizer, by comparing it to the WC.
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7 minutes ago, James DiEugenio said:
Vince Palamara has a good list of these in his new book Honest Answers. Which I am reading right now.
I think its the most complete one I have seen.
James D.--
Thanks.
I will take a look.
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11 hours ago, Tony Krome said:
O'Neill: .... people keep forgetting Mr. Connally, Governor Connally, denied the single-bullet theory one hundred percent. He's an eyewitness. He's right there! People overlook his testimony on that, then say, "Well, the movie shows something else." I don't give a damn about the movie! This is the man who was there. He was the one who was hit. He should know what happened.
When questioned about the single-bullet theory and Arlen Specter, Sibert responded: "What a xxxx. I feel he got his orders from above—how far above I don't know."
[Law - In the Eye of History]
I'm with O'Neill, I don't give a damn about the movie either
Tony K: As far as I can tell, the Z-film entirely vindicates Connally.
1. JFK puts his hands toward his throat ~224
2. Then Connally turns to his right to look at JFK, makes a 180-degree turn in his seat. JFK has slumped to the left, towards Jackie.
3. Connally, unable to see JFK, starts turning around forward, then is struck ~296
4. Then the head shot(s) 313.
That is 17 frames between Connally and the JFK being struck, in a camera that shoots at 18 frames per second.
Obviously, the single-shot bolt-action rifle cannot answer to the situation.
Great find on the Sibert quote.
Far from being conspiracy nuts, right from the start, despite extraordinary pressure, there were many high and connected who doubted the WC.
You are right, Sibert falls into this category.
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1 hour ago, Tony Krome said:
Sibert and O'Neill were anti SBT, so I suppose without the SBT there's a few problems
Tony K--
Thanks for reading and your comment.
On Sibert and O'Neill, do you have a cite?
They said something was fishy, and they thought JFK's head showed signs of surgery prior to arriving in the Bethesda, although they are not surgeons.
What is curious is the number of very close witnesses who say three separate shots hit JFK, Connally, JFK...and then say LHO did it alone. The three SS men in the follow car to the JFK limo all say that.
But, that does not add up. A single shot bolt-action rifle cannot accomplish that, in the time allowed.
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Chris B-
Thanks for reading and your response.
Ralph Yarborough is a good one.
You have a cite on Nixon?
E. Howard Hunt? I know of his late-life confession, but that has been sketchy.
I am less interested in a Larry King type. He is well-connected (was), but not to the JFKA in particular.
Of course, Cuban intelligence did their own investigation, and they say it was Hemininio Garcia and Eladio Del Valle.
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Hello Everyone:
I am thinking of a very simple idea, that I hope someone did before. If not, I ask help in compiling this list.
It is a simple list, possibly with just brief paragraph each, of the "high" or "connected" people, such as Robert Kennedy, Hale Boggs, Richard Russell, Sherman Cooper, even LBJ, John Connally and his wife, David Atlee Phillips, and so on, who did not really believe the conclusions of the WC.
I guess we could add Robert Blakely, as he concluded there had been a conspiracy in the JFKA. I heard that Curtis E. LeMay called the JFKA "a CIA job." George Burkley, JFK's doctor.
The three Secret Service men in the follow car all said three separate bullets struck JFK, then Connally, then JFK, and said so in a Sixth Floor Museum taped session.
Various people at the JFK autopsy.
Anyway, that's it. I have seen so many names over the years, but I never cataloged the names, and I wonder if anyone else has.
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On 5/5/2021 at 12:38 PM, Robin Unger said:
This Nix GIF clearly shows that the limo did NOT stop.
The Limo did however slow to a crawl before it sped off.
I think that's right. I am puzzled why so much time is spent on this issue. I think the driver exhibited a normal human reaction.
I happen to think there were at least two gunmen in Dealey Plaza that day.
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On 5/6/2021 at 4:44 PM, Paul Rigby said:
You really haven't read any Doug Horne? Really? What do anti-alterationists do with their time? Swap gifs?
Oh well, let's pretend you haven't. Here's part of his answer. I favour a very different one, which I'll come to in due course, but credit where credit's due, it's excellent and may well be entirely sufficient:
Why Do So Many in the JFK Research Community Resist the Mounting Evidence that the Zapruder Film is an Altered Film?
I do not include here, in this question, those who have written books defending the Zapruder film's authenticity; their obstinacy and closed-mindedness is related to ego, reputation, and to lifelong defense of their established turf. The old orthodoxy always resents the new paradigm that threatens established ways of thinking.
There is a bigger problem within the JFK research community, and it revolves around the following question commonly posed by perplexed members of the old guard, first-generation JFK researchers, to whom the concept of an altered Zapruder film seems dangerous heresy. They usually ask, Why would anyone alter the film, and yet still leave evidence of conspiracy in the film? (By this they usually mean the timing problem in the extant film which makes the single bullet theory impossible; and the head snap of JFK's upper torso and head to the left-rear after frame 313 — which they equate with a shot, or shots, from the right front, and not from the Texas School Book Depository.)
The answers to this valid question are clear to me: (1) those altering the Zapruder film at Hawkeyeworks on Sunday, November 24, 1963 were extremely pressed for time, and could only do so much in the twelve-to-fourteen hour period available to them; (2) the technology available with which to alter films in 1963 (both the traveling matte, and aerial imaging) had limitations — there was no digital CGI technology at that time — and therefore, I believe the forgers were limited to basic capabilities like blacking out the exit wound in the right-rear of JFK's head; painting a false exit wound on JFK's head on the top and right side of his skull (both of these seem to have been accomplished through aerial imaging — that is, animation cells overlaid in space on top of the projected images of the frames being altered, using a customized optical printer with an animation stand, and a process camera to re-photograph each self-matting, altered frame); and removing exit debris frames, and even the car stop, through step-printing.
In my view, the alterations that were performed were aimed at quickly removing the most egregious evidence of shots from the front (namely, the exit debris leaving the skull toward the left rear, and the gaping exit wound which the Parkland Hospital treatment staff tells us was present in the right-rear of JFK's head). I believe that in their minds, the alterationists of 1963 were racing against the clock — they did not know what kind of investigation, either nationally or in Texas, would transpire, and they were trying to sanitize the film record as quickly as possible before some investigative body demanded to see the film evidence. There was not yet a Warren Commission the weekend following the assassination, and those who planned and executed the lethal crossfire in Dealey Plaza were intent upon removing as much of the evidence of it as possible, as quickly as possible. As I see it, they did not have time for perfection, or the technical ability to ensure perfection, in their sanitization of the Zapruder film. They did an imperfect job, the best they could in about 12-14 hours, which was all the time they had on Sunday, November 24, 1963, at Hawkeyeworks. Besides, there was no technology available in 1963 that could convincingly remove the head-snap from the Zapruder film; you could not animate JFK's entire body without it being readily detectable as a forgery, so the head-snap stayed in the film. (The head snap may even be an inadvertent result — an artifact of apparently rapid motion — caused by the optical removal of several exit debris frames from the film. When projected at normal speed at playback, any scene in a motion picture will appear to speed up if frames have been removed. Those altering the film may have believed it was imperative to remove the exit debris travelling through the air to the rear of President Kennedy, even if that did induce apparent motion in his body which made it appear as though he might have been shot from the front. The forgers may have had no choice, in this instance, but to live with the lesser of two evils. Large amounts of exit debris traveling toward the rear would have been unmistakable proof within the film of a fatal shot from the front; whereas a head snap is something whose causes could be debated endlessly, without any final resolution.)
Paul Rigby---I tend to Josiah Thompson on this one, but I am open-minded, and Doug Horne is a serious researcher.
But the buyer of the film was LIFE magazine, operating under Henry Luce. A made man, so to speak.
Surely, CIA could have asked for a few more days, or even a week, due to "national security reasons" to delay shipping the film to Luce & Co.
So...was there really a rush?
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1 hour ago, Adam Johnson said:
Verily! Thanks Adam Johnson, and top of the day to you.
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3 hours ago, Joseph McBride said:
The Belmont memo of the night of 11-22 is the smoking gun that destroys the Warren Report.
And it matches eyewitness evidence, including from Secret Service agents and other witnesses,
of a bullet striking JFK in the right temple. I found the memo in the 1980s and wrote
a lengthy article about it but couldn't get it published. I write about it in detail in INTO THE NIGHTMARE.
"On 28th August, 1964, Belmont received a memo that suggested that the Warren Commission had doubts about the authenticity of the palm print found on the Mannlicher-Carcano rifle: "J. Lee Rankin advised because of the circumstances that now exist there was a serious question in the minds of the Commission as to whether or not the palm print impression that has been obtained from the Dallas Police Department is a legitimate latent print impression removed from the rifle barrel or whether it was obtained from some other source." However, Belmont was able to persuade members of the committee to accept the authenticity of the palm print." ----Spartacus
I assume this is not the memo of which you speak, as it is from Aug. 28 1964.
Have you a copy of the the Belmont memo of 11/22/63?
What did it say?
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4 hours ago, Lawrence Schnapf said:
i dont think people at the top would have conspired to kill a president. There were many ways to undermine him without resorting to the risky proposition of planning and implementing an assassination. It is one thing to plot the assassination of a foregin leader but the murder of a president was a step way too far. There was no assurance this could have been successfully pulled off. Their professional and personal lives would have been at risk if they failed.
No- the more likely scenario is much more messy . I believe the plot was hatched much lower down the food chain some combination of off-the-book contractors and automonous groups that had been supported by the CIA pulled this off and leadership had to then conspire to cover up their negligence. Much closer to Iran Contra scenario.
Lawrence S.---That's roughly my take too.
Although it should be noted that serious JFKA researcher John Newman posits the CIA had an operational interest in LHO back to 1959, and then was biography-building LHO for a year in front of the JFKA.
This biography-building would have been beyond the ken of Cuban exiles, the Mob, etc., and had to have been directed by higher-ups in CIA. No sign Lansdale was involved.
My guess is David Atlee Phillips was hatching a false-flag fake JFKA, with LHO as the willing patsy.
The plan leaked and someone piggy-backed on the plan, perhaps Eladio Del Valle and Herminio Diaz Garcia.
I suspect the post-JFKA cover-up included CIA higher-ups, and indeed included the effective hiring of the Mob (Jack Ruby) to make sure LHO did not talk.
Anyway, that's my best guess.
As usual, I posit any serious conspiracy to assassinate a US president would have had a very limited number of participants.
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6 hours ago, W. Tracy Parnell said:
It's David Kaiser.
W. Tracy P--Thanks for reading, and I will tap your services as a proofreader in the future!
Critique of Jim DiEugenio's Destiny Betrayed
in JFK Assassination Debate
Posted
Chris B.
Verily.
Too bad so many decades have passed. I would bet even money that the Fernandez individual, mentioned in this thread, had some US intel backing. The guy started and owned newspapers, ends up in the US. Appears to be unemployed, while his wife works.