Leslie Sharp

41 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Well, that is covered in my answer "Pompeo spooked him," which is a clever double entendre, btw.  

Of course, there could be elements from all four of my possible explanations. 

 

So, Trump can be spooked, but Biden can't?  Is that how this works?

Melber broke the Grossberg — criminal investigation — story five days ago during his interview with Filipattos. It didn't take rocket science to figure out he's talking about Jack Smith.

 Listen min. 5:15. 

 

1 hour ago, Evan Marshall said:

Ever see Win Scott's files? Angleton did. Listen to Malcolm Blount discuss the empty boxes at NARA that were supposed to contain lots of files and were empty or almost so. There were all sorts of US agencies operating in Mexico City in the early 60's whose files we've never seen and most likely never will.

An old Green Beret master breacher told me if they'd have searched the car parked near the overpass folks would have never believed the lone nut theory.

I thought the issue was whether anyone involved would maintain a written record.

15 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

I do not have surveillance or subpoena powers, so I am guessing. 

1. Trump was blackmailed. 

2. Pompeo spooked him. 

3. Trump thought by holding the threat of disclosure over the heads of the CIA, he could get them to relent in their regime-change ops against him.  If he disclosed, then the threat was already over. 

4. Simple cowardice. He thought the blowback would be too much. 

But really, I don't know. In addition, Trump only illegally implemented a delay. 

Biden/Garland have done a permanent snuff job.  Totally untrustworthy and craven. 

 

Do you argue that Trump didn't scan through the files before deciding they shouldn't be released? And if he did, why hasn't he at least expounded on the contents in general — laying the blame at the feet of the "deep state"?  Why would he forego that opportunity?

14 minutes ago, W. Niederhut said:

Leslie,

     I just saw a story claiming that 70% of Americans don't want Biden to run in 2024.

     I was hoping that he would graciously retire and support the eventual Democratic nominee.

     

I thought Jill Biden would persuade him that it's time to hang up the spurs.  She's a smart woman and closest to the reality of the extent of his cognitive decline so I think it's her responsibility; which begs the question, maybe it's not that serious? But, six more years?

2 hours ago, W. Niederhut said:

What do you folks think about Biden announcing his 2024 candidacy today?

My own opinion is that he should step down and open the field to a new slate of Democratic candidates.

He's too old.

I agree.

1 hour ago, Evan Marshall said:

First I read the book. Second, I've been focused on this since 11/22/63, when I came home from classes at BYU in Provo, Utah, and watched Walter Cronkite announce that JFK had been assassinated. I watched Ruby shoot Oswald. I read the 26 volumes of the WC and knew there was a conspiracy. I know a guy who helped Allende commit suicide and the people involved in such events don't keep a detailed, written record.

We've heard that argument.  If "people involved in such events" don't keep a detailed, written record, why do hundreds of researchers still contend the government did? 

No doubt you're aware there are known exceptions including Win Scott and George Hunter White so it's logical to argue that Lafitter — who was operating outside any semblance of the protocol Scott and White were bound by —  had no compunction about maintaining private records. The question has long been "why".  It he meant them as a security blanket, he was never compelled to employ them; if he meant them for blackmail, he never employed them; and if he planned to profit, why didn't he pick up the phone in the '70s or '80s and sell his files to the highest bidder?

 

1 hour ago, James DiEugenio said:

The more I read about this, I think that Murdoch decided to dump Carlson because of the lawsuit by Carlson's former producer at Fox.

She is suing on two grounds:

1. Sexist Discrimination 

2. She was going to be the person set up to take the fall in Dominion.

We all know what happened to Bill O with Murdoch and Roger Ailes with Murdoch over point number one. This is a real sore point with Murdoch.

Secondly, I don't think he wants anymore about Dominion after the settlement and he will now try and settle her suit.

What most people do not understand is the second voting machine lawsuit is going to be even bigger than the first.  I think that one will go for a billion.  Fox will be out almost 2 billion in lawsuits in one year.

Very bad management.

Yes, Jim. Watch Melber, April 20. 

2 hours ago, Evan Marshall said:

I don't find Lafitte credible.

Based on what, if I can ask?

Begin min. 5:15. Re. Tucker's former head of booking Abby Grossberg lawsuits   . . . attorney Filippatos has been contacted by more than one gov. agency related to a criminal investigation ... relevant to what the relationship was between the Trump campaign and what actually happened on air ...

https://www.msnbc.com/the-beat-with-ari/watch/fox-news-whistleblower-s-lawyer-law-enforcement-asked-us-for-fox-evidence-170855493511

Begin min. 5:15. Abby Grossberg lawsuits   . . . a criminal investigation ... relevant to what the relationship was between the Trump campaign and what actually happened on air ...

1 minute ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Who disparages Donk policies...perhaps people skeptical of both parties, and the rampant institutionalized corruption that defines the two parties. 

Corporate America, Wall Street, the defense industry, Silicon Valley and the globalists are backing the Donks to the hilt. 

What does that tell you?

The intel state wanted HRC and then Biden as President, and not Trump. 

The picture is very polluted. 

OK, I will take a shot on RFK Jr.. You have a better option?

Biden, the man who did a snuff job on the JFK Records Act?  That does not strike me as a better choice. 

 

 

So, you're on board with this platform as well?  pro strong federal government, compassionate immigration policies, healthcare for all Americans, social programs that lift all boats, corporate taxation in line with the toll corporations take on our infrastructure and environment, civil rights that guarantee life liberty and pursuit of happiness for ALL, "international" democracy and the responsibility of the US to those who struggle for it.

Clinton ran on the these political fundamentals, as did Biden.  Trump did not, and in fact his philosophy is the antithesis democracy.  

If RFK Jr. can convince moderate Dems that in the process of polishing the edges of the alt-right elements within the GOP  he will not sacrifice these principles, he could take the nomination.  

4 minutes ago, Benjamin Cole said:

Reminder---people said Jimmy Carter had no shot. People said Trump had no shot. 

RFK Jr. has a shot. 

And alone among Donks, he would open up the JFKA records. 

Seems like a natural choice to me. 

I'm curious how those who disparage Democratic policies could get on board with RFK Jr.  He is a Kennedy Democrat — pro strong federal government, compassionate immigration policies, healthcare for all Americans, social programs that lift all boats, corporate taxation in line with the toll corporations take on our infrastructure and environment, civil rights that guarantee life liberty and pursuit of happiness for ALL, "international" democracy and the responsibility of the US to those who struggle for it ... not exactly a libertarian ideology. 

49 minutes ago, Lawrence Schnapf said:

Jim- apparently this is related to former senior Fox producer Abby Grossberg revelations and the Epps business. see https://www.thedailybeast.com/ray-epps-finally-hits-back-at-tucker-carlson-says-hes-obsessed-with-me.  Grossberg wored as a senior producer for both  Maria Barttriomo and Tucker. I suspect Bartiromo and Judge Jeanine will be next.    

Could it be coincidence that CBS aired the Epps exposé and Murdoch woke up and fired Tucker?

That said, Natalie Bancroft, an heir to the Dow Jones fortune, on the board of NewsCorp must have taken notice of Carlson's support of the JFK Records Act.  Assuming she's capable of googling, she is keenly aware of Mary Bancroft's history with Allen Dulles. 

Studying the board further, including the chairman of arms, security and aerospace BAE Systems, some of us are intrigued that the former president of Spain who rose through the ranks of Falange-supporting FES, as a director of NewsCorp, must hold a degree of sway as well.

And when one studies the top ten shareholders, one has to ask What Swamp Exactly were Carlson, Hannity, Ingraham, Bartiromo, et al targeting for draining all these years?

 

https://investyourvalues.org/target-date-funds/t-rowe-price-retirement-series?issue=military-weapons

1 hour ago, Michael Griffith said:

Wow, this is interesting: So now, according to some, RFK Jr. might not be sufficiently liberal because he's willing to cooperate on some issues with conservatives. People with such a rabidly ideological mindset are a huge part of the problem with our politics today. That mindset is poisoning out political debate and making it impossible for non-extremist Democrats to find common ground and reach compromises with non-extremist Republicans, and vice versa. 

For RFK to win the Democratic nomination, he will need to appeal to moderates. The slightest appearance of appeasing the alt-right — the very ideology that fueled the assassinations of his uncle , his father, and Martin Luther King Jr.  — will eliminate him as a viable candidate if it hasn't already.  Appeasement is not the same as finding common ground.

 

If RFK Jr.'s grasp of his uncle's assassination in Dallas stops at "Operation Northwoods," can he fully appreciate the implications of finding common ground with far right policies of the Birch Society and similar movements funded by Koch et al?
 

' . . . A portentous January 1968 affidavit sworn by Aginter Press assassin and Jean Rene Souetre associate Jacques Godard reveals the group’s relationship with certain American persons and organizations: “In the course of our services we had relations with certain persons and organizations like, for example, President Tshombe and with Biafra. We likewise were in charge of relations with the John Birch Society, which was an American political group financed especially by Texas oil producers whose activity is absolutely anti-communist. Everywhere where there is a struggle, either open or covert, with communists, the John Birch Society lends its financial aid to the people who are struggling against international communism.”
 

The OAS and the Aginter Press

Before being air dropped into Vietnam again in 1954, Lucien Conien spends a few weeks at Otto Skorzeny’s training camp outside of Madrid. It is the same camp where multiple French ultraright guerre révolutionnaire tacticians who would meld into the OAS are going through intensive warfare training before being dispatched to Vietnam. By 1957, they had become bitterly opposed to Senator John Kennedy from Massachusetts when he advocated for Algerian independence. The training is rigorous, even brutal at times. Skorzeny’s chief trainers at the camp, Jean Rene Souetre, mentioned in the mysterious correspondence of Frenchman Paul Gluc, and fellow Frenchman Yves Guiliou who widely used the alias Ralf Guerin-Serac, are relentless in their objective to shape their trainees into thoroughly trained professional soldiers. Conien meets every several days with the former SS officer for drinks, dinner, and an occasional choice cigar. 

Not surprisingly, and especially germane to one of this investigation’s central characters, is that Lucian Conien knew Otto Skorzeny quite well. His initial links to Skorzeny can be found in the La Cagoule, the French Resistance, and the long-standing, mysterious and Portugal-based Aginter Press. Ostensibly a press or media agency, Aginter Press fronted for what CIA officials privately called “assassination central.” Often wrongly cited as being founded in 1966, Aginter Press was first organized in 1962 by Skorzeny’s prized trainer, Guérin-Serac, as a “counterinsurgency, counter-guerrilla center with support of the CIA, of the paramilitary Portuguese Legion, and especially of PIDE, the feared Portuguese secret police, which supposedly financed Aginter Press at the tune of two million escudos per month. Aginter Press was a sizable operation. Between 1962 and 1965, it organized and established an important network of informers linked, through PIDE, to the CIA and to the security services of such countries as West Germany, Spain, Greece, and South Africa,” as well as numerous Latin American and several other European countries. '

If RFK Jr.'s grasp of his uncle's assassination in Dallas stops at "Operation Northwoods," can he fully appreciate the implications of finding common ground with far right policies of the Birch Society and similar movements funded by Koch et al?

A portentous January 1968 affidavit sworn by Aginter Press assassin and Jean Rene Souetre associate Jacques Godard reveals the group’s relationship with certain American persons and organizations: “In the course of our services we had relations with certain persons and organizations like, for example, President Tshombe and with Biafra. We likewise were in charge of relations with the John Birch Society, which was an American political group financed especially by Texas oil producers whose activity is absolutely anti-communist. Everywhere where there is a struggle, either open or covert, with communists, the John Birch Society lends its financial aid to the people who are struggling against international communism.”
 

The OAS and the Aginter Press

Before being air dropped into Vietnam again in 1954, Lucien Conien spends a few weeks at Otto Skorzeny’s training camp outside of Madrid. It is the same camp where multiple French ultraright guerre révolutionnaire tacticians who would meld into the OAS are going through intensive warfare training before being dispatched to Vietnam. By 1957, they had become bitterly opposed to Senator John Kennedy from Massachusetts when he advocated for Algerian independence. The training is rigorous, even brutal at times. Skorzeny’s chief trainers at the camp, Jean Rene Souetre, mentioned in the mysterious correspondence of Frenchman Paul Gluc, and fellow Frenchman Yves Guiliou who widely used the alias Ralf Guerin-Serac, are relentless in their objective to shape their trainees into thoroughly trained professional soldiers. Conien meets every several days with the former SS officer for drinks, dinner, and an occasional choice cigar. 

Not surprisingly, and especially germane to one of this investigation’s central characters, is that Lucian Conien knew Otto Skorzeny quite well. His initial links to Skorzeny can be found in the La Cagoule, the French Resistance, and the long-standing, mysterious and Portugal-based Aginter Press. Ostensibly a press or media agency, Aginter Press fronted for what CIA officials privately called “assassination central.” Often wrongly cited as being founded in 1966, Aginter Press was first organized in 1962 by Skorzeny’s prized trainer, Guérin-Serac, as a “counterinsurgency, counter-guerrilla center with support of the CIA, of the paramilitary Portuguese Legion, and especially of PIDE, the feared Portuguese secret police, which supposedly financed Aginter Press at the tune of two million escudos per month. Aginter Press was a sizable operation. Between 1962 and 1965, it organized and established an important network of informers linked, through PIDE, to the CIA and to the security services of such countries as West Germany, Spain, Greece, and South Africa,” as well as numerous Latin American and several other European countries. 

1 hour ago, Joseph Backes said:

Today is a good day.  I agree with you Bob.  I was sickened to see people fawning over Tucker Carlson as though he is out new leader.

And Moderators, please don't delete this thread. We need to talk about things that affect JFK assassination research today.  The research is a current thing, affected by current events.  The question remains, was he fired? Probably.  And that Schnapf and co won't be appearing on Tucker's precious show anymore is a great thing.  

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/24/media/tucker-carlson-fox-news/index.html

Hear! Hear!

8 hours ago, Chris Barnard said:

Read the book. It’ll make more sense to you.  

The end game here is to further marginalize RFK Jr. 

https://www.rawstory.com/steve-bannon-rfk-vice-president/

3 hours ago, Michael Griffith said:

We need to understand that fascism and communism are merely two sides of the same totalitarian coin. Both believe in total government power. Both believe the government has the right to own or seize any business or property that it desires, that the government should exercise total control over the news media, that the government should exercise total control over churches/religions, that the government should exercise total over control over education, etc.

The Koch brothers and the JBS have opposed these authoritarian ideas and have advocated the opposite view of government power and authority.

Once again we see a manifestation of the unfortunate fact that this forum is dominated by ultra-liberals who insist on describing anyone who disagrees with them as fascists, extremists, neo-N-azis, etc. 

I, for one, am very glad to see that RFK Jr. is open to working with people who represent a wide range of political views. The fact that he would speak at Hillsdale College says volumes about his tolerance and inclusion and willingness to work with people with whom he disagrees on a number of issues but with whom he agrees on issues that are important to him. That's true tolerance and inclusion, and open-mindedness.

It could be argued that Koch Sr. had no particular political loyalties other than corporate profit, building Stalin's petroleum infrastructure and then strengthening Hitler's Reich machine. Is that not the economic model of ill-informed Libertarians? The market drives everything at any and all costs (pun intended)?
 

Koch's political ideology becomes more defined when he co-founds the JBS. You're not suggesting that fundamentally the Birch Society was anything other than a far right movement with the intent to erode government oversight to the benefit of corporate profit and influence?

And I'm curious how you would define Koch funded ALEC if not the quintessential corporate/government symbiosis— the very definition of fascism.  Elaborating here: a corporate bill mill. It is not just a lobby or a front group; it is much more powerful than that. Through ALEC, corporations hand state legislators their wishlists to benefit their bottom line. Corporations fund almost all of ALEC's operations. They pay for a seat on ALEC task forces where corporate lobbyists and special interest reps vote with elected officials to approve “model” bills. 

Tucker's Epps conspiracy also blew up in his face. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ray-epps-jan-6-capitol-protest-60-minutes-transcript-2023-04-23/

7 hours ago, Gerry Down said:

Would this video clip make you more or less likely to vote RFK Jr. for president?

 

@John Cotter 

 Is it any wonder the US and the west is in so much trouble.  

“As their fortunes grew, Charles and David Koch became the primary underwriters of hardline libertarian politics in America,” Mayer writes. Charles’s goal was to “tear the government out ‘at the root’.” — Jane Mayer, Dark Money: the Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right. 

In his review of Mayer's breakthrough investigation, Charles Kaiser continues,

Twenty years after collaborating with the N-azis, Fred Koch had lost none of his taste for extremism. In 1958, he was one of the 11 original members of the John Birch Society, an organization which accused scores of prominent Americans, including President Dwight Eisenhower, of communist sympathies.

In 1960, Koch wrote: “The colored man looms large in the Communist plan to take over America.” He strongly supported the movement to impeach chief justice Earl Warren, after the supreme court voted to desegregate public schools in Brown v Board of Education. His sons became Birchers too, although Charles was more enamored of “antigovernment economic writers” than communist conspiracies.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/17/dark-money-review-N-azi oil-the-koch-brothers-and-a-rightwing-revolution

Could RFK Jr. be oblivious to the implications of his being used as an "anti-vax poster child" for the Birch Society's overarching motives? JBS has long been on the ideological front line for the more insidious agenda of the Koch-funded fascist swamps, including ALEC — the legislative/private sector lobbying group that continues to draft model bills without public input. High on the list of bills: reduction of  corporate taxation, weakening environmental regulations, imposition of inhumane immigration policies, impede labor unions, impose restrictive voter laws, interference with reasonable gun reform.  

How can RFK Jr. rationalize the slightest appearance of solidarity with anything the Koch dynasty, ALEC, or the John Birch Society stand for?  

And if Libertarians are behind him, might we ask why. 
 

3 minutes ago, Evan Marshall said:

Jack Cannon? A much better suspect than Charley. Was one of the old China hands of OSS and Mitch Werbell told me he tne only he worried about.

I read that he was so crazy some guys under his command tried to have him removed.

We think JACK (Joint Advisory Commission, Korea) was the glue that binds these guys for a decade: 

41 minutes ago, Evan Marshall said:

 

At 80 years of age, I'm surprised I can remember my name! They were both actively involved with JM Wave but did not do it for money. I called in a lot of favors with spec ops and agency friends. I was never focused on the id of the shooters because if you know the why you'll know the who!

. . . without benefit of financing or technical support?

On 4/21/2023 at 11:41 PM, James DiEugenio said:

There were no troops in Vietnam  at the time of Kennedy's death.

They were classified as advisors.  And Kennedy was always asking questions about this. 

Now, two very important points about this which Selverstone missed.

After the debates of November 1961 which culminated in NSAM 111, Kennedy called a meeting of his most important advisors on the subject: Bundy, McNamara, Rusk and about five others.  Although he called the meeting, he was the last one to arrive, which tells you something about it since he was usually the first one there.  

Kennedy made it very clear this was not about small talk.  And he immediately took over the meeting, he was very upset that he had to fight so hard to thwart the Hawks .  He said quite forcefully words to the effect: Once policy is decided, those involved stand but or they get out!

He then waited for that to impact.  He then followed that with this:

Now who is going to be the man who implements my VIetnam policy.

McNamara said he would do it.

To leave that out of a book on Kennedy and Vietnam is simply inexcusable in every respect for any responsible historian.

Now, if that is not strong enough for you, there is this.

At the same time this was happening, Kennedy had sent Galbraith to Saigon. He said he wanted a report and it was directly to him. As JKG told his son: "Kennedy knew what he wanted and he knew I would deliver."

When JKG was in Washington in April Kennedy told him to deliver his report to McNamara. He did so.  Before he left he told Kennedy that McNamara got the message.

One month later McNamara told Harkins to stay after at a Sec Def Meeting.  With almost everyone one gone he said how long would it take to dismantle the American effort and turn it over to the ARVN.  

Harkins jaw about hit the table. He understood we were getting out and he was shocked.

PS JFK did not have a fling with Rometsch.  Peter Vea found the original FBI reports buried in piles at Jim Lesar's garage. Hoover could not find anything.  But he bluffed and gaslit the issue. Peter Vea was Malcolm Blunt before Malcolm.

PPSS Kennedy did not want the contents of NSAM 263 made public. So the idea it was for media effect is false. The guys who made it public were his enemies, the MAAG in Saigon.  

They were classified as advisors.  And Kennedy was always asking questions about this. 

My questions should not be construed as adversarial, but ignoring or skewing facts actually undermines Kennedy's overall contributions. The basic question is one of numbers: was he aware that a steady stream of thousands of American military under any guise continued to flow into VN? Following the November 1961 meeting, was he briefed on a weekly, bi-monthly, quarterly, bi-annual basis regarding the number of "advisers" sent to VN on his watch or was he misled?  It's about the numbers, pure and simple.

Rometsch scandal: Hersh's interviews with those who knew Rometsch confirm she had at least met and spent time with the president. Does anyone have photos? Apparently not. The appearance of a sexual liaison between the president and Rometsch was sufficient to incite fear and loathing of Kennedy among those sitting on the fence with the plot to permanently remove the president in Dallas — ergo the Rometsch angle of Project Lancelot.

Do you have copies of, or links to the original FBI reports Paul Vea found in Jim's garage? I've yet to find them online. Arguing Vea says there is nothing of substance in them about her and JFK falls short of the minimum standard.