Is it Time To Shut Down the JFK Debate Forum?

[Guest Tom Scully]

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09...her-presidents/

September 2, 2009, 6:29 pm

Kennedy Memoir Talks of Chappaquiddick, J.F.K. and Other Presidents

By Carl Hulse

...In the 532-page book, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Kennedy also said he has always accepted the official findings of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, an event that he said left family members fearing for the emotional health of his brother, Robert F. Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy that he often thought of one brother’s deep grief over the loss of another and said it “veered close to being a tragedy within a tragedy.”

Senator Kennedy said he had a full briefing by Earl Warren, the chief justice, on the commission’s investigation into the Nov. 22, 1963, shooting in Dallas. He pronounced himself convinced that the Warren Commission got it right and said he was “satisfied then, and satisfied now.” ...

If the above is accurate, it is a shameful part of Ted Kennedy' legacy, and is disappointing, knowing what many of us know, concerning the flaws in the Warren Commission Report, so well documemnted, for example, in the threads on this forum.

[Pat Speer]

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09...her-presidents/

September 2, 2009, 6:29 pm

Kennedy Memoir Talks of Chappaquiddick, J.F.K. and Other Presidents

By Carl Hulse

...In the 532-page book, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Kennedy also said he has always accepted the official findings of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, an event that he said left family members fearing for the emotional health of his brother, Robert F. Kennedy. Mr. Kennedy that he often thought of one brother’s deep grief over the loss of another and said it “veered close to being a tragedy within a tragedy.”

Senator Kennedy said he had a full briefing by Earl Warren, the chief justice, on the commission’s investigation into the Nov. 22, 1963, shooting in Dallas. He pronounced himself convinced that the Warren Commission got it right and said he was “satisfied then, and satisfied now.” ...

If the above is accurate, it is a shameful part of Ted Kennedy' legacy, and is disappointing, knowing what many of us know, concerning the flaws in the Warren Commission Report, so well documemnted, for example, in the threads on this forum.

Well, that helps explain things. Warren, to his everlasting shame, personally "sold" the commission's findings to the family. It would be hard not to be swayed by such a thing. I wonder if Warren told them:

"Uhhh, the doctors wanted to look at the autopsy photos THEY'D created to assist them in writing their reports, and to help them in their testimony, but I REFUSED to let them look at these photos because I was concerned with upsetting Bobby, even though he'd told Katzenbach that they could look at them if they wanted to. Y'know, out of my loyalty... I just couldn't bear the thought of the doctors who--in point of fact, OWNED the photographs--looking at them, and creating accurate exhibits representing the President's wounds. And oh, by the way, these photographs would never have been allowed in a court of law anyway, cause they were just too gruesome, and they would have overly-influenced the jury into convicting Oswald. Of course, if there was something in the photos that suggested Oswald's innocence, they would have been allowed, but that's another matter. I mean, I looked at the photos myself, and made the decision that there was NOTHING in these photos that could possibly suggest his innocence--that is, unless you count that the neck wound in the exhibits we're gonna publish is two inches higher on the back than the back wound in the photos, and that this totally helps sell that the bullet striking your brother from behind exited his throat and went on to hit Connally, and that this helps us sell that one man could have fired all the shots. I mean, some snakey public defender, some Mark Lane-type, might try and do something with that. But no one needs to know about that, now do they? We all know that squirrelly commie did it, and did it alone, and actually studying the medical evidence and bringing up all those memories, well...really what's the point? Yeah, yeah... I know what you're thinking. You're thinking "But Earl, your appointing yourself an expert and determining the relevance of these photos without the consultation of an expert is a violation of everything you're supposed to represent, and would almost certainly have resulted in an overturn of a conviction, should it have been done in an actual court room." But you're forgetting---this wasn't a court room. It was a fact-finding commission, and we could do whatever we wanted to find facts or not find facts, without fear of one of those embarrassing reversals. That's the beauty of it... And that's why I think we should circumvent the rights of the accused in all criminal investigations of highly-charged political events in the future by creating Presidential commissions answerable only to the President...particularly when the President is himself under suspicion for the crime. I mean, we can't have that, can we? I mean, if the legitimacy of the Presidency itself is ever under question, then our whole American way of life is in jeopardy. So it only follows that we need to destroy everything that people think matters--the rule of law, etc--in order to save what we here in Washington know REALLY matters...RESPECT FOR AUTHORITY."

Edited September 4, 2009 by Pat Speer

[David Andrews]

But is "a tragedy within a tragedy" code for "an assassination within an assassination?"

Edited September 3, 2009 by David Andrews