John Newman's 2019 CAPA Presentation

[W. Tracy Parnell]

Given that Newman's presentation evidently represents a new theory on Veciana's actions, I thought there might be some discussion here by now. According to Bill Kelly, Veciana:

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used journalist and Congressional investigator Gaeton Fonzi to get out of federal prison and redirect his investigation to the CIA rather than the U.S. Army intelligence unit - Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence (ACSI), who he really worked for - according to the recently released records.

I am not surprised by Newman's claim that somebody somehow arranged for Veciana's early release. He has hinted that he was going in that direction previously. What is surprising is his apparent claim (if Kelly is correct) that the US Senate (I am assuming since that was who Fonzi was working for at the time-this was pre-HSCA) engineered this release either with or without Fonzi's knowledge. Or if the Senate didn't do it, Newman must be claiming the Pentagon (or some evil force) did it. But wouldn't the Church Committee and the later HSCA be able to see through this "misdirection" (as Newman calls it) by Veciana toward the CIA? I mean, the Pentagon orders Veciana's release so he can testify and he conveniently fingers the CIA? A little too obvious if you ask me.  Were the HSCA and Church "in on it" too then? And if Fonzi was not aware of all of this, wouldn't he have been able to eventually find out what happened given the access and contacts that he undoubtedly had? I'm afraid all of this doesn't make too much sense.

I am admittedly making some assumptions, so if I am off base let me know. I would be most interested to know from anybody that was there if Newman presents any evidence for any of this and how it was supposed to have worked? Also, is there going to be a video of this?

[Anthony Thorne]

With due respect to the many fine folk working at the HSCA, Fonzi, according to his book, spent a week or more shuffling through papers in a giant trash pile after a spook led him to it during a pointless wild goose chase, and a bunch of private investigators sat around in a room doing nothing for weeks and weeks after Robert Blakey gave them repeated assurances that if they just waited a bit longer - up to the point that they were all fired - they could go and start investigating.

So I wouldn’t necessarily think that they would have been able to see through the misdirection of Veciana, as there are instances of them being successfully misdirected by others. And in the cases where the HSCA was making progress - such as with Dan Hardway and Eddie Lopez looking at Mexico - other methods were introduced to shut things down.

Newman has some years still to go with his project, so if his thoughts on Veciana are correct, he has plenty of time to make a more detailed case. Hopefully his presentation will turn up online soon.

 

[W. Tracy Parnell]

I have been thinking more about this and here are the problems I have. Newman must be saying that unbeknownst to Fonzi, someone inside the justice system ( a judge or whoever had the power) arranged to free Veciana at the behest of the Pentagon.  He surely can't be saying that Fonzi was in on the plot-that would be a bridge too far.  But under this scenario, Fonzi becomes nothing more than a dupe (albeit unwilling) for the plotters. All of his much lauded work promoting the Phillips-as-Bishop, CIA-did-it scenario did nothing but satisfy the desires of the real killers of JFK. It is hard to imagine that certain members of the research community will be pleased with this determination by Newman. I also wonder what Marie Fonzi and the Veciana family would say about it. Or even Veciana himself.