Question for Jim on Stone Documentary

[James DiEugenio]

Thanks for all that Gene.  It really took the ARRB declassifications to get to all that material.

I don't know how anyone can take Billings seriously.  If you read Part one of my review of Thompson's book, Billings started playing the concealment game way back in 1967. 

I would not call what the HSCA did with the magic bullet questionable science.  I would call it simple flim flammery. Although Randich and Grant blew up CBLA in 2007, Wallace Milam started seriously questioning it in 1994. Canning was just being silly.  I mean they let him pick his own entrance points!

What Sprague and Tanenbaum were doing was dangerous.  They had to go. Just like Gary Webb, Joe Brown and Jim Garrison.

[Gene Kelly]

Jim

I know this is a little off the thread topic, but Destiny 2nd Edition is an eye-opener for me.  I didn't fully appreciate how disingenuous Blakey was, nor how unsatisfying the HSCA conduct was.  And how duplicitous Billings, Sheridan and others actually were.  I have become more convinced with time (and the emergence of previously withheld documents) of how spot-on Jim Garrison was, and what a courageous and important effort his investigation represented (where would we be, without it?).  While I could optimistically speculate that their behavior was prompted by a narrow (albeit flawed) view that they were protecting the nation and national security, it was highly unethical and actually treasonous. When I look at the attached picture of the Warren Commission working attorneys, it saddens and repulses me.  

History has shown that JFK was on a path for peace - not one of Communist appeasement -  although many historians apparently don't want to acknowledge it that way. Perhaps our more important battle is not to identify who murdered the President, but rather to ensure an accurate historical record and accounting. My fear is that anyone today who wants to understand what happened needs to assimilate an awful lot of information. This considerable amount of due diligence aside, they must also wade through a mountain of conflicting disinformation and misleading anecdotes, after having been conditioned by years of craven media reporting. So, the importance of the ARRB releases, your 2nd edition, and the new screenplay can't be underestimated, as far as further educating the public.

Gene  

[James DiEugenio]

Thanks Gene.  That is what I tried to communicate with Oliver, the importance of getting out the new material since the MSM had a total blackout of it at the 50th. It was like the ARRB never existed.

He and the producer Rob Wilson were really good about that.  And we show a lot of documents in the program.  And we feature people  who actually read the new material.

[Gene Kelly]

From personal experience, I have found that many, to whom I try to explain what happened, do not want to engage in the discussion. I'm not sure if that's because it occurred so long ago (i.e., what does it matter today), or because its too difficult to fathom our own government's treachery in JFK's murder. Some know (in only a broad sense) of the Warren Commission findings, and even less know anything about the HSCA ...the former for a magic bullet controversy, the latter for a Grassy Knoll intrigue. Very few have ever heard of Jim Garrison and his investigation, and - while the movie JFK pricked the nation's conscience - virtually no one knows anything about the ARRB or what's contained in those released records (and more pointedly why they were withheld for so long).  If I were to give a presentation that expands upon the more recent revelations, I would entitle it "The Devil's in the Details".  

Gene