Response to Bill Kelly on HSCA Conspiracy Finding

[W. Tracy Parnell]

Response to Kelly re: "HSCA Evidence of Conspiracy" ~ W. Tracy Parnell (wtracyparnell.blogspot.com)

[Pat Speer]

2 hours ago, W. Tracy Parnell said:

Response to Kelly re: "HSCA Evidence of Conspiracy" ~ W. Tracy Parnell (wtracyparnell.blogspot.com)

FWIW, I remember watching or reading an interview with Stokes and Blakey in which they said that the committee as a whole was convinced there was a conspiracy, but that they felt there needed to find what Blakey called "hard evidence" before they would commit to their suspicions in a report. And Voila! Blakey conjured up some "hard evidence."

Now I think we both know the dictabelt evidence is nonsense, but so was a large percentage of the "hard evidence" conjured up by the WC.

So I call it a draw. 

P.S. I wouldn't give Robert Edgar's dissent much credence. He was under Specter's spell to the extent even that he made Specter's son his assistant on the committee. He was essentially Specter's man. 

Edited April 21, 2022 by Pat Speer

[Ron Bulman]

Just in case anyone actually wants to read Bill Kelly's article for context.

JFKcountercoup: 2022

BTW, didn't I read elsewhere quite some time back that the HSCA expert team working on the dictabelt analysis actually identified around 6 or 7 shots.  But Blakey said he couldn't accept more than 4?

[Pat Speer]

2 hours ago, Ron Bulman said:

Just in case anyone actually wants to read Bill Kelly's article for context.

JFKcountercoup: 2022

BTW, didn't I read elsewhere quite some time back that the HSCA expert team working on the dictabelt analysis actually identified around 6 or 7 shots.  But Blakey said he couldn't accept more than 4?

Yes, I believe that is true. Blakey was preoccupied with what he could sell the committee. The truth of the situation was beside the point. 

The point I was trying to make was that the committee was not "fooled" into suspecting a conspiracy by "junk science." They suspected a conspiracy, but lacked the intestinal fortitude to publicly declare as much without some scientific basis. Baden and the medical panel (absent Wecht) had conspired to keep that scientific basis from the committee. But the acoustics guys were much more agreeable. 

Edited April 22, 2022 by Pat Speer

[James DiEugenio]

Many years ago Wallace Milam said to me that he actually thought the HSCA was worse than the Warren Commission.

When I expressed surprise he said, "Jim, with what they had?"

When the ARRB started declassifying the HSCA and other repositories, I understood fully what Wallace meant.

 

 

Edited April 22, 2022 by James DiEugenio

[Benjamin Cole]

As usual, for me the story is simple. 

Governor Connally to the HSCA, on getting struck from behind:

" I was knocked over, just doubled over by the force of the bullet. It went in my back and came out my chest about 2 inches below and the left of my right nipple. The force of the bullet drove my body over almost double and when I looked, immediately I could see I was just drenched with blood. (1 HSCA 42)"

---30---

OK, look at Z film. The above episode happens at about frame 295. The JFK head shot is at 313. 

That means Connally was shot about one second before JFK. 

LHO, or whoever, had a single-shot bolt-action rifle. 

Ergo, there must have been at least a second gunman.

That, or a lone gunman shooting at the limo with a repeating rifle. 

This much is indisputable. 

How the HSBC bungled this, I do not know. This is why the WC suppressed the film, perhaps even more than the odd movement of JFK back and to his left.  

[Allen Lowe]

On 4/22/2022 at 1:46 AM, James DiEugenio said:

Many years ago Wallace Milam said to me that he actually thought the HSCA was worse than the Warren Commission.

When I expressed surprise he said, "Jim, with what they had?"

When the ARRB started declassifying the HSCA and other repositories, I understood fully what Wallace meant.

 

 

Also, Gaeton Fonzi’s book is filled with accounts of leads that were ignored or discouraged.

Edited April 24, 2022 by Allen Lowe

[James DiEugenio]

Yes that is an accurate statement.

Let alone what is in the Lopez Report, plus the notes of Betsy Wolf.

The fact that those two pieces of excellent work were not in the volumes, and in fact had to be released by the ARRB many years later are a perfect illustration of what Wallace meant.

To give you one example: Betsy found out that Angleton had Elena Garro taken by private escort to a hotel within 24 hours of the murder of JFK, at the same time the CIA was arresting Sylvia Duran.  A perfect example of playing both ends against the middle.