Longtime JFK Researcher To Speak at Union College

[Kevin Balch]

2 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

2. I disagree that the CIA was not competent in assassinations. They conducted quite a few and perhaps many that we do not know of. Talk is easy; actually getting things done in the physical world is a whole 'nother matter.  The best (baseball) batters hit .350. Are they crappy batters? 

Supposedly over 600 attempts on Castro and Castro outlived all of them.

 

2 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

4. Foreign government (Russians) turned LHO? CIA'er Woolsey said this in a book he published. The dubious Richard Case Nagell said something along these lines. Doesn't line up for me; JFK was about as good a leader as Moscow was going to get. But then, perhaps a hawkish and war-loving fragment within the Russia military did not want detente, and they manipulated LHO. I give this low probability.

I had Cuba in mind. I don’t know why everyone give Cuba a pass. Their intelligence service could run rings around the CIA and FBI except for technical intelligence gathering. Castro wanted Khrushchev to nuke the US if there was a US invasion of Cuba. Castro was also pissed at having the Soviets pull the rug out from under him to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis. I don’t believe things were patched up until Castro paid an extensive visit to the USSR in early 1964. Note, it might not even have been Castro himself. Cuba’s intelligence service, like all others, surely must have rogue elements. It doesn’t matter if JFK instigated or even knew of the assassination attempts on Castro.

 

2 hours ago, Benjamin Cole said:

I still contend the Z-film shows shots being fired too rapidly to have been issued by a lone gunman with a single-shot bolt action rifle. So, they had to be two gunsels, or someone armed with a repeating rifle.

Agreed. The Discovery Channel documentary “Beyond the Magic Bullet” went to great lengths to replicate the single bullet theory, no doubt thinking they would dispel the critics. But in their demo, the throat exit wound was a chest exit wound. They even showed the trajectory in slow motion, though from behind. They never directly showed the exit wound (for obvious reasons) or Connolly’s wounds. They made up “autopsy forms” showing the wounds on JFK and Connolly. if you freeze frame and look carefully, you can see the JFK wound exiting the chest. They took it to an independent forensic pathologist who concluded it was two bullets. My takeaway is that the single bullet theory is possible but not from the 6th floor of the TSBD (probably lower floor of DalTex).

There was another demo actually conducted in Dealey Plaza with lasers. Lasers are high tech so this surely must be accurate right? Except bullets follow a ballistic trajectory, not a straight line. A bullet would fall several inches from a straight line in the 0.15 seconds it would take to hit the target at the speed and distances involved.

[Benjamin Cole]

7 hours ago, Kevin Balch said:

Supposedly over 600 attempts on Castro and Castro outlived all of them.

 

I had Cuba in mind. I don’t know why everyone give Cuba a pass. Their intelligence service could run rings around the CIA and FBI except for technical intelligence gathering. Castro wanted Khrushchev to nuke the US if there was a US invasion of Cuba. Castro was also pissed at having the Soviets pull the rug out from under him to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis. I don’t believe things were patched up until Castro paid an extensive visit to the USSR in early 1964. Note, it might not even have been Castro himself. Cuba’s intelligence service, like all others, surely must have rogue elements. It doesn’t matter if JFK instigated or even knew of the assassination attempts on Castro.

 

Agreed. The Discovery Channel documentary “Beyond the Magic Bullet” went to great lengths to replicate the single bullet theory, no doubt thinking they would dispel the critics. But in their demo, the throat exit wound was a chest exit wound. They even showed the trajectory in slow motion, though from behind. They never directly showed the exit wound (for obvious reasons) or Connolly’s wounds. They made up “autopsy forms” showing the wounds on JFK and Connolly. if you freeze frame and look carefully, you can see the JFK wound exiting the chest. They took it to an independent forensic pathologist who concluded it was two bullets. My takeaway is that the single bullet theory is possible but not from the 6th floor of the TSBD (probably lower floor of DalTex).

There was another demo actually conducted in Dealey Plaza with lasers. Lasers are high tech so this surely must be accurate right? Except bullets follow a ballistic trajectory, not a straight line. A bullet would fall several inches from a straight line in the 0.15 seconds it would take to hit the target at the speed and distances involved.

1. Oh good one, I forgot about the Cubans as possible JFKA perps.  And given the many US attempts on Castro's life, they could consider themselves "justified" in tit-for-tat, or revenge.

Some have posited that the assassin-Cubans told LHO they were actually CIA, and hoodwinked him into the playing a patsy role in the JFKA. 

That would imply that the Cubans had intel on a password, or other another device (half-dollar bill?), that would convince LHO they were CIA. 

2. 600 CIA attempts on Castro's life? I have read about a few. Some sound far-fetched. But as I said, from the stands every home run looks easy. 

3.  I would not know if Cuban intel-services were better or worse than US intel services. They would have a natural "upper hand" in Cuba and in the Cuban exile community, I would guess. Easy for Havana-Cubans to embed Castro-supporters into the exile community. Larry Hancock has written that CIA'ers were exasperated that Cubans leaked everything, as they like to talk. Playing on the other team's "home court" is always a challenge. 

Side note: As I recall, De Gaulle also survived repeated assassination attempts. Maybe French righties were crappy at assassinations too.

 

 

 

[Robert Morrow]

On 4/18/2024 at 10:38 PM, Kevin Balch said:

Supposedly over 600 attempts on Castro and Castro outlived all of them.

 

I had Cuba in mind. I don’t know why everyone give Cuba a pass. Their intelligence service could run rings around the CIA and FBI except for technical intelligence gathering. Castro wanted Khrushchev to nuke the US if there was a US invasion of Cuba. Castro was also pissed at having the Soviets pull the rug out from under him to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis. I don’t believe things were patched up until Castro paid an extensive visit to the USSR in early 1964. Note, it might not even have been Castro himself. Cuba’s intelligence service, like all others, surely must have rogue elements. It doesn’t matter if JFK instigated or even knew of the assassination attempts on Castro.

 

Agreed. The Discovery Channel documentary “Beyond the Magic Bullet” went to great lengths to replicate the single bullet theory, no doubt thinking they would dispel the critics. But in their demo, the throat exit wound was a chest exit wound. They even showed the trajectory in slow motion, though from behind. They never directly showed the exit wound (for obvious reasons) or Connolly’s wounds. They made up “autopsy forms” showing the wounds on JFK and Connolly. if you freeze frame and look carefully, you can see the JFK wound exiting the chest. They took it to an independent forensic pathologist who concluded it was two bullets. My takeaway is that the single bullet theory is possible but not from the 6th floor of the TSBD (probably lower floor of DalTex).

There was another demo actually conducted in Dealey Plaza with lasers. Lasers are high tech so this surely must be accurate right? Except bullets follow a ballistic trajectory, not a straight line. A bullet would fall several inches from a straight line in the 0.15 seconds it would take to hit the target at the speed and distances involved.

Regarding, pro-Castro Cuban involvement in the JFK assassination, there just isn't any evidence of it. On the contrary, behind the scenes relations were about to start warming with JFK and Fidel Castro. I am sure you know about the journalist Jean Daniel revelations. JFK was using journalist Jean Daniel as a back channel to Fidel Castro in an attempt to ease tensions between the USA and Cuba.

“I Was With Fidel Castro When JFK was Assassinated” by Jean Daniel for the New Republic - December 7, 1963

Web Link: https://newrepublic.com/article/120460/fidel-castro-reaction-kennedy-assassination-cuba

QUOTE

Then, suddenly, he had taken a less hostile tack: “Kennedy could still be this man. He still has the possibility of becoming, in the eyes of history, the greatest President of the United States, the leader who may at last understand that there can be coexistence between capitalists and socialists, even in the Americas. He would then be an even greater President than Lincoln. I know, for example, that for Khrushchev, Kennedy is a man you can talk with. I have gotten this impression from all my conversations with Khrushchev. Other leaders have assured me that to attain this goal, we must first await his re-election. Personally, I consider him responsible for everything,  but I will say this: he has come to understand many things over the past few months; and then too, in the last analysis, I’m convinced that anyone else would be worse.” Then Fidel had added with a broad and boyish grin: “If you see him again, you can tell him that I’m willing to declare Goldwater my friend if that will guarantee Kennedy’s re-election!”

This conversation was held on November 19.

Now it was nearly 2 o’clock and we got up from the table and settled ourselves in front of a radio. Commandant Vallero, his physician, aide-de-camp, and intimate friend, was easily able to get the broadcasts from the NBC network in Miami. As the news came in, Vallero would translate it for Fidel: Kennedy wounded in the head; pursuit of the assassin; murder of a policeman; finally the fatal announcement: President Kennedy is dead. Then Fidel stood up and said to me: “Everything is changed. Everything is going to change. The United States occupies such a position in world affairs that the death of a President of that country affects millions of people in every corner of the globe. The cold war, relations with Russia, Latin America, Cuba, the Negro question… all will have to be rethought. I’ll tell you one thing: at least Kennedy was an enemy to whom we had become accustomed. This is a serious matter, an extremely serious matter.”

 UNQUOTE

QUOTE

We arrived at the granja de pueblo, where the farmers welcomed Fidel. At that very moment, a speaker announced over the radio that it was now known that the assassin is a “pro-Castro Marxist.” One commentator followed another; the remarks became increasingly emotional, increasingly aggressive. Fidel then excused himself: “We shall have to give up the visit to the farm.” We went on towards Matanzas from where he could telephone President Dorticós. On the way he had questions: “Who is Lyndon Johnson? What is his reputation? What were his relations with Kennedy? With Khrushchev? What was his position at the time of the attempted invasion of Cuba?” Finally and most important of all” What authority does he exercise over the CIA?” Then abruptly he looked at his watch, saw that it would be half an hour before we reached Matanzas and, practically on the spot, he dropped off to sleep.

UNQUOTE

JFK interview with journalist Jean Daniel on October 24, 1963:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Revolution

QUOTE

I believe that there is no country in the world, including the African regions, including any and all the countries under colonial domination, where economic colonization, humiliation and exploitation were worse than in Cuba, in part owing to my country's policies during the Batista regime. I believe that we created, built and manufactured the Castro movement out of whole cloth and without realizing it. I believe that the accumulation of these mistakes has jeopardized all of Latin America. The great aim of the Alliance for Progress is to reverse this unfortunate policy. This is one of the most, if not the most, important problems in America foreign policy. I can assure you that I have understood the Cubans. I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will go even further: to some extent it is as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries.

UNQUOTE

Jean Daniel (1920-2020) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Daniel

Spartacus bio of Jean Daniel Bensaid:

https://web.archive.org/web/20180112160030/http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKdanielJ.htm

Fidel Castro told French journalist Jean Daniel after hearing some conciliatory words relayed to him from JFK, that JFK could become “the greatest president of the United States, the leader who may at last understand that there can be coexistence between capitalists and socialists, even in the Americas.”

http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKdanielJ.htm

 

[Benjamin Cole]

1 hour ago, Robert Morrow said:

Regarding, pro-Castro Cuban involvement in the JFK assassination, there just isn't any evidence of it. On the contrary, behind the scenes relations were about to start warming with JFK and Fidel Castro. I am sure you know about the journalist Jean Daniel revelations. JFK was using journalist Jean Daniel as a back channel to Fidel Castro in an attempt to ease tensions between the USA and Cuba.

“I Was With Fidel Castro When JFK was Assassinated” by Jean Daniel for the New Republic - December 7, 1963

Web Link: https://newrepublic.com/article/120460/fidel-castro-reaction-kennedy-assassination-cuba

QUOTE

Then, suddenly, he had taken a less hostile tack: “Kennedy could still be this man. He still has the possibility of becoming, in the eyes of history, the greatest President of the United States, the leader who may at last understand that there can be coexistence between capitalists and socialists, even in the Americas. He would then be an even greater President than Lincoln. I know, for example, that for Khrushchev, Kennedy is a man you can talk with. I have gotten this impression from all my conversations with Khrushchev. Other leaders have assured me that to attain this goal, we must first await his re-election. Personally, I consider him responsible for everything,  but I will say this: he has come to understand many things over the past few months; and then too, in the last analysis, I’m convinced that anyone else would be worse.” Then Fidel had added with a broad and boyish grin: “If you see him again, you can tell him that I’m willing to declare Goldwater my friend if that will guarantee Kennedy’s re-election!”

This conversation was held on November 19.

Now it was nearly 2 o’clock and we got up from the table and settled ourselves in front of a radio. Commandant Vallero, his physician, aide-de-camp, and intimate friend, was easily able to get the broadcasts from the NBC network in Miami. As the news came in, Vallero would translate it for Fidel: Kennedy wounded in the head; pursuit of the assassin; murder of a policeman; finally the fatal announcement: President Kennedy is dead. Then Fidel stood up and said to me: “Everything is changed. Everything is going to change. The United States occupies such a position in world affairs that the death of a President of that country affects millions of people in every corner of the globe. The cold war, relations with Russia, Latin America, Cuba, the Negro question… all will have to be rethought. I’ll tell you one thing: at least Kennedy was an enemy to whom we had become accustomed. This is a serious matter, an extremely serious matter.”

 UNQUOTE

QUOTE

We arrived at the granja de pueblo, where the farmers welcomed Fidel. At that very moment, a speaker announced over the radio that it was now known that the assassin is a “pro-Castro Marxist.” One commentator followed another; the remarks became increasingly emotional, increasingly aggressive. Fidel then excused himself: “We shall have to give up the visit to the farm.” We went on towards Matanzas from where he could telephone President Dorticós. On the way he had questions: “Who is Lyndon Johnson? What is his reputation? What were his relations with Kennedy? With Khrushchev? What was his position at the time of the attempted invasion of Cuba?” Finally and most important of all” What authority does he exercise over the CIA?” Then abruptly he looked at his watch, saw that it would be half an hour before we reached Matanzas and, practically on the spot, he dropped off to sleep.

UNQUOTE

JFK interview with journalist Jean Daniel on October 24, 1963:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_Revolution

QUOTE

I believe that there is no country in the world, including the African regions, including any and all the countries under colonial domination, where economic colonization, humiliation and exploitation were worse than in Cuba, in part owing to my country's policies during the Batista regime. I believe that we created, built and manufactured the Castro movement out of whole cloth and without realizing it. I believe that the accumulation of these mistakes has jeopardized all of Latin America. The great aim of the Alliance for Progress is to reverse this unfortunate policy. This is one of the most, if not the most, important problems in America foreign policy. I can assure you that I have understood the Cubans. I approved the proclamation which Fidel Castro made in the Sierra Maestra, when he justifiably called for justice and especially yearned to rid Cuba of corruption. I will go even further: to some extent it is as though Batista was the incarnation of a number of sins on the part of the United States. Now we shall have to pay for those sins. In the matter of the Batista regime, I am in agreement with the first Cuban revolutionaries.

UNQUOTE

Jean Daniel (1920-2020) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Daniel

Spartacus bio of Jean Daniel Bensaid:

https://web.archive.org/web/20180112160030/http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKdanielJ.htm

Fidel Castro told French journalist Jean Daniel after hearing some conciliatory words relayed to him from JFK, that JFK could become “the greatest president of the United States, the leader who may at last understand that there can be coexistence between capitalists and socialists, even in the Americas.”

http://spartacus-educational.com/JFKdanielJ.htm

 

All true (AFAIK).

But there is always the possibility that rogue fragments of any particular organization could have perped the JFKA. 

Cuban intel, US intel, US WASP elite globalists, Russians (less plausible), former Nazis in US intel, Mormon Mafia. All of these elements could have subcontracted out to mob gunsels, or those who operated in the Cuban-mafia nexus, such as Eladio Del Valle and Herminino Diaz.