JFK Conference in Washington

[John Simkin]

The Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC) and the Cyril H. Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law will host a conference titled "Cracking the JFK Case: The Emerging Consensus" at the Bethesda Hyatt Regency Hotel just outside Washington, D.C., on November 18-20, 2005.

The conference will highlight the most compelling new evidence that has emerged in the Kennedy case over the past decade--evidence which strongly suggests the Kennedy assassination was the result of a conspiracy tied to the Central Intelligence Agency.

Much has been revealed about the plot against Kennedy since the passage of the 1992 JFK Assassination Records Collection Act, which compelled the release of thousands of significant government documents related to the crime. While the media has remained generally silent on the mysterious crime in recent years, scholars and researchers have quietly been using these records to fill in important holes in our understanding of what happened in Dallas on November 22, 1963. Much of the groundbreaking research will be showcased at "Cracking the JFK Case."

The AARC and Wecht Institute's November conference is dedicated to the proposition that the murder of John F. Kennedy is still an open investigation. In a season when four-decade-old civil rights murders in the South are suddenly being reopened and solved, it is incumbent on the public, the press, and the government to take advantage of the new research momentum on the JFK case

to solve the most shocking assault on American democracy in the past century. If the ghosts of Mississippi can finally be exorcised, so must the ghosts of Dallas.

Among the conference’s keynote speakers will be:

• Joan Mellen, professor at Temple University and author of the forthcoming book "A Farewell to Justice : Jim Garrison, JFK's Assassination and the Case That Should Have Changed History," which is certain to provoke the most heated discussion of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison's probe of the Kennedy murder since Oliver Stone's "JFK."

• Gerald D. McKnight, professor emeritus of history at Hood College in Maryland, whose definitive new book on the coverup of the JFK assassination, "Breach of Trust: How the Warren Commission Failed the Nation and Why," has been hailed by historian Douglas Brinkley as "essential reading by anybody trying to solve the 20th Century's greatest murder mystery."

• Bradley Ayers, a former U .S . Army captain assigned to the CIA to train anti-Castro raiders after the failed Bay of Pigs mission in 1961. Ayers' upcoming memoir, "The Zenith Secret," will connect CIA agents and Cuban exiles with whom he worked to the Kennedy assassination.

Conference speakers will also include:

• Washington Post reporter Jefferson Morley, whose ongoing lawsuit in federal court, Morley v. CIA, has unearthed important new evidence about an undercover operations officer who never disclosed what he knew of contacts between accused assassin Lee Harvey Oswald and an anti-Castro student group funded by the Agency

• Salon founder David Talbot, whose forthcoming book "Brothers" will examine what Robert Kennedy believed was the real story behind the killing of his brother and what he was planning to do about the case if he had lived and been elected president in 1968

• Author Richard Whalen, whose new book will explore how the events in Dallas erupted out of Kennedy's Cuba policies

• Investigative journalist James Bamford, author of the best-selling books on the shadow world of the National Security Agency, "The Puzzle Palace" and "Body of Secrets," and the recently released "A Pretext for War : 9/11, Iraq and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies" (Doubleday).

Among the other featured speakers and panelists will be veteran assassination researchers Peter Dale Scott, John Newman, David Wrone, Josiah Thompson, Dr. Gary Aguilar, James Lesar, Dan Alcorn and Rex Bradford. As names are added to this they will be posted on the AARC's web site, aarclibrary.org.

"Cracking the JFK Case" will be divided into five parts over three days:

I. What does the new evidence tell us about the CIA's connection to the JFK assassination?

II. Why was President Kennedy killed? An examination of the probable motives

III. Crime scene evidence: Why Oswald alone could not have killed JFK

IV. The news media and the assassination

V. Where do we go from here?

The AARC has secured a block of rooms at the Bethesda Hyatt Regency Hotel for the nights of November 17-19th (Thursday through Saturday). These rooms will be available at the rate of $115 per night, an exceptionally good bargain for the Washington, D.C., area, and far below the hotel's normal rate. This rate applies to single or double occupancy; triple occupancy is $140 per night and quadruple occupancy is $165 per night.

To register for a room at the hotel call (800) 233-1234 or (301) 657-1234 and tell the attendant you are attending the "JFK Case" conference.

To register for the conference, call (202) 628-6608 or email us at XXXXX.

This list will be supplemented as other invitees agree to participate in the conference. As names are added to this list, they will be posted on the AARC's web site, aarclibrary.org.

The fee schedule for the conference is as follows:

• General registration fee for entire conference: $200.00

• Conference plus Saturday night dinner at hotel: $260.00

• Full-time students: $100.00

• Walk-ins (per half-day session): $50.00

Those who register for the conference and the hotel by October 1st will receive a $25 discount.

The AARC is a nonprofit organization which seeks to obtain, preserve and disseminate information and records concerning political assassinations to the public. The Wecht Institute is based at truthisourclient@yahoo.com.

Duquesne University offers graduate degrees to a diverse group of students with backgrounds in nursing, law enforcement, pharmacy, business, the environmental sciences, psychology and many other disciplines. It also hosts conferences on pressing, unresolved criminal cases such as the Kennedy assassination.

[Dawn Meredith]

Great line up, but what a shame that there are now three conferences on the same days. Anyone have the COPA schedule yet? I spoke with John Judge this morning and he is supposed to be emailing it to me, tho it does not look good to be able to get away, I have work conflicts..

Daw