New Books

[Don Roberdeau]

Good Day.... Perhaps these 5 books have been referenced already, but just wanted to post to make sure they are known....

VINCE PALAMARA told me 1-5-02 that he is updating his outstanding book "The Third Alternative“ and re-titling it to “Survivor's Guilt: The Secret Service & The Failure To Protect The President" that will be re-published in 2005. (from a 4-24-04 Palamara post) “will definitely expand allot of people's minds; lots of new, important information. Whether one views the assassination as the work of a lone nut OR the result of a deadly conspiracy, "Survivor's Guilt" will add a new dimension to our thinking on the assassination (as well as the life and times of JFK). I have also established a world's record: most successful Secret Service contacts [multiple interviews and/ or correspondence] at SIXTY (the former world champion, the HSCA, spoke to and/ or corresponded with 44 agents and officials), including 21 who were on the Texas trip. Many of these former agents and officials haven't spoken to anyone. Think of this book as the "Pictures of the Pain" regarding the Secret Service.. but it's also a whole lot more. "Survivor's Guilt" is 1000 times better than the short, self-published versions: massively updated and overhauled (you won't even recognize it!). The book clocks in at approximately 700 pages with over 2000 footnotes and a quite lengthy bibliography. No stone (or "Stone" ) unturned---massive documentation/ prior sources (and much unpublished work) included, as well as much gleaned from many, many interviews and lengthy correspondence. You will be amazed...and surprised, I think.”

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“A Farewell to Justice: District Attorney Jim Garrison and the Death of John F. Kennedy” Joan Mellen, (Temple Univ. English professor) biography of New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison will be published by New York University Press. (2005) Mellen said, “The movie portrays Jim Garrison as a saint, as very one-dimensional. He does everything right, and he’s a family man,” Mellen says. “The real Jim Garrison was much more cerebral, complex and humane than the movie let on.” Though Mellen concedes that Stone’s film cemented Garrison’s public image, she says he should be remembered for his legacy of “demolishing the Warren Commission report and coming pretty close to figuring out what happened in Kennedy’s murder.” Over seven years, Joan Mellen interviewed over 1000 people, many of them coming forward for the first time, and analyzed documents from the National Assassination Archive. With precision and insight, Mellen moves on from a review of the evidence compiled by New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison to uncovering new evidence that substantiates the role of the CIA in the assassination and its cover-up. Mellen interviewed the actual participants in the plot to kill JFK, documented their meetings, plans and their implementation. A taste of what is new in this book:

*** Lee Harvey Oswald was not a loner but a government agent who worked for the CIA, the New Orleans FBI office and for U.S. Customs. Oswald was closely connected to CIA-sponsored anti-Castro figures in New Orleans, including Clay Shaw (who Garrison prosecuted), David Ferrie and a Cuban associate of Shaw¹s at the International Trade Mart named Juan Valdes.

*** Clay Shaw and David Ferrie, both Garrison suspects and CIA operatives, implemented the assassination by helping frame Oswald as the murderer. Mellen proves for the first time that Ferrie, an aviator, flew to Dallas the week of the assassination with the help of a loan that was co-signed by Shaw. Ferrie¹s job was to fly the assassins away to safety late on Friday, November 22nd.

*** Proof that Oswald was set up as a patsy. Thomas Edward Beckham, was trained at CIA to be the patsy should Oswald choose not to cooperate.

*** Robert Kennedy was aware of Oswald and his connection to the FBI before the assassination. RFK put Oswald under surveillance and had his Cuban associates tracking Oswald¹s movements during the summer of 1963, new facts never before revealed.

*** Proof that the cover-up began north of Baton Rouge before the shooting in Dallas when Oswald, in the company of Shaw and Ferrie, applied for a job at the mental hospital in Jackson, LA. Mellen has the only known interview with the director of the hospital at that time, Dr. Frank Silva.

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“JFK and Sam: The Connection between the Giancana and Kennedy Assassinations” by Antoinette Giancana

with co-authors are Dr. John Hughes, a neurologist, and Dr. Thomas Jobe, a psychiatrist. (2005) Published by Cumberland House Publishing. Antoinette claims in a new book that her father ordered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

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Here is the transcript of a recent interview (provided by the publisher) of GERALD McNIGHT with respect to his new book,

"Breach of Trust: How the Warren Commission Failed the Nation and Why"

http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/16482.html

<QUOTE>

Gerald D. McKnight: Interview About the Warren Commission

Source: This interview was provided by the publisher, University Press of Kansas. (9-30-05)

Mr. McKnight is professor emeritus of history at Hood College in

Frederick, MD and the author of the new book, Breach of Trust: How

the Warren Commission Failed the Nation and Why (University Press of

Kansas)

How did you first get involved in researching the Kennedy

assassination and the Warren Commission?

Harold Weisberg, who was a friend and neighbor of mine, wrested from

the government under FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] almost 300,000

pages of documents and records pertaining to the JFK assassination. I

had complete access to his archive, and today the Weisberg Archive is

housed at my teaching institution, Hood College in Frederick,

Maryland. I am a co-director of the archive-the largest private and

accessible collection of government documents on the Kennedy

assassination in the world.

Do you see connections between the Warren Commission investigation

and other recent controversial government investigations, namely the

9/11 Report?

There are parallels between the WC [Warren Commission] and the 9/11

Commission. In both cases the government insisted that these

commissions of honorable citizens would undertake a good faith,

thorough, and impartial investigation into these history-altering

events. In both cases the record demonstrates that both commissions

were structured and staffed to provide politically motivated outcomes.

Would you say that the Warren Commission created a blueprint of sorts

for how the government can fix the outcome of a heated, controversial

investigation? If so, in what ways?

The key to government commissions is not the names of prominent

members who appear on the marquee for public consumption, but in the

chief counsels and executive directors-these are the entities that

run the investigation. In the case of the WC it was the Hoover-picked

J. Lee Rankin, the director's friend. Rankin was not the choice of

Earl Warren. He was forced on Warren by Hoover, (then Assistant

Attorney General Nicholas) Katzenbach, and a like-minded majority of

the commissioners. This clique was determined to submit a report that

found Oswald the sole assassin, no conspiracy. In short, to

underwrite the "official truth" of the assassination, which was

settled upon over the weekend after the assassination by Hoover, LBJ,

and Katzenbach.

As for the 9/11 Commission, the executive director was Philip D.

Zelikow, a Republican with very close official ties to the Bush

administration, and a close friend of Condoleezza Rice.

Both Rankin and Zelikow, as a result of their positions, ran their

respective investigations. They picked the areas of investigation,

the topics of the hearings, what witnesses to call forth and what

lines of questioning to engage, etc.

Unlike the majority of literature on the JFK assassination, your book

steers clear of speculation and conspiracy theories, yet you provide

concrete evidence of deception and ineptitude. Was there any single

incident that stands out to you as the most shocking cover-up or

oversight?

I think there are several telltale evasions: 1) The WC's failure to

launch a real investigation into Oswald's Mexico City trip. This, I

believe, is a key to what forces or interests were behind the murder

of JFK. 2) The destruction of JFK autopsy materials and the writing

of a second autopsy protocol after it was learned that Oswald was

murdered-in short, the fabrication of the JFK autopsy protocol.

3) Lastly, the fact that the FBI and the WC had the Atomic Energy

Committee (AEC) run sophisticated Neutron Activation Analysis (NAA)

on Oswald's paraffin casts and other forensic materials and then

failed to include those results in the final Commission Report. The

fact that some of the best evidence in the case was never disclosed

in the Warren Report leads to one inexorable conclusion: that results

exonerated Oswald.

Some people, especially those born after the assassination, seem to

think this is "old news." How do you explain to them that the

unanswered questions surrounding that event are still incredibly

relevant more than 40 years later?

A president is assassinated-there can be no more de-stabilizing crime

in our system of government-and there is no good-faith effort to

uncover the facts. What does this say about the legitimacy of our

government? Moreover, once JFK was removed, there followed possibly

history-altering changes in our foreign policy. Had Kennedy lived,

would he have liquidated our involvement in Vietnam? Many credible

historians speculate that he would have ended our involvement by the

end of 1964. Kennedy's tentative steps toward a rapprochement with

Castro's Cuba ended with Dallas. Once LBJ heated up our Vietnam

involvement, the Soviet-American detente growing out of the

peacefully resolved 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis was terminated. This

raises the foreboding question: Was JFK's assassination a coup d'etat?

Will we ever get to the bottom of this mystery-or did the Commission

do a good job of making sure that will never happen ?

Since there was no intent by the government to solve the crime forty

years ago, we will probably never know the "Who" and "Why" of Dallas.

Moreover, we have to assume that official records-CIA, State, Naval

Office of Inquiry (ONI), etc.-have been destroyed. There is, however,

an obligation on the part of government to at least come forward and

admit to the American people that the Warren Report is a fabrication

of our history. A step in that direction would be to reopen the

investigation by a commission of independent and nonpartisan

investigators with no connection to government.

So, are you a fan of Oliver Stone's film?

Actually Stone's film bored me. It was clear that Stone can make

movies but he knew nothing about the assassination. But the film did

rejuvenate public interest in the topic and this ultimately led to

the passage of the JFK Records Act and the release of 4-5 million

pages of documents relating to the JFK assassination, so on that

level I have to say bravo to Oliver.

<END QUOTE>

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http://www.chieftain.com/life/1129443128/4

<QUOTE>

Mafia book long on details

"Five Families: The Rise, Decline and Resurgence of America's Most

Powerful Mafia Empires" by Selwyn Raab, Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's

Press, $29.95

By JOHN SMYNTEK

KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS

Face it - there seemingly will always be a market for certain books.

Just choose to chronicle some facet of the Kennedys, the Nazis or, as

Selwyn Raab has opted, the Mafia, and a certain sales threshold is

guaranteed.

Quality seldom seems an issue. Just serve it up and the buyers will

come.

Happily, ''Five Families'' is worth every cent, and for those

who haven't gotten into Mafia reading on either the fictional - as in

Mario Puzo - level or other documentary accounts, this may well be the

only book you need to read.

So well-written and encompassing is Raab's effort that even at 763

pages, many readers will pine for more.

And of course there could be more at some point. As the title suggests,

a Mafia resurgence is more than quite possible after the John Gotti era

unraveling of the more traditional operations in the 1980s and '90s.

The next time, it just might not be so Italian based.

Raab serves up a history of the underworld that is long on coherency

and understanding and short on the kind of mind-numbing detail other

Mafia historians wander into.

He gets right into the notoriously efficient work of Charles

''Lucky'' Luciano, whose rules of engagement ended a lot of

shoot-'em-ups and kept the Mafia pointed at one goal - ever

increasing the amount of money pouring into the organization and

individual coffers by corrupting American government and business, not

necessarily in that order.

It was Luciano who advocated the organization adopt secretive,

low-profile standards for thievery, extortion and other crimes as

opposed to the over-the-top ''I'm just giving the people what

they want'' persona that Chicago boss Al Capone advocated.

And Raab pulls the thread by luring the reader to all that came after.

With a reporter's love of fact and disdain for much of the fictional

crap about these dark knights, we follow the organization's

operations through it s real birth during Prohibition, its World War II

profiteering, its '50s heyday as a union corrupter and Las Vegas

force and its '80s and '90s stumbling largely attributed to a name

now very familiar - Rudy Giuliani. It was Giuliani's use of RICO (the

Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act) that did great damage

to the Mafia's traditional legal defenses in the 1980s.

While he devotes a few pages to the oft-told stories like the Louis

''Lepke'' Buchalter case from the '30s and '40s, Raab

scores big points for telling modern Mafia tales that are less often

told but are just as magnetic as the '30s-era classics.

And Raab is a constant critic of the law enforcement and justice system

weaknesses for not prosecuting crimes that seemed all too obvious.

And back in the beginning of this review, did we mention the Kennedys?

That would propel the reader to the book's Chapter 15, titled

''The Ring of Truth.''

The title comes from the mouth of G. Robert Blakey, an expert on both

the John F. Kennedy assassination and the underworld, about utterances

from Frank Ragano, a lawyer who had the opportunity to defend Mafia

operators Santos Trafficante, Carlos Marcello and Detroit's own labor

racketeer, the still missing Jimmy Hoffa.

Trafficante, Ragano said, confirmed that the Mafia had a hand in the

drama of Nov. 22, 1963. The simple theory: Robert Kennedy's vigorous

prosecution of racketeering had to be stopped and the best way to do

that was by icing the man who appointed him to his job.

Yes, there was plenty of bad feeling toward JFK himself, but Raab

concludes, ''Whether or not they had a part in it, the Mafia had

triumphed as a big winner after the assassination.''

One other reason to admire Raab's work: He does quite a bit of damage

to the fictional image of the Mafia that is the result of Puzo's

fiction and movies like ''Good Fellas,'' ''Casino'' and

the most current manifestation, ''The Sopranos.''

Raab quotes organized crime boss Howard Abadinsky as saying, ''They

are displayed having a twisted sense of honor, 'taking no crap from

anyone,' with easy access to women and money. Such displays

romanticize organized crime and, as an unintended consequence, serve to

perpetuate the phenomenon and create alluring myths about the

Mafia.''

That's something of which Raab could never be convicted.

<END QUOTE>

Don Roberdeau

U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, "Big John" Plank Walker

Sooner, or later, the Truth emerges Clearly

http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/DP.jpg

http://members.aol.com/DRoberdeau/JFK/ROSE...NOUNCEMENT.html

T ogether

E veryone

A chieves

M ore

"I personally believe OSWALD was the assassin; that the second aspect

as to whether he was the only man gives me great concern...I urged

strongly that we did not reach the conclusion OSWALD was the only

man."

- J. EDGAR HOOVER, Director of the F.B.I., memo to CLYDE TOLSON, 12DEC63

[Chris Cox]

Maybe mentioned before but:

"The Assassination Business--A History of State-Sponsored Murder" by Richard Belfield (Carroll & Graf/NY 2005) is also very interesting read.