Why did the conspirators offer the Z-film?

[Paul Rigby]

Why did the conspirators offer the Z-film?

An important subject, rarely addressed head on. Below, a preliminary sketch of an answer. I leave aside two other obvious motives, as trophy and training aid:

Kennedy had to be killed in a public space to allay suspicion of an inside job.

Yet it had to be an inside job to ensure its success.

How to reconcile these conflicting imperatives?

A false film, buttressed by a series of measures designed to render the location a pseudo- or controlled public space:

1) Location of crime scene at the end of the motorcade route, thus limiting potential number of independent witnesses;

2) Largely portable scene-of-crime, leaving little to examine, provoke reflection or, not unimportantly, clear-up;

3) Further limiting independent witness presence in the chosen public space by misdirection as to the precise motorcade route;

4) Minimisation of independent witness presence at key vantage points through guards at aforesaid key points;

5) Flooding of public space by intelligence assets, using pre-established business proprietaries as thoroughly plausible pretext for presence;

6) Misdirection of independent eyewitnesses (and subsequent enquirers) by use of both planted and/or manufactured witnesses; and rehearsed misdirection actions by motorcade figures designed to support the built-in fall back position (the grassy knoll);

7) Deliberate investigative failure to account for, and adduce the testimony of, all those present: inconvenient witnesses were marginalised, ignored, and/or replaced by more helpful material. The fake film showed only those witnesses the conspirators wanted us to see.

The primary purpose of the film was to hide the true role of Kennedy’s own bodyguard.

The second, to inject the required quota of ambiguity and paranoia into the case: the Z-film, in the version we are familiar with, is quintessentially the product of the counter-intelligence mind.

The public understanding of the case would thus be shaped not by testimony, but by the false visual depiction.

Of course, things didn’t go quite according to plan. But the essential task did.

[Jack White]

Why did the conspirators offer the Z-film?

An important subject, rarely addressed head on. Below, a preliminary sketch of an answer. I leave aside two other obvious motives, as trophy and training aid:

Kennedy had to be killed in a public space to allay suspicion of an inside job.

Yet it had to be an inside job to ensure its success.

How to reconcile these conflicting imperatives?

A false film, buttressed by a series of measures designed to render the location a pseudo- or controlled public space:

1) Location of crime scene at the end of the motorcade route, thus limiting potential number of independent witnesses;

2) Largely portable scene-of-crime, leaving little to examine, provoke reflection or, not unimportantly, clear-up;

3) Further limiting independent witness presence in the chosen public space by misdirection as to the precise motorcade route;

4) Minimisation of independent witness presence at key vantage points through guards at aforesaid key points;

5) Flooding of public space by intelligence assets, using pre-established business proprietaries as thoroughly plausible pretext for presence;

6) Misdirection of independent eyewitnesses (and subsequent enquirers) by use of both planted and/or manufactured witnesses; and rehearsed misdirection actions by motorcade figures designed to support the built-in fall back position (the grassy knoll);

7) Deliberate investigative failure to account for, and adduce the testimony of, all those present: inconvenient witnesses were marginalised, ignored, and/or replaced by more helpful material. The fake film showed only those witnesses the conspirators wanted us to see.

The primary purpose of the film was to hide the true role of Kennedy’s own bodyguard.

The second, to inject the required quota of ambiguity and paranoia into the case: the Z-film, in the version we are familiar with, is quintessentially the product of the counter-intelligence mind.

The public understanding of the case would thus be shaped not by testimony, but by the false visual depiction.

Of course, things didn’t go quite according to plan. But the essential task did.

Very excellent analysis! Misdirection is vital to successful magic acts.

JFK, Apollo, and 911 are all excellent examples. The Pentagon event

is a very sophisticated misdirection plot. Why was the Pentagon chosen

as a "target"? Because the CRIME SCENE COULD BE CONTROLLED,

much like you describe for Dealey Plaza.

Jack

Edited August 12, 2006 by Jack White

[Ashton Gray]

Very excellent analysis! Misdirection is vital to successful magic acts.

Yes. And might I amend the above with another mention of smoke (literally) from the knoll/fence area (including an officer later testifying that he'd burned his hand on something he erroneously had believed to be a steam pipe, but nobody ever determined what it was), and Decker immediately emptying the County Courts/Criminal Courts building of law enforcement presence, herding them all into the area behind the knoll/TSBD.

Ashton

[Paul Rigby]

...might I amend the above with another mention of smoke (literally) from the knoll/fence area (including an officer later testifying that he'd burned his hand on something he erroneously had believed to be a steam pipe, but nobody ever determined what it was)...

Allen Dulles' briar?

[David G. Healy]

'Paul Rigby' wrote:

Why did the conspirators offer the Z-film?

An important subject, rarely addressed head on. Below, a preliminary sketch of an answer. I leave aside two other obvious motives, as trophy and training aid:

Kennedy had to be killed in a public space to allay suspicion of an inside job.

Yet it had to be an inside job to ensure its success.

How to reconcile these conflicting imperatives?

A false film, buttressed by a series of measures designed to render the location a pseudo- or controlled public space:

1) Location of crime scene at the end of the motorcade route, thus limiting potential number of independent witnesses;

2) Largely portable scene-of-crime, leaving little to examine, provoke reflection or, not unimportantly, clear-up;

3) Further limiting independent witness presence in the chosen public space by misdirection as to the precise motorcade route;

4) Minimisation of independent witness presence at key vantage points through guards at aforesaid key points;

5) Flooding of public space by intelligence assets, using pre-established business proprietaries as thoroughly plausible pretext for presence;

6) Misdirection of independent eyewitnesses (and subsequent enquirers) by use of both planted and/or manufactured witnesses; and rehearsed misdirection actions by motorcade figures designed to support the built-in fall back position (the grassy knoll);

7) Deliberate investigative failure to account for, and adduce the testimony of, all those present: inconvenient witnesses were marginalised, ignored, and/or replaced by more helpful material. The fake film showed only those witnesses the conspirators wanted us to see.

The primary purpose of the film was to hide the true role of Kennedy’s own bodyguard.

The second, to inject the required quota of ambiguity and paranoia into the case: the Z-film, in the version we are familiar with, is quintessentially the product of the counter-intelligence mind.

The public understanding of the case would thus be shaped not by testimony, but by the false visual depiction.

Of course, things didn’t go quite according to plan. But the essential task did.

*************

Great talking points, Paul! Should be posted elsewhere...

Edited August 12, 2006 by David G. Healy

[Paul Rigby]

Great talking points, Paul! Should be posted elsewhere...

David, Jack, Ashton -

A pleasure to be in the company of those for whom first principles are not at issue.

Paul

[Michael Hogan]

Jack White wrote: "Misdirection is vital to successful magic acts."

That immediately reminded me of one of my favorite quotes in this case, from the fascinating but flawed Farewell America:

President Kennedy's assassination was the work of magicians. It was a stage trick, complete with accessories and false mirrors, and when the curtain fell the actors, and even the scenery, disappeared.

In his book Post Mortem, Harold Weisberg said this about Farewell America:

Indeed, there is reasonable ground for suspecting that some of the most disreputable works were designed to kill interest. One is an extravagant work of unprecedented libel, meticulous in its pseudoscholarship, expertly written and edited, put together in an operation so vast and costly that I have traced those engaged in it to eight different countries. There is no doubt that those connected with intelligence operations of the United States and France at the very least were behind Farewell America and a movie of the same title, the aborting of which I was able to help in a small way. It was the book to end the credibility of all books on assassinations.

Incredibly, its excesses fascinate the intelligent but unthinking marginal paranoids among those genuinely concerned about these assassinations, even though the book itself cannot survive consideration of its content.

Perhaps true enough, but Farewell America was one of the first books to eschew the microanalyzation that Salandria talked about. It focused on larger issues like oil, race, motive, opportunity, and identity of the alleged plotters. Whatever its weaknesses, Farewell America said some very interesting things.

The plotters were correct when they guessed that their crime would be concealed by shadows and silences, that it would be blamed on a 'madman' and negligence. (James Hepburn)

[Brendan Slattery]

Great talking points, Paul! Should be posted elsewhere...

David, Jack, Ashton -

A pleasure to be in the company of those for whom first principles are not at issue.

Paul

Amazing how the whackjobs seem to find each other. Paul, you have zero evidence for any of the lamebrain things you posit. Kennedy was killed because he had the misfortune of driving past a crummy little Commie's place of employment. Please find a new hobby. Fast.

[Peter McGuire]

" crummie little Commie's place of employment"

Mole #1

PM

[David G. Healy]

" crummie little Commie's place of employment"

Mole #1

PM

You give'em way too much power Peter. We want this dude Brandon -or- dudette Brandy to hang around for a while, we need a clear picture of, BRASS in the nose - LEAD me around by it, 2006-Lone Neuter thinking. He/She is at the head of the class...

[Paul Rigby]

Paul, you have zero evidence for any of the lamebrain things you posit. Kennedy was killed because he had the misfortune of driving past a crummy little Commie's place of employment. Please find a new hobby. Fast.

The four dominant stands of the contemporary GOP embodied in one man: Sophistry, floristry, garbology, and chickenhawkery.

Respect!

[David G. Healy]

Paul, you have zero evidence for any of the lamebrain things you posit. Kennedy was killed because he had the misfortune of driving past a crummy little Commie's place of employment. Please find a new hobby. Fast.

The four dominant stands of the contemporary GOP embodied in one man: Sophistry, floristry, garbology, and chickenhawkery.

Respect!

LMAO ! Way to go, guy

[Brendan Slattery]

" crummie little Commie's place of employment"

Mole #1

PM

You give'em way too much power Peter. We want this dude Brandon -or- dudette Brandy to hang around for a while, we need a clear picture of, BRASS in the nose - LEAD me around by it, 2006-Lone Neuter thinking. He/She is at the head of the class...

David, I want to assure you that the finest cryptologists at the CIA are working overtime to decipher what exactly it is you are trying to say. In fact, I send 99% of your posts directly to Langley, as they are all equally banal and confusing.

[Paul Rigby]

David, I want to assure you that the finest cryptologists at the CIA are working overtime to decipher what exactly it is you are trying to say.

C'mon, Brenda, it wasn't that difficult, even for a Republican...

In fact, I send 99% of your posts directly to Langley, as they are all equally banal and confusing.

And the cheques come back by return of post, presumably?

Marvellous thing, this neo-connery: You get to plunder the public purse even as you decry the role of big government.

[Peter McGuire]

"flooding of the area with assets"

This was a key component of the plan. Control the area and create confusion. Prouty called the so called tramps "actors". In any event, you can clearly see Landsdale in this picture walking away from his men.

There were a lot of people in Dallas that day. It is a long list.

The Zapruder film? It is clearly altered but still shows the frontal shot.

PM