textfiles-politics/regexConsp/taking.xml

<xml><p>Path: ns-mx!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!spool.mu.edu!olivea!sgigate!odin!ratmandu.esd.sgi.com!dave
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,alt.conspiracy.jfk,alt.conspiracy
Subject: Book Intro:  "The Taking Of America, 1-2-3"
Summary: we were robbed of our capability of electing a president we wanted
Keywords: our electoral system was taken away from us starting in 1963
<info type="Message-ID"> 1992Jun4.223739.17980@odin.corp.sgi.com</info>
Date: 4 Jun 92 22:37:39 GMT
Sender: news@odin.corp.sgi.com (Net News)
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Lines: 244
Xref: ns-mx alt.activism:27137 alt.conspiracy.jfk:1493 alt.conspiracy:15372
Nntp-Posting-Host: ratmandu.esd.sgi.com</p>

<p>   This is an introduction to the book "The Taking of America, 1-2-3,"
   by Richard E. Sprague, self-published by the author first in 1976,
   revised in 1979, and updated in 1985.  There will be eleven posts
   following this one that will comprise the complete 1985 updated 
   third edition which I will be sending out with the permission of 
   the author.  From the book's own introduction,</p>

<p>   This book is not about assassinations, at least not
  solely about assassinations.  It is not just another book
  about who murdered President Kennedy or how or why.  It is a
  book about power, about who really controls the United
  States policies, especially foreign policies.  It is a book
  about the process of control through the manipulation of the
  American presidency and the presidential election process.
  The objective of the book is to expose the clandestine,
  secret, tricky methods and weapons used for this
  manipulation, and to reveal the degree to which these have
  been hidden from the American public.
   Assassinations are only one of many techniques used in
  this control process.  They have been important only in the
  sense that they are the ultimate method used in the control
  of the election process.  Viewed in this way, an
  understanding of what happened to John or Robert Kennedy
  becomes more important because it leads to a total
  understanding of what has happened to our country, and to
  us, since 1960.  But the important thing to understand is
  the control and the power and all of the clandestine methods
  put together.</p>

<p>   Two men named Richard Sprague have been involved in examining the
   assassination of John F. Kennedy and its ensuing cover-up through the
   years.  Richard A. Sprague, the former district attorney from
   Philadelphia, and the fearless prosecutor of the Yablonski murderers,
   was named on October 4, 1976, by Congressperson Thomas Downing, to be
   chief counsel of the just-then forming House Select Committee on
   Assassinations.  Richard E. Sprague was a pioneer in the field of
   computers starting in the 1940s.  His involvement studying the
   photographic evidence in the assassination of President Kennedy goes
   back to 1966:</p>

<p>   From the day it happened I was skeptical about what was
  being said on the TV and radio with regard to how the
  president was killed.  But when the "Warren Report" was
  issued I became non-skeptical and accepted it pretty much as
  it was.  However, when the 26 volumes became available in
  late 1964 and I started reading through them, I became
  skeptical again because I could not find confirmation of
  most of the so-called facts presented by the "Warren Report"
  and purported to be backed up by the evidence in the 26
  volumes, or any other evidence.
   So I started work again, which caused me to need an index 
  to the 26 volumes.  This in turn lead to my contacting 
  Sylvia Meagher and asking where I could get her index having
  discovered that she had created and published one that the
  Warren Commission hadn't seen fit to provide.  She told me
  where I could get it and suggested we have lunch.  This was
  in early November, 1966.  She asked, "Why don't you do some
  real research?" and I said, "like what?" and she responded
  "how about the photographic evidence?  A couple of people
  have started work on it but haven't finished."  I asked her
  who and she said "Harold Weisberg and Ray Marcus."  I
  contacted both men and that's more or less how I stuck my
  foot in the quicksand.
   At the time the 26 volumes became available there were
  only 8000 copies printed for the whole country.  The time I
  managed to get hold of one of these sets of all 26 volumes
  was when I had moved to the University Club in New York City
  and they had a complete set donated to the University Club
  by non other than John J. McCloy.  So I was using John J.
  McCloy's personal copies for the beginnings of my research.
   Now, the most important thing initially that happened in
  finding the photos was discovering a number of photographs-
  -films and still photos--that showed the sixth floor window
  empty with nobody in it.  This is what originally convinced 
  me that we had a different sort of conspiracy going than one
  involving Lee Harvey Oswald, because if he wasn't in the 
  window--and nobody was in the window--then what happened?  
  Who fired the shots?  And where from?
   Confirming that the films and photographs I was looking
  at were taken at the critical time the shots were fired, or
  immediately before or after that, involved a lot of work:
  work with plat maps, other photos, and other materials.  I
  got hold of a map made by the surveyor for Dealey Plaza (I
  believe his name was Clarence West) which was drawn to 
  scale, and Bob Cutler helped me draw onto it all of the 
  various things that happened including all the vehicles that
  were moving through.  And I managed to lay a set of films 
  end-to-end starting with one rounding the turn onto Houston 
  Street all the way through Dealey Plaza so I could track any
  vehicle that was in view eighteenth-of-a-second by 
  eighteenth-of-a-second (Zapruder film speed) all the way 
  through Dealey Plaza.  This enabled me to determine where 
  Kennedy was at all times and where anybody else was that 
  showed up in any of the photos--particularly moving 
  pictures--at times Kennedy was at spot so-and-so or spot 
  such-and-such.
   By doing this, with some triangulation, I was able to pin
  down the exact timing of two particular sets of photos:  a
  film--the Hughes film--the last frame of which shows the
  sixth floor window empty and ends 5.7 seconds ahead of the
  first shot--the first shot being fired/tied down at frame
  189 of the Zapruder film;  and two photos taken after the
  shots were fired by Dillard and, believe it or not, an
  intelligence man from Navy intelligence named Powell.
  Powell's and Dillard's photos were taken almost at the same
  time, 3.5 seconds after the fatal and last shot (Z-313).  
   So that total time span is less than 17 seconds--if you 
  add up the 5.7 seconds after the end of the Hughes film, 
  plus the 6-plus seconds while the shots were being fired, 
  plus the 3.5 seconds before Dillard and Powell's photos were 
  taken--of blank, non-coverage of that window and there's no 
  way Oswald could have gotten into the window, aimed, fired 
  three shots, and gotten out of the window so you that 
  couldn't see him in 17 seconds.
   But anyway there was another film taken by Beverly Oliver
  otherwise known as the Babushka lady that was confiscated by
  News Orleans FBI agent Regis Kennedy, and a still photograph
  taken by Norman Similas, confiscated by the Royal Canadian
  Mounted Police from "Liberty" magazine (which was going to
  publish the photo), who then turned the photo and its
  negative over to the FBI.  I interviewed Similas and the
  "Liberty" magazine editor both of whom told me they had
  carefully examined the photograph and had seen no one in the
  photograph appearing in the eastern-most sixth floor window,
  which I calculated had been taken about half-way into the 
  17-second interval.
   I made two attempts soon after the Freedom of Information
  Act "viewing room" in the FBI office in Washington, D.C. was
  created, to request to see the Similas photograph and
  Beverly Oliver film, but each time the FBI person assigned
  to me was not able to find these photograhs.  But the
  testimony of the people involved was good enough for me to
  conclude that there was nobody in that window ever.
   Once I got to that point I started looking for other
  evidence that would show where the shots did come from and I
  started finding all kinds of evidence of shots from the
  grassy knoll, and from the Dal Tex building, and from the
  roof or the seventh floor of the western end of the
  depository building--both photographs as well as witness
  testimony--and that lead me to decide that this was a
  powerful conspiracy which had involved at least four gunmen
  firing shots.  This then lead me to decide that I should
  pursue the whole pattern of conspiracy including,
  eventually, the Martin Luther King assassination, the Bobby
  Kennedy assassination and the George Wallace attempt.  And
  that led to the book.
   Through all of this, I just know I never would have
  concluded that it was a powerful and well-planned conspiracy
  if I had not determined that Oswald wasn't in that window--
  nobody was in that window.  That was the first key.
   There's one other thing I'd like to point out.  The title
  of the book has more than just simple significance and it
  shows up in all the chapters that link all these
  assassinations and their cover-ups.  Namely, our country has
  been taken from us.  Us being the citizens of the United
  States as of 1963, and any time after that, by robbing us of
  our capability of electing a president we wanted for at
  least three, and more likely four, elections.  One way of
  taking the country away, is to control the elections and
  that's really, at least part of the essence of the book.
  It's close to what Henry Gonzalez proposed in his original
  bill.  He wanted the Congress to look into all four of the
  major assassinations--the fourth being the attempted
  assassination of George Wallace--and find the links between
  and among them, and the cover-ups, and particularly the
  links between the intelligence agencies and the cover-ups
  that he was sure were involved in all of them.  And if we
  had had a committee which had done that, well then, we'd
  have been a lot further along than we are 13 years later.</p>

<p>    -- phone interview with the author, June 3, 1992</p>

<p>  The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was the most
   photographed murder in history.  Approximately 75 photographers took
   a total of approximately 510 photographs, either before or during or
   within an hour after the events in Dealey Plaza, and either there or
   nearby or related to those events.  The word "photograph" in this
   context includes both still photos and movie sequences.  The number
   of frames in a movie sequence ranges from about 10 to about 500;  and
   in the count of 510 photographs, given above, the 10 to 500 frames of
   a single movie sequence are counted just as *one* photograph.  The
   total number of frames is over 25000.
  The Warren Commission examined 26 photographs, about 5 percent of
   the 510.  The FBI examined about 50 photographs, or about 10 percent.
   The most famous of all the photographs is the Zapruder film, which
   had over 480 frames.
  Many of the photographs were taken by professional photographers.
   About 30 of the photographers were professionals who worked for
   newspapers, television networks, and photographic agencies.
  The Warren Commission did not interview a single one of the
   professional photographers, nor did the Warren Commission see any 
   complete, uncropped copies of their photographs.
  Fifteen of these professionals were actually in the Kennedy
   motorcade, no further than 6 car lengths behind the Kennedy car.
   Five of these photographers were television network cameramen.  The
   Warren Commission looked at none of their photographs.
  [.....]
  Because the professionals used movie cameras of professional
   quality, their films are exceedingly revealing and valuable as
   primary evidence.  The Warren Commission looked at none of these
   films.
  During the past several years, I have collected copies of over 200
   of these photographs, and I have looked at and taken notes of another
   200 of these photographs, without obtaining copies of them.  Some of
   the remaining 100 have either not been found or have been locked up
   or destroyed by the owners, who are fearful of the information they
   show.  Or they have been locked up by the FBI, who have either placed
   them in files inaccessible to the public or possibly have destroyed
   them.</p>

<p>   from, "The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy:
    The Application of Computers to the Photographic
    Evidence" Richard E. Sprague, "Computers and
    Automation," May, 1970, p. 34.</p>

<p>   for those interested, i have created a raw PostScript version of this 
   complete book which can simply be lp'd to a PostScript laser printer 
   for "prettified" hardcopy output.  the combined size of the two 
   PostScript files comprising the book is 1055954 bytes (1007753 and 
   48201 bytes for the main portion and appendix respectively).</p>

<p>--
     daveus rattus </p>

<p>   yer friendly neighborhood ratman</p>

<p>   KOYAANISQATSI</p>

<p> ko.yaa.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language)  n.  1. crazy life.  2. life
 in turmoil.  3. life out of balance.  4. life disintegrating.  
   5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.
Path: ns-mx!uunet!olivea!sgigate!odin!ratmandu.esd.sgi.com!dave
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,alt.conspiracy,alt.conspiracy.jfk
Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (1/11)
Summary: we were robbed of our capability of electing a president we wanted
Keywords: part 1 of 11:  beginning thru chapter 3
<info type="Message-ID"> 1992Jun5.142954.8850@odin.corp.sgi.com</info>
Date: 5 Jun 92 14:29:54 GMT
Sender: news@odin.corp.sgi.com (Net News)
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Lines: 1113
Xref: ns-mx alt.activism:27177 alt.conspiracy:15386 alt.conspiracy.jfk:1506
Nntp-Posting-Host: ratmandu.esd.sgi.com</p>

<p>    THE TAKING OF AMERICA, 1-2-3</p>

<p>   by Richard E. Sprague
  Reprinted here with permission of the author.  Permission to distribute
 this book is freely given so long as no modification of the text is done.</p>

<p>    Richard E. Sprague 1976
   Limited First Edition 1976
    Revised Second Edition 1979
 Updated Third Edition 1985</p>

<p>    About the Author</p>

<p>    Publisher's Word</p>

<p>    Introduction</p>

<p>  1.  The Overview and the 1976 Election</p>

<p>  2.  The Power Control Group</p>

<p>  3.  You Can Fool the People</p>

<p>  4.  How It All Began--The U-2 and the Bay of Pigs</p>

<p>  5.  The Assassination of John Kennedy</p>

<p>  6.  The Assassinations of Robert Kennedy and
    Dr. Martin Luther King and
    Lyndon B. Johnson's Withdrawal in 1968</p>

<p>  7.  The Control of the Kennedys--Threats &amp; Chappaquiddick</p>

<p>  8.  1972--Muskie, Wallace and McGovern</p>

<p>  9.  Control of the Media--1967 to 1976</p>

<p> 10.  Techniques and Weapons and 100 Dead Conspirators
    and Witnesses</p>

<p> 11.  Nixon and Ford - The Pardon and the Tapes</p>

<p> 12.  The Second Line of Defense and Cover-Ups in 1975-1976</p>

<p> 13.  The 1976 Election and Conspiracy Fever</p>

<p> 14.  Congress and the People</p>

<p> 15.  The Select Committee on Assassinations, The Intelligence
    Community and The News Media</p>

<p> 16.  1984 Here We Come--</p>

<p> 17.  The Final Cover-Up:  How The CIA Controlled
    The House Select Committee on Assassinations</p>

<p>    Appendix</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>    About the Author</p>

<p>   Richard E. Sprague is a pioneer in the field of electronic
  computers and a leading American authority on Electronic Funds
  Transfer Systems (EFTS).  Receiving his BSEE degreee from Purdue
  University in 1942, his computing career began when he was 
  employed as an engineer for the computer group at Northrup
  Aircraft.  He co-founded the Computer Research Corporation of 
  Hawthorne, California in 1950, and by 1953, serving as Vice
  President of Sales, the company had sold more computers than any
  competitor.  In 1960, he became the Director of Computer Systems 
  Consulting for Touche, Ross, Bailey, and Smart.  He became a 
  partner in that company in 1963, and started its Advanced Business
  Systems Department in 1964 where he stayed until 1968.  In 1968 he 
  established Sprague Research and Consulting for Computer 
  Information Systems Consultation.  He is currently also Consultant 
  to the President's Commission on EFTS and full time consultant to 
  Battelle Memorial Institute of Frankfurt, Germany.
   In 1966, Mr. Sprague commenced an intensive program of research
  into the photographic evidence associated with the assassination of
  John Kennedy.  He served a year as photographic expert advisor in
  the investigations conducted by New Orleans District Attorney Jim
  Garrison and had amassed and analyzed a majority of the known
  evidence on film by 1968 when he co-founded the Committee to
  Investigate Assassinations.  He served with CTIA as an active
  researcher, board member and Secretary from 1968 to 1974.
   Following numerous radio and television appearances and
  extensive lecture tours of the United States and Canada (where
  slides and films were used to demonstrate the basic evidence of
  conspiracy), he began, in 1974, working toward a Congressional
  investigation of all four major political assassinations and the
  cover-ups and links among these interrelated events.  He was an
  advisor to Representative Henry B. Gonzales (D-Texas) on House
  Resolution 203 which proposed the appointment of a committee to
  investigate the circumstances surrounding the deaths of JFK, RFK,
  Martin Luther King and the attempt upon the life of Presidential
  Candidate George Wallace.  He served as a consultant to Richard
  A. Sprague and G. Robert Blakey, the first and second General
  Counsels of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, and 
  served through the end of the Committee's existence.
   He is author of "Electronic Business Systems" (Ronald Press) 
  1962, "Information Utilities" (Prentice Hall) 1969, and a 
  celebrated series of articles which appeared in "Computers &amp; 
  Automation" Magazine beginning in 1970.  He is also co-author with
  Dick Russell of "In Search of the Assassins" which is scheduled for
  publication by the Dial Press in 1977.
   The materials presented in this book are drawn from an analysis
  of the photographic evidence, personal knowledge and records of the
  Garrison investigation, research files of the Committee to
  Investigate Assassinations and Congressional Committees.</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>    Introduction</p>

<p>   This book is not about assassinations, at least not solely about
  assassinations.  It is not just another book about who murdered
  President Kennedy or how or why.  It is a book about power, about
  who really controls the United States policies, especially foreign
  policies.  It is a book about the process of control through the
  manipulation of the American presidency and the presidential
  election process.  The objective of the book is to expose the
  clandestine, secret, tricky methods and weapons used for this
  manipulation, and to reveal the degree to which these have been
  hidden from the American public.
   Assassinations are only one of many techniques used in this
  control process.  They have been important only in the sense that
  they are the ultimate method used in the control of the election
  process.  Viewed in this way, an understanding of what happened to
  John or Robert Kennedy becomes more important because it leads to a
  total understanding of what has happened to our country, and to us,
  since 1960.  But the important thing to understand is the control
  and the power and all of the clandestine methods put together.
   Much of the information in the book has been published before in
  the magazines "Computer and Automation" and "People and the Pursuit
  of Truth," both edited and published by Edmund C. Berkeley,
  Newtonville, Mass.  The material on assassination and other events
  covered is based on evidence collected by the author individually
  or through the Committee to Investigate Assassinations.  References
  to documentation of this evidence are given throughout the book.
   I am indebted to the following people for assistance in the
  research work involved and the preparation of the book itself:
   Special thanks go to Mary Ferrell who typed the original of the
  book.
   Jerry Policoff, Mark Lane, Ed Berkeley, Bob Cutler, Jim
  Garrison, Bill Turner, Wayne Chastain, Bob Richter, Gary Shaw,
  Fletcher Prouty, Rush Harp, Jones Harris, Bob Saltzman, Penn Jones,
  Larry Harris, Sylvia Meagher, Ray Marcus, Harold Weisberg, Hal
  Dorland, Paris Flammonde, Tink Thompson, Bob Katz, Joachim Joesten,
  Peter Downay, Harry Irwin, Dick Billings, Jim Lesar, Fred Newcomb,
  Lillian Castellano, Dick Russell, Tris Coffin, Mae Brussell, Bill
  Barry, Gary Roberts and most of all to my wife Gloria whose hard
  work and infinite patience made it all possible.
   The book is dedicated to Representative Henry B. Gonzalez for
  his singular courage in standing against the forces of evil.</p>

<p>       Richard E. Sprague</p>

<p>       Hartsdale, New York
       July 4, 1976</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>    Publisher's Word</p>

<p>   We published "The Taking Of America 1 2 3" during the winter of
  1976-77.  It was typed under the guns in Dallas, Texas, and offset
  printed in Woodstock, N.Y.  A few weeks later--five hundred copies
  in all, 24 of which were fired off to the two House Committees
  involved in the investigation of the assassinations.  Our elation
  with this `coup-de-truth' evaporated as we saw the committee 
  destroyed at the starting line.
   The following summer, while motoring across our sadly taken
  America, I experienced a tremendous synchroneity of events which
  lead to my discovering the Power Control Group's secret team of
  murderer's and their patsies.  This knowledge caused me to come out
  in the open even further and place a sign on route 28 enroute to
  Woodstock.  "Who Killed J.F.K., R.F.K., M.L.K., M.J.K.?" in
  reflecting letters on a blood-red field.  The Modjeska Sign Studios
  estimated 1.2 million sightings per month.  And we then watched the
  committee suppress and muddle the evidence while chanting the
  Katydid like cry, of the tremendous big lie--Oswald did it, Oswald
  did it, Oswald did it, did it, did it.
   So we are bringing our knowledge up to date with the closing of
  the new "Warren Report" which now, due to The Witness They Could
  Not Kill (the sound tape that proved conclusively that more than
  one gun was involved in the president's assassination), at last
  admits conspiracy.  Where do we go from here?  We reach out now for
  a courageous commercial publisher to spread these truths that we
  hold self-evident out to our duped, betrayed, and steadily lied-to
  Americans.</p>

<p>      Rush Harp
       Barbara Black</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>   THE TAKING OF AMERICA, 1-2-3</p>

<p>    Chapter 1
   The Overview and the the 1976 Election</p>

<p>   The taking of America has been both a simple and a very complex
  process.  It has not been the result of a coup d'etat, although
  some aspects of the process resemble a coup.  It has not been a
  process similar to the dictatorship takeovers in Germany, Italy and
  other fascist regimes.  It has not been a process like the
  Communist "uprisings" in Russia, Hungary and other Eastern European
  countries.
   The taking of America has been a process unique in the history
  of the world.  The one feature that makes it unique is that what
  was once the greatest democracy in the world has been taken over by
  a power control group without the knowledge of most of the American
  people, their congressional representatives, or the rest of the
  world.
   The group has taken America in this fashion because manipulation
  of the American presidency and the presidential electoral procedure
  is enough to control America.  Two fiendishly clever stratagems
  were used to keep the fact that control had been seized from being
  obvious to the people.  The first of these was control of the
  established media in the dissemination of both true (blocking) and
  false (flooding) information.  The second was the use of
  clandestine and secret weapons and techniques developed during
  World War Two and perfected during the Korean and Viet Nam wars.
  These techniques are so new and unusual as to be unbelievable to
  most citizens.  Thus, the incredibility of such weapons as
  hypnosis, brainwashing and "programming" of patsies as assassins
  became a psychological tool in the bag of techniques of the power
  control group.  The average American has shrugged off the
  possibility of the takeover with the belief that, "That's not
  possible here."
   The use of such weapons, coupled with a tremendous campaign
  through the controlled media that both whitewashes any signs of
  conspiracies and spreads disinformation throughout the country, has
  successfully blocked any serious or official attempts to get at the
  truth.  Unofficial investigators, private researchers, and even
  Congressional representatives have been ridiculed and completely
  blocked by both the power control group and their media allies.
   To take over a real democracy without letting the people know it
  has been taken over is a fantastic achievement.  A list of the
  accomplishments of the power control group illustrates the point.
  Since 1963, they have:</p>

<p>  1.  Assassinated John F. Kennedy;</p>

<p>  2.  Controlled Lyndon B. Johnson as president;</p>

<p>  3.  Forced LBJ out of the presidency;</p>

<p>  4.  Assassinated Robert F. Kennedy, assuring Nixon's
  election in 1968;</p>

<p>  5.  Assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King;</p>

<p>  6.  Eliminated Ted Kennedy as a contender in the 1972
  elections by framing him at Chappaquiddick and
  threatening his children;</p>

<p>  7.  Stopped George Wallace's campaign, assuring Nixon's
  election in 1972;</p>

<p>  8.  Knocked Edmund Muskie out of the 1972 election campaign
  by using dirty tricks;</p>

<p>  9.  Covered up all of the above;</p>

<p>   10.  Controlled the 15 major news media organizations;</p>

<p>   11.  Made Gerald Ford vice president and then president;</p>

<p>   12.  Insured continuity of the cover-ups by forcing Ford to
  pardon Nixon;</p>

<p>   13.  Murdered about 100 witnesses and participants in the
  three assassinations and one attempted assassination;</p>

<p>   14.  Blocked efforts by private citizens and organizations
  to reveal the take-over;  discredited, ruined or
  infiltrated these individuals or groups;  murdered or
  were accomplices to the murders of the operating
  assassins;</p>

<p>   15.  Blocked efforts by members of the Senate and House to
  initiate investigations of the assassinations and
  attempted to whitewash, ridicule or eliminate these
  efforts (their influence and infiltration has been
  particularly effective in the Church Committee and in
  the House Rules Committee);</p>

<p>   16.  Controlled the presidential election procedure since
  1964 by eliminating the candidates who might expose the
  truth and insuring the election or appointment of
  candidates already committed to covering up the truth
  about the take-over.</p>

<p>   The question for 1976 was:  Could the power control group
  continue the take-over during that year's elections?  Would they be
  successful in blocking efforts to expose the take-over by congress?
  Would they be able to fool the American public again, control the
  media, and eliminate the contenders for the presidency in 1976 who
  might have threatened their secure position?  The answer to these
  questions was "Yes."
   The candidates on the scene during the 1976 primaries fell into
  three categories according to the control group's point of view.
  Category 1 included candidates that would continue the cover-up of
  the take-over.  Gerald Ford led this group with Ronald Reagan not
  far behind him.  Henry Jackson was a probable ally because of his
  backing of the CIA, an important organization in the cover-ups and
  the takeover.  Category 2 included those candidates who would
  probably try to expose the take-over and the power control group if
  elected.  Morris Udall, Fred Harris and George Wallace fell into
  this category.  The third category included candidates whose
  intentions were not clear, or unknown at the time.  Jimmy Carter,
  Franck Church and Hubert Humphrey remained in this group, and
  Sergeant Shriver and Birch Bayh were also in this category before
  they dropped out of the race.
   Efforts would have been made to eliminate Udall, Harris or
  Wallace if any one of them was nominated at the Democratic
  convention.  Carter must certainly have been put to some kind of
  loyalty test before being permitted to continue as the Democratic
  nominee.  Reagan and Ford were, no doubt, already "safe" candidates
  for the control group because of their demonstrated cover-up
  performances.
   Ford had cooperated fully in at least four ways.  He was on the
  Warren Commission and played a leading role in the cover-up.  He
  wrote the cover-up book "Portrait of the Assassin."  He pardoned
  Nixon and protected the Nixon tapes.  And he formed the Rockefeller
  Commission, appointing David Belin as head of the staff to continue
  the cover-up of the JFK conspiracy.
   Reagan had cooperated in at least three ways.  He protected
  important witnesses from extradition from California between 1967
  and 1969 for testimony before the grand jury in New Orleans and at
  the trial of Clay Shaw.  He assisted Evelle Younger, then district
  attorney in Los Angeles and later California state attorney
  general, in covering up the assassination conspiracy in the Robert
  Kennedy case.  And he has consistently supported the foreign and
  domestic clandestine activities of the CIA, FBI and other
  intelligence agencies both nationally and in California.
   A later chapter will describe just how the Democratic candidate
  may be eliminated and when.  Congressman Henry B. Gonzalez from San
  Antonio, Texas, who introduced House Resolution 204 to reopen the
  two Kennedy assassination cases, the Dr. King case and the George
  Wallace shooting, took a public position on the possibility that
  the 1976 election was controlled.  Gonzalez said "If we find the
  answers--the truth--to the questions I have raised (about the
  assassinations of JFK, RFK, MLK and the Wallace attempt), as well
  as those many others have raised, will the truth make us free?
  Yes, it will, for the truth will make us free to pursue democracy-
  -our system of government--through the ballot box, and we will not
  be subject to government by bullets.  The truth will enable us to
  prevent such a series of events from happening again.  Some of the
  supporters of the investigation have written to me recently of
  their hope that the investigation will get underway right away
  (March 1976) because they are concerned that there is great danger
  in store for the Democratic nominee for the President, whoever he
  turns out to be.  I hope very much that these fears do not turn out
  to have a basis in fact."</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>    Chapter 2
   The Power Control Group</p>

<p>   Just who and what is the Power Control Group?  Some have said
  it's the military industrial complex.  Some prefer to put the blame
  on the Rockefellers and the Council on Foreign Relation.  Others
  have talked about control shifting from the "Yankees" to the
  "Cowboys" and back again.  The term "The Cabal," first used in an
  obscure paper by an unknown author in 1968,[1] described a high
  level conspiracy group that planned, financed and carried out the
  assassination of John F. Kennedy.  The word Cabal has been used
  since then by some authors and researchers and applied to all of
  the major domestic assassinations.
   The idea of a Cabal raises more questions than it answers.  Who
  is in the Cabal?  Was the same Cabal behind the planning and
  financing of all five (Chappaquiddick being the fifth) major
  eliminations?  Or are there several interlocking Cabals?  What
  about the Warren and Rockefeller Commissions?  Were they part of
  the Cabal?  Which Cabal controls and infiltrated the media and
  organized the disinformation that poured forth in 1975 and 1976?
  Was Ford a Cabal member?  Was Nixon?  How about Johnson and
  Kissinger?  Has one Cabal commanded the executions of the 100
  witnesses and lower level participants?
   The mistake made by researchers in postulating higher level
  groups is that they simplify a very complex situation.  To draw a
  distinct line between those involved in an overt conspiracy to
  assassinate a leader and those involved afterward in covering up
  the first group's actions is a mistake.  The cover-ups are far more
  important than the original assassinations.  Each assassination or
  attempted assassination, or other form of elimination of a leader,
  is only part of a greater whole.  The 16 accomplishments of the
  power control group listed in Chapter 1, plus those now taking
  place and those scheduled for the future, should be considered as a
  continuum.  The control group membership may contain individuals in
  various categories, some of whom planned assassinations, some of
  whom knew about the assassinations, and some of whom did not know
  about assassinations in advance.  Some may have been on the firing
  line but have had nothing to do with the cover-ups.  Some of them
  are victims of later eliminations.  Somewhere in the power control
  group's hierarchy is a sub-group or perhaps several sub-groups that
  have been responsible for the attempted assassinations of
  presidential candidates, earlier assassins, witnesses, and earlier
  middle-to-higher level members in the power control group.  These
  sub-groups might be thought of as intelligence-style task forces or
  mini-Cabals.  There is little question that many of the individuals
  in these task forces are from organized crime and from the
  intelligence community, or both.  They have had access to
  intelligence techniques and weapons that have frequently been used
  in the the elimination process.
   A second mistake made by some researchers is to assume that the
  Cabal's shape remains static through time.  Evidence shows that the
  Power Control Group has been a living organism that both shrinks
  and grows as a function of time.  The shrinkages take place through
  eliminations and a few natural deaths.  The growth takes place for
  several reasons.  It is necessary to use new techniques and new
  people for the group's activities as time passes in order to
  continue effective control of the media and to continue to fool the
  people and Congress.  It's also necessary to bring new high level
  people into the group from time to time.  Candidates for president
  acceptable to the group must be sworn in and must agree to continue
  the cover-ups.  New media lackeys or new special committees or
  commissions are also needed.  Once in a while an individual
  blackmails his way in.  Some come in on a de facto basis.
  (Protectors of the Kennedys and their children fall into this
  category.)
   The very nature of the cover-up procedure has made it necessary
  to expose at least some of the truth to vice presidents and vice
  presidential candidates, in addition to presidents Johnson, Nixon,
  and Ford.  Each vice president elected or appointed since 1963 has
  had to know the truth about the cover-ups in the event he became
  president (Humphrey under Johnson, Agnew under Nixon, and then Ford
  and Rockefeller).  Ford was the most important of these since he
  had to agree to pardon Nixon and to protect the tapes.
   The heads of the FBI and CIA, selected trusted second-level men,
  and the deputy director of plans (DDP) in the CIA have all had to
  know some of the truth.  The members of the 40 group and their
  successors who presumably know all intelligence secrets of the
  country are, no doubt, brought into this "inner circle" of
  knowledgeable people.
   The Warren Commissioners were split.  Warren, Dulles McCloy and
  Ford all knew the truth;  Cooper, Boggs and Russell did not.  The
  Rockefeller Commission was also split.  Rockefeller certainly knows
  and so does Ford's man on that Commission, David Belin.  Kissinger
  must have known the truth;  so must have the officers in the
  Department of Defense.  Then there are the Secret Team members,
  planted in the various media organizations, who know the truth.  A
  later chapter will describe who they are and how they lead the
  media cover-up and disinformation mill.
   This living organism view of the Power Control Group can best be
  constructed and proven by starting with the cover-up efforts and
  the control of the media, as opposed to examining the conspiracies
  to assassinate each leader.  It is much easier to show how Gerald
  Ford, for example, led the cover-up in the JFK conspiracy than it
  is to determine who the members of the Power Control Group were who
  planned and financed the assassination.
   It is difficult to show evidence of higher level participation
  in the assassinations of Robert Kennedy, Dr. King and in the
  attempted assassination of George Wallace.  It is not difficult to
  prove that many high level individuals conspired to cover-up the
  conspiracies in each of the three cases.  It is not difficult to
  prove that they helped frame at least one of the patsies (James
  Earl Ray).
   Much of the content of this book will show evidence of the
  cover-ups and discuss the actions that are still taking place that
  protect the Power Control Group.  Only summary information is
  included on the original conspiracies, except where there is a lack
  of published data.</p>

<p>____________________</p>

<p> [1] "Nomenclature of an Assassination Cabal", Torbett, 1968 (Copeland 
   Document)</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>    Chapter 3
   You Can Fool the People</p>

<p>   One of the questions always asked by the beginning student of
  America's political assassinations is, "How is it possible that all
  of this could be happening in our country without our knowing about
  it?"  The "It couldn't happen here" belief has been extended to,
  "It couldn't happen here without our knowing about it."  This is
  usually buttressed by such arguments as, "The Kennedys would have
  done something about it, if it were true", or "Such a giant
  conspiracy would have been exposed by someone within the
  conspiratorial group", or "The news media would have found out
  about it and told all of us by now."
   The fact that it is possible to fool a majority of the American
  people for a long period of time and to cover-up a high level
  conspiracy involving many, many individuals, can easily be
  demonstrated by using Watergate as an example.  In fact, some
  published articles[1] show that the entire truth about Watergate
  has yet to be revealed.
   We do know now about the cover-up of the original crimes in
  Watergate and the cover-up of the cover-up.  We tend to forget the
  attitude of the majority of the American people, the Congress and
  the media, toward Richard Nixon and the Nixon administration during
  the period between the June 1972 Watergate break-in and the
  November 1972 election and beyond into 1973.  Long before Woodward
  and Bernstein and others began the Watergate expose, a few
  researchers were calling the Watergate conspiracies to the
  attention of a small portion of the public.[2]  It was not until
  late 1973 that the research done by these researchers and their
  hypotheses about high-level conspiracies were proven correct and
  were generally accepted.  How did it happen that for more than a
  year a majority of the American people were not only fooled by Mr.
  Nixon and his friends, but also re-elected him?  Some of the same
  ingredients present in that situation were like those used in the
  taking of America.  We can all learn a lot by observing what they
  were.
   What follows is a reproduction of an article by the author.
  (Because the article was written in l972, some of the material in
  it is now obsolete.  However, it is reproduced here without changes
  to illustrate the situation and attitudes of the pre-Watergate
  revelation era.)  It was originally written during the Watergate
  cover-up era (late 1972), after Nixon was re-elected and before
  Bernstein and Woodward were noticed by anyone.  It should be noted
  that even in 1976, Mr. Nixon still had his vehement supporters who
  were blind to the ingredients required to fool the people.</p>

<p>   You Can Fool the People</p>

<p>   You can fool all of the people some of the time
   You can fool some of the people all of the time
   But you can't fool all of the people all of the time.
      Abraham Lincoln, 1864</p>

<p>   The decade of 1963 to 1973 in the United State of America
   will go down in history for many things.  In the long run
   it will be known through the world as the period which
   demonstrated that it is possible to fool most of the
   people all of the time.
    Adolph Hitler didn't fool very many people.  He cowed
   them, frightened them, and killed them.  But most Germans
   knew what was happening even though they chose to do
   nothing about it until it was too late.
    The exercise of power to control what happens and to
   restrict liberties is much more difficult in a Democracy
   or a Republic.  The United States is always held up as the
   model case in which the guaranteed election of the
   president every four years and the two-party system, will
   prevent the country from being run by dictators.  The
   people are represented by the Congress and also elect the
   President.
    A person or a group planning a coup d'etat in the U.S.
   would have a completely different job on their hands than
   Germany in the 1930's, South American or African countries
   in the twentieth century, or France in the 1890's or
   Russia in 1918.
    It would be necessary to fool a majority of the
   American people into believing that they were well
   represented, and that a democracy still existed, while at
   the same time the coup group were in reality changing the
   country to suit their own tastes.
    It is the contention of the writer that this is exactly
   what has happened over a period of time following World
   War II.  The methods used to fool the American people,
   certainly since 1963 and to some extent also since the end
   of World War I, have varied slightly as administrations
   changed.  The main thrust however has been a constant
   erosion of civil rights, and a swing of government away
   from the best interests of the people and toward big
   companies, banks, the military and rich individuals and
   families.  The trend was slowed down only briefly between
   1960 and 1963 when Jack Kennedy attempted to alter the
   situation.  He was assassinated because he did so.
    To fool the American people is not easy.  It requires
   immense capabilities, tricky, secret methods, hidden
   resources, great wealth and the equivalent of brainwashing
   or mind control on a grand scale.  Yet that type of
   resource is precisely what has accomplished the deed.  It
   is probable that, like Germany, the American people will
   awaken to what has been happening to them and to who has
   been doing it.  It is also very likely, now that the Nixon
   administration has been restored for four more years, that
   by 1976 it will be too late, in spite of Watergate.
    George McGovern's speech on ABC Television, the evening
   of October 25, 1972, was a warning for those citizens who
   were awake, that "it can happen here."  It's happening
   here, was his basic message.  Yet, unlike Germany, the
   people were silent, and fooled.  They didn't believe him
   when he said, "Your liberties are being removed, one by
   one."  The Supreme Court by 1976 will be so packed with
   Nixon appointees that we will never get our liberties
   back.  McGovern covered most of the areas in which the
   people have been fooled.  The major area he didn't cover
   was that of assassination.  This tool represents only the
   end of the spectrum of techniques used by those in control
   to remain in control.  It has been used four times very
   effectively, on both Kennedys, on Martin Luther King, and
   in the attempt on George Wallace.  In the case of Wallace,
   crippling was sufficient to change the political outcome
   in 1972.</p>

<p>   More important than the use of assassinations has been the
  ability to fool the American people into believing there were four
  lone madmen involved--and no conspiracies.  The techniques involved
  in fooling people are more complex and subtle than those involved
  in the crime itself.  In the Watergate case, the original crime was
  the use of every trick and technique necessary to re-elect Nixon.
  The people had to be fooled into believing that Nixon and the CIA
  had nothing to do with Watergate and the broader plan of which it
  was part.
   That the fooling part turned out to be so easy is due to a long
  series of conditioning steps taken with the American news media and
  the people over the preceding years.  The Pentagon Papers case
  reveals how the people were fooled by several (successive CIA)
  administrations over a long period of time.  Efforts against
  Ellsberg and the press continued in order to prevent further decay
  of the fooling process.
   How is it possible in the 20th century USA--with TV and high
  levels of communication, with freedom of the press, freedom of
  speech--to fool most of the people all of the time?  Here is how it
  is done.  Five ingredients are required.</p>

<p>   INGREDIENT 1.  A PATRIOTIC ISSUE.  A fundamental issue
  permeating nearly all conditions of life in the U.S. is needed,
  around which the rest of the fooling can be constructed.  The
  perfect issue since 1947 has been "The Red Menace," or "Communism"
  or "The Radical Communist Left Conspiracy."  No one is more adept
  at using this issue than Richard Nixon.
   The people, to be fooled, have to really believe in the issue,
  from the heart, from the gut.  In a democracy this is the most
  essential ingredient.  In the U.S. many, many people believe it.
  Some believe it because they have never heard or read anything
  other than "The Communists are going to take over."  Others believe
  it because they or their parents or relatives came from Europe and
  "know what it's like to live under Naziism or Communism."  (They
  don't distinguish.)
   Some believe because they are religious, and somehow religion is
  always linked to anti-communism.  Others aren't sure, but they
  think "radical" groups might be Communist controlled.  The flag
  waving, the national anthem, the American Legion, our prisoners of
  war, the draft of the past--all of these symbols are linked to the
  one big issue of "Communism."
   There can be several sub-issues of lesser significance than the
  fundamental issue.  Some of these might be related to the main
  issue.  Others may be unrelated.  Some are used to appeal to
  certain segments of the population.  They can be carefully
  exploited and added together with the main issue in a way which
  enhances it.  Some are useful with low-intelligence-level people.
  Others appeal to bigots.  Some are fearful issues which people
  would rather avoid.  Others hit the individual right in his
  pocketbook or his security.
   If played one against the other, very carefully, many of these
  sub-issues can be blamed on Communism.  Archie Bunker, of the TV
  series, "All In The Family", was not exaggerating when he blamed
  his white niece's dancing with a black neighbor boy on "a Communist
  plot."
   Examples of sub-issues used by those controlling Nixon
  administration to fool the people include:</p>

<p>   The black-white issue
   The busing issue
   The young radical issue
   The law and order issue
   The national security issue
   The old-fashioned American work ethic versus
  poverty and welfare issue</p>

<p>   INGREDIENT 2.  REACHING THE MINDS OF THE PEOPLE.  To fool a
  majority of the people all of the time it is necessary to reach
  into their minds over a relatively long period of time.  Make an
  analysis of what you, the reader, believe today or disbelieve,
  along with the mental condition you are in when you enter a polling
  booth, or write a letter to your Congressman.  After some thought
  list all of the ways in which information might reach you today.
  You will list all of the environmental factors, self images,
  motivations, ego factors and acquired beliefs that make you do what
  you do, and make you think what you think.
   You will realize that your heritage, your schooling, your life's
  experience, and the present bombardment of information have an
  impact on how you vote.  If your father and grandfather before you
  were strong Republicans or Democrats, you may well vote the same
  "pull one lever" way.  You might close your mind to any messages of
  imminent disaster, and think, "I'm better off not knowing and just
  voting straight Republican." (In 1972)
   You might have strong faith in the "American way of life" and
  pay no attention to the people who go around claiming that John
  Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were all murdered by
  elements of an invisible government to keep the U.S. on the
  military, wealthy, conservative track.
   You might ignore solid evidence regarding Lee Harvey Osward's,
  James Earl Ray's or Sirhan Sirhan's actions and instead rely on a
  long-term, well engineered faith that something like that "couldn't
  happen here."
   Go back in time to 1935, if you are over 50, or go back to 1945,
  if you are over 40, or back to 1955, if you are over 30.  Examine
  your general overall attitudes, beliefs and prejudices as developed
  over that period of time between then and now.  You will discover
  that your political beliefs about the U.S., the Presidency, foreign
  policy, wage and price controls, and your own economic conditions,
  etc., have been strongly influenced by the various news media.</p>

<p>   INGREDIENT 3.  CONTROLLING THE NEWS MEDIA.  In Chapter 9, the
  author proves that it has been possible for a very small group of
  people in power to control or fool nearly all of the major news
  media in the U.S. about the assassination of John F. Kennedy and
  subsequent investigations conducted by groups other than the
  sources of power (Warren Commission, FBI, Secret Service, CIA,
  Justice Department, the President).
   According to polls taken between 1963 and 1970, 50% to 80% of
  the public at one time or another during this period believed there
  was a conspiracy.  Nevertheless, the major news media took the
  opposite position.  A poll conducted today would, no doubt, show
  about one-half of the people believing there was no conspiracy.
  How did this happen?  Is it conceivable that the power sources of
  two succeeding administrations (Johnson and Nixon) fooled or
  controlled the news media to that extent?
   The problem is not so difficult as it seems.  Only sixteen media
  organizations are involved.  These sixteen provide each of us with
  nearly all of the news we either read, see or hear.  It is only
  necessary to control the sixteen men at the very top and that is
  exactly what happened.  The proof contained in Chapter 9 contains
  specific facts about what happened inside of eleven of the sixteen
  organizations.
   Some of them maintained an editorial position oriented toward
  the possibility of conspiracy for several years.  The last ones to
  convert because of high level command decisions (at the *owner* 
  level--not the editorial level) did not do so until 1969, 5 1/2 
  years after the assassination.  Several of the eleven conducted 
  their own independent investigations and discovered conspiracy 
  evidence sufficient to take that stand.  Among these were CBS, 
  Life Magazine, and "The New York Times."</p>

<p>   The sixteen media organizations are:</p>

<p>    1. NBC-TV and Radio
    2. CBS-TV and Radio
    3. ABC-TV and Radio
    4. Associated Press
    5. United Press International
    6. Time-Life
    7. McGraw Hill - Business Week
    8. Newsweek
    9. U.S. News and World Report
   10. New York Times and their news service
   11. Washington Post and their news service
   12. Metromedia News Network TV and Radio
   13. Westinghouse Radio News Network
   14. Capital City Broadcasting Radio Network
   15. North American Newspaper Alliance
   16. Gannett News Service</p>

<p>   Controlling the news media to that extent in order to fool the
  people is an extreme act.  It is a last resort in an extremely
  serious situation.  Such a situation arose when it became obvious
  to those in power that Jim Garrison was going to expose the truth
  about the assassination in court.  He had to be destroyed, and he
  was, by fooling the news media as well as the people.
   Control of the press by the power group slipped a little with
  the Pentagon Papers, the Mylai episode, the Green Berets, the FBI
  use of spying, and the Watergate caper.  But effective control over
  the fooling of the people nevertheless remains.  With Watergate,
  people fooling shifted from controlling the news media, which
  suddenly awakened a little too late, to the control of the the
  legal system.</p>

<p>   INGREDIENT 4.  CONTROLLING THE LEGAL SYSTEM.  Perhaps the most
  important long-range ingredient in fooling the people of America is
  the control and influence over the legal system.  The U.S. in the
  post-war era has reached the stage where, in case of doubt on a
  major issue, the people will wait to see how it is resolved by the
  courts.  The American people in general have always had tremendous
  faith in their own legal system.
   With the exception of the South taking issue with the Warren
  court over black rights, the American people tend to believe that
  the Supreme Court will eventually right any wrongs.  The faith goes
  much further than adjudication of crimes or disputes.  People have
  come to rely on the legal system to tell them where the truth lies
  on a major issue when two sides differ completely on the facts.
  They believe that the adversary procedure and the perjury penalty
  system will ferret out the truth.
   Thus, to fool the people, and make them believe lies, it is
  essential to control the legal system.  The Nixon and Johnson
  administrations and the Invisible Government lying underneath or
  off to one side of both administrations became very adept at
  controlling the legal system.  It can be done, and has been done in
  several ways.  Nixon, of course, loaded the Supreme Court.  That is
  important.  The complete control of the Justice Department and the
  FBI is also obvious.  Not so obvious is the need to control Federal
  judges throughout the land.  Truth might leak out in a trial at a
  local level, so U.S. courts in each area must be controlled.
   The Federal grand jury scheme worked out by Nixon, Mitchell and
  Robert Mardian is a beautiful way to guide, direct and control the
  legal system.  It more than proved its worth in fooling the people
  in cases involving classified documents, the Black Panthers and
  other situations where the truth had to be obscured.
   Control over the American Bar Association and individual lawyers
  and district attorneys is another method used.  And finally, it is
  often useful to control local and state police, either individually
  or in groups.
   The exercise of control is important.  It may be desirable to
  suppress truth in a court situation during a trial or hearings.
  The judge can do this very effectively.  It may also be desirable
  to delay a trial or a hearing in which the truth might be exposed.
  Judges and lawyers can do this quite easily.  It may be desirable
  to entirely shut off a trial or an appeal where truth could be
  exposed.  Nixon was able to do this to perfection.
   Lies and fake cases may be presented as truth in court while
  truth is attacked as being falsehood.  This technique has been very
  successful.
   All of this takes both money and power.  Judges and lawyers,
  must either be paid a lot of money, or frightened about their
  career and health.  The CIA conduits used for espionage financing
  have been used extensively in controlling the legal system.  Power
  has been used to control lower courts and local police or district
  attorneys from the highest source of power in America, the
  invisible government.
   A few examples will suffice to demonstrate how the legal system
  is used to fool the people.
   The 1972 election demonstrated that two-thirds of the people
  either did not associate Mr. Nixon with the Watergate affair and
  the Chapin-Segretti sabotage project, or else they didn't know
  about it or didn't care.
   Surely, you say, a traditional American patriot would not vote
  for a man who did all of the things the Watergate 7 and Chapin-
  Segretti and company did.  But wait!  The situation as of January
  1973 had not yet reached the courts.  Except for Bernard Barker's
  conviction for falsely using his notary public seal to stamp a
  check from Kenneth Dahlberg in Florida, no court actions had taken
  place.
   Wasn't that lucky for the Republicans, you say.  It wasn't luck.
  The Watergate arrests took place in June 1972.  By successfully
  delaying a whole series of trials and court actions, Mr. Nixon,
  through control of the courts, kept the truth away from the people
  until after the election on November 7.  Perhaps some of the people
  who voted for him had doubts, but if court cases had been conducted
  before November 7, and conducted fairly by uncontrolled judges, the
  truth would have been exposed in all of its glory.
   Now that he had a powerful mandate from the people, it was
  likely that other forms of control would be used to continue
  fooling the people about Watergate.  Some of these were covered in
  the prior chapters.  Executive privilege has been used to a major
  extent.
   Clay Shaw was actually defended and Garrison, in effect, was put
  on trial, through CIA money and CIA lawyers.  Garrison's attempts
  to bring Shaw to trial for perjury were successfully blocked by
  Federal courts and judges.
   Sirhan Sirhan's trial for the murder of Robert Kennedy was
  controlled by the Nixon administration in order to hide the truth
  from the people.  The case involved controlling the judge at the
  trial, the district attorney, the lawyers for Sirhan, the Los
  Angeles police, the FBI, and some of the officials of the state of
  California.  The control exercised has continued to prevent Sirhan
  from receiving a new trial based on new evidence of what happened
  in the assassination.</p>

<p>   THE FIVE BIG EVENTS.  The five events since World War II about
  which the power control group must continue to fool the American
  people about are the assassinations of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy
  and Martin Luther King;  the attempted assassination of George
  Wallace;  and the Watergate episode.  (In 1973, the truth about
  Chappaquiddick and its importance, together with the threats
  against Jackie Kennedy, Ethel Kennedy, Ted Kennedy and all of the
  Kennedy children, had not been exposed.  Chappaquiddick is the
  sixth big event.)
   All other things this group has done since 1947 fade into
  insignificance compared to these five.  The reason is that the
  American people may accept such things as the Pueblo incident, the
  Gulf of Tonkin fake, the Mylai incident, the Pentagon Papers, the
  Kent State killings, the frame-ups of the Black Panthers and their
  murders, and even the whole Viet Nam war, but they would rise up in
  wrath if the truth about any one or all of those five events were
  exposed.
   Thus, Mr. Hanson for Sirhan, Mr. Fensterwald for James Earl Ray,
  Mr. Lawrence O'Brien and the Watergate suit--anyone opposing the
  findings of the Warren Commission with national prominence and
  success--and anyone who begins to pry too much into George
  Wallace's brush with death will be opposed with all the power those
  in control can muster.  Each will be dealt with if he comes too
  close, just as Jim Garrison was dealt with by both the Johnson and
  Nixon administrations.  Garrison managed to beat out the Nixon-
  controlled Justice Department in his own trial in September 1973.
  The jury in New Orleans found him innocent in spite of the fact
  that the prosecuting attorney, the judge, the key witness, Pershing
  Gervais, and the news media were all controlled by Nixon and
  Mitchell.  By late 1973 it was becoming a little more difficult to
  fool the people.</p>

<p>   INGREDIENT 5.  PAID COLUMNISTS OR LACKEYS.  Control of the news
  media includes controlling or hiring selected columnists, newsmen,
  commentators, and lackeys.  Sometimes these people are called
  "spokesmen for the administration."  Many of them are supposedly
  independent.  Their importance in the process of fooling the people
  has increased as the number of independent news media organizations
  has decreased and the number of organizations relying on
  syndicated, national columnists or commentators has increased.
   The Nixon administration managed to corral a great many more of
  these types than did the administrations of Johnson, Kennedy, or
  Eisenhower.  In the newspaper field, there were four to five times
  as many columnists writing "fool the people" type news for Nixon as
  against Nixon.  Alsop was at one extreme.  More subtle were writers
  like C.L. Sulzberger in the "New York Times" and Gary Wills in
  various conservative papers.  On radio, the Westinghouse network
  used four commentators who appeared to be liberal at first glance,
  but who adhered to the party line when the time came to get at the
  truth about the five key events mentioned earlier.  These four were
  Peter Lisagor, Rod McCleish, Simeon Booker and Irwin Cannon.
   William Safire, Evans and Novak, Mary McCarthy, and occasionally
  Jack Anderson also fall into the "fool the people" column.  The
  impact of these columnists on the American people has not really
  been measured.  Alsop's and Evans and Novak's columns appear in
  Republican and right-wing newspapers all across the U.S.  The
  election poll that indicated over 700 newspapers supported Nixon
  while fewer than 50 supported McGovern provides some estimate of
  how influential these papers and columnists can be.  With the
  exception of two or three stories by Jack Anderson about Robert
  Kennedy and plots to assassinate Castro, none of the evidence about
  the truth pertaining to the assassinations has ever appeared in any
  of these columns.  Yet the American people read these columns more
  faithfully than they read the front page.</p>

<p>   HOW THE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN FOOLED. Now that the ingredients for
  fooling the people have been discussed, let's examine the net
  results over the past twenty-five years.  Between 1957 and 1972,
  there was a culmination in the use of these ingredients, many of
  which were developed with the end of World War II.
   Through a succession of presidencies and political party
  administrations from Truman to Nixon a mixture of wealthy, military
  and espionage individuals developed a power base and used the five
  ingredients to fool the people.  Except for John Kennedy, none of
  the presidents tried very hard to resist this power.  The book
  "Farewell America" (by James Hepburn--a pseudonym--Frontiers
  Press), which has been reprinted in sections in "Computers and
  Automation" (1973) shows clearly what kind of power JFK tried to
  resist and how it resulted in his death.
   The American people aren't familiar with this book any more than
  they are familiar with a movie made from the book, with the same
  title.  And as long as the group remains in power, the book and
  movie will be banned from the United States, just as "Z" was banned
  in Greece.
   The people of America were fooled into believing each of the
  following untruths:</p>

<p>  Kent State:</p>

<p>   The National Guard fired under intense pressure and attack
   by a bunch of hoodlums at Kent State University.  The
   various grand juries have vindicated the Guard.  There was
   no White House influence involved in the killings, or in
   the aftermath.</p>

<p>  Mylai:</p>

<p>   Calley was justified in shooting the civilians at Mylai
   because those were his orders.  You can't tell a "gook"
   from a Viet Cong and, after all, war is war.</p>

<p>  Communism:</p>

<p>   The greatest threat to American freedom is still a world-
   wide Communist take-over.  The domino theory may or may not
   be correct, but we must never give up a fight.  "Peace
   with honor" was essential in Viet Nam.</p>

<p>  Pentagon Papers:</p>

<p>   Few people have taken the time to read the Pentagon Papers
   and have understood their significance.  The two-thirds
   majority who elected Nixon in 1972 may have been puzzled
   by the papers or they may not have cared.  No doubt, most
   of them believed Ellsberg a traitor and worthy of jail.
   It is very unlikely they will ever believe they were duped
   by Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon and most
   particularly by the CIA and allies in matters pertaining
   to the cold war and Communism.  The fundamental, gut issue
   of the Communist conspiracy overrides any other revelation
   in this field.</p>

<p>  Assassinations:</p>

<p>   In spite of polls and uneasy feelings, at least half and
   perhaps a majority of the American people still believe
   that John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King
   were assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan and
   James Earl Ray, respectively, and that the assassination
   attempt on George Wallace was solely Arthur Bremer's
   doing.  They believe these men acted alone and that they
   were madmen. (This statement pertains to the period of
   1972-73.)</p>

<p>  Watergate:</p>

<p>   Prior to the election in November 1972, a majority of the
   American people believed that Richard Nixon, John
   Mitchell, Maurice Stans and everyone else of importance in
   the White House had nothing to do with the Watergate
   affair or the activities of Donald Segretti and others
   prior to the election.  Almost no one believed that the
   CIA was involved in setting up Nixon so as to capture and
   control the executive to an even greater degree.</p>

<p>  Democracy and Freedom:</p>

<p>   By the end of 1973 a relatively large percentage of the
   American people still did not relate any of the foregoing
   incidents or situations to their own individual liberties.
   They believed patriotically in America;  they believed we
   still had a democracy;  they believed that President
   Nixon, with his wise ways and business experience would
   pull us out of whatever problems we had.  From the time he
   nailed Alger Hiss and the day he won the great kitchen
   debate with Kruschev, Nixon was believed to be the leader
   who would secure our eventual victory over Communism.  The
   people refuse to consider the possibility that unknown
   forces have seized control over the U.S. for the last
   fifteen years and that our liberties and democracy are
   fading away.</p>

<p>____________________</p>

<p> [1] "Nixon and the Mafia" -- Jeff Gerth, "Sundance Magazine," December
   1972.  Charles Colson Interview, by Dick Russell - "Argosy Magazine,"
   March 1976</p>

<p> [2] "Why Was Martha Mitchell Kidnapped?" -- Mae Brussell, "The Realist,"
   August 1972</p>

<p>   "The June 1972 Raid on Democratic Party Headquarters -- Part 1" --
   R.E. Sprague, "Computers &amp; Automation," August 1972</p>

<p>   "The Raid on Democratic Party Headquarters -- The Watergate
   Incident -- Part 2", Ibid.</p>

<p>--
     daveus rattus </p>

<p>   yer friendly neighborhood ratman</p>

<p>   KOYAANISQATSI</p>

<p> ko.yaa.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language)  n.  1. crazy life.  2. life
 in turmoil.  3. life out of balance.  4. life disintegrating.  
   5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.
Path: ns-mx!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!spool.mu.edu!olivea!sgigate!odin!ratmandu.esd.sgi.com!dave
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,alt.conspiracy,alt.conspiracy.jfk
Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (2/11)
Summary: we were robbed of our capability of electing a president we wanted
Keywords: part 2 of 11:  chapter 4 thru chapter 5
<info type="Message-ID"> 1992Jun8.134947.25406@odin.corp.sgi.com</info>
Date: 8 Jun 92 13:49:47 GMT
Sender: news@odin.corp.sgi.com (Net News)
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Lines: 969
Xref: ns-mx alt.activism:27281 alt.conspiracy:15429 alt.conspiracy.jfk:1550
Nntp-Posting-Host: ratmandu.esd.sgi.com</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>    Chapter 4
   How It All Began - The U-2 and the Bay of Pigs</p>

<p>   To understand the origins of the Power Control Group, it is
  necessary to return to the last years of the Eisenhower
  administration and examine what was going on in the Cold War.
   Eisenhower had suffered several strokes and a heart attack.  He
  was partially immobilized, and entrusted a major share of the
  coordination of clandestine activities being conducted by the CIA
  against the "Red Menace" to Richard Nixon, his vice president.
  While Ike was warning against the military-industrial-complex's
  domestic influence, and attempting to move toward detente with the
  Soviets through a summit meeting, he was being sabotaged by the
  plans section of the CIA and by Richard Nixon.
   A part of the CIA arranged for a U-2 with Gary Powers as pilot
  to go down over Russia, thus giving Khrushchev a chance to expose
  American spying and to cancel the summit meeting.  This was one of
  the earliest moves of the nucleus of what later evolved into the
  Power Control Group.  In the spring of 1960, with Ike nearly senile
  and pressured by Nixon, he approved the plan for the invasion of
  Cuba and the assassination of Castro.  Nixon was the chief White
  House action officer for what later became the Bay of Pigs
  invasion.
   The Power Control Group was beginning to organize itself with
  Nixon as part of it.  The cold warriors and strong anti-Communist
  "patriots" in the Plans or Operations part of the CIA formed the
  original nucleus.
   Their plan was to make Nixon president in 1961 and to launch a
  successful takeover of Cuba.  John Kennedy came along to upset the
  plan.  Not only did he make the takeover impossible but he soon
  discovered the evils lurking in the hearts and minds of the CIA
  clandestine operators and laid his own plans to destroy them.  The
  assassination of John Kennedy essentially became an act of survival
  for some of these individuals.
   Many citizens of America have forgotten that Richard Nixon was
  Vice President of the United States in 1959 and 1960.  As an old
  anti-communist from the Alger Hiss and Khrushchev debating days,
  Nixon was in the forefront of pressure for the Bay of Pigs invasion
  of Cuba.  What is also forgotten is that Nixon was largely
  responsible for the covert training of Cuban exiles by the CIA in
  preparation for the Bay of Pigs.  (He stated this in his book, "Six
  Crises".)
   NIXON'S LIES--OCTOBER 1960.  Mr. Nixon's capacity for truth is
  nowhere more clearly demonstrated than by the deliberate lies he
  told during the election campaign on national TV on October 21,
  1960.  He said in his book that the lies were told for a patriotic
  reason--to protect the covert operations planned for the Bay of
  Pigs at all costs.  The significance of this is that Mr. Nixon
  considers patriotism to be, in part, the protection of plans and
  actions of individuals that he considered to be working for the
  United States' best interests.
   The similarities between the actions of Everette Howard Hunt,
  Jr., James McCord, Bernard Barker, Frank Sturgis, and others in the
  1960 planning for the Bay of Pigs invasion and in the 1972 planning
  for the re-election of Richard M. Nixon are very striking.  In both
  cases, what the plotters themselves considered to be patriotic,
  anti-Communist actions were involved.  In 1960 the actions were
  directed against Fidel Castro, a man they hated as a Communist.  In
  1972 the actions were directed against Edward Kennedy, Edmund
  Muskie and George McGovern.  Bernard Barker stated the group's
  collective belief when he said after his arrest that, "We believe
  that an election of McGovern would be the beginning of a trend that
  would lead to socialism and communism, or whatever you want to call
  it."
   Nixon admitted lying to the American people to protect Hunt,
  Barker, Sturgis, and McCord in 1960.  The likelihood that he lied
  to protect them again in 1972 seems to be quite good.  There is
  some likelihood that he actually hired the same old crew he trusted
  from the Bay of Pigs days for the 1972 Watergate and other
  espionage activities.
   Here are the facts:</p>

<p>   Nixon's Statements in "Six Crises"</p>

<p>   Richard Nixon stated in "Six Crises":  "The covert training of
  Cuban exiles by the CIA was due in substantial part, at least, to
  my efforts.  This had been adopted as a policy as a result of my
  direct support."[1]  "President Eisenhower had ordered the CIA to
  arm and train the exiles in May of 1960.  Nixon and his advisors
  wanted the CIA invasion to take place before the voters went to the
  polls on November 8, 1960."[2]
   While the Bay of Pigs operation was under the overall CIA
  direction of Allen Dulles, Richard M. Bissell, Jr. was the CIA man
  in charge, according to Ross &amp; Wise.[3]  Charles Cabell,[4] the
  deputy director of the CIA, and a man with the code name Frank
  Bender, were also near the top of the operational planning.[5]</p>

<p>   E. Howard Hunt</p>

<p>   Everette Howard Hunt, Jr. was in charge of the actual invasion.
  He used the code name, "Eduardo."  Bernard L. Barker, using the code
  name "Macho," worked for Hunt in the CIA Bay of Pigs planning.
  James McCord was an organizer for the invasion and was one of the
  highest ranking officials in the CIA.  Frank Sturgis, alias Frank
  Fiorini, was also involved in the Bay of Pigs operations.  Virgilio
  Gonzales was a CIA agent active in the Bay of Pigs.  So was Eugenio
  Martinez.  Charles Colson was a former CIA official who knew McCord
  and Hunt during the Bay of Pigs period.[6]
   Hunt, Barker, McCord, Sturgis, Gonzales, and Martinez were under
  indictment for the Watergate affair.  Colson was Nixon's special
  counsel who handled "touchy" political assignments.  According to
  "Time" magazine, Colson brought all of the others into the re-
  election committee espionage project at the request of Nixon.[7]
   In other words, it was basically the same group who worked for
  Nixon, Bissell and Co. in 1960 and who worked for Nixon, Colson and
  Co. in 1972.  They were all loyal, patriotic, anti-Communist, and
  anti-Castro CIA agents with covert (black) espionage training.
  They needed Nixon's protection in 1960 and 1972, and they received
  it both times.
   Here is how Nixon protected them in 1960.[8]</p>

<p>   Kennedy-Nixon Debates, 1960</p>

<p>   John Kennedy and Richard Nixon engaged in a series of national
  TV debates during the 1960 campaign.  Kennedy was briefed by Allen
  Dulles, head of the CIA at Eisenhower's request, on secret CIA
  activities and international problems on July 23, 1960.  Nixon was
  not aware of the briefing contents and was not sure whether Dulles
  told Kennedy about the Bay of Pigs plans.  As it turned out Dulles
  had not mentioned the plans but had kept his remarks about Cuba
  rather general.
   On October 6, 1960, Kennedy gave his major speech on Cuba.  He
  said that events might create an opportunity for the U.S. to bring
  influence on behalf of the cause of freedom in Cuba.  He called for
  encouraging those liberty-loving Cubans who were leading the
  resistance against Castro.
   Nixon became very disturbed about this because he felt Kennedy
  was trying to pre-empt a policy which he claimed as his own.  Nixon
  ordered Fred Seaton, Secretary of the Interior, to call the White
  House and find out whether Dulles had briefed Kennedy on the Cuban
  invasion plans.  Seaton talked to General Andrew Goodpaster,
  Eisenhower's link to the CIA, who told Seaton that Kennedy did know
  about the Bay of Pigs plans.</p>

<p>   Attack on Kennedy by Lying</p>

<p>   Nixon became incensed.  He said, "There was only one thing I
  could do.  The covert operation had to be protected at all costs.
  I must not even suggest by implication that the U.S. was rendering
  aid to rebel forces in and out of Cuba.  In fact, I must go to the
  other extreme:  I must attack the Kennedy proposal to provide such
  aid as wrong and irresponsible because it would violate our treaty
  commitments."[9]
   So Richard M. Nixon actually went on national TV (ABC) on
  October 21, 1960, knowing we were going to invade Cuba, and lied.
  During the fourth TV debate, Nixon attacked Kennedy's proposal as
  dangerously irresponsible and in violation of five treaties between
  the U.S. and Latin America, as well as the United Nations'
  Charter.[10]
   On October 22 at Muhlenberg College, Nixon really turned on the
  fabrication steam.  He said, "Kennedy called for--and get this--the
  U.S. Government to support a revolution in Cuba, and I say that
  this is the most shockingly reckless proposal ever made in our
  history by a presidential candidate during a campaign--and I'll
  tell you why . . ."
   The reason we should have taken with a grain of salt whatever
  words Nixon uttered about Watergate and Donald Segretti's espionage
  is clearly demonstrated in that October 22, 1960 speech.  He
  fiercely attacked John Kennedy for advocating a plan that he,
  Richard Nixon, secretly advocated and claimed as his own creation.
  He later had the sheer gall to brag about it in his own book as a
  very patriotic act.</p>

<p>   Protection of Hunt and Co.</p>

<p>   How was Nixon protecting Hunt and company in 1972?  He was using
  the Justice Department and the Republican Congressmen, among
  others, to delay and dilute the prosecution of the Watergate seven.
  He had slowed down, suppressed, and all but stopped six separate
  investigations, suits, and trials of the affair.  Included were
  Wright Patman's House Banking Committee investigation, the FBI-
  Justice Department investigation, a White House investigation by
  John Dean, a General Accounting Office investigation, a suit by the
  Democratic Party, and a trial in criminal court of the seven
  invaders.  Only two trials or investigations had a chance of
  exposing the truth at that time.  One of these, a trial of Bernard
  Barker in Florida was not much help.  The other was an
  investigation promised by Senator Edward Kennedy and his Senate
  subcommittee.  It never occurred.  The action for impeachment came
  much later.
   Thus, the stage was set in 1961 for the group of powerful
  individuals who had planned the Bay of Pigs to gain revenge on John
  Kennedy who tried to change the overall direction of the U.S.
  battle against Communism.  After JFK refused to approve overt U.S.
  backing of the Bay of Pigs invasion, various individuals in the
  clandestine CIA forces vowed their revenge.
   In the spring of 1961, evidence had appeared indicating that
  Helms, Hunt, Sturgis and Barker tried to have JFK assassinated in
  Paris.[11]  When the attempt failed, a number of other plots and
  sub-plots developed through the next two years.  After JFK's
  blockade strategy against Castro during the missile crisis in 1962
  was implemented, some of the high-level CIA and armed forces people
  wanted even more to get him out of the White House.  They had
  favored a direct invasion or bombing of Cuba.
   And finally, when JFK found out about the CIA's plans for
  another invasion of Cuba in the spring and summer of 1963 and
  stopped them, they began in earnest to plan his death.</p>

<p>____________________</p>

<p> [1] "Six Crises," Richard M. Nixon, Doubleday, 1962.</p>

<p> [2] "The Invisible Government,"  Wise &amp; Ross, Random House, 1964.</p>

<p> [3] Ibid.</p>

<p> [4] Brother of Earl Cabell, mayor of Dallas when Kennedy was assassinated.</p>

<p> [5] Ibid.</p>

<p> [6] "New York Times" articles on Watergate, June 18 to July 2, 1972.</p>

<p> [7] "Time" magazine, September 8, 1972.</p>

<p> [8] This episode is related in detail in "The Invisible Government."</p>

<p> [9] "Six Crises".</p>

<p>[10] "The Invisible Government."</p>

<p>[11] "400000 Dollars Pour Abattre Kennedy a Paris," Camille Giles, Julliard
   Press, Paris 1973.</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>    Chapter 5
    The Assassination of John Kennedy</p>

<p>   The assassination of President Kennedy can be considered one of
  a series of acts by the Power Control Group to regain the control
  they had lost when Nixon was defeated in 1960 and Kennedy
  threatened their existence.  The evidence pointing toward
  intelligence involvement and the use of a variety of intelligence
  techniques in the assassination is substantial.  Until and unless
  an investigation is conducted by a group with power and money
  equivalent to that of the Power Control Group, with the power to
  issue subpoenas and to protect witnesses, it will be very difficult
  to draw a completely accurate picture of the conspiracy to
  assassinate JFK.
   As a substitute, this chapter is a "probable reconstruction"--a
  scenario--about who killed John F. Kennedy.  Unlike the Warren
  Commission Report (another scenario), this report does not contain
  any physically impossible events, such as those connected with
  Commission Exhibit 399, the so-called "magic bullet."
   This scenario is based on (1) evidence gathered between 1968 and
  1975 by the Committee to Investigate Assassinations, Washington,
  D.C. and (2) evidence gathered between 1962 and 1975 by the author.
   The purpose of this scenario is as a starting point for study
  and verification by researchers, by Congressional Committees, and
  by their members and staffs.  This should be considered as a
  beginning hypothesis and scenario in contrast to the Warren and
  Rockefeller Commission scenarios.  
   The best evidence available indicates the following events
  occurred in the summer and fall of 1963 and culminated in the
  assassination of President John F. Kennedy.  The basic evidence has
  been summarized in various articles published in "Computers and
  People" (formerly "Computers and Automation") since May 1970.[1]
  This can be considered as a guideline scenario which adheres to and
  explains all of the known factual evidence.</p>

<p>    How It Began</p>

<p>   The conspiracy to assassinate John Kennedy began in a series of
  discussions held in New Orleans in the summer of 1963.  The men in
  the discussions were extremely angry that Kennedy had stopped plans
  and preparations for another invasion of Cuba (scheduled for the
  latter part of 1963.)  One of the instigators was David Ferrie, a
  CIA contract agent who had been training pilots in Guatemala for
  the invasion.  Meetings held in Ferrie's apartment in New Orleans
  were attended by Clay Shaw, William Seymour and several Cubans.
  Plans for assassinating President Kennedy developed out of those
  early meetings.  Others whose support was sought by the group
  included Guy Banister, Major L. M. Bloomfield, Loran Hall,
  Lawrence Howard, Sergio Arcacha Smith and Carlos Prio Socarras.</p>

<p>    Oswald's Role</p>

<p>   During this period in the summer of 1963 Lee Harvey Oswald was
  working for Guy Banister on some anti-Castro projects and used the
  Communist cover of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee.  Oswald
  attended some of the meetings where JFK's assassination was
  discussed.
   Oswald either approached the FBI or they approached him in the
  later summer of 1963, and he began to tell the FBI about the plans
  of the group to assassinate JFK.  Oswald had been a secret
  informant for the FBI since mid-1962.</p>

<p>     Mexico City</p>

<p>   In September, the group moved the scene of their planning to
  Mexico City.  There they solicited the assistance of Guy Gabaldin,
  a CIA agent.  Meetings were held in the apartment of Gabaldin,
  attended by Shaw, Ferrie, Seymour, Gabaldin and Oswald on at least
  three occasions.  Others were brought into the conspiracy at this
  point.  These included John Howard Bowen (alias Albert Osborne),
  Ronald Augustinovich, Mary Hope, Emilio Santana, Harry Dean,
  Richard Case Nagell, and "Frenchy" (an adventurer who had been
  working with Seymour, Santana, Ferrie, Howard and others on the
  Cuban invasion projects in the Florida Keys).  Fred Lee Crisman,
  Jim Hicks and Jim Braden (alias Eugene Hale Brading) were also
  recruited at this point.</p>

<p>    Oswald, the Patsy</p>

<p>   Oswald continued to inform on the group to the FBI in Dallas.
  In mid- to late September the assassination group decided to make
  Oswald the patsy in the murder.  They had discussed the need for a
  patsy in the earliest meetings in New Orleans.  Billy Seymour, who
  resembled Oswald, was selected to use Oswald's name and to plant
  evidence in New Orleans, Dallas and Mexico, which could later be
  used to frame him.  In addition, another man under CIA surveillance
  in Mexico City also used Oswald's name in a probable attempt to
  make it appear that Oswald was headed for Cuba.  His name may have
  been Johnny Mitchell Deveraux.  His picture appears in the Warren
  Commission Volumes as CE 237.</p>

<p>    Financial Support</p>

<p>   The team needed financial support for the assassination.  They
  received it from Carlos Prio Socarras in Miami, who brought more
  than 50 million dollars out of Cuba.  They also received money from
  Banister, and from three Texas millionaires who hated Kennedy:
  Sid Richardson, Clint Murchison, and Jean DeMenil (of the
  Schlumberger Co.).  The Murchison-Richardson contribution also
  included soliciting the assistance of high-level men in the Dallas
  police force.  They were powerful members of the Dallas Citizens
  Council that controlled the city at that time.</p>

<p>   Plans for Three Cities</p>

<p>   The group in Mexico City planned to assassinate JFK in Miami,
  Chicago or Dallas, using different gunmen in each case.  The Miami
  plan failed because the Secret Service found out about it in
  advance and kept JFK out of the open.  The Chicago plan backfired
  when JFK cancelled his plans to attend the Army-Navy game at
  Soldiers Field in early November.  The group set up two
  assassination teams for Dallas.  One was in Dealey Plaza;  the
  second was near the International Trade Mart where JFK's luncheon
  speech was to be delivered.</p>

<p>     CIA Support</p>

<p>   The best evidence of CIA (Deputy-Director of Plans) involvement 
  is the fact that the majority of the known participants were 
  contract agents or direct agents of the CIA.  In Mexico City, the 
  meetings were held in the apartment of Guy Gabaldin, a CIA (DDP) 
  agent, working for the Mexico City station chief.  Others attending 
  the meetings who were CIA (DDP) contract or direct agents included 
  Clay Shaw, David Ferrie, Albert Osborne, Harry Dean, Richard Case
  Nagell, Ronald Augustinovich, William Seymour, Emilio Santana and
  Fred Lee Crisman.  It is likely (but not yet provable by direct
  evidence) that the group sought and obtained from the acting or
  permanent CIA station chief in Mexico, assistance or approval to go
  ahead with assassination plans.  Tad Szulc claims that a CIA source
  can prove that E. Howard Hunt was acting station chief in Mexico
  City at the time of the Gabaldin apartment meetings (August and
  September 1963).  Hunt has denied under oath before the Rockefeller
  Commission that he was in Mexico.
   In 1967 Richard Helms told a group of CIA officials, including
  Victor Marchetti, that both Clay Shaw and David Ferrie were CIA
  (DDP) contract agents and that Shaw had to be given CIA protection
  and assistance in his New Orleans trial. This is a strong
  indication that Hunt and Helms gave "turn of the head" approval to
  the Shaw-Ferrie assassination plan as a minimum form of support.</p>

<p>   Dallas</p>

<p>   The assassination group, having failed in Miami and Chicago,
  moved an operational team into Dallas during the second week in
  November of 1963.  Shaw, Ferrie, Gabaldin and other high-level
  plotters travelled in other directions, establishing alibis as
  planned.  On November 22, Gabaldin was in Mexico City, Shaw was in
  San Francisco, and Ferrie was in New Orleans.  The team moving into
  Dallas included Albert Osborne, William Seymour, Emilio Santana,
  Frenchy, Fred Crisman, Jim Hicks, Jim Braden, and a new recruit
  from Los Angeles, Jack Lawrence.  There was also a back-up rifle
  team of Cubans to be used at a location near the International
  Trade Mart in the event something went wrong at Dealey Plaza.</p>

<p>   Where the Teams Stayed</p>

<p>   The teams stayed at two locations in Dallas for two weeks.  One
  was a rooming house run by a woman named Tammie True.  During this
  period final preparations for the assassination in Dealey Plaza
  were made.  These included the collecting of and planting of
  evidence used to frame Oswald, the recruiting of the Dallas police
  participants, and the plans for the escape of the team members by
  car and by train.  The riflemen selected were William Seymour in
  the Depository Building, Jack Lawrence and Frenchy on the grassy
  knoll, and Emilio Santana in the Dal Tex building.  Jim Hicks was
  set up as radio coordinator and a man with each of the riflemen had
  a two-way radio.  They were Jim Braden, Dal Tex;  Fred Crisman,
  knoll;  unidentified American (tall tramp), knoll; and a man in the
  TSBD Building.  Osborne was in overall charge of the Dallas teams,
  but he did not go to Dealey Plaza.  A fifth gunman, known to
  researchers as the umbrella man, was stationed on the street with
  an umbrella weapon furnished by the CIA.  He was accompanied by
  another Cuban acting as a radio man.</p>

<p>   Framing Oswald</p>

<p>   The people involved in framing Oswald included Seymour (who used
  his identity), someone who posed for two pictures holding a rifle,
  a photographer who took the pictures and someone who superimposed
  Oswald's head on the two negatives.  Also, someone who took
  Oswald's rifle from his garage and his pistol from his room, taking
  several bullets and shells with the pistol, fired three shells and
  one bullet through the rifle, and planted the rifle and rifle
  shells on the sixth floor of the TSBD and a rifle bullet at
  Parkland Hospital.  The pistol shells were given to William Seymour
  for planting later on.  The photographers also planted photos of
  General Walker's house and driveway to implicate Oswald in the
  Walker shooting.</p>

<p>    Dallas Policemen Involved</p>

<p>   The policemen involved were J. D. Tippit, who was to drive two
  of the assassins, Seymour and his radio man, away in his police
  car;  Bill Alexander;  Jerry Hill;  Sergeant McDonald;  Lieutenant
  Montgomery;  Lieutenant Johnson;  and Lieutenant Batchelor, who
  escorted Jack Ruby into the jail to murder Oswald.
   McDonald was assigned to kill Oswald upon his arrest in the
  Texas Theatre.  Jerry Hill was involved in that event as well as in
  the planting of evidence against Oswald in the TSBD Building.
  Montgomery and Johnson were involved in planting the paper bag as
  evidence against Oswald.  Alexander and Batchelor were primarily
  responsible for making sure that Jack Ruby assassinated Oswald and
  that he didn't talk about it afterward.  Alexander was present on
  every occasion when Ruby was questioned or interviewed in the jail,
  in spite of Ruby's efforts to have him removed.</p>

<p>    Other Persons Involved in Framing Oswald</p>

<p>   Also involved in framing Oswald were Marina Oswald;  her lawyer,
  James Martin;  and someone in the Dallas police force.  She was 
  talked into three points of false testimony:  she said she took the 
  two fake photos of Oswald with a camera she claimed was his.  She
  fabricated, or was handed, the false story about Oswald's attempt
  to shoot General Walker and taking two pictures of Walker's house
  with the same camera.  (Oswald did neither.)  She told a false
  story about a falling out she and Oswald supposedly had and
  exaggerated his mean treatment of their children.  There are good
  indications that these moves were made by the CIA operatives in the
  group who threatened to send Marina back to Russia.  (Marina's
  uncle was a high-level officer in the KGB.)</p>

<p>    Dealey Plaza</p>

<p>   On the day of the assassination four men with rifles,
  accompanied by their radio men and several other team members,
  moved into Dealey Plaza.  Seymour and a radio man entered the TSBD
  Building through the freight entrance and worked their way to the
  roof.  Santana and Braden went into the Dal Tex building through
  the freight entrance on Houston St. and up a back staircase to the
  second floor.  Lawrence, Frenchy, Crisman and the tall tramp took
  up two positions on the grassy knoll.  Lawrence was inside the
  westernmost cupola after parking his car in the parking lot behind
  the knoll.  Frenchy, Crisman and the tall tramp were near the
  fence.  Jim Hicks was in the Adolphus Hotel a few blocks away,
  testing the two-way radio communication with the four radio men,
  until he proceeded to the Plaza and mingled with a large crowd
  (near the corner of Houston and Elm Streets).  The umbrella man
  stood near the Stemmons Freeway sign on Elm Street accompanied by
  his radio man.
   The other team members stationed themselves in the crowd (along
  Elm Street).  After the shots were fired, they circulated through
  the crowd in front of the TSBD on Elm Street, on the grassy knoll,
  and behind the TSBD Building, identifying themselves as Secret
  Service agents and asking witnesses and officials questions to find
  out whether the assassins had been detected.  There are clear
  photos of one of these men.  One other man was at the corner of the
  wall on the grassy knoll.</p>

<p>    The Shots</p>

<p>   Upon a visual and oral signal from the man at the wall and upon
  a radio command from Hicks, the team fired its first round of
  shots.  Crisman received the command from Hicks and caused Frenchy
  to fire a shot from a position behind the fence on the knoll, about
  twenty feet west of the corner of the fence.  This shot missed.
  The umbrella man fired a shot using his small-bore umbrella gun.
  When this shot struck JFK in the throat, the dart paralyzed JFK and
  later presented by Commander Humes to the FBI.[2]  The shot was
  fired at Zapruder frame 189:  JFK was behind a large oak tree,
  hidden from the sixth floor window of the TSBD Building.  On
  command from Braden, Emilio Santana fired his first shot two
  seconds later from the second floor window of the Dal Tex building
  at Z 225 after JFK came out from behind the sign in Zapruder's
  film.  The shot struck JFK in the back about 5 3/4" down from the
  collar line, penetrated to a depth of about two inches and stopped.
  The bullet fell out of JFK's back somewhere in or at the Parkland
  Hospital, or perhaps travelled down inside the body of the
  President, and was never recovered.
   William Seymour fired his shot from the west end of the TSBD
  Building upon command from his radio man between Z 230 and Z 237,
  after Santana's shot.  He used a Mauser rifle with no telescopic
  sight.  While he was aiming at JFK, he fired high and to the right,
  hitting John Connally in the back.  The bullet travelled through
  Connally's chest and then entered his left thigh.  The bullet fell
  out of his thigh in or near Parkland Hospital and was never
  recovered.  Governor Connally's wrist was not hit at that time.
   Jack Lawrence did not fire a shot in the first round because
  from his cupola position he did not have a clear shot.
   Hicks gave a second radio command for another round of shots as
  JFK passed the Stemmons Freeway sign.
   Emilio Santana fired his second shot between Z 265 and Z 275.
  The bullet narrowly missed JFK, passed over the top of his head and
  over the top of the limousine's windshield.  It travelled on to
  strike the south curb of Main Street, breaking off a piece of
  concrete which flew up and hit James Tague.  The bullet either
  disintegrated or flew into the area beyond the overpass.  It was
  not found.
   William Seymour may have fired a second shot which may have
  struck JFK in the upper right part of his head at Z 312.  That
  bullet disintegrated.
   Upon command from his radio man, Jack Lawrence fired his first
  shot from a pedestal on the west side of the south entrance to the
  western cupola on the grassy knoll.  The shot may have hit
  Connally's wrist.
   Frenchy fired the fatal shot through the trees from his position
  behind the fence.
   The Lawrence shot or possibly the second Seymour shot produced a
  bullet fragment that passed through Connally's right wrist at Z
  313.  At that time his wrist was elevated and nearly directly in
  front of JFK's head, in such a position that Connally's right palm
  was facing JFK as the governor fell into his wife's arms.  The
  fragment entered the front of his wrist and exited from the back.</p>

<p>    Oswald's Actions</p>

<p>   Lee Harvey Oswald started November 22, 1963 with the knowledge
  that there might be an attempt on JFK's life during the day.  He
  had reported this possibility to the FBI in his informer's role
  five days earlier;  he undoubtedly thought the FBI and Secret
  Service would be protecting the President.  His communications with
  the assassination team had prepared him to meet with them in the
  Texas Theatre if anything happened that day.  There is also a
  possibility he received a telephone call immediately after the
  shots, telling him to go to the theatre.
   He had gone to his and Marina's rooms in Irving to pick up
  curtain rods for his bare windows in his Oak Cliff room.  He
  carried the curtain rods in a paper bag on his way to work that
  morning with Wesley Frazier.  He worked on the sixth floor of the
  TSBD as well as on the other floors that morning.  He helped a crew
  of men lay a new floor on the sixth floor, move a large number of
  book cartons and school supplies over to the eastern side of the
  floor, including some cartons near the southeastern window that
  faced Elm Street.
   Oswald went to the first floor of the building at approximately
  12:15 p.m. and returned to the second floor lunchroom just before
  12:30.  He was drinking a coke there at 12:31 when Officer Baker
  and Mr. Truly, the building manager, encountered him while rushing
  up the stairs from the first floor.  At the sight of Baker's gun
  drawn and seeing the commotion outside, he no doubt realized what
  had happened.[3]  He immediately left the building via the freight
  platform entrance on the northeast side and travelled to his
  rooming house via bus and taxi.  He picked up his pistol there and
  went directly to the Texas Theater where he met two of the
  assassination team and was sitting with them in the theatre when
  the police arrived.  One of these men may have been William
  Seymour.
   The Dallas police members of the team planned to shoot Oswald in
  the theatre while arresting him.  When he was arrested he did not
  realize at first that he had been framed.  When this began to
  become clear to him on Saturday, November 23, he remained confident
  that the FBI would get him out of the situation.  After all, he
  worked for them!</p>

<p>    Jack Ruby</p>

<p>   Jack Ruby, in addition to his Mafia involvements and other
  criminal activities, was also running guns to Cuba and carrying
  payoff money to other anti-Castro groups on behalf of various CIA-
  backed projects.  His involvement in the assassination of JFK
  appears to have been minor, even though he knew about it in
  advance.  In his night club Ruby met on several occasions with Clay
  Shaw, David Ferrie, and William Seymour.
   The group decided to assassinate Oswald in jail after the police
  failed to kill him in the Texas Theatre.  Alexander made
  arrangements to have Batchelor escort Ruby into the jail when it
  was known Oswald was being moved.  They arranged an audible signal
  (an auto horn) to let Batchelor and Ruby know when Oswald was
  coming down an elevator into the garage.  They came down an
  elevator opposite the one carrying Oswald.
   Clay Shaw gave Ruby his instructions to shoot Oswald through
  Breck Wall.  Shaw telephoned Wall from San Francisco and Wall
  called Ruby.  He was told it was an official CIA-sponsored act, in
  the best interests of the United States, and that he would be out
  of jail in a few days after his capture.</p>

<p>    Planted Evidence</p>

<p>   The planting of the evidence against Oswald first began with
  William Seymour, who used Oswald's identity during September and
  October, 1963.  Next, the faked photographs of Oswald were created.
  Two of the team members used a camera of their own to take the two
  pictures of General Walker's house and the two shots of one of the
  men supposedly in Oswald's back yard.  They planted the pictures in
  Oswald's garage.  Next, they stole Oswald's rifle from the garage
  prior to November 22, fired several shots from it, and preserved
  three shells, one bullet, and several bullet fragments.
   They planted the rifle, the three shells, the bullet (399) and
  the bullet fragments in the TSBD, the hospital and the JFK
  limousine on November 22.  They also took Oswald's pistol at some
  time prior to November 22, fired several shots from it and saved
  the shells.  William Seymour, after shooting policeman Tippit, ran
  away in such a manner as to attract attention, throwing the shells
  from Oswald's gun into the air as he ran so that witnesses would
  see them.  (The shells matched Oswald's pistol.  None of the
  bullets matched.)
   All of the work with Oswald's rifle, pistol, and the fake photos
  was probably done at the same time.  The rifle, pistol and
  Communist newspapers had to be available together for the backyard
  photos.  The faking of the photographs, the firing of rifle and
  pistol, the retrieval of the shells from rifle and pistol and of
  bullet 399 and the bullet fragments from the rifle all required
  enough time that the event occurred well in advance of the
  assassination .</p>

<p>    Escape Plans</p>

<p>   As mentioned before, plans were made for the team to escape by
  car, train, and airplane.  Evidence shows:</p>

<p>  1.  A white car was parked straddling a log barrier behind
  the western cupola on the grassy knoll.  It left that
  spot one minute after the shots were fired and drove
  eastward on the Elm Street extension in front of the
  TSBD.</p>

<p>  2.  A white station wagon driving west on Elm Street
  stopped at the foot of the grassy knoll at 12:40 p.m.,
  ten minutes after the shots were fired.  It picked up a
  man who looked like Oswald and drove under the triple
  overpass.</p>

<p>  3.  A railroad train carrying three "tramps" began to leave
  the freight train area west and north of the TSBD at
  around one o'clock, thirty minutes after the shots.
  The train was under the tower control of Lee Bowers and
  was stopped by him.  The tramps were arrested.</p>

<p>  4.  A police car stopped in front of Oswald's rooming house
  and honked twice around 1:10 p.m.</p>

<p>  5.  Policeman Tippit's patrol car was far out of position
  in the Oak Cliff area near Ruby and Oswald's rooming
  houses.  Tippit was shot by two men, one of whom was
  Billy Seymour.</p>

<p>  6.  A small airplane was sitting at the Redbird Airport, a
  location in the same direction as Oak Cliff, a little
  further out from Dealey Plaza.  Its engines were
  running.  It was ready for takeoff at 1 p.m.</p>

<p>  7.  David Ferrie went to Houston, Texas on the afternoon of
  November 22, driving at high speed through bad
  thunderstorms to get there.  He was positioned at a pay
  telephone at an ice skating rink near the Houston
  airport, until receiving a phone call there.  After
  that he returned to New Orleans.</p>

<p>    Escape Routes</p>

<p>   These escape plans were modified after the assassination.  It
  became unnecessary for any of the Dealey Plaza participants to
  escape by airplane.  The framing of Oswald and the failure of the
  Secret Service or FBI to detect any of the escaping gunmen or their
  assistants permitted these changes.  One of the men in the Dealey
  Plaza--probably pretending to be a Secret Service agent--reported
  an "all clear" situation to Shaw in San Francisco.  Shaw notified
  Ferrie that they didn't need an airplane to escape with while
  Ferrie was waiting in Houston.  Ferrie changed his plans and drove
  back to New Orleans.
   The gunmen who did escape followed these routes:  Jack Lawrence
  got into his car parked behind the cupola and either drove or was
  driven back to his cover job location at the automobile agency.  He
  left almost immediately afterward and travelled to North Carolina.
  Frenchy ran back to the freight car area and climbed into one of
  the box cars sitting on a siding northwest of the TSBD.  He was
  arrested at 1 p.m. by Officers Harkness, Bass and Wise, but was
  released by Sheriff Elkins later in the afternoon.  Santana walked
  out the back entrance of the Dal Tex building and may have joined
  Seymour in a white station wagon on Elm Street at 12:40 p.m.
  Seymour left the roof of the TSBD via a back stairway, exited from
  the freight entrance in the rear of the building, and walked on
  Houston Street past the Elm Street extension.  He walked down the
  grassy knoll to Elm Street where he was picked up at 12:40 p.m. by
  the white station wagon.
   The other Dealey Plaza participants, Crisman, a tall tramp,
  Braden and Hicks escaped by various means.  Braden was arrested and
  released.  Hicks drove home.  Crisman and the tall tramp followed
  Frenchy's route into the box cars.</p>

<p>    Tippit Shooting</p>

<p>   David Belin of the Warren and Rockefeller Commission is fond of
  saying, "Lee Harvey Oswald killed policeman Tippit.  Since the
  case against Oswald for the Tippit slaying is so strong, it
  follows that Oswald also shot the President."  The case against
  Oswald in the Tippit murder is as weak as the case against him in
  the JFK assassination.  The most important evidence showing that
  Seymour and another one of the assassination team shot Tippit is
  the fact that six witnesses, ignored by the Warren Commission, saw
  two men shoot Tippit.  One of them resembled Oswald.  They ran
  away from the scene in opposite directions.  Seymour ran toward the
  Texas Theater, throwing the planted shells up in the air so that
  witnesses would see and recover them.  (This act would convince
  most people that Oswald did not shoot Tippit.)  The other assassin
  ran in the opposite direction.  There is some indication that
  Seymour entered the theater in a manner to draw attention and then
  left before the Oswald arrest.  While the shells recovered were
  found to match Oswald's pistol, none of the bullets recovered from
  Tippit's body matched.</p>

<p>    Comments and Congressional Actions Needed</p>

<p>   The above scenario comes much closer to explaining what happened
  to John Kennedy than either the Warren Commission Report or the
  Rockefeller Commission report.  It matches the known evidence from
  the two prime sources, the Warren Commission files in the National
  Archives, and the evidence produced by the Garrison investigation
  (most of which was turned over the the Committee to Investigate
  Assassinations, Washington, D.C.).
   However, without subpoena power, and with extremely limited
  resources, no group of citizens such as the Committee or Mark
  Lane's Citizens Commission can determine the ultimate truth about
  the assassination.
   Only a properly constituted Congressional committee or group
  with resources and subpoena power, and with the power and courage
  to combat the Power Control Group involved in the assassination and
  its cover-up, whoever they may be, can reach the truth.
   This chapter has been prepared as a guideline for such a
  committee, rather than as the ultimate solution.
   It should be utilized in conjunction with two other documents
  already submitted to the four Congressional groups interested in
  the case.  The groups are:</p>

<p>   (1)  The Senate;</p>

<p>   (2)  The House Special Committee on Intelligence;</p>

<p>   (3)  Thomas Downing, Representative from Virginia, who
  introduced House Resolution 498 to reopen the JFK
  assassination investigation;</p>

<p>   (4)  Henry Gonzalez, Representative from Texas, who
  introduced House Resolution 204 to reopen the
  assassination inquiries on John and Robert Kennedy,
  Martin Luther King, and George Wallace.</p>

<p>    The Two Documents</p>

<p>  1. "Recommendations for the Senate and House Committee's
   Investigations of Illegal and Subversive Domestic Activities of 
 the CIA and FBI," memorandum by Richard E. Sprague (submitted 
 to them).
  2. "The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy:  the
   Involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Plans and 
 the Cover-Up," by Richard E. Sprague, in "People and the 
 Pursuit of Truth," May, 1975.</p>

<p>    Dramatis Personae</p>

<p>  Bill Alexander - Assistant to District Attorney Wade, Dallas
  County.
  Ronald Augustinovich - CIA agent.  Participated in Mexico City
  meetings.
  Officer Marion Baker- Dallas motorcycle police officer entering
  Texas School Book Depository after shots.
  Guy Banister - Head of clandestine CIA station in New Orleans -
  ran Banister Detective Agency.  Front for anti-Castro Cuban
  groups.  Former FBI agent and member of New Orleans police.  
  Died of "heart attack" June 1964.  David Ferrie worked for 
  him.  Oswald used his office and address.
  Officer Billy Bass - Dallas police officer;  arrested "tramps" in
  Dealey Plaza.
  Lt. Batchelor - Dallas police lieutenant.
  David Belin - Warren Commission lawyer.
  Major L. M. Bloomfield - Resident of Montreal, Canada.  Member of
  board of Centro Mondiale Commerciale, CIA front-organization 
  in Rome.  Visited by Ferrie and Shaw in fall 1963.
  John Howard Bowen - CIA agent.  Alias Albert Osborne.  Long
  clandestine record.  On bus to Mexico with Oswald.  
  Participated in Mexico City meetings.
  Lee Bowers - Railroad tower control operator, Dealey Plaza.  Died
  in curious accident.
  Jim Braden - Alias Eugene Hale Brading.  Mafia hoodlum and CIA
  contract agent.  Acted as radio man in Dealey Plaza.
  CIA - Central Intelligence Agency.
  Fred Lee Crisman - OSS and CIA domestic agent from Tacoma,
  Washington.  Participated with Frenchy and others as radio 
  man in Dealey Plaza.
  Harry Dean - CIA operative in Mexico City.
  Jean DeMenil - Louisiana and Texas industrialist.
  Johnny Mitchell Deveraux - CIA agent, Mexico City.  May have
  impersonated Oswald in Mexico.
  Sheriff Harold Elkins - Dallas County Deputy Chief.
  FBI - Federal Bureau of Investigation, then headed by J. Edgar
  Hoover.
  David Ferrie - Resident of New Orleans French Quarter.  Pilot for
  Eastern Airlines.  Bay of Pigs, CIA contractor for pilot 
  training and clandestine flights.  Associate of Clay Shaw, 
  Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby;  murdered Feb. 1967;  death 
  termed "suicide" by officials.
  "Frenchy" - Real name(s) not yet determined.  French Canadian
  adventurer.  CIA contract agent.  Training for second 
  invasion of Cuba in Florida Keys.  Knew Howard, Hall, 
  Seymour, Hemming, and Santana.  Fired shots.  Also involved 
  in King assassination.
  Guy Gabaldin - Former OSS operative and CIA agent in Mexico City.
  Movie made about his World War II exploits, Jeffrey Hunter 
  played Gabaldin role.  Assassination planning done in his 
  Mexico City apartment.
  Loran Hall - Anti-Castro adventurer from southern California.  One
  of three men who visited Sylvia Odio and said JFK would be
  assassinated.  Close friend of Lawrence Howard, William 
  Seymour and other no-name key adventurers.  Raising funds for 
  them in 1963.
  Sgt. Harkness - Dallas police sergeant.
  Richard Helms - Deputy Director - Plans, CIA, in 1963.
  Jerry Patrick Hemming - CIA agent and trainer of mercenaries at
  no-name key.
  Jim Hicks - Radio specialist from Dallas.  Was radio communications
  coordinator in Dealey Plaza.  Placed in mental hospital run by 
  the military.
  Jerry Hill - Police sergeant, Dallas.
  Mary Hope - Friend of Augustinovich.  Participated in Mexico City
  meetings on the assassination.
  Lawrence Howard - Anti-Castro adventurer.  No-name key group.
  Friend of Loran Hall and William Seymour.  Visited Sylvia Odio.
  Kept no-name key photo album.  Provided Garrison with pictures.
  E. Howard Hunt - CIA agent.  Acting station chief CIA clandestine
  station in Mexico City in 1963.
  Lt. Johnson - Dallas police lieutenant.
  Jack Lawrence - Resident of West Virginia and southern California.
  Minuteman and adventurer.  Fired shots.
  James Martin - Marina Oswald's business manager.
  Sgt. McDonald - Police sergeant, Dallas.
  Lt. Montgomery - Dallas police lieutenant;  helped frame Oswald .
  Clint Murchison - Texas oil millionaire.
  Richard Case Nagell - CIA operative in Mexico City;  testified
  before Congressional Committees.
  OSS - Office of Strategic Services.
  Lee Harvey Oswald - Dallas and New Orleans resident.  CIA and FBI
  agent and informer.  Patsy in assassination.
  Marina Oswald - Wife of Lee Harvey Oswald.  Helped to frame her
  husband.
  Sid Richardson - Texas oil millionaire.
  Jack Ruby - Mafia connections.  Anti-Castro CIA contracts.  Owner
  of Dallas night club.  Recruited to shoot Oswald.
  Emilio Santana - Cuban adventurer.  Anti-Castro, in no-name key
  group.  Was in Dealey Plaza firing shots.
  William Seymour - Mexican-American adventurer and hired killer.  On
  no-name key training for second invasion of Cuba in 1963.
  Impersonated Lee Harvey Oswald and resembled Oswald.  Fired 
  shots in Dealey Plaza.  Killed Officer Tippit.
  Clay Shaw - New Orleans French Quarter resident.  Manager
  International Trade Mart, CIA contract agent, member board of
  directors of CIA organization, Centro Mondiale Commericale.
  Murdered in 1974.  Living double life as Clay Bertrand, friend 
  of David Ferrie.
  Sergio Arcacha Smith - Anti-Castro Cuban.  Devoted to overthrowing
  Castro.  CIA contract agent.  Close to Guy Banister, Ferrie, 
  and New Orleans CIA operations.  Fled to Texas, escaped 
  Garrison subpoena.  Protected by Governor John Connally from 
  extradition.
  Carlos Prio Socarras - Former premier of Cuba.  Violent Anti-Castro
  millionaire.  Backed Cuban invasion plans and CIA efforts.  
  Lived in Miami area.  Murdered in 1977.
  James Tague - Spectator in Dealey Plaza, hit by piece of curbing
  thrown up by bullet striking near him.
  J. D. Tippit - Dallas policeman, shot on November 22, 1963.  Co-
  conspirator in assassination, Mafia and CIA functionary.
  Tammie True - Owner of CIA safe house in Dallas.
  Roy Truly - Manager of Texas School Book Depository.
  TSBD - Texas School Book Depository Building in Dealey Plaza,
  Dallas, from which Oswald was supposed to have fired shots at
  President John F. Kennedy.
  General Walker - Right-wing former Army General.  Resident of
  Dallas.  Supposedly shot at by Oswald.
  Breck Wall - Friend of Clay Shaw and Jack Ruby.
  Marvin Wise - Dallas police officer, arrested "tramps" in Dealey
  Plaza.</p>

<p>____________________</p>

<p>[1] For a complete listing of articles on political assassinations in the
  United States, published in "Computers and People" (formerly
  "Computers and Automation"), see the issues of "People and the Pursuit
  of Truth," May 1975, p. 6, and June, 1975, p. 5, published by Berkeley
  Enterprises, Inc., 815 Washington St., Newtonville, Mass. 02160.</p>

<p>[2] "1978 Los Angeles Free Press" - Special Report No 1, page 16, copy of
  receipt given to Commander James J. Humes MC, USN "for Missile removed
  on this date (Nov. 22, 1963)," signed by Francis X. O'Neill, Jr., 
  James W. Sibert, FBI Agents.</p>

<p>  Also "Postmortem," by Harold Weisberg, page 266, the missile receipt.</p>

<p>[3] As mentioned earlier, it is also possible that one of the team called
  him from a telephone inside the TSBD.</p>

<p>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *
--
     daveus rattus </p>

<p>   yer friendly neighborhood ratman</p>

<p>   KOYAANISQATSI</p>

<p> ko.yaa.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language)  n.  1. crazy life.  2. life
 in turmoil.  3. life out of balance.  4. life disintegrating.  
   5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.
Path: ns-mx!uunet!olivea!sgigate!odin!ratmandu.esd.sgi.com!dave
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,alt.conspiracy,alt.conspiracy.jfk
Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (3/11)
Summary: we were robbed of our capability of electing a president we wanted
Keywords: part 3 of 11:  chapter 6 thru chapter 8
<info type="Message-ID"> 1992Jun9.161556.23157@odin.corp.sgi.com</info>
Date: 9 Jun 92 16:15:56 GMT
Sender: news@odin.corp.sgi.com (Net News)
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
Lines: 632
Xref: ns-mx alt.activism:27381 alt.conspiracy:15473 alt.conspiracy.jfk:1570
Nntp-Posting-Host: ratmandu.esd.sgi.com</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>    Chapter 6
    The Assassinations of Robert Kennedy and
   Dr. Martin Luther King and
   Lyndon B. Johnson's Withdrawal in 1968</p>

<p>   The Power Control Group faced several dangers in 1968.  While
  President Johnson had cooperated fully with their desires in Viet
  Nam and in other parts of the world, he had not met their
  requirements in other areas.  He had gone too far in appeasing the
  blacks and had shown some signs of giving in to the young people in
  America in early 1968.  Through threats to expose his role in
  covering up the truth about the JFK assassination or personal
  threats to the safety of his family, the Group forced his
  withdrawal from the 1968 election race.  Their plan now was to
  install Richard Nixon as president at all costs.
   Robert Kennedy and Dr. King posed real threats to this plan.
  Dr. King was beginning a movement in the direction of a coalition
  with Malcom X followers and other black militant groups.  He was
  speaking out against the Viet Nam war.  His influence might help
  defeat Nixon at the polls.  So the Power Control Group created an
  environment in which he could be assassinated by his arch enemies.
   The FBI and J. Edgar Hoover had become a vital part of the Power
  Control Group by 1968.  Hoover had no love for King and was
  harrassing him in several ways.  The Power Control Group
  undoubtedly let Hoover know that it wouldn't be a bad idea to have
  King out of the way before the election campaigns really warmed up.
  They also passed the word along to some of the groups who were out
  to murder King that the crime would probably not be stopped.
  Fletcher Prouty has described this approach in some detail.[1]  The
  net result of these actions was the assassination of Dr. King by a
  group of wealthy white bigots who employed two of the intelligence
  community's own expert assassins.  One of these men, Frenchy, had
  fired shots at JFK.  The other, Jack Youngblood, was a soldier of
  fortune and CIA contract killer.  They recruited James Earl Ray and
  set him up as a patsy.
   The FBI removed King's protection in Memphis and after the
  assassination they took the case out of the hands of the local
  police to control and suppress the evidence of conspiracy.  Hoover
  did not know exactly who was going to assassinate King or where.
  He did not know in advance who the patsy was supposed to be.  The
  best evidence in support of this is that from April to June 1968
  the identity of the patsy was a mystery, first unidentified, then
  identified as Eric Starvo Galt, then as Raymond Sneyd, and finally
  as James Earl Ray.  If Hoover had been in on the plan, Ray's
  identity would probably have been revealed immediately.  In fact,
  the scenario might have been similar to the JFK case, with Ray
  being killed in a shoot-out.
   After Ray was identified and arrested in London, Hoover and the
  Justice Department had to manufacture some evidence to get Ray back
  to the U.S.  They had no qualms about bribing one witness, Charlie
  Stevens, to do this.  They forced him to say he had seen Ray.  Then
  a new problem arose.  Ray began telling the truth to his lawyer and
  a writer, William Bradford Huie.  He almost revealed Frenchy's true
  identity.  The Power Control Group, led by J. Edgar Hoover, solved
  this problem by getting rid of Ray's lawyer, Arthur Hanes, and they
  hired Percy Foreman to keep Ray quiet.  They also were forced to
  pay off or frighten off author Huie who had by then become
  convinced Ray was telling him the truth.  Huie had found several
  witnesses who had seen Ray and Frenchy together.
   The group got Foreman to talk Ray into pleading guilty and Huie
  to retract his conspiracy talk and publish an article and a book
  claiming Ray was the lone assassin.  Ever since Ray was put away
  for 99 years, the FBI and the Power Control Group have been hard at
  work covering up the truth, bribing or influencing judges who have
  heard Ray's appeals for a trial, publishing disinformation like
  Gerold Franck's book, "An American Assassin," suppressing evidence,
  and placing key witnesses in psychiatric wards.  It is still going
  on.  They have killed at least one reporter--Louis Lomax--who was
  getting too close to the truth.  The local D.A., Phil Canale, was
  brought into the conspiracy along with Percy Foreman, Judge Battle,
  Fred Vinson (who extradited Ray, using Stevens' false affidavit),
  and local authorities who committed Grace Walden Stevens to a
  mental institution because she knew Charlie had been dead drunk and
  saw nothing.
   The mechanics of the assassination are as follows:  Youngblood
  and Frenchy recruited Ray in Montreal for smuggling drugs into the
  U.S. from Mexico and Canada.  They recruited him in the
  assassination plan in such a way as to make him believe they were
  smuggling guns to Cuba.
   Frenchy (Ray knew him as Raoul) set up Ray as a patsy by
  planting evidence with Ray's prints on it near the fake firing
  point.  He persuaded Ray to rent a room opposite Dr. King's motel,
  to buy a rifle with telescopic sight, and a white Mustang, and park
  the Mustang outside the rooming house to wait for Frenchy to come
  out.  Youngblood stationed himself on a grassy knoll beneath the
  rooming house where Frenchy was located.  When King came out on his
  balcony, Youngblood killed him with one shot fired at an upward
  angle.  Frenchy ran from his perch overlooking King's balcony.  He
  made plenty of noise to attract attention, and dropped a bag full
  of items with Ray's prints on them in front of an amusement parlor
  next door to the rooming house.
   Frenchy must have had some anxious moments then because Ray had
  driven the Mustang to a gas station a few blocks away to have a low
  tire pumped up.  Three witnesses remember his being there.  When
  Ray returned, not yet knowing what had happened, Frenchy told him
  to drive away toward the edge of town where Frenchy got out of the
  back seat.  Ray drove on to Atlanta with the intention of meeting
  Frenchy there.
   Meanwhile, Youngblood mingled with the crowd under King's
  balcony and then faded away.  A false trail was created by another
  member of the team who drove away in a second white Mustang and
  then created a fake auto chase on the police band radio.
  Youngblood was tracked down by various reporters in early 1976 and
  began negotiating to tell his story for a very high price.
  Meanwhile, judge after judge and court after court keep turning
  down Bernard Fensterwald and James Cesar, Ray's new lawyers, who
  appealed for a new trial.
   All of the information above has been reported with factual
  evidence backing it up in several articles, one book, and at Ray's
  legal hearing for a new trial in Memphis in 1975.[2]
   After Dr. King was eliminated, the Power Control Group faced a
  much greater threat.  Robert Kennedy began his quest for the
  presidency.  There was little doubt in the minds of anyone in the
  Group that Kennedy would be nominated as Democratic candidate at
  the convention, and would have a very good chance of defeating
  Richard Nixon.  This would be a near certainty if Eugene McCarthy
  decided to drop out and support Senator Kennedy.  Robert Kennedy
  represented a double threat to the Group in that he would
  undoubtedly expose them after becoming president and seize control.
   The plan they adopted was again to create an environment in
  which it would be easy for an enemy like the Minutemen or the Mafia
  or certain local hate groups in California to assassinate RFK and
  get away with it by setting up another patsy.  Available at the
  time was a CIA agent planted inside the Los Angeles police
  department.  Strong influence was brought to bear on chief of
  police, Ed Davis, to remove all official protection for Senator
  Kennedy in the Ambassador Hotel.  Arrangements were made for the
  Ace Guard Service to supply three extreme right wing, militant
  guards at the hotel to guard the Senator after his victory speech.
  One of these was Thane Eugene Cesar, a known Kennedy hater and
  friend of a group of Southern California Minutemen.  He was also
  almost certainly a CIA contract agent or "blind" assassin.  At the
  same time another group was recruited to hypnotize Sirhan Sirhan
  and to program him for firing some shots in Robert Kennedy's
  direction.  Two hypnotists and at least three other people were
  involved in the framing of Sirhan.
   Cesar killed Robert Kennedy from behind while Sirhan was firing
  under hypnosis from in front of the Senator.  His programmed signal
  was given by a girl in a polka dot dress and another young Arabic
  man with them in the pantry.
   After the crime, the FBI, the CIA agent (Manny Pena), the
  District Attorney's office (Evelle Younger and Joseph Busch) and
  the Los Angeles Police Department (Ed Davis, Robert Houghton and
  others), knowing the truth, all teamed up to suppress all other
  evidence except that which was aimed at framing Sirhan.  The Power
  Control Group has since wielded its influence to keep the RFK case
  under wraps.  They pushed legislation through the California
  legislature to lock up the evidence.  They put Thomas Noguchi, the
  L.A. County Coroner who wouldn't keep quiet about the autopsy
  evidence which proved conspiracy, in an insane asylum.  They
  arranged for the FBI report on the assassination to be classified
  and locked up.  They killed at least one person who knew what had
  happened. They controlled the media on the subject, especially the
  "Los Angeles Times" through its owner, Norman Chandler, and his
  friend Evelle Younger, who became California State Attorney
  General.
   After Al Lowenstein, Jerry Brown, Paul Schrade, Vincent
  Bugliosi, Robert Vaughn, Tom Bradley and others began to try to
  expose the truth, the Group fought back by setting up their own
  expert ballistics panel and buying or frightening them into
  distorting the evidence proving there were two guns fired.  The
  Group is certainly not through yet.  More planted disinformation
  can be expected and more bribing of judges and expert witnesses.
  There may be more killings.  Cesar's life and the lives of the two
  hypnotists won't be worth much if they ever start talking.[3]</p>

<p>____________________</p>

<p>[1] "The Fourth Force" -- L. Fletcher Prouty -- "Gallery Magazine" --
  December, 1975</p>

<p>[2] "Frame Up:  The Martin Luther King/James Earl Ray Case" -- Harold
  Weisberg -- E.P. Dutton -- 1971</p>

<p>  "The Assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr." -- R.E.
  Sprague -- "Computers &amp; Automation," December 1970</p>

<p>  "The Assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. --  Parts I to
  II" -- Wayne Chastain -- "Computers &amp; Automation," December 1974.</p>

<p>[3] Most of the above information has been published in a series of
  articles and in two books and one movie.</p>

<p>  "The Assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy" -- R.E. Sprague --
  "Computers &amp; Automation" -- September 1972 and October 1970</p>

<p>  "RFK Must Die" -- Robert Blair Kaiser -- 1970</p>

<p>  "The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, A Searching Look at the
  Conspiracy and Cover-Up 1968-1978" -- William Turner and John
  Christian -- 1978</p>

<p>  "The Second Gun" --  Documentary Movie -- Ted Charach -- American
  Films -- Beverly Hills</p>

<div>  </div>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>    Chapter 7
   The Control of the Kennedys - Threats &amp; Chappaquiddick</p>

<p>   Through the years the most common question of all has been:  "If
  there was a conspiracy in the JFK assassination, why didn't Robert
  Kennedy find out about it and take some action?  And if there was a
  conspiracy in the RFK assassination why haven't Ted Kennedy and
  Ethel Kennedy done something about it?"  No one except the Kennedys
  know the answers to these questions for sure.  However, there are
  plenty of clues and some other Power Control Group actions to
  provide the answers to us.
   First of all, thanks to Jackie Kennedy Onassis' butler in
  Athens, Greece, Christain Cafarakis, we know why Jackie did nothing
  after her husband's death.  In a book published in 1972, Cafarakis
  tells about an investigation Jackie had conducted by a famous New
  York City detective agency into the assassination of JFK in 1964
  and 1965.[1]  It was financed by Aristotle Onassis and resulted in
  a report in the spring of 1965 telling who the four gunmen were and
  who was behind them.  Jackie planned to give the report to LBJ but
  was stopped by a threat from the Power Control Group to kill her
  and her children.  Ted, Bobby and other family members knew about
  the report and the threat.
   The second clue is Chappaquiddick.  A careful examination of the
  real evidence in this event shows that Ted Kennedy was framed in
  the killing of Mary Joe Kopechne and then his life and his
  children's lives threatened if he ever told the truth about what
  happened.  The facts in the case and the conclusions that can be
  drawn from them are contained in a book by Boston researcher Robert
  Cutler.[2]
   The third clue is Ted's withdrawal from the presidential race in
  November 1975.  It is a fact that all of his and Robert's children
  were being protected by the Secret Service for five days in
  November 1975.  A threat had been made against the children's lives
  unless he officially announced his withdrawal.  He made the
  announcement and has stuck to it ever since.  The Secret Service
  protection ended the day after he made the announcement.
   It does not seem likely that Senator Kennedy would withdraw from
  the race because of a threat from a lone nut or from some obscure
  group.  He remembers the 1965 threat and Chappaquiddick very well.
  He knows about the Power Control Group and he knows their enormous
  capability.  He knows what they did to his brothers.  He has no
  choice but to hope that somehow, sometime, the Group will be
  exposed.  But he dares not let them believe he would ever have 
  anything to do with it.  Publicly he will always have to support 
  the Warren Commission and continue to state that he will not run 
  for president.  Privately he is forced to ask his closest friends 
  and his relatives not to get involved with new investigations, and 
  to help protect his children.  Some of them know the truth.  Others 
  do not, and are puzzled by his behavior.  They go along with it 
  under the assumption that he has good and sufficient reasons not to 
  open the can of worms represented by the conspiracies in his 
  brother's deaths.
   The Power Control Group faced up to the Ted Kennedy and Kennedy
  family problem very early.  They used the threat against the
  Kennedy children's lives very effectively between 1963 and 1968 to
  silence Bobby and the rest of the family and friends who knew the
  truth.  It was necessary to assassinate Bobby in 1968 because with
  the power of the presidency he could have prevented the Group from
  harming the children.  When Teddy began making moves to run for
  president in 1969 for the 1972 election, the Group decided to put
  some real action behind their threats.  Killing Teddy in 1969 would
  have been too much.  They selected a new way of eliminating him as
  a candidate.  They framed him with the death of a young girl, and
  threw sexual overtones in for good measure.
   Here is what happened according to Cutler's analysis of the
  evidence.  The Group hired several men and at least one woman to be
  at Chappaquiddick during the weekend of the yacht race and the
  planned party on the island.  They ambushed Ted and Mary Jo after
  they left the cottage and knocked Ted out with blows to his head
  and body.  They took the unconscious or semi-conscious Kennedy to
  Martha's Vineyard and deposited him in his hotel room.  Another
  group took Mary Jo to the bridge in Ted's car, force fed her with a
  knock out potion of alcoholic beverage, placed her in the back
  seat, and caused the car to accelerate off the side of the bridge
  into the water.  They broke the windows on one side of the car to
  insure the entry of water;  then they watched the car until they
  were sure Mary Jo would not escape.
   Mary Jo actually regained consciousness and pushed her way to
  the top of the car (which was actually the bottom of the car--it
  had landed on its roof) and died from asphyxiation.  The group with
  Teddy revived him early in the morning and let him know he had a
  problem.  Possibly they told him that Mary Jo had been kidnapped.
  They told him his children would be killed if he told anyone what
  had happened and that he would hear from them.  On Chappaquiddick,
  the other group made contact with Markham and Gargan, Ted's cousin
  and lawyer.  They told both men that Mary Jo was at the bottom of
  the river and that Ted would have to make up a story about it, not
  revealing the existence of the group.  One of the men resembled Ted
  and his voice sounded something like Ted's.  Markham and Gargan
  were instructed to go the the Vineyard on the morning ferry, tell
  Ted where Mary Jo was, and come back to the island to wait for a
  phone call at a pay station near the ferry on the Chappaquiddick
  side.
   The two men did as they were told and Ted found out what had
  happened to Mary Jo that morning.  The three men returned to the
  pay phone and received their instructions to concoct a story about
  the "accident" and to report it to the police.  The threat against
  Ted's children was repeated at that time.
   Ted, Markham and Gargan went right away to police chief Arena's
  office on the Vineyard where Ted reported the so-called "accident."
  Almost at the same time scuba diver John Farror was pulling Mary Jo
  out of the water, since two boys who had gone fishing earlier that
  morning had spotted the car and reported it.
   Ted called together a small coterie of friends and advisors
  including family lawyer Burke Marshall, Robert MacNamara, Ted
  Sorenson, and others.  They met on Squaw Island near the Kennedy
  compound at Hyannisport for three days.  At the end of that time
  they had manufactured the story which Ted told on TV, and later at
  the inquest.  Bob Cutler calls the story, "the shroud."  Even the
  most cursory examination of the story shows it was full of holes
  and an impossible explanation of what happened.  Ted's claim that
  he made the wrong turn down the dirt road toward the bridge by
  mistake is an obvious lie.  His claim that he swam the channel back
  to Martha's Vineyard is not believable.  His description of how he
  got out of the car under water and then dove down to try to rescue
  Mary Jo is impossible.  Markham and Gargan's claims that they kept
  diving after Mary Jo are also unbelievable.
   The evidence for the Cutler scenario is substantial.  It begins
  with the marks on the bridge and the position of the car in the
  water.  The marks show that the car was standing still on the
  bridge and then accelerated off the edge, moving at a much higher
  speed than Kennedy claimed.  The distance the car travelled in the
  air also confirms this.  The damage to the car on two sides and on
  top plus the damage to the windshield and the rear view mirror
  stanchion[3] prove that some of the damage had to have been
  inflicted before the car left the bridge.
   The blood on the back and on the sleeves of Mary Jo's blouse
  proves that a wound was inflicted before she left the bridge.[4]
  The alcohol in her bloodstream proves she was drugged, since all
  witnesses testified she never drank and did not drink that night.
  The fact that she was in the back seat when her body was recovered
  indicates that is where she was when the car hit the water.  There
  was no way she could have dived downward against the inrushing
  water and moved from the front to the back seat underneath the
  upside-down seat back.
   The wounds on the back of Ted Kennedy's skull, those just above
  his ear and the large bump on the top indicate he was knocked out.
  His actions at the hotel the next morning show he was not aware of
  Mary Jo's death until Markham and Gargan arrived.  The trip to the
  pay phone on Chappaquiddick can only be explained by his receiving
  a call there, not making one.  There were plenty of pay phones in
  or near Ted's hotel if he needed to make a private call.  The tides
  in the channel and the direction in which Ted claimed he swam do
  not match.  In addition it would have been a superhuman feat to
  have made it across the channel (as proven by several professionals
  who subsequently tried it).
   Deputy Sheriff Christopher Look's testimony, coupled with the
  testimony of Ray LaRosa and two Lyons girls, proves that there were
  two people in Ted's car with Mary Jo at 12:45 PM.  The three party
  members walking along the road south toward the cottage confirmed
  the time that Mr. Look drove by.  He stopped to ask if they needed
  a ride.  Look says that just prior to that he encountered Ted's car
  parked facing north at the juncture of the main road and the dirt
  road.  It was on a short extension of the north-south section of
  the road junction to the north of the "T".  He says he saw a man
  driving, a woman in the seat beside him, and what he thought was
  another woman lying on the back seat.  He remembered a portion of
  the license plate which matched Ted's car, as did the description
  of the car.  Markham, Gargan and Ted's driver's testimony show that
  someone they talked to in the pitch black night sounded like Ted
  and was about his height and build.
   None of the above evidence was ever explained by Ted or by
  anyone else at the inquest or at the hearing on the case demanded
  by district attorney Edward Dinis.  No autopsy was ever allowed on
  Mary Jo's body (her family objected), and Ted made it possible to
  fly her body home for burial rather quickly.  Kennedy haters have
  seized upon Chappaquiddick to enlarge the sexual image now being
  promoted of both Ted and Jack Kennedy.  Books like "Teddy Bare"
  take full advantage of the situation.
   Just which operatives in the Power Control Group at the high
  levels or the lower levels were on Chappaquiddick Island?  No
  definite evidence has surfaced as yet, except for an indication
  that there was at least one woman and at least three men, one of
  whom resembled Ted Kennedy and who sounded like him in the
  darkness.  However, two pieces of testimony in the Watergate
  hearings provide significant clues as to which of the known JFK
  case conspirators may have been there.
   E. Howard Hunt told of a strange trip to Hyannisport to see a
  local citizen there about the Chappaquiddick incident.  Hunt's
  cover story on this trip was that he was digging up dirt on Ted
  Kennedy for use in the 1972 campaign.  The story does not make much
  sense if one questions why Hunt would have to wear a disguise,
  including his famous red wig, and to use a voice-alteration device
  to make himself sound like someone else.  If, on the other hand,
  Hunt's purpose was to return to the scene of his crime just to make
  sure that no one who might have seen his group at the bridge or
  elsewhere would talk, then the disguise and the voice box make
  sense.
   The other important testimony came from Tony Ulasewicz who said
  he was ordered by the Plumbers to fly immediately to Chappaquiddick
  and dig up dirt on Ted.  The only problem Tony has is that,
  according to his testimony, he arrived early on the morning of the
  "accident", before the whole incident had been made public.
  Ulasewicz is the right height and weight to resemble Kennedy and
  with a CIA voice-alteration device he presumably could be made to
  sound like him.  There is a distinct possibility that Hunt and Tony
  were there when it happened.
   The threats by the Power Control Group, the frame-up at
  Chappaquiddick, and the murders of Jack and Bobby Kennedy cannot
  have failed to take their toll on all of the Kennedys.  Rose, Ted,
  Jackie, Ethel and the other close family members must be very tired
  of it all by now.  They can certainly not be blamed for hoping it
  will all go away.  Investigations like those proposed by Henry
  Gonzalez and Thomas Downing only raised the spectre of the powerful
  Control Group taking revenge by kidnapping some of the seventeen
  children.
   It was no wonder that a close Kennedy friend and ally in
  California, Representative Burton, said that he would oppose the
  Downing and Gonzalez resolutions unless Ted Kennedy put his stamp
  of approval on them.  While the sympathies of every decent American
  go out to them, the future of our country and the freedom of the
  people to control their own destiny through the election process
  mean more than the lives of all the Kennedys put together.  If John
  Kennedy were alive today he would probably make the same statement.
   John Dean summed it up when he said to Richard Nixon as recorded
  on the White House tapes in 1973:  "If Teddy knew the bear trap he
  was walking into at Chappaquiddick. . . ."[5]</p>

<p>____________________</p>

<p>[1] "The fabulous Jackie" -- Christian Cafarakis -- Productions de Paris
  -- 1972</p>

<p>[2] "You the Jury" -- Robert Cutler -- Self Published -- 1974</p>

<p>[3] A rope attached to the stick which held the Oldsmobile throttle wide
  open caught the drivers rear view mirror and tore it loose so that
  it was hanging by the rear bolt.  There was no other mark on the
  left side of the car.</p>

<p>[4] A sliver of glass from two broken windows no doubt caused this
  bleeding since Mary Jo was already face down and unconscious in the
  rear seat.  Since there was no autopsy this clean cut went
  unnoticed by the embalmers.</p>

<p>[5] On page 121, "White House Tapes," Paperback Edition, published by New
  York Times</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>    Chapter 8
   1972 - Muskie, Wallace and McGovern</p>

<p>   In 1972 the Power Control Group was faced with another set of
  problems.  Again the objective was to insure Nixon's election at
  all costs and to continue the cover-ups.  Nixon might have made it
  on his own.  We'll never know because the Group guaranteed his
  election by eliminating two strong candidates and completely
  swamping another with tainted leftist images and a psychiatric case
  for the vice presidential nominee.  The impression that Nixon had
  in early 1972 was that he stood a good chance of losing.  He
  imagined enemies everywhere and a press he was sure was out to get
  him.
   The Power Control Group realized this too.  They began laying
  out a strategy that would encourage the real nuts in the Nixon
  administration like E. Howard Hunt, G. Gordon Liddy and Donald
  Segretti to eliminate any serious opposition.  The dirty tricks
  campaign worked perfectly against the strongest early Democratic
  candidate, Edmund Muskie.  He withdrew in tears, later to discover
  he had been sabotaged by Nixon, Liddy and company.
   George Wallace was another matter.  At the time he was shot, he
  was drawing 18% of the vote according to the polls, and most of
  that was in Nixon territory.  The conservative states such as
  Indiana were going for Wallace.  He was eating into Nixon's
  southern strength.  In April the polls showed McGovern pulling a
  41%, Nixon 41% and Wallace 18%.  It was going to be too close for
  comfort, and it might be thrown into the House - in which case
  Nixon would surely lose.  There was the option available of
  eliminating George McGovern, but then the Democrats might come up
  with Hubert Humphrey or someone else even more dangerous than
  McGovern.  Nixon's best chance was a head-on contest with McGovern.
  Wallace had to go.  Once the group made that decision, the Liddy
  team seemed to be the obvious group to carry it out.  But how could
  it be done this time and still fool the people?  Another patsy this
  time?  O.K., but how about having him actually kill the Governor?
  The answer to that was an even deeper programming job than that
  done on Sirhan.  This time they selected a man with a lower I.Q.
  level who could be hypnotized to really shoot someone, realize it
  later, and not know that he had been programmed.  He would have to
  be a little wacky, unlike Oswald, Ruby or Ray.
   Arthur Bremer was selected.  The first contacts were made by
  people who knew both Bremer and Segretti in Milwaukee.  They were
  members of a leftist organization planted there as provocateurs by
  the intelligence forces within the Power Control Group.  One of
  them was a man named Dennis Cossini.
   Bremer was programmed over a period of months.  He was first set
  to track Nixon and then Wallace.  When his hand held the gun in
  Laurel, Maryland, it might just as well have been in the hand of
  Donald Segretti, E. Howard Hunt, G. Gordon Liddy, Richard Helms, or
  Richard Nixon.
   With Wallace's elimination from the race and McGovern's
  increasing popularity in the primaries, the only question remaining
  for the Power Control Group was whether McGovern had any real
  chance of winning.  The polls all showed Wallace's vote going to
  Nixon and a resultant landslide victory.  That, of course, is
  exactly what happened.  It was never close enough to worry the
  Group very much.  McGovern, on the other hand, was worried.  By the
  time of the California primary he and his staff had learned enough
  about the conspiracies in the assassinations of John and Robert
  Kennedy and Martin Luther King that they asked for increased Secret
  Service protection in Los Angeles.
   If the Power Control Group had decided to kill Mr. McGovern the
  Secret Service would not have been able to stop it.  However, they
  did not, because the election was a sure thing.  They did try one
  more dirty trick.  They revealed Thomas Eagleton's psychiatric
  problems, which reduced McGovern's odds considerably.
   What evidence is there that Bremer's attempt on Wallace was a
  directed attempt by a conspiratorial group?
   Bremer himself has told his brother that others were involved
  and that he was paid by them.  Researcher William Turner has turned
  up evidence in Milwaukee and surrounding towns in Wisconsin that
  Bremer received money from a group associated with Dennis Cossini,
  Donald Segretti and J. Timothy Gratz.  Several other young
  "leftists" were seen with Bremer on several occasions in Milwaukee
  and on the ferry crossing at Lake Michigan.
   The evidence shows that Bremer had a hidden source of income.
  He spent several times more than he earned or saved in the year
  before he shot at Wallace.  Bremer's appearance on TV, in court and
  before witnesses resembled those of a man under hypnosis.[1]
   There is some evidence that more than one gun may have been
  fired with the second gun being located in the direction opposite
  to Bremer.  Eleven wounds in the four victims that day exceeds the
  number that could have been caused by the five bullets Bremer
  fired.  There is a problem in identifying all of the bullets found
  as having been fired from Bremer's gun.  The trajectories of the
  wounds seem to be from two opposite directions.  All of this--the
  hypnotic-like trance, the possibility of two guns being fired from
  in front and from behind, and the immediate conclusion that Bremer
  acted alone--sounds very much like the arrangement made for the
  Robert Kennedy assassination.
   Another part of the evidence sounds like the King case.  A lone
  blue Cadillac was seen speeding away from the scene of the shooting
  immediately afterward.  It was reported on the police band radio
  and the police unsuccessfully chased it.  The car had two men in
  it.  The police and the FBI immediately shut off all accounts of
  that incident.
   E. Howard Hunt testified before the Ervin Committee that Charles
  Colson had asked him to go to Bremer's apartment in Milwaukee as
  soon as the news about Bremer was available at the White House.
  Hunt never did say why he was supposed to go.  Colson then said
  that he didn't tell Hunt to go, but that Hunt told him he was
  going.  Colson's theory is that Hunt was part of a CIA conspiracy
  to get rid of Nixon and to do other dirty tricks.
   Could Hunt and the Power Control Group have had in mind placing
  something in Bremer's apartment rather than taking something out?
  The "something" could have been Bremer's diary, which was later
  found in his car parked near the Laurel, Maryland parking lot.
  Hunt did not go to Milwaukee, because the FBI already had agents at
  the apartment.  Perhaps Hunt or someone else went instead to
  Maryland and planted the diary in Bremer's car.  One thing seems
  certain after a careful analysis of Bremer's diary in comparison to
  his grammar, spelling, etc., in his high school performances in
  English.  Bremer didn't write the diary.  Someone forged it, trying
  to make it sound like they thought Bremer would sound given his low
  I.Q.
   One last item would clinch the conspiracy case if it were true.
  A rumor spread among researchers and the media that CBS-TV had
  discovered Bremer and G. Gordon Liddy together on two separate
  occasions in TV footage of Wallace rallies.  In one TV sequence
  they were said to be walking together toward a camera in the
  background.  CBS completely closed the lid on the subject.
   The best source is obviously Bremer himself.  However, no
  private citizen can get anywhere near him.  Even if they could he
  might not talk if he had been programmed.  Unless an expert
  deprogrammed him, his secret could be locked away in his brain,
  just like Sirhan's secret is locked within his mind.</p>

<p>____________________</p>

<p>[1] "Report of an Investigation" by William Turner for the Committee
  on Government Intelligence.</p>

<p>  References:</p>

<p>  "Bremer Wallace and Hunt", The New York Review of Books -- Gore
  Vidal -- December 13, 1973.</p>

<p>  "The Wallace Shooting" -- Alan Stang -- "American Opinion" --
  October, 1972.</p>

<p>  "Why Was Wallace Shot?" -- R.F. Salant -- Self Published --
  Monsey, N.Y.</p>

<p>  "Interview With Charles Colson" -- Dick Russell -- "Argosy" --
  March, 1976.</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>--
     daveus rattus </p>

<p>   yer friendly neighborhood ratman</p>

<p>   KOYAANISQATSI</p>

<p> ko.yaa.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language)  n.  1. crazy life.  2. life
 in turmoil.  3. life out of balance.  4. life disintegrating.  
   5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.
From dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com Wed Jun 10 10:08:58 1992
Received: from pl122c.eecs.lehigh.edu by ns-mx.uiowa.edu (5.64.jnf/920408)
  on Wed, 10 Jun 92 10:08:44 -0500 id AA10332 with SMTP 
Received: from SGI.COM by PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU (5.61/1.34)
id AA15979; Wed, 10 Jun 92 10:53:16 -0400
Received: from [192.102.132.11] by sgi.sgi.com via SMTP (911016.SGI/910110.SGI)
for PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA02901; Wed, 10 Jun 92 07:55:47 -0700
Received: by ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (920110.SGI/920502.SGI.AUTO)
for @sgi.sgi.com:PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA02416; Wed, 10 Jun 92 07:55:45 -0700
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 92 07:55:45 -0700
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
<info type="Message-ID"> 9206101455.AA02416@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com</info>
To: PML3@PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU
Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (4/11)
Status: RO</p>

<p>Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (4/11)
Summary: we were robbed of our capability of electing a president we wanted
Keywords:  part 4 of 11:  first half of chapter 9
Lines: 995</p>

<p> chapter 9 stands out as one of the most detailed explorations i've ever
 read *anywhere* concerning the media's culpability in the cover-up of
 the assassination of the president.  the major media's collusion in 
 covering-up the truth of the assassination is one of the most tragic 
 *and* revealing indicators about just how far this nation has moved away
 from *some* kind of representative democracy to, what, totalitarian 
 "democracy"?  until we the people confront such crimes as the cover-up, 
 perpetrated and perpetuated by "the official reality consortium," we will
 continue to experience an evermore expanding strangulating oligarchy and 
 ever decreasing accountability.
      --ratitor</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>    Chapter 9
    Control of the Media</p>

<p>   As mentioned in Chapter 1, one of the two clever strategies used
  by the Power Control Group in the taking of America has been the
  control of the news media.
   For those American citizens who steadfastly refuse to believe
  that all of the American establishment news media could be
  controlled by the CIA and its friends in the White House, the
  continuing support of the Warren Commission's lone assassin
  conclusion by virtually all of the major news media organizations
  in November, 1975, twelve years after the event, must have been
  very puzzling indeed.  Since 78% of the public believe that there
  was a conspiracy in the case, there must be a series of questions
  in the minds of the most intelligent of the 78% about the media's
  position on the subject.[1]
   This Chapter is intended to enlighten readers and to remind them
  of the control exercised by the intelligence community and the
  White House over the 15 organizations from whom the public gets the
  vast majority of its news and opinions.
   Let's begin with 1968-1969.  By 1973 the American public had
  begun to develop a skepticism toward information they received on
  television or radio.  Various news stories appearing in our
  national news media through those years had brought about this
  attitude.  Some examples are:  the Songmy-Mylai incident, the
  Pueblo story, the murder of Black Panther Fred Hampton, the
  Pentagon Papers, the Clifford Irving hoax, the Bangladesh tragedy
  and the India-Pakistan war, Hoover &amp; FBI antics, the Jack Anderson
  papers, and IT&amp;T and the Republican National Convention.
   The general reaction was bound to be, "Don't believe everything
  you read, see or hear, especially the first time around, and more
  especially if the story comes from Washington."  In the case of the
  Pentagon Papers, things we all had taken as gospel for nearly two
  decades suddenly seemed to crumble.
   To what extent can the national news media be held responsible
  for this situation?  What has happened to the inquiring reporter
  and the crusading editor who are both searching for and printing
  the truth?  If a government or a president lies or keeps secrets,
  can the American news media really find out about it?  And if they
  do, what moral, ethical, political or other criteria should they
  use in uncovering the lies and presenting them to the public?
   Vice President Agnew would have said, "The press is already
  going too far."  Members of the press would have said, "We must
  remain independent and maintain the freedom of speech."  Just how
  independent is the news media?  Is it controlled to some extent by
  Washington?
   The answer to some of these questions can be found by taking an
  inside look at the major national news media organizations during
  1968 and 1969 and how they treated the most controversial news 
  subject since World War II.  The assassination of John F. Kennedy 
  and its aftermath is an all-pervading, endless topic.  It has yet 
  to reach the Pentagon Papers, Anderston papers, or Mylai stage of
  revelation.  Precisely because it is still such a controversial
  subject, verboten for discussion among all major news media (unless
  the discussant supports the Warren Commission), it serves as an
  excellent case study.
   A categorical statement can be made that management and
  editorial policy, measured by what is printed and broadcast in all
  major American news media organizations, supports the findings of
  the Warren Commission.  This has been true since 1969, but it was
  not true between 1964 and 1969.
   Of significance in this analysis and what it implies about the
  American public's knowledge about the assassination and its
  aftermath is a definition of "major American national news media."
  It can be demonstrated that an overwhelming mass of news
  information reaching the eyes and ears of Americans comes from
  about fifteen organizations.  They are, in general order of
  significance:  NBC-TV &amp; Radio CBS-TV &amp; Radio, ABC-TV &amp; Radio,
  Associated Press, United Press, "Time-Life-Fortune-Sports
  Illustrated," McGraw Hill "Business Week," "Newsweek," "U.S.  News
  &amp; World Report," "New York Times" News Service, "Washington Post"
  News Service, Metromedia News Network, Westinghouse Radio News
  Network, Capital City Broadcasting Radio Network, the North
  American Newspaper Alliance, and the "Saturday Evening Post" (the
  "Post" is, of course, now defunct.)
   There are some subtle reasons for this, not generally
  appreciated by the average citizen.  Television has, of course,
  become the primary source of information.  For any nationally
  circulated news story, local stations rely heavily on film,
  videotape and written script material prepared and edited by the
  three networks.  Once in a while Metromedia may also send out TV
  material.  In effect, this means that editorial content for a vast
  majority of the television information seen by American citizens
  everywhere originates not only with three or four organizations but
  also with a very small number of producers, editors and
  commentators in those networks.
   A large majority of any national news items printed by local
  newspapers originates in a small number of press-wire services.  AP
  and UP dominate this area, with selected chains of papers
  subscribing to a lesser extent to new services of the "New York
  Times," "Washington Post," North American Newspaper Alliance, and a
  very small percentage receiving information from papers in Los
  Angeles, Chicago and St. Louis.
   In a national news story of major significance such as the
  assassination of John Kennedy, the smaller local papers rely almost
  exclusively on their affiliated news services.  Economic reasons
  dictate this situation.  The small paper can't afford to have
  reporters everywhere.  The major newspapers might send a man to
  Dallas for a few days to cover the assassination, or they might
  send a man to New Orleans to cover the Clay Shaw trial.  But even
  the major papers can't afford to cover every part of a continuing
  story anywhere around the world.  So they too rely on UP and AP for
  much of their material.  They also rely on AP, UP and Black Star[2]
  for most of their photographic material.
   In the case of news magazines, the holding corporations become
  important in forming editorial policy in a situation as
  controversial as the assassination of JFK.  Time Inc. and "Life,"
  "Newsweek" and the "Washington Post," "U.S. News," and McGraw Hill
  managements all became involved.
   Fifteen organizations is a surprisingly small number, and one is
  led to conjecture about how easy or difficult it might be to
  control or dictate editorial policy for all of them or some
  appreciable majority of them.  An article in "Computers and
  Automation"[3] reprinted a statement by John R. Rarick, Louisiana
  Congressman and an entry made in the "Congressional Record" bearing
  on this subject.  In the reprint, the "Government Employees
  Exchange" publication is quoted as stating that the CIA New Team
  used secret cooperating and liaison groups after the Bay of Pigs in
  the large foundations, banks and newspapers to change U.S. domestic
  and foreign relations through the infiltration of these
  organizations.  The coordinating role at "The New York Times" was
  in the custody of Harding Bancroft, Executive Vice President.
   A useful analysis consists of examining what happened
  organizationally and editorially inside each of the fifteen
  companies following the assassination of President Kennedy.  My
  personal knowledge, plus information available from a few sources
  connected with the major news media, permits such an analysis to be
  made for eleven of the fifteen.  They are:  NBC, CBS, ABC, Time-
  Life, "The New York Times," "Newsweek," Associated Press, United
  Press, "Saturday Evening Post," Capital City Broadcasting, and
  North American Newspaper Alliance.  In addition, the performance of
  nine local newspapers and TV stations directly involved in the
  events in Dallas and New Orleans will be analyzed.  These include:
  "Dallas Times Herald," "Dallas Morning News," Fort Worth "Star
  Telegram," Dallas CBS-Affiliate WBAP, "New Orleans Times Picayune,"
  "New Orleans Times Herald," and New Orleans NBC-Affiliate WDSU-TV.
   Most of these organizations had reporters and photographers in
  Dallas at the time of the assassination or within a few hours
  thereafter.  Most of them had direct coverage available when Jim
  Garrison's investigation broke into the news in 1967 and during the
  trial of Clay Shaw in New Orleans in 1969.  For many of them the
  Shaw trial became the running point in the changing of editorial
  policy toward the assassination.  For a few, the Garrison
  investigation and the Shaw trial took on the aspect of waving a 
  red flag in front of a bull.  They became directly involved in a
  negative way and thus not only reported the news, but also biased
  it.
   Immediately following the assassination the media reported
  nearly everything that had obviously happened.  All was confused
  for the first few days.  The killing of Oswald by Ruby on live
  television produced even greater confusion.
   For one year the major media reported everything, from probable
  Communist conspiracies to the lone assassin theory.  The media
  waited for the Warren Report, and when it was issued in October of
  1964 many of the major media fell into line and editorially backed
  the Commission's findings.  Some questioned the findings and
  continued to question them until 1968 or 1969.  "The New York
  Times" and "Life" magazine fell into this category.  But by the
  time the Shaw trial ended in March 1969, every one of the fifteen
  major news media organizations was backing the Warren Commission
  and they have continued to maintain this editorial position since.
   The situation would perhaps not be so surprising had not the
  internal assassination research teams in several of these
  organizations discovered the truth about the Kennedy killing
  between 1964 and 1968.  These teams examined the evidence and
  thoroughly analyzed it.  No one who has ever taken the trouble to
  objectively do just that has reached any conclusion other than
  conspiracy.
   In each and every case the internal findings were overruled,
  suppressed, locked up, edited and otherwise altered to back up the
  Warren Commission.  Management at the highest editorial and
  corporate level took the action in every instance.  Before drawing
  any further generalization about the performance of the media in
  the JFK case, it will be revealing to examine what happened and
  specifically who took what actions in the case of the eleven
  national organizations and the nine local ones listed earlier.</p>

<p>    Time-Life</p>

<p>   The Time Inc. organization let "Life Magazine" establish its
  editorial policy while "Time" published more or less standard
  "Time-Life" stories.  "Life" became directly involved in the
  assassination action and evidence suppression from the very
  beginning, on November 22, 1963.
   "Life" purchased the famous Zapruder movie from Abraham Zapruder
  on the afternoon of the assassination for about $500000.  The
  first negative action took place when "Life" and Zapruder began
  telling the lie that the price was $25000 (which Zapruder donated
  to the fund raised for the widow of Dallas policeman, J. D.
  Tippit, who had also been murdered that day).  Apparently, both
  "Life" and Zapruder were ashamed that he profited by the event.  He
  lived in fear that the true price would be revealed until the day
  he died.
   As many readers know, the Zapruder film (viewed in slow motion)
  proves there was a conspiracy because of the backward motion of the
  President's head immediately following the fatal shot.  It proves
  the shot came from the grassy knoll to the right and in front of
  the president while Oswald's purported position was very nearly 
  directly behind him.  The film also helps establish that five, and 
  not three shots, were fired, and that one of them could not have 
  been fired from Oswald's supposed sniper's nest because of the 
  large oak tree blocking his view.
   "Life" magazine never permitted the Zapruder film to be seen
  publicly and locked it up in November 1968 so that no one inside or
  outside "Life" could have access to it, automatically becoming an
  "accessory after the fact".  "Life" helped protect the real
  assassins and committed a worse crime than the Warren Commission.
   In answer to those defenders of "Life" who will say, "But `Life'
  turned over a copy of the Zapruder film to the Warren Commission,
  and it is available in the National Archives," let's look at the
  facts.  "Life" did not supply the copy of the film now resting in
  the Archives.  That copy came from Zapruder's original to the
  Secret Service to the Warren Commission to the Archives.  It is
  available for viewing by the few people fortunate enough to visit
  the Archives.  It can not be duplicated by anyone, and copies can
  not be taken out of the Archives or viewed publicly in any way.
  The Archive management responsible for the Kennedy assassination
  records state that the "Life" magazine ownership of the Zapruder
  film is what prevents copies from being made available outside the
  Archives.
   The Warren Commission did not see the film in slow motion.  Nor
  does the average Archives' visitor get to see it in slow motion or
  stop-action.  Yet the most casual analysis of the film in slow
  motion convinces anyone to conclude there was a conspiracy.
   Thus "Life" magazine is an important part of the efforts to
  suppress evidence of conspiracy.
   "Life" was involved in several other ways as an accessory after
  the fact.  The organization began its efforts to discover the truth
  about the assassination in 1964 when it assigned Ed Kern, an
  associate editor, to investigate.  By the fall of 1966, Kern had
  become convinced that the basic evidence pointed to conspiracy.
  "Life" management was also apparently convinced;  they published
  articles in November 1965 and November 1966 questioning the Warren
  Commission's conclusions.
   In the fall of 1966 "Life" transferred Richard Billings from
  their Miami office to headquarters in New York.  His assignment was
  to take over the investigation of the Kennedy assassination, and to
  head a team of several people working full time on it.  One of Dick
  Billings' objectives was to search for and acquire as much of the
  missing photographic evidence as possible.
   This author initiated a similar search, independent from "Life"
  magazine, in September 1966.  As often happens, people with common
  objectives decided to work together.  Billings and the author
  arrived at a tacit understanding that any JFK assassination
  photographs, including TV films or private movies, found by either
  would be brought to the other's attention.  In exchange for access
  to "Life"'s photographic collection (including the Zapruder film
  and slides), the author agreed to give "Life" the results of any
  analyses of the photographic evidence.  In cases where the author
  could not afford to acquire some new piece of evidence, "Life"
  would offer to purchase the materials from the owners and supply
  copies to the author.
   In this manner the author discovered and helped "Life" magazine
  acquire the largest collection of photographic evidence of the JFK
  assassination, outside of the author's personal collection and the
  collection now located at the headquarters of the Committee to
  Investigate Assassinations in Washington, D.C.  Among the photos
  discovered were:</p>

<p>   The Dorman movie    Private
   The Wilma Bond photos   Private
   The Robert Hughes movie   Private
   The David Weigman TV footage  NBC
   The Malcolm Couch TV footage  ABC
   The Jack Beers photos   "Dallas Morning News"
   The William Allen photos  "Dallas Times Herald"
   The George Smith photos   Ft. Worth "Star Telegram"
   The John Martin movie   Private
   Hugh Betzen's photo   Private</p>

<p>  (See "Computers and Automation," May 1970)</p>

<p>   Many of these were important in proving conspiracy and some
  showed pictures of the real assassins.
   The "Life" team headed by Billings was in the process of
  discovering a great deal about the conspiracy during the 1966-1968
  period.  While editorially not taking a strong position favoring
  conspiracy, "Life" did take a position that favored a new
  investigation by the government.  This was editorially summed up in
  a lead cover story on the fourth anniversary of Kennedy's death in
  November 1967 with the title,  "A Matter of Reasonable Doubt".  In
  that issue, John Connally and his wife were shown examining the
  Zapruder film's frames and concluding that he had been hit much
  later in the film than the Warren Commission claimed.  This meant
  that two bullets struck the two men and, by the Commission's own
  admission, pointed automatically to the conspiracy.
   The government naturally did not respond to "Life"'s suggestion
  for a new investigation, so nothing ever came of that editorial
  policy.  Billings, however, continued his team's efforts and in
  October 1968 was preparing a comprehensive article for the November
  anniversary issue.  The author continued to work with him and
  continued being given access to the photos right up to October
  1968.
   It was at that point in time that a drastic change in management
  policy occurred at "Life" magazine.  Dick Billings was told to stop
  all work on the assassination;  his entire team was stopped.  All
  of the research files, including the Zapruder film and slides and
  thousands of other film frames and photographs, were locked up.  No
  one at the magazine was permitted access to these materials and no
  one (including the author) was ever allowed to see them again.
   Simultaneously, editorial and management policy toward the
  assassination changed to complete silence.  Billings and crew were
  not allowed to discuss the subject at "Life," let alone work on it.
  In November 1968 the article Billings had been working on was
  turned into a non-entity.  A few of the hundreds of photographs
  collected by the author and purchased by "Life" were published in
  the article, along with an innocuous commentary.  Credit for
  discovering the photos was given to a number of people at "Life"
  magazine in New York and Dallas, not to the individuals who
  actually found them.
   That article, published nearly nine years ago, was the last word
  "Life" has ever uttered about their extensive research probe and
  their feelings about a conspiracy.  Dick Billings moved to
  Washington, D.C. to become editor of the Congressional Quarterly
  and is a member on the board of directors of the Committee to
  Investigate Assassinations (CTIA).
   Who made the policy change decision at "Life" and why?  Various
  high-level conspiracy enthusiasts claim that the cabal behind the
  assassination of the President brought extreme pressure to bear
  upon the owners and management of Time Inc. to silence all
  opposition to the Warren Commission findings.  Others conclude it
  had something to do with the CIA's control of "Life"'s editorial
  policy from inside.  This author takes no position on why.  Dick
  Billings knows only that the decision was made at high levels and
  passed downward and that it was irrevocable.
   Repeated attempts by the CTIA and several independent
  assassination researchers to break loose the basic evidence in
  "Life"'s possession, such as the Zapruder film, the Hughes film, 
  and the Mark Bell Film, met with total opposition and a stone wall.
  Attempts to break loose the Archives' copy of the Zapruder film or
  slides met the same stiff opposition.  In 1971 "Life"
  representatives indicated they might be interested in selling
  rights to the Zapruder film for a sum in the neighborhood of a
  million dollars.</p>

<p>     CBS</p>

<p>   The American public is aware of the editorial policy adopted by
  the Columbia Broadcasting System toward the Kennedy assassination
  because of a special four-part series with Walter Cronkite which
  was broadcast on network TV in prime time in the summer of 1967.[4]
  That series, while taking issue with some of the work of the Warren
  Commission *and criticizing the Dallas police*, the FBI and the
  Secret Service, nevertheless backed all of the basic Warren
  Commission conclusions.
   Anyone watching the Cronkite series might have wondered why the
  basic evidence presented by CBS in an itemized format for each of
  several areas in the case, did not always seem to point to the
  conclusion reached at the end of each section.  The conclusion
  always agreed with the Warren Commission's comparable conclusion.
  Some viewers may even have noticed Cronkite's double-take after
  reading through the basic evidence and then reading the phrase,
  "and the conclusion is!"  It seemed as though he didn't believe the
  conclusion and hadn't seen it until he came to it in the script.
   Actually, that is exactly what happened.  CBS management caused
  the entire script to be changed from one concluding conspiracy to a
  script supporting the Warren Commission in the last week before the
  first part of the series went on the air.  Cronkite had not seen
  the entire script until the program went on.  Time had not
  permitted changing all of the points of evidence, so in most cases
  they were unchanged and only the conclusion was changed.
   How did this come about?  Who decided to change the script at
  the last moment and why?  Again there are control theories extant,
  but the author's personal relationships to CBS people might help to
  shed a little light on the subject.
   The discussion with all of the CBS people always centered on
  evidence of conspiracy and the CBS-TV film footage taken at the
  assassination site.  Bob Richter was the most knowledgeable of all
  the aforementioned people on the basic evidence and he was firmly
  convinced there was a conspiracy.  Bernie Birnbaum was convinced
  that a new investigation was desirable and his wife was convinced
  there had been a conspiracy.  Dan Rather believed there was a
  conspiracy and so did Wes Wise.
   CBS photographers Sandy Sanderson, Tom Craven, and Jim Underwood
  had taken movie-TV footages showing evidence of conspiracy.
  Craven's footage, for example, showed the assassin's get-away car
  driving away from the parking lot area behind the grassy knoll
  about one minute after the shots were fired.  Sanderson filmed one
  of the assassins being arrested in front of the Depository building
  about 30 minutes after the shots.  Most of this footage was either
  lost or locked up in the CBS archives vaults in New Jersey.
   Wes Wise so strongly maintained his opinion about conspiracy
  that he broadcast appeals for new photographic evidence over the
  KRLD local TV shows.  This was done against the orders of Eddie
  Barker.  Wes became Mayor of Dallas, elected in 1971 and defeated
  the Dallas-established oligarchy.  He actually received a new piece
  of photographic evidence based on his TV appeal from a Dallas
  citizen named Bothun, who had taken a picture of the grassy knoll a
  few moments after the shots.
   The script for the Cronkite series was being edited and was
  going through its final preparation stages in May and early June.
  The author was in constant touch with Wise, Birnbaum and Richter
  during this period and was informed about the basic thrust of the
  script toward conspiracy and recommendations for a new
  investigation.
   On May 8 a dinner meeting took place at the author's New York
  club with Mr. and Mrs. Birnbaum.  There, Mrs. Birnbaum and the
  author tried to convince Bernie that he should take a stronger
  position on a new investigation.
   On May 18, Bob Richter and one of Jim Garrison's investigators
  met in the National Archives with the author and reviewed the
  evidence of conspiracy.  On June 2, 3 and 4 in Dallas, the author
  showed Bernie Birnbaum and Wes Wise a film taken by Johnny Martin
  that showed three of the assassins and their cohorts on the grassy
  knoll running toward the parking lot a few seconds after firing two
  shots.  Wise and Birnbaum tried to interest Barker and others in
  taking a look at the film.
   On June 14 Bob Richter invited the author to meet Midgely,
  Lister and Wallace at CBS in New York where an interview was being
  taped with Jim Garrison for use in the series.  At that time
  Garrison, Richter and the author spent some time with the producer
  and his assistant discussing the evidence of conspiracy.
   Finally, on June 20, just five days before the program was to go
  on the air, the author met with Richter and Dan Rather in the
  Washington, D.C. CBS studios.  The script was reviewed by Richter
  and Rather in the author's presence.  The gist of the conversation
  was that Rather and Richter agreed that the conclusions stating
  conspiracy had to be made even stronger than they were at that
  time.
   The day before the program was aired, Bob Richter assured the
  author that the theme would point to conspiracy and demand a new
  investigation.  The author telephoned Richter immediately after the
  first broadcast and asked what had happened.  Richter was
  devastated.  He could not understand what had happened.  From that
  time forward his course paralleled that of Dick Billings.  He
  resigned from CBS in disgust and formed his own company, Richter-
  McBride, in New York.  It was his original intent to make a film
  about the JFK assassination based on his own research and the films
  he could obtain.  However, the massive suppression of the
  assassination, especially the suppression of the Zapruder film by 
  Time-Life films, cancelled Richter's plans for a film.
   Correspondence with Cronkite and others determined that the
  decision to change the script, distort and hide CBS's own findings
  and back up the Warren Commission to the hilt came from Midgely and
  Lister.  How much higher did the decision go?  Richard Salant was
  head of the CBS News Division then and, of course, William C. Paley
  was (and still is) chairman of the board.
   By an odd coincidence, in a sequel to the above CBS story, the
  author had an opportunity to learn a little more about Mr. Paley's
  knowledge.  Jeff Paley, William Paley's son, returned to the United
  States from Paris in the winter of 1967-1968, where he had been
  writing news stories and a news column for "L'Express" and for the
  North American Newspaper Alliance, a group serving small papers in
  the United States.  Jeff had become convinced there was a
  conspiracy in the JFK case and came to interview Garrison and
  others and to do a story for French papers.  (European papers and
  magazines always believed and still do believe in the JFK
  assassination conspiracy.)  He met at length with Richter and the
  author and became quite disturbed at what CBS had done.  He
  approached his father with the idea that CBS had been wrong in the
  Cronkite series and that something should be done to rectify the
  situation.
   Bill Paley told his son that he knew nothing about the details
  of the programs or the work lying behind the conclusions.  He said
  Midgely had been responsible for the entire production.  He told
  Jeff that if he could show proof that the CBS conclusions were
  wrong and there had been a conspiracy, that he would fire Midgely
  and all the rest of the team and do the whole thing all over again
  under new management.
   Needless to say, this did not happen and the mystery about where
  the decision to suppress the truth came from within CBS is as deep
  as it ever was.
   Since June 1967, CBS has remained editorially silent on the
  subject of the JFK assassination.  The photographic evidence of
  conspiracy in their possession remains locked up and suppressed.
  The Craven sequence--film footage by the CBS photographer (who had 
  been in the parade's camera car # 1) of a car driving out of the 
  Elm Street extension (left-to right in front of the Texas School 
  Book Depository) within 20 seconds of the assassination--was seen 
  by the author and Jones Harris in New York, but was cut out of the 
  film where it appeared prior to the time the author and Richter 
  began searching for it.  There is little question that CBS is an 
  accessory after the fact.
   CBS edited out one other important piece of TV film.  In
  November 1969, Walter Cronkite conducted a three-part interview
  with Lyndon B. Johnson at his ranch in Texas.  The series was
  broadcast in the spring of 1970 and on the first program an
  announcement was made that portions of the taped interview had been
  deleted at Lyndon Johnson's request, "for reasons of national
  security."
   What actually happened and what Johnson had said six months
  earlier was made public due to a leak at CBS.  The story appeared
  in newspapers all over the U.S. several days before the broadcast.
   Johnson told Cronkite that there had been a conspiracy in the
  assassination of President Kennedy, that Oswald was not a lone
  madman assassin, and that he, Johnson, had known it all along.
  Johnson reviewed the tapes a week or so before the program was to
  go on the air and then called up the CBS management, asking that
  his remarks be deleted.
   Someone at CBS who was very disturbed by this called a member of
  the Committee to Investigate Assassinations and told him what had
  been deleted.  This led to the story being printed in the
  newspapers.</p>

<p>    "The New York Times"</p>

<p>   The record of the "Times" through the 1969-1971 period follows
  the same pattern as CBS and "Life" magazine editorial policies.
   The early editorials following the Warren Report supported the
  Commission.  The "Times" cooperated by publishing much of the
  report in advance.  In 1965, however, editorials began to appear
  that questioned the Commission's findings and suggested a new
  investigation.  In 1964 the "Times" formed a research team headed
  by Harrison Salisbury to investigate the assassination.  The team
  of six included Peter Khiss and Gene Roberts.  Their conclusions
  were never made public by the "Times" but indications point to
  their finding evidence of conspiracy.
   Khiss, in particular, through the 1966-1968 period in several
  meetings and discussions with the author, expressed doubts about
  the Warren Report and questioned the lone madman assassin theme.
  When the Garrison investigation made the news, the "Times" began a
  regular campaign to undermine Garrison's case, to support the
  Warren Commission, and finally (during the Clay Shaw trial) to
  completely distort the news and the testimony presented.  Martin
  Waldron was the reporter sending in the stories from the Shaw
  trial, but someone in New York edited them to completely change
  their content.  The author saw the story written by Waldron on the
  first day of the trial and the final version appearing in the
  "Times."  The two were completely different, with Waldon's original
  following the actual trial proceedings very closely.
   The author, writing under the pen name of Samuel B. Thurston,
  postulated the possibility that "The New York Times," on selected
  subjects, including the JFK assassination, was controlled by the
  CIA through their representative among top management, Mr. Harding
  Bancroft.[5]
   In the summer of 1968, the author discovered a remarkable
  similarity between the sketch of the assassin of Dr. Martin Luther
  King and one of the three tramps arrested in Dealey Plaza following
  the assassination of President Kennedy.  Peter Khiss wrote a story
  about this and it was published by the "Times" in June, 1968.
  Apparently that was the final straw for the "Times" management as
  far as Khiss was concerned.  He was not allowed to do any more
  research on assassinations or to discuss the subject at the
  "Times."  As he told the author in 1969, he doesn't attend any
  press conferences about assassinations because he doesn't like it
  when people in "Times" management say, "Here comes crazy old Pete
  Khiss again with his conspiracy talk."
   The apex of "The New York Times" actions and editorial positions
  on the JFK assassination came in November and December 1971.  They
  published three items supporting the Warren Commission eight years
  after the assassination, at a time when it seemed on the surface to
  be a dead issue.
   The first was a story about Dallas eight years later by an
  author from Texas who wrote his entire story as though it were an
  established fact that Oswald was the lone madman assassin firing
  three shots from the sixth floor window of the Depository building
  and later killing police officer Tippit.
   The second was an Op-Ed page guest editorial by none other than
  David Belin, a Warren Commission lawyer.  He defended the
  Commission and attacked the researchers.  The third was a story by
  Fred Graham about the findings of Dr. Lattimer, who was allowed to
  see the autopsy photographs and x-rays of John Kennedy.  Graham
  actually wrote most of his story, which solidly backed up the
  Warren Commission due to Lattimer's claims that the autopsy
  materials proved no conspiracy, before Lattimer ever entered the
  Archives.
   In other words, it appears that Graham knew what Lattimer was
  going to find and say in advance.  Either that or someone in
  Washington, D.C. gave someone at the "Times" orders in advance to
  prepare the story for the first page, upper left-hand corner, of
  the paper.  It really didn't make any difference whether Dr.
  Lattimer ever saw the x-rays and photographs.
   The concerted campaign on the part of the "Times" management
  could have been timed to prevent a discovery of new evidence of
  conspiracy in the autopsy materials.  The reason for this
  possibility developing in the November 1971 period is that the
  five-year restriction placed on the autopsy evidence by Burke
  Marshall, a Kennedy family lawyer, expired in November of 1971.
  Four well-known and highly reputable forensic pathologists, Dr.
  Cyril Wecht of Pittsburgh, Dr. John Nichols of the University of
  Kansas, Dr. Milton Helpern of New York City and Dr. John Chapman of
  Detroit had already asked permission to examine the x-rays and
  photos upon the expiration of the five-year period.  All four were
  known to question the Warren Commission's findings.  What better
  way to freeze them out of the Archives than to select a doctor who
  could be trusted to back up the Commission (Lattimer had published
  several articles doing just that), commission him to go into the
  Archives, and then persuade "The New York Times" to publish a front
  page story in its Sunday issue demonstrating that no one else need
  look at the materials because they supported the Warren
  Commission's findings.
   All attempts by researchers to convince "Times" management that
  the other side of the story should be told have been completely
  ignored.  Lattimer's findings, if correct, actually prove
  conspiracy.  The "Times" has been informed of this but they have
  shut off all discussion of the subject.  The complete story of the
  complicity of the "New York Times" in the crimes to which they have
  become an accessory would take up an entire volume.[6]</p>

<p>     NBC</p>

<p>   The National Broadcasting Company became an active participant
  in the government's efforts to protect Clay Shaw and to ruin Jim
  Garrison.
   Two of NBC's high-level management people, Richard Townley of
  NBC's affiliate in New Orleans, WDSU, and Walter Sheridan,
  executive producer, became personally and directly involved in the
  Shaw trial.  They were indicted by a grand jury in New Orleans for
  bribing witnesses, suppressing evidence and interfering with trial
  proceedings.  NBC top-level management backed Sheridan and Townley.
   NBC produced a highly biased, provably dishonest program
  personally attacking Garrison and defending Shaw prior to the
  trial.  Frank McGee, who acted as moderator, later had to publicly
  apologize for lies told on the program by two "witnesses" whom NBC
  paid to give statements against Garrison.  The FCC ruled that NBC
  had to give Garrison equal time because the program was not a news
  program but a vendetta by NBC against Garrison.  NBC did give
  Garrison 30 minutes (compared to their one-hour attack) to respond
  at a later date.  Sheridan was the producer of the one-hour show.
   With Sheridan and Townley so deeply involved, and with such an
  extremely strong editorial position favoring the Justice
  Department, the Warren Commission, and the lone assassin stance,
  suspicions were raised about NBC's and RCA's independence.[7]  At
  one point in 1967 the president of NBC, according to Walter
  Sheridan, helped in the bribery efforts by calling Mr. Gherlock,
  head of Equitable Life Insurance Company's New York office, and
  asked for assurance that Perry Russo, who worked for Equitable,
  would cooperate with NBC.
   NBC is also the owner of several important pieces of
  photographic evidence.  A TV film taken by NBC photographer David
  Weigman was suppressed by NBC and not made available to
  researchers.  It shows the grassy knoll in the background just a 
  fraction of a minute after the shots.  Some of the assassination
  participants can be seen on the knoll.
   Fortunately for researchers, NBC sold the Weigman film to the
  other networks and to the news film agencies before realizing its
  importance.  The author was able to purchase a copy from Hearst
  Metrotone News.
   NBC's affiliate, WBAP in Fort Worth, has several important film
  sequences.  James Darnell took several sequences on the grassy
  knoll and in the parking lot which should contain important
  evidence.  Dan Owens took TV movies in and around the Depository
  building which should show how the snipers' nest was faked on the
  sixth floor, and one of the assassins in front of the building.</p>

<p>    ABC</p>

<p>   Of the three major television networks, ABC has remained more
  objective and appears to be less under the thumb of the government
  than the other two.  For example, when NBC was busy defending the
  Warren Commission and Clay Shaw and attacking Jim Garrison, ABC was
  giving Garrison a free chance to express his views without
  interruption on their Sunday program, "Issues and Answers."  They
  have never taken an editorial position one way or another on
  conspiracy.  However, in the Robert Kennedy assassination case, the
  investigation was suppressed at ABC.  The man heading the brief
  investigation was stopped and sent to Vietnam.  The man at ABC who
  called the shots in stopping the investigation and in suppressing
  evidence in ABC's possession was a lawyer named Lewis Powell.
   The evidence owned by ABC is a video tape of the crowd in the
  Ambassador Hotel ballroom before, during and after the shots were
  fired in the kitchen.  The ballroom microphones, including ABC's,
  picked up the sound of only three shots above the crowd noise.
  Since Sirhan fired eight shots, or certainly more than three, and
  since Los Angeles police tests proved that Sirhan's gun could not
  be heard in the position of the microphones in the ballroom, the
  ABC film and soundtrack is important evidence of three other shots.
   The sequence was originally included in the TV film of Robert
  Kennedy's 1968 campaign and assassination entitled, "The Last
  Journey."  Following a meeting at ABC when the management learned
  what the film showed, the next TV broadcast of "The Last Journey"
  (scheduled for the following week) was cancelled without any
  logical explanation.  The next time the film appeared on ABC (late
  1971), the three-shot ballroom sequence had been cut.</p>

<p>   United Press International</p>

<p>   Of all the fifteen major news organizations included herein, UPI
  has come closest to really pursuing the truth about the JFK
  assassination.  Yet they, too, have suppressed evidence, have not
  had the courage of their convictions in analyzing conspiratorial
  evidence, and by default have become accessories after the fact.
   Two different departments at UPI became involved in the
  photographic evidence of the JFK assassination.  The regular photo
  news service department, which receives wire photos and negatives
  from many sources all over the world, accumulated a large
  collection of basic evidence both from UPI photographers and by
  purchasing wire service photos from newspapers, Black Star, AP and
  other sources.  This department has made all of its photographs
  available to anyone at reasonable prices ($1.50 to $3.00 per
  print).
   UPI photographer Frank Cancellare was in the motorcade and
  snapped several important photographs.  In addition, five other
  photographs at UPI, taken by three unknown photographers, are
  significant.  All of these were purchased by the author from UPI.
   The other department has not been as cooperative.  Within the
  news department at UPI, Burt Reinhardt and Rees Schonfeld have
  varied in their attitude and performance.  UPI news purchased the
  commercial rights to two very important films shortly after the
  assassination.  These were color movies taken by Orville Nix and
  Marie Muchmore (private citizens).  Both show the fatal shot
  striking the President, and both show evidence of conspiracy.  In
  the Nix film, certain frames (when enlarged) show one of the
  assassins on the grassy knoll with a rifle.  Both movies show a
  puff of smoke generated by another one of the men involved in the
  assassination.
   UPI, under the direction of Burt Reinhardt, did several things
  with the Nix and Muchmore films.  They produced a book, "Four
  Days," including several color frames from the movies.  They made a
  composite movie in 35mm from the original 8mm movies.  The
  composite used the technique of repeating a frame several times to
  give the appearance of slow motion or stop action during key
  sections of the films.  Reinhardt, Schonfeld and Mr. Fox, a UPI
  writer, made the composite movie available to researchers at their
  projection studio in New York in 1964 and 1965.
   Fox and Schonfeld wrote an article for "Esquire" in 1965 which
  portrayed the Nix film as proving the conspiracy theories about
  assassins on the grassy knoll to be false.  This was deemed
  necessary by UPI management because a New York researcher and a
  photographic expert, after seeing the Nix film at UPI, claimed it
  showed an assassin with a rifle standing on the hood of a car
  parked behind the knoll.
   The research team had used a few frames from the film in color
  transparencies and enlarged them in black and white to show the
  gunman.
   In 1964, UPI gave the Warren Commission copies of both the Nix
  and Muchmore films for analysis.  The films were later turned over
  to the National Archives under a special agreement between UPI and
  the Archives.  This agreement reminds one of the agreements between
  the Archives and the Kennedy family on the autopsy materials, and
  the obscure one between "Life" magazine, the Commission, the Secret
  Service and the Archives on the Zapruder film.
   The UPI agreement prevents anyone from obtaining copies of the
  Nix and Muchmore films or slides of individual frames for any
  purpose.  The agreement is just as illegal as the other two, yet it
  has been just as effective in suppressing the basic evidence of
  conspiracy.
   In 1967, UPI, apparently still not sure they would not be
  attacked by researchers on what the Nix film revealed, employed
  Itek Corporation to analyze the film.  (At least it would appear on
  the surface that UPI did the hiring.)  Itek Corporation, a major
  defense contractor, did an excellent job of obscuring the truth.
  In an apparently highly scientific analysis using computer-based
  image enhancement, they "proved" that not only was there no gunman
  on the grassy knoll, but there was no person on the knoll at all
  during the shooting.
   The final Itek report was made public and highly publicized by
  UPI.  It looked as though the UPI earlier claim of no gunman had
  been scientifically substantiated.  As a by-product, Itek got some
  great publicity for their commercially available photo-computer
  image enhancement system.
   What the public did not know was that UPI gave Itek only 35mm
  enlarged black and white copies of selected frames from the Nix
  film.  The great amount of detail is lost in going from 8mm color
  to 35mm black and white.  And UPI gave Itek carefully chosen frames
  from the Nix film that did not show the gunman on the knoll.
   UPI and Itek defined "the grassy knoll" in a very limited and
  carefully chosen way so as to exclude five people (in addition to
  the fatal-shot gunman) on the knoll who appear in the Nix film as
  well as in every other photograph and movie taken of the knoll at
  the time the shots were fired.[8]  In addition, man No. 2, who had
  ducked down behind the stone wall during the Nix film, could not be
  detected by Itek because they only had the Nix film.
   Three men standing on the steps of the knoll, and two men behind
  the picket fence, were completely ignored or overlooked.
   The author began to contact Schonfeld and Reinhardt in early
  1967, viewed the two films both at UPI and in the Archives, and
  requested copies of the original 8mm color films or color copies of
  individual frames.  The response to the requests were negative for
  more than four years.  During this time, however, the author, a New
  York researcher, and a photographic specialist, enlarged in color
  the correct frames from the Nix film.  The enlargements clearly
  show the gunman, not on top of a car but in front of a car, with
  his rifle poised.  He is standing on a pedestal protruding from the
  eight-sided cupola behind the stone wall on the knoll.  The car is
  parked behind the cupola and can be seen in several other
  photographs and movies.
   Unfortunately, UPI's agreement with the researcher prevents
  making public the color enlargements.  UPI has consistently
  suppressed this evidence.  In 1971, they offered to make the film
  available for a very large sum of money, but they have never agreed
  that it shows anyone on the knoll and they will not make copies
  available for research.
   The UPI editorial position (in articles, the book "Four Days,"
  letters and news releases) has supported the Warren Commission
  through the years.  The major difference between UPI and "Life" or
  CBS is that no drastic reversal of management policy took place at
  UPI.</p>

<p>     AP</p>

<p>   Associated Press became an accessory after the fact by taking an
  action unprecedented for a news wire service.  It published a
  three-part report by three AP writers in 1967, completely
  supporting the Warren Commission.  The report was transmitted by
  wire to all AP subscribers over a three-day period and it occupied
  a total of nine to ten full pages of the average newspaper.  It was
  not news, but editorial policy and took a position supporting the
  Warren Commission and the official government propaganda about the
  assassination of John Kennedy.
   Most small newspapers rely on UP and AP for their news stories.
  The three-part AP report ran in hundreds of papers across the
  United States without opposition commentary.  For many this was the
  gospel at the time.  What more could the conspirators and their
  government protectors have asked?
   AP photographers were on the scene in Dallas during the
  assassination.  James Altgens, one of AP's men assigned to Dallas,
  took seven important photographs in Dealey Plaza.  Henry Burrows, 
  an AP photographer from Washington, D.C., was in the motorcade and
  snapped two pictures.  Four other AP photographers took ten
  important photographs.  AP's photo department and Wide World Photos
  in New York purchased many other photographs taken in Dealey Plaza.
   Meyer Goldberg, manager of Wide World Photos, set a policy early
  in the 1966-1967 period which placed AP in the position of 
  partially suppressing basic photographic evidence.  The policy 
  contained several parts.  First, Goldberg made it extremely 
  difficult for anyone to obtain access to the photographic evidence,
  particularly the negatives.  Second, he set a high enough price on
  copies of photographs ($17.50 for one 8x10 black and white print) 
  to freeze out all but commercially-financed interests.  Third, when 
  an original negative was discovered, the print order, when cleared 
  by Wide World, was always cropped.  (Full negative prints showing
  important details in the Altgens photographs were nearly impossible
  to purchase.)  Whenever any suggestion was made to Wide World that
  their photographs contained basic evidence of conspiracy, Goldberg
  and AP management turned blue with anger and literally refused to
  discuss the subject or permit research in their files.
   Various researchers, including Josiah Thompson, Raymond Marcus
  and the author met this type of stiff opposition, but after many
  visits discovered ways around it.  The staff at Wide World in
  charge of the photographic files was more cooperative, and at least
  one staff member was completely convinced there was a conspiracy in
  the JFK assassination.
   Nevertheless, the broadly announced editorial policy and stance
  of Associated Press between 1964 and 1972 fully supported the
  Warren Commission and the lone assassin fable.</p>

<p>     "Newsweek"</p>

<p>   "Newsweek"'s editorial policy and coverage of the assassination
  and its aftermath was largely the doing of one man, Hugh
  Aynesworth.  Aynesworth was the Dallas-Houston correspondent for
  "Newsweek" following the assassination.  He was in Dealey Plaza
  when Kennedy was killed, and he turned in several stories during
  the days and weeks following November 22, 1963.  His point of view
  was always closely allied with that of the Dallas police, the
  district attorney and the FBI.  He wholeheartedly supported the
  Warren Report.
   However, in May of 1967, after Garrison's investigation hit the
  news, Aynesworth wrote a violent attack on Garrison's
  investigation, and it was published in "Newsweek."  Aynesworth
  accused Lynn Loisel, a Garrison staff member, of bribing Al
  Beaubolf to testify about a meeting to plot the assassination.
  Beaubolf later denied this accusation in a sworn affidavit and
  proved Aynesworth and "Newsweek" to be fabricators of information.</p>

<p>   "Saturday Evening Post"</p>

<p>   The position of the "Saturday Evening Post" solidified after the
  Garrison probe became public.  It was based in large part on the
  reporting of one man, James Phelan.  Phelan wrote a blistering
  article for the "Post" published on May 6, 1967.  He attacked
  Garrison and Russo, and claimed that Russo's original statement to
  Assistant D.A. Andrew Sciambra differed from his later testimony.
  In view of the earlier editorial position of the "Post" when Lyron
  Land and his wife questioned the Warren Commission findings, the
  Phelan article came as somewhat of a surprise.  In fact, the "Post"
  had taken a strong conspiracy stand when in 1967 it published a
  long article excerpted from Josiah Thompson's book, "Six Seconds in
  Dallas," and featured it on the magazine's cover.
   The Garrison investigation, however, turned the "Post" around.
  Phelan became directly involved in the case, and in a sense was
  more of an accessory than Walter Sheridan or Richard Townley.  He
  travelled to Louisiana from Texas, spent many hours with Perry
  Russo and other witnesses, and generally obfuscated the Shaw trial
  picture.
   Phelan joined the efforts to persuade Russo to desert Garrison
  and to help destroy Garrison and his case.  According to a sworn
  Russo statement, Phelan visited his house four times within a few
  weeks.  Phelan told Russo he was working hand-in-hand with Townley
  and Sheridan, that they were in constant contact, and that they
  were going to destroy Garrison and the probe.  Phelan warned Russo
  that he should abandon his position and that Russo would be the
  only one hurt as a result of the trial.  Phelan claimed Garrison
  would leave Russo alone, standing in the cold.
   Phelan offered to hire a $200000-a-year lawyer from New York
  for Russo if he would cooperate against Garrison.  He asked Russo
  how he would feel about sending an innocent man (Clay Shaw) to the
  penitentiary.  Phelan left New Orleans and Baton Rouge and returned
  to New York, only to telephone Russo several times and offer to pay
  Russo's plane fare to New York to meet with him and discuss going
  over to Clay Shaw's side.
   Phelan was subpoenaed by Shaw's lawyers during a hearing in 1967
  because his article attacked Garrison.  Sciambra welcomed the
  opportunity to cross-examine Phelan on the stand.  He described the
  article as being incomplete, distorted and tantamount to lying.
  Sciambra said, "I guarantee that he (Phelan) will be exposed for
  having twisted the facts in order to build up a scoop for himself
  and the `Saturday Evening Post.'"
   Sciambra went on to say that Phelan had neglected the most
  important fact of all in his article.  It was that Phelan had been
  told by Russo in Baton Rouge that Russo and Sciambra had discussed
  the plot dialogue (to assassinate JFK) at their initial meeting.</p>

<p>    Capital City Broadcasting</p>

<p>   This organization owns several radio stations in the capitol
  cities of various states and in Washington, D.C.  Their interests
  in the JFK assassination increased in 1967 and 1968 when the
  Garrison-Shaw case made headlines.  A producer at Capital City,
  Erik Lindquist, decided to do a series of programs designed to
  ferret out the truth.  The author furnished various evidence for
  scripts to be used in the programs.  After several months of work
  the project was cancelled, presumably by top management, and the
  broadcasts never took place.</p>

<p>    North American Newspaper Alliance</p>

<p>   This newspaper chain, with papers affiliated in small
  communities through the northern and eastern U.S., supported the
  Warren Commission findings as did all the other major newspaper
  services and chains.
   The Alliance also became involved in the Martin Luther King case
  and it circulated the syndicated column by the black writer and
  reporter, Louis Lomax, who had taken an interest in finding out
  what really happened in the King assassination.
   Lomax located a man named Stein who had taken a trip with James
  Earl Ray from Los Angeles to New Orleans.  The two retraced the
  automobile trip of Ray and Stein, beginning in Los Angeles and
  heading through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.  They were trying to
  find the telephone booth from which Ray had called a friend named
  Raoul in New Orleans somewhere along the route.  Raoul, according
  to Ray, was the man who actually fired the shot that killed King.
  Stein remembered that Ray told him he was going to meet Raoul in
  New Orleans and that Ray phoned Raoul at someone's office.  Stein
  couldn't remember exactly where the phone booth was because he and
  Ray had been driving non-stop day and night.
   Lomax wrote a series of articles depicting Raoul as the killer
  and Ray as the patsy.  He sent them to the Alliance, a column each
  day, from the places along the retraced trip he and Stein took.
  Finally, Lomax's column announced they had found the phone booth at
  a gas station in Texas and that he was going to obtain the phone
  number Ray had called in New Orleans.  He presumably was planning
  to visit the local telephone company office the next morning and
  obtain the number.
   That was the last Lomax column ever to appear in the North
  American Alliance papers.  He seemed to disappear completely.  The
  readers were left hanging, not knowing whether he obtained the
  phone number or whether he discovered who it belonged to.  The
  Committee to Investigate Assassinations located Lomax several
  months later and asked him what had happened.
   He said he had been told by the FBI to stop his investigation
  and not to publish or write any more stories about it.  He said he
  found the phone number and where it was located in New Orleans.  He
  gave the number to the Committee to Investigate Assassinations.  He
  said he was afraid he would be killed and decided to stop work on 
  the case.
   Whether North American Newspaper Alliance management knew about
  any of this remains unknown.  What is known, however, is that Louis
  Lomax died in a very mysterious manner in 1970.  He was traveling
  at a very high speed and was found dead in a car crash, according
  to the State police report.  Lomax's wife says he was a very
  careful driver and never drove at high speeds.</p>

<p>From dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com Thu Jun 11 08:37:11 1992
Received: from pl122c.eecs.lehigh.edu by ns-mx.uiowa.edu (5.64.jnf/920408)
  on Thu, 11 Jun 92 08:37:01 -0500 id AA02015 with SMTP 
Received: from SGI.COM by PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU (5.61/1.34)
id AA17732; Thu, 11 Jun 92 09:22:19 -0400
Received: from [192.102.132.11] by sgi.sgi.com via SMTP (911016.SGI/910110.SGI)
for PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA19154; Thu, 11 Jun 92 06:24:54 -0700
Received: by ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (920110.SGI/920502.SGI.AUTO)
for @sgi.sgi.com:PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA04892; Thu, 11 Jun 92 06:24:51 -0700
Date: Thu, 11 Jun 92 06:24:51 -0700
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
<info type="Message-ID"> 9206111324.AA04892@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com</info>
To: PML3@PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU
Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (5/11)
Status: RO</p>

<p>Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (5/11)
Summary: we were robbed of our capability of electing a president we wanted
Keywords:  part 5 of 11:  second/last half of chapter 9
Lines: 908</p>

<p>    Dallas Newspapers</p>

<p>   The two newspapers in Dallas, "The Times Herald" and "The
  Morning News," became accessories after the fact.  They suppressed
  evidence of conspiracy and evidence concerning the Dallas police
  role in framing Lee Harvey Oswald.  It was not immediately
  established that the management policy of both papers supported the
  official positions taken by the Dallas police and district
  attorney, the FBI and the Warren Commission.  During the first few
  days immediately following the assassination, both newspapers
  printed anything that came along.  The editions on November 22
  through 25 make very interesting reading for the researcher because
  the stories were printed before anyone had any idea what to
  suppress.  (For example, there are stories about other people being
  arrested, about other rifles being found near Dealey Plaza, and
  about Oswald's rifle being a Mauser and a British 303 model.)
   Editorial and management policy took over within a couple of
  weeks and the lone assassin story received all the attention from
  then on.  The two papers have not since made any independent
  inquiries, have not been interested in any conspiratorial
  discussions, and have remained completely faithful to the official
  governmental position.
   There were some inquiring reporters around (like Ronnie Dugger,
  for example, or Lonnie Hudkins), but they were eventually silenced
  by management or the FBI and Dallas police.  Photographers at the
  two papers left town or were frightened out of talking about the
  case or their photographs.  Some of these photographs showed
  evidence of conspiracy, including pictures of three conspirators
  under arrest in Dealey Plaza.  Other photographs proved that
  members of the Dallas police planted evidence in the Depository
  building to frame Oswald.
   Between the assassination and 1967, the management and owners of
  the "Herald" and "News" were not completely aware of the
  significance of some of the evidence in their files.  Nor were they
  attempting to control their reporters and news staff.  For example,
  Hudkins found that Oswald had been a paid informer for the FBI.  He
  even found what his pay number had been (S172).  He took the
  information to Waggoner Carr, Texas Attorney General, in January of
  1964.  Carr brought it to the attention of the Warren Commission.
  Hoover denied it, and the matter died in secret executive sessions
  of the Warren Commission.
   Several photographs taken by "Dallas Morning News" photographer
  Jack Beers proved that the police created the so-called "sniper's
  nest" from which Oswald allegedly fired the shots.  The pictures
  show the positions of cartons in the sixth floor window before the
  police moved them.  Beers's photographs also indicate that the
  police made the large paper bag found inside the Depository
  building.
   Beers was permitted to use his photographs commercially in a
  book that he published jointly with R. B. Denson, called "Destiny
  in Dallas."  If it were not for that event, researchers would
  probably never have seen Beers's photographs.  Once the "Morning
  News" editor, Mr. Krueger, discovered that the photographs
  demonstrated both conspiracy and the complicity of some of the
  Dallas police force, he locked them up.  The pictures remain
  suppressed to this date.
   The "Times Herald"'s record is not much better.  Through 1967
  John Masiotta, the man in charge of the assassination photographs
  taken by William Allen, made copies available on a very limited
  basis.  The basis in the author's case was that a total of twelve
  pictures out of seventy-three taken by Allen could be purchased.
  The author was allowed to examine 35mm contact prints (about 3/4 X
  1/2 inches) of the rest, and the selection decision was extremely
  difficult.  Three of Allen's photographs showed the "tramps" under
  arrest who were part of the conspiracy.
   In 1968 the "Times Herald" management realized the implications
  of some of Allen's pictures in pointing out the real assassins, and
  locked their files.  To date they have not permitted anyone to see
  the photos again or to purchase copies.
   One photograph taken by "Dallas Times Herald" photographer Bob
  Jackson was so obviously in opposition to the official police
  position that it was suppressed by late 1966.  Jackson was riding
  in one of the news photographer's cars in the motorcade with
  "Dallas Morning News" photographer, Tom Dillard.  As Jackson's car
  approached the Depository building and travelled north on Houston
  Street, between Main Street and Elm Street, Jackson snapped a
  picture (see map in May 1970 "Computers &amp; Automation" article).  At
  the time, the Kennedy car was already on Elm Street and was
  probably close to the position where the first shot was fired.
  Jackson's car was eight cars behind Kennedy's (about twenty car
  lengths).
   Jackson can be seen taking this picture in the Robert Hughes
  film and in some of the TV footage taken by other photographers.
  He also testified that he took the picture.  When the author asked
  Masiotta about the Jackson photo in early 1967, he became very
  flustered and claimed to know nothing about it.  Jackson himself
  was finally located and, when asked about it, became very angry and
  denied taking a picture.  That photograph has never been seen by
  anyone outside of the "Times Herald" staff.  It's not difficult to
  speculate about what it probably showed, since the Hughes film, the
  Weaver photo, the Dillard photo and the Tom Alyea TV sequence all
  show the same thing.  Jackson's photo, without doubt, showed
  "Oswald's window" in the Depository building empty when Oswald
  should have been in it--an embarrassing counterpoint to Jackson's
  testimony that he saw someone in that window with a rifle.  If
  Jackson's photo (or anyone else's for that matter) showed Oswald in
  the sixth floor window, the whole world would have heard about it
  on November 22, 1963.</p>

<p>   Fort Worth "Star Telegram"</p>

<p>   The Fort Worth "Star Telegram" shines like a light in the Texas
  darkness.  It made photographic evidence from five of their
  photographers, Joe McAulay, Harry Cabluck, Jerrold Cabluck, George
  Smith and William Davis available to everyone.  Even though the
  "Telegram"'s editorial stance was eventually pro-Warren Commission,
  the photographers, editors and the woman who ran the photo files
  were all cooperative.
   George Smith's photos showed the three members of the
  assassination team under arrest.  Jerrold Cabluck's aerial photos
  were instrumental in establishing Dealey Plaza landmarks and
  topography.  Joe McAulay's photos of a man arrested in Ft. Worth in
  connection with the shooting might yet become valuable.</p>

<p>   TV Station WFAA</p>

<p>   The second shining light in Texas was TV station WFAA, an ABC
  affiliate.  WFAA was very cooperative (albeit expensive) in
  providing copies of all their photographic evidence.  TV sequences
  by Tom Alyea, Malcolm Couch, A. J. L'Hoste and Ron Reiland were
  made easily viewable and the copies made available.  Much of this
  evidence demonstrating conspiracy was also sold to TV networks and
  newsreel companies.</p>

<p>    WBAP -- Ft. Worth</p>

<p>   The NBC affiliate in Ft. Worth, WBAP, was less cooperative.
  Even though public statements were made that viewing of Dan Owens
  and Jim Darnell's footage was possible, many roadblocks were thrown
  into the path of researchers.  As mentioned in the section on NBC,
  Darnell's footage of the knoll and parking lot is very important.
  It has remained unavailable at WBAP.</p>

<p>   KTTV -- Dallas</p>

<p>   Independent TV station KTTV in Dallas also suppressed, or lost,
  valuable evidence of conspiracy.  Don Cook's TV footage contained
  twelve important sequences.  One is a sequence of a man being
  arrested in front of the Depository building at about 1:00 p.m.
  From other evidence it is possible to determine that the man may be
  William Sharp, participant in the assassination.  Cook can be seen
  in a picture taken by Phil Willis pointing his 16mm TV film camera
  directly at the man from about ten feet away.
   Willis' photo does not show the man's face.  For this reason,
  Cook's close-up footage is very important.  In 1967 the author
  interviewed Cook in Dallas and found that his film had been turned
  over to the editor at KTTV.  A phone call to the station resulted
  in a statement being made to the author that Cook's footage had
  been lost "on the cutting room floor" and was not available for
  viewing.  No further efforts have even been made to open up KTTV's
  evidence in the assassination.</p>

<p>   New Orleans Newspapers</p>

<p>   The only two publications in the United States that printed the
  truth about the Clay Shaw trial were the New Orleans "Times
  Picayune" and the New Orleans "Times Herald."
   Between 1963 and 1967 both New Orleans newspapers used AP and UP
  stories on most of their coverage of the Kennedy assassination.
  Suddenly, the papers found themselves deeply involved in the middle
  of the sensational Garrison investigation, and in 1969 they
  reported on the Shaw trial.
   The papers took no editorial position on Jim Garrison, the
  trial, the investigation, the assassination, or the guilt or
  innocence of Shaw until after the final verdict was delivered by
  the jury.  Then both papers savagely attacked Garrison on the
  editorial page.  Off the record, the reporters and others at both
  papers supported Garrison.  This was reflected in a book published
  by the two "Herald" reporters, Rosemary James and Jack Wardlaw,
  called "Plot or Politics."
   The management and editors of the newspapers evidently paid more
  attention to forces from Washington and New York than they did to
  New Orleans citizens or the testimony at the trial.
   But the verbatim proceedings at the Shaw trial, as well as all
  of the detailed events for the two years that the Federal
  Government successfully delayed the trial, were faithfully printed
  in both the "Herald" and the "Picayune."  While you and I, dear
  reader, were treated to a highly biased account for three years
  concerning events in New Orleans by "Time" magazine, "Newsweek,"
  "U.S. News," "The New York Times," NBC, CBS, ABC, UP, AP, etc., the
  average New Orleans citizen was well aware that the Justice
  Department, under both Ramsey Clark and John Mitchell, was
  responsible for continually delaying the trail.  (You and I were
  fed the impression that Garrison delayed the trial.)
   Mr. New Orleans citizen, let's call him Joe, knew that Shaw's
  lawyers were paid by the CIA.  You and I were told that Shaw paid
  his lawyers a lot of money and suffered financially because of it.
   Joe knew that the FBI was looking for Shaw under his alias, Clay
  Bertrand, before lawyer Dean Andrews ever mentioned the name
  associated with Lee Harvey Oswald just before he was killed by Jack
  Ruby.  You and I were told that Andrews fabricated the name Clay 
  Bertrand out of whole cloth, and no mention was made to us of the 
  FBI's search.
   Joe knew that twelve people saw Clay Shaw together with Oswald
  and David Ferrie on many occasions, exchanging money on two
  occasions.  You and I were led to believe by "Time" and "The New
  York Times" that only three people saw them together and that the
  three were not credible witnesses.
   Joe knows how Garrison was hounded and framed by the Justice
  Department in a fake pinball rap.  More importantly, he knows the
  government did not want Regis Kennedy, FBI agent, and Pierre Finck,
  Army doctor at the JFK autopsy, to testify at the trial.
   Finck's testimony, however, was printed in the "Times Picayune"
  but not in "Time" magazine.  He said that an Army general gave
  orders during the autopsy at Bethesda Naval Hospital.  The
  unidentified general told Finck and the other doctors not to probe
  the President's neck wound.  We did not read about this or hear
  about it.
   The "Times Picayune" record of the Shaw trial was especially
  accurate.  The "Herald"'s record was reasonably accurate, but
  because the paper was printed by 3:00 p.m., the paper missed some
  of the longer sessions.[9]</p>

<p>   WDSU-TV -- New Orleans</p>

<p>   As mentioned in the section on NBC, WDSU became directly
  involved in the JFK assassination aftermath because of Rick Townley
  and Walter Sheridan.  Both were under indictment by Garrison for
  bribing witnesses and tampering with evidence.  Townley, on the
  staff of WDSU, was close to the action with Garrison, Shaw,
  Andrews, Ferrie, Perry Russo, Layton Martens, Gordon Novel, Sergio
  Arcacha Smith, David Lewis, David Llewelyn, Guy Banister, and many
  other participants in the drama.
   According to accounts in the New Orleans papers and repeated in
  Paris Flammonde's book "The Kennedy Conspiracy," Townley tried to
  get Perry Russo, Garrison's prime witness at the Shaw trial, to
  change his testimony at the upcoming trial to make it seem that
  Garrison had hypnotized him and then asked leading questions to get
  Russo to testify against Shaw.
   Townley went to Russo's house twice, threatened to discredit him
  and perhaps have him fired from his job, and offered him a chance
  to work closely with NBC in their efforts to "destroy Garrison and
  his case".  Townley told Russo he could get Shaw's lawyer, F.
  Irving Dymond, to go easy on him if he would alter his testimony.
  He assured Russo that his employer, Equitable Life, had promised
  the president of NBC that no retaliation would be taken against
  Russo if he cooperated with WDSU and NBC.
   Walter Sheridan told Russo that NBC and WDSU could set him up in
  California (where Russo always wanted to live) if he helped break
  the Garrison probe's back.  NBC would pay his expenses there,
  protect his job, obtain a lawyer for Russo and guarantee that
  Garrison would never extradite him to Louisiana.  Sheridan told
  Russo that NBC had flown Gordon Novel out of Louisiana to McLean,
  Virginia (home of the CIA) and had given Novel (an important
  witness for Garrison's case) a lie detector test.  Sheridan said
  NBC would make sure Novel would never be extradited to Louisiana to
  testify.  (Novel never was extradited.)
   Townley also tried to influence Marlene Mancuso, former wife of
  Gordon Novel, and an important Shaw trial witness.  He told her
  that she should cooperate with WDSU and NBC because Garrison was
  going to be destroyed and that NBC was not merely willing to
  discredit the probe:  he said Garrison would go to jail.
   On July 10, 1967, Richard Townley was arrested and charged with
  attempted bribery and two counts of intimidating two witnesses.  He
  was also accused of serving as an intermediary to influence cross-
  examining trial attorneys that the character and reputation of
  Perry Russo not be damaged.
   Sheridan was arrested on July 7 on the counts of intimidating
  witnesses and attempted bribery.  Both posted bond.  Townley's
  statements, however, did come true.  The Federal Government, aided
  and abetted by WDSU and NBC, did crucify Garrison.
   The author's belief is that this kind of behavior in the face of
  all the evidence gathered by the staffs of their own organizations,
  on the part of 15 to 24 major news media management groups is
  highly suspect.  It might be that each major news organization shut
  up about the Kennedy assassination because each was afraid of
  losing face or influence, FCC licenses, business or advertisers, or
  Government favors of one kind or another.
   This theory is perhaps best exemplified by a story told by
  Dorothy Kilgallen, before she died, to a close friend.  Kilgallen
  was writing several articles about the JFK assassination for the
  newspapers who published her column.  She strongly believed there
  had been a conspiracy that included Jack Ruby.  She interviewed
  Ruby alone in his jail cell in Dallas (the only person outside of
  the police who had this opportunity).  She told her friend shortly
  afterward that she was planning to "blow the case wide open" in her
  column.  She said the owner of the New York newspaper where her
  column appeared refused to let her print stories in opposition to
  the Warren Commission.  When the friend asked her why, Dorothy
  said, "He's afraid he won't be invited to White House parties any
  more".
   Of the three possible motives for suppression in the news media,
  the influence from the top and from high government places seems
  the most probable.  When will we, as Americans, learn the truth
  about influence in the case of the Kennedy assassination?</p>

<p>     Conclusions</p>

<p>   The pattern of internal knowledge of conspiracy followed by the
  complete suppression of such information is too strong to ignore.
  Two conclusions suggest themselves as one reviews the evidence
  regarding suppression and secrecy.
   The first is that our national news media are controlled on the
  subject of the assassination by some very high level group in
  Washington.  The orders to cease, desist, and suppress came from
  the top in each case.  To influence the very top level of all
  fifteen major news media organizations would have taken a great
  deal more than money, power, or threats.  In fact, the only kind of
  appeal which seems likely to have had a chance of shutting everyone
  up is a "highly patriotic, national security," kind of appeal.  It
  was probably just such an argument that worked with the Warren
  Commission.  Judging by the fact that Lyndon B. Johnson told Walter
  Cronkite there was a conspiracy and then successfully persuaded CBS
  to edit this out of his remarks "on grounds of national security,"
  this kind of an appeal obviously does work.
   The second possibility, rather remote from a probability
  standpoint, should nevertheless be considered.  It is that all 15
  to 24 news organizations reached a point of exasperation and
  disbelief in 1968-1969.  It's possible the top managers of these 24
  organizations reached this exasperation point independent of one
  another.  Within a two to three-year period, culminating in the
  Shaw trial and discrediting of Jim Garrison, every one of these
  managers might finally have said, "Stop, cease, desist, lock the
  files, you're fired, shut up, I don't want to hear another word
  about it."</p>

<p>    1976</p>

<p>   How, one may ask, could all of this have happened in the world's
  greatest democracy?  What has become of the principles of the
  Founding Fathers, Horace Greeley, Will Rogers and others, in which
  the "free" press is supposedly our best protection from the misuse
  of governmental power.  Didn't things change with Watergate?  What
  about the "New York Times" and the "Pentagon Papers," the
  "Washington Post," Bernstein and Woodward, Watergate, NBC's white
  paper on Vietnam, Sy Hersh and the CIA stories in the "New York
  Times"?
   The actions taking place in November-December, 1975 and on into
  1976, proved the media were still influenced and controlled by the
  same forces that controlled the media in 1968 and 1969.  Some of
  the names of the players were different:  Ford for Nixon, Colby for
  Helms, Kelley for J. Edgar Hoover.  But the forces were the same.
  The chairmen of the boards and presidents of NBC, CBS, ABC, Time,
  Inc., "Newsweek"-"Washington Post," "Los Angeles Times," "Chicago
  Tribune," UPI, AP, and the rest, were still very much controlled
  and influenced by the White House and the Secret Team.  Some of the
  influence was by infiltration, as Fletcher Prouty so aptly
  demonstrated.[10]
   The Secret Team members were to be found everywhere at or near
  the top.  Other influence came from the Ford administration through
  direct or indirect pressure.  The FCC, the IRS, the Department of
  Commerce, the military and other government agencies had some
  control over the media or the personal lives of the top managers.
  (It must be remembered that Gerald Ford was and is one of the
  cover-up conspirators in the JFK case.)</p>

<p>    What is the Evidence?</p>

<p>   What is the evidence for this?  One measures the influence by
  results.  In an era when all who have really examined the basic
  evidence know there were conspiracies in the JFK and RFK
  assassinations, we still find the 15 organizations concluding there
  were lone, demented gunmen in the two cases.
   For example, CBS broadcast a two-part special on November 25 and
  26, 1975, once again reinforcing their stand that Oswald acted
  alone.  Except for the substitution of Dan Rather as chief narrator
  in place of Walter Cronkite, the cast was the same as in the 1967
  four-part series.  Leslie Midgely was the producer, Bernie
  Birnbaum, the associate producer, and Jane Bartels, Birnbaum's
  girl-Friday.  Eric Sevareid and Eddie Barker were missing.  So was
  Bob Richter, another 1967 associate producer who had discovered the
  truth about the conspiracy and the way CBS handled it.  (He now
  manages his own film-making company, Richter-McBride, in New York.)
  Richter's opinion about the 1967 CBS four-part special, as
  expressed in an interview with Jerry Policoff published in "New
  Times" magazine in October 1975,[11] barred him from becoming a
  consultant to Midgely on the November 25 and 26 programs.</p>

<p>    Hard Evidence Never Mentioned</p>

<p>   Time, Inc., in their November 17, 1975 issue supported the lone
  assassin myth as they have since 1964.[12]  Since "Life" was no
  longer in existence, Time management used "Time" and "People"
  magazines to further the causes of the White House and the CIA in
  the cover-up of the cover-ups.  The November 3, 1975 issue[13] of
  "People" magazine hand-picked a group of "researchers" and
  portrayed them as obvious maniacs who believed in and furthered the
  conspiracy theories being bandied about.  One of the favorite
  tricks of the media throughout the years has been to couple the
  words "conspiracy" and "theory" together;  never once did the major
  media mention any of the hard evidence pointing to conspiracy in
  any of the four major cases.  The "Time" policy and article,
  according to Jerry Policoff, was commanded from the very top, above
  Hedley Donovan's level.[14]
   The fine hand of David Belin can be traced in the "Time"
  article.  All of the 1964 arguments against conspiracy were aired
  once again, as though they were brand new.</p>

<p>   The Forces of Good vs. the Forces of Evil:</p>

<p>    A Life and Death Struggle</p>

<p>   David Belin:  Belin shows up in several places.  He constructed
  a new CIA-White House base on behalf of his superiors by personally
  writing most of Chapter 19 of the Rockefeller Report on the CIA and
  the FBI.  That material was used by Belin and others to try and
  shore up the Warren Commission defenses.
   The reader may ask, "Why did Belin appear on `Face the Nation'
  on November 23, 1975 and get himself on the front page of the `New
  York Times' on the same day by proposing the reopening of the JFK
  case?"[15]  The answer lies in Belin's own explanation.  He wants
  America to see that a new investigation will confirm the findings
  of the Warren Commission, thereby strengthening the country's faith
  in its government.  Just how did Belin manage to get on "Face the
  Nation" and on the first page of the "New York Times?"  To answer
  that you must analyze the life and death struggle that is going on
  between the forces of evil who want to continue the cover-ups, and
  the forces of good who want to expose the truth.  Senators Richard
  Schweiker and Gary Hart and the Church Committee's subcommittee
  looking into the JFK assassination were not the push-overs that
  Mark Lane, Harold Weisberg and others once were.  There were also
  Henry B. Gonzalez and Thomas Downing and their new resolutions in
  the House, not to mention Don Edwards' subcommittee and Bella
  Abzug's subcommittee.
   The evil forces needed to muster the strongest counterattack
  possible at this stage.  For them it was a matter of life and
  death.  So they rounded up David Belin, Joseph Ball, Wesley
  Liebeler, John J. McCloy, Dr. John Lattimer, the old Ramsey Clark
  panel of doctors who secretly went into the Archives in 1968, and
  some of the coterie of writers who were in their camp in the
  1960's.</p>

<p>   "I've Seen No New Evidence"</p>

<p>   Any doubts about Belin's recruitment by Ford and the White House
  disappeared with Gerald Ford's press conference on Wednesday,
  November 26, 1975.  A reporter asked Ford whether he would support
  reopening the JFK investigation.[16]  He said, "I, of course,
  served on the Warren Commission.  And I know a good deal about the
  hearings and the committee report, obviously.  There are some new
  developments--not evidence--but new developments that, according to
  one of our best staff members (David Belin), who's kept up to date
  on it more than I, that he thinks just to lay those charges (of
  conspiracy) aside that a new investigation ought to be undertaken.
  He, at the same time, said that no new evidence has come up.  If
  those particular developments could be fully investigated without
  reopening the whole matter that took us 10 months to conclude, I
  think some responsible group or organization ought to do so.  But
  not to reopen all of the other aspects because I think they were
  thoroughly covered by the Warren Commission."
   Thus Ford, in one of his own inimitable paragraphs, tried to
  give the impression that he was following the lead of David Belin-
  -rather than the other way around--in the continued cover-up
  efforts.  Earl Warren was always saying, "I've seen no new
  evidence."  Ford, Belin and the rest were forced to echo this
  refrain, as though all of the things that have been learned since
  1964 about the real assassins of John Kennedy and their planners
  and backers, were false rumors or stories and theories created out
  of whole cloth by the researchers and later by Congress.[17]</p>

<p>    Pure Coincidence?</p>

<p>   One CIA-White House lackey is James Phelan, formerly a freelance
  writer for the old "Saturday Evening Post."  Phelan was brought out
  of mothballs to do a pro-Warren Commission piece in the "New York
  Times" Sunday magazine section.[18]  By pure coincidence, it
  happened to appear on the same day that Belin's arranged interview
  was found on page one.  The "Times" is one of the worst, if not the
  worst, news media organization on the evil side of the battle.
   An article in the July 1971 issue of "Computers and
  Automation"[19] shows that the CIA control of the "Times" had for
  years been directed through Harding Bancroft, the Secret Team
  member there.  He controlled all stories and editorial positions on
  domestic assassinations.  He undoubtedly arranged for both stories
  to appear on the same day.[20]</p>

<p>   CBS.  Cover-Up Broadcasting System</p>

<p>   The Belin appearance on the CBS show, "Face the Nation", was no
  doubt timed to coincide with the first two parts of the new CBS
  whitewash series.  (The new name for CBS is "Cover-Up Broadcasting
  System".)  The men at the top made the decisions in 1967 and 1975
  to support the Warren Commission, and Leslie Midgeley carried them
  out.  In 1967 the entire program format was changed by top
  management from pro-conspiracy to pro-Warren Commission in the last
  ten days before the first show went on the air.[21]  By 1975 there
  wasn't any doubt about the conclusions.  Midgeley and Co. started
  out with the lone assassin thesis and, as the Warren Commission
  did, merely sought witnesses, experts and explanations that would
  back it up, while they totally ignored everything else.
   The CIA's man at CBS who controlled this policy is not known.
  Personal experiences and contacts within the organization by the
  author have led to the conclusion that it is someone below the
  level of William C. Paley and above the level of Midgeley.  That
  leaves Richard Salant and one or two other possibilities.  Salant
  is known to have had intelligence connections through the decades
  since World War II.</p>

<p>   Too Perfect Timing</p>

<p>   CBS and the "New York Times" are sometimes simultaneously
  orchestrated by the evil forces.  One example was the CBS show
  preview by the "Times" on November 24 (the show was scheduled to
  appear on November 25 and 26).[22]  The article, written by John J.
  O'Connor, was a reverse-psychology strategy by the top managements
  of both organizations and was used to reinforce their pro-Warren
  Commission policies.  To quote O'Connor, "In bringing some facts to
  bear on the feverish speculation, CBS News is less sensational but
  more telling."  This was in reference to David Susskind and Geraldo
  Rivera on Channel 5 in New York, and ABC, who the "Times" believed
  provided no facts in disputing the lone assassin conclusion.
   How did O'Connor and the "New York Times" take a look at the CBS
  shows *two days in advance* while other publications and reviewers
  had to wait and watch it with the rest of us?  There goes the
  orchestration again.</p>

<p>   "Newsweek" Editorial Position:
    Schweiker, Hart and Gonzalez Misled by Kooks</p>

<p>   The "Washington Post"-"Newsweek" situation is a little more
  mystifying.  It is difficult to believe that Katherine Graham,
  owner of both publications, is a Secret Team member.  The
  "Newsweek" story on the JFK assassination, published in the issue
  of April 28, 1975[23] was not as blatantly pro-Warren Commission as
  the "Time" article.  Yet it left the impression with the readers of
  "Newsweek" that editorial position regarded the researchers as
  kooks who misled or talked Senator Schweiker and Representatives
  Gonzalez and Downing into the wrong attitudes.  "Oswald did fire
  the shots" is the "Newsweek" message.  Individuals at "Newsweek"
  like Evert Clark did not really believe this.  So where did the
  pressure come from?  Mrs. Graham herself, or Benjamin Bradlee at
  the "Post," or someone else near the top of "Newsweek?"  With
  reporters like Bernstein and Woodward, and Haynes Johnson who later
  moved into management, it is strange that the "Post" supported the
  Warren Commission.  Yet that has been the "Post"'s editorial stance
  since 1964.  It remains adamant in its continuing contention that
  lone madmen assassinated our three leaders and attempted to
  assassinate Wallace.</p>

<p>    Eliminate Areas of Doubt</p>

<p>   Researcher Jim Blickenstaff, disturbed by a "Newsweek" article
  in April of 1975, wrote to the editors.  Madeline Edmundson replied
  for them.  "It was certainly not our aim to discredit those who
  doubt the conclusions of the Warren Commission or to express
  opposition to a reopening of the investigation of John F. Kennedy's
  assassination."
   Yet, "Newsweek" did exactly that and, in effect, took the same
  editorial position it had taken in May, 1967, when CIA lackey Hugh
  Aynesworth was doing their dirty work.  (Aynesworth later did the
  CIA's dirty work and supported the Warren Commission for the
  "Dallas Times Herald.")  The new position in favor of reopening the
  investigation was the one taken by Belin.  It was expressed best by
  Harrison Salisbury, the man at the "New York Times" who knew
  better.  Salisbury was quoted in "Newsweek" saying, "A new
  investigation is needed to answer questions of major importance.
  We will go over all the areas of doubt and hope to eliminate them."</p>

<p>  UPI:  Accessory After the Fact in the JFK Conspiracy Cover-Up</p>

<p>   AP and UPI have not repeated their 1967-1968 performances
  recently in which they sent out the longest stories ever broadcast
  over their news service wires.  They were so long that they were
  divided into installments.  The stories backed up the Warren
  Commission and attacked the researchers, especially Jim Garrison.
  UPI, of course, became an accessory after the fact in the JFK
  conspiracy cover-up by suppressing the original 8mm color films by
  Marie Muchmore and Orville Nix.  It went even further by employing
  Itek Corporation to prove there was no one on the grassy knoll.
   In July of 1975 a UPI alumnus, Maurice Schonfeld, published an
  article in "Columbia Journalism Review"[24] that subtly contended 
  one of the riflemen on the knoll as seen in the original Nix film 
  was either an illusion or a man without a rifle.</p>

<p>    "Expert" Opinions</p>

<p>   Itek:  Itek is still at work helping out their friendly
  employers, the U.S. government and the CIA.  Itek analyzed the
  Zapruder film and the Hughes film on the CBS program aired in
  November of 1975, giving its "expert" opinion that all shots fired
  in Dealey Plaza came from the sixth floor window of the TSBD
  Building.
   Maurice Schonfeld, perhaps unwittingly, did a favor for
  researchers in his "Columbia Journalism Review" article that
  revealed that two officials of Itek, Howard Sprague and Franklin T.
  Lindsay, were CIA Secret Team members.  So when Ford, Belin and
  Salant or whoever at CBS needed help, all they had to do was call
  upon good old Itek and Howard Sprague.  (Frank Lindsay has since
  departed.)</p>

<p>    AP:  Faithful to the White House and CIA</p>

<p>   Associated Press has been editorially silent since 1969.  They
  have faithfully broadcast all of the White House-CIA cover or
  planted stories without comment.</p>

<p>   Keeping the Lid On</p>

<p>   "Los Angeles Times:"  "The Los Angeles Times," controlled by
  Norman Chandler who was strongly influenced by the Ford
  administration, the CIA and Evelle Younger (the Attorney General of
  California), produced a complete cover-up effort in the Robert
  Kennedy assassination conspiracy.  Younger, of course, was D.A. in
  Los Angeles County when RFK was killed.  He and Ed Davis, L.A.
  Police Chief, teamed up with Joseph Busch, assistant D.A., to cover
  up the conspiracy evidence.  The "Times" for a short, unguarded
  period allowed reporter Dave Smith to publish the truth about the
  assassination.  This stopped in 1974, after Al Lowenstein stirred
  Vincent Bugliosi, Baxter Ward, Thomas Bradley, and finally Governor
  Pat Brown, Jr. to take a new interest in the case.
   Younger influenced Chandler to shut off the flow of information
  through the "Los Angeles Times."  Chandler, who contributed to the
  Nixon campaign, undoubtedly was strong-armed by both Nixon and Ford
  (or the CIA) to support the position of the Los Angeles police and
  the D.A.'s office.  Ronald Reagan and his immediate deputy at the
  time also helped sway Chandler and others in California to keep the
  lid on.</p>

<p>    Zapruder Film Broadcast on Two Occasions</p>

<p>   The American Broadcasting Corporation was the first of the
  television networks to seemingly break away from CIA-White House
  control.  In the spring of 1975, after Robert Groden, Dick Gregory,
  Ralph Schoenman and Jerry Policoff decided to release and publicize
  a clear, enlarged, stop-action color copy of the Zapruder film, the
  ABC show hosted by Geraldo Rivera, "Good Night, America," showed
  the film on two occasions.  Rivera might have made this move
  against the wishes of top ABC management.  Rumor had it during the
  summer months that he was in hot water with high level people.  All
  doubts about ABC's position disappeared when they broadcast an
  assassination special during the week of November 17, 1975 that
  supported the lone assassin theory.</p>

<p>   "Conspiracy Fever"</p>

<p>   "Commentary:"  One surprising newcomer to the cover-up
  conspiracy group is "Commentary."  The liberal, open-minded, non-
  government magazine "Commentary" broke their pattern in the October
  1975 issue[25] when it published an article by Dr. Jacob Cohen from
  Brandeis University which attacked the researchers as paranoid
  conspiratorialists.  Cohen has been writing these defenses for the
  Warren Commission for over ten years.  This article was republished
  in several other places in November, 1975, as part of the
  orchestrated campaign by the CIA-White House.</p>

<p>    A Straight News Story</p>

<p>   "U.S. News and World Report:"  "U.S. News" may be one of the few
  media publications to change positions.  On September 15, 1975 they
  ran a story entitled, "Behind the Move to Reopen the JFK Case".  It
  was a straight news story about Senator Schweiker's efforts and
  list of uncovered evidence raising new questions.  The article
  closed with:  "Numerous Americans who long have doubted the Warren
  Commission conclusions will be watching what the Senate does with
  his (Schweiker's) idea."  That is as close as any of the fifteen
  organizations came to saying they believe the Warren Commission was
  wrong.</p>

<p>    A Breath of Fresh Air</p>

<p>   "Saturday Evening Post:"  Like a breath of fresh air from the
  heartland of America in Indianapolis, Indiana, the revived
  "Saturday Evening Post" (Bobbs Merrill subsidiary) took an
  editorial stance.  The "Post" not only published several strong
  articles on the assassinations but also called for reopening all of
  the cases, supported the Gonzalez-Downing resolutions, and offered
  a sizable reward for information leading to conviction of the
  murderers of John F. Kennedy.[26]  Thus the "Post" joined the ranks
  of the "National Enquirer," "National Tattler," "National Insider,"
  "Argosy," "Penthouse," "Gallery," "Genesis" and other publications
  of this type, plus nearly all the "underground newspapers" in
  calling for new investigations.</p>

<p>    CIA Operatives Are Serving as Journalists
    For News Organizations Abroad</p>

<p>   "Variety:"  On November 12, 1975, "Variety" published an article
  on the House and Senate Intelligence Committees' suspicions about
  relationships between the CIA and broadcasting organizations.[27]
  "Variety" said the committees were probing the CIA's influence on
  the media organizations, particularly management connections, and
  commented, "A central issue in the investigations is reports of
  financial dealings with the CIA and media firms with extensive
  overseas staffs."
   William Colby admitted that CIA operatives were currently
  serving as journalists for news organizations abroad, and that
  "detailmen" were assigned abroad to news organizations, often
  without the knowledge of management.  Ronald Dellums, California
  representative asked Colby in an open session of a House hearing if
  the CIA had ever asked a network to kill a news story.  Colby would
  not answer specifics in open session, so the panel went immediately
  behind closed doors to grill him for several hours.</p>

<p>     Conclusions</p>

<p>   It is to be hoped that all committees in the House and Senate
  will investigate the Secret Team members in the 15 media
  organizations and their influence and control over editorial
  policies on domestic assassination conspiracies.  It is also to be
  hoped that the committees will investigate the role of then-
  president Gerald Ford and his working relationship to various CIA
  people in the original cover-up of the John F. Kennedy
  assassination conspiracy.  Certainly, David Belin's relationship to
  the CIA and to Ford in the media cover-up campaign needs be
  investigated.
   Fletcher Prouty claimed in his November, 1975 article in
  "Gallery Magazine," "The Fourth Force,"[28] that Belin is a CIA
  operative.  Prouty says, "The Rockefeller Commission did not look
  into this (the Fourth Force-CIA) because it had been penetrated on
  behalf of the CIA by David Belin, its chief counsel and former
  counsel of the Warren Commission.  In fact, Belin still reports to
  the CIA."  If this is indeed true, it explains every move Belin has
  made since 1964 and it also explains the mysterious way he appeared
  and reappeared on the front pages and editorial pages of various
  major newspapers, on choice television shows, and on the
  Rockefeller Commission.
   If the Congress leaves the media-government-CIA link untouched-
  -more serious than any of the other problems raised by the
  assassination conspiracies and their cover-ups--the United States
  might, in fact, be headed for the real 1984.</p>

<p>     Postscript</p>

<p>   On April 27, 1976 "The New York Times" published a story on the
  Senate Intelligence Committee revelation that the CIA would be
  keeping twenty-five journalist agents within the news media.[29]
  The Committee disclosed that George Bush planned to keep these
  people in the media positions that they had occupied for a long
  time.
   The significant point about the story was a statement by a
  Committee staff member that many of the individuals were in
  executive positions at American news organizations.  Bush had
  directed that the CIA stop hiring correspondents "accredited" by
  American publications and other news organizations.  The "Times"
  recognized that the pivotal word in Bush's directive was
  "accredited."  "Executives who do not work as correspondents are
  apparently not covered by Mr. Bush's directive, nor are freelance
  writers who are not affiliated with a specific employer."  The
  article also said that in most cases the media organization was not
  aware of the individual's CIA connection.
   This was yet the best confirmation that the CIA had its Secret
  Team members planted at the top of the media.  Only one executive
  is required at the top of a media organization to control it when
  needed.  Since the CIA had twenty-five executives planted, that
  figure is more than enough to control the fifteen media
  organizations mentioned in this chapter.
   Who are they?  The answer can be supplied by watching where the
  decisions come from to halt or change the news about domestic
  political assassinations.
   The indications from the analysis in this chapter are that the
  following media executives are among the twenty-five retained by
  the CIA:  Harding Bancroft, Jr.  ("New York Times"); Richard Salant
  (CBS);  George Love (Time, Inc./"Life");  Walter Sheridan (NBC);
  Lewis Powell, lawyer (ABC);  and Benjamin Bradlee ("Washington
  Post").</p>

<p>____________________</p>

<p> [1] "Accessories After the Fact" is the title of a book by Sylvia
   Meagher, published by Bobbs Merrill in 1967, accusing the Warren
   Commission and the various government agencies of covering up the
   crime of the century.  This book accuses the national news media
   of the same crimes.  </p>

<p> [2] Black Star is a New York based organization made up of free-
   lance photographers, called stringers, in every major city.  They
   do contract work for news media with Black Star acting as
   contracting agent.</p>

<p> [3] Samuel Thurston, "The Central Intelligence Agency and `The New
   York Times,'" "Computers and Automation," July, 1971.</p>

<p> [4] CBS-TV Special on the Assassination of John Kennedy -- June 25,
   26, 27 and 28, 1972.</p>

<p> [5] "Computers and Automation," July, 1971</p>

<p> [6] For a more detailed analysis of the "Times"' culpability and 
   selective bias in reporting the facts of the assassination, see 
   Jerry Policoff's October 1972 article in "The Realist:"  "How All 
   the News About Political Assassinations In the United States Has 
   Not Been Fit to Print in `The New York Times.'"</p>

<p> [7] A detailed review of NBC's performance and Walter Sheridan's and
   Richard Townley's involvement is given in "The Kennedy Conspiracy" 
   by Paris Flammonde.</p>

<p> [8] Those interested in more detail are referred to the map in the
   May 1970 issue of "Computers and Automation" on the JFK
   assassination.  The UPI definition of "the grassy knoll" was the
   area bounded by the picket fence, the stone wall, the top of the
   steps on the south, and the cupola.</p>

<p> [9] For a comparison of New Orleans newspapers and all other media
   coverage of the Shaw trial, see the author's unpublished book
   "The Trial of Clay Shaw -- The Truth and the Fiction."</p>

<p>[10] Prouty, L. Fletcher, "The Secret Team," Prentice Hall, 1973.</p>

<p>[11] Policoff, Jerry, "The Media and the Murder of John Kennedy", "New
   Times," October, 1975.</p>

<p>[12] "Who Killed JFK?  Just One Assassin," "Time" magazine, November
   24, 1975.</p>

<p>[13] "Up Front -- Did One Man With One Gun Kill John F, Kennedy?
   Eight Skeptics Who Say No," "People," November 3, 1975.</p>

<p>[14] Author's discussion with Jerry Policoff, November 29, 1975.</p>

<p>[15] "Warren Panel Aide Calls for 2nd Inquiry Into Kennedy Killing",
   "New York Times," November 23, 1975, p. 1.</p>

<p>[16] Transcript of Gerald Ford Press Conference "New York Times,"
   November 27, 1975.</p>

<p>[17] For a summary of the evidence and scenario about what it shows
   the reader is referred to two articles in "People and the
   Pursuit of Truth:"  "The Assassination of President John F.
   Kennedy the Involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency in the
   Plans and the Cover-Up," May 1975, and "Who Killed JFK?,"
   October, 1975.  Both by the author.</p>

<p>[18] Phelan, James R., "The Assassination," "New York Times Magazine
   Section," November 23, 1975.</p>

<p>[19] Thurston, Samuel F. (psuedonym for Richard E. Sprague), "The
   Central Intelligence Agency and `The New York Times'" "Computers
   and Automation," July, 1971.</p>

<p>[20] Bancroft retired in early 1976.  A successor has undoubtedly been
   groomed by the CIA.  However, Bancroft still has a strong
   influence at the "Times" on the subject of assassinations.</p>

<p>[21] Based on a discussion among the author, Dan Rather, and Robert
   Richter at CBS in Washington, D.C., approximately ten days before
   the first Cronkite-CBS section of the 1967 four-part series on
   the JFK assassination.</p>

<p>[22] O'Conner, John J., "TV:  CBS News is Presenting Two Hour-Long
   Programs on the Assassination of President Kennedy", "New York
   Times," November 24, 1975.</p>

<p>[23] "Dallas:  New Questions and Answers," "Newsweek," April 28, 1975.</p>

<p>[24] Schonfeld, Maurice W., "The Shadow of a Gunman," "Columbia
   Journalism Review," July-August, 1975.</p>

<p>[25] Cohen, John, "Conspiracy Fever," "Commentary," October, 1975.</p>

<p>[26] "Saturday Evening Post," September, October, November and
   December, 1975 issues.</p>

<p>[27] "D.C. Digs Deep Into TV News Ties With CIA," "Variety," November
   12, 1975.</p>

<p>[28] Prouty, L. Fletcher, "The Fourth Force," "Gallery," November,
   1975.</p>

<p>[29] "CIA Will Keep More Than 25 Journalist-Agents," "New York Times,"
   April 27, 1976, p. 26.</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>--
     daveus rattus </p>

<p>   yer friendly neighborhood ratman</p>

<p>   KOYAANISQATSI</p>

<p> ko.yaa.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language)  n.  1. crazy life.  2. life
 in turmoil.  3. life out of balance.  4. life disintegrating.  
   5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.</p>

<p>From dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com Fri Jun 12 09:16:33 1992
Received: from pl122c.eecs.lehigh.edu by ns-mx.uiowa.edu (5.64.jnf/920408)
  on Fri, 12 Jun 92 09:16:18 -0500 id AA05588 with SMTP 
Received: from SGI.COM by PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU (5.61/1.34)
id AA19548; Fri, 12 Jun 92 09:59:36 -0400
Received: from [192.102.132.11] by sgi.sgi.com via SMTP (911016.SGI/910110.SGI)
for PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA20770; Fri, 12 Jun 92 07:02:12 -0700
Received: by ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (920110.SGI/920502.SGI.AUTO)
for @sgi.sgi.com:PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA14133; Fri, 12 Jun 92 07:02:10 -0700
Date: Fri, 12 Jun 92 07:02:10 -0700
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
<info type="Message-ID"> 9206121402.AA14133@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com</info>
To: PML3@PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU
Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (6/11)
Status: RO</p>

<p>Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (6/11)
Summary: we were robbed of our capability of electing a president we wanted
Keywords:  part 6 of 11:  chapter 10 thru chapter 12
Lines: 1057</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>     Chapter 10
 Techniques and Weapons and 100 Dead Conspirators and Witnesses</p>

<p>   As Chapter 1 made clear, one of the two fiendish stratagems used
  by the Power Control Group to cover-up the truth and to fool the
  people was the use of various intelligence techniques and weapons.
  The use of such techniques in assassination and murder completely
  conceals the real killer's presence or the real cause of death.
  From the moment the crime occurs the public is led to believe that
  there is either one lone madman assassin or that the death was
  accidental, due to natural causes, or committed by natural enemies
  of the victim.  Some of the techniques are so unique that they are
  nearly impossible for the average American to believe.
   The intelligence forces of the United States as well as those of
  other countries have out-Bonded James Bond.  The development of
  sophisticated murder methods and the control of humans for warfare
  and spying in other countries came home to the United States,
  effectively used by the Power Control Group.  Penn Jones, Jr.
  published a list of "mysterious deaths" in his series of four
  volumes, "Forgive My Grief."[1]  Sylvia Meagher published facts
  about the first eighteen witnesses at Dealey Plaza murdered through
  the use of these techniques in the book, "Accessories After the
  Fact."[2]  Very few people other than researchers pay any
  attention.  Two movies with somewhat wider circulation, "Executive
  Action" and "The Parallax View," covered the techniques fairly
  well, but they were considered to be fiction by most viewers.  So
  the PCG goes on murdering where and when it is necessary, and it
  covers up the murders where necessary.
   In 1974 and 1976, two murders became necessary.  Rolando
  Masferrer, mentioned as a JFK conspirator, became dangerous to the
  PCG, and he was eliminated in early 1976 with a non-sophisticated
  weapon.  A bomb was planted in his car in Miami.  The cover-up in
  this case merely involved planting an informer who claimed
  Masferrer was killed by a rival anti-Castro Cuban faction in
  Florida.[3]
   Clay Shaw became quite nervous in 1974 after Victor Marchetti's
  statements to the press earlier that year made it known that Shaw
  was a CIA contract employee and that the CIA gave him assistance
  and protection before his trial in New Orleans and after Jim
  Garrison arrested him.  Shaw was murdered in New Orleans by the PCG
  and the murder covered-up by simply controlling his embalming and
  burial and blocking any local investigation.[4]  The reason for his
  murder was to keep him from talking and from returning to the
  public eye.
   The techniques and weapons fall into several classes.  First,
  there are sophisticated weapons developed by the CIA.  An example
  of this is the umbrella poison dart gun used in Dealey Plaza to
  shoot JFK in the throat.  Such a weapon was postulated by Robert
  Cutler and the author in mid-1975 as the one that fired the first
  shot from near the Stemmons Freeway sign.[5]  This seemed
  incredulous to most observers and so wild an idea that the author
  and Cutler did not discuss it with many researchers.  Then Mr.
  Charles Senseney, a CIA weapon developer at Fort Detrick, Maryland,
  testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in September
  1975 and described an umbrella poison dart gun he had made.[6]  He
  said it was always used in crowds with the umbrella open, firing
  through the webing so it would not attract attention.  Since it was
  silent, no one in the crowd could hear it and the assassin merely
  would fold up the umbrella and saunter away with the crowd.  (That
  is almost exactly what happened in Dealey Plaza.  The first shot
  had always seemed to have had a paralytic effect on Kennedy.  His
  fists were clenched and his head, shoulders and arms seemed to
  stiffen.  There was a small entrance wound in his neck but no
  evidence of a bullet path through his neck and no bullet was ever
  recovered that matched that small size.)
   Senseney testified that his Special Operations Division at Fort
  Detrick had received assignments from the CIA to develop exotic
  weaponry.  One of the weapons was a hand-held dart gun that could
  shoot a poison dart into a guard dog to put it out of action for
  several hours.  The dart and the poison left no trace so that
  examination would not reveal that the dogs had been put out of
  action.  The CIA ordered about 50 of these weapons and used them
  operationally.  Senseney said that the darts could have been used
  to kill human beings and he could not rule out the possibility that
  this had been done by the CIA.  He said he had developed a dart-
  launching device that looked like an umbrella.
   A special type of poison developed induces a heart attack and
  leaves no trace of any external influence unless an autopsy is
  conducted to check for this particular poison.  The CIA revealed
  this poison in various accounts in the early 1970s.
   Among the witnesses, important people and conspirators who might
  have been eliminated this way are:  Clay Shaw, J. Edgar Hoover,
  Earlene Roberts (Oswald's land-lady) and Adlai Stevenson.
   A second category, already discussed in the Robert Kennedy and
  George Wallace shootings, is the use of a "programmed" assassin.  
  The Manchurian Candidate always seemed to be a science fiction 
  story.  It is now well known that the CIA has used hypnosis and 
  "programming" to achieve a number of objectives, including murder.  
  Certainly there is little doubt that Sirhan Sirhan was under 
  hypnosis when he wrote in his diary and when he fired the shots in 
  the general direction of Robert Kennedy.[7]  There is also 
  evidence that Arthur Bremer was "programmed" to shoot at George
  Wallace.  It is conceivable that one of the assassins in Dealey
  Plaza could have been "programmed".  A man surfaced after 1975
  who--under deprogramming--remembered a firing situation resembling
  Dealey Plaza.  However, it is much less likely that the PCG had to
  use hypnosis in the JFK murder.
   It is completely untrue that Oswald was programmed, as the book
  "Were We Controlled?" by Lincoln Lawrence (an alias for radio
  commentator Art Ford) postulates.  The evidence shows Oswald
  didn't fire a shot, that he was on the second floor of the TSBD
  Building at the time of the shots, and that he was very calm until
  Patrolman Baker pointed a gun at him.  Strangely enough, Ford's
  thesis is true.  We were controlled by the PCG, although he had the
  details wrong.
   A third popular technique is, of course, the patsy.  The PCG has
  developed this to the level of a real science.  The assassination
  is allowed to be obvious, but the assassin is presented as a single
  madman or criminal who acts alone.  Lee Harvey Oswald, Jack Ruby,
  James Earl Ray, Sirhan Sirhan and Arthur Bremer have all been
  patsies.  They are not all exactly alike, nor is the way in which
  they were used the same in each case.  For example, Oswald and Ray
  did not fire any shots, while Sirhan, Ruby and Bremer did.  Sirhan
  and Bremer were "programmed", whereas Ruby was talked into killing
  Oswald by his friends in the PCG.  Four of the five men were
  framed;  a lot of evidence was manufactured and planted to
  implicate them, including fake diaries, fake photographs, planted
  guns, bullets and shells, and men using their identities.  The one
  who did not fit this category was Ruby.  It was not needed in his
  case because he killed Oswald before live television and believed
  until the day he died of cancer that his friends were going to get
  him out of jail in exchange for his "patriotic" act.
   The use of "seconds", men who looked like the patsy and who used
  his name (true of Oswald, Ray and Sirhan) is a common intelligence
  technique.  The planting of fake photos in the case of Oswald
  required some relatively special photographic facilities, but the
  job was not done well enough to avoid detection.
   A fourth technique is the "accidental" death.  Many witnesses
  and conspirators have been murdered in this way.  Lee Bowers, the
  railroad yard control tower man who saw the real assassins behind
  the picket fence in Dealey Plaza, was killed when his car rammed
  into a concrete abutment in Dallas (it was traveling at high
  speed).  The doctor who examined Bowers prior to his removal from 
  the car, stated that he probably received an injection of some 
  kind prior to the crash.  Louis Lomax, the black author who was 
  getting close to the truth in the Martin Luther King case, was 
  killed in Arizona when his car was forced off the road after he 
  was made to drive at high speed.  Hale Boggs disappeared in an 
  airplane crash that left no trace of the plane.  And of course the
  classic "accident" occurred at Chappaquiddick.
   A fifth technique is an induced death that produces another
  finding of the cause either by disguising the true cause or by
  controlling the coroner or those in charge of burial.  Examples
  are:  David Ferrie's murder by means of a karate chop to the back
  of his head, disguised as an embolism of the brain, Clay Shaw's
  murder by means unknown because there was no autopsy and complete
  control of his removal and burial;  Jack Ruby's supposed death by
  cancer in jail (real cause unknown because he was never out of the
  PCG's hands until he was under ground).
   Then there is a favorite sixth technique:  mock suicide.
  Examples of PCG murders that somehow became suicides are:  Hank
  Killam, a husband of one of Ruby's dancers, who committed suicide
  by throwing himself through a plate glass window off the street in
  Miami;  Betty Mooney, one of Ruby's girls who hung herself in her
  jail cell by using her leopard-skin tights;  Roger Craig, who shot
  himself;  Jesus Crispin, who knew Sirhan, supposedly killed himself
  in his jail cell;  Grant Stockdale, who threw himself off the top
  of a tall building in Miami.
   There are some on the list who were admittedly murdered, but
  supposedly not by the PCG.  These include Robert Perrin, Nancy
  Perrin's husband;  Buddy Walters, deputy sheriff under Sheriff
  Decker, shot by a man he was trying to arrest;  Eladio Del Valle, a
  cohort of Ferrie, killed in Miami by an axe on the same day Ferrie
  was murdered;  Rolando Masferrer, blown up in his car;  Eddy
  Benevides, shot by an unknown assailant (he recovered).  The
  cover-ups in each of these cases were put into effect by
  controlling the investigation or simply by not having one.
   The complete list of deaths, including the eight major ones
  (JFK, RFK, MLK, Mary Jo Kopechne, Lee Harvey Oswald, David Ferrie,
  Ruby and Clay Shaw) numbers over a hundred.  Here is a partial
  list:</p>

<p>   1. John Kennedy
   2. Robert Kennedy
   3. Martin Luther King
   4. Mary Jo Kopechne
   5. Lee Harvey Oswald
   6. David Ferrie
   7. Jack Ruby
   8. Clay Shaw
   9. Buddy Walthers
    10. Roger Craig
    11. Eladio Del Valle
    12. Rolando Masferrer
    13. Hank Killam
    14. Rose Cherami
    15. Hale Boggs
    16. J. Edgar Hoover
    17. Louis Lomax
    18. Lee Bowers, Jr.
    19. Jesus Crispin
    20. Jim Koethe
    21. Bill Hunter
    22. Tom Howard
    23. Earlene Roberts
    24. Betty McDonald
    25. Eddy Benevides
    26. Robert Perrin
    27. Gary Underhill
    28. Bill Chesher
    29. Dorothy Kilgallen
    30. David Goldstein
    31. Levens (first name unknown)
    32. Teresa Norton
    33. Warren Reynolds
    34. Harold Russell
    35. Marilyn Moore Walle
    36. William Whaley
    37. James Worrell, Jr.
    38. Captain Frank Martin
    39. Mrs. Earl T. Smith
    40. Karyn Kupcinet
    41. Albert Guy Bogard
    42. Hiram Ingram
    43. Nicholas Chetta
    44. Mary Bledsoe
    45. Jude Preston Battle
    46. John M. Crawford
    47. Richard Carr
    48. Kathy Fullmer
    49. Clyde Johnson
    50. Reverend A. D. W. King
    51. Carole Tyler
    52. Dr. Mary Sherman
    53. Grant Stockdale
    54. J. A. Milteer
    55. Hugh Ward
    56. Perry Russo
    57. Maurice Gatlin, Sr.
    58. W. Guy Banister
    59. Charles P. Cabell
    60. Dorothy Hunt
    61. Michelle Clark
    62. John Roselli
    63. Sam Giancana
    64. Fred Lee Crisman
    65. Carlos Prio Socarras
    66. Charles Nicoletti
    67. Jimmy Hoffa
    68. George De Mohrenschildt
    69. General Donald Donaldson
    70. Lou Staples
    71. William C. Sullivan
    72. James Chaney</p>

<p>   The large majority of these murders eliminated witnesses to,
  participants in, or investigators of one of the assassinations.
  People involved with the participants in one of the assassinations
  or cover-ups were also listed above.  The participants were:  Jack
  Ruby, David Ferrie, Clay Shaw, Rolando Masferrer, J. Edgar Hoover
  (in the cover-up), and Robert Perrin.  There were four
  investigators:  Jim Koethe, Louis Lomax, Dorothy Kilgallen and Hale
  Boggs.  The rest were witnesses or associates.
   Two articles[8] written in 1976 analyzed some of these deaths
  and concluded that they were not accidents unconnected with the
  assassinations of our leaders.  Another analysis by the authors
  demonstrated that fifty of the first seventy murders met three
  criteria for proving death by foul means.  All involved people
  directly or indirectly linked to the major assassinations.  All met
  death under violent or very strange circumstances.  No autopsies
  were performed in any of these murders.
   The Charles Senseney dart weapon might have been used in some of
  the murders.  The injection given Lee Bowers produced such a
  paralytic and terrorized expression on Bowers' face that the doctor
  examining his body exclaimed he had never seen such before.  Grant
  Stockdale was found to have died of a heart attack on his way to
  the street from the top of a building (a dart might have killed
  him).</p>

<p>____________________</p>

<p> [1] "Forgive My Grief" Volumes I, II, III, IV, Penn Jones, Jr., Self
   Published, Midlothian, Texas.</p>

<p> [2] "Accessories After the Fact," Sylvia Meagher, Scarecrow Press,
   N.Y., 1976</p>

<p> [3] "Miami Herald," March, 1976.</p>

<p> [4] "The Mysterious Death of Clay Shaw," Richard Russell, "True
   Magazine."</p>

<p> [5] "The Umbrella Man," R.B. Cutler, &amp; R.E. Sprague, "Gallery 
   Magazine," June, 1978.</p>

<p> [6] "New York Times," September 19, 1975.</p>

<p> [7] "RFK Must Die!," Robert Kaiser, E.P. Dutton &amp; Co. Inc., N.Y.C.,
   1970.</p>

<p> [8] (a) Self published article by Gary Schoener --  Minneapolis,
   Minn. Researcher.</p>

<p>   (b) Assassination Information Bureau (AIB), Cambridge, Mass,
  Research project and article.</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>     Chapter 11
   Nixon and Ford -- The Pardon and the Tapes</p>

<p>   As the Power Control Group grew larger and the number of murders
  increased through the years, it became more and more difficult to
  keep the veil of secrecy surrounding the takeover intact.  As
  Nixon's instability increased, the danger of revealing the secret
  superstructure to the American people increased.
   Watergate and Nixon's resignation from office nearly ruined
  everything for the Power Control Group.  A splinter faction in the
  CIA began showing strength and all of the dirt might have been
  leaked to the press and to the people.  Nixon himself had pulled
  the most dangerous boner in the history of the PCG.  He installed a
  secret tape recording system that recorded a number of
  conversations about the PCG's murders, assassinations and dirty
  tricks.  Even worse, Nixon did not destroy the tapes before the
  Congress found out about them and went after them.  As soon as it
  became obvious that Nixon would be forced to resign, the PCG had to
  use a desperation strategy.
   Gerald R. Ford pardoned Richard M. Nixon on September 8, 1974:
  such was the PCG's strategy.  Many skeptical U.S. citizens nodded
  their heads knowingly and assumed Nixon had made his "deal" with
  Ford when he nominated him for the vice presidency.  Evans and
  Novak[1] assumed that Julie Nixon Eisenhower talked Ford into the
  pardon on grounds that Nixon's health was poor.  The Ford's fears
  for Nixon's health didn't seem to convince very many news media
  people who saw a rosy-cheeked, apparently robust ex-president in
  San Clemente.[2]
   The pardon seemed to most Americans and news editors a gross
  error in judgment and a miscarriage of justice.  But once again the
  United States was fooled.  This time, the PCG, Nixon and Ford
  managed to pull the wool over the eyes of the public and to
  narrowly escape revealing what can be called "the entire rotten
  crust at the top of American power."  Any reasonable hypothesis
  about what actually happened, based on the evidence at hand, had
  not been even remotely suggested by either Congress or the media by
  1976.
   Any explanation of the situation leading to the pardon begins
  with the relationship between Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon.  It
  goes back to 1960, the year Mr. Nixon planned the overthrow of
  Castro's Cuba.  As earlier chapters have made clear, the U2
  incident and the Bay of Pigs was the beginning.
   In 1960, Nixon and the White House action officer worked on the
  plans for what was later called the Bay of Pigs invasion.[3]  Prior
  to that time the PCG and Nixon had accumulated plenty of reasons to
  want Castro overthrown.  The anti-Communist attitude was the
  superficial reason.  Beneath it were Nixon's connections with the
  Mafia and his friendships and financial holdings that were greatly
  damaged when Castro closed the casinos run by the mob in Havana.[4]
  When Nixon and Kennedy debated about the Cuban situation in the
  1960 campaign, Nixon purposefully lied to the American people about
  U.S. plans for an invasion.[5]  When he narrowly lost to Kennedy,
  it created a deep wound, and he and the PCG spent much of the next
  three years planning revenge.
   Nixon became a tool of a number of Cubans and Americans, both
  inside the CIA and outside, who agreed with him that casting out
  Castro was highly desirable.  One of these men was E. Howard
  Hunt.[6]  Another was Bernard Barker.[7]  A third was Carlos Prio
  Socarras.[8]  Richard Bissell, Richard Helms and Allen Dulles were
  the three higher level men in the PCG.
   These Nixon cronies and financial partners became involved with
  the PCG.  They murdered John Kennedy.[9]  Whether Nixon was
  directly involved in the PCG's planning for the assassination is
  still open to question, although one researcher believes that he
  was.[10]  There certainly is substantial evidence that Nixon was
  out to at least politically sink Kennedy and Johnson, and aimed to
  do so in Dallas immediately before Kennedy was killed. (See section
  on evidence).[11]
   Whether Nixon was directly involved in planning the
  assassination of President John F. Kennedy does not have to be
  settled here.  What is important is that Nixon was directly
  involved in covering up the truth about who did kill Kennedy.
  Evidence from the Nixon-Haldeman tapes of June 1972 indicated that
  Nixon knew the truth about the assassination when he suggested
  Gerald Ford be part of the Warren Commission.[12]
   A close personal friendship had developed between Ford and Nixon
  during their days together in the Congress, when both were strong,
  ultra-conservative, "red, white and blue", anti-Communist,
  "religious" members who thought and talked alike.
   When Nixon realized that John Kennedy had been killed almost
  under his nose in Dallas by some of his Bay of Pigs friends, the
  PCG convinced him he had to do everything in his power to cover it
  up and to bide his time until his powerful military and
  intelligence friends could place him in the White House.  It took
  one more murder by the PCG (Robert Kennedy) to get him there, and
  still another attempted murder to keep him there (George Wallace).
   Control over the investigations of these murders was essential
  for Nixon and the PCG.  In order to guide a presidential commission
  away from the truth, the closed small circle of people in the PCG
  who knew what had happened to John Kennedy had to be enlarged.
  Allen Dulles was no problem.  He knew the cause was an
  intelligence/military one from the day it happened.  Earl Warren
  was a different matter.  He had to be fooled and later talked into
  remaining silent "for the good of the country."
   A ringleader inside the Warren Commission was crucial.  It had
  to be someone the PCG and Nixon could trust, one who had an honest
  and trustworthy appearance.  Nixon called on Gerry Ford, and he
  convinced LBJ that Ford should be on the Commission.[13]
   Nixon told Ford at some point prior to January, 1964 who killed
  JFK and why.  He convinced Ford that every effort should be made to
  make sure Oswald was found to be the lone assassin.  Ford did an
  excellent job.  He not only steered the Commission away from the
  facts[14] whenever a key witness was interviewed or an embarrassing
  situation developed, but he also nailed Oswald's coffin shut
  personally by publishing his own book on Oswald.[15]  This, coming
  from the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, served to
  firmly plant in the American mind the idea that there was no
  conspiracy, that Oswald was the lone assassin, and that the Warren
  Commission had done a good job.
   From the day Ford's book was published, Nixon and Ford became
  totally beholden to each other.  They also both became totally
  beholden to the members of the PCG who were at or near the top of
  things and who were part of the small knowledgeable circle.  Other
  members of the PCG's inner circle included J. Edgar Hoover and
  Richard Helms.
   No one could be permitted by the PCG to come into power in the
  White House, the CIA, the Justice Department or the FBI unless they
  were part of the PCG and willing to keep quiet and help suppress
  the truth about the JFK assassination.  The PCG's membership
  widened, of necessity, when Robert Kennedy was killed and Nixon
  became president.  The people involved in killing Robert Kennedy
  and Nixon's top aides had to be told the truth.  This included
  Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Kissinger, Mitchell (who had the job of
  controlling Hoover's successors in continuing the cover-ups) and
  possibly others.  Mitchell was instrumental in stopping Jim
  Garrison's investigation of Clay Shaw and other PCG members and in
  totally discrediting Garrison.[16]  He was aided by Richard Helms
  and others in the PCG through CIA support in the Clay Shaw trial
  cover-up efforts.[17]
   The White House plumber section of the PCG decided in 1972, with
  or without Nixon's knowledge and approval, to assassinate George
  Wallace, so that Nixon would be assured of the conservative vote.
  The PCG and its debts once again grew.  E. Howard Hunt and Charles
  Colson, along with Tony Ulasewicz, Donald Segretti and others, were
  in a position to make demands in exchange for their silence.  The
  Hunt million-dollar blackmail threat to reveal "seedy things" or
  "hankypanky" was never explainable in terms of Watergate or the
  Ellsberg break-ins.  But three assassinations would certainly be
  worth a cool million to keep Hunt silent.  Again, the Haldeman-
  Nixon June 23, 1972 tapes are revealing.[18]
   When the Watergate crisis occurred, Nixon was trapped by his own
  tapes, and the PCG was in grave danger.  Discussions with Haldeman,
  Mitchell and others mention the Kennedy assassination conspiracy
  and the Wallace murder attempt on tape.  The PCG was suddenly
  threatened as a group.  The tapes couldn't all be destroyed because
  too many Secret Service people knew about them.  Haldeman and Nixon
  managed to erase one revealing 18 1/2 minute section about the
  assassinations, but who could remember exactly what telephone calls
  or Oval Office conversations might have mentioned the truth about
  the three murders?
   The PCG and Nixon again sensed the need for a successor who
  would keep quiet.  They called on Gerry Ford when Agnew was forced
  out.  Ford and Nixon, bound inextricably together by their mutual
  cover-up of the assassinations, worked out a deal.  Nixon nominated
  Ford to be his Vice President.  The Senate, completely bamboozled
  by Nixon and Ford, never asked Ford any important questions about
  the assassinations nor his performance on the Warren Commission.
  When they asked Ford about his book, he committed perjury twice
  before the Senate (see item # 15 in the list ennumerated below).
   Nixon and Ford agreed that Ford would keep quiet if Nixon
  remained silent and that Ford would succeed Nixon if he were forced
  to resign or be impeached.  They agreed to a pardon afterward.  But
  the most critical part of the arrangement was that those tapes
  revealing the truth about the assassinations be kept out of
  circulation.  When the Supreme Court ruled that the tapes must be
  turned over, it was then time to implement their agreed-upon
  strategy.
   In addition, Jaworski, Colson, Mitchell, Kissinger, Haldeman,
  Ehrlichman, the Warren Commission, Hunt, Helms, Shaw and anyone
  else in the PCG had to be bought off, pardoned, protected or killed
  to insure their silences.
   Leon Jaworski resigned.  People asked why.  The real answer was
  buried in the fact that Jaworski knew what had been going on.  He
  knew because of information passed on to him by the Ervin Committee
  and Cox regarding the assassination and the cover-up.  He was also
  personally involved in 1964 in the JFK cover-up.
   Jaworski could have been a problem, even though he helped with
  the JFK cover-up from the beginning.[19]  Hunt was taken care of by
  getting him out of jail, buying him a large estate in Florida and
  paying him a lot of money.[20]  Helms could be counted on.
  Kissinger may have been a problem, but he finally agreed.  His
  wiretaps were ordered to find out who knew about the
  assassinations.  Hoover was dead.  Clay Shaw was murdered.[21]
  Warren was dead.  Richard Russell was dead.  John Sherman Cooper
  was bought off (he received an important ambassadorship).  John J.
  McCloy was too old to worry about.
   That left Colson, Mitchell, Haldeman, and Ehrlichman, plus some
  other small fry.  The PCG strategy as planned with these men
  involved pardons for all of them in exchange for their silence,
  especially Haldeman and Mitchell, who not only knew what happened
  to JFK, but who also took overt actions to cover-up.  (Haldeman
  erased the 18 1/2 minutes of tape and Mitchell nailed Jim
  Garrison.)
   Newer members of the PCG may cause some problems.  They all have
  to know the truth by now.  Rockefeller and Alex Haig must know.
  George Bush, William Colby, Edward Levi and Clarence Kelly knew
  because of their access to the records, and they must have agreed
  to cover-up continuance.  Ford and his cronies in the House had to
  continue to knock out any efforts by Henry B. Gonzalez of Texas to
  start a new House Committee investigation of the JFK assassination.
  They were very successful in their control of the House Rules
  Committee.  Haig seemed to have been bought off with the promise of
  a top NATO post in exchange for his silence.  And control over
  Frank Church and the Senate Intelligence Committee was necessary.
   Gerald Ford remained committed to the PCG and to Nixon.
   The tapes had to be controlled and edited at all costs.  Nixon
  no doubt required help in listening to the tapes after Haldeman
  left and in sorting out those in which assassinations and cover-ups
  were discussed.  General Haig was undoubtedly the man he selected
  to do the dirty work.  It was almost certain that no tapes would be
  turned over to Judge Sirica or to Jaworski with any assassination
  references left on them.  One of the tapes demanded by Jaworski had
  such references.  This is the recording made on June 23, 1972 in
  which Nixon and Haldeman are discussing Watergate just six days
  after the break-in.
   The Nixon transcript of that tape turned over to Judge Sirica
  upon orders of the Supreme Court showed many sections labelled
  "unintelligible."  It is a near certainty that the critical
  sections were edited out by Nixon and General Haig before they were
  turned over to Sirica and prior to their transcription.  Judge
  Sirica was the only person in the chain of possession of that tape
  who could have been counted on to make a scientific analysis of the
  tape to see whether it was tampered with before he received it.
  His near brush with death in 1975 must be viewed in that light and
  in the light of the PCG's use of weapon-induced heart attacks.
   The rest of Nixon's tapes that were still in Gerald Ford's
  possession and control might have contained many references to
  assassinations and cover-ups.  Rather than go through all of them
  and edit or erase the critical material, it was more likely that
  Ford would either turn them over to Nixon for total destruction or
  sit on them as long as he was president.
   The evidence for the Power Control Group's and Ford/Nixon's
  strategy is as follows:</p>

<p>   1.  Nixon was White House action officer on Cuban invasion
   plans in 1960.</p>

<p>   2.  Nixon was in contact with Hunt and others during the
   Bay of Pigs planning.</p>

<p>   3.  Nixon lied to the American people by his own admission
   about the Bay of Pigs during his TV debates with
   Kennedy in 1960.</p>

<p>   4.  Nixon was financially linked to the Mafia and to Cuban
   casino operations before Castro took over.</p>

<p>   5.  Nixon was acquainted with Hunt, Baker, Martinez,
   Sturgis, Carlos Prio Socarras, and other Watergate
   people and anti-Castro people in Florida, and he was
   financially linked to Baker, Martinez and Socarras.</p>

<p>   6.  Hunt, Baker, Sturgis and Socarras were connected with
   the assassination group in the murder of JFK.</p>

<p>   7.  Nixon was in Dallas for three days, including the
   morning of the JFK assassination.  He was trying to
   stir up trouble for Kennedy.</p>

<p>   8.  Nixon went to Dallas under false pretenses.  There was
   no board meeting of the Pepsi Cola Company as he
   announced his law firm had had to attend.</p>

<p>   9.  Nixon did not admit being in Dallas on the day Kennedy
   was shot and did not reveal the true reason for his
   trip.  He held two press conferences on the two days
   before the assassination, attacking both Kennedy and
   Johnson and emphasizing the Democratic political
   problems in Texas.</p>

<p>  10.  Research indicates that Nixon either knew in advance
   about assassination plans, or learned about them soon
   after the assassination.</p>

<p>  11.  Nixon proposed to Lyndon Johnson that Gerald Ford serve
   on the Warren Commission.</p>

<p>  12.  Ford led the Commission cover-up by controlling the
   questioning of key witnesses and by several other
   means.</p>

<p>  13.  Ford helped firmly plant the idea that Oswald was the
   only assassin and that there was no conspiracy by
   publishing his own book, "Lee Harvey Oswald:  Portrait
   of the Assassin."</p>

<p>  14.  Ford purposefully covered up the conspiracy of the PCG
   in the JFK assassination and also covered up the fact
   that Oswald was a paid informer for the FBI.  He did
   this by dismissing the subject in his book as worthless
   rumor and by keeping the executive sessions of the
   Commission (where Oswald's FBI informer status was
   discussed) classified Top Secret.</p>

<p>  15.  Ford continued the cover-up when he was questioned
   before being confirmed by the Senate as Vice President.
   He lied under oath twice to the Senate Committee.  He
   stated that he had written his book about Oswald with
   no access to classified documents.  He lied about this
   because his book used classified documents about
   Oswald's FBI informer status.  He lied when he said
   that the book was entitled, "Lee Harvey Oswald:
   Portrait of *an* Assassin."  This was significant in
   1973 because the public by then had become very
   skeptical about a lone assassin.  By changing one word
   in the title, Ford made the book seem a little less
   like what it actually was--an effort to make Oswald the
   assassin.</p>

<p>  16.  Jaworski aided in the JFK cover-up by sitting on
   evidence of conspiracy accumulated by Waggoner Carr,
   Texas Attorney General, who he represented in liaison
   with the Warren Commission.  He also stopped the
   critical testimony of Jack Ruby when he testified
   before the Warren Commission, and diverted attention
   away from Ruby's intent to reveal the conspiracy to
   kill both Kennedy and Oswald.</p>

<p>  17.  Nixon became president in 1968 only because Robert
   Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy.  Nixon was well
   aware of the conspiracy whether or not he approved of
   it in advance.</p>

<p>  18.  John Mitchell and J. Edgar Hoover joined Nixon and the
   lower level members of the PCG in covering up the RFK
   murder conspiracy.  They classified the evidence "Top
   Secret" and murdered several witnesses, controlled the
   judge in the Sirhan trial and the district attorney and
   the chief of police in Los Angeles during and after the
   trial.  They still control these people and the Los
   Angeles County Board of Supervisors.  Clarence Kelly
   also became involved.</p>

<p>  19.  The plumbers group ordered the assassination of George
   Wallace in 1972 to insure Nixon's election by picking
   up Wallace's vote (about 18%, according to polls).</p>

<p>  20.  J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Helms were aware of who
   killed John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy.  They helped
   cover-up both conspiracies.</p>

<p>  21.  John Mitchell controlled the trial of Clay Shaw and the
   Garrison investigation and discredited Garrison by
   framing him in a New Orleans gambling case.</p>

<p>  22.  Nixon and Haldeman discussed the assassination of John
   Kennedy, the conspiracy, Hunt's involvement, the
   possibility that Hunt might talk, the cover-up, the Bay
   of Pigs relationship between Nixon, Hunt and the other
   PCG members, and the briefing Nixon might have had to
   give anyone running against him in 1972, on matters of
   "national security".</p>

<p>  23.  Nixon and Mitchell discussed the assassinations and the
   attempt to assassinate George Wallace.  Mitchell
   executed orders to suppress the truth about these
   events.</p>

<p>  24.  Gerald Ford had possession of the most critical tapes 
   on which assassinations and cover-ups were discussed.</p>

<p>  25.  Jaworski could be counted on to keep the assassination
   material under wraps even after his resignation.  He
   was aware of the conspiracy evidence and cover-up in
   all three cases (JFK, RFK, George Wallace).</p>

<p>  26.  Hunt was taken care of and will keep silent.  He had
   been out of jail and living on a beautiful $100000
   estate in Florida with plenty of money, across the
   street from his Bay of Pigs friend, Manuel Artime.</p>

<p>  27.  Clay Shaw was murdered by the PCG, undoubtedly to keep
   him from talking once the truth about his CIA position
   was revealed by Victor Marchetti.  He was embalmed
   before the coroner could determine the cause of death.
   Evidence indicates he was killed somewhere and then
   brought back to his apartment.</p>

<p>  28.  Hale Boggs, a Warren, Commission member, was possibly
   killed by the PCG.  Bogg's airplane disappeared in
   Alaska.  No trace of it was ever found and no
   explanation of how the plane could have crashed has
   ever been given.  Mrs. Boggs has expressed doubts about
   it being an accident.</p>

<p>  29.  Four of the seven Warren Commission members are dead:
   Warren, Dulles, Russell and Boggs.  Of the remaining
   members, Ford was President, John McCloy is retired and
   living in Connecticut, and John Sherman Cooper was made
   ambassador to East Germany.</p>

<p>  30.  Richard Russell, Hale Boggs and Cooper believed there
   was a conspiracy in the JFK assassination.  Russell and
   Boggs both said so publicly.</p>

<p>  31.  Haldeman erased 18 1/2 minutes of a taped discussion
   with Nixon.  This tape undoubtedly contained "national
   security" matters.  The fact that Haldeman did the
   erasing can easily be determined by tracing the trail
   of possession of the tape from the day it was taken out
   of the vault to the day the gap was discovered.
   Haldeman had the tape with the recorder alone for
   nearly 48 hours.  No one else had the tape alone long
   enough to do the erasing.</p>

<p>  32.  Ford and the PCG contemplated pardons for Mitchell,
   Haldeman, Ehrlichman and possibly others who know the
   number one secret.</p>

<p>  33.  Ford's statements to the sub-committee of the House
   Judiciary Committee concerning his pardon of Nixon
   dodged the real issue.  Only Elizabeth Holtzman asked
   questions coming close to the number one secret.  When
   she asked about a prior agreement, Ford said, "I have
   made no deal, there was no deal, *since I became Vice
   President*."  Those last few words were not reported by
   the press, but a large number of Americans watched and
   heard him say them.  Of course he spoke truthfully
   because the "deal" was made *before* he became Vice
   President.</p>

<p>____________________</p>

<p> [1] Evans &amp; Novak column -- September 12. 1974.</p>

<p> [2] "Paris Herald Tribune" -- September 12, 1974.</p>

<p> [3] "Compulsive Spy," Tad Szulc, Viking Press, 1974.</p>

<p> [4] "Nixon and the Mafia," Jeff Gerth, "Sundance," December, 1972.</p>

<p> [5] "My Six Crises," Richard M. Nixon.</p>

<p> [6] "Compulsive Spy."</p>

<p> [7] "Nixon and the Mafia."</p>

<p> [8] "Nixon, Bay of Pigs &amp; Watergate," -- R.E. Sprague, "Computers and
   Automation," January, 1973.</p>

<p> [9] "Nixon, Bay of Pigs &amp; Watergate."</p>

<p>[10] Trowbridge Ford, Holy Cross College, Boston, MA, Several papers and 
   articles.</p>

<p>[11] Warren Commission Hearings &amp; Exhibits -- Vol. 23, Pages 941-943.</p>

<p>[12] Nixon Transcript of June 23 1972 tape  -- "New York Times," August
   6, 1974.</p>

<p>[13] Trowbridge Ford -- Article on Gerald Ford &amp; Warren Commission.</p>

<p>[14] Ibid.</p>

<p>[15] Gerald Ford "Lee Harvey Oswald:  Portrait of the Assassin."</p>

<p>[16] "The Framing of Jim Garrison", R.E. Sprague, "Computers and
   Automation," December, 1973.</p>

<p>[17] "The CIA and the Kennedy Assassination" -- Unpublished article by
   R.E. Sprague.</p>

<p>[18] Nixon tape, June 23, 1972.</p>

<p>[19] Warren Commission Exhibits -- Testimony of Jack Ruby, Vol. V,
   Pages 181-213 and Vol. XIV, pages 504-571.  Also Trowbridge Ford
   article on Jaworski.</p>

<p>[20] "Washington Watch" and Triss Coffin newsletter, August 10, 1974.</p>

<p>[21] Zodiac News Service release -- August 20, 1974.</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>     Chapter 12
  The Second Line of Defense and Cover-Ups in 1975 and 1976</p>

<p>   The mini-war waged by assassination researchers and a few
  Congressmen from 1964 to 1976 to reopen the major assassination
  inquiries never really disturbed the Power Control Group.  But in
  1975, simultaneous with the revelations about all of the terrible
  things the CIA and the FBI did, the researchers and a few of their
  friends in the media and in Congress began to draw more attention
  than was comfortable for the PCG.
   A special renewed effort became necessary to extend the cover-
  ups.  Part of this effort was a program to bring the media back
  under control and to reinforce media support of the cover-ups.
  This has been discussed in some detail in Chapter 9.  Another part
  of this effort was the expansion of the Rockefeller Commission's
  assignment to reinforce the cover-up of the JFK assassination
  conspiracy.  Separate new efforts were necessary to control the
  courts and lawyers and other public officials in the King and
  Robert Kennedy assassination conspiracies.  These were brought
  about by appeals for new trials by James Earl Ray and Sirhan B.
  Sirhan.  The appeals were accompanied by new revelations.  New
  publicity was given to demands for an investigation into the
  Wallace shooting by prominent people, including Wallace himself.
   A minor success in the JFK case was scored by researchers with
  the assistance of Dick Gregory, Geraldo Rivera of ABC, Tom Snyder
  of NBC, Mort Sahl and others.  They managed to have the Zapruder
  film and other photographic evidence of conspiracy shown on local
  and national television.  No one of any intelligence outside the
  PCG who has even seen the Zapruder film questions the fact that
  shots came from two different directions in Dealey Plaza.  This
  breakthrough after eleven years of effort put new public and
  Congressional pressures on the PCG.  It was closely followed by a
  grass roots campaign conducted by Mark Lane's Citizens Commission
  of Inquiry to reopen the JFK case.  Pressure was brought to bear on
  Congressmen by their local constituents as a result of this
  campaign.  Henry Gonzalez from Texas and Thomas Downing from
  Virginia introduced resolutions in the House of Representatives
  calling for the reopening of all four cases and the JFK case, so
  the public and Congress had a formal base to work with and a goal
  to reach.
   New revelations were made in 1975 about the FBI's and the CIA's
  information withheld from the Warren Commission.  From Dallas came
  the admission that Oswald had been in closer contact with the FBI
  than believed and that Jack Ruby had been an FBI informer.
   Perhaps the most dangerous development for the PCG was the
  creation of a sub-committee under the Church committee to
  investigate the JFK assassination.  This two-man subcommittee
  formed by Senator Gary Hart of Colorado and Senator Schweiker of
  Pennsylvania became a real threat when it was given authority by
  the full Senate Committee on Intelligence to conduct their own
  independent investigation with a staff of nine people.  It would be
  harder to control their efforts than to control the Church
  committee, where the PCG had several strong allies, including
  Senators Goldwater and Tower.
   Gerald Ford, William Colby, Richard Helms (from his faraway post
  in Asia) and the other PCG members developed a three-prong strategy
  for the JFK case in order to cope with all of these new problems.
   First came the reinforcement of the lone-assassin Warren
  Commission scenario.  Ford selected David Belin to be chief of
  staff of the Rockefeller Commission.  Ford admitted that Belin in
  his Rockefeller Commission role--as well as in his advocacy to
  reopen the JFK case in order to prove the Warren Commission
  findings correct--was acting as "one of our best staff members."
  This was necessary so that the Rockefeller Commission could add a
  new assignment to its original charter and investigate the CIA and
  FBI.  The new assignment was to prove that all of the new questions
  about the Zapruder film and the evidence for assassins on the
  grassy knoll were answerable in support of Warren Commission
  conclusions.
   The former Warren commissioner now President, who led the
  cover-up and pardoned Nixon, nominated the Warren Commission staff
  lawyer who led the cover-up at the working level as the new
  Rockefeller Commission chief of staff.
   Belin did his job like a faithful dog.  He personally called in
  the most dangerous researchers, including Cyril Wecht and Dick
  Gregory's cohorts, Ralph Schoenman and Robert Groden, who had been
  making all of the noise on television.  With the help (and possibly
  the knowledge) of only one other staff man, Belin interviewed these
  witnesses briefly, almost casually:  then he misquoted them, edited
  their statements, or left them out of the Rockefeller Report.  He
  purposefully did not call any researchers other than Wecht who
  might have presented some embarrassing evidence of conspiracy.  He
  instead called a number of "experts" from the stable of PCG people,
  including some of the Ramsey Clark doctors panel that had examined
  the medical evidence in 1968 to back up the Warren Commission
  during the Garrison investigation and the Clay Shaw trial.  He also
  called on reliable Dr. Lattimer, the urologist, to testify again
  about the bullet wounds above the navel.
   Belin wrote the chapter of the Rockefeller Commission Report
  himself.  It formed a base for controlled media presentations of
  the lone assassin scenario.  CBS used much of the basic material in
  its series in 1975.  Others quoted liberally from the favorite
  misquotes of Cyril Wecht and the statements of the CIA doctors
  concerning the fatal shot at frame 313 of the Zapruder film.  That
  had always been a sticky point with Belin and the other Warren
  Commission defenders and technical cover-up artists in the PCG.
  Belin was nearly driven to distraction at times, trying to avoid
  any discussion of the back-to-the-left acceleration of JFK's head
  following the Z313 shot.
   He was therefore delighted to be able to produce a medical
  opinion that the back-to-the-left motion was consistent with a shot
  directly from the rear.  The fact that no ballistics experts or
  physics experts were called to testify about Newton's second law of
  motion and what happens to an object when struck by a rifle bullet
  traveling at twice to three times the speed of sound was never
  questioned by the Rockefeller panel or the media.  Belin easily
  eliminated the assassins on the grassy knoll simply by persuading
  the FBI to say the assassins weren't there at all.
   Over a period of several months in the second half of 1975, the
  PCG (through its control agents in the 15 media organizations, and
  by using Belin's creation) hammered away again at the lone assassin
  thesis.  They caused the wave of excitement and furor created by
  Gregory, Lane, Groden, Schoenman and their friends to die out.
  Lectures on university campuses, discussions on FM radio talk shows
  late at night, and conspiracy books and articles in underground
  newspapers appeared as always.  But there was no more showing of
  the Zapruder film on ABC, NBC or CBS;  nor was there any talk of
  conspiracy in any of the major fifteen national news media
  organizations.
   The second part of the strategy was to create a fall-back, or
  second line of defense in the JFK case.  If necessary the same idea
  could also be applied in the other three cases when the situation
  became too dangerous.  There was less danger in 1975 in the RFK,
  MLK and Wallace cases because the researchers and the media had not
  yet consistently begun to tie in the CIA, FBI and other PCG high
  level people.  In 1976 a danger emerged in the MLK case when it was
  revealed that J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI might be linked and that
  Hoover attempted to get King to commit suicide.  However, that
  development occurred several months after the implementation of the
  strategy began in the JFK case.  Of course there had never been any
  danger with the Chappaquiddick crime, because few researchers
  realized what the PCG had accomplished in that event.  No
  suspicions existed in Congress either, beyond some curiosity about
  Tony Ulasewicz and E. Howard Hunt's strange visits to the island
  and to Hyannisport.
   There may be several second lines of defense positions already
  prepared for the JFK case.  The one that has been implemented in
  1975 and 1976 is the "Castro did it in revenge" position.  The PCG
  realizes that while the media will behave like slaves to present
  the first line of defense (Oswald did it alone), the public isn't
  buying it any more.  In 1969, shortly after the Clay Shaw trial
  ended, the percent of people disbelieving the lone assassin theory
  fell to its all-time low of just over 50%.  By 1976 it had risen to
  80%, despite the faithful efforts of CBS, "Time," "Newsweek," et
  al.  More importantly, Richard Schweiker, Gary Hart, Henry
  Gonzalez, Thomas Downing, and a very large part of the House and
  Senate weren't buying the lone assassin story any more either.
   So, a good second line of defense story was needed.  It had to
  be one that the House and Senate and Schweiker, Church, Downing and
  hopefully Gonzalez would buy.  It had to be one which could be
  created out of existing facts and then shored up by planted
  evidence, faked records, dependable witnesses lying under oath, and
  once again, the control and use of the media.  The "Castro did it
  in revenge" story met these requirements.  The media had already
  helped to some extent by publishing information from Jack Anderson,
  Lyndon B. Johnson and others about Castro's turning around various
  CIA agents or sending agents of his own, including Oswald, to
  assassinate JFK.  Perhaps even more importantly, Senator Schweiker
  said he believed Castro might have been behind the assassination
  and that this possibility should be investigated.
   The Castro story strategy was implemented in 1975.  Gradually at
  first, a story appeared here or there in the press about the
  assassins assigned to kill Castro.  Then the media began to reprint
  the Jack Anderson story about Castro's turning around of some of
  these agents.  New authors of the story appeared.  Anderson's
  original story seemed to be forgotten.  These articles never seemed
  to have an identifiable source or any proof.  Hank Greenspun of the
  Las Vegas newspaper circuit and the man involved with Howard
  Hughes, Larry O'Brien, released a story to the "Chicago Tribune."
  He said his information came from reliable sources.
   The momentum began to build.  More and more "leaked" information
  about Castro and assassins and Oswald being a pro-Castroite hit the
  establishment media.  The stories and the sequence of events began
  to be predictable, if a researcher had understood the PCG and their
  fight for survival in 1975 and 1976.  Then the Church committee and
  the Schweiker sub-committee issued statements that they were going
  to investigate the "Castro did it" theory.  The PCG began feeding
  them information in various forms and various ways that would back
  up the idea.  The JFK sex scandal was released by Judith Exner.
  The PCG provided her with an incentive to spice up the "Castro did
  it" theory with a little sex involving JFK and one of the assassins
  assigned to Castro, John Roselli.
   The PCG realized they had the double advantage of drawing
  attention to Roselli and Castro and the turn-around assassin idea,
  while at the same time gnawing away at JFK's image.  There was
  press speculation that Exner was a Mafia plant in the White House
  to find out how much JFK knew about the Castro assassination plans.
  Since Frank Sinatra had introduced Judith to both JFK and Roselli,
  there was speculation about Sinatra's Mafia friends linked to the
  rat pack, to Peter Lawford, to JFK's sister and to JFK himself.
  All of this was meat for the PCG's grinder.  It certainly drew
  Schweiker's attention away from Helms, Hunt, Gabaldin, Shaw,
  Ferrie, Seymour and all of the other operatives involved in JFK's
  murder.  In fact, the Schweiker staff, which had the names and
  locations of several participants and witnesses that could pinpoint
  the Helms-Hunt-Shaw-Gabaldin group as the real assassins as early
  as September, 1975 did not interview more than one or two of them
  and did not follow up on the rest at all.  Their attention was
  diverted by the second line of defense strategy and they were also
  influenced by infiltration by the PCG.
   Part three of the strategy was the control of the Congress and
  the committees in the House and the Senate concerned with
  investigations of the intelligence community and the JFK
  assassination.  This subject will be covered in depth in Chapter
  14.  Suffice it to say here that the PCG planted people on the
  staffs of the Church committee and the Schweiker sub-committee.
  They exercised control over the other committees in the House and
  Senate (Abzug, Don Edwards, Pike committees) and they controlled
  the House Rules committee, which effectively blocked the Gonzalez
  and Downing resolutions for over a year.
   The CIA has always had its supporters in both House and Senate.
  So has the FBI.  So did J. Edgar Hoover (sometimes through
  blackmail) and Richard Helms.  There was a story published in the
  "Washington Post" about a dinner party given by Tom Braden, former
  CIA man, at which all of Richard Helms' old buddies rallied to his
  defense.  Several well-known Congressmen were there and Senator
  Symington gave a rousing speech supporting Helms in his hour of
  need.
   Gerald Ford, of course, as then titular leader of the PCG, had
  many old friends in the House.  Nixon had many supporters in both
  House and Senate and still has to this day.  Thus, control by the
  PCG over Congress and committees is not all that difficult.
  Specific examples will be given in Chapter 14 of how this really
  works.  So the cover-ups continue.  The PCG is still in the
  driver's seat.  The three parts of their strategy work very well.
  The lone assassin story is repeated at least once a month in some
  media source or other.  The "Castro did it" story will no doubt
  make its official appearance again.
   The Congress is under control.  Gonzalez was not under control,
  nor was Downing.  But they couldn't do much without the Rules
  Committee, which was controlled.
   The people are left with no effective way of doing anything
  about the PCG and their crimes.  What is worse, there is no way the
  people can elect the man of their choice.</p>

<p>--
     daveus rattus </p>

<p>   yer friendly neighborhood ratman</p>

<p>   KOYAANISQATSI</p>

<p> ko.yaa.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language)  n.  1. crazy life.  2. life
 in turmoil.  3. life out of balance.  4. life disintegrating.  
   5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.</p>

<p>From dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com Mon Jun 15 08:55:21 1992
Received: by icaen.uiowa.edu ( 5.52 (84)/1.1) id AA02287
on Mon, 15 Jun 92 08:55:17 CDT.
Received: from pl122c.eecs.lehigh.edu by ns-mx.uiowa.edu (5.64.jnf/920408)
  on Mon, 15 Jun 92 08:56:56 -0500 id AA14903 with SMTP 
Received: from SGI.COM by PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU (5.61/1.34)
id AA23617; Mon, 15 Jun 92 09:43:09 -0400
Received: from [192.102.132.11] by sgi.sgi.com via SMTP (911016.SGI/910110.SGI)
for PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA12463; Mon, 15 Jun 92 06:45:55 -0700
Received: by ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (920110.SGI/920502.SGI.AUTO)
for @sgi.sgi.com:PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA01518; Mon, 15 Jun 92 06:45:54 -0700
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 92 06:45:54 -0700
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
<info type="Message-ID"> 9206151345.AA01518@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com</info>
To: PML3@PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU
Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (7/11)
Status: RO</p>

<p>Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (7/11)
Summary: we were robbed of our capability of electing a president we wanted
Keywords:  part 7 of 11:  chapter 13 thru chapter 14
Lines: 326</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>     Chapter 13
   The 1976 Election and Conspiracy Fever</p>

<p>   To dramatize what might happen and probably did happen in 1976,
  this chapter has been prepared by assuming the attitude typical of
  today's innocent Americans.  A new disease is sweeping America.
  No, it's not the flu;  it's conspiracy fever.[1]
   People afflicted by the disease imagine conspiracies everywhere.
  They believe, for example, that the CIA arranged for the takeover
  in Chile and the assassination of Salvador Allende.  They even
  think Henry Kissinger had something to do with it.  These poor
  feverish devils have the strange idea that J. Edgar Hoover was a
  fiend rather than a public hero.  They imagine that he ordered a
  vicious campaign against Dr. Martin Luther King and a conspiracy
  against most of young America called Cointelpro.  Some even think
  Hoover had King killed.  There are some Californians with the west
  coast strain of this bug who imagine that the FBI and the
  California authorities created a conspiracy in San Diego and Los
  Angeles against black citizens.  The California group also think
  there was something strange about Donald DeFreeze and the
  Symbionese Liberation Army.  They suspect an FBI or California
  state authority conspiracy, complete with police provocateurs,
  double agents, faked prison breaks, and a Patty Hearst, alias
  Tania, all thrown in by our own government to create a climate that
  would make the public accept the prevalence of terrorism and demand
  a police state.
   The disease spread to Congressmen as well.  It does not seem to
  be limited, as it was before Watergate, to people under the age of
  30.  There are even Congressmen with a more virulent form of the
  malady who are convinced their telephones are still being tapped.
  They, along with thousands of others who suffer, no doubt reached
  this conclusion just because they were told by a CIA-controlled
  media that hundreds of telephones were tapped a few years ago.
   Early forms of conspiracy fever are no longer considered to be
  dangerous.  For example, all those sick citizens who imagined
  conspiracies in the incidents at Tonkin Gulf, Songmy, Mylai, the
  Pueblo and the Black Panther murders are now considered to be more
  or less recovered, since it turns out it was not their imaginations
  working overtime after all.  Even the special variety of the fever
  which caused the impression that the CIA murdered a series of
  foreign heads-of-state is no longer on the danger list.
   There is still one form of the illness, however, that is
  officially considered to be very dangerous, virulent, and to be
  stamped out at all costs.  It is the version producing the illusion
  that all of America's domestic assassinations were conspiracies.
  Those infected believe the conspiracies are interlinked in a giant
  conspiracy to take over the electoral process in the United States
  and to conceal this from the American people.  Some citizens are
  known to have this worst form of the fever.  They include a
  Congressman or two.  Others have come down with a milder form in
  which they imagine separate conspiracies in four assassination
  cases (John and Robert Kennedy, Dr. King, and the attempted
  assassination of George Wallace).
   Members of the Ford Administration, particularly David Belin,
  Mr. Ford's staff member on the Rockefeller Commission, went along
  with an analysis made by Dr. Jacob Cohen, a professional fever
  analyst, that the disease has been spreading rapidly because of a
  small group of "carriers" traveling around the country who are
  infecting everyone else.  Some of these carriers, called
  assassination "buffs", were thought to have contracted the fever as
  many as twelve years ago.
   In the disease's worst form, the patient imagines that there
  exists a powerful, high level group of individuals, some of whom
  have intelligence experience.  The highest level of fever in these
  patients produces the idea that this high level group, usually
  called the PCG, will eliminate presidential candidates not in their
  favor or under their control.  Others imagine that Jimmy Carter has
  been brought into the PCG by threats against his children and
  careful briefings by George Bush.
   It is worth analyzing the sick people with this domestic
  assassination conspiracy fever to see how far their imaginations
  take them.  They calculate that the PCG, fearing exposure if any
  president is not under their control and influence, will go to
  whatever lengths are required to insure the election of the man
  they do control.  The idea is that Gerald Ford was nicely in the
  PCG's pocket because he has been covering up for them ever since
  1964.  He has continued to help them through 1975 and 1976 by
  maintaining a steady cover-up effort on all four cases.  Jimmy
  Carter was perhaps brought under control.  The feverish "buffs"
  figure that the PCG would have been sure to eliminate Jimmy Carter
  unless he could be controlled.
   The scenario continues into the future.  The more control
  exercised by the PCG, the stronger they become and the more people
  in the executive branch become beholden to them to continue
  covering up the cover-ups.
   So, wake up America. Wipe out this disease. It's just as
  dangerous as Communism, if not more so.  Like the general in "Z",
  Americans must realize that such a disease has to be eliminated
  whenever and wherever it appears.</p>

<p>____________________</p>

<p>[1] "Conspiracy Fever" is derived from an article with that title by
  Jacob Cohen, a psychologist, in "Commentary" magazine, October,
  1975.</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>     Chapter 14
   Congress and the People</p>

<p>   The last hope of the people to take back their government from
  the PCG is through Congress.  The executive branch is a captive of
  the PCG.  The legislative branch has no power in the situation.
  Where courts or judges do have some small measure of power, as in
  the hearings and appeals for a new trial for James Earl Ray, they
  have been controlled by the PCG.  The ruling of the judge in the
  Ray appeals case, for example, was obviously a decision made for
  him by someone higher up.  He ruled that Ray could not have a new
  trial after hearing a vast amount of evidence of conspiracy and
  solid evidence that Percy Foreman had duped Ray into pleading
  guilty.
   Unless a people's revolution comes along, and that hardly seems
  likely, the only possibility left is to hope that Congress can do
  it.  What are the odds?  From what has been pointed out so far, it
  is obvious that if Congress is to expose the PCG, throw the rascals
  in jail, and wipe the slate clean to seize the country back for the
  people, a tremendous battle will be required.  All of the forces of
  the PCG, including their friends in the House and Senate, will be
  focussed on preventing this from happening.  A power base within
  both houses would have to be created that could not only do battle
  with the PCG but that would not be fooled by their myriad of
  fiendishly clever techniques, methods and stratagems.  It would
  have to be a power base that protected itself from infiltration and
  usurpation of its own resources.  It would have to somehow conquer
  the media control problem;  otherwise, no American citizen would
  know what it was doing or what the battle was about.
   How would such a battle start and such a power base be
  constructed?  An important step would be to purify the special
  committee created by either resolution and to purify the staff.
  Preventing infiltration of staff by the PCG is especially
  important.  As mentioned in Chapter 12, the Church Committee staff
  and the Schweiker sub-committee staff were infiltrated by the PCG,
  and specifically the CIA.  A leading assassination researcher and
  former intelligence officer in the Defense Intelligence Agency who
  knew many, many CIA agents discovered two of them in the Church
  Committee staff offices in the fall of 1975.  The other staff
  members had not been aware that these two men were CIA agents
  because they were "deep cover" agents.
   This problem is rather complex because there is always great
  pressure from the House or Senate to create a balance on any
  appointed committee.  Thus the Church committee was hamstrung by
  several of the Senators appointed to be on it:  they were close
  friends and supporters of the CIA and FBI.  Senators Goldwater and
  Tower, for example, fought very hard to block any efforts to have
  the entire committee investigate potential CIA or FBI involvement
  in domestic assassinations.  This does not necessarily mean that
  Goldwater and Tower are members of the inner circle of the PCG.
  But it does mean that PCG members who know who killed John Kennedy
  and why can influence Goldwater and Tower to block such efforts.
   The first step in the House or Senate might be floor voting
  because of the tight control exercised by the PCG over the
  committee procedure on resolutions.  In the House, for example, the
  Rules Committee is all-powerful in determining which resolutions
  are brought to the floor.
   Henry Gonzalez introduced his resolution HR204 in 1975 and sent
  it to the rules committee.  Nearly a year passed.  On March 18,
  1976 Mr. Gonzalez, together with Mr. Downing, was tired of waiting
  for some action by Chairman Madden and they took the issue to the
  floor of the House for discussion.[1]  By this time the two
  representatives had 125 co-sponsors for their two resolutions (an
  unusually large number).  Gonzalez and Downing had taken over the
  floor of the House for two hours and had several supporting
  speakers.  No one rose in opposition.  Prior to that time,
  Representative Sisk from California and Representative Bolling from
  West Virginia had been vehemently outspoken in the Rules Committee
  against both resolutions.  Madden, Sisk and Bolling all left the
  House before Downing and Gonzalez started speaking.
   As a result of Gonzalez's and Downing's efforts, Madden was
  forced by Speaker Albert and other members of the House and by some
  of his own constituents to hold a formal hearing on the two
  resolutions on March 31, 1976.  The PCG controlled the hearing
  through Sisk, Bolling and Lott.  The resolutions were tabled,
  subject to future recall by the chairman.  The vote was nine to
  six.  Representative Bolling was called into the hearing from the
  House floor to cast the ninth vote at the last minute.  He heard
  none of the arguments.  He didn't have to.  The PCG had instructed
  him on how to vote.
   This event is described to illustrate how difficult it would be
  to overcome the control advantages on the side of the PCG.  Only on
  the Senate or House floor might it be possible to equalize things.
  The two events, the two hour discussion on the House floor on March
  18, reported by the "Congressional Record," and the hearing by the
  rules committee on March 31 illustrate another problem Congress has
  combatting the PCG.  Not one of the major news media organizations
  reported either event.  Two hours on the House floor is an
  incredibly long time for any subject.  There were many reporters
  present from television, radio, newspapers and press services. Mark
  Lane saw to that.  But nothing appeared on CBS, NBC, ABC, or in
  "Time," "Newsweek," or the "New York Times."  Why?  The answer is
  obvious.  Very tight control over the news from the House is
  exercised by the PCG.
   The larger implication is there for all to see who want to open
  their eyes.  Seeing it and believing it are two different things.
  For nearly all Congressmen who still have faith in America, the
  whole point of this book, and the existence of a Power Control
  Group which included Ford, Nixon, Kissinger, the CIA, the FBI, the
  fifteen major news media management level people, plus nearly
  anyone else of importance in the executive branch and many
  Congressmen, is too much to swallow.  They would rather have the
  whole thing go quietly away than face up to something that
  gigantic.  And that is the real source of the PCG's strength, the
  unbelievability of it all.</p>

<p>   Addendum to Chapter 14</p>

<p>   Several truly historic and highly encouraging events occurred in
  the months of September and October, 1976 that could indicate a
  change in the tide and power and control described in earlier
  chapters.
   First, on September 15, a coalition of representatives from the
  Black Caucus, Henry Gonzalez and Thomas Downing managed to get
  Resolution H1540 through the House Rules Committee.  Mark Lane,
  Coretta King and others were responsible for creating pressures
  that finally convinced Speaker Carl Albert, Chairman Tom Madden of
  the Rules Committee and others that this was necessary and
  desirable.  The new resolution, made up of parts of the Downing and
  Gonzalez resolutions plus input from Representative Walter Fauntroy
  from the Black Caucus called for a special 12-person committee to
  reopen the JFK and Dr. King cases and any other deaths that the
  committee might decide to investigate.
   The Rules Committee voted nine to four in favor.  Representative
  Bolling, who perhaps unknowingly had lent his support to the
  opposition in the earlier vote, was an important swing vote and
  actually introduced the resolution in the meeting.  The position of
  the nine who voted for the resolution was more than vindicated two
  days later, when the House, by the extraordinary vote of 280 to 64,
  passed the resolution.  History was made.  On that day cheers
  should have gone up from several hundred dedicated researchers
  around the world, and the Power Control Group should have begun
  looking for rocks to crawl under.
   The real war was only beginning, however.  The "New York Times"
  barely reported the event, did not mention the vote, and buried the
  story in the middle of another story with one-half inch in one
  column.  The "Washington Star" and "Post" carried larger stories
  and the "White Plains Reporter Dispatch" made it a first page
  headline story.  The PCG's media control slipped a bit.
   The next hurdle was for Downing, Gonzalez and Fauntroy to
  convince Albert that the chairman of the new committee for 1977
  should be Mr. Gonzalez since Mr. Downing had announced his
  retirement.  Because elections were being held in November, Mr.
  Albert named Mr. Downing as chairman for the balance of 1976, with
  Mr. Gonzalez as next in line.  He also let it be known to the press
  that Mr. Gonzalez would be the best choice to head the committee
  next year.
   Mr. Albert then named ten other members of the committee for the
  1976 period.  Four of them, Fauntroy, Burke, Stokes and Ford, were
  members of the Black Caucus.  Stewart McKinney, Representative from
  Connecticut, is a well known supporter of the truth.  Those five,
  together with Downing and Gonzalez, could probably be counted on to
  try to arrive at the truth.  The other five representatives--Dodd
  from Connecticut, Preyer from Tennessee, Devine from Ohio, Thone
  from Nebraska and Talcott from California--were unknown quantities.
  If the PCG theory holds up, at least one of them, and perhaps two,
  will turn out to be PCG representatives.
   The next event of significance occurred on October 4 when Mr.
  Downing named Richard A. Sprague, former district attorney from
  Philadelphia and fearless prosecutor of the Yablonski murderers, as
  executive director of the committee's staff.  The main significance
  of this event was who was not named.  Bernard Fensterwald, Jr., was
  in strong contention, but he was not selected because of suspicions
  that he might be a CIA agent and also because of conflicts of
  interests among his clientele.  Fensterwald represented Otto
  Otepka, James McCord, James Earl Ray and Andrew St. George, among
  others.  There is certainly a strong CIA flavor and PCG influence
  among his clients.  Whether or not Bud Fensterwald himself works
  for the CIA or the PCG, his rejection as executive director was a
  healthy sign that the committee might be able to go through the
  purification process described as essential in Chapter 14.
   Richard A. Sprague had his hands full attempting to separate PCG
  applicants for staff positions from non-PCG members.  The PCG,
  during the same time period (September and October) these historic
  events were taking place, was very active in spreading its second
  line of defense information.  "Castro did it in revenge" stories
  began popping up everywhere.  Jack Anderson was revived to back up
  the strategy by publishing another of his "Castro did it" columns.</p>

<p>____________________</p>

<p>[1] House Resolution 204 -- Henry Gonzalez
  House Resolution 498 -- Thomas Downing</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>--
     daveus rattus </p>

<p>   yer friendly neighborhood ratman</p>

<p>   KOYAANISQATSI</p>

<p> ko.yaa.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language)  n.  1. crazy life.  2. life
 in turmoil.  3. life out of balance.  4. life disintegrating.  
   5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.</p>

<p>From dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com Tue Jun 16 09:54:48 1992
Received: by icaen.uiowa.edu ( 5.52 (84)/1.1) id AA04897
on Tue, 16 Jun 92 09:54:42 CDT.
Received: from pl122c.eecs.lehigh.edu by ns-mx.uiowa.edu (5.64.jnf/920408)
  on Tue, 16 Jun 92 09:56:09 -0500 id AA14283 with SMTP 
Received: from SGI.COM by PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU (5.61/1.34)
id AA25477; Tue, 16 Jun 92 10:39:31 -0400
Received: from [192.102.132.11] by sgi.sgi.com via SMTP (911016.SGI/910110.SGI)
for PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA17886; Tue, 16 Jun 92 07:42:10 -0700
Received: by ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (920110.SGI/920502.SGI.AUTO)
for @sgi.sgi.com:PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA00714; Tue, 16 Jun 92 07:42:08 -0700
Date: Tue, 16 Jun 92 07:42:08 -0700
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
<info type="Message-ID"> 9206161442.AA00714@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com</info>
To: PML3@PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU
Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (8/11)
Status: RO</p>

<p>Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (8/11)
Summary: we were robbed of our capability of electing a president we wanted
Keywords:  part 8 of 11:  chapter 15
Lines: 1172</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>     Chapter 15
   The Select Committee on Assassinations,
    The Intelligence Community and the News Media</p>

<p>   Part I</p>

<p>   The Top Down vs. The Bottom Up Approach
   To Assassination Investigations</p>

<p>   Two vastly different views have been held by both assassination
  researchers and members of Congress during the last three years
  about the best way to arrive at the truth concerning political
  assassinations in the United States.  The conservative view
  dictates we must build an investigative base from the ground
  upward, beginning with the JFK assassination, and use "hard"
  evidence in each assassination case.  This view assumes that any
  grand, overall conspiracy to cover up the cover-ups would be
  detected and made public following exposure of the first layer of
  cover-ups.
   The less conservative view holds that the political processes
  underlying the original assassinations and the massive cover-up
  superstructure should be attacked and exposed simultaneously.
   The resolutions to establish a Select Committee to Investigate
  Assassinations, introduced by Thomas Downing and Henry Gonzalez in
  the House of Representatives in 1975, were somewhat related to both
  views.  The conservative Downing resolution called for a sole
  investigation of the JFK case.  Gonzalez's resolution called for
  the reopening of all four major cases--JFK, RFK, Dr. King and
  George Wallace--and more importantly, it called for an
  investigation of the possible links among all four.  Gonzalez
  stated that he believed the country might be experiencing an
  assassination-controlled electoral process.  His approach was
  clearly allied with the less conservative view.
   Research groups, such as Mark Lane's Citizen's Commission of
  Inquiry (CCI), Bud Fensterwald's Committee to Investigate
  Assassinations (CTIA), and Bob Katz's Assassination Information
  Bureau (AIB) were also divided in their views.  CCI and CTIA took
  the bottom-up approach and tended to support Downing.  AIB took the
  overview political approach and tended to support Gonzalez.  The
  Black Caucus, Coretta King and others were primarily interested in
  a broad overview of the King assassination.
   The coalition formed by Downing, Gonzalez and the Black Caucus
  finally brought about the creation of the Select Committee on
  Assassinations in the House, which represents a mixture of these
  views and approaches.
   The work of the Select Committee will produce results if it is
  recognized that the bottom-up approach alone cannot be used
  successfully against the group of powerful individuals that
  currently controls the environment in which any investigation
  attempts are to be made.  The best way the Select Committee can
  succeed against this group is to use what will be labelled the "top
  down" approach to investigating and exposing the truth as a
  supplement to the bottom up approach.</p>

<p>   The Power Control Group</p>

<p>   The earlier part of this book described a group of individuals
  in the United States and labelled them the "Power Control Group."
  The PCG is that group of individuals or organizations that
  knowingly participated in one or more of the assassination
  conspiracies or related murders or attempted murders, plus the
  individuals who knowingly participated or are still participating
  in the cover-ups of those conspiracies or murders.  The PCG
  includes any people in the CIA, FBI, Justice Department, Secret
  Service, local police departments or sheriffs offices in Los
  Angeles, Memphis, Dallas, New Orleans or Florida, judges, district
  attorneys, state attorneys general, other federal government
  agencies, the House of Representatives, the Senate, the White
  House, the Congress, or the Department of Defense as well as any
  people in the media who are under the influence of any of the
  above, who participated or are participating in the cover-ups or
  the cover-ups of the cover-up.  There are indications that people
  in every one of the above organizations or groups belong to the
  PCG.</p>

<p>   Hard Evidence of Conspiracy</p>

<p>   Anyone who has honestly and openly taken the time to examine a
  few pieces of hard evidence in any one of the four major cases has
  no trouble deciding there were individual conspiracies in each.  In
  the face of this situation, the layman wonders why the Congress
  continually demands hard evidence of conspiracy.  Statements
  continue to appear in the media to the effect that, "I've seen no
  evidence of conspiracy."  Or, "We are not sure whether there were
  others involved in addition to Lee Harvey Oswald, Sirhan Sirhan,
  James Earl Ray or Arthur Bremer."  These statements are made in
  spite of the fact that even the most casual analysis clearly shows
  that Oswald, Sirhan, and Ray did not fire any of the shots that
  struck JFK, RFK and MLK, and that they were all patsies.  Bremer
  fired some of the shots in the Wallace case, but there is evidence
  that another gun was fired.
   The hard evidence is all old evidence.  It goes back at least to
  1967 and 1968 in the JFK case, and back to 1970 through 1972 in the
  RFK and MLK cases.  The Wallace evidence is a little fresher, but
  nevertheless convincing.  The people who demand new evidence are
  either members of the PCG, or they are brainwashed by the media
  members of the PCG into ignoring the old evidence.  They do not
  choose to see or to hear the old evidence, even when it is
  literally placed before their very eyes and ears.  Thus the words
  "hard evidence" are merely substitutes for the words "no
  conspiracy".</p>

<p>   The Bottom Up Approach</p>

<p>   The bottom up approach is doomed to failure no matter how the
  Select Committee tries and no matter how much effort any official
  body puts into attempts to offer that "bombshell" that Tip O'Neill
  and others look for to prove conspiracy in the JFK and MLK cases.
  The PCG is in complete control of the situation.  It controls the
  media and the media controls the minds of most citizens and the
  Congress.  The PCG is a living, dynamic body right now.  They can
  eliminate an investigation or investigators right now.  They can
  eliminate a member of the House or a member of the Select Committee
  right now.
   The bottom up approach will never get off the ground because the
  PCG will not allow it.  As long as the PCG controls all the sources
  of evidence that might contain the hard evidence in the FBI, CIA
  and local police files, as long as it controls the courts, and as
  long as it controls the media, no one will be allowed to prove hard
  evidence before the House, the Senate, the President, or any one in
  the Executive Branch.</p>

<p>   The Events of 1976 and 1977</p>

<p>   That the PCG's control exists is more clearly evident now than
  it has ever been before.  The PCG is operating in an almost blatant
  fashion.  Any observer who keeps his eyes wide open and assumes
  that such a group exists, can see it operate almost every day.
   The prime objectives of the PCG in 1976 and 1977 were:</p>

<p>   1.  To block and eliminate the Select Committee on
   Assassinations in the House of Representatives.</p>

<p>   2.  To firmly implant the idea that the JFK assassination
   was a Castro plot.</p>

<p>   3.  To block any Congressional attempts to investigate the
   four assassination cases.</p>

<p>   4.  To control the Carter Administration in such a way as
   to permit only an executive branch investigation that
   will conclude there was a Castro-based JFK conspiracy
   and no conspiracy in the other cases.</p>

<p>   The 1977 activities of the PCG lent themselves to a new
  approach, the "top down" approach to exposing the truth.</p>

<p>    Exposing the PCG</p>

<p>   The top down approach obviously begins with exposing the PCG's
  immediate, present activities.  The following examples are
  illustrative.  The Select Committee is certainly in a better
  position to know which individuals and actions taken by the PCG
  since the formation of the Committee in September, 1976 would be
  most easily attacked.  The first example is the leaked Justice
  Department report on the King case.</p>

<p>   The Justice Department King Report</p>

<p>   The PCG members' actions were leaked in the February 2, 1977
  King report and released a few weeks later.  To review the list of
  PCG members involved in the cover-up of the King case:  J. Edgar
  Hoover, the Memphis FBI, Phil Canale (Memphis D.A.), Fred Vinson
  (State Department), Judge Battle, Percy Foreman, William Bradford
  Huie, Gerald Frank (author), Frank Holloman and other members of
  the Memphis police and judges at the state and federal court
  levels.
   One of the judges who became a PCG member in later years was
  Judge McCrea.  He heard James Earl Ray's plea for a new trial.
  Solid evidence of the conspiracy to frame Ray was introduced at
  that hearing.
   Everyone who read or heard the evidence, with the exception of
  Judge McCrea and his law clerk, reached the conclusion that Ray was
  framed and that his lawyer, Percy Foreman, deliberately mishandled
  the case.  Nevertheless, McCrea decided that Ray would not get a
  new trial.  The case was appealed all the way to the Supreme Court
  with no reversals of the decision.</p>

<p>   Leaking the Justice Department Report on the King Case</p>

<p>   Attorney General Levi some years later ordered a review by the
  Justice Department of the King assassination and the FBI's handling
  of its investigation.  A report was prepared by Michael J. Shaheen,
  who did most of the Justice Department work.  No public
  announcement was made in 1976 upon completion of the report.
  Suddenly, on the exact day that the House was debating whether to
  reconstitute the Select Committee (February 2, 1977), the King
  report was leaked to the Republican minority leader of the
  opposition, Representative Quillen of Tennessee.  He announced he
  had a copy of the report.  Representative Yvonne Burke from
  California, a member of the Select Committee and also a member of
  the House Committee responsible for oversight of the Justice
  Department, took strong issue with Quillen over the leak.  She said
  she had unsuccessfully tried to obtain the report that day from the
  Justice Department.  Quillen stated at first he did not have the
  report, but had an Associated Press release describing the report.
  About an hour later, he said he had received a copy of the report.
  Burke stated that was very strange;  not even the proper committee
  of the House had received a copy.
   The report was quoted to say that the Justice Department had
  closed the King case and concluded James Earl Ray was the lone
  assassin.  Placed in the hands of the opposition to the Select
  Committee, the statement was strategically useful.  Quillen argued
  against continuing the Committee on the strength of the conclusions
  reached in the report.</p>

<p>    Releasing the Report</p>

<p>   On February 19, 1977, the King report was released by the
  Justice Department.  Blaring headlines again emphasized no
  conspiracy and exonerated the FBI's conduct in their investigation.
  A showdown meeting was scheduled for February 21 between Henry
  Gonzalez and Tip O'Neill, to be followed the same day by a meeting
  of the Select Committee to determine whether they would continue
  with Richard A. Sprague as chief counsel.
   The absurd report was published in the "New York Times" on
  February 19, 1977.  The PCG 's tactics became somewhat obvious on
  that date.  Attorney General Griffin Bell, having inherited the
  report from Mr. Levi, let slip an important opinion on the CBS
  program, "Face the Nation" on the Sunday before the report was
  described as "still secret" by the UPI news release quoting Mr.
  Bell.
   Bell said he believed there were questions the report did not
  answer.  Bell clarified his concerns after the February 19 release
  of the report by stating on the 24th that he might want to
  interview Ray to find out where Ray obtained all of the money he
  had before and after King was shot, and whether anyone helped him
  obtain false passports or make travel arrangements.  Perhaps Bell
  was troubled by one of the report's conclusions--that one of Ray's
  motives in killing King was to make a "quick profit."
   This indicates that Mr. Bell, and presumably Mr. Carter, are not
  members of the PCG cover-up on the King case.  It also seems
  obvious that Mr. Levi and the people preparing the report and
  conducting the review had become members of the PCG.  The timed
  release and leaking of that report and the total whitewash of the
  King conspiracy are too patently obvious to be coincidental.  This
  is one area in which the Select Committee has an excellent chance
  to expose a raw nerve of the PCG.</p>

<p>    Michael Shaheen -- PCG Member</p>

<p>   A key PCG member in the situation would appear to be Mr.
  Shaheen, Judge McCrea's law clerk mentioned earlier in the PCG
  cover-up in Memphis.  Shaheen was deeply involved in the old
  cover-up as well as the new cover-up.  He is from Memphis and part
  of that closed circle of people in Tennessee who know very well
  what happened to Martin Luther King and how Ray was framed.  Mr.
  Shaheen is now planning to become a judge in Memphis with the help
  of all his co-conspirators and PCG members.
   Who called the shots in this Justice Department effort?  Was it
  Levi?  Was it the PCG members left over from the Nixon-Ford
  administration?  Was it members of the PCG still in the FBI?  Was
  it the Tennessee wing of the PCG that includes Judge McCrea, Phil
  Canale, Howard Baker, Mr. Quillen and Bernard Fensterwald, Jr.?
  The Select Committee should find out.  The report itself is easily
  attacked.  It quotes the fake Charlie Stevens testimony all over
  again, as if no one knew he had been bought off by Hoover to
  identify Ray.  Stevens was dead drunk and saw nothing on the day of
  the King assassination.</p>

<p>   Ignoring or Suppressing Conspiracy and Framing Evidence</p>

<p>   Shaheen's review did not touch upon any of the evidence
  regarding the framing of Ray that was introduced at the hearing
  that Judge McCrea and Shaheen knew so very well.  The witnesses who
  had seen Ray at a gas station several blocks from the assassination
  site when the shot was fired were ignored.  Grace Walden Stevens
  saw Frenchy (Raoul) in the rooming house, identified Frenchy as the
  man she saw, and knew Charlie had seen nothing.  She had to be
  ignored.  The witnesses who saw Jack Youngblood move away from the
  bushes from which he had fired the shot had to be ignored.  Hoover
  and Fred Vinson's use of Stevens's false testimony to extradite Ray
  from London had to be ignored.  The FBI's role in Memphis,
  including its instructions to the witnesses who had seen Frenchy to
  keep quiet was to be kept a dark secret.  The similarity between
  Frenchy's photograph and the sketch of Raoul and Ray's subsequent
  identification of Frenchy as Raoul had to be kept quiet.
   More ignored evidence was turned up by Huie.  He found three
  witnesses who had seen Ray and Frenchy-Raoul together both in
  Atlanta and Montreal.  They confirmed Ray's claim that he was
  framed.  All of the evidence involving Youngblood and Frenchy,
  uncovered by Robert Livingston and Wayne Chastain and published in
  "Computers and People" in 1974, was omitted.
   Livingston was Ray's attorney in Tennessee.  Chastain is a
  Memphis reporter.  Livingston and Chastain's sighting of Frenchy-
  Raoul at the Detroit airport during a meeting between Livingston,
  Chastain, Bud Fensterwald and the intermediary representing Frenchy
  (in an attempt to obtain immunity for him in exchange for revealing
  the identity of the Tennesseans and Louisianians who had hired him)
  was ignored.
   Exposure of this segment of the PCG would have done more to
  bolster the 1977 efforts of the Select Committee than any
  presentation of conspiracy evidence in the King case itself.</p>

<p>   The PCG's Tactics With the Select Committee</p>

<p>   In the early days of the formation of the Committee in September
  1976, the PCG might have taken the Committee very lightly.  The
  PCG's efforts to stop an investigation from beginning in the spring
  of 1976 through its control of the Rules Committee had been
  successful.  Downing and Gonzalez had given up.  But when the
  three-way coalition suddenly brought about a reversal of their
  earlier Rules Committee vote, and the House quickly and
  overwhelmingly passed a resolution to set up the Committee, the PCG
  was forced to go back to the drawing boards for retaliation.
   Before the PCG had time to react, Downing and Gonzalez hired
  Dick Sprague as chief counsel.  Sprague very rapidly hired the
  equivalent of his own FBI.  He sensed from the start that he might
  be up against both the FBI and the CIA, so he carefully screened
  his investigators, lawyers, researchers and other personnel to
  prevent intelligence penetration of the staff.  However, some
  personnel were "handed" to him by both Gonzalez and Downing.
   It goes almost without saying that the PCG would have tried to
  infiltrate the staff.  What they learned by their early
  infiltration was that Sprague and his crack team were not only on
  the right track in both the JFK and MLK investigations, but also
  that the tactics used by the PCG in those weeks were making the
  staff and some of the committee members suspicious about the PCG
  itself.</p>

<p>   PCG Control of Prior Investigations</p>

<p>   It became imperative for the PCG to either eliminate the entire
  Committee or to gain control of it and to rid it of Dick Sprague
  and the senior staff people who were loyal to him.  It was no
  longer possible to turn the investigations around and bury the
  information that had been gathered as the PCG had done with six
  prior Congressional investigations.  In each of the prior
  investigations (five Senate investigations and one House
  investigation of the JFK assassination) the PCG had controlled the
  results, disbanded the staffs and buried the evidence.  The six
  groups were:</p>

<p>  1.  1968--A Senate subcommittee under Senator Ed Long of
  Missouri conducted a JFK investigation.  Bernard
  Fensterwald, Jr., was in charge of a six-person team.
 
  2.  1974--The Ervin Committee investigated the JFK case
  during the Watergate period.  Samuel Dash headed a team
  of four that included Terry Lenzer, Barry Schochet and
  Wayne Bishop.
 
  3.  1975--The Church Committee.  A six-person team reported
  to FAO Schwartz III.  It included Bob Kelley, Dan
  Dwyer, Ed Greissing, Paul Wallach, Pat Shea and David
  Aaron.
 
  4.  1975--The Schweiker-Hart subcommittee under the Church
  Committee had a team headed by David Marston, that
  included Troy Gustafson, Gaeton Fonzi, and Elliott
  Maxwell.
 
  5.  1975--Pike Committee in House.  People unknown.
 
  6.  1976--Senate Intelligence Committee under Daniel
  Inouye.</p>

<p>   In addition, both Howard Baker and Lowell Weicker conducted
  their own investigations of the JFK case during the Watergate
  period.
   Sprague and his senior staff people are professionals compared
  to the amateurs listed above.  Wayne Bishop was the only
  professional investigator in all of the staff groups.  It was easy
  for the PCG to cut off or alter the directions of the prior
  investigations.  Thus, the one with the greatest hope, the
  Schweiker subcommittee, wound up not mentioning any of the
  important evidence uncovered in Florida and elsewhere in their
  final report.  The Congress and the public were left with the
  impression that there might have been a Castro conspiracy to
  assassinate JFK.</p>

<p>     PCG Strategy</p>

<p>   Faced with the new committee and Sprague's staff, the PCG had
  devise a strategy that included:</p>

<p>  1.  Attacking Dick Sprague to discredit him with dirt and
  print it in the media.</p>

<p>  2.  Using the media to spread PCG propaganda and control
  the sources of all stories concerning the Select
  Committee.</p>

<p>  3.  Using PCG Congressmen to provide biased, distorted
  quotes to the media for its use.</p>

<p>  4.  Trying to discredit the entire committee by making it
  appear to be disorganized and unmanageable.</p>

<p>  5.  Controlling the voting and lobbying against the
  continuation of the committee in January and February.</p>

<p>  6.  Influencing members of the House to vote against the
  Committee through a massive letter and telegram
  campaign.</p>

<p>  7.  Exaggerating the emphasis placed on the size of the
  budget requested by Sprague without considering the
  need for such a budget.</p>

<p>  8.  Demanding that the committee justify its existence by
  producing new evidence.</p>

<p>  9.  Splitting the committee and attempting to create
  dissension;  creating a battle between Henry Gonzalez
  and Richard Sprague and between Gonzalez and Downing.</p>

<p>   10.  Hamstringing the staff so they could not receive
  salaries, could not travel, did not have subpoena
  power, could not make long distance telephone calls;
  blocking access to the key files at the FBI, Justice
  Department, CIA and Secret Service.</p>

<p>   11.  Trying to insert their own man at the head of the
  staff.</p>

<p>   12.  Brainwashing Henry Gonzalez into believing that Sprague
  and others were agents.</p>

<p>   13.  Sacrificing Henry Gonzalez when it became obvious the
  PCG could not control him as their chairman.</p>

<p>   14.  Leaking stories that seemed to make the committee's
  efforts unnecessary.</p>

<p>    Media Control</p>

<p>   The primary technique used by the PCG is its nearly absolute
  control of the media.  This is not as difficult to achieve as one
  might imagine.  Since most of the stories about the committee
  originate in Washington under rather tightly-knit conditions, it is
  necessary to control only a small number of key reporters and their
  bosses.  The rest of the media follow along like sheep.
   The PCG trotted out some of their old-timers in the media to
  initiate the public and congressional brainwashing program against
  the committee.  They used the same tactic against Jim Garrison
  between 1967 and 1969.  The old-timers included Jeremiah O'Leary,
  George Lardner, Jr., and David Burnham.  Jeremiah O'Leary of the
  "Washington Star" was on the CIA's list of reporters exposed the
  year before.  George Lardner Jr. had been in David Ferrie's
  apartment until 4 AM on the morning he was murdered.  Lardner was a
  PCG member in 1967, while he worked as a reporter for the
  "Washington Post" (he is still with the "Post").  David Burnham at
  the "New York Times," one of the several reporters in Harrison
  Salisbury's and Harding Bancroft, Jr.'s stable of PCG workers, was
  called upon to carry the brunt of the "Times"' attack.
   There were, of course, others.  As in 1967 and at other times
  during the first decade of media cover-ups, the major TV, radio,
  wire service, magazine and newspaper media acted as a cover-up
  unit.  Ben Bradlee, the PCG chieftain at the "Washington Post,"
  made sure that "Newsweek" did their hatchet jobs.  Time, Inc., CBS
  (with Eric Sevaried, Dick Salant and Leslie Midgeley), NBC (with
  David Brinkley), and ABC (with Bob Clark and Howard K. Smith) all
  went on the attack.  The overall theme was that the committee would
  soon die out.</p>

<p>    Media Tactics</p>

<p>   The tactics first used were to create the impression that the
  Committee was not going to find anything of importance.  Then Dick
  Sprague became the chief target.  One of the dirty tricks used
  against him portrayed him as arrogant, flamboyant, power-mad, and
  as a man who usurped the powers of the Committee.  The writers and
  editors of the PCG are very good at this sort of thing.  The "New
  York Times," with Burnham writing and Salisbury and Bancroft
  directing, did a real hatchet job on Sprague.  These techniques
  convinced congressmen and much of the public.  Sqrague was forced
  to stay very quiet and away from reporters and cameras.  That did
  not deter the PCG people.  Once an image of a man has been created
  by the media, it is not necessary for him to appear in public.  He
  could even disappear for several weeks, but the flamboyant, noisy
  image would go on uninterrupted.  This technique is much less
  obvious than murder, but it works nearly as well.  When the time
  comes to destroy or eliminate the man, all the PCG has to do is
  create an image.</p>

<p>    The Vote to Continue</p>

<p>   The man chosen to eliminate Sprague was the new chairman of the
  Select Committee, Henry Gonzalez.  Before setting up a classic
  "personality conflict" between Gonzalez and Sprague, the PCG used
  another tactic.  It attempted to kill the Committee with a vote not
  to continue it in the 1977 Congress.
   The House and media PCG members overemphasized the large budget
  requested by Dick Sprague, the use of the polygraph, the use of the
  psychological stress evaluator and the telephone monitoring
  equipment.  Rather than telling the truth about the budget,
  describing how the money would be spent, and describing why and how
  the equipment was going to be used, the media (aided and abetted by
  PCG members in the House itself) made it seem as though the budget
  was totally out of line and that citizen's rights would be violated
  by the use of such equipment.  The PCG planted false information
  that led Don Edwards of California to play into their hands on the
  equipment issue.
   The year-end report of the Committee, which they and the staff
  hoped would make these subjects clear, countered the media attacks.
  *But*, of course, the PCG controls the media, and the report was
  completely blacked out.  Most citizens do not even know it exists.
  Almost every U.S. citizen has heard and seen Dick Sprague called a
  rattlesnake and an unscrupulous character.  However, the PCG lost
  the vote against continuing the Committee and used a new method to
  try to kill it.</p>

<p>   The New Tactic</p>

<p>   The PCG decided to use Gonzalez to control the Committee.  The
  stage was set for the PCG to knock off Sprague and to install one
  of their own men.  The plan was to do this by brainwashing Henry
  Gonzalez into distrusting Sprague and selected members of the
  Committee and the staff.
   The idea was to use Gonzalez in this way to install a PCG man
  (the fact that he was a PCG man was unknown to Gonzalez) as chief
  of staff.  Gonzalez would fire Sprague and the key staff members,
  first blocking their access to important files and witnesses.  The
  PCG would then have been in a position to either fold up the
  Committee by March 31, or to direct its efforts toward finding a
  Castro-did-it conspiracy in JFK's case and no conspiracy in the
  King case.</p>

<p>    Tactic Backfires</p>

<p>   The PCG did not forecast one important effect their tactics
  would have.  By the time Henry Gonzalez became chairman, the other
  eleven members of the Committee and its staff had begun to smell a
  rat.  They noted with curiosity all of the strange coincidences
  that occurred.  During the floor debate on February 2, 1977 over
  continuing the Committee, Representatives Devine, Preyer, Burke and
  Fauntroy let the rest of the House know that they believed
  something peculiar was happening to them.  The appearance of the
  Justice Department report on that same day disturbed them very
  much.  The attacks on Sprague upset them also.
   The staff were even more disturbed.  Most of them had assumed
  they were being asked to conduct a thorough and unbiased
  investigation of two homicides.  The power of the PCG became
  obvious to them over a period of several weeks.  The effect of this
  on both the Committee and its staff was to drive all eighty-four
  people (73 staff and 11 Committee members) into a solid block (the
  only exceptions were Gonzalez's people on the staff), more
  determined than ever to get at the truth.  Some staffers began
  using their own money for travel.  All of them took pay cuts.  Many
  of them decided they would work for nothing if necessary to keep
  going.  The PCG's strategy had backfired.  The eighty-four loyal
  people were like one giant lion backed into a corner, spurred on to
  greater heights to fight back.
   For this reason, the PCG tactic to use a brainwashed Henry
  Gonzalez failed.  The eighty-four people resisted that manuever by
  threatening to resign en masse.  Tip O'Neill and others were forced
  to go against Gonzalez.  Gonzalez resigned.  The House voted by a
  large majority to accept his resignation and Tip O'Neill appointed
  Louis Stokes as the new chairman.  At this point, the PCG decided
  to abandon Gonzalez and to try another tactic, signalled by an
  article in the "Washington Star" on March 3, 1977.  Written by
  "Star" staff writer Lynn Rosellini, the article was entitled,
  "Gonzalez' Action Stuns Panel but Not the Home Folks."  It was
  manufactured by the PCG to discredit Gonzalez and his final demise.
  (It was the first anti-Gonzalez article to appear.)  The PCG had
  obviously decided to throw Gonzalez to the wolves.  The significant
  quote was supposedly from a "source familiar with Gonzalez' career"
  that said "Henry focuses in on conspiracies, the weird angle of
  things.  Once he gets involved in something, he shakes it by the
  throat until it's dead."  That was a dead giveaway that the PCG no
  longer wanted Henry around.</p>

<p>   Next Tactic -- Death By Acclamation</p>

<p>   The PCG's next tactic was to convince a majority of the House
  that the Committee had had it because of the feuding as portrayed
  in the press.  They hoped to either eliminate the Committee
  altogether or eliminate the JFK investigation or to force Sprague
  to resign.  (After all, the King conspiracy can always be blamed on
  J. Edgar Hoover, if it comes down to that.  There is no particular
  spillover from the King case into JFK, RFK or Wallace, provided
  Frenchy can be kept out of the limelight.)  It might have been
  possible for the PCG Congressmen to propose dropping the JFK case
  or to propose postponing it in favor of continuing just the King
  case with a reduced budget.  Prior to March 31, a House floor vote
  or a vote in the Rules Committee could have been proposed that
  might have limited the investigations and the authority of the
  Select Committee in this way.  The rules under which the Select
  Committee would operate were not passed by the Committee due to the
  conflict between Henry Gonzalez and the rest of the members, so the
  proposal could have included restrictive rules.  The PCG media
  could have boosted this idea with the PCG loyalists in the House.
  Jim Wright appeared to be the new leader of the opposition to kill
  the Select Committee.  More ground was being laid every day for a
  negative vote on continuation.  The hint was that the Committee
  must come up with a bombshell or that it will die.
   The Committee fought off this tactic by diverting the attention
  of the media through a series of very rapidly developing activities
  and a substantial reduction in the proposed budget, which plummeted
  to 2.8 million for the remainder of 1977.  The House finally voted
  to continue the Committee by a very narrow margin, with a swing of
  25 votes determining the result.
   The final weapon used to obtain a vote to continue the Committee
  on March 30 was the resignation of Dick Sprague.</p>

<p>    Exposing the PCG</p>

<p>   The best way to expose the PCG is to demonstrate that it has
  been influencing or controlling the media and attempting to control
  Congress.  How can this be done?  It will be necessary to show who
  the PCG members are in the House and the media and exactly what
  they have been doing while they are doing it.  Getting this kind of
  information out to the public will be very difficult, since the
  entire media group seems to be controlled.  Live TV is not easily
  controllable.  If unannounced exposures of PCG members are made on
  live TV there would be no way for the PCG to stop it.  About the
  only way to set up such a situation would be to hold public
  hearings with live TV coverage.
   Exposing the PCG to Congress might be accomplished on the floor
  of the House.  Evidence of the clandestine activities of PCG
  members in the tactics described above could be introduced on the
  floor without media coverage.  This happened to a minor extent on
  March 30 when some of the Committee members began to accuse the
  media of improper influence.</p>

<p>   Who Are The PCG Members</p>

<p>   The PCG members presently attempting to control the Select
  Committee must be clearly identified.[1]  There are, no doubt, some
  media people and Representatives who sincerely believe that there
  were no conspiracies and who have been playing into the hands of
  the PCG without realizing it.  Other Representatives, and media
  people by the definition of the term PCG, are purposefully
  controlling the situation.  It may be difficult to distinguish
  between these two groups without tracing back some PCG connection
  of the culprits.  Any CIA or FBI clandestine relationship or any
  direct connection with any of the assassination cases would be a
  tip.  An example of this is George Lardner, Jr.'s direct connection
  with the JFK case ten years ago.  (Lardner was in David Ferrie's
  apartment for four hours after the midnight time of death estimated
  by the New Orleans coroner.  Ferrie was killed by a karate chop to
  the back of his neck.)  Jim Garrison interrogated Lardner at some
  length, but he never received a satisfactory explanation of what he
  had been doing there.
   While it may be difficult to tell which congressmen are sincere
  and which are knowingly trying to extend the cover-ups, the Select
  Committee must turn its attention to any member of the House who
  throws up roadblocks or who speaks out strongly against the
  continuation of the investigations.  On this basis, one must
  suspect every one of the Representatives cited below.
   Many questions should be asked of this group.  For example, who
  encouraged Mr. Bauman during that autumn and on March 30, Mr. Sisk
  last spring and Mr. Quillen in February to suddenly become so
  vehement about stopping investigations of the assassinations?
  Their stated reasons were that the Kennedys were opposed, costs,
  the lack of new evidence, the Warren Commission, etc.  But these
  reasons can no longer be their own true beliefs.  On whose behalf
  were they acting?  How did Trent Lott find out that the Committee
  staff made a telephone call to Cameroon, which he discussed on
  March 28 at the Rules meeting?
   Who talked Frank Thompson into a campaign to shut off the Select
  Committee's financial resources?  (The Thompson efforts cannot be
  explained away by the ordinary controller's motivations.)  Who
  convinced Jim Wright that the Committee was doomed and that he
  should personally intervene in the Gonzalez, Sprague and Committee
  members' battle?  And, most importantly, who brainwashed both Henry
  Gonzalez and Gail Beagle into mistrusting the people they had
  always trusted?  Answer these questions and publicize the answers,
  and the top-down approach to exposing the PCG and solving the
  assassination conspiracies will be well along the path to success.</p>

<p>    Part II</p>

<p>    "Hard" and "Soft" Propaganda in 1977</p>

<p>   When the time approached for the Select Committee on
  Assassinations to ask the House of Representatives for its 1978
  budget, it was interesting to once again examine the PCG's control
  over the American news media and the Congress.  To those who
  observed the assassination scene with blinders removed, it was
  patently obvious that the December 1977 date for the Select
  Committee's budget approval was a target.  The PCG attempted to
  defeat the Committee's efforts to get at the truth underlying the
  John Kennedy and Martin Luther King assassinations and the cover-up
  crimes associated with them.
   An all-out effort was mounted by the PCG to influence the
  thinking of citizens and the votes of the members of the House.
  This effort manifested itself in the major news media--over the
  three TV networks, the "New York Times," "Washington Post,"
  "Newsweek," "Time," book publishers, book reviewers, TV talk shows,
  etc.
   This massive campaign is a useful test to prove the validity of
  contentions made by this author and others in 1976 and 1977
  concerning the relationships between the Power Control Group and
  the American news media, as utilized in the continuing cover-ups of
  the domestic assassinations, and in the PCG's efforts to destroy
  the reputations of assassination researchers[2] and the two
  official investigations of the John Kennedy assassinations.[3]
   New evidence surfaced in 1977 to support these contentions:  a
  CIA document released under the Freedom of Information Act and an
  article by a new potential ally for assassination truth seekers,
  Carl Bernstein.  Both of these documents were provided to the
  author by Ted Gandolfo in New York, who now has his own weekly
  cable TV show on Friday nights on Manhattan TV entitled,
  "Assassination USA."</p>

<p>    Evidence of Media Control by the CIA</p>

<p>   Carl Bernstein wrote an article exposing the CIA's methods of
  controlling the news media.[4]  The basic technique dictates
  planting a Secret Team member at the top of each major media
  organization, or obtaining tacit agreements from the top man to use
  reporters working for the CIA, and to use CIA people, stories, and
  policies on the inside of the organization.  Bernstein named men
  above the level named by this author as CIA people in certain
  organizations.  For example, the author's claim was that Harding
  Bancroft, Jr. has been the CIA control point at the "New York
  Times."  Bernstein named Arthur Hays Sulzberger, the owner of the
  "Times" and Bancroft's boss, as the CIA's man at the "Times."  At
  CBS, the author named Richard Salant.  Bernstein names William C.
  Paley.  At the "Washington Post" and "Newsweek" Bernstein names
  Philip Graham, Katherine Graham's husband, former owner of the
  "Post" and "Newsweek," and by inference, Mrs. Graham since her
  husband's death.  The author named Ben Bradlee.  But Bernstein's
  information confirms the author's contention that the CIA controls
  the 15 news media organizations in the U.S.
   The other CIA top level individuals named by Bernstein are as
  follows:</p>

<p>  "Louisville Courier Journal"--Barry Bingham, Sr.
  NBC--Richard Wald
  ABC--Sam Jaffe
  Time, Inc.--Henry Luce
  Copley News Service--James Copley
  Hearst--Seymour Freiden</p>

<p>   The PCG, through their prime intelligence members, are today
  still controlling what the media do and say about the subject of
  assassinations and the Select Committee on Assassinations.[5]  They
  do this by influencing the heads of each organization who determine
  media editorial policies that are carried out by their
  subordinates.  In some cases, however, lower level people are also
  planted as reporters, editors or producers to execute the policies,
  write the stories, produce the programs, review the books, or write
  or publish the books.  The CIA also owns and controls many
  publishing houses, freelance writers or reviewers who can also be
  used in this massive campaign.
   However, the reader should not immediately jump to the
  conclusion that all of the media people knowingly continue to
  cover-up of the assassination conspiracies.  It is only necessary
  that they actually believe the CIA's stories and positions against
  conspiracies.  For example, Anthony Lewis at the "New York Times"
  participates in this entire fraud, actually believing that Oswald
  was the lone madman assassin.
   It is inconceivable, however, that men intelligent enough to
  rise to the top of CBS, NBC, ABC, the "New York Times et al." could
  actually believe that Oswald was the lone assassin.  Some or most
  of them must be cooperating fully in the PCG cover-up efforts.</p>

<p>    Proof of CIA Efforts to Discredit Researchers</p>

<p>   A recently released CIA document[6] was a dispatch issued from
  CIA headquarters in April 1967 to certain bases and stations to
  mount a campaign through media contacts (called assets) against
  certain assassination researchers.  The targets included Mark Lane,
  Joachim Joesten, Penn Jones, Edward Epstein and Bertrand Russell.
   The document describes an entire program to be used to discredit
  the "critics."  Many of the exact expressions that were used by the
  CIA-controlled media to attack the researchers can be found in this
  document.  One example is:  "The CIA should use this argument in
  general.  Conspiracy on the large scale often suggested (by
  critics) would be impossible to conceal in the United States,
  especially since informants could expect to receive large
  royalties, etc."  Another argument suggested is:  "Note that Robert
  Kennedy, Attorney General at the time and John F. Kennedy's
  brother, would be the last man to overlook or conceal any
  conspiracy."
   How many times did we hear that between 1967 and 1969?
   The document also suggests using an article by Fletcher Knebel
  to attack Ed Epstein's book and to attack it rather than Mark
  Lane's book because "Lane's book is much more difficult to answer
  as a whole, as one becomes lost in a morass of unrelated details."
   The timing of this document is particularly important.  April 1,
  1967 was approximately two months after Jim Garrison's
  investigation surfaced, and only shortly after Garrison found David
  Ferrie murdered in his own apartment and had Clay Shaw arrested.
  Since we now know that both men were contract agents for the CIA
  and that the CIA went to great lengths under Richard Helms'
  direction to protect Clay Shaw and to keep his true identity from
  being revealed, the chances are good that this document was
  triggered by Garrison's investigation.
   The names of the authors of the document have been blacked out
  of the copy that was released.  Further research might reveal who
  actually wrote it and "pulled it together" (as a note in hand print
  at the top states).</p>

<p>   The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald</p>

<p>   The top level media control was demonstrated by the ABC-TV
  program, "The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald", whose co-director,
  Lawrence Schiller, had to have been selected at the suggestion of
  the PCG.  Schiller, one of the worst people in the PCG's stable of
  freelancers, is best known for his book supporting the Warren
  Commission and attacking the researchers, called "The
  Scavengers."[7]
   Schiller is perhaps the biggest scavenger ever created.  He
  supposedly obtained a "deathbed" statement from Jack Ruby by
  illegally and unethically sneaking a tape recorder into his
  hospital room.  He then parlayed this into a wide-selling record
  with distasteful and untruthful propaganda.  More recently he
  seized the opportunity to interview Gary Gilmore before his
  execution, practically holding a mike to his mouth while the
  commands were being given to the firing squad.
   How, the reader may ask, could Schiller become a co-producer of
  a major ABC television show?  The answer is simple.  He is
  available to attack and ridicule the assassination researchers and
  reinforce the no-conspiracy idea for the PCG.
   The ABC production crew had the full cooperation of the Dallas
  police in re-enacting the assassination event in Dealey Plaza.
  There is no way that could have happened without PCG influence.
  The Dallas police, quite guilty of cover-up in the case and having
  some individual members on the assassination team, would not permit
  anyone to film a reenactment of the assassination showing
  conspiracy or the truth.  The PCG had to assure them that the
  program's editorial position would be anti-conspiracy.
   The "Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald" was given extensive publicity
  on TV, in magazines, in newspapers. In England, a special article
  about it appeared in the Sunday magazine section of a London
  newspaper complete with photographs from the shooting sequence as
  filmed.[8]  The PCG spent an enormous amount of money on the
  program and a publicity campaign.  There is no way ABC-TV could
  have done that on their own.  More than 80% of the people believe
  there was a conspiracy:  why wouldn't ABC go along with the 80% of
  their viewers and portray the truth?  The answer again is simple:
  ABC is controlled from the very top, probably much higher than the
  Sam Jaffe level, by the PCG and the CIA.</p>

<p>   Other TV Shows</p>

<p>   Both NBC and CBS are planning major TV specials on the
  assassinations.  CBS is planning a show on Ruby and Oswald.  The
  theme will be that the Warren Commission was right and that both
  Oswald and Ruby were lone nuts.  Mr. Paley and Mr. Salant are the
  PCG people calling the shots.  NBC is planning a show on Martin
  Luther King which will have a section on the assassination.  Even
  though Abbey Mann is directing the show and he would like to bring
  out some of the facts, it is certain that the PCG members of NBC,
  including Richard Wald, will not permit any conclusions about Ray's
  innocence or information about Frenchy-Raoul or Jack Youngblood
  (the real assassins) to be included.</p>

<p>    Priscilla McMillan--CIA Agent</p>

<p>   One of the more remarkable things about the massive 1977
  campaign of the CIA and the PCG is their blatant use of freelance
  writers and news reporters who are well known CIA agents to nearly
  anyone who has taken the time to pay attention.  Three agents are
  Priscilla McMillan and her husband, George McMillan, and Jeremiah
  O'Leary of the "Washington Star."  Priscilla (in particular) is so
  obviously an agent that even Dick Cavett indirectly accused her of
  being one when she appeared on his show with Marina Oswald to plug
  her new book.
   The CIA decided the perfect time to publish McMillan's book[9],
  which had been completed for several years.  A publisher under CIA
  control was selected, and the book was published in time for the
  December committee budget vote.  The CIA arranged that Marina
  appear with Pat on several national TV shows.  Priscilla had Marina
  well rehearsed for these shows--she even retold the old lies about
  Oswald shooting at General Walker.  The commentators selected to
  interview both women, including Dick Cavett, David Hartmann (ABC),
  and Tom Snyder (NBC) had their orders to deal delicately with them
  and not to ask any embarrassing questions.  Cavett came closest
  with his essentially accusatory question about whether Priscilla
  was a CIA agent.
   No one asked Marina the one embarrassing question she would have
  had the greatest difficulty answering regarding the picture of
  Oswald holding the rifle and the communist newspaper that Marina
  claimed she took of him:  "How was it possible for you to have
  taken a photograph that since has been demonstrated to be a
  composite of three photographs, with your husband's head attached
  to someone else's body at the chin line?"  (flashing on the screen
  Fred Newcomb's slide showing the chin level discontinuity).  Cavett
  actually flashed the fake photograph on the screen at the beginning
  of his show, but he never mentioned it.
   This monumental PCG effort that involved controlling at least
  three TV networks, a CIA publisher, Marina Oswald, a CIA agent,
  Priscilla McMillan, an enormous amount of time and money, and a
  special book review by the "New York Times"[10] demonstrates how
  much power the PCG has.
   Some of those people who watched "Good Morning America" and the
  "Tomorrow Show" and the "Dick Cavett Show" (three different types
  of national viewing audiences) who believe the lone assassin theory
  and the Warren Commission had those beliefs reinforced by Priscilla
  McMillan and Marina Oswald.  It is wise for researchers, the Select
  Committee on Assassinations and others who know what is really
  going on, not to underestimate this power of the PCG.</p>

<p>   Fensterwald's Book</p>

<p>   A book by Bud Fensterwald appeared in 1977 under the sponsorship
  of the PCG.[11]  This clever effort on the part of one of the CIA's
  best agents was designed to throw people off the track who have a
  somewhat deeper interest in the JFK assassination.  It was meant to
  divert attention away from the CIA by omitting at least twelve of
  the CIA conspirators who were in the files of the Committee to
  Investigate Assassinations (co-founded by Fensterwald and the
  author in 1968).
   No excuse can be given for leaving these key people out of the
  book, because the CIA had extensive files on most of them.  Bud
  Fensterwald even had a personal correspondent relationship to the
  key informant of the group, Richard Case Nagell.  The twelve are:
  William Seymour, Emilio Santana, Manuel Garcia Gonzalez, Guy
  Gabaldin, Mary Hope, Richard Case Nagell, Harry Dean, Ronald
  Augustinovich, Thomas Beckham, Fred Lee Crisman, Frenchy, and Jack
  Lawrence.  All of them were included in a description of the
  details of the assassination team earlier in this book and in an
  article by the author.[12]
   Zebra Books, the publisher of Fensterwald's book, is a CIA-
  controlled organization that has also published another
  disinformation book, "Appointment in Dallas," by Hugh
  MacDonald.[13]  In both cases, the PCG intended to misdirect
  attention away from the CIA participants while at the same time
  admitting conspiracy.  There is no way the story in MacDonald's
  book can be true.  It maintains that Oswald at least planned to
  fire from the sixth floor window of the TSBD Building.  As all good
  researchers know, the photographs of the window, inside and
  outside, prove there was no one firing from that window that day.</p>

<p>   The de Mohrenschildt Murder</p>

<p>   The Murder Inc. branch of the PCG killed George de Mohrenschildt
  when he became too dangerous for them.  The media branch of the PCG
  then undertook a campaign to discredit Willem Oltmans and NOS-TV
  (in Holland) who happened to be in possession of a series of video
  and audio tapes of de Mohrenschildt that will be very damaging for
  the PCG.
   The de Mohrenschildt murder has so far been concealed by the PCG
  with the help of the media and portrayed as the suicide of a man
  who had become insane.  As Willem Oltmans' book clearly
  demonstrates[14] de Mohrenschildt was quite sane when he
  disappeared from Belgium.  He was in the process of giving Ed
  Epstein a story about his involvement in the JFK assassination when
  he was murdered in Florida.</p>

<p>    Donald Donaldson's Disappearance</p>

<p>   General Donald Donaldson, alias Dimitri Dimitrov alias Jim
  Adams, was intimately acquainted with the CIA people who planned
  JFK's assassination.  He was in Holland to tell his story to NOS-TV
  and Willem Oltmans.  He told Oltmans that Allen Dulles was the key
  CIA man in planning JFK's assassination.  (Donaldson had been
  brought to the U.S. as a double agent during World War II by
  Franklin Roosevelt.)  He held back his knowledge of the
  assassination conspiracy until the Church Committee was formed.  He
  then took his information to Church, who brought him to President
  Ford rather than having him questioned by the Church Committee or
  the Schweiker sub-committee. Ford, Church and Donaldson had a
  meeting in which Ford talked both of them into keeping Donaldson's
  information under wraps.
   When de Mohrenschildt was killed, Donaldson decided it was time
  to make his information public and to offer it to the Select
  Committee.  He approached Oltmans, asked that his identity be kept
  secret, told NOS his story, and then remained in Holland while
  Oltmans attempted to tell the story to President Carter.  Oltmans
  revealed Donaldson's identity on American TV and to the Select
  Committee when Carter refused to listen to the story.  Donaldson
  then moved to England, and subsequently disappeared from a London
  hotel, leaving large unpaid bills at both his London and Amsterdam
  hotels.  The possibility is very good that he has gone the same
  route as de Mohrenschildt, murdered by the PCG.</p>

<p>   Attacks on the Select Committee</p>

<p>   One of a series of attacks on the Select Committee in November
  and December, leading up to the December vote on the 1978 budget,
  took place in the form of an article by probable CIA agent George
  Lardner, Jr., one of the Select Committee's biggest enemies.  He is
  one of the PCG's stable of reporters.  Lardner wrote an article for
  the Sunday "Washington Post" on November 6, 1977, portraying the
  Committee as engaging in random, uncoordinated activity,
  interrogating witnesses from the Garrison investigation (which
  Lardner labelled, "the zany Garrison investigation", and "the
  fruitless investigation").  The "New York Times," "Washington Star"
  and other media can be expected to open up all barrels under PCG
  direction.  The general theme will no doubt be that the Committee
  has done nothing at all and that Oswald acted alone.[15]
   If Council Blakey or Chairman Stokes, or JFK subcommittee
  Chairman Preyer try to respond to these attacks they will be ripped
  to shreds by the PCG's media people.  As the author pointed out in
  part I of this chapter, the only chance the Committee and the House
  have to keep the investigation going is to expose the PCG and their
  media control, from the top down.  Otherwise the Committee cannot
  win the battle.</p>

<p>____________________</p>

<p> [1] Power Control Group (PCG) defined in prior articles and one book
   by the author, as follows:</p>

<p> The PCG includes all organizations and individuals who
   knowingly participated in any of the domestic political
   assassinations or attempted assassinations, or in any of the
   efforts to cover-up the truth about those assassinations.  This
   includes a large number of murders of witnesses and participants.
   The assassinations involved include, but are not necessarily
   limited to the following:</p>

<p>  John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, George
  Wallace and Mary Jo Kopechne.</p>

<p> The PCG is a much larger group than just the clandestine parts
   of the CIA and the FBI, or the Secret Team as defined by L.
   Fletcher Prouty.  It would however, include all those members of
   the Secret Team or the CIA or the FBI falling under the
   definition.</p>

<p> [2] The author's contentions about media control by the PCG have
   appeared in one self-published book and several articles:</p>

<p> (a) Book:  "The Taking of America, 1-2-3," R.E.  Sprague,
   self-published, Hartsdale, N.Y., 1976.  (First Edition.  This 
   Third Edition contains chapters 15-17 plus the Appendix which
   were written after 1977.  --Editor)
 (b) Articles: "The American News Media and the Assassination of
   President John F. Kennedy:  Accessories After Fact," R.E.
   Sprague, "Computers and Automation," June, July, 1973.
 (c) "The Central Intelligence Agency and the `The New York
   Times,'" R.E. Sprague.  (Using pseudonym Samuel F. Thurston)
   "Computers and Automation," July, 1971.  Republished in "People
   and the Pursuit of Truth," May, 1977.
 (d) "Congressional Investigation of Political Assassinations in
   the United States:  The Two Approaches:  From the Bottom Up vs.
   From the Top Down," R.E. Sprague, "People and the Pursuit of
   Truth," May, 1977.</p>

<p> [3] The two official investigations of the Kennedy assassination
   referred to here are:</p>

<p> (a) The investigation by the office of the district attorney of
   Orleans Parish, New Orleans, La. 1966 to 1969 (Jim Garrison).
 (b) The investigation by the Select Committee on Assassinations
   of the U.S. House of Representatives 1976-1977.</p>

<p> The investigations by the Schweiker-Hart subcommittee of the
   Church committee and the Ervin Watergate committee were never
   really approved by Congress, and so lacked the power and
   influence to become a threat to the PCG.</p>

<p> [4] "The CIA and the Press," Carl Bernstein, "Rolling Stone," October
   4, 1977.  A copy of the full unedited manuscript of this article
   was also made available to the author.  The "Rolling Stone"
   version had selected names omitted.</p>

<p> [5] Bernstein's article also describes the CIA influence over several
   other media organizations without naming the top executives.
   These are:
 "New York Herald Tribune"
 "Saturday Evening Post"
 "Scripps Howard Newspapers"
 "Associated Press"
 "United Press International"
 "Reuters"
 "Miami Herald"
   And a CIA official told Bernstein, "that's just a small part of
   the list."</p>

<p> [6] The CIA document was obtained by Harold Weisberg under the
   Freedom of Information Act.  It is dated 4/1/67 and labelled
   "Dispatch to Chiefs, Certain Stations and Bases."  Document
   Number 1035-960 for "FOIA Review" on September 1976.  Object:
   Countering Criticism of the "Warren Report."</p>

<p> [7] "The Scavengers and Critics of the Warren Report," Lawrence
   Schiller, Dell Publishing Co., New York, 1967.</p>

<p> [8] "The Big If," "London Sunday Times," September 18, 1977.</p>

<p> [9] "Marina and Lee," Patricia McMillan, Harper &amp; Row, 1977.</p>

<p>[10] A review of the McMillan book appeared in the "Sunday New York
   Times" book review section on November 6, 1977.  It praised the
   book to the skys, backed up the Warren Commission, and severely
   attacked the researchers and the Select Committee.</p>

<p>[11] "Coincidence or Conspiracy," Bernard Fensterwald, Jr., Zebra
   Books, New York, 1977.</p>

<p>[12] (a) "The Taking of America, 1-2-3," Richard E. Sprague,
   self-published, 1976.</p>

<p>   (b) "The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy:  The
   Involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Plans
   and the Cover-Up", Richard E.  Sprague -- "People and the
   Pursuit of Truth," May, 1975.</p>

<p>[13] "Appointment in Dallas," Hugh C. McDonald, Zebra Books, New York,
   1975.</p>

<p>[14] "George de Mohrenschildt," Willem Oltmans, Published in The
   Netherlands, Unpublished in the United States.</p>

<p>[15] This chapter originally appeared as the article "Congressional 
   Investigation of Political Assassinations in the United States:  
   The Two Approaches:  From the Bottom Up vs. From the Top Down," 
   by the author in "People and the Pursuit of Truth," May, 1977.  
   Since the original article was written, in November 1977 the 
   Select Committee decided that the budget money approved in 1977 
   was sufficient to carry over a few months into 1978.  No budget 
   request was made in December 1977.  The PCG can now be expected 
   to continue its attacks until the spring of 1978 when the 
   budget request will be made. (January 4, 1978)</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>--
      daveus rattus </p>

<p>    yer friendly neighborhood ratman</p>

<p>    KOYAANISQATSI</p>

<p>  ko.yaa.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language)  n.  1. crazy life.  2. life
  in turmoil.  3. life out of balance.  4. life disintegrating.  
  5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.</p>

<p>From dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com Wed Jun 17 07:55:35 1992
Received: by icaen.uiowa.edu ( 5.52 (84)/1.1) id AA07136
on Wed, 17 Jun 92 07:55:31 CDT.
Received: from pl122c.eecs.lehigh.edu by ns-mx.uiowa.edu (5.64.jnf/920408)
  on Wed, 17 Jun 92 07:57:09 -0500 id AA07930 with SMTP 
Received: from SGI.COM by PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU (5.61/1.34)
id AA29041; Wed, 17 Jun 92 08:43:40 -0400
Received: from [192.102.132.11] by sgi.sgi.com via SMTP (911016.SGI/910110.SGI)
for PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA13139; Wed, 17 Jun 92 05:46:23 -0700
Received: by ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (920110.SGI/920502.SGI.AUTO)
for @sgi.sgi.com:PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA07406; Wed, 17 Jun 92 05:46:21 -0700
Date: Wed, 17 Jun 92 05:46:21 -0700
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
<info type="Message-ID"> 9206171246.AA07406@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com</info>
To: PML3@PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU
Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (9/11)
Status: RO</p>

<p>Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (9/11)
Summary: we were robbed of our capability of electing a president we wanted
Keywords:  part 9 of 11:  chapter 16
Lines: 867</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>    1979:  The House Select Committee (1)</p>

<p>     Chapter 16
    1984 Here We Come</p>

<p>   George Orwell undoubtedly did not realize how accurate his 1984
  scenario would be by the year 1979.  As 1978 drew to a close,
  events in America made Orwell's descriptions of such concepts as
  Newspeak and a supposedly open but actually closed society, very
  close to reality.  By 1984, now only five short years away,
  Orwell's scenario will apparently be right on the nose.
   Any doubts about who is in charge of America and how effective
  they have become in creating our actual version of Newspeak,
  disappeared as the Carter administration, congress, the courts, and
  the media, all combined their coordinated efforts to cover up and
  distort our current history.  The hopes of thousands of Americans
  that their only true representatives in government, the members of
  the House, would expose the fabric of lies about our recent history
  and the Power Control Group's activities were dashed to smithereens
  by the House of Representative's Select Committee on
  Assassinations.  The hopes that Carter might be on our side, faded
  away in 1978 and the intentions of the executive branch were made
  quite clear by the new directors of the FBI and the CIA.
   The murder incorporated group within the Power Control Group
  continued to murder people in 1978, with efficiency and dispatch.
  The presidential race in 1980 has been foreclosed to Ted Kennedy
  for a long time, but the chances that any candidate, not willing to
  extend the assassination cover-ups, could be nominated and elected,
  are close to zero.
   The American people, by and large, do not understand or
  appreciate very much of this.  The Select Committee teamed with the
  media and by holding public hearings with almost no live coverage
  they convinced the majority of Americans that there was no
  conspiracy in the JFK case and that James Earl Ray shot Martin
  Luther King although he might have had help from his brothers.  The
  public has never heard of most of the eight men assassinated in
  1977 and 1978 by the PCG, nor do they appreciate the fact that
  future assassinations will be carried off by the same bunch.
   How the hell did the PCG control Congress and the Select
  Committee?  It wasn't easy and they very nearly didn't.
   There may also be another explanation about the committee's
  actions in which the word "control" is too strong.  Influence,
  intimidation by throwing out implied warnings or threats, or just
  plain making it obvious that personal danger could be involved,
  might have been used.  The process was very involved and it made
  use of a number of techniques and approaches, including some we can
  only guess at in 1979.  However, a number of the PCG's methods are
  known and will be described herein.
   The executive branch control by the PCG was exposed even before
  Carter's election by those whose eyes were open wide enough to see
  it.  This author frankly admits to partially closed eyes until
  1978.  The significance of the Bilderberg Society and the
  Trilateral Commission was not obvious until Carter had been in
  office for a couple of years.  Now, it is very obvious that he is
  under the complete domination of the men who really run the U.S.A.,
  and that he will never do anything to expose the truth about the
  political assassinations or their cover-ups.
   The latest indication of where the Carter administration stands
  was the testimony given by FBI director William H. Webster to the
  Select Committee on December 11, 1978.  He said that the FBI would
  freeze the scene and take full immediate control of the
  investigation of any future presidential assassination or that of
  any other elected U.S. leader.
   In case anyone has any doubt about what he meant by "freeze the
  scene", Webster went on to say, "One purpose of the FBI
  investigation would be to lay to rest untrue conspiratorial
  questions that have a way of rising, and avoid the sort of mistakes
  that followed the assassination of President Kennedy."[1]  In other
  words, the FBI will suppress or destroy any evidence of conspiracy
  even if they were not involved in the assassination itself.  One
  such "mistake" in the Dallas murder surfaced in December 1978 when
  Earl Golz of the "Dallas Morning News" found a movie that the FBI
  failed to "freeze".  It was taken by a man named Bronson and it
  shows two men, not one, in the sixth floor window of the TSBD just
  five minutes before the shots were fired.  One of the men is
  wearing a red shirt.  That filmed evidence matches the still photo
  taken by an unknown photographer earlier that morning, and
  developed at a Dallas photo lab by Ed Foley, the lab owner.  The
  author found the photo and obtained a print of it in 1967.  The
  Foley photo, as it became known, shows two men in the sixth floor
  window, one with a black shirt and one with a bright red shirt.
  Mr. red shirt matches the description of the man in the Bronson
  film.  He is not Lee Harvey Oswald.  Neither is the man in the
  black shirt.  He was most probably Buel Wesley Frazier, the man who
  drove Oswald to work on November 22, 1963.  The facial profile and
  black shirt match photos of Frazier and another man entitled to be
  on that sixth floor, were there around 10 AM and at 12:25, five
  minutes before the shots were fired.  Mr. Webster has in mind
  rounding up all such evidence and destroying it right away in the
  next assassination.
   The evidence discussed in earlier chapters of this book, also
  not "frozen" by the FBI, proves that the "snipers nest" was no
  snipers nest at all, but just an area where workers on that floor
  were piling cartons to allow the floor laying crew at the west end
  of that floor to do their job.
   Webster would like the FBI to grab such evidence the next time,
  and destroy it before "conspiracy rumors" get started.  The FBI
  came much closer to doing this in Memphis, but after all, they were
  involved directly in the planning and execution of the
  assassination of Dr. King.  They had a much greater incentive for
  cover-up in that murder.  William Sullivan's Division Five, at the
  behest of J. Edgar Hoover, carried out the King assassination using
  Raoul and Jack Youngblood plus others.
   Returning to the Select Committee, I must switch over to a more
  personal tone because of my direct involvement with the group from
  its inception.  I helped Henry Gonzalez in the early days of 1975
  and 1976 when the committee was just a wild dream for most people.
  I made a presentation to Thomas Downing's staff members who
  eventually became part of the Select Committee staff.  Mark Lane
  arranged that in the summer of 1976.  The photographic evidence of
  conspiracy in the JFK case was as overwhelming to them and to Henry
  as it was to anyone who has taken the five or six hours or so to
  look at it.  I then became an advisor to Richard A. Sprague and Bob
  Tanenbaum when the committee was formed and spent the months from
  November 1976 to July 1977 helping them with the photographic
  evidence and with evidence collected by the Committee to
  Investigate Assassinations including Jim Garrison's evidence.
   If Henry Gonzalez or Richard A. Sprague, or Thomas Downing had
  stayed with the committee their work would not have been
  controlled.  Sprague's loyal deputy counsels, Bob Tanenbaum, in 
  charge of the JFK investigation and Bob Lehner in charge of the MLK
  investigation had already begun to get at the real evidence of the
  Power Control Group and the FBI and CIA's involvement in the two
  cases and in the cover-ups.  The committee members were already
  becoming very suspicious of the two agencies.  Walter Fauntroy,
  chairman of the MLK sub-committee, even dared to speak out about
  the CIA's influence.  He was beaten into the ground by the PCG's
  members in the House.
   So Gonzalez, Sprague, Tanenbaum, Lehner and others who dared
  take on the intelligence portions of the PCG, had to go.  They were
  forced out by one of the ancient techniques employed by the Romans
  known as divide and conquer.  Once Henry Gonzalez became convinced
  that Richard A. Sprague was working for the CIA and the PCG, he
  attacked Sprague bitterly.  Henry knew there was a PCG and he knew
  who had murdered John Kennedy and why.  Henry had to go.  He was
  made to look like a paranoid fool and forced out by the key PCG
  members of the House.  Two PCG agents, Mr. Z and Harry Livingstone,
  helped convince him that Sprague was a CIA man.  
 Mr. Z was brought in by Henry as a lawyer for his committee and
  worked on Henry's beliefs about Richard A. Sprague.  Over some 
  weeks he convinced Henry that Richard A. Sprague was a CIA 
  operative.  He was supported in this activity by Harry Livingstone
  (later author of "High Treason").  Harry Livingstone engaged in 
  various plagiaristic activities and scams, and over quite a period
  of time he worked on Henry to convince him that Richard A. Sprague 
  was a CIA operative.  At the same time Henry was developing his 
  beliefs with the help of Mr. Z and Mr. Livingstone, Richard A. 
  Sprague and his staff were developing skepticism about Henry's 
  integrity.  The net result was both men resigned.  In the next 
  year, 1978, the author appeared with Richard A. Sprague on a cable 
  television broadcast hosted by Ted Gandolfo in New York City, 
  named "Assassionation USA," and the three of them had a detailed 
  discussion about Sprague's reasons for resigning from the 
  Committee.  To some extent his thinking was influenced by his 
  skepticism about Henry Gonzalez's integrity.
   Once Louis Stokes took over as chairman, Sprague's men were
  gradually calmed down, and the so-called search for the right chief
  counsel was underway.  It is difficult to detect what was going on
  during that spring of 1977.  Suffice it to say that the PCG was
  undoubtedly pulling out every stop to get their own chief counsel
  into the committee and to build up the case for getting rid of
  Tanenbaum, Lehner, Donovan Gaye, and others who knew too much or
  who had the gall to go up against the agencies.
   The result of all this hard work by the PCG was the installation
  in July 1977 of Dr. Robert Blakey as chief counsel.  Tanenbaum
  resigned almost immediately, making Blakey's job a little easier,
  but Lehner and Gaye had to be fired by Blakey.  Many others were
  also weeded out.  We may never know exactly what they all knew or
  how they were forced out, because of the use of one of the PCG's
  cleverest techniques and one of the most insidious.
   Each committee staff member, each consultant and each committee
  member was required to sign, as a condition of continuing
  employment or membership on the committee, a nondisclosure
  agreement.  Now, nondisclosure agreements are nothing new,
  especially in classified situations or in sensitive or patent or
  copyright situations.  The committee's nondisclosure agreement was
  however, very unusual.  Many well-known attorneys have pronounced
  it illegal.  Richard A. Sprague saw it and said he would absolutely
  never have required the staff to sign anything like it.  He said it
  was illegal and unenforcable in several of its clauses.  The worst
  thing about it, or the best thing, from the viewpoint of the PCG,
  are the paragraphs giving control over the committee to the FBI and
  the CIA.[2]
   The committee, under Sprague, planned to investigate the FBI and
  the CIA in regard to both assassinations and the cover-ups.  In
  fact, Sprague had put both agencies on notice to that effect.
  Subpoenas were being prepared for access to all of their withheld
  information.  Investigations of the CIA's role in the Mexico City
  part of the assassination conspiracy, as well as Oswald's and
  Ruby's connections with both agencies were under way.
   The Blakey agreement automatically put a stop to all of that.
  Here is one excerpt from the agreement.
   "I (the staff member, committee member, or consultant) hereby
  agree never to divulge, publish or reveal by words, conduct or
  otherwise, . . . any information pertaining to intelligence sources
  or methods as designated by the Director of Central Intelligence,
  or any confidential information that is received by the Select
  Committee or that comes into my possession by virtue of my position
  with the Select Committee, to any person not a member of the Select
  Committee, or, after the Select Committee's termination, by such
  manner as the House of Representatives may determine or, in the
  absence of a determination by the House, in such manner as the
  Agency or Department from which the information originated may
  determine."
   In other words if the committee or an individual staff member,
  or a consultant discovered that the CIA or part of it, was involved
  in the assassination of John Kennedy, or that the FBI was in part
  or in whole responsible for the death of Martin Luther King, or
  that either agency was guilty of covering up the conspiracies in
  both cases, the CIA and the FBI would have the right to prevent
  these findings from being revealed to anyone outside the committee.
  Furthermore, those agencies are still in existence today while the
  Select Committee is not, so that the nondisclosure agreement which
  goes on in perpetuity, gives both the FBI and CIA continuing
  complete control over the individuals who signed it.
   Another excerpt reads as follows:
   "The Chairman of the Select Committee shall consult with the
  Director of Central Intelligence for the purpose of the Chairman's
  determination as to whether or not the material (any material
  obtained by the signer of the agreement) contains information that
  I pledge not to disclose."  If that sounds like Catch-22, it is.
  The interpretation that could be placed on that clause is that the
  CIA has the right to decide what evidence in the JFK and MLK
  assassinations should be withheld on grounds that the CIA itself
  determines.
   How could the committee possibly have investigated the CIA under
  those terms and conditions?  The answer is, they could not and did
  not.
   Can anyone doubt that the PCG prepared the agreement, implanted
  Blakey, and coerced or blackmailed or threatened the Chairman and
  the rest of the committee until they agreed to have everyone sign
  it!
   The most insidious part of the agreement is the clause that
  could be described as the threat, or blackmail clause.  It is
  perhaps this clause that has closed the mouths and pens of all the
  ex-staff members who knew what was going on, but who signed the
  agreement.  That clause reads as follows:
   "In addition to any rights for criminal prosecution or for
  injunctive relief the United Stated Government may have for
  violation of this agreement, the United States Government may file
  a civil suit in an appropriate court for damages as a consequence
  of a breach of this agreement.  The costs of any civil suit brought
  by the United States for breach of this agreement, including court
  costs, investigative expenses, and reasonable attorney fees, shall
  be borne by any defendant who loses such suit." . . . "I hereby
  agree that in any suit by the United States Government for
  injunctive or monetary relief pursuant to the terms of this
  agreement, personal jurisdiction shall obtain and venue shall lie
  in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia,
  or in any other appropriate United States District Court in which
  the United States may elect to bring suit.  I further agree that
  the law of the District of Columbia shall govern the interpretation
  and construction of this agreement."
   Those readers who have followed the performance of the U.S.
  courts in the JFK and MLK cases through the years, will recognize
  the trap in those last two sentences.  Any ex-staffer or
  consultant, or even a Congressman would have about as much chance
  against a CIA/FBI-directed suit in a court of their choice, as the
  man in the moon.  The United States Government, in this clause, is
  not your government or mine.  It is the Power Control Group.  You
  can bet they would select a court already programmed for decision.
  The clause is incredible on the face of it.
   This was a mighty powerful weapon and the committee used it to a
  maximum extent in carrying out a masterful job of continuing the
  two cover-ups.  It was masterful in the sense that they were not as
  bold and bald about it as the Warren Commission or the Rockefeller
  Commission or the Justice Department and the courts have been in
  the MLK case.  Their conclusions are inconclusive;  sort of.  They
  say that to determine whether or not there really were conspiracies
  in the two cases was beyond their means and the time they had
  available.  Nevertheless, the preponderant weight of the public
  testimony before the committee was toward no conspiracy in the JFK
  case and a, "Ray shot him, but might have been helped," conclusion
  in the King case.  But the hold they exercised over the staff and
  consultants in directing their investigations away from conspiracy
  was very smoothly done, with the nondisclosure agreement always
  lurking in the background as a possible threat.
   The agreement was used as an excuse by the committee to avoid
  answering questions.  For example, I wrote to Louis Stokes on April
  5, October 30, and November 24, 1978 asking why the committee had
  not called several important witnesses in the JFK case, including
  Richard Case Nagell.  Stokes had told me in a letter written on May
  15, 1978, that the suggestion that Nagell be called was being
  followed and that the staff was being alerted about him.  Blakey
  took no action and did not contact Nagell or Richard Russell, the
  only person who knew where Nagell was to be found.[3]
   Stokes sent me this reply to my inquiries about the witnesses on
  December 41978.</p>

<p>   "Dear Mr. Sprague:
   Thank you for your letter of November 24, 1978.  I am aware of
  the amount of time you have spent analyzing the assassination of
  President John F. Kennedy and your interest in the work of the
  Select Committee on Assassinations since its inception.  However, I
  regret that *under our Rules*, it is impossible for us to respond
  to your letter in a manner which would reveal the substance or
  procedure of our investigation, or the names of those persons who
  will be called to testify before the committee.  The committee is,
  of course, grateful for your suggestions and those of the many
  other concerned citizens who have taken the time to write."
  (Underlining for emphasis is the author's)
       Sincerely,
       Louis Stokes
       Chairman</p>

<p>   "The Rules" Stokes refers to include the nondisclosure
  agreement.  This letter implies that subsequent to December 4,
  1978, the committee might be calling more JFK witnesses.  Of
  course, that didn't happen.  Except for some high level FBI, Secret
  Service and other government officials testifying about
  Presidential safety and future assassination investigations, the
  committee's show was already over, and Louis Stokes was well aware
  of that.  I'm sure Louis Stokes had his own personal reasons, not
  necessarily sinister, for making that reply.
   The committee had no intention of risking the appearance of any
  of the more knowledgeable or involved witnesses whose names I had
  given them in October 1978 as well as in May 1978 and November
  1978.  A list of these names appears later in this chapter.
   The Warren Commission proved how easy it is to avoid finding a
  conspiracy if you don't look for one, even one that seems to jump
  up and smack you in the face.  The Select Committee did this in
  spades.  The procedure was orchestrated by Robert Blakey by various
  means.  One of his methods was to split up the hard core Dealey
  Plaza evidence and investigations into sections.  He formed an
  advisory panel of outside "experts", for each section;  one on
  medical evidence, photographic evidence, ballistics evidence,
  trajectory evidence, etc.  Then he made sure there was almost no
  coordination, cross talk, or feedback among the panels or even
  among the staff members assigned to each section, except at his
  level.
   There was a great amount of internal complaining about this, but
  to no avail.  Again, the nondisclosure agreement worked wonders.
  An investigating team, in New Orleans and Dallas, headed by the JFK
  task force leader Cliff Fenton, was never allowed to surface either
  publicly or internally to other staff people or the committee.
  Their findings alone would have blown Dr. Blakey and his CIA/FBI
  friends right out of the water.  They spent a lot of time with Jim
  Garrison, and with many of the witnesses and the assassination
  participants described in Chapter 5 of this book.  The public does
  not even know who these staffers are, and undoubtedly will not hear
  or see what they discovered either in the committee's final report
  or in the public hearings.
   The separation of assignments worked wonders in explaining away
  much of the hard evidence of conspiracy.  Some of it during the
  public hearings was like watching a magic show, for knowledgeable
  researchers.  For example, the medical panel and staff members
  determined that the path of bullet 399 through JFK's body rear to
  front was slightly upward, given that he was sitting erect.  But
  since the medical panel and the photographic panel were never
  permitted coordination, the medical panel never realized that JFK
  was sitting erect at the time bullet 399 supposedly struck.
  Neither panel was allowed to communicate with the trajectory panel,
  so that their representative Thomas Canning testified that bullet
  399's trajectory backward from JFK's body, passed through the TSBD
  sixth floor window.  That erudite gentleman, a government employee
  from NASA, was forced to make up his own medical evidence, which he
  proceeded to do.  He merely moved the exit wound in JFK's throat
  down somewhat and the back of the neck wound up somewhat from where
  Dr. Baden of the medical panel had placed them.  He then tilted JFK
  forward at about 17 or 18 degrees based on his personal observation
  of one photograph, rather than on the photographic panel's
  conclusions.  Presto;  the trajectory tilted upward and leftward
  enough to pass through the sixth floor window.
   Another bit of magic was presented by Canning to support the
  single bullet theory.  He drew a straight line between governor
  Connally's back entry wound position and JFK's back entry wound
  position and found that the line also passed through the sixth
  floor window.  To do this he moved Connally on the seat to his left
  and JFK to his right, and lifted JFK up a bit on the rear seat.
  Again he did this without consultation with the photographic panel.
   Some hard evidence was not dealt with at all and other hard
  evidence of conspiracy was presented without identifying it as such
  and then just left dangling.  An example of the former is all of
  the photographic evidence cited earlier in this book and in my
  "Computers and Automation" magazine articles, showing that the
  sniper's nest was not a sniper's nest, that no one was in the
  window, and that no one could have fired shots from that position
  that day.  I showed pictures of the nest from the inside and the
  window from the outside to the JFK sub-committee in July 1977 and I
  reviewed them at length for their evidenciary value with the JFK
  staff, notably Ken Klein, Cliff Fenton, Bob Tanenbaum, Jackie Hess,
  Donovan Gaye, Pat Orr, Chellie Mason, and Richard A. Sprague.
   So the Committee cannot claim they didn't know about these
  photos.  They saw the Foley photo over a long period of time, and
  were no doubt quite embarrassed by the unexpected appearance of the
  Bronson film.  Not one word about the sixth floor window, the
  cartons, the planted shells, the planted rifle, and the extra rifle
  found on the roof, the impossible shot, no one in the window when
  the shots were fired;  not one word was mentioned in the public
  hearings about the photos and other evidence.  Where was the
  photographic panel?  Asleep?  Frightened by the agreement they
  signed?
   An example of evidence of conspiracy left dangling was the
  testimony given by the photographic panel spokesman, Calvin S.
  McCamy.  The panel examined all of the photos of JFK during the
  early part of the shot sequence, and took a vote on when the first
  shot struck the President.  It came out as around Z189 to Z196.
  Perfect.  That matches.  But no one asked the trajectory panel or
  the ballistics spokesman how Oswald was able to fire bullet 399
  right through the center of that big oak tree at Z189-Z196.  Not
  even the Warren Commission would make that claim, preferring to put
  the timing at Z210 or later after JFK came out from behind the
  tree.
   There were some anxious moments for the Select Committee, even
  as well orchestrated as the whole farce was.  Dr. Cyril Wecht was
  his usual grand self.  He blasted the committee.  They said he was
  part of the medical panel and therefore was asked to present a
  minority view.  Cyril said they weren't planning to call him until
  he demanded to be allowed to testify.  They tried to bamboozle him,
  to discredit him (a tough assignment), to attack him and to knock
  down his testimony.  Lawyer Gary Cornwell was particularly
  obnoxious in his questioning of Dr. Wecht.  Favorable witnesses
  testifying to no conspiracy were handled with kid gloves and
  treated politely or dragged through an obviously rehearsed series
  of questions.  It was the Warren Commission revisited.  Two
  witnesses they couldn't mistreat were Governor and Mrs. Connally.
  They politely and calmly presented believable testimony destroying
  the single bullet theory.  That didn't bother the committee any
  more than it bothered the Warren Commission.  They resurrected the
  theory a few days later when the trajectory panel testified.
   Dr. Barger of Bolt Baranek &amp; Newman shook them up a little with
  his acoustical analysis of the police radio tape that reveals the
  sounds of four, not three, shots.  If Dr. Barger had been given all
  of the facts initially, he probably could have helped prove where
  the shots came from.  Except for the grassy knoll position behind
  the fence and the sixth floor TSBD window, he was not told about
  any other possible firing points.  For example, he knew nothing
  about the Dal Tex building, the west end roof or high floor of the
  TSBD, or other positions on the grassy knoll.  In fact, Barger did
  not know the location of the motorcycle where the microphone had
  been left open, picking up the sound of the shots.  His assignment
  included a determination of where the motorcycle was, from the
  sounds on the tape and sounds made during a re-enactment of the
  firing in Dealey Plaza.  The only test shots Barger had fired were
  from the TSBD sixth floor window and from behind the grassy knoll
  fence.  The net result was that he decided the motorcycle was
  trailing the Presidential limousine by 120 feet.  No one on the
  committee or the photographic panel ever showed Barger the Altgens
  photo, the Hughes film, the Martin, Nix, Couch, Weigman, Bell or
  Muchmore films or any other pictures showing there was no
  motorcycle anywhere near 120 feet behind the limousine.[4]  Again,
  Blakey divided and conquered.  Barger told me that if he had known
  about the motorcycle trailing the limousine by a few feet, driven
  by policeman D.L. Jackson, who disappeared completely after the
  assassination, he could have altered his analysis completely.  The
  sounds of the last two shots may well have been from the knoll
  behind the wall, and from the TSBD roof or the Dal Tex second
  floor.  Barger's analysis shows that the last shot sound, made by a
  rifle occurred just a faction of a second after the next to the
  last shot, possibly made by pistol.  This would fit a pistol shot
  from behind the fence fired almost simultaneously with a rifle shot
  from either the TSBD west end or Dal Tex.  The delay of the sound
  traveling from Dal Tex is about right so that the Dal Tex shot
  would strike at Z312 and the pistol or rifle shot from the right
  front would strike at Z313.  Prof. Mark Weiss of Queens College and
  Barger were called into an executive session on December 20 after
  the hearings were finished.  They testified that there were
  definitely four shots fired, at least one of which was from the
  knoll.
   This new analysis was conducted by Weiss independently from the
  one done by Bolt Baranek and Newman.  Weiss said that his work
  proved to a 95% certainty that the third shot was a rifle shot from
  a position on the knoll.  He said the data pinpointed the position
  to within two feet.  The position was behind the fence, which
  eliminates man number two at the corner of the wall and also
  eliminates a pistol.  However, the photos show man number two did
  make a puff of smoke, whether or not he fired a shot.
   Congressman Sawyer broke the news about Weiss' testimony during
  a radio broadcast in Michigan, his home state.  A furor broke
  loose.  The committee went into an executive session Friday
  December 22 to discuss what to do since there were only nine days
  left to the end of their existence.  The radio tape and the Bronson
  film seemed to shake them up considerably.  Or was it all rehearsed
  and planned this way by the committee.  It seems incredible that
  the 12 members of the committee would be shaken by the sounds from
  a tape when they weren't bothered at all by photos of the Oswald
  window showing that no one was there when the shots were fired.
  The committee members could see those photos with their own eyes.
  They had to take the word of experts about the sounds on the tape,
  which cannot be heard because of the noise of the engine of the
  policeman's cycle where the microphone was stuck open.[4]  This was
  the most blatantly dishonest stunt pulled by the Committee during
  the Blakey period.  Yet, the research community cannot complain too
  much because it did produce a conspiracy conclusion.
   The committee's distortions and omission respecting the hard
  Dealey Plaza evidence is overshadowed by the key witnesses that the
  committee did not call.  None of the players listed in Chapter 5
  were called, nor ever mentioned.  One key witness, James Hosty,
  insisted that he testify about Oswald's FBI involvement, but was
  turned down.  Hosty told the "Dallas Morning News," "They don't
  want to hear what I have to say."
   He might have told them the same story he told the author,
  through an intermediary in 1971.  Namely, that Oswald was reporting
  to Hosty on the assassination plans of the CIA group based in
  Mexico City.  FBI agent witness, Regis Kennedy might have given
  private interview evidence, but he was killed the day before he was
  to meet with the committee.
   Gordon Novel, Ronald Augustinovich, Richard Case Nagell, Mary
  Hope, Guy Gabaldin, Manuel Garcia Gonzalez, William Seymour, Emilio
  Santana, Victor Marchetti, Jack Lawrence, Major L.M. Bloomfield,
  Frenchy, Sergio Arcacha Smith, Harry Williams, James Hicks, Sylvia
  Odio, Jim Braden, James Hosty, Warren Du Brueys, Louis Ivon, E.
  Howard Hunt and Jim Garrison were not called and no interest was
  shown in having them as witnesses.  Some key witnesses who were
  called were not asked any important questions, or cross examined at
  all.  Marina Oswald Porter was one of these.  Another was Gerald
  Ford.  Richard Helms told his standard lies, and no one asked him
  about Victor Marchetti's statement about Helms protecting Clay
  Shaw, or about E. Howard Hunt and Guy Gabaldin in Mexico City in
  October, 1963, or about Harry William's statement that he, Helms,
  Hunt, and Lyman Kirkpatrick were reconsidering another Cuban
  invasion at the moment JFK was shot, in a Washington, D.C., CIA
  location.
   With respect to the assassination of Dr. King, the committee
  also performed admirably for the PCG, in this case, the FBI wing.
  They failed to deal with the important evidence of conspiracy,
  failed to call the prime witnesses, and distorted or omitted
  evidence.  They spent a great amount of time trying to prove,
  rather unsuccessfully except for media accounts, that James Earl
  Ray was guilty and that he had help from his family and was
  possibly financed by some wealthy sountherners.
   Briefly, here is the evidence they did not cover.  The witnesses
  who saw a man in the rooming house--all of whom said it was not
  James Earl Ray--were not called.  Charles Stephens, who was bribed
  and coerced by the FBI into identifying the man as Ray, but who was
  dead drunk, and saw nothing, was not put on the stand with his
  common law wife Grace and a cab driver who saw how drunk he was.
  Confronting his testimony by cross examination and by using counter
  witnesses should have been done.
   The three bar maids in Montreal and Atlanta who saw Ray and
  Raoul together were not called.  William Bradford Huie found them
  and Ray knew where they were.  The committee didn't look for them.
  Huie and Foreman were not put on the stand and asked all of the key
  questions about why Huie changed his entire approach toward Ray as
  soon as I showed him the Raoul-Frenchy photos.  Foreman's role was
  never explored under fierce cross examination as it would be if
  Mark Lane were able to get a new trial for Ray.  He should have
  been asked why he told Ray he got the Frenchy photos from the FBI
  when he actually got them from me!
   The Frenchy-Raoul sketch comparison, made by Bill Turner and I
  in the summer of 1968, should have been produced and shown to
  Foreman, Huie, Ray and other witnesses.
   The complete list of witnesses who saw Ray and Raoul together,
  as well as the complete list who saw Ray at the gasoline station a
  few blocks away from the crime at the time the shot was fired, were
  not called.  The committee adopted the stance that it was up to
  Mark Lane and Ray to produce those witnesses, as though the
  investigation of the King killing was a trial instead.  The
  committee, not Ray, had the responsibility of investigating and
  locating those witnesses.  Bob Lehner wanted to do that, but he was
  fired.
   The evidence about the rooming house bathroom window as an
  impossible firing point, presented so well in Harold Weisberg's
  book "Frame-Up:  The Martin Luther King/James Earl Ray Case," was
  either ignored or distorted.  The evidence about the trajectory of
  the shot was completely distorted.  The ballistics, medical and
  trajectory panels discussed the vertical angle of difference
  between the "grassy knoll" firing point and bathroom window firing
  point trajectories to the Lorraine Motel balcony.  They stated that
  the differential angle between the two trajectories was too small
  to determine, from the medical evidence, whether the shot came from
  the window or the knoll.
   But, they failed to discuss the horizontal differential angle
  between the two trajectories which was much larger, large enough to
  determine the firing point.
   They also failed to present a number of witnesses who saw the
  actual assassin, Jack Youngblood, both before and after he fired
  from the knoll.  Wayne Chastain should also have been called to
  testify about this evidence and those witnesses.
   The evidence concerning who Jack Youngblood and Frenchy-Raoul
  worked for, and their involvement, was not dealt with at all.  The
  committee should have presented the photographic evidence showing
  Raoul was Frenchy, and should have asked Ray and the witnesses who
  saw Raoul to identify him from the Frenchy photos.  Jeff Paley
  actually showed Frenchy's photo to witnesses in 1968 while Raoul's
  face was still fresh in their minds.  They recognized the face.
  They certainly should have since the sketch of Raoul was made from
  their recollections.  They should have called Frenchy as a witness
  in both JFK &amp; MLK cases.  I know from an inside source on the
  committee that they found Frenchy alive in 1978.  They certainly
  knew about Jack Youngblood because they read Wayne Chastain's 
  series of articles in "Computers and People."
   In summary, the Select Committee performed reasonably well on
  behalf of the PCG.  There are no public outcrys over what they did
  because the media wouldn't air them.  Mark Lane held a number of
  press conferences during the committee's life span, and no media
  organization reported on any of them.  The media, of course, were
  quite willing servants of the PCG, as they always have been since
  1963.  The combination of the PCG, the CIA, the FBI, the Select
  Committee, the House spokesmen for the PCG and the cooperative
  media is really nearly unbeatable.
   Some researchers hoped against hope that the Select Committee,
  under Stokes, Blakey, Preyer and Fauntroy, would still unveil the
  truth, as the public hearings began in August.  The hopes
  disappeared during the first week of hearings on the King case as
  the committee demonstrated quite clearly that they were going to
  continue the cover-ups and to get James Earl Ray and Mark Lane in
  the bargain.  Still, the hopes would not quite die.  The letters I
  wrote to Louis Stokes in the fall of 1978, expressed the last ditch
  thought that maybe they were conducting a charade designed to fool
  the FBI, CIA and the rest of the PCG into believing they were going
  to cover-up the truth.  It turned out be for real, no charade.
   The eight people assassinated by the PCG in 1977-78 during the
  Select Committee's life span are probably the best proof of who is
  in charge of the U.S. and what their intentions are.  The murders
  are all part of the cover-up efforts and were all successfully
  carried out, a la The Parallax View, with very few suspicions
  raised on the part of the American media or the public.  They
  included William Sullivan, Regis Kennedy, George de Mohrenschildt,
  Sam Giancana,[5] John Roselli, Carlos Prio Socarras, Thomas
  Karamessines, Rolando Masferrer, and an attempt on the life of
  Larry Flynt.
   Each of these murders was carried out with great success and for
  varying reasons.  One common thread connects them all.  Each man
  knew too much about the assassinations of President Kennedy or
  Martin Luther King and the subsequent cover-up conspiracies.  All
  but Flynt were witnesses to be called by the Select Committee or
  ones that had given some information and were scheduled to give
  more.  Of the nine people including Flynt, the two most important
  were William Sullivan and Regis Kennedy.
   Regis Kennedy was one of two FBI agents in New Orleans assigned
  as contact men for Lee Harvey Oswald in his role as FBI informer.
  The other agent was Warren du Brueys.  James Hosty was his contact
  agent in Dallas.  Kennedy knew a lot, but was under strict orders
  from the FBI not to reveal any of it.  He was called as a witness
  at the trial of Clay Shaw and asked by Jim Garrison whether he
  hadn't been searching for Clay Shaw under the name Clay Bertrand,
  before it was known that Clay Bertrand wanted to hire a lawyer for
  Lee Harvey Oswald.  Kennedy took executive privilege, a popular
  dodge at that time with the Nixon administration.  When the judge
  pressed him, he said he would have to check with the FBI and the
  attorney general, John Mitchell, in Washington, D.C.  Word came
  through that he could answer that one question, so he said yes it
  was true.  He went no further however.  The significance is that
  the FBI knew all about Clay Shaw's involvement in the assassination
  because Oswald was reporting back to them as a paid infiltrator of
  Shaw's team.  There is a distinct possibility that Kennedy was sent
  by Hoover and Sullivan to Dallas immediately after the
  assassination, to help coordinate the FBI/CIA cover-up.  Beverly
  Oliver, the Babushka lady, whose film was confiscated by three
  government agents on Sunday November 24, 1963 at the Carousel Club
  owned by Jack Ruby, made a tentative identification of Regis
  Kennedy from his photograph as one of those three agents.  The film
  has never surfaced.  It should show the assassins on the grassy
  knoll quite clearly since Beverly was much closer than either
  Orville Nix or Marie Muchmore and had her camera trained on JFK all
  the way down Elm Street.
   Kennedy died of a supposed heart attack the day before he was to
  meet with the Select Committee staff.  Heart attacks, as most
  Americans know by now from watching the Church Committee hearings,
  and seeing the Parallax View, are easily induced by a CIA-developed
  pill, which leaves no trace in the autopsy, if there is one.
   William Sullivan was eliminated by a clever, but simple
  technique.  The PCG agents who killed him knew about his hunting
  haunts in New England.  They also knew about a teenage son of a
  state policeman living near Sullivan's country place who liked to
  hunt in the same area.  Two of them intercepted Sullivan early one
  morning as he set out for a walk in the woods.  They shot him with
  a deer rifle and took his body to a spot in the woods where they
  knew the boy would be.  They carried a decoy inflated to the shape
  resembling a deer and probably acted like one.  The boy shot at him
  and thought he hit a deer.  The agents dropped Sullivan's body at
  that spot and left.  They accidentally left the pair of gloves one
  of them was wearing.  The boy went over to the spot in the early
  morning semi-darkness, found Sullivan's body, and thought he had
  killed him by mistake.  He still thinks so.  There was no
  investigation and no questions asked.
   Why was Sullivan killed?  As mentioned before, William Sullivan
  was J. Edgar Hoovers' right hand man in charge of Division Five,
  the FBI's clandestine domestic operation that included an
  assassination squad.  Every likelihood exists that Hoover ordered
  Sullivan's division to kill King and that Sullivan used
  Frenchy/Raoul and Jack Youngblood to do the job.  Sullivan was also
  due to meet with the Select Committee within a day or two after the
  day he was shot.  Whether he would have talked or not probably
  makes little difference.  The PCG couldn't take the chance.
   Thomas Karamessines died of an apparent heart attack at the age
  of 61 on September 4, 1978 at his vacation home in Grand Lake,
  Quebec.  He headed the covert operations part of the CIA after
  Richard Helms was promoted from that position to head of the CIA.
  David Phillips, the CIA dirty tricks operative who is making public
  speeches supporting the Deputy Director of Plans (dirty tricks)
  function, worked for Karamessines.  His knowledge of the JFK
  assassination and the CIA's cover-up role was undoubtedly complete
  since he inherited the whole thing from Helms.
   The other dead people were bumped off figuratively, on the very
  doorstep of the committee.  Roselli was killed and dumped into
  Miami Bay.  Giancana was shot full of holes in his Chicago
  residence.  De Mohrenschildt was shot with a shotgun in his
  daughter's friends house in Florida.  All three were scheduled to
  meet with the committee.  Socarras was killed in a garage in
  Florida.  Masferrer was blown up in his car in Florida.  Flynt was
  shot on the street in Georgia.
   Florida.  Why does it keep popping up in these cases?  Bay of
  Pigs, No Name Key Group, anti-Castro forces, Mafia operations;  it
  all fits together somehow.  Jim Garrison's first real breakthrough
  came when he found Masferrer in Florida through Manuel Garcia
  Gonzalez.  That led him and the District Attorney in Dade County,
  Florida, to William Seymour, Emilio Santana, Howard, Hall, Hemming
  and Frenchy, all part of Socarras' and Banister's Florida-based, No
  Name Key anti-Castro operations.  It figured that some of them
  would die in their own backyard when the committee was getting too
  close.  Gaeton Fonzi can personally vouch for that.  He was the
  committee's Florida investigator.
   Why wouldn't men like Fonzi, Fenton, Fauntroy, Stokes, Preyer,
  and a woman like Yvonne Burke, tell us the truth.  I spent a lot of
  time with all of them and got to know some of them very well.  They
  all impressed me as being very honest and dedicated people.
   There may be another explanation, as I mentioned in the
  beginning of this last chapter.  A committee, is, after all, made
  up of a bunch of individuals.  So is a staff.  Now, except for
  Cliff Fenton, Ed Evans (MLK investigator) and one or two others,
  these people were not professionals in the investigations and
  certainly none of them had been involved in the really big game of
  espionage and clandestine operations.  They were, and still are,
  ordinary mortals, like you and me, with fears and cautionary
  attitudes toward personal safety and danger.  They also have
  families.
   Not even Cliff Fenton had ever been involved with the kind of
  monstrous game played by the spooks of the world.  It is a game for
  keeps, of life and death, mostly death.  Let's look at it from the
  viewpoint of Louis Stokes, just to take an example.  He took over
  the chairmanship of the committee with the following knowledge.
   He suspected there was a conspiracy in the JFK case and at least
  wanted to find out whether the CIA and FBI were involved in
  covering it up.  He may not have known all of the details, but he
  was aware of the fact that many people had died.  He knew that
  Henry Gonzalez had nearly been killed by a rifleman while driving
  through a Texas desert with his wife.  This occurred just after
  Henry made public statements about all four political
  assassinations being related and the intelligence agencies possibly
  being involved.  Stokes saw how the PCG swung their weight around
  in the Rules Committee and on the floor of the House when the
  Select Committee in January and February 1977, asked for a new
  budget and a reconstituted authority to subpoena records and
  continue the investigation.  He also knew that something strange
  had happened to Henry Gonzalez.  He told me so in a luncheon
  meeting on May 10, 1977.  He said Henry had cut off all
  communications with him and other committee members just as he had
  with me.  I told Louis that I believed Henry had purposefully been
  fed information by the PCG that I, Richard A. Sprague, and some of
  the committee members were working for the CIA.  Otherwise, why
  would he have instructed the CIA and FBI to close access to their
  files to the committee staff, just after he had won the fight he
  fought so hard to get the subpoena power back.
   Stokes agreed it must have been something like that.  Stokes
  also must have had a frightened reaction during 1977 and 1978 to
  these eight bodies dumped on his doorstep.  As in the scene in "The
  Godfather", it only takes one horse's head in your bed to get the
  idea you should keep your mouth closed and play it cool.
   Given all of this, each committee member may have reached his or
  her decision that this game was not for congressmen.  In April 1977
  it is possible that all of those executive sessions the committee
  held were partially devoted to a discussion of the personal safety
  of each member, each staffer, and all of their families.  They may
  have reached unanimous agreement that the only safe approach would
  be to avoid sensitive areas, and not to attack the CIA or FBI, and
  certainly to avoid going after any of the dangerous guys in both
  assassination cases.
   Yet, to keep an honest approach going they would have to listen
  to any credible hard evidence of conspiracy, comment on it, but
  refrain from taking a stronger course than just listening.  As Dr.
  Blakey told me more than once, "I'm just going to let the facts
  speak for themselves."  This is somewhat like the position the
  Warren Commission took when Richard Russell, Hale Boggs and John
  Sherman Cooper refused to sign the draft of the Warren Report until
  a qualifying statement was inserted.  The statement read, "Because
  of the difficulty of proving negatives to a certainty the
  possibility of others being involved with either Oswald or Ruby
  cannot be established categorically but if there is any such
  evidence it has been beyond the reach of all the investigative
  agencies and resources of the United States and has not come to the
  attention of this Commission."
   The committee has, in its final report, taken a stronger
  position than that by saying, in effect, that new evidence of
  conspiracy has surfaced and that the Congress should turn the job
  of pursuing that evidence and a continuing investigation over to
  the executive branch.  The recommendation is for the Justice
  Department to determine whether further investigations are
  warranted.  Thus the Committee members would be off the hook and,
  more importantly, still alive and safe.  They can claim that the
  funds they had and the time they had were not enough.  Whose fault
  was that?  Certainly not the committee's, they can claim.
   This scenario, if true, is really the only hope, though very
  slim, any of us have left.  All other avenues have been closed.</p>

<p>____________________</p>

<p>[1] "New York Daily News" -- Tuesday, December 12, 1979.</p>

<p>[2] See the letters in the Appendix for a copy of the nondisclosure
  agreement itself as well as correspondence between the author
  and Louis Stokes.</p>

<p>[3] See copies of this correspondence in the Appendix.</p>

<p>[4] Following the December 22 executive session a public hearing was
  held on December 29, the last weekday of the Committee's
  existence.  Weiss and Barger presented the acoustical evidence
  proving four shots, one from the knoll, thereby causing the
  Committee to conclude there was a probable conspiracy.
  But, the fact that the Couch and Weigman films prove the
  acoustical analysis was incorrect because there is no motorcycle
  where there was supposed to be one, was completely covered-up by
  the Committee staff.  Why?  The answer obviously is that the
  Committee wanted to close shop with a conspiracy conclusion but
  one that wouldn't shake up the intelligence community and the PCG
  too much.  If the correct acoustical analysis had been presented,
  with the motorcycle directly behind the presidential limousine,
  the net result would have been the elimination of that 6th floor
  window as the source of the shots.  Eliminate that window and you
  eliminate Oswald and open up a can of worms with a completely
  different kind of conspiracy.  One with a patsy and intelligence
  ramifications, written all over it.
  So Cornwell and Blakey, and perhaps the entire Committee decided
  to prove by implication that the motorcycle was 120 feet behind
  the JFK car at the time of the shot from the knoll.  They showed
  publicly frames from the Hughes film which shows the motorcycle
  they fudged, somewhat more than 120 feet behind the limousine.
  But the Hughes film ends with the cycle on Houston Street.  The
  cycle can be seen in the Hughes film trailing Couch's camera car.
  Couch took film all the way down Houston and around the turn onto
  Elm Street.  The limo can be seen in all of this footage.  The
  cycle can not.  The cycle finally catches up to Couch and passes
  him after the limo is beyond the triple overpass.  Couch is, at
  all times including the time of the knoll shot, more than 200 feet
  behind the limousine.  Ergo, the cycle is more than 200 feet
  behind at the critical point.
  Cornwell presented the cop driving the Houston Street cycle and
  attempted to elicit testimony from him that it was his microphone
  that was open.</p>

<p>[5] Giancana actually died in 1975 before testifying to the Schweicker
  JFK assassination subcommittee of the Church Committee.</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>--
      daveus rattus </p>

<p>    yer friendly neighborhood ratman</p>

<p>    KOYAANISQATSI</p>

<p>  ko.yaa.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language)  n.  1. crazy life.  2. life
  in turmoil.  3. life out of balance.  4. life disintegrating.  
  5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.
From dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com Thu Jun 18 09:38:16 1992
Received: by icaen.uiowa.edu ( 5.52 (84)/1.1) id AA10172
on Thu, 18 Jun 92 09:38:11 CDT.
Received: from pl122c.eecs.lehigh.edu by ns-mx.uiowa.edu (5.64.jnf/920408)
  on Thu, 18 Jun 92 09:39:52 -0500 id AA04694 with SMTP 
Received: from SGI.COM by PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU (5.61/1.34)
id AA04846; Thu, 18 Jun 92 10:25:52 -0400
Received: from [192.102.132.11] by sgi.sgi.com via SMTP (911016.SGI/910110.SGI)
for PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA23140; Thu, 18 Jun 92 07:28:19 -0700
Received: by ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (920110.SGI/920502.SGI.AUTO)
for @sgi.sgi.com:PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA10904; Thu, 18 Jun 92 07:28:15 -0700
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 92 07:28:15 -0700
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
<info type="Message-ID"> 9206181428.AA10904@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com</info>
To: PML3@PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU
Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (10/11)
Status: RO</p>

<p>Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (10/11)
Summary: we were robbed of our capability of electing a president we wanted
Keywords:  part 10 of 11:  chapter 17
Lines: 769</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>    1985:  The House Select Committee (2)</p>

<p>     Chapter 17
   THE FINAL COVER UP:  How The CIA Controlled
    The House Select Committee On Assassinations</p>

<p>    Introduction</p>

<p>   The final report of the House Select Committee on Assassinations
  (HSCA), issued in 1979, concluded that a conspiracy existed in the
  assassination of President Kennedy.  This news should have
  delighted hundreds of researchers who had disagreed with the no-
  conspiracy finding of the Warren Commission.  The fact that it did
  not, is due to the HSCA conspiracy being a simple one, with Lee
  Harvey Oswald still firing all but one of the shots from the sixth
  floor window of the Texas School Book Depository Building.  The
  existence of another shooter and another shot, from the grassy
  knoll, was "proved" by the HSCA, based primarily on acoustical
  evidence presented in the very last month of their public hearings.
  Dr. Robert Blakey and Richard Billings, chief counsel and report
  editor for the HSCA, co-authored, in 1981, a book, "The Plot to
  Kill the President," following the publication of the HSCA's final
  report.  The book claimed that the other shooter and Oswald were
  part of a Mafia plot to kill JFK.
   To over simplify the current (1985) situation, most JFK
  researchers feel that the American public had been deceived once
  again.  The HSCA reaffirmed all but one of the Warren Commission's
  findings, including even the famed single bullet theory.  The
  simplified conspiracy finding is now subject to review by the
  Justice Department and the FBI because it is based on very
  questionable acoustical evidence.  Justice commissioned the so-
  called Ramsey Panel[1] to review this evidence, in 1981, under the
  auspices of the National Academy of Sciences.  It found no evidence
  from the acoustics that a grassy knoll shot was fired.  So, we are
  back to no-conspiracy and Oswald being the lone assassin.  And even
  if there was a conspiracy, Blakey claims it involved the Mafia and
  not the CIA.  The HSCA report and all of its volumes of evidence
  omitting any reference to CIA involvement, concluded that the CIA
  was not involved, and did not reveal any evidence that the HSCA
  staff had collected showing that CIA people murdered JFK, and that
  the CIA has been covering up that fact ever since.
   Any followers of CIA activities connected with the JFK
  assassination, since 1963, must ask the question, how did they do
  it?  How did the CIA turn things completely around from the 1976
  days when Henry Gonzalez, Thomas Downing, Richard A. Sprague,
  Robert Tanenbaum, Cliff Fenton and others were pursuing the truth
  about the assassination, to essentially the same status as when the
  Warren Commission finished its work?  How did they produce the
  final cover-up?  The answer is that the CIA controlled the HSCA and
  its investigation and findings from the early part of 1977,
  forward.  The methods they used were as clever and devious as any
  they had used previously to control the Warren Commission, the
  Rockefeller Commission, the Garrison Investigation, the
  Schweiker/Hart Committee[2] and the efforts of independent
  researchers.</p>

<p>   The Situation in 1976</p>

<p>   In 1976, Henry Gonzalez, member of the House from Texas, and
  Thomas Downing from Virginia, were both convinced there was a
  massive conspiracy in the JFK assassination.  They introduced a
  joint bill in the House which resulted in the formation of the HSCA
  and an investigation of the JFK and King assassinations.  Gonzalez
  believed there were at least four conspiracies in the
  assassinations of JFK, MLK, Robert Kennedy and in the attempted
  assassination of George Wallace.  He introduced an original bill to
  have the House investigate all four and the cover-ups and links
  among them.  Downing was primarily interested in the JFK case and
  his original bill dealt only with that conspiracy.  Mark Lane and
  his committee members and supporters around the country joined
  forces with Coretta King and the Black Caucus in the House to
  pressure Congressmen and Tip O'Neill to investigate the King and
  John Kennedy assassinations.  The net result was a merging of the
  Gonzalez and Downing bills into a Final HSCA bill dealing with only
  two of the cases.
   In the fall of 1976, with Downing as chairman, the HSCA selected
  Richard A. Sprague, from the Philadelphia District Attorney's
  office, to be chief counsel.  Sprague hired four professional
  investigators and criminal lawyers from New York City.  They were
  very good and completely independent of the CIA and FBI, having
  been trained by one of the best professionals in the business, D.A.
  Frank Hogan of New York.
   Sprague and his JFK team, headed by Bob Tanenbaum, attorney, and
  Cliff Fenton, chief detective, were going after the real assassins
  and their bosses, whether this led them to the CIA or FBI or
  anywhere else.  Sprague had already made it clear to the HSCA that
  he would investigate CIA involvement, and subpoena CIA people,
  documents and other information, whether classified or not.  He had
  also had meetings with several researchers, including the author,
  and made it known privately that he was going to use the talent and
  knowledge of every reliable researcher on a consulting basis.  He
  had contacted Jim Garrison in New Orleans and informed him he would
  be following up on all of his information and leads.  He had
  initiated an investigation of the CIA activities in Mexico City
  connected with the JFK assassination, including information
  supplied to Sprague by the author.[3]
   R.A. Sprague and Tanenbaum were aware of the CIA connections of
  the individuals involved in the JFK assassination in Dealey Plaza,
  in Mexico City, in New Orleans and in the Florida Keys.  They had,
  in November 1976, exposed the entire HSCA staff to all of the
  photographic evidence showing these people in Dealey Plaza and
  elsewhere.  They were aware of the assassination planning meetings
  held by CIA people in Mexico City and knew who the higher level
  conspirators were.  They had initiated searches for the real
  assassins;  Frenchy, William Seymour, Emilio Santana, Jack
  Lawrence, Fred Lee Crisman, Jim Braden, Jim Hicks, et al.  They
  were planning to interview CIA contract agents, Richard Case
  Nagell, Harry Dean, Gordon Novel, Ronald Augustinovich, Mary Hope
  and Guy Gabaldin.  Cliff Fenton had been appointed head of a team
  of investigators to follow up on the New Orleans part of the
  conspiracy which had included CIA agents and people;  Clay Shaw,
  David Ferrie, Guy Banister, Manuel Garcia Gonzalez, Sergio Arcacha
  Smith, Gordon Novel and others.  They were going to contact people
  who had attended assassination planning meetings in New Orleans.
   From the photographic evidence surrounding the sixth floor
  window, as well as the grassy knoll, Sprague, Tanenbaum and most of
  the staff knew Oswald had not fired any shots, knew no shots came
  from the sixth floor window, and knew there had been shots from the
  Dal Tex Building and the knoll.  They knew the single bullet theory
  was not true, and knew there had been a well-planned crossfire in
  Dealey Plaza.  They were not planning to waste a lot of time
  reviewing and rehashing the Dealey Plaza evidence, except as it
  might lead to the real assassins.
   They had set up an investigation in Florida and the Keys, of the
  evidence and leads developed in 1967 by Garrison.  Gaeton Fonzi was
  in charge of that part of Sprague's team.  They were going to check
  out the people in the CIA that had been running and funding the No
  Name Key group and other Anti-Castro groups.  Seymour, Santana,
  Manuel Garcia Gonzalez, Jerry Patrick Hemming, Loran Hall, Lawrence
  Howard, Frenchy and Cubans Rolando Masferrer and Carlos Prio
  Socarras were to be found and interrogated.
   Tanenbaum and his research team had seen the photo collection of
  Dick Billings from "Life Magazine" which was, by 1976, deposited in
  the Georgetown University Library's JFK assassination collection.
  The No Name Key people and others showing up in Garrison's
  investigation appeared in these photos with high level CIA agents.
   In 1977, Henry Gonzalez, who was far more supportive of a CIA
  conspiracy idea than Tom Downing, was to become chairman of the
  HSCA.  Downing did not run for re-election in 1976 and was
  retiring.  At that point, December 1976, Gonzalez and Sprague were
  of the same mind and getting along fine.  Researchers were very
  pleased with the way things were going and believed Sprague would
  expose the CIA's involvement in the JFK cover up.</p>

<p>   The CIA's problem</p>

<p>   Given this background of the HSCA status in late 1976, it can
  easily be seen that the CIA was up against much more serious
  opposition than it ever had been before in the JFK murder and
  cover-up.  They had ruined Jim Garrison's reputation and curtailed
  his investigation by various dirty trick means.  They had been in
  solid control of the Warren Commission by the simple expedient of
  having four of the Commissioners belonging to them;  Dulles, Ford,
  McCloy and Russell.  They were also able to kill enough people who
  knew the truth, to slow down any truth-seeking that might have
  taken place.  They also hid documents, destroyed and altered
  evidence, lied about other evidence, and bald facedly (Dulles)
  admitted that they wouldn't tell the President or the Commission if
  Lee Harvey Oswald had been a CIA agent (which he had been).  In the
  Rockefeller Commission situation they were in complete control of
  that attempt to reinforce the Warren Commission's findings.  And in
  the Church Committee investigation, the Schweiker/Hart subcommittee
  on the JFK case was very limited and controlled in what they could
  do.
   But in the new situation, in Richard A. Sprague and his
  professionals with so much knowledge of the CIA's role in the
  murder and the cover-up, they faced a crisis.  They knew they had
  to do several things to turn it around and to continue to keep the
  American public from realizing what was happening.  Here is what
  they had to do:</p>

<p>  1.  Get rid of Richard A. Sprague.</p>

<p>  2.  Get rid of Henry Gonzalez.</p>

<p>  3.  Get rid of Sprague's key men or keep them away from CIA
  evidence or keep them quiet.</p>

<p>  4.  Install their own chief counsel to control the
  investigation.</p>

<p>  5.  Elect a new HSCA chairman who would go along, or who
  could be fooled.</p>

<p>  6.  Cut off all Sprague's investigations of CIA people.
  Make sure none of the people were found or bury any
  testimony that had already been found, or murder CIA
  people who might talk.</p>

<p>  7.  Keep the committee members from knowing what was
  happening and segregate the investigation from them.</p>

<p>  8.  Create a new investigative environment whose purpose
  would be to confirm all of the findings of the Warren
  Commission and divert attention away from the who-did-
  it-and-why approach.</p>

<p>  9.  Control the committee staff in such a way as to keep
  any of them from revealing what they already knew about
  CIA involvement.</p>

<p>   10.  Control committee consultants in the same way, and
  staff members who might leave or who might be fired.</p>

<p>   11.  Continue to control the media in such a way as to
  reinforce all of the above.</p>

<p>   12.  Continue to murder witnesses or assassins in emergency
  situations if necessary.</p>

<p>   The CIA successfully did all twelve of these things.  The
  techniques they used were much more subtle and devious than those
  they had used before, although they did continue with murders of
  potential HSCA witnesses and with media control.</p>

<p>    How The CIA Did It</p>

<p>   The first step taken by the CIA was to use the media they
  control, along with some members of Congress they control, and two
  planted agents on the staff of and consulting for, Henry Gonzalez,
  to get rid of both Henry and Richard A. Sprague.  In taking this
  step, they used the old Roman approach of divide and conquer.  They
  made Gonzalez and his closest staff assistant, Gail Beagle, believe
  that Sprague was a CIA agent and that Gonzalez must get rid of him.
  They also made Gonzalez believe that some of his other associates,
  both in the HSCA and outside, were CIA agents.  At the same time,
  they used the media to attack Sprague mercilessly.  The key people
  in doing this attack on Sprague were three CIA reporters, George
  Lardner of the "Washington Post," Mr. Burnham of "The New York
  Times," and Jeremiah O'Leary of the "Washington Star."  In all HSCA
  committee meetings and in Rules Committee and Finance Committee
  meetings, these three reporters sat next to each other, passed
  notes back and forth, and wrote articles continually attacking and
  undermining both Sprague and Gonzalez, as well as the entire
  committee.  The CIA had the support of top management in all three
  news organizations in doing this.
   Gonzalez eventually tried to fire Sprague, was over-ruled by the
  committee, and then resigned from the committee.  Sprague
  eventually resigned, because it became obvious that the CIA
  controlled members of the Finance and Rules Committees and other
  CIA allies in the House, were going to kill the committee unless he
  resigned.  There are many more details to this story, which
  requires a book to describe.  Suffice it to say, the CIA
  accomplished their first two goals by March 1977. The next steps
  were to install a CIA-controlled chief counsel and to get a
  chairman elected who could be fooled or coerced into appointing
  such a counsel.  Lewis Stokes was a perfect choice for chairman.
  He was, and probably still is, a good and honest man.  But he was
  completely bamboozled by what the CIA did and is still doing.  The
  selection and implementation of a CIA man as chief counsel had to
  be done in an extremely subtle manner.  It could not be obvious to
  anyone that he was a CIA man.  Stokes and the other committee
  members had to be fooled into believing *they* had made the choice,
  and had picked a good man.  Professor Robert Blakey, an apparently
  scientifically oriented, academic person, with a history of work
  against organized crime, was the perfect CIA choice.  Once Dr.
  Blakey took over as chief counsel, he accomplished goals numbered
  3, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 very nicely.  The fourth and fifth goals
  having been achieved, Blakey set about the other parts of his
  assignment very rapidly after he arrived.  For Goal 3, he fired Bob
  Tanenbaum, Bob Lehner, and Donovan Gay, three loyal Sprague
  supporters, quickly.</p>

<p>   The Nondisclosure Agreement</p>

<p>   The most important weapon used by the CIA and Blakey to pursue
  goals 9 and 10 was instituted within one week after Blakely
  arrived.  It is by far the most subtle and far reaching technique
  used by the CIA to date.  It is called the "Nondisclosure
  Agreement" and it was signed by all members of the committee, all
  staff members including Blakey, all consultants to the committee,
  and several independent researchers who met with Blakey in 1977.
  Signing the agreement was a condition for continued employment on
  the committee staff or for continuing consulting on a contract
  basis.  The choice was, sign or get out.  The author signed the
  agreement in July 1977, without realizing its implications at the
  time, in order to continue as a consultant.  The agreement is
  reproduced in full in the Appendix and is labelled "Exhibit A."  
  The author's consulting help was never sought after that and the
  obvious objective was to silence a consultant and not use his
  services.
   This CIA weapon has several parts.  First, it binds the signer,
  if a consultant, to never reveal that he is working for the
  committee (see paragraph 13).  Second, it prevents the signer from
  ever revealing to anyone in perpetuity, any information he has
  learned about the committee's work as a result of working for the
  committee (see paragraphs 2 and 12).  Third, it gives the committee
  and the House, after the committee terminates, the power to take
  legal action against the signer, *in a court named by the
  committee* or the House, in case the committee believes the signer
  has violated the agreement.  Fourth, the signer agrees to pay the
  court costs for such a suit in the event he loses the suit (see
  paragraphs 14 and 15).
   These four parts are enough to scare most researchers or staff
  members who signed it into silence forever about what they learned.
  The agreement is insidious in that the signer is, in effect, giving
  away his constitutional rights.  Some lawyers who have seen the
  agreement, including Richard A. Sprague, have expressed the opinion
  it is an illegal agreement in violation of the Constitution and
  several Constitutional amendments.  Whether it is illegal or not,
  most staff members and all consultants who signed it *have*
  remained silent, even after three and a half years beyond the life
  of the committee.  There are only two exceptions, the author and
  Gaeton Fonzi, who published a lengthy article about the HSCA
  cover-up in the "Washingtonian" magazine in 1981.
   The most insidious parts of the agreement, however, are
  paragraphs 2, 3 and 7, which give the CIA very effective control
  over what the committee could and could not do with so-called
  "classified" information.  The director of the CIA is given
  authority to determine, in effect, what information shall remain
  classified and therefore unavailable to nearly everyone.  The
  signer of the agreement, and remember, this includes all of the
  Congressman and women who were members of the committee, agrees not
  to reveal or discuss any information that the CIA decides he should
  not.  The chairman of the committee supposedly has the final say on
  what information is included, but in practice, even an intelligent
  and gutsy chairman would not be likely to override the CIA.  Lewis
  Stokes did not attempt any final decisions.  In fact, the CIA did
  not have to do very much under these clauses.  The fact that Blakey
  was their man and kept nearly all of the CIA sensitive information,
  evidence, and witnesses away from the committee members was all
  that was necessary.  Stokes never knew what he should have argued
  about with the CIA director.  It is this document which proves
  beyond doubt that the CIA controlled the HSCA.
   The author attempted to point out to Stokes in a letter dated
  February 10, 1978, "Exhibit B," the type of control the agreement 
  gives the CIA over the HSCA.  Stokes replied in a March 16, 1978 
  letter, "Exhibit C," that he retained ultimate authority and was 
  not bound by the opinion of the Central Intelligence Director.  He 
  also claimed that paragraphs 12 and 14, on extending the agreement 
  in perpetuity and giving the government the right to file a civil 
  suit in which the signer will pay all costs, were legal.  He said 
  in the letter that the purpose of the agreement was to give the 
  HSCA control over the conduct of the investigation including 
  *control over the ultimate disclosure of information to the 
  American public*.  That is a key admission about what has actually 
  happened.  The only question is, who is controlling the information 
  in the heads of the staff investigators who discovered CIA 
  involvement?  Was Louis Stokes working for the public or for the 
  CIA?</p>

<p>   Examples of CIA-Control</p>

<p>   Some specific examples will serve to illustrate how well the CIA
  techniques have worked and are still working.</p>

<p>   Garrison Evidence and Witnesses Example</p>

<p>   As mentioned earlier, when Blakey arrived, an investigating team
  headed by Cliff Fenton, reporting to Bob Tanenbaum, had already
  been hard at work tracking down leads to the CIA conspirators
  generated by Jim Garrison's investigation in New Orleans.  This
  team eventually had four investigators, all professionals, and
  their work led them to believe that the CIA people in New Orleans
  had been involved in a large conspiracy to assassinate JFK.  As
  Garrison told Ted Gandolfo, a New York City researcher, the Fenton
  team went much further than Garrison, in locating witnesses and
  other evidence of assassination planning meetings held in New
  Orleans, Mexico City and Dallas.  In fact, they found a CIA man who
  attended those meetings, and who was willing to testify before the
  committee.  The evidence was far more convincing than the testimony
  presented at the trial of Clay Shaw.  In the Shaw Trial, CIA people
  were involved in meetings in addition to the one brought out in the
  trial.  Clay Shaw, David Ferrie, William Seymour and others were
  involved.  Fenton's team discovered a lot of other facts about how
  the CIA people planned and carried out the assassination.  Their
  report about the conspiracy was solid and convincing and they were
  convinced.  The CIA, through Robert Blakey, buried the Fenton
  report.  Committee members were not told about the team's findings.
  The evidence was not included in the HSCA report, nor was it even
  referred to in the volumes.  The witnesses in New Orleans were
  never called to testify.  That included the CIA man at the
  meetings.  Fenton and the other three members of his team, having
  signed the nondisclosure agreement, were legally sworn to secrecy,
  or at least they thought so.  To this day they refuse to discuss
  anything with anybody.
   There may also have been threats of physical violence against
  them.  There is no way to determine this.  However, Fenton and the
  others are well aware of the witnesses that the CIA murdered just
  before they were about to testify before the HSCA.  These included:
  William Sullivan, the FBI deputy under J. Edgar Hoover, who headed
  Division V, the domestic intelligence division;  George de
  Mohrenschildt, Oswald's CIA contact in Dallas;  John Roselli, the
  Mafia man involved in the CIA plots to assassinate Castro;  Regis
  Kennedy, the FBI agent who knew a lot about Clay Shaw, alias Clay
  Bertrand, in New Orleans and who was one of Lee Harvey Oswald's FBI
  contacts;  Rolando Masferrer, an anti-Castro Cuban murdered in
  Miami;  and Carlos Prio Socarras, former Cuban premier, killed in
  his garage in Miami.
   With the knowledge of these murders, Fenton and his team would
  not have required any more than a gentle hint, to keep quiet.</p>

<p>   Frenchy Example</p>

<p>   The "tramp," Frenchy, who appears in seven photos taken in
  Dealey Plaza, is one of the most important CIA individuals in the
  JFK assassination.  Researcher Bill Turner discovered that Frenchy
  had been in the Florida Keys working with CIA sponsored anti-Castro
  groups.  Richard A. Sprague and Bob Tanenbaum knew about his role,
  and intended to go after him when the HSCA restored its subpoena
  power and obtained enough money.  They were aware of the evidence
  that Frenchy fired the fatal shot from the grassy knoll.  They had
  assigned a team of investigators to follow a lead to Frenchy
  provided by the author in the early part of 1977.
   Unfortunately, the CIA managed to keep both the subpoena power
  and the funds away from the committee until after they had forced
  the resignations of Gonzalez, Sprague and Tanenbaum.  The power and
  funds were restored after Stokes was elected and after they
  installed their own man, Blakey.  The investigative team remained,
  however, and they did search for and find Frenchy.  But Blakey and
  the CIA suppressed that fact, and suppressed anything they may have
  learned from Frenchy.  He is not mentioned in the report and was
  not called as a witness.  The author dares not reveal the source of
  the above information because of the danger to staff people from
  the nondisclosure agreement.</p>

<p>   Nagell, Dean, Novel, and Augustinovich</p>

<p>   The Garrison investigation and a subsequent series of
  investigations by the author and other members of the Committee to
  Investigate Assassinations in 1967 to 1973, turned up several
  witnesses who were willing to talk privately about the CIA
  assassination team that murdered JFK.  Harry Dean and Richard Case
  Nagell had been Lee Harvey Oswald's CIA contacts while he was in
  Mexico City and knew about assassination planning meetings held in
  Guy Gabaldin's apartment.  Dean knew about William Seymour, CIA
  contract agent, attending those meetings and how Seymour had been
  pretending to be Oswald on many occasions.  Gordon Novel knew how 
  the CIA had covered up the truth about the assassination and how 
  they went to extreme lengths to ruin Jim Garrison and his 
  investigation.  Novel had been employed by the CIA in this effort.  
  Ronald Augustinovich and his friend, Mary Hope, had attended some 
  of the Mexico City meetings.
   Richard Russell and the author tracked down all four of these
  witnesses prior to the arrival of Robert Blakey at the HSCA.
  Russell interviewed them and knew they would be willing to talk,
  given protection and some form of immunity.  The author presented
  their names and their involvement to Richard A. Sprague, Henry
  Gonzalez, Lewis Stokes and Robert Tanenbaum in the fall of 1976.
  This was done as part of the author's consulting assignment for the
  HSCA.  The names were in a memorandum to Sprague, which outlined
  the overall JFK conspiracy and the CIA's role, along with a
  recommendation of the sequence in which witnesses should be called.
  The idea was to base each witness interrogation on what had been
  established from interviewing prior witnesses, working slowly from
  cooperative witnesses, to non-cooperative witnesses, to actual
  assassins, to higher level CIA people.[4]  The highest level
  people, E. Howard Hunt and Richard Helms, would be faced with
  accusers.
   As indicated earlier, Sprague and Tanenbaum could do nothing and
  did nothing up to the day they left.  By early 1978 it became
  obvious that Blakey had done nothing about calling these CIA
  witnesses.  The author initiated a series of letter exchanges with
  Blakey and Stokes, reminding them of these witnesses, and the
  possibility that their lives could be in danger prior to their
  being interviewed by HSCA.  Dick Russell had obtained an agreement
  from Nagell to meet with the committee, but no contact had been
  made up to April 5, 1978, the date of the author's first letter to
  Stokes on this subject, "Exhibit D."  Nagell was hiding in fear of
  his children's lives, not so much his own life.  He was a real CIA
  agent and knew how they operated.  Russell was the only person who
  knew where Nagell was.  In the April 5th letter, a recommendation
  was given to Stokes that the committee contact Nagell through
  Russell, and contact the other witnesses on the original list.
  Stokes wrote on May 15, 1978, "Exhibit E," that the Nagell matter had
  been referred to Blakey for follow-up.  Blakey never mentioned it
  by telephone or by letter.
   By September 1978, when the public hearings had begun, there was
  no indication that Blakey was going to call the CIA witnesses.
  Nagell was standing by but had not been contacted.  The published,
  intended witness list did not contain any of these CIA names.  The
  author wrote to Stokes and Representative Yvonne Burke on September
  22 and 23, 1978, "Exhibits F," expressing dissatisfaction with
  the committee's failure to call the CIA witnesses, and suggesting
  that if they did not not, history would eventually catch up with
  them.  The names were repeated in the letter to Burke, and specific
  mention made that the committee had never contacted Richard Case
  Nagell.  Louis Stokes sent back a letter dated October 10, 1978,
  "Exhibit G."  It is what one might call a non-answer, stating "that
  the committee will make every effort to tell the whole story to the
  American people."  Seven years later (1985) it can be said that the
  committee did not make an effort to call the most important
  witnesses and therefore did not tell the whole story.  Nor did
  their report even mention these witnesses or any of the evidence
  exposed earlier by the CTIA or Jim Garrison.  Louis Stokes was
  either totally fooled or he is part of the CIA's cover-up.
   The author responded to Stokes' non-answer letter of October
  10th with two more letters, dated October 30, 1978 and November 24,
  1978, "Exhibits H &amp; I."  Stokes finally answered them on December
  4, 1978 with another non-answer letter, "Exhibit J."  He says the
  committee cannot reveal the procedure of the investigation or the
  names of those persons who will be called to testify before the
  committee.  This implies they were planning to call more witnesses
  in December 1978.  The committee's life ended on January 1, 1979.
  The CIA witnesses were never called nor ever mentioned right up to
  the very end and the report was silent about them.</p>

<p>   The Umbrella Man</p>

<p>   One last example illustrates the way the CIA and Blakey worked
  together to cancel-out any evidence linking the CIA people and/or
  techniques used in the JFK assassination.  For may years, various
  researchers, including Josiah Thompson[5] and the author, had
  speculated about the role of a man appearing in the photographs in
  Dealey Plaza with an open umbrella.  He became known as "The
  Umbrella Man," or TUM for short.  Thompson speculated that TUM had
  been giving the various shooters in Dealey Plaza visual signals
  with the umbrella, and the author agreed this could have been true.
   In *1976*, the Church committee took the public testimony of
  Charles Senseney, a CIA contract weapons employee at the Army
  Chemical Center in Ft. Detrick, MD.  Senseney described a system
  used by the CIA in Vietnam and elsewhere, for killing or paralyzing
  people with poisons carried in self-propelled Flechette darts.  The
  darts were self-propelled like solid fuel rockets and launched
  silently and unobtrusively from a number of devices, including an
  umbrella.  A CIA catalog of available secret weapons shows a
  photograph of the umbrella launching device and photos of the
  Flechettes which were self-propelled from one of the hollow spokes
  of the umbrella.  They could even be launched through soda straws.
   Researcher Robert Cutler, former Air Force Liason officer, L.
  Fletcher Prouty, and the author did some additional research on the
  photographic evidence and the weapon system, especially research on
  the movements of JFK in the Zapruder film and various photos of TUM
  and a friend he had with him in Dealey Plaza.  The friend had a
  two-way radio device.  As a result of this research, an article was
  published in "Gallery" magazine in June, 1978.  The article
  presented the hypothesis that TUM launched, from his umbrella, a
  poison Flechette at JFK, which struck him in the throat at Zapruder
  frame 189, causing complete paralysis of his upper body, hands,
  arms, shoulders and head, in less than two seconds.  The photos
  show this paralysis and the timing matches the testimony given by
  Senseney about how fast the CIA poison works and what its
  paralyzing effects look like.
   Whether one agrees with this hypothesis or not is incidental to
  what Blakey and the HSCA did in reaction to it.  Until the summer
  of 1977, official investigators for the HSCA, or any of its
  predecessors, had shown no more than passing curious interest in
  TUM.  They just paid no attention and did not take the researcher's
  ideas seriously.  On August 8, 1977, the author informed Robert
  Blakey, in a letter of that date, about the TUM hypothesis.  The
  letter concerned a discussion the author and Blakey had on July 21,
  1977, two days after the nondisclosure agreement had been signed.
  Blakey had said that if there was a conspiracy it would not have
  involved a very large number of people.  He was probably already
  laying the foundation for a small, Mafia type, conspiracy involving
  Oswald and a Mafia friend, backed by a few Mafia Dons.
   The August 8th letter maintained that the CIA had been involved
  and that it had been a massive intelligence operation, rather than
  a conspiracy in the sense Blakey was using the term.  The CIA
  Flechette, umbrella launching weapons system, if indeed it had been
  used by TUM, the letter pointed out, would be solid proof of high
  level CIA involvement, since that system would not have been
  available to lower level agents or contract people.
   Blakey did not respond right away to this letter and the author
  decided to make the TUM hypothesis public by publishing it with
  Cutler as co-author, in the spring of 1978, in "Gallery" magazine.
  Contact was also made with Senator Richard Schweiker who had been
  the member of the Church Committee responsible for interrogating
  Charles Senseney.  Schweiker agreed to try and find out from
  Senseney what had happened to the umbrella launchers he had
  constructed for the CIA;  that is, who in the CIA had had access to
  a launcher.
   The information to be published in "Gallery" had been generated
  by Bob Cutler and the author independently of any information
  obtained from the HSCA, but the safest approach seemed to be an
  application to them for permission to print the article under the
  terms of the nondisclosure agreement.  So, on January 9, 1978, the
  author submitted a draft of the "Gallery" article to Blakey and, on
  January 16, 1978, he wrote back stating that publishing the article
  would not violate the terms of the nondisclosure agreement, "Exhibit
  K."  The article was published in the June 1978 issue of "Gallery"
  which actually appeared in May 1978.  Blakey knew in advance when
  it would appear.
   On August 3, 1978, the author wrote to Blakey stating that
  photographic evidence showed a high probability that TUM was
  actually Gordon Novel, the CIA contract agent from New Orleans, who
  had been hired to ruin the Garrison investigation, "Exhibit L."  
  The reason that some new photo evidence was just then coming to 
  light was that the committee had discovered a never-before seen 
  film of TUM and had released a frame from this film to the press in 
  July 1978.  Shortly after the TUM photo was released by the HSCA, 
  with an appeal to him to come forward, an unknown caller contacted 
  Penn Jones in Texas to tell him he knew who TUM was.  Penn visited 
  Louis Witt, having been given his address, and upon seeing him, 
  jumped to the conclusion that he *was* TUM.  This led to Mr. Witt 
  appearing before the committee in their televised hearings and 
  making the claim he was TUM.  He showed the umbrella on TV that he 
  claimed he used.
   It was immediately obvious to Bob Cutler and the author that
  Witt was not TUM.  He displayed the umbrella he said he had used in
  Dealey Plaza and *it contained the wrong number of spokes*.  His
  height, weight and facial appearance did not match TUM's, and his
  description of his actions did not match at all the actions TUM
  took, as shown in the photos.  On November 24, 1978, the author
  wrote to Stokes telling him he had been fooled by a CIA plant, or
  by his own staff, planting Mr. Witt, and that he should call Gordon
  Novel as a witness because it was likely that Novel was TUM.  HSCA
  never did call Novel as a witness.  Novel had visited the HSCA
  during the days Richard A. Sprague was still there, but he had not
  mentioned being in Dealey Plaza or that the CIA had hired him to
  ruin Garrison.  Blakey and Stokes avoided contacting Novel.
   Now, the important thing to focus on, in this example, is the
  sequence of events.  The HSCA had done nothing about TUM until they
  were faced with the possibility of a public article linking TUM to
  the CIA through a CIA weapons system and through Gordon Novel.
  They also found out that Senator Schweiker was looking into the CIA
  end of it.  At about the time the "Gallery" article was being
  widely read, the HSCA suddenly released to the press a photo of TUM
  and asked that people identify him or that he come forward.  The
  photo did not show his umbrella or where he was sitting in Dealey
  Plaza, nor did the release mention the umbrella or the theories
  about it.  Just his photo.  An earlier photo used by Cutler and the
  author to identify Novel as TUM was not released.
   In a surprisingly short time after the photo appeared, an
  unknown person calls a well-known researcher and leads him to Louis
  Witt.  Witt in turn lies about who he was and where he was, by
  claiming to be TUM.  Blakey and the committee put Witt on center
  stage as though it was a play, and eliminate the TUM problem by
  pulling off a charade.  The fine hand of the CIA can be seen in
  this whole series of linked events.  Blakey had to have known what
  was going on, and he knows today that Witt was not TUM and the high
  probability that TUM was Gordon Novel, CIA agent.
   The extreme lengths that the CIA and Blakey went to in this
  charade, made one believe that the umbrella probably *was* the
  Charles Senseney weapon.  Otherwise, why bother with TUM?</p>

<p>    Goal Number Eight</p>

<p>   What has been presented so far in this article represents direct
  actions by the CIA to cover-up CIA involvement.  Blakey played
  another important role and that was to achieve the eighth goal on
  the list, namely to change the public impression of HSCA's main
  effort.  Researchers who concentrated on attacking the Warren
  Commission's Dealey Plaza or Tippit shooting findings had created
  a big problem.  If Oswald had fired no shots, then he must have
  been framed.  If Oswald was framed, the evidence against him was
  planted, and multiple gunmen were involved.  All of this line of
  reasoning would point to a very well-organized and very well-
  planned conspiracy, which would in turn point to an intelligence
  style involvement.
   So, Blakey set out from the beginning to create an investigative
  environment and image that appeared to be based on a *highly
  scientific, objective study of the Dealey Plaza evidence*.  The
  overall objective of this approach was to prove "scientifically"
  that the Warren Commission was right, and that Lee Harvey Oswald
  fired all the shots that had struck John Kennedy, Governor Connally
  and policeman Tippit.  That required scientific proof of the
  single bullet theory, among other things.  Blakey did just that.
  Right up to the moment when the acoustical evidence on the Dallas
  police tape reared its ugly head, only one month from the end of
  the life of the committee, Blakey managed to control and manipulate
  the Dealey Plaza evidence to back up the Warren Commission
  completely.  The author described how Blakey did this in chapter 
  16.  One of his "magical" methods was to split up the scientific 
  work into subcommittees or panels of advisors, and various staff 
  groups, and keep them all from communicating with each other.  
  *Thus, even though the medical panel gave testimony showing an 
  upward trajectory of the single bullet (399) shot*, the trajectory 
  panel turned it into a downward trajectory.  The photographic panel 
  was so isolated they never did see the most important evidence of 
  the sixth floor window, inside and outside.
   The photo panel had a number of government and military people
  on it, as did all of the other panels.  Thus it was not surprising
  that they testified that the fake photos of Oswald holding a rifle
  were not fakes.  Blakey rode roughshod over the evidence that these
  photos were fakes, presenting only one witness, Jack White, to show
  why they were fakes, and giving him a very rough time.  Other
  researchers, like Fred Newcomb and the author, who had done a lot
  of work on the fake photos, were not called and not consulted by
  the photo panel or Blakey and his staff.  There are many more
  examples of how Blakey managed this magic show on public TV, too
  numerous to describe here.
   One important result of this drastic change of investigative
  environment compared to that existing under Richard A. Sprague, was
  to draw the attention of the public during the hearings away from
  the evidence and the witnesses pointing to the real assassins, and
  to the fact that Oswald was framed and did not fire any shots.  It
  thus provided an additional shield for the CIA and in effect,
  completed the cover-up.</p>

<p>   Summary</p>

<p>   Now, in the spring of 1985, the CIA appears to have under
  control the final cover-up engineered by Robert Blakey with the
  support of a few murders of key witnesses and the existence of the
  insidious, illegal, nondisclosure agreement silencing the HSCA
  staff, committee members, and consultants.  The situation for the
  American public appears to be hopeless.  The CIA effectively
  controlled all three branches of government when the chips were
  down, and have had no problems controlling the fourth estate, the
  media, or the independent researchers.  By what means could the
  American public combat this awesome power?  It is hard to see that
  there is any means available.  And we have now reached and passed
  1984.  Would an election of Edward Kennedy to the presidency in
  1988 change anything?  If he lived through a presidency following
  an election campaign, it probably would.  Most Americans react to
  that by saying, "he would be assassinated."  Somehow they have
  received the messages about what has gone wrong with the United
  States.</p>

<p>____________________</p>

<p>[1] Chaired by Prof. Norman Ramsey of M.I.T.</p>

<p>[2] Senators Richard Schweiker of Penn. and Gary Hart of Colo. formed
  a sub-committee of the Church Committee.</p>

<p>[3] The author became an advisor to Richard A. Sprague as soon as he
  was appointed counsel to the HSCA.</p>

<p>[4] The names of the witnesses in the memo were:
  Cooperative Witnesses:
  Louis Ivon (Jim Garrison's chief investigator), Richard Case
  Nagell, Harry Dean, James Hosty, Carver Gaten, Warren du Bruys,
  Regis Kennedy, Victor Marchetti, Gordon Novel, Manuel Garcia
  Gonzalez, Harry Williams, Jim Garrison, George de
  Mohrenschildt, Charles Senseney, Mary Hope and Jim Hicks.</p>

<p>  Non-Cooperative Witnesses or Assassins or Planners:
  Ronald Augustinovich, Guy Gabaldin, Frenchy, William Seymour,
  Emilio Santana, Jack Lawrence, Jim Braden, Sergio Arcacha
  Smith, Fred Lee Crisman, William Sullivan, Carlos Prio
  Socarras, Rolando Masferrer, Major L.M. Bloomfield, E. Howard
  Hunt, and Richard Helms.</p>

<p>[5] In his book, "Six Seconds in Dallas," Thompson showed photos of
  TUM.</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<div>--</div>

<p> I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes 
 me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . .  Corporations have been 
 enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the 
 money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working 
 upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few
 hands and the Republic is destroyed.</p>

<p>  --- Abraham Lincoln (quoted in Jack London's "The Iron Heel").</p>

<p>From dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com Fri Jun 19 09:59:20 1992
Received: by icaen.uiowa.edu ( 5.52 (84)/1.1) id AA12962
on Fri, 19 Jun 92 09:59:15 CDT.
Received: from pl122c.eecs.lehigh.edu by ns-mx.uiowa.edu (5.64.jnf/920408)
  on Fri, 19 Jun 92 10:00:55 -0500 id AA28160 with SMTP 
Received: from SGI.COM by PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU (5.61/1.34)
id AA10490; Fri, 19 Jun 92 10:44:51 -0400
Received: from [192.102.132.11] by sgi.sgi.com via SMTP (911016.SGI/910110.SGI)
for PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA21909; Fri, 19 Jun 92 07:47:33 -0700
Received: by ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (920110.SGI/920502.SGI.AUTO)
for @sgi.sgi.com:PML3@PL122C.EECS.LEHIGH.EDU id AA14482; Fri, 19 Jun 92 07:47:30 -0700
Date: Fri, 19 Jun 92 07:47:30 -0700
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
<info type="Message-ID"> 9206191447.AA14482@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com</info>
To: PML3@PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU
Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (11/11)
Status: RO</p>

<p>Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (11/11)
Summary: we were robbed of our capability of electing a president we wanted
Keywords:  part 11 of 11:  Appendix
Lines: 1151</p>

<div>   *  *  *  *  *  *  *</div>

<p>    Appendix</p>

<p>   The Secrecy Oath the Author signed after Robert Blakey took over 
   the HSCA, and correspondence between the author and various 
   committee members.</p>

<p>    Exhibit A
  ____________________________________________________________</p>

<p> Select Committee on Assassinations Nondisclosure Agreement
 
 
  [Richard E. Sprague]
 I, ____________________, in consideration for being
 employed by or engaged by contract or otherwise to perform
 services for or at the request of the House Select Committee
 on Assassinations, or any Member thereof, da hereby make the
 representations and accept the obligations set forth below as
 conditions precedent for my employment or engagement, or for
 my continuing employment or engagement, with the Select Com-
 mittee, the United States House of Representatives, or the
 United States Congress.
 
    1.  I have read the Rules of the Select Committee, and I
 hereby agree to be bound by them and by the Rules of the House
 of Representatives.
 
    2.  I hereby agree never to divulge, publish or reveal by
 words, conduct or otherwise, any testimony given before the
 Select Committee in executive session (including the name of any
 witness who appeared or was summoned to appear before the Select
 Committee in executive session), any classifiable and properly
 classified information (as defined in 5 U.S.C. Section 552(b)(1)), 
 or any information pertaining to intelligence sources or methods 
 as designated by the Director of Central Intelligence, or any con-
 fidential information that is received by the Select Committee
 or that comes into my possession by virtue of my position with
 the Select Committee, to any person not a member of the Select
 Committee or its staff or the personal staff representative of
 a Committee Member unless authorized in writing by the Select
 Committee, or, after the Select Committee's termination, by
 such manner as the House of Representatives may determine or,
 in the absence of a determination by the House, in such manner
 as the Agency or Department from which the information origin-
 ated may determine.  I further agree not to divulge, publish
 or reveal by words, conduct or otherwise, any other information
 which is received by the Select Committee or which comes into
 my possession by virtue of my position with the Select Committee,
 for the duration of the Select Committee's existence.
 
    3.  I hereby agree that any material that is based upon or
 may include information that I hereby pledge not to disclose,
 and that is contemplated for publication by me will, prior to
 discussing it with or showing it to any publishers, editors or
 literary agents, be submitted to the Select Committee to deter-
 mine whether said material contains any information that I
 hereby pledge not to disclose.  The Chairman of the Select Com-
 mittee shall consult with the Director of Central Intelligence
 for the purpose of the Chairman's determination as to whether
 or not the material contains information that I pledge not to
 disclose.  I further agree to take no steps toward publication
 until authorized in writing by the Select Committee, or after
 its termination, by such manner as the House of Representatives
 may determine, or in the absence of a determination by the
 House, in such manner as the Agency or Department from which
 the information originated may determine.
 
    4.  I hereby agree to familiarize myself with the Select
 Committee's security procedures, and provide at all times the
 required degree of protection against unauthorized disclosure
 for all information and materials that come into my possession
 by virtue of my position with the Select Committee.
 
    5.  I hereby agree to immediately notify the Select Com-
 mittee of any attempt by any person not a member of the Select
 Committee staff to solicit information from me that I pledge
 not to disclose.
 
    6.  I hereby agree to immediately notify the Select
 Committee if I am called upon to testify or provide information
 to the proper authorities that I pledge not to disclose.  I
 will request that my obligation to respond is established by
 the Select Committee, or after its termination, by such manner
 as the House of Representatives may determine, before I do so.
 
    7.  I hereby agree to surrender to the Select Committee
 upon demand by the Chairman or upon my separation from the
 Select Committee staff, any material, including any classified
 information or information pertaining to intelligence sources
 or methods as designated by the Director of Central Intelligence,
 which comes into my possession by virtue of my position with the
 Select Committee.  I hereby acknowledge that all documents
 acquired by me in the course of my employment are and remain the
 property of the United States.
 
    8.  I understand that any violation of the Select Committee
 Rules, security procedures or this agreement shall constitute
 grounds for dismissal from my current employment.
 
    9.  I hereby assign to the United States Government all
 rights, title and interest in any and all royalties, remunera-
 tions and emoluments that have resulted or may result from any
 divulgence, publication or revelation in violation of this
 agreement.
 
   10.  I understand and agree that the United States Government
 may choose to apply, prior to any unauthorized disclosure by
 me, for a court order prohibiting disclosure.  Nothing in this
 agreement constitutes a waiver on the part of the United States
 of the right to prosecute for any statutory violation.  Nothing
 in this agreement constitutes a waiver on my part of any defenses
 I may otherwise have in any civil or criminal proceedings.
 
   11.  I have read the provisions of the Espionage Laws,
 Sections 793, 794 and 798, Title 18, United States Code, and
 of Section 783, Title 50, United States Code, and I am aware
 that unauthorized disclosure of certain classified information
 may subject me to prosecution.  I have read Section 1001, Title
 18, United States Code, and I am aware that the making of a
 false statement herein is punishable as a felony.  I have also
 read Executive Order 11652, and the implementing National
 Security Council directive of May 17, 1972, relating to the
 protection of classified information.
 
   12.  Unless released in writing from this agreement or any
 portion thereof by the Select Committee, I recognize that all
 the conditions and obligations imposed on me by this agreement
 apply during my Committee employment or engagement and continue
 to apply after the relationship is terminated.
 
   13.  No consultant shall indicate, divulge or acknowledge,
 without written permission of the Select Committee, the fact
 that the Select Committee has engaged him or her by contract
 as a consultant until after the Select Committee has terminated.
 
   14.  In addition to any rights for criminal prosecution or
 for injunctive relief the United States Government may have for
 violation of this agreement, the United States Government may
 file a civil suit in an appropriate court for damages as a
 consequence of a breach of this agreement.  The costs of any
 civil suit brought by the United States for breach of this
 agreement, including court costs, investigative expenses, and
 reasonable attorney fees, shall be borne by any defendant who
 loses such suit.  In any civil suit for damages successfully
 brought by the United States Government for breach of this
 agreement, actual damages may be recovered, or, in the event
 that such actual damages may be impossible to calculate, liquidated
 damages in an amount of $5000 shall be awarded as a reasonable
 estimate for damages to the credibility and effectiveness of the
 investigation.
 
   15.  I hereby agree that in any suit by the United States
 Government for injunctive or monetary relief pursuant to the
 terms of this agreement, personal jurisdiction shall obtain and
 venue shall lie in the United States District Court for the
 District of Columbia, or in any other appropriate United States
 District Court in which the United States may elect to bring
 suit.  I further agree that the law of the District of Columbia
 shall govern the interpretation and construction of this
 agreement.
 
   16.  Each provision of this agreement is severable.  If a
 court should find any part of this agreement to be unenforceable,
 all other provisions of this agreement shall remain in full force
 and effect.
 
    I make this agreement without any mental reservation or
 purpose of evasion, and I agree that it may be used by the
 Select Committee in carrying out its duty to protect the security
 of information provided to it.
 
 
 
 
 
 
    [July 19, 1977]    [Richard E., Sprague]
 Date: _____________________  _________________________________
 
 
  [  I am submitting a list of
   material and information  
   which has already been   _________________________________
   given to the committee,    LOUIS STOKES, Chariman 
   or which I intend to   Select Committee on Assassinations
   give to the committee in
   the near future.  I intend
   to publish some of this
   information.]</p>

<p>     Exhibit B
  ____________________________________________________________</p>

<p>       193 Pinewood Road
       Hartsdale, NY  10530</p>

<p>       February 10, 1978</p>

<p>  Mr. Louis Stokes
  Chairman, Select Committee on Assassinations
  U.S. House of Representatives
  Washington, D.C.  20515
  
  Dear Louis:
  
  As I am sure you know, I signed a non disclosure agreement for the
  Select Committee, given to me on July 19, 1977 by Robert Blakey.  Not
  being a lawyer, I did not really appreciate some of the provisions of
  that agreemont at the time I signed it, even though some things in it
  seemed strange to me.
  
  In the last fow months I have gone over the agreement several times,
  with particular attention to those strange portions.  The more I re-
  read the agreement, the more puzzled I have become.
  
  I was finally triggered into writing you this letter by a conversation
  I had with Richard A. Sprague.  As you may recall I helped him and Bob
  Tanenbaum from November 1976 forward with the photographic evidence in
  the JFK case, and several other areas derived from my relationship with
  Jim Garrison and the Committee to Investigate Assassinations.  I had no
  written agreement with the Committee at that time and did not ask for
  compensation for the work I had been doing.  I had signed no non dis-
  closure agreement and such an agreement had never been mentioned.
  
  The first time I had any idea that the Committee would want to pay me
  for my assistance was some time after Dick Sprague resigned, when Mr.
  Blakey approached me about it through Bob Tanenbaum, shortly before
  Bob resigned.  My recent meeting with Dick Sprague naturally led to
  discussion about my continuing work for the Committee.  He raised the
  subject of the non disclosure agreement signed by each staff member,
  saying that he would never have enforced such a document while he was
  chief counsel because he believes it gives the CIA and other agencies
  too much power to control the activities of the Committee.  It was
  because of that statement that I read the agreement again in the
  light of what he said.
  
  I know that you had a lot of faith in Richard A. Sprague and did not
  personally want him to resign.  For that reason I'm writing to you
  rather than Mr. Blakey, seeking answers to my questions.
  
  Encloged is a copy of the agreement with my signature.  I have circled
  on it the paragraphs in question, and underlined the key words.  My
  questions, Mr. Stokes are as follows:
  
  1.  Are paragraphs 2, 3 and 7 inserted for the purpose of giving the
  CIA power over the Select Committee to investigate the CIA's
  role in the assassinations or the cover up crimes following the
  assassinations of President Kennedy or Dr. King?  I believe those
  paragraphs could be so interpreted, especially if each committee
  member and each staff member signed a similar agreement.
  
  2.  If the purposes of paragraphs 2, 3 and 7 are not as questioned
  above, then how can the Select Committee, its staff or its con-
  sultants, *ever* discover whether the CIA was involved in the
  assassinations or whether the CIA, as I maintain, is *still*
  involved in covering up the conspiracies?
  
  For example, paragraph 3 states that you as chairman, shall con-
  sult with the Director of Central Intelligence--to determine
  whether or not the material I might receive contains information
  that I pledge not to disclose.
  
  Assuming that all committee staff people signed that paragraph,
  it would seem to me that you would really be hamstrung in investi-
  gating the CIA's possible role.  Your staff could not be working
  with any documents or other materials pointing toward CIA agents'
  involvement in the assassinations, without you personally having
  to show those documents to the Director of Central Intelligence
  and to obtain his agreement to disclose the information to the
  public.
  
  The CIA Director has the power of judging what can be released.
  Obviously, anything incriminating to the CIA, especially higher
  level people who may have been involved, would be judged unreleas-
  able.
  
  None of this would take on the significance that it does, were it
  not for my belief that the CIA itself has continued to cover up
  the original conspiracy and that several CIA agents or contract
  employees carried out the murder.
  
  3.  Is paragraph 12 really logical, or even legal?  Can an agreement
  with a body be extended ad infinitum after the body has dissolved?
  
  4.  Paragraph 14 bothers me.  It seems to say that I agree to allow
  the government to sue me and to bear the expenses of such a suit.
  Is it really legal to ask me to agree to be sued as a condition 
  of my consulting contract?  Couldn't the government sue me and
  collect expenses anyway if I did something wrong, without such a
  clause?  Paragraph 16 seems to anticipate that Paragraph 14 may
  not stand up in court.  (Or some other paragraph.)
  
  I want to make it clear that my concerns in this matter are not related
  to any obligation I may have.  Rather, I am concerned about the
  purposes of those clauses in the agreement, as they affect the
  investigations.  I believe every staff member signed them.
  
  I would appreciate hearing directly from you on these questions Mr.
  Stokes, rather than referring this letter to Mr. Blakey.
  
   Yours sincerely,
  
  
   Richard E. Sprague</p>

<p>     Exhibit C
  ____________________________________________________________</p>

<p>    LOUIS STOKES, OHIO, CHAIRMAN</p>

<p>RICHARDSON PREYER, N.C.   SAMUEL L. DEVINE, OHIO
WALTER E. FAUNTROY, D.C.  STEWART B. MCKINNEY, CONN.
YVONNE BRATHWAITE BURKE, CALIF. CHARLES THONE, NEBR.
CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, CONN.  HAROLD S. SAWYER, MICH.
HAROLD E. FORD, TENN.
FLOYD J. FITHIAN, IND.
ROBERT W. EDGAR, PA.
    ------------
   (202) 225-4624</p>

<p>    Select Committee on Assassinations
     U.S House of Representatives
    3331 HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, ANNEX 2
     WASHINGTON, D.C.  20515</p>

<p>      MAR 16 1978</p>

<p>    Richard E. Sprague, Esq.
    193 Pinewood Road
    Hartsdale, New York 10530</p>

<p>    Dear Mr. Sprague:</p>

<p>   In response to your letter of February 10, 1978
    concerning the non-disclosure agreement which you signed
    with the Committee, I wish to first remind you that the
    agreement was explicitly explained to you provision by
    provision by Mr. Blakey, and that you were given the
    opportunity to ask any questions that you desired prior
    to your signing the agreement.  I want to assure you that
    the intent of the agreement is not to prevent information
    from ultimately being disclosed to the American public.
    The non-disclosure agreement only governs the timing of
    disclosure of information to the public.  In response to
    your specific questions:
    
   I.  Paragraphs 2, 3 and 7 obviously are not for
    the purpose of giving the CIA power over the Select Committee
    to investigate the CIA's role in the assassination.  If
    you read these paragraphs carefully, they clearly provide
    that the Select Committee, during its existence, will be in
    full control and have access to all information.  The paragraphs
    do prevent you from disclosing the information, without the
    authorization of the Select Committee.
    
   Paragraph 3 does state that I, as Chairman, will
    consult with the Director of Central Intelligence to determine
    whether or not material contains information which you pledge
    not to disclose.  I, however, retain ultimate authority and
    I only consult with the Director of Central Intelligence -
    I am not bound by his opinion.
    
   II.  Paragraphs 12 and 14 are indeed legal.  Should
    you have any specific questions concerning the legality of
    any of the provisions, I suggest you consult your own attorney.</p>

<p>   I assure you that the very purpose of the non-
    disclosure agreement is to give the Select Committee full
    control over the conduct of the investigation, including
    the ultimate disclosure of information to the American
    public.  In no manner should it be construed as the Committee
    being restricted in its investigation by the CIA or any other
    federal agency or department.
    
   In closing, I remind you of paragraph 13 of the
    non-disclosure agreement which provides that you may not
    "indicate, divulge or acknowledge" the fact that you have
    been retained as a consultant until after the Select Committee
    has been terminated.  I have seen a press release concerning
    yourself issued by Mr. Altmans in conjunction with a new article
    in Gallery magazine.  I note that while you technically did
    not violate the non-disclosure agreement which you signed,
    by carefully wording the release to describe the work you
    had done for the Committee in the past, this is the exact
    kind of exploitation of a consultant relationship that the
    Committee desires to avoid during its existence.
    
   If you have any other questions or comments on the
    non-disclosure agreement, they should be addressed to Mr.
    Blakey as Chief Counsel.</p>

<p>    Sincerely,</p>

<p>      [Louis Stokes]</p>

<p>    Louis Stokes
    Chairman</p>

<p>    LS:jwc</p>

<p>     Exhibit D
  ____________________________________________________________</p>

<p>     193 Pinewood Road
     Hartsdale, NY  10530</p>

<p>     April 5, 1978</p>

<p> Representative Louis Stokes
 U.S. House of Representatives
 Raybur House Office Building
 Washington, D.C. 20515
 
 Dear Louis,
 
 Thank you for your most reassuring letter of March 16, 1978.
 As you know I have great faith in your own personal integrity
 and your goals as discussed with you at lunch nearly a year
 ago.  I understand the necessity for non disclosure and 
 sensitive discretion in the way the Select Committee is pro-
 ceeding.  I believe I understand it more than most researchers
 because of my close working relationship with the staff and the
 committee ever since it started.
 
 You can rest assured that it is my intention to continue to
 assist you and to support your efforts right up to the finish 
 line.  I want to avoid as much as you do any exploitation of my
 relationship to the committee that would cause problems for you
 or for me, especially with the media.
 
 In this regard, the press release you mentioned in your letter
 from Gallery magazine was initially prepared by their public
 relations department, and included a statement taht I am a
 consultant to the Select Committee.  I asked them to delete the
 statement and they insisted on retaining something about my
 assistance to the committee in order to help establish my
 credibility with their readers.  After some discussion I was
 able to get them to modify the statement to apply to the past
 work for Richard A. Sprague and Henry Gonzalez.
 
 There will be another article in the June 1978 issue using this
 same statement.  I believe I mentioned the article to you several
 months ago.  It is about the CIA weapon system developed by 
 Charles Senseney at Fort Detrick, Maryland using rocket propelled
 flechettes carrying paralyzing poison launched by an umbrella.
 I described in the article the evidence pointing toward the use
 of this weapons system in Dealey Plaza.  The article will appear
 on May 2 on the newsstands.
 
 I read your March 16 letter, on March 22, upon my return from a
 trip to Japan and a vacation.  I contacted Gallery asking them to
 delete entirely the statement about me and the Select Committee.
 They told me it was too late, that the issue had already gone to
 press.  However, they did agree to delete the statement from any
 
 
 
 [the remainder of this letter was missing from the copy of the
  edition used to make this on-line version.  --Editor]</p>

<p>     Exhibit E
  ____________________________________________________________</p>

<p>    LOUIS STOKES, OHIO, CHAIRMAN</p>

<p>RICHARDSON PREYER, N.C.   SAMUEL L. DEVINE, OHIO
WALTER E. FAUNTROY, D.C.  STEWART B. MCKINNEY, CONN.
YVONNE BRATHWAITE BURKE, CALIF. CHARLES THONE, NEBR.
CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, CONN.  HAROLD S. SAWYER, MICH.
HAROLD E. FORD, TENN.
FLOYD J. FITHIAN, IND.
ROBERT W. EDGAR, PA.
    ------------
   (202) 225-4624</p>

<p>    Select Committee on Assassinations
     U.S House of Representatives
    3331 HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, ANNEX 2
     WASHINGTON, D.C.  20515</p>

<p>      May 15, 1978</p>

<p>   Mr. Richard Sprague
   193 Pinewood Road
   Hartsdale, NY 10530
 
   Dear Mr. Sprague:
 
    Thank you for your thoughtful letter of April 5
   and I hope that you will excuse my delay in responding.
 
    I appreciate your expression of confidence in me
   and your reassurance of your continued support. With
   regard to the matter of the press release, I understand
   your situation and it was most thoughtful of you to
   advise me in advance about the article in the June issue
   of Gallery magazine.
 
    Your letter has been sent on to the Committee staff
   in order that they might share your recommendations about
   Richard Case Nagell.
 
    Thank you again for your continuing support.
 
     Sincerely,
 
 
      [Louis Stokes]
 
     LOUIS STOKES
   Chairman
 
   LS:thn</p>

<p>     Exhibit F
  ____________________________________________________________</p>

<p>   
    193 Pinewood Road
    Hartsdale, New York  10530
   
    September 22, 1978
   
   
   Representative Yvonne Burke
   U.S. House of Representatives
   Washington, D.C.  20515
   
   Dear Mrs. Burke:
   
   I don't know whether you recall our meeting on
   July 21, 1977 when Jack White, Robert Groden and I
   made presentations to the J.F.K. subcommittee of the
   Select Committee on Assassinations.  You may
   remember my showing a summary of photographic evidence
   of conspiracy in the Kennedy assassination.  You asked
   some very pertinent questions which I answered about
   how to obtain films and photos from media organizations
   that were stonewalling at the time.
   
   I am truly sorry that you have missed the first
   three weeks of the J.F.K. hearings because I feel that
   your presence would have created at least a minority
   of one against the carefully orchestrated cover up that
   is now takinq place.  I had great faith in the committee,
   especially after a luncheon meeting with Louis Stokes
   in 1977 and after the presentation to you.
   
   I want you personally to know that I have now lost
   all of that faith.  The farce that is going on is really
   almost unbelievable to an honest researcher.  All
   witnesses (except Cyril Wecht), all panels employed by
   the committee, the staff and the committee members doing
   the questioning, obviously made up their minds a long
   time ago that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin,
   that there was no conspiracy and that the Warren
   Commission was right.
   
   I cannot understand how this came about.  As the
   most likely committee member to still keep an open mind,
   I would like to ask your opinion.
   
   How did the committee staff ignore all of the
   evidence of conspiracy.  I am speaking not only
   about the photographic evidence, but about the
   information that Clifford Fenton and his team
   uncovered in New Orleans.  I know you know about
   that from my conversations with Ted Gandolfo and
   Jim Garrison.
   
   Do you believe there was a conspiracy?  If you
   do, will you say so when you return to Washington?
   Will you insist that the committee hear from the
   important New Orleans witnesses as well as the
   others I recommended long long ago.  Specifically,
   will you insist that the committee call as witnesses:
   James Hosty, Warren du Bruys, Regis Kennedy, Richard
   Case Nagell, Harry Dean, Ronald Augustinovich, Mary
   Hope, Guy Gabaldin, Frenchy, William Seymour, Emilio
   Santana, Jack Lawrence, Jim Braden, E. Howard Hunt,
   Richard Helms and the others listed in the document
   I gave Louis Stokes in 1977.  If you can't or won't,
   God help this country.
   
   
     Yours sincerely,
   
   
     Richard E. Sprague
   
   
   
   P.S.  In the case of key witness Richard Case Nagell,
   Mr. Stokes assured me this spring that the committee
   would contact him.  As of this date, he has never
   been contacted.  He knows who killed President Kennedy.</p>

<p>     Exhibit G
  ____________________________________________________________</p>

<p>    LOUIS STOKES, OHIO, CHAIRMAN</p>

<p>RICHARDSON PREYER, N.C.   SAMUEL L. DEVINE, OHIO
WALTER E. FAUNTROY, D.C.  STEWART B. MCKINNEY, CONN.
YVONNE BRATHWAITE BURKE, CALIF. CHARLES THONE, NEBR.
CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, CONN.  HAROLD S. SAWYER, MICH.
HAROLD E. FORD, TENN.
FLOYD J. FITHIAN, IND.
ROBERT W. EDGAR, PA.
    ------------
   (202) 225-4624</p>

<p>    Select Committee on Assassinations
     U.S House of Representatives
    3331 HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, ANNEX 2
     WASHINGTON, D.C.  20515</p>

<p>      October 10, 1978</p>

<p>   Mr. Richard Sprague
   193 Pinewood Road
   Hartsdale, New York 10530
   
   Dear Mr. Sprague:
   
    I was greatly disturbed by your letter of September
   23, 1978 in which you stated that, "I have one last hope
   that what we are witnessing in your hearings is a charade
   meant to fool the FBI and the CIA.  If it is, you have fooled
   me.  If it is not, your statements to me over the past year
   about getting at the truth were all meaningless.  I have
   lost all faith in you and the committee."
   
    I must say that I deeply regret the fact that you
   have lost faith in the performance of my committee.  We
   have attempted to do a thorough, competent and professional
   job which would be a source of pride for you and other
   concerned Americans.
   
    I should state here for the record, Mr. Sprague, that
   I find nothing inconsistent in my statements to you over the
   year indicating that the committee would be seeking the truth
   and nothing but the truth during the course of the investigation
   and the testimony that the committee has received during its
   public hearings.  Perhaps you are confused because I did not
   explicitly state that the truth the committee is seeking is
   not your truth or my truth, but truth supported by the weight
   of the evidence.
   
    Thanks again for your past and current concerns.  I
   assure you that the committee will make every effort to tell
   the whole story to the American people.
   
    Sincerely,
   
    [Louis Stokes]
    Chairman
   
   
   LS: icmj</p>

<p>     Exhibit H
  ____________________________________________________________</p>

<p>   
   
      193 Pinewood Road
      Hartsdale, NY  10530
   
   
   
      October 30, 1978
   
   
   
   
   Representative Louis Stokes
   Select Committee on Assassinations
   U.S. House of Representatives
   3369 House Office Building, Annex 2
   Washington, D.C.  20515
   
   Dear Louis:
   
   I appreciate your responding to my September 23 letter.
   I am truly sorry to be so disturbing to you concerning
   the committee's hearings.  I wish I could be more
   complimentary and positive about your work.
   
   I could not agree with you more that the "truth supported
   by the weight of the evidence" is what we are all after.
   I'm enclosing for your information one more copy of the
   document I gave to Henry Gonzalez, Richard A. Sprague,
   Bob Tannenbaum, and you in 1976 and 1977.
   
   Unless you call the witnesses listed on pages 4-6 of this
   document, Louis, you have not dealt with the most impor-
   tant evidence of all.  How can you possibly claim to have
   unearthed anything approximating the truth, unless you 
   and the rest of the committee interrogate with strength,
   the following important witnesses that you missed:
   
   Richard Case Nagell, James P. Hosty, Louis Ivon, Victor
   Marchetti, Gorden Novel, Ronald Augustinovich, Mary Hope,
   Manuel Garcia Gonzalez, William Seymour, Emilio Santana,
   Guy Gabaldin, Major L.M. Bloomfield, Harry Williams,
   Sylvia Odio and Jim Garrison.
   
   The document explains how each of these witnesses was
   involved in the assassination of investigations of it.
   It is based, not just on my research, but on painful
   hours of investigative efforts of many, many people,
   including Jim Garrison's professional staff, the
   Committee to Investigate Assassinations and others.
   
   I understand that James P. Hosty is finally ready to
   tell his real story, at the risk of physical harm to
   himself and his family.  You have not called him.
   Richard Case Nagell has been ready to testify for a
   long time.  Despite my requests to Dr. Blakey and to
   you, he has not been called and no effort has been
   made to locate him through the only person who knows
   where he is, Dick Russell.
   
   If you will pardon my saying so Louis, something about
   just those two failures stinks, not to mention all of
   the others.
   
   It is not too late to save your reputations.  You can
   still call those witnesses in December.  I hope you do.
   
   
    Yours Sincerely,
   
   
   
    Dick Sprague</p>

<p>     Exhibit I
  ____________________________________________________________</p>

<p>   
   
      193 Pinewood Road
      Hartsdale, NY  10530
   
      November 24, 1978
   
   
   
   
   Representative Louis Stokes
   Select Committee on Assassinations
   U.S. House of Representatives
   3369 House Office Building, Annex 2
   Washington, D.C.  20515
   
   Dear Louis:
   
   I am still waiting for a reply to my letter of October 30,
   1978.  I thought I should write again to remind you that
   the witnesses you should call in December are not going to
   be around much longer.  I'm afraid that Gorden Novel,
   Richard Case Nagell, James Hosty and Warren de Brueys, in
   particular may go the same way that Regis Kennedy, William
   Sullivan, and George de Mohrenschildt went.  You really
   must call them before they die.
   
   Regis Kennedy reportedly died of natural causes the day
   before you were to talk with him.  I do not believe that.
   How many more key witnesses have to die before you would
   be convinced?  Kennedy, du Brueys and Hosty were Oswald's
   points of contact in the FBI, receiving his reports on the
   conspiratorial group planning JFK's assassination.  I have
   known this since 1971 directly from Hosty's own lips via
   Carver Gaten and Jim Gochenaur.  Regis Kennedy also knew
   why the FBI was searching for Clay Shaw under his alias
   Clay Bertrand in New Orleans, *before* Dean Andrews received
   that phone call from him about defending Oswald.  Kennedy
   may also have been one of the three agents who took the
   Babushka lady's film away from her.  At least she told me
   he was one of them from his photo.
   
   So Regis Kennedy had to die.  So do Warren du Brueys and
   James Hosty.  If they die of "natural causes" in the next
   month or two, don't say I didn't warn you.
   
   Nagell and Novel are in even greater danger.  Nagell may
   now be safe.  He fled the country recently.  However, the
   CIA has tentacles everywhere, so he will not really be safe
   wherever he is.  Novel could easily be killed, since he is
   in prison.  That is one of the easiest places for the death
   squad to catch up with him.
   
   As I have had told you in previous letters, the reason you
   *must* call Novel is that there is a very strong possibility
   that he is the umbrella man.  If you laugh at that and try
   to tell me that you found the umbrella man, Mr. Witt, I'll
   laugh right back at you and tell you that farce you put on
   for the American public didn't fool anyone with his eyes
   even half way open.  In addition to the obviously planned
   sequence of events and the way in which Mr. Witt surfaced,
   his umbrella was certainly not the one used in Dealey Plaza.
   It was the wrong size, had the wrong number of ribs, and was
   missing the two round white bulbs on either end when folded
   up.
   
   No, Louis, Mr. Witt was either planted upon you or else
   your staff planted him.  I'll give you the benefit of the
   doubt for the moment and assume that you do not know he
   was a plant.  If you let it go as is, you and Mr. Preyer
   and the rest of the committee are going to look pretty
   silly.
   
   You absolutely must call as witnesses, Gorden Novel, and
   at the other end, Charles Sensenay and the CIA people asso-
   ciated with Fort Detrick, Maryland, where that umbrella 
   launching system was made.  Incidentally, two Bulgarian
   intelligence agents have recently been assassinated in
   England with an umbrella weapon using poison flechettes,
   very similar to the one used on JFK.
   
   I would appreciate a response to this letter telling me
   what you plan to do about those witnesses.
   
   
     Best regards,
   
   
   
     Dick Sprague</p>

<p>     Exhibit J
  ____________________________________________________________</p>

<p>    LOUIS STOKES, OHIO, CHAIRMAN</p>

<p>RICHARDSON PREYER, N.C.   SAMUEL L. DEVINE, OHIO
WALTER E. FAUNTROY, D.C.  STEWART B. MCKINNEY, CONN.
YVONNE BRATHWAITE BURKE, CALIF. CHARLES THONE, NEBR.
CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, CONN.  HAROLD S. SAWYER, MICH.
HAROLD E. FORD, TENN.
FLOYD J. FITHIAN, IND.
ROBERT W. EDGAR, PA.
    ------------
   (202) 225-4624</p>

<p>    Select Committee on Assassinations
     U.S House of Representatives
    3331 HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, ANNEX 2
     WASHINGTON, D.C.  20515</p>

<p>      December 4, 1978</p>

<p>   Mr. Dick Sprague
   193 Pinewood Rqad
   Hartsdale, New York  10530
   
   Dear Mr. Sprague:
   
    Thank you for your letter of November 24, 1978.
   
    I am aware of the amount of time you have spent
   analyzing the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
   and your interest in the work of the Select Committee on
   Assassinations since its inception.
   
    However, I regret that under our Rules, it is
   impossible for us to respond to your letter in a manner
   which would reveal the substance or procedure of our
   investigation, or the names of those persons who will be
   called to testify before the committee.
   
    The committee is, of course, grateful for your
   suggestions and those of the many other concerned citizens
   who have taken the time to write.
   
    Sincerely,
   
      [Louis Stokes]
   
    LOUIS STOKES
    Chairman
   
   
   
   LS:jl</p>

<p>     Exhibit K
  ____________________________________________________________</p>

<p>    LOUIS STOKES, OHIO, CHAIRMAN</p>

<p>RICHARDSON PREYER, N.C.   SAMUEL L. DEVINE, OHIO
WALTER E. FAUNTROY, D.C.  STEWART B. MCKINNEY, CONN.
YVONNE BRATHWAITE BURKE, CALIF. CHARLES THONE, NEBR.
CHRISTOPHER J. DODD, CONN.  HAROLD S. SAWYER, MICH.
HAROLD E. FORD, TENN.
FLOYD J. FITHIAN, IND.
ROBERT W. EDGAR, PA.
------------
   (202) 225-4624</p>

<p>    Select Committee on Assassinations
     U.S House of Representatives
    3331 HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING, ANNEX 2
   WASHINGTON, D.C.  20515
 </p>

<p>      JAN 16 1978
   </p>

<p>    Richard E. Sprague, Esq.
    193 Pinewood Road
    Hartsdale, New York 10530
    
    Dear Mr. Sprague:
    
    In response to your letter of January 9,
    1978, I have reviewed your proposed article "The
    CIA Weapon System Used in the Assassination of
    President Kennedy."  It is my opinion that the article
    is derived from your own sources of information, and
    contains no information that has come into your
    possession by virtue of your consulting work with the
    Committee.  Accordingly, your proposed publication of
    the article does not violate the terms of your non-
    disclosure agreement.  As I am sure you can appreciate,
    further comment by myself upon the article or its
    proposed publication would be inappropriate, and
    consequently I decline to express any review or
    comment upon it.
    
    Thank you for your continuing cooperation
    with the Select Committee.
    
      Sincerely,
    
    [G. Robert Blakey]
    
    G. Robert Blakey
    
    GRB:jwc</p>

<p>     Exhibit L
  ____________________________________________________________</p>

<p>       193 Pinewood Road
       Hartsdale, NY  10530</p>

<p>       August 3, 1978</p>

<p>  Mr. Robert Blakey
  Select Committee on Assassinations
  U.S. House of Representatives
  Washington, D.C.  20515
  
  Dear Bob:
  
  Following our telephone conversation on Tuesday August 1,
  I checked with Bob Cutler, my co-author on the Umbrella
  Weapon System article in Gallery June 1978.  Bob told me
  he left with Mr. Preyer and with you, photographic material
  showing that The Umbrella Man (TUM) was quite probably
  J. Gordon Novel.
  
  Your news photo of him reinforces that belief for both of
  us.  I did not have that portion of the Couch film from
  WFAA and so had never seen TUM's face as clearly as it
  appears there.  The Bothun photo of him has a light
  reflection around his nose, as I'm sure you know.
  
  We have a 1962-3 photo of Novel taken from the same angle
  as the Couch, film of TUM and a photo comparison convinces
  us more than ever that Novel is TUM.  Mr. Preyer no doubt
  told you back in April that Novel is in a jail in Georgia,
  framed for a crime he and Jim Garrison, his former lawyer,
  both claim he didn't commit.
  
  
     Best regards,
  
  
  
     Dick Sprague
  
  DS/mc
  
  P.S.  I am still waiting for a response to my letters to
    Louis Stokes about attending the hearings beginning
    August 14.
  
  cc: L. Stokes
    R. Cutler</p>

<div>--</div>

<p> I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes 
 me to tremble for the safety of my country. . . .  Corporations have been 
 enthroned, an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the 
 money-power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working 
 upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in a few
 hands and the Republic is destroyed.</p>

<p>  --- Abraham Lincoln (quoted in Jack London's "The Iron Heel").</p>

</xml>