 JFK IN HIS TIME AND OURS |  |
 Lee Harvey Oswald worked for the CIA (and FBI and Army and most likely Naval Intelligence) from the late fifties when the CIA recruited him from the Marine Corps until his murder on November 24, 1963 by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby. A clear appreciation of Lee Harvey Oswald’s role as an intelligence operative is key to understanding the JFK assassination conspiracy and cover-up. Although more than 20 years old, in my opinion Matthew Smith’sJFK: The Second Plot offers the most comprehensive account of Oswald’s CIA career. JFK: The Second Plot Matthew Smith (1992) Book Review The first account of Lee Harvey Oswald’s CIA connections appeared in a 1968 book originally published by French intelligence entitled Farewell America. French president Charles DeGaulle had a keen interest in identifying the conspirators behind Kennedy’s assassination, as the same group had also made three assassination attempts against DeGaulle. Farewell America reveals how the CIA recruited Oswald when he was stationed at Atsugi Marine Air Base in Japan and sent him to the Soviet Union. These historical details were corroborated by testimony a former CIA officer provided the House Committee on Assassinations in 1978. The Soviets, recognizing Oswald as a likely double agent, never fully trusted him, and in 1961 the CIA returned him to the US. According to government archives, his handlers went on to give him assignments intended to create a kooky leftist alter ego, which would later be used to frame him for Kennedy’s murder. Given that Oswald had foreknowledge of Kennedy’s assassination, the obvious question is why he allowed himself to be set up. The answer Smith offers seems totally plausible: Oswald believed the CIA was returning him to the Soviet Union (via Cuba) to become a double agent. His handlers, in turn, intended to use his flight to Cuba to blame the President’s assassination on Fidel Castro. Oswald’s Visit to Red Bird Airport Smith first got the idea for his book after obtaining FBI documents under the Freedom of Information Act revealing that Oswald, together with two other federal agents, paid a visit to the American Aviation Company (AAC) at Red Bird Airport trying to charter an aircraft for November 22, 1963. Smith subsequently interviewed Wayne January, the AAC employee they dealt with, and discovered the FBI had falsified the date. The FBI gives the date of their encounter as July, 1963, while it was actually November 20, only two days before the assassination. Smith also answers puzzling questions about Officer J.D. Tippitt’s role in the assassination conspiracy. Smith believes that an ex-CIA friend named Roscoe White asked Tippitt to transport Oswald to the Red Bird Airport to catch a charter flight to Cuba. When they rendezvoused, Tippitt became suspicious after hearing Oswald’s description broadcast over the police radio. When he got out to question him, a man matching White’s description rushed out of the bushes and shot Tippitt. Following Tippitt’s murder, the plan to spirit Oswald off to Cuba had to be abandoned. The Main-Tier Plot Smith organizes his book into two halves. Book One is called “The Main-Tier Plot,” involving the assemblage of a group of snipers to ambush President Kennedy as his motorcade traveled through Dallas. Book Two is devoted to “The Second Plot,” a scheme to enable the true shooters and co-conspirators to escape prosecution by shifting the blame to a kooky leftist Castro-sympathizer. Smith’s expose of the main-tier plot begins with official Warren Commission (WC) version of the assassination. He devotes an chapter to irregularities in gathering and recording WC testimony that would never be allowed in a court of law. Many of the witnesses reported seeing more than one gunmen and complained bitterly about their evidence being omitted or misreported. Smith is particularly critical of the WC for failing to investigate Officer Tippit’s background or obtain ballistic evidence linking Oswald’s handgun to his murder. Smith also summarizes the detailed physical evidence pointing to the presence of three or four shooters in Dealey Plaza. He goes on to discuss the intelligence connections of a handful of suspects arrested in the Dal Tex building and elsewhere in Dealey Plaza. All were released after President Lyndon Johnson ordered the Dallas police to discontinue their investigation. Smith devotes an entire chapter to the photographic evidence, including the amateur film made by businessman Abraham Zapruder, which was altered to make the fatal shot appear to come came from the Book Depository behind the motorcade. Finally he discusses the acoustic recordings which led the House Assassinations Committee to make the determination that more than one shooter was involved in Kennedy’s murder. The Second Plot The second half of the book offers an in-depth portrait of Oswald’s early history and personality. It details his posting to the Atsugi Marine Air Base in Japan, where he held a “secret” level security clearance, and assisted in monitoring overflights of the Top Secret U2 Spy plane. Smith goes on to describe Oswald’s activities in the Soviet Union in exhaustive detail, as well as the assignments he was given on his return to the US. In one of his first jobs, he processed photos of a Soviet military facility, which again required a security clearance. Other assignments involved infiltrating leftist and pro-Castro groups as an informant. The fabrication of Oswald’s unstable loner persona was facilitated by an Oswald double, a second agent who created major public disturbances while posing as Oswald. Smith believes that at the time of his arrest, Oswald had been given a new assignment – to attempt to return to the Soviet Union via Cuba. Strong evidence suggests there were plans to airlift him to Cuba the afternoon of November 22, 1963. The plans were suddenly disrupted when Officer J.D. Tippitt was shot and killed. Tippitt’s murder forced the plan to spirit Oswald away to Cuba to be abandoned. His subsequent arrest necessitated his murder by Jack Ruby, another minor co-conspirator. Allowing Oswald’s intelligence connections to come out at trial would have seriously endangered high level officials in the Kennedy administration who participated in the conspiracy. The Conspirators Had Names The book’s final chapter “The Conspirators Had Names” is disappointing because it offers no firm conclusions about the real culprits in the JFK assassination. Although Smith refers to New Orleans District Attorney’s Jim Garrison’s unsuccessful prosecution of one of the co-conspirators, he makes no mention whatsoever of the Swiss corporation Pemindex that financed the assassination. It was Clay Shaw’s membership in Permindex that formed the basis of Garrison’s case against him. Nor does it mention the shadowy Defense Industrial Security Command and the 50 or so intelligence and defense contractors with clearly established links to both the DISC and the assassination. The evidence linking Permindex and DISC to the JFK assassination is outlined most clearly in a 1970 book by William Torbitt called Nomenclature of an Assassination Cabal orTorbitt Document
We are living in time of great change and lots of information never seen before get uncovered. I would like to join this positive trend by showing some more or less unknown connections between many major assassinations. The implications of these connections are enormous. Just before the Bay of Pigs invasion, a super secret special team of skilled killers was put together under the name Operation 40. One of the leaders of the group was CIA’s David Atlee Philips, a key player in the plot against JFK. It is now clear that he, among other things, was the so-called controller / handler of none less than the patsy, Lee Harvey Oswald – as well as being the controller of one of the shooters, the man behind the fence on the Grassy Knoll – James Files! But he was also the handler of a young Michael Vernon Townley, later to become a notorious assassin involved in many extremely violent assignments, one of which according to my 30 years of research was the Olof Palme assassination. For more information, please read my book “Coup d’etat in Slowmotion”, which can be purchased from my websitewww.lightonconspiracies.com. This cold-blooded killer was active very early in life. In the late 1960s, David Atlee Philips (backed by Henry Kissinger) sent Michael Townley to Chile with many covert tasks, one of them organizing covert groups to take part of the overthrow of president Salvador Allende. Two of the group members were the killers Roberto Thieme and Julio Izquierdo Menéndez (both on location with Townley at the time of the Olof Palme-hit in February, 1986). Operation 40 and Its Evil Spider WebOperation 40 was a Central Intelligence Agency sponsored undercover operation started in the early 1960s, which was to become active in the United States and the Caribbean (including Cuba), Central America, and Mexico as well as Europe and South Africa. Allen W. Dulles, the director of the CIA, established Operation 40 after a confidential memorandum from Colonel J. C. King, chief of CIA’s Western Hemisphere Division. It obtained its name because originally there were 40 agents involved, mainly Cuban exiles. It was approved by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and was presided over by Vice-President Richard Nixon.
George Herbert Walker Bush was asked to cooperate in funding the group. The man assigned to him for his new mission was Féliz Rodríguez. This included finding private funding as a result of pressure from American corporations which had suffered at the hands of Fidel Castro. One member, Frank Sturgis, allegedly told author Mike Canfield: “This assassination group would upon orders, naturally, assassinate either members of the military or the political parties of the foreign country that you were going to infiltrate, and if necessary, some of your own members who were suspected of being foreign agents…” The members of Operation 40 have kept themselves very busy and are involved in the murders of John Lennon, Che Guevara, President Salvador Allende, Nobel Prize winning poet Pablo Neruda, Orlando Letelier, General Carlos Prats, South African Robert Smit, the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed seventy-three people, the Watergate burglary, the Iran-Contras scandal, and even 9/11 and onwards. Even attempts to kill the French President Charles De Gaulle and the murder ofItalian Enrico Mattei have been mentioned. Not to forget several hundred people that have died in mysterious ways in connection with the JFK-murder. Who killed them?Let’s take a closer look at this highly sinister group, which has left a long trail of blood stains through modern history. And please keep in mind who was / is in charge, because that will supply some important clues to guilty parties in other top assassinations and so called “terror-acts”. We will find that many of them are still around. David Atlee Philips, a.k.a. “Howard Benson”: The head of Operation 40. Central in countless covert operations, including the hit on JFK. He rose to become the CIA’s chief of all operations in the Western hemisphere. Theodore “Blond Ghost” Shackley: Station chief of CIA’s Miami Station, a three-time recipient of the Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the CIA’s highest honor. In nearly three decades of service, he was on “the front lines”. According to conspiracy expert, Trowbridge H. Ford, Ted Shackley was also head of a team who killed Uwe Barschel. In addition, he is pointed out as taking part in planning the murder of John Lennon, carried out by his collegue, Jose Perdomo. E. Howard Hunt: A front-line CIA supervisor of the Kennedy assassination and many, many other covert operations, including the Watergate burglary. David “El Indio” Sanchez Morales: Deeply involved in the CIA covert operation that overthrew President Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán of Guatemala. Acquired a reputation as CIA’s top assassin in Latin America. Through the 1960s and mid-1970s, Morales was involved at top levels in projects plots to assassinate Fidel Castro, the Bay of Pigs Invasion operation, the JFK assassination, the CIA’s secret war in Laos, the capture of Che Guevara and his real killer, and the overthrow of Salvador Allende. “Stories about him permeated the Agency”, remembered CIA agent Tom Clines. “If the U.S. government as a matter of policy needed someone or something neutralized, Dave would do it, including things that were repugnant to a lot of people.” In November 2006, BBC’s Newsnight presented a report by filmmaker Shane O’Sullivan, alleging that three senior CIA operatives were present at the Ambassador Hotel on the night Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated: JMWAVE Chief of Operations David Morales, Chief of Maritime OperationsGordon Campbell, and Chief of Psychological Warfare Operations, George Joannides. The program featured an interview with Morales’s former attorney, Robert Walton, who quoted Morales as having said, “I was in Dallas when we got the son of a bitch and I was in Los Angeles when we got the little bastard”.
Frank Fiorini, a.k.a. “Frank Sturgis”: CIA-operative, mercenary. Heavily involved in planned attacks on Fidel Castro, the Bay of Pigs invasion, the JFK assassination and later, a member of the team that broke into the Watergate complex in 1972. Orlando “Dr. Death” Bosch: Founder of the counterrevolutionary Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations that organized the 1976 murder of Chilean former minister, Orlando Letelier, with a car bomb in Washington D.C. Boschwas also present in Dallas at the JFK assassination as well as guilty of hundreds of bombs and terror acts against Spain, England, Japan, Mexico, Poland, and other countries that traded with Cuba. Barry Seal: Was recruited at the age of 17 along with Lee Oswald, by CIA agent, David Ferrie. According to his wife, Deborah, “Barry Seal flew a getaway plane out of Dallas after JFK was killed”. Barry Seal was a very successful cocaine smuggler and helped facilitate the exchange of drugs for arms in support of the Contras in Nicaragua. He also helped launder that drug money in some of the Arkansas banks tied to the Bill Clinton family. Seal was later willing to testify against George H. W. Bush in the matter and was shot dead in his car on 19 February 1986, just a few days before Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme was taken out. Luis “El Bambi“ Posada Carriles: Cuban-born anticommunist extremist. CIA agent involved in the Bay of Pigs invasion and many other covert operations. Was present in Dallas on 22 November 1963. Convicted in absentia in Panama of various terrorist attacks and plots in the Americas, including the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed seventy-three people. Admitted involvement in a string of bombings in 1997 that targeted fashionable Cuban hotels and nightspots. Bradley Ayers, former US Army Captain assigned to JM/WAVE, identifing David Morales at the Ambassador Tosh Plumlee: Piloted and co-piloted clandestine CIA flights for over 31 years. Picked up Johnny Roselli from Tampa, Florida, early on 22nd November, 1963. After picking up three more men in New Orleans, Plumlee took them to Redbird Airport in Dallas. In an interview in April, 1992, Plumlee claimed that he was told that the objective was “to abort the assassination” of John F. Kennedy. Herminio Diez Garcia: Worked as a bodyguard for mafia boss, Santos Trafficante. Killed “Pipi” Hernandez in 1948 at the Cuban Consulate in Mexico. In 1957 he was involved with an assassination attempt against President José Figures of Costa Rica. Diez Garcia was also part in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro. Diaz Garcia moved to the United States in July, 1963, where he worked forTony Varona, another infamous member of Operation 40. Believed to be one of the shooters/spotters on the 6th floor in the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. Virgilio Paz Romero: Member of the Cuban Nationalist Movement, sentenced to 12 years in prison on 12 September 1991, for the assassination of Orlando Letelier in Washington, D.C. Dionisio Suarez, James Files(!), Guillermo and Ignacio Novo, and Alvin Ross Diaz were also implicated by CIA and DINA operative, Michael Townley. Both George H.W. Bush and Henry Kissinger have later been directly connected to this hideous act of terror. Paz was also pointed out as being part of the Robert Smitmurder in South Africa and the assassinations of General Carlos Prats in Chile,Minister of Defense Oscar Bonilio and the Italian hit on Bernardo Leighton and his wife.
Eladio “Lado” Ceferino del Valle: Allegedly involved in the JFK assassination as a shooter on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository, together with Herminio Diez Garcia and Richard Cain from the Chicago mafia. He was violently murdered on the same day as David Ferrie. Guillermo “Mister Bill” Novo Sampol: Has taken part in countless violent acts of terror, together with his brother, Ignacio. In 1964, they fired a bazooka at the United Nations building as Ernesto “Che” Guevara prepared to address the General Assembly. Sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the murder of Orlando Letelier. However, his conviction was later overturned. Both brothers were in Dallas on November 22, 1963. William Seymour: Experienced soldier, took part in training exiled Cubans for attacks on Cuba. Member of Interpen. Accused by some researchers of having been part of the JFK assassination and is regarded as the man who on several occasions impersonated Lee Harvey Oswald. Bernard L. Barker: Heavily involved in the Bay of Pigs invasion. Deputy Seymour Weitzman identified Bernard Barker as the fake Secret Service Agent behind the fence just seconds after JFK was shot. Later worked for the FBI. Was one of the Watergate burglars. Antonio Veciana: Cuban exile, founder of CIA-backed Alpha 66. Had close connections with David Atlee Philips. Named in E. Howard Hunt’s deathbed confession as one of the key participants in the planning of the JFK assassination. Tom Clines: Joined Ted Shackley, David Atlee Phillips, and David Sanchez Morales at JM/ WAVE, the CIA’s operational headquarters in Miami for Operation Mongoose. During the Vietnam War, Clines worked as Ted Shackley’s deputy in charge of the CIA’s secret war in Laos. In 1972, Clines was put in charge of CIA operations in Chile, and helped overthrow President Salvador Allende. Later, a key person in the Iran-Contras scandal. In 1977 he stood accused of shipping 42,000 pounds of the plastic explosive C-4 directly to Libyan dictator, Moammar Qadaffy.
Eugenio “Muscolito” Martinez: One of the convicted Watergate burglars. Jorge Mas Canosa: Dedicated to overthrow Castro, first in armed plots and then in the halls of Congress. Became a familiar presence on Capitol Hill and for years Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton sought his advice on Cuban affairs to such an extent that many critics considered him the principal architect of a very rigid American policy. Virgilio “Villo” Gonzalez: One of the Watergate burglars. Rafael “Chi Chi” Quintero: In an article published in Granma 2006, Rafael Quintero stated: “If I was to tell what I know about Dallas and the Bay of Pigs, it would be the greatest scandal that has ever rocked the nation.” José Dionisio “Bloodbath” Suárez Esquivel: Convicted for the murder ofChilean Marxist leader Orlando Letelier. Michael Townley placed the bomb underneath the car. Suárez Esquivel and his accomplice, Virgilio Paz, detonated it. Manuel Artime Buesa: A political leader of Brigade 2506 land forces in the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961. Later, organized the Miami Watergate Defense Relief Fund for the Watergate burglars. Jose Miguel “El Padrino” Battle: A former policeman in Batista’s Cuba. Assisted the CIA in training Cuban exiles. Took part in the Bay of Pigs Invasion. Built up a massive crime syndicate and was listed with a net worth of $175 million. Felipe Vidal Santiago: aka “Charles Morgan”, directly involved in the JFK assassination as the man standing waving in front of the so-called Umbrella Man, mercenary Roy Hargraves, who marked the exact point for the crossfire. Years later he appeared in Stockholm, in 1985-86, searching for potential killers for the hit on the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, murdered shortly afterwards! Nestor “Tony” Izquierdo: Member of Brigade 2506. Worked with David Morales in many raids. MercenaryGerry Hemming claimed that “Tony” was the spotter in the DalTex-building, in Dallas, 1963. Jim Fetzer with Fred Smart, “JFK Part II: A National Security Event – How it was done” (18 November 2012)[NOTE: I now believe Mac was in the TSBD, Lawrence at the south end of the TUP and Sturgis at the north.] Bombs, Bosch and Bush
In October, 1968, Orlando Bosch was arrested and Anastasio Somoza Guillermo Novo sentenced to ten years in prison. At the same time, the city of Miami celebrated the “anti-Castro hero” with a special Orlando Bosch Day. Bosch was encouraged and as soon as he was released, the terror continued.
During the period 1974 to 1995, Bosch participated in or planned the following international terrorist actions with the blessing of the Chilean fascists and dictator Anastasio Somoza of neighbouring Nicaragua.
In 1976, Orlande Bosch was arrested by the police in Costa Rica accused of planning the murder of exile Chilean leader Andres Pascal Allende and also for participating in the blowing-up of the Cuban passenger plane. In spite of this he went on indefatigably leading the wave of terror from his cell. During this period the following outrages occurred:
by Robert Morrow (with Jim Fetzer)On the night of New Year’s Eve, 31 December 1963, at the Driskell Hotel in Austin, TX, Lyndon Johnson and Madeleine Brown, a longtime mistress and the mother of his only son, Steven, had an interesting conversation. Madeleine asked LBJ if he had anything to do with the JFK assassination. Johnson got angry; he began pacing around and waving his arms. Then LBJ told her: it had been Dallas, TX, oil executives and “renegade” intelligence agents who were behind the JFK assassination. LBJ later also told his chief of staff Marvin Watson that the CIA was involved in the murder of John Kennedy. Lyndon Johnson would often stay at the Driskill (in what is Room #254 today) and LBJ is confirmed by his presidential schedule as being present at the Driskill Hotel the night of 31 December 1963. Later, Evelyn Lincoln (JFK’s personal secretary for 12 years) would observe,
Johnson’s omissionHistory is proving that Lyndon Johnson himself played a key role in the JFK assassination. An important book is LBJ: The Mastermind of the JFK Assassination (2011) by Phillip Nelson. Roger Stone, an aide to Richard Nixon, is writing a book pinning the JFK assassination on LBJ. Stone quotes Nixon as saying “Both Johnson and I wanted to be president, but the only difference was I wouldn’t kill for it.” By 1973 Barry Goldwater was privately telling people that he was convinced that LBJ was behind the JFK assassination. Lyndon Johnson and the Kennedys hated each other. So why was LBJ even put on the 1960 Demo ticket in first place? The old wive’s tale is that it was to balance the ticket and win the electoral votes of Texas. The reality is that JFK was set to pick Sen. Stuart Symington of Missouri and already had a deal with Symington to be VP that was “signed, sealed and delivered” according to Symington’s campaign manager Clark Clifford. Then something strange happened on the night of 13 July 1960, in Los Angeles. According to Evelyn Lincoln, JFK’s longtime secretary, LBJ and Sam Rayburn used some of Hoover’s blackmail information on John Kennedy to force JFK to put Johnson on the ticket in a hostile takeover of the vice presidency. JFK told his friend Hy Raskin, “They threatened me with problems and I don’t need more problems. I’m going to have enough problems with Nixon.” LBJ and J. Edgar were very close and literally neighbors for 19 years in Washington, DC, from 1943-1961. Both men were also plugged in socially and professionally to Texas oil executives such as Clint Murchison, Sr, H.L. Hunt and D.H. Byrd, who happened to own the Texas School Book Depository. The war between JFK and LBJFrom that point on, for the next 3 and 1/3 years the Kennedy brothers and LBJ were engaged in a sub rosawar, even though they were ostensibly a political team. On the day of the ’61 inauguration, LBJ protege Bobby Baker told Don Reynolds that JFK would never live out his term and that he would die a violent death. For his part, Robert Kennedy spent the remainder of JFK’s term trying to figure out a way to get rid of the power-grasping LBJ. The first opportunity to do this was the Billie Sol Estes scandal of 1961. Estes was a cut out for LBJ doing business and had received $500,000 from LBJ (which tells us how important Estes was). LBJ and his aide Cliff Carter manipulated the federal bureaucracy for Estes to ensure that he got exclusive grain storage contracts and numerous other special and highly lucrative favors. Estes says that he funneled Johnson over $10 million in kickbacks. Henry Marshall was a US agricultural official who was investigating the corruption of Estes, particularly his abuse of a cotton allotment program. In January, 1961, LBJ, Cliff Carter, Estes and LBJ’s personal hit man,Malcolm “Mac” Wallace, had a meeting about what to do about Henry Marshall. LBJ said, “It looks like we will just have to get rid of him.” Henry Marshall was murdered on 3 June 1961. He was shot to death 5 times with a bolt action gun and his death was astoundingly ruled a suicide at the time. The Marshall murder and cover up shows the depth, breadth and absolute ruthlessness of the LBJ organization. Billie Sol Estes died recently on 14 May 2013. By 1963, they were alienatedThe first person I know who accused Lyndon Johnson of committing a murder was Gov. Allan Shivers who in 1956 personally accused LBJ of having Sam Smithwick murdered in prison in 1952. Smithwick was threatening to go public with information about the Box 13 ballot stuffing scandal of 1948 which gave LBJ the margin of victory over Coke Stevenson in the Democratic primary. While historian Douglas Brinkley has said that by 1963, JFK and his vice president LBJ had no relationship at all, that is not correct; in fact a sub rosawar was being waged between the Kennedys and LBJ. It was an adversarial, death struggle relationship. In the fall of 1963, the Bobby Baker scandal exploded into the national media. Bobby Baker, the Secretary of the Senate and a virtual son to Lyndon Johnson, was being investigated for a vending machine kick back scam and numerous shady deals. Baker was known for providing booze and women to the senators. LBJ denied any relationship with Baker (who had named two of his kids after LBJ), while at the same time sending his personal lawyer Abe Fortas to run (control) Baker’s defense. Evelyn Lincoln would later tell author Anthony Summers that the Kennedys were going to use the Bobby Baker scandal as the ammunition to get rid of LBJ. RFK actually had a two-track program to get rid of LBJ. Phil Brennan was in DC at the time: “Bobby Kennedy called five of Washington’s top reporters into his office and told them it was now open season on Lyndon Johnson. It’s OK, he told them, to go after the story they were ignoring out of deference to the administration.” James Wagenvoord, who in 1963 was a 27-year old assistant to LIFE Magazine’s managing editor, has reported that, based on information fed from Robert Kennedy and the Justice Dept., LIFE Magazine had been developing a major newsbreak piece concerning Johnson and Bobby Baker. This expose was set to run within a week of the JFK assassination. LBJ’s aide, George Reedy, said that LBJ knew about the RFK-inspired media campaign against him and was obsessed with it. LBJ strikes firstRFK’s other “get rid of LBJ” program was an investigation by the Senate Rules Committee into LBJ’s kickbacks and other corruptions. Burkett Van Kirk was a counsel for that committee and he told Seymour Hersh that RFK had sent a lawyer to the committee to feed them damaging information about LBJ and his corrupt business dealings. The lawyer, Van Kirk said, “used to come up to the Senate and hang around me like a dark cloud. It took him about a week or ten days to, one, find out what I didn’t know, and two, give it to me.” The goal of the Kennedys was “To get rid of Johnson. To dump him. I am as sure of that the sun comes up in the east,” said Van Kirk to Hersh. Three days before the JFK assassination, JFK told Evelyn Lincoln that he was going to get a new running mate for 1964. “I was fascinated by this conversation and wrote it down verbatim in my diary. Now I asked, “Who is your choice as a running-mate.’ He looked straight ahead, and without hesitating he replied, ‘at this time I am thinking about Gov. Terry Sanford of North Carolina. But it will not be Lyndon.’” Literally, at the very moment JFK was being assassinated in Dallas on 22 November 1963, Don Reynolds was testifying in a closed session of the Senate Rules Committee about a suitcase of $100,000 given to LBJ for his role in securing a TFX fighter jet contract for Fort Worth’s General Dynamics. Those behind the sceneI should add that I think the CIA/military intelligence murdered John Kennedy for Cold War reasons, particularly over Cuba policy. The fact that the Kennedys were within days of politically executing and personally destroying Lyndon Johnson could very well have been the tripwire for the JFK assassination. The Russians immediately suspected that Texas oilmen were involved in the JFK assassination. They and Fidel Castro both feared they were going to be framed for it by US intelligence. By 1965 the KGB had internally determined that Lyndon Johnson was behind the JFK assassination. Hoover wrote to LBJ about this in a memo that was not declassified by the US government until 1996: “On September 16, 1965, this same source [an FBI spy in the KGB] reported that the KGB Residency in New York City received instructions approximately September 16, 1965, from KGB headquarters in Moscow to develop all possible information concerning President Lyndon B. Johnson’s character, background, personal friends, family, and from which quarters he derives his support in his position as President of the United States. Our source added that in the instructions from Moscow, it was indicated that “now” the KGB was in possession of data purporting to indicate President Johnson was responsible for the assassination of the late President John F. Kennedy. KGB headquarters indicated that in view of this information, it was necessary for the Soviet Government to know the existing personal relationship between President Johnson and the Kennedy family, particularly between President Johnson and Robert and “Ted” Kennedy.” |
Gordon Campbell at The Ambassador(?) |  Fifty years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, JFK In His Time and Ours. Although Kennedy was in office for barely more than a thousand days, his presidency and his presence on the world stage had a huge historical impact. Much of that was captured in photographs of the time, following the handsome son of a wealthy businessman from childhood to the most powerful office in the world, until it all ended in tragedy in Dallas. On July 15, 1960, Senator John F. Kennedy tells Democratic convention delegates and some 65,000 others in the Los Angeles Coliseum that he will be the party's candidate for President in the 1960 campaign. (AP Photo/Dick Strobel) In this January 5, 1938 file photo, Joseph P. Kennedy, left, U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, stands with his 20 year old son, John F. Kennedy, in New York. Kennedy was the second son, and one of nine children, of business tycoon Joseph P. Kennedy. When first son Joseph Jr. was killed during World War II, John became the designated heir. (AP Photo) # Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1952, here, Senator John F. Kennedy, accompanied by Dick Mayer, 15, and Melissa Tyler, 14, of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts inspects tornado damage in Shrewsbury, on June 10, 1953. At least 86 were left dead in the area by the tornado, 800 injured and 2,500 made homeless. (AP Photo) # Senator John F. Kennedy greets President Dwight D. Eisenhower on his arrival for festivities at the National Corn Picking Contest near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on October 17, 1958. (AP Photo) # Sen. John F. Kennedy is mobbed by well wishers carrying Kennedy banners on his arrival at Los Angeles International Airport, on July 9, 1960 to personally lead his drive for the Democratic presidential nomination. (AP Photo) # Democratic Presidential nominee Sen. John F. Kennedy, in backseat of Pontiac convertible, talks with farmer James Cox during his campaign visit to the farm in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on September 22, 1960. (AP Photo) # Helmet askew, rifle definitely not at the ready, man in military uniform is jammed against fender of car bearing the Democrats' presidential nominee, on October 25, 1960 in Elgin, Illinois. (AP Photo) # Sen. John F. Kennedy stands on the hood of a truck to acknowledge the cheers of thousands who greeted him in a garment workers rally in downtown Los Angeles, on November 1, 1960. (AP Photo) # A November 1960 photo of John F. Kennedy and his wife Jacqueline Kennedy. (AP Photo) # Republican Vice President Richard M. Nixon, left, debates Sen. John F. Kennedy, the Democratic presidential nominee, during a live broadcast from a New York television studio of their fourth presidential debate on October 21, 1960. (AP Photo) # Jacqueline Kennedy, left center, sits in her living room with a group of Democrats watching her husband on television, debating domestic affairs with Vice President Richard Nixon, at her Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, home, on September 26, 1960.(AP Photo/Bill Chaplis) # Senator John F. Kennedy, (lower right), grins happily as backers cheer the Democratic presidential candidate in Minneapolis, on October 1st. Kennedy was leaving his hotel for a rally and was surrounded by a large crowd of partisans on October 2, 1960. They waved banner threw confetti and yelled heartily. Between 18,000 and 20,000 attended the rally and thousands more were turned away. (AP Photo) # After winning the election in 1960, President John F. Kennedy, delivers his Inaugural Address in Washington, D.C. on January 20, 1961. (CWO Donald Mingfield/U. S. Army Signal Corps photograph in the John Fitzgerald Kennedy Library, Boston) # Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy has a chuck under the chin for her husband moments after he became president, on January 20, 1961. This exclusive picture by AP photographer Henry Burroughs was taken in the rotunda of the Capitol just after President John F. Kennedy left the inaugural stand. (AP Photo/Henry Burroughs) # President John F. Kennedy addresses Congress in Joint Session for his first state of The Union Address in Washington, on January 31, 1961. (AP Photo/Harvey Georges) # President Kennedy and Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy follow the takeoff and space flight of Astronaut Alan Shepard on television. Others, watching from the White House office of the Chief Executive's secretary in Washington, on May 5, 1961, are, from left: Attorney General Robert Kennedy; McGeorge Bundy, presidential assistant; Vice President Lyndon Johnson; Arthur Schlesinger Jr., another presidential assistant, and Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Arleigh Burke. (AP Photo) # President Kennedy smiles as he delivers a joking remark to the 6,000 attending the $100-a-plate Democratic dinner on May 27, 1961 in Washington?s National Guard Armory, to help him celebrate his 44th birthday. The cake in foreground weights 1.5 tons and is topped by a replica of the White House. (AP Photo/Henry Griffin) # President Kennedy speaks to reporters at a nationally televised news conference in the State Department auditorium, on March 23, 1961. The Chief Executive at the opening of the conference discussed the Laos situation and used three different maps, picturing how pro-communist rebels have gained ground in the last seven months in Laos. The map at left was used by Kennedy to Show communist rebel areas as of March 22 which, he said, are indicated by the dark and shaded portions. (AP Photo) # Three-year-old Caroline Kennedy pushes past her father as he leaves the elevator at the White House ground floor, on March 16, 1961, to begin a typical busy day at 9:42 A.M. President Kennedy has a strip of tape across a cut above his left eye, suffered when his head struck a table as he was bending over to pick up something for Caroline. (AP Photo/Henry Burroughs) # President Kennedy sits at his White House office desk, on June 6, 1961 as he reports to the nation by television and radio networks, on his talks with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in Vienna and President Charles de Gaulle of France in Paris.(AP Photo) # President John Kennedy, right, and his wife, Jacqueline, wearing bathing suit, stand on a pier after spending the afternoon boating on Nantucket Sound at Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, on August 5, 1961. The President and U.N. Ambassador Adlai E. Stevenson conferred aboard his yacht during the cruise. (AP Photo/RHS) # President John F. Kennedy heads for Washington after an overnight stopover on December 18, 1961 in West Palm Beach, Florida where he rested after his Latin American tour due to a heavy cold. (AP Photo) # Astronaut John Glenn and President John Kennedy inspect the Friendship 7, the Mercury capsule which Glenn rode in orbit. Kennedy presented the Distinguished Service Medal to Glenn on February 23, 1962 at Cape Canaveral, Florida. (AP Photo) # President Kennedy starts a windup for the pitch to open the American League baseball season, on April 8, 1962, in Washington.(AP Photo) # U.S. President John F. Kennedy and Mexican President Adolfo Lopez Mateos are showered with tons of confetti and paper, on June 29, 1962, as they travel down one of Mexico City's boulevards shortly after Kennedy's arrival for a three-day visit. (AP Photo) # President Kennedy claps to keep time as his children Caroline and John, Jr. dance in the Oval Office, in October of 1962.(Cecil Stoughton/AP Photo/White House) # President Kennedy confers with his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, at the White House in Washington, D.C., on October 1, 1962 during the buildup of military tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union that became Cuban missile crisis later that month. (AP Photo) # President Kennedy is surrounded by photographers as he sits at his desk in the White House, on October 23, 1962, shortly after signing a presidential proclamation concerning the Cuba Missile crisis. (AP Photo) # A cheering crowd, estimated by police at more than a quarter of a million, fills the area beneath the podium at West Berlin's City Hall, where U.S. President John F. Kennedy stood. His address to the City Hall crowd was one of the highlights of his June 26, 1963 visit to West Berlin, where he received one of the greatest receptions of his career. (AP Photo) # President Kennedy greets a 16-year-old Bill Clinton in the Rose garden of the White House at an American Legion Boys Nation event, on July 24, 1963. (Arnie Sachs/CNP/Corbis) # In this photo provided by the White House, President Kennedy, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and their children, Caroline and John Jr., with the family dogs at their Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, home, on August 14, 1963.(AP Photo/White House/Cecil Stoughton) # President Kennedy takes his daughter Caroline out for a spin in the Honey Fitz, off Hyannis Port in August of 1963.(Robert Knudsen/White House/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library) # The Kennedy brothers, from left, Robert, Edward and President John F. Kennedy, pose together in August of 1963, in Washington D.C. (AP Photo) # Aboard the USS Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., named after the brother killed in World War II, President and Mrs. Kennedy watch the first race of the 1962 America's Cup competition off Newport, Rhode Island.(Robert Knudsen/White House/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library) # This photo provided by John McInnis Auctioneers in Amesbury, Massachusetts, shows late President John F. Kennedy, right, with his wife, Jacqueline, center, and sister-in-law Ethyl Kennedy at left. The photograph is among items that were auctioned on February 17, 2013. (AP Photo/John McInnis Auctioneers) # President John F. Kennedy, wearing a windbreaker, watches through binoculars as a Polaris missile clears the surface after firing from a submerged nuclear sub off Cape Canaveral, Florida, on November 16, 1963. (AP Photo) # On November 21, 1963, President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy shake hands with well-wishers who lined the ramp at Houston International Airport to welcome them to the Texas city. (AP Photo) # In this November 22, 1963 photo, President Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline Kennedy, arrive at Love Field airport in Dallas, Texas.(AP Photo/File) # President John F. Kennedy's motorcade in Dallas, November 22, 1963. (PRNewsFoto/Newseum) # Seconds after shots rang out, the limousine carrying the mortally wounded President John F. Kennedy races toward the hospital in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. Secret Service agent Clinton Hill is riding on the back of the car, Nellie Connally, wife of Texas Gov. John Connally, bends over her wounded husband, and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy leans over the president.(AP Photo/Justin Newman) # Women burst into tears outside Parkland Hospital upon hearing that President John F. Kennedy died from a gunshot wound while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, on November 22, 1963. (AP Photo) # Lyndon B. Johnson is sworn in as President by Federal District Judge Sarah T. Hughes aboard the Presidential plane, as wife Lady Bird, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and others look on. (UPI Photo/Library of Congress) # People waiting for flights from Dallas at Love Field read the news of President John F. Kennedy's assassination in the Dallas Times Herald newspaper, on November 23, 1963. (AP Photo/File) # Kennedy's casket lying in state in the East Room of the White house, before it was moved to the Capitol Rotunda.(Abbie Rowe/White House/President John F. Kennedy Library) # With the illuminated U.S. Capitol in the background, mourners form an endless line which lasted through the night, to pay their respects to the slain President John F. Kennedy, in Washington, D.C., on November 24, 1963. (AP Photo) # Widow Jacqueline Kennedy kneels and reaches out to touch the casket of her slain husband, John F. Kennedy, in the rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on November 24, 1963. Their daughter Caroline kneels beside her. (AP Photo) # World leaders follow members of the Kennedy family in the funeral procession for the murdered president.(Robert Knudsen/White House/John F. Kennedy Presidential Library) # The First Family watches John F. Kennedy's funeral procession in Washington on November 25, 1963, three days after the president was assassinated in Dallas. Widow Jacqueline Kennedy, center, daughter Caroline Kennedy, left, and son John Jr., are accompanied by the late president's brothers Sen. Edward Kennedy, left, and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. (AP Photo) # An Irish cadet honor guard, with arms outstretched, stand in formation as the U.S. flag is lifted from the coffin of President John F. Kennedy during his funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on November 25, 1963. The cadets, 18- and 19-year-old soldiers, had been whisked from their remote barracks in County Kildare the day before and were flown to the U.S. to perform a special ceremonial drill at the funeral of the slain president. He had been captivated by the drill when he saw it performed in Dublin months earlier. (AP Photo) # People visit the eternal flame at the grave site of former President John F. Kennedy burns at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on October 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh) |
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