we were robbed of our capability of electing a president we wanted


     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,

           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.


     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:

           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 8,000 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.

                    -- phone interview with the author, June 3, 1992





        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 25,000.
        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.

                 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.






     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).



--
                                             daveus rattus   

                                   yer friendly neighborhood ratman

                               KOYAANISQATSI

   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
Message-ID: <1992Jun5.142954.8850@odin.corp.sgi.com>
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                        THE TAKING OF AMERICA, 1-2-3

                           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.


                          Richard E. Sprague 1976
                         Limited First Edition 1976
                        Revised Second Edition 1979
			 Updated Third Edition 1985




                About the Author

                Publisher's Word

                Introduction

        1.      The Overview and the 1976 Election

        2.      The Power Control Group

        3.      You Can Fool the People

        4.      How It All Began--The U-2 and the Bay of Pigs

        5.      The Assassination of John Kennedy

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

        7.      The Control of the Kennedys--Threats & Chappaquiddick

        8.      1972--Muskie, Wallace and McGovern

        9.      Control of the Media--1967 to 1976

       10.      Techniques and Weapons and 100 Dead Conspirators
                and Witnesses

       11.      Nixon and Ford - The Pardon and the Tapes

       12.      The Second Line of Defense and Cover-Ups in 1975-1976

       13.      The 1976 Election and Conspiracy Fever

       14.      Congress and the People

       15.      The Select Committee on Assassinations, The Intelligence
                Community and The News Media

       16.      1984 Here We Come--

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

                Appendix






                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                              About the Author


         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 & 
      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.






                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *






                                Introduction

         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.


                                               Richard E. Sprague


                                               Hartsdale, New York
                                               July 4, 1976






                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                              Publisher's Word

         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.

                                                      Rush Harp
                                                   Barbara Black






                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                         THE TAKING OF AMERICA, 1-2-3


                                  Chapter 1
                   The Overview and the the 1976 Election

         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:


          1.  Assassinated John F. Kennedy;

          2.  Controlled Lyndon B. Johnson as president;

          3.  Forced LBJ out of the presidency;

          4.  Assassinated Robert F. Kennedy, assuring Nixon's
              election in 1968;

          5.  Assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King;

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

          7.  Stopped George Wallace's campaign, assuring Nixon's
              election in 1972;

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

          9.  Covered up all of the above;

         10.  Controlled the 15 major news media organizations;

         11.  Made Gerald Ford vice president and then president;

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

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

         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;

         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);

         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.

         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."






                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                                  Chapter 2
                           The Power Control Group

         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.



____________________

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






                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                                  Chapter 3
                           You Can Fool the People

         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.


                         You Can Fool the People

             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

         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.



         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.

         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:

           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

         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.

         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."

           The sixteen media organizations are:

            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


         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.

         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.

         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.

         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.

         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:

      Kent State:

         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.

      Mylai:

         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.

      Communism:

         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.

      Pentagon Papers:

         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.

      Assassinations:

         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.)

      Watergate:

         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.

      Democracy and Freedom:

         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.



____________________

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

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

     "The June 1972 Raid on Democratic Party Headquarters -- Part 1" --
     R.E. Sprague, "Computers & Automation," August 1972

     "The Raid on Democratic Party Headquarters -- The Watergate
     Incident -- Part 2", Ibid.









--
                                             daveus rattus   

                                   yer friendly neighborhood ratman

                               KOYAANISQATSI

   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.
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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
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                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                                  Chapter 4
               How It All Began - The U-2 and the Bay of Pigs

         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:


                     Nixon's Statements in "Six Crises"

         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 & 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]


                               E. Howard Hunt

         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]


                         Kennedy-Nixon Debates, 1960

         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.


                         Attack on Kennedy by Lying

         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.


                         Protection of Hunt and Co.

         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.



____________________

 [1] "Six Crises," Richard M. Nixon, Doubleday, 1962.

 [2] "The Invisible Government,"  Wise & Ross, Random House, 1964.

 [3] Ibid.

 [4] Brother of Earl Cabell, mayor of Dallas when Kennedy was assassinated.

 [5] Ibid.

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

 [7] "Time" magazine, September 8, 1972.

 [8] This episode is related in detail in "The Invisible Government."

 [9] "Six Crises".

[10] "The Invisible Government."

[11] "400,000 Dollars Pour Abattre Kennedy a Paris," Camille Giles, Julliard
     Press, Paris 1973.







                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                                  Chapter 5
                      The Assassination of John Kennedy

         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.


                                How It Began

         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.


                                Oswald's Role

         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.


                                 Mexico City

         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.


                              Oswald, the Patsy

         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.


                              Financial Support

         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.


                           Plans for Three Cities

         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.


                                 CIA Support

         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.


                                   Dallas

         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.


                           Where the Teams Stayed

         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.


                               Framing Oswald

         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.


                          Dallas Policemen Involved

         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.


                  Other Persons Involved in Framing Oswald

         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.)


                                Dealey Plaza

         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.


                                  The Shots

         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.


                              Oswald's Actions

         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!


                                  Jack Ruby

         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.


                              Planted Evidence

         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 .


                                Escape Plans

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


          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.

          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.

          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.

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

          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.

          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.

          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.


                                Escape Routes

         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.


                              Tippit Shooting

         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.


                  Comments and Congressional Actions Needed

         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:


         (1)  The Senate;

         (2)  The House Special Committee on Intelligence;

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

         (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.


                              The Two Documents

      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.


                              Dramatis Personae

      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.



____________________

[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.

[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.

    Also "Postmortem," by Harold Weisberg, page 266, the missile receipt.

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







                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *
--
                                             daveus rattus   

                                   yer friendly neighborhood ratman

                               KOYAANISQATSI

   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.
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                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




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

         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]



____________________


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

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

    "The Assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr." -- R.E.
    Sprague -- "Computers & Automation," December 1970

    "The Assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. --  Parts I to
    II" -- Wayne Chastain -- "Computers & Automation," December 1974.

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

    "The Assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy" -- R.E. Sprague --
    "Computers & Automation" -- September 1972 and October 1970

    "RFK Must Die" -- Robert Blair Kaiser -- 1970

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

    "The Second Gun" --  Documentary Movie -- Ted Charach -- American
    Films -- Beverly Hills

    





                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                                  Chapter 7
           The Control of the Kennedys - Threats & Chappaquiddick

         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]



____________________

[1] "The fabulous Jackie" -- Christian Cafarakis -- Productions de Paris
    -- 1972

[2] "You the Jury" -- Robert Cutler -- Self Published -- 1974

[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.

[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.

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







                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                                  Chapter 8
                     1972 - Muskie, Wallace and McGovern

         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.



____________________

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

    References:

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

    "The Wallace Shooting" -- Alan Stang -- "American Opinion" --
    October, 1972.

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

    "Interview With Charles Colson" -- Dick Russell -- "Argosy" --
    March, 1976.







                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *

--
                                             daveus rattus   

                                   yer friendly neighborhood ratman

                               KOYAANISQATSI

   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.
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Date: Wed, 10 Jun 92 07:55:45 -0700
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
Message-Id: <9206101455.AA02416@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com>
To: PML3@PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU
Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (4/11)
Status: RO


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


   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




                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                                  Chapter 9
                            Control of the Media

         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 & FBI antics, the Jack Anderson
      papers, and IT&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 & Radio CBS-TV & Radio, ABC-TV & Radio,
      Associated Press, United Press, "Time-Life-Fortune-Sports
      Illustrated," McGraw Hill "Business Week," "Newsweek," "U.S.  News
      & 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.


                                  Time-Life

         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 $500,000.  The
      first negative action took place when "Life" and Zapruder began
      telling the lie that the price was $25,000 (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:

         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

      (See "Computers and Automation," May 1970)

         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.


                                     CBS

         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.


                            "The New York Times"

         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]


                                     NBC

         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.


                                    ABC

         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.


                         United Press International

         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.


                                     AP

         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.


                                 "Newsweek"

         "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.


                           "Saturday Evening Post"

         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 $200,000-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.


                          Capital City Broadcasting

         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.


                      North American Newspaper Alliance

         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.

From dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com Thu Jun 11 08:37:11 1992
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Date: Thu, 11 Jun 92 06:24:51 -0700
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
Message-Id: <9206111324.AA04892@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com>
To: PML3@PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU
Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (5/11)
Status: RO


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


                              Dallas Newspapers

         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 & 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.


                         Fort Worth "Star Telegram"

         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.


                               TV Station WFAA

         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.


                              WBAP -- Ft. Worth

         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.


                               KTTV -- Dallas

         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.


                           New Orleans Newspapers

         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]


                           WDSU-TV -- New Orleans

         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?


                                 Conclusions

         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."


                                    1976

         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.)


                            What is the Evidence?

         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.


                        Hard Evidence Never Mentioned

         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.


                 The Forces of Good vs. the Forces of Evil:

                          A Life and Death Struggle

         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.


                         "I've Seen No New Evidence"

         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]


                              Pure Coincidence?

         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]


                     CBS.  Cover-Up Broadcasting System

         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.


                             Too Perfect Timing

         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.


                       "Newsweek" Editorial Position:
                Schweiker, Hart and Gonzalez Misled by Kooks

         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.


                          Eliminate Areas of Doubt

         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."


        UPI:  Accessory After the Fact in the JFK Conspiracy Cover-Up

         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.


                              "Expert" Opinions

         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.)


                  AP:  Faithful to the White House and CIA

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


                             Keeping the Lid On

         "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.


                  Zapruder Film Broadcast on Two Occasions

         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.


                             "Conspiracy Fever"

         "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.


                            A Straight News Story

         "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.


                            A Breath of Fresh Air

         "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.


                  CIA Operatives Are Serving as Journalists
                        For News Organizations Abroad

         "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.


                                 Conclusions

         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.


                                 Postscript

         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").



____________________

 [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.  

 [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.

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

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

 [5] "Computers and Automation," July, 1971

 [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.'"

 [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.

 [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.

 [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."

[10] Prouty, L. Fletcher, "The Secret Team," Prentice Hall, 1973.

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

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

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

[14] Author's discussion with Jerry Policoff, November 29, 1975.

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

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

[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.

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

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

[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.

[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.

[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.

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

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

[25] Cohen, John, "Conspiracy Fever," "Commentary," October, 1975.

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

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

[28] Prouty, L. Fletcher, "The Fourth Force," "Gallery," November,
     1975.

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







                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *


--
                                             daveus rattus   

                                   yer friendly neighborhood ratman

                               KOYAANISQATSI

   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 Fri Jun 12 09:16:33 1992
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From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
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Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (6/11)
Status: RO


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


                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                                 Chapter 10
       Techniques and Weapons and 100 Dead Conspirators and Witnesses

         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:

                       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

         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).



____________________

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

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

 [3] "Miami Herald," March, 1976.

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

 [5] "The Umbrella Man," R.B. Cutler, & R.E. Sprague, "Gallery 
     Magazine," June, 1978.

 [6] "New York Times," September 19, 1975.

 [7] "RFK Must Die!," Robert Kaiser, E.P. Dutton & Co. Inc., N.Y.C.,
     1970.

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

     (b) Assassination Information Bureau (AIB), Cambridge, Mass,
          Research project and article.







                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                                 Chapter 11
                 Nixon and Ford -- The Pardon and the Tapes

         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:


         1.  Nixon was White House action officer on Cuban invasion
             plans in 1960.

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

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

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

         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.

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

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

         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.

         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.

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

        11.  Nixon proposed to Lyndon Johnson that Gerald Ford serve
             on the Warren Commission.

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

        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."

        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.

        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.

        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.

        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.

        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.

        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).

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

        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.

        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".

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

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

        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).

        26.  Hunt was taken care of and will keep silent.  He had
             been out of jail and living on a beautiful $100,000
             estate in Florida with plenty of money, across the
             street from his Bay of Pigs friend, Manuel Artime.

        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.

        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.

        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.

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

        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.

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

        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.



____________________

 [1] Evans & Novak column -- September 12. 1974.

 [2] "Paris Herald Tribune" -- September 12, 1974.

 [3] "Compulsive Spy," Tad Szulc, Viking Press, 1974.

 [4] "Nixon and the Mafia," Jeff Gerth, "Sundance," December, 1972.

 [5] "My Six Crises," Richard M. Nixon.

 [6] "Compulsive Spy."

 [7] "Nixon and the Mafia."

 [8] "Nixon, Bay of Pigs & Watergate," -- R.E. Sprague, "Computers and
     Automation," January, 1973.

 [9] "Nixon, Bay of Pigs & Watergate."

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

[11] Warren Commission Hearings & Exhibits -- Vol. 23, Pages 941-943.

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

[13] Trowbridge Ford -- Article on Gerald Ford & Warren Commission.

[14] Ibid.

[15] Gerald Ford "Lee Harvey Oswald:  Portrait of the Assassin."

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

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

[18] Nixon tape, June 23, 1972.

[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.

[20] "Washington Watch" and Triss Coffin newsletter, August 10, 1974.

[21] Zodiac News Service release -- August 20, 1974.







                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                                 Chapter 12
          The Second Line of Defense and Cover-Ups in 1975 and 1976

         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.






--
                                             daveus rattus   

                                   yer friendly neighborhood ratman

                               KOYAANISQATSI

   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.



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Date: Mon, 15 Jun 92 06:45:54 -0700
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
Message-Id: <9206151345.AA01518@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com>
To: PML3@PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU
Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (7/11)
Status: RO


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


                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                                 Chapter 13
                   The 1976 Election and Conspiracy Fever

         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.



____________________

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







                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                                 Chapter 14
                           Congress and the People

         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.


                           Addendum to Chapter 14

         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.



____________________

[1] House Resolution 204 -- Henry Gonzalez
    House Resolution 498 -- Thomas Downing







                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *

--
                                             daveus rattus   

                                   yer friendly neighborhood ratman

                               KOYAANISQATSI

   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 Tue Jun 16 09:54:48 1992
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Date: Tue, 16 Jun 92 07:42:08 -0700
From: dave@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com (dave "who can do? ratmandu!" ratcliffe)
Message-Id: <9206161442.AA00714@ratmandu.esd.sgi.com>
To: PML3@PL122c.EECS.Lehigh.EDU
Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (8/11)
Status: RO


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


                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *




                                 Chapter 15
                   The Select Committee on Assassinations,
                The Intelligence Community and the News Media


                                   Part I

                   The Top Down vs. The Bottom Up Approach
                       To Assassination Investigations


         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.


                           The Power Control Group

         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.


                         Hard Evidence of Conspiracy

         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".


                           The Bottom Up Approach

         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.


                         The Events of 1976 and 1977

         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:


         1.  To block and eliminate the Select Committee on
             Assassinations in the House of Representatives.

         2.  To firmly implant the idea that the JFK assassination
             was a Castro plot.

         3.  To block any Congressional attempts to investigate the
             four assassination cases.

         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.

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


                              Exposing the PCG

         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.


                     The Justice Department King Report

         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.


           Leaking the Justice Department Report on the King Case

         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.


                            Releasing the Report

         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.


                        Michael Shaheen -- PCG Member

         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.


           Ignoring or Suppressing Conspiracy and Framing Evidence

         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.


                 The PCG's Tactics With the Select Committee

         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.


                     PCG Control of Prior Investigations

         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:


          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.

         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.

                                 PCG Strategy

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


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

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

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

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

          5.  Controlling the voting and lobbying against the
              continuation of the committee in January and February.

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

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

          8.  Demanding that the committee justify its existence by
              producing new evidence.

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

         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.

         11.  Trying to insert their own man at the head of the
              staff.

         12.  Brainwashing Henry Gonzalez into believing that Sprague
              and others were agents.

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

         14.  Leaking stories that seemed to make the committee's
              efforts unnecessary.


                                Media Control

         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.


                                Media Tactics

         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.


                            The Vote to Continue

         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.


                               The New Tactic

         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.


                              Tactic Backfires

         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.


                     Next Tactic -- Death By Acclamation

         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.


                              Exposing the PCG

         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.


                           Who Are The PCG Members

         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.



                                  Part II

                    "Hard" and "Soft" Propaganda in 1977


         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."


                    Evidence of Media Control by the CIA

         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:

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

         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.


                Proof of CIA Efforts to Discredit Researchers

         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).


                       The Trial of Lee Harvey Oswald

         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.


                               Other TV Shows

         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.


                        Priscilla McMillan--CIA Agent

         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.


                             Fensterwald's Book

         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.


                         The de Mohrenschildt Murder

         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.


                      Donald Donaldson's Disappearance

         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.


                       Attacks on the Select Committee

         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.



____________________

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

       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:

        John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, George
        Wallace and Mary Jo Kopechne.

       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.

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

       (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.

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

       (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.

       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.

 [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.

 [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."

 [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."

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

 [8] "The Big If," "London Sunday Times," September 18, 1977.

 [9] "Marina and Lee," Patricia McMillan, Harper & Row, 1977.

[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.

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

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

     (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.

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

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

[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)







                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *

--
                                              daveus rattus   

                                    yer friendly neighborhood ratman

                                KOYAANISQATSI

    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.



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Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (9/11)
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                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *



                    1979:  The House Select Committee (1)

                                 Chapter 16
                              1984 Here We Come

         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 4,1978.

         "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

         "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 & 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 & 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.



____________________

[1] "New York Daily News" -- Tuesday, December 12, 1979.


[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.

[3] See copies of this correspondence in the Appendix.

[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.

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






                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *


--
                                              daveus rattus   

                                    yer friendly neighborhood ratman

                                KOYAANISQATSI

    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.
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Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (10/11)
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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
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                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *



                    1985:  The House Select Committee (2)


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


                                Introduction

         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.


                           The Situation in 1976

         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.


                             The CIA's problem

         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:


          1.  Get rid of Richard A. Sprague.

          2.  Get rid of Henry Gonzalez.

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

          4.  Install their own chief counsel to control the
              investigation.

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

          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.

          7.  Keep the committee members from knowing what was
              happening and segregate the investigation from them.

          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.

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

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

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

         12.  Continue to murder witnesses or assassins in emergency
              situations if necessary.

         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.


                            How The CIA Did It

         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.


                         The Nondisclosure Agreement

         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?


                           Examples of CIA-Control

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

                   Garrison Evidence and Witnesses Example

         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.

                               Frenchy Example

         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.

                   Nagell, Dean, Novel, and Augustinovich

         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 & 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.

                             The Umbrella Man

         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?


                              Goal Number Eight

         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.


                                   Summary

         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.


____________________

[1] Chaired by Prof. Norman Ramsey of M.I.T.

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

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

[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.

    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.

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








                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *

--

   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.

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



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Subject: "The Taking of America, 1-2-3" (11/11)
Status: RO


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


                             *  *  *  *  *  *  *



                                  Appendix

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





                                  Exhibit A
      ____________________________________________________________



       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 $5,000 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.]









                                 Exhibit B
      ____________________________________________________________





                                                   193 Pinewood Road
                                                   Hartsdale, NY  10530

                                                   February 10, 1978



    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








                                 Exhibit C
      ____________________________________________________________



                LOUIS STOKES, OHIO, CHAIRMAN

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


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


                                                MAR 16 1978





            Richard E. Sprague, Esq.
            193 Pinewood Road
            Hartsdale, New York 10530

            Dear Mr. Sprague:


                   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.

                   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.

                                          Sincerely,

                                        [Louis Stokes]

                                          Louis Stokes
                                          Chairman

            LS:jwc








                                 Exhibit D
      ____________________________________________________________




                                     193 Pinewood Road
                                     Hartsdale, NY  10530

                                     April 5, 1978


       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]







                                 Exhibit E
      ____________________________________________________________



                LOUIS STOKES, OHIO, CHAIRMAN

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


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


                                                May 15, 1978




           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







                                 Exhibit F
      ____________________________________________________________



             
                                      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.







                                 Exhibit G
      ____________________________________________________________




                LOUIS STOKES, OHIO, CHAIRMAN

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


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


                                            October 10, 1978




           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







                                 Exhibit H
      ____________________________________________________________



         
         
                                                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






                                 Exhibit I
      ____________________________________________________________



         
         
                                                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







                                 Exhibit J
      ____________________________________________________________



                LOUIS STOKES, OHIO, CHAIRMAN

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


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


                                            December 4, 1978





             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






                                 Exhibit K
      ____________________________________________________________



                LOUIS STOKES, OHIO, CHAIRMAN

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


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

                                                JAN 16 1978
					     




            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






                                 Exhibit L
      ____________________________________________________________






                                                       193 Pinewood Road
                                                       Hartsdale, NY  10530

                                                       August 3, 1978


          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



--

   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.

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