2013, A Year End Review

And quite a year it has been!  The 50th anniversary of John F. Kennedy’s death came and went with the media fanfare that I expected.  Mainly, that they were all going to stick to the official story as laid down by the Warren Commission in 1964.  No surprise really.  Not only did the mainstream media reflect this but so did the conservative media on radio and cable news outlets such has FOX News. That JFK was “killed by a communist” became a common refrain from people who clearly have not researched the case.  A pity that so many TV documentaries took to making up Straw Man arguments and in same cases blatant falsehoods and pseudo scientific testing.  Any alternative theories made sure it was anybody but the CIA.  One of the worst shows I documented in my piece, Lies, Omissions, and PBS NOVA: Cold Case JFK.  Most of the shows I passed on but researcher Pat Speer apparently saw all of them wrote up a massive review of all print, web, and TV presentations, HERE.

Even now, 50 years later the national press is still deeply connected to the government’s version of the tragic event.  That is because they are deeply connected to the government.  Do not ever forget former CIA Director William Colby’s statement, under oath, to Congress declaring that all major media figures are owned by them, the CIA.  It’s ironic that so many conservative talkers on the radio tell us how we cannot trust the government but by golly, we sure can believe what they had to say about the assassination of JFK in 1964.

The public access to Dealey Plaza for the 50th Anniversary was another example our decent into Police State wackiness with black uniformed police frisking school kids before they could enter the area and “free speech” zones for people who are not in lock-step with the National Fiction of King Camelot’s death.  The extreme measures for crowd control extended to removing the “X” that marked the spot on Elm street where Kennedy received his fatal head wound.

Never the less, a banner year for site visits and I got the highest ever in November with over 15,000 page views.  It shows how hungry people for the information and truth on the Kennedy assassination. After all, one is never going to find it on the major TV and Radio networks or the existing print media. They ignore everything that is going to contradict the official narrative.

The most popular article for the year for this site was one I did on Lee’s brother Robert entitled, What Did Robert Oswald Know?  I was surprised how well this one took off.  (Only my article on Dorothy Kilgallen has been as popular.)  Not a lot has been written on Robert who seems like an honest, decent, working class man.  Yet there are many conflicts with his Warren Commission testimony which I pointed out in my article.  He appears to be a man that knew more than he ever let on. 

One of my most important contacts I met this year.  Jones Harris.  I am really indebted to this man.  Jones has been in the trenches from day one.  He was dating Jackie’s appointment secretary at the time of the assassination and this launched him on a lifetime of research.  Born into a successful show business family Jones had access to the rich and famous throughout his life.  He’s a literal “who’s who” of New York everything and everybody.  Along the way he interviewed many of the major (and minor) figures in the case, such as Jim Garrison, James Angleton, David Atlee Philips, Richard Case Nagell, Mary Ferrell, Abraham Zapruder, Senators Russell and Cooper, John Jay McCloy, and a host of others.  He worked with Jim Garrison and was instrumental in getting Richard Case Nagell released from prison. It’s been a great blessing to have met this man and I stand much better informed about the case, as Jones Harris interviewed many witnesses that are no longer with us, and just as important, many while their memories were still fresh.  In his 80’s and having no desire to join the Internet, I often provide him with information and printed articles from online searches.

Another good contact is John Armstrong, researcher and author of Harvey and Lee, the definitive book on the theory of Lee Oswald being impersonated.  His massive book is now available from his website (http://harveyandlee.net/) and his site is filled with a great set of data points on the subject if you cannot afford the book.  If you don’t agree with Oswald being doubled, there is a lot of amazing facts in this tome you won’t find anyplace else.  I’ve used it often as a source book as have many other researchers.  Armstrong’s detailed and methodical accounting of Oswald allegedly acquiring the rifle and pistol is almost worth the price of book.  

Being the 50th anniversary year, it was an outstanding year for book releases. So many I didn’t have the time to buy and review them all.  As aways, there were more pro-conspiracy than anti-conspiracy books published, but that is generally the state of affairs regarding books on Kennedy’s murder.  Many older books were updated such as Cross Fire, With Malice, and Destiny Betrayed.  There were a few clunkers, such as The Interloper by Peter Savodnik regarding Lee Oswald’s time in Russia.  A dull read with nothing much new to report. 

One missing event from 2013 was the release of the film, The Ultimate Sacrifice, the Leo DiCaprio movie based on the Lamar Waldron, Thom Hartmann book of the same name.  This film, fingering the Mob as the plotters and killers, was supposed to be shown on Christmas Day.  It’s a no-show and I have yet to find out what happened to it, or if it was made, or if it will ever be shown.  If anybody knows, please drop me an e-mail.

So thanks again for all of my readers out there!  I’ll be committed to continued research in the following year and beyond.  Please keep stopping by.  Happy 2014 to all!


Sources
http://oswaldsmother.blogspot.com/2013/11/lies-omissions-and-pbs-nova-cold-case.html

What Did Robert Oswald Know?
http://oswaldsmother.blogspot.com/2013/07/what-did-robert-oswald-know.html

More detailed piece on PBS Nova Cold Case by Dr. David Mantik
http://www.ctka.net/2013/nova.html

Lies, Omissions, and PBS NOVA: Cold Case JFK

(Originally posted in 11/14/13)

With the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy’s death looming, I’ve tried not to watch most of the documentaries and TV specials involving the event.  The few I’ve seen just repeat the same old party line or else go off on to some odd tangent this is incorrect.  With the media as it is in this country, I expect no new revelations and a rehashing of the same old story from the Warren Report.  But just on a lark, I decided to watch PBS Nova’s Cold Case JFK which purports to be a forensic investigation into the case.  Yes, it confirmed my suspicions of how the media plays the JFK assassination–the Warren Commission got it right!

The first lie starts on the PBS website:  “NOVA launches a fresh investigation into the physical evidence, using state-of-the-art forensics, including laser scanning, new ballistics tests, and a 3D digital reconstruction of the president's skull, all to try to solve the murder of the century.”

Gosh...all of this fancy technology just to come to the same conclusion the Warren Commission did 50 years ago.  Amazing!  They solved the case too!  Actually, this show is no different than Brad Meltzer’s goofy History Decoded show on the History Channel.  Television presentations such as this are created to fool people that only have a basic understanding of the case.  They toss in scientific scrutiny with a touch of drama but there is much omitted for narrative flow.  They have to or else the story gets muddied up.  Such was done in Cold Case JFK.  They weren't out to solve anything.  They knew where they were headed from the get-go. 

A host of luminaries are provided such as Jeff Morley and Josiah Thompson, but the notorious cave troll, Marquette professor John McAdams gets most of the air time.  McAdams, a lone gunman zealot, is known as a rude and obnoxious defender of the Warren Report.  In the annals of JFK research he is a notorious and outrageous personality.  His assertions on the case are often misleading.  Among many loathsome acts, he once lied about his name and profession to a news reporter at a research conference. In another instance, he insinuated that researcher Dr. Gary Aguilar was a drug addict.  For that, McAdams received a reprimand from Marquette University for such conduct.  

And this is the man PBS brings to the fore to be an expert?

Ballistics 

Of course, the Single Bullet Theory is the most controversial part of the case and admitted to as such in the show.  Even McAdams waggles his jowls in agreement.  All was well originally, with three shots resulting in three wounds, till James Tague came forward with his wounded cheek.  So one bullet had to pull double-duty or else you’ve got a conspiracy on your hands.  (And in fact, FBI crime lab tests found no trace of copper on the curb near Tague’s wounding.  Oswald was only supposed to be shooting copper jacketed bullets.  The FBI only found traces of lead.  Somebody else was shooting.)

So Nova engages ballistics expert Luke Haag (who with his son Michael, will appear on a host of programs) to supposedly conduct an objective test using Mannlicher-Carcano shooting test targets.  Out comes the ballistic gelatin to simulate human muscle tissue.  Haven’t I seen this somewhere before? Like The Discovery Channel?  Anyway, the test shots show that the bullet does yaw at the end of its flight.  High speed video shows the flight of the bullet which always looks cool.  But this has been done before.

In one hilarious bit, after the rifleman took a shot and attempted to recycle the weapon, the spent shell hung up in the breach.  Ha!  And somebody is going to shoot the President of the United States with this piece of junk?  Oh, yeah...don’t let your lying eyes deceive you.  Anything is possible in Warren Commission Land.

The shortcoming with this type of test is that Haag never shoots anything as dense as bone, yet seems to have no disagreement with CE 399 coming out looking so good.  Well, somebody did test bone and the results were hidden away for years.  Dr. Joseph Dolce was the Army’s chief ballistic wounds expert and chairman of the Army’s Ballistic Wounds Committee.  He was tasked by the Warren Commission, along with another expert, Dr. Fredrick Light Jr., to test the single bullet theory using Oswald’s rifle to replicate CE 399, the so-called “pristine” bullet.  After shooting ten cadaver radial bones (the same bone struck and broken in Gov. Connelly’s wrist), the experiment did not replicate any bullet resembling CE 399 at all.  As Dr. Dolce stated in an interview in 1986, each of the ten test fired bullets were in his words, “markably deformed.”  Dr. Dolce, much to his surprise, was not called to give testimony to the Warren Commission and his findings were buried in a report, published by the U. S. Army Edgewood Arsenal in March of 1965, which was classified “confidential” for 8 years before being placed in the NARA.  Obviously, this was never mentioned in the show.  A serious omission of fact.  But the appearance of this information would only be the arrival of a bastard at the family reunion.  

(It should also be noted that in Haag's test the pass-thru bullet produced a larger exit hole than entry; it was well documented by Parkland doctors that Kennedy's throat wound was very small and was first noted as an entry wound, not exit.  Haag actually disproves the single bullet theory!)

Other issues, such as firing at moving targets, the effects of bullet drop, Oswald attempting a head shot through a live oak tree, windage, bullet drop due to the effects of gravity, a scope not properly sighted, are all ignored. So much for this being a high-tech forensic examination.  This is History Channel type faux research via PBS. Everybody is in on it now.

In the end, Luke Haag decides he has no problems with Single Bullet Theory.  He will state this on numerous other anniversary shows as well.  Of course not, since his experimentation never went far enough.  He did not allow for tests on bone.  And as stated above, Drs Dolce and Light could not replicate CE 399 in any meaningful way when firing at bone, so their report was buried. So PBS NOVA has to ignore it as well.  It should be made clear, this lone bullet nonsense comes from a gaggle of lawyers who are not ballistics experts.  Arlen Specter and boys were out to do what lawyers do, protect their client–in this case the Federal government.  The truth becomes a tin can kicked down the road.   

Conclusion

Other issues are explored such as Kennedy’s head wound, the Zapruder film showing Kennedy shot from the front (your lying eyes again), 3D laser mapping of Dealing Plaza, and the HSCA audio analysis of shots from a police motorcycle, and all come to the same conclusion.  This is why I am avoiding most of these 50th Anniversary shows.  The Warren Commission was right.  Always right. There is no conspiracy.  Just because it looks like one doesn’t make it real.  Now move on with your bad self.

Sources

And other good one by David W. Mantik, MD, PhD at CTKA:
http://www.ctka.net/2013/nova.html

The Dulce/Light report

Gerald McKnight, Breach of Trust, Chapter 8, p.187. Chapter notes page 417 (note 18) and page 418 (note 25).