Yet another bad review of "The Kennedy Detail"

1.0 out of 5 stars They let the president die, July 29, 2012

By Peter Carlsson (Sweden) - See all my reviews

(REAL NAME) This review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Paperback)

The Secret Service let Kennedy be murdered, and now they are trying to blame it on him. Bad book, bad lies. And a bad way to make a buck, or thousands of them.

Yet ANOTHER reader dislikes "The Kennedy Detail"

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a fan of this book AT ALL, July 26, 2012

By Paige Turner - See all my reviewsThis review is from: The Kennedy Detail: JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence (Hardcover)

I found this book in a thrift shop for .50 and thought WOW I really snagged a great deal. I did, it's worth just about .50



The book is slow and boring in the beginning with some parts that don't lead to anything.

Clint Hill has been quoted in the forward as saying he accepts the Warren Commission Report's findings-when I read this I almost threw up.

The book seems harsh on Mrs. Kennedy and the President as well, why?

The author also seems to complain that he and/or other agents missed dinner a couple of times during their detail work-SO WHAT.



Sensationalism. Plain and simple.



Don't bother wasting your time buying this book.

My review of "A Fox Among Wolves" by FBI agent & JFK autopsy witness Francis X. O'Neill

Terrific book by a great American from the greatest generation! July 26, 2012

By Vince Palamara

I highly recommend this book by JFK autopsy witness and FBI Agent Francis X. O'Neill Jr. titled "A Fox Among Wolves". A decorated veteran of World War II and the Korean War, O'Neill also served with distinction as a New York City police officer, an FBI agent (1955-1978), and a member of the Connecticut State Legislature (1982-1990). Francis X. O'Neill Jr. is most famous for his eyewitness observations at JFK's autopsy on 11/22/63---in that regard, the chapter devoted to this specific matter does not disappoint.

This is a highly enjoyable book from start to finish with many photos, as well. For those with a keen interest in the JFK autopsy, here are a few of the highlights (including a reprint of the infamous Sibert & O'Neill report):

-confirms that the statement about surgery to JFK's head came from the autopsy doctors themselves;

-speculates that some surgical procedure had been performed before the autopsy such as cutting of hair or removal of some tissue to view the head wound (!!!);

-states several times that the head wound was massive and was located in the right rear of JFK's skull;

-"parts of the brain were still there, but not much";

-there was a small hole in the upper right rear of the back and there was no exit for this wound;

-states that Humes said that external cardiac massage must have worked the back bullet out of the wound in Dallas and that this solved the dilemma of the bullet found at Parkland;

-states that Arlen Specter's single bullet theory was "just a theory";

and a whole lot more!

Beyond this controversial topic, the book is surprisingly as engaging as its author (anyone who has had the honor of viewing the television debate with author George Michael Evica will appreciate Frank's dry wit and humor, as well as his tell-it-like-it-is approach). There are fascinating stories of his work in the FBI, as well as anecdotes about his participation in World War II, the Korean War, and the other touchstones of his life. Frank had a rich, full, extraordinary life, indeed, and this work does a magnificent job of conveying that to the reader. Highly recommended!

---

JFK autopsy witness and FBI Agent Francis X. O’Neill: his book titled “A Fox Among Wolves”

Posted on July 26, 2012by vincepalamara

I highly recommend this book by JFK autopsy witness and FBI Agent Francis X. O’Neill titled “A Fox Among Wolves” (especially the updated edition provided to the author via O’Neill’s son at fxoneill@cbs.com ). Even though there is an Amazon listing for it, Frank’s son posts a review with information on the superior version, available directly from him for less than 20.00:

http://www.amazon.com/Fox-Among-Wolves-Francis-ONeill/dp/1605307726/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343337476&sr=1-1&keywords=a+fox+among+wolves


Here is Frank’s son’s review: of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My father wrote this bookMarch 9, 2011

By FXO

This book was written by my father who passed away in February 2009 at the age of 85. It is an excellent account of his life and the moments of history of which he was a part, from his presence at President Kennedy’s autopsy to his World War II parachute jump on Corregidor. As his son, though, I am quite likely biased.

I am writing this review to inform anyone considering purchasing a used copy of the book that there are a number of minor picture caption typos and one big misstatement in the Editor’s Note of which you should be aware.

The misstatement concerns the rifle used to shoot President Kennedy. The Editor’s Note states that it was an M1. That is incorrect. It was a 6.5 millimeter model 91/38 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. This has been confirmed with the other F.B.I. agent who was at JFK’s autopsy with Dad.

This Editor’s Note was not written by my father. His health was beginning to fail at the time and I do not believe he even proofed it. He would have caught such a glaring error. The incorrect picture captions were corrected in my final proof of the book however the publisher inadvertently neglected to make the corrections before the book was printed.

I have not put this book up for sale on Amazon, or sent it to the major East Coast newspaper reviewers as planned, since we have yet to receive corrected copies of the book. The publisher, Codfish Press of Brewster, MA, has not been forthcoming with those promised copies and we have little legal recourse since Dad apparently did not sign a written contract with them. Not unusual for him since his contract was often just a handshake. It has now been several years and I doubt we will ever see reprinted copies.

My family and I do hope to have copies of the existing book up for sale at some point. Any copies sold/distributed by us will contain labels with corrections pasted over the offending passages. Thank you.

Francis X. O’Neill III
1/6/2012 Addendum – A reprint of this book has been completed. If interested in a copy of this book with the errors corrected, please email me at fxoneill@cbs.com. I will be happy to provide you with details or answer any questions you may have.

———-

JFK autopsy witness: FBI Agent Francis X. O'Neill's book "A Fox Among Wolves"

I highly recommend this book by JFK autopsy witness and FBI Agent Francis X. O'Neill titled "A Fox Among Wolves" (especially the updated edition provided to the author via O'Neill's son at fxoneill@cbs.com ). Even though there is an Amazon listing for it, Frank's son posts a review with information on the superior version, available directly from him for less than 20.00:

http://www.amazon.com/Fox-Among-Wolves-Francis-ONeill/dp/1605307726/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1343337476&sr=1-1&keywords=a+fox+among+wolves



 Here is Frank's son's review:
of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars My father wrote this book March 9, 2011

By FXO

This book was written by my father who passed away in February 2009 at the age of 85. It is an excellent account of his life and the moments of history of which he was a part, from his presence at President Kennedy's autopsy to his World War II parachute jump on Corregidor. As his son, though, I am quite likely biased.

I am writing this review to inform anyone considering purchasing a used copy of the book that there are a number of minor picture caption typos and one big misstatement in the Editor's Note of which you should be aware.

The misstatement concerns the rifle used to shoot President Kennedy. The Editor's Note states that it was an M1. That is incorrect. It was a 6.5 millimeter model 91/38 Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. This has been confirmed with the other F.B.I. agent who was at JFK's autopsy with Dad.

This Editor's Note was not written by my father. His health was beginning to fail at the time and I do not believe he even proofed it. He would have caught such a glaring error. The incorrect picture captions were corrected in my final proof of the book however the publisher inadvertently neglected to make the corrections before the book was printed.

I have not put this book up for sale on Amazon, or sent it to the major East Coast newspaper reviewers as planned, since we have yet to receive corrected copies of the book. The publisher, Codfish Press of Brewster, MA, has not been forthcoming with those promised copies and we have little legal recourse since Dad apparently did not sign a written contract with them. Not unusual for him since his contract was often just a handshake. It has now been several years and I doubt we will ever see reprinted copies.

My family and I do hope to have copies of the existing book up for sale at some point. Any copies sold/distributed by us will contain labels with corrections pasted over the offending passages. Thank you.

Francis X. O'Neill III
1/6/2012 Addendum - A reprint of this book has been completed. If interested in a copy of this book with the errors corrected, please email me at fxoneill@cbs.com. I will be happy to provide you with details or answer any questions you may have.

----------

This is a highly enjoyable book from start to finish with many photos, as well. For those with a keen interest in the JFK autopsy, here are a few of the highlights (including a reprint of the infamous Sibert & O'Neill report):

- confirms that the statement about surgery to JFK's head came from the autopsy doctors themselves;

-speculates that some surgical procedure had been performed before the autopsy such as cutting of hair or removal of some tissue to view the head wound (!!!);

-states several times that the head wound was massive and was located in the right rear of JFK's skull;

-"parts of the brain were still there, but not much";

-there was a small hole in the upper right rear of the back and there was no exit for this wound;

-states that Humes said that external cardiac massage must have worked the back bullet out of the wound in Dallas and that this solved the dilemma of the bullet found at Parkland;

-states that Arlen Specter's single bullet theory was "just a theory";

 and a whole lot more!

Highly recommended- buy this one asap!

Vince Palamara

Gerald Blaine sent me a LinkedIn request- I refused, of course

Gerald Blaine sent me a LinkedIn request- I refused, of course

Nope, sorry---this "good cop/ bad cop" stuff isn't going to work. I am going to let everyone know, many times over, my views about your book and upcoming movie. I don't think it is right to profit from the death of JFK in such a fraudulent fashion.

Then Lisa McCubbin sent me a snobby message on Good Reads. What I really think of the both of you cannot be put into print due to vulgarity.

Vince Palamara

Books and movies come and go, but the internet is free and forever. I will forever express my contempt for "The Kennedy Detail" book and movie

Joseph Milteer: a very important cog in the wheel

Although Gerald Blaine seemingly dismisses the importance of the Joseph Milteer recorded threat information (and Vince Bugliosi likewise does a lawyerly "debunking" that is not persuasive), I think it is a very important cog in the wheel; a smoking gun, as are the reports of "agents" of unknown repute in Dealey Plaza, as well as the report of a French assassin (Souetre? Mertz?) in Fort Worth and Dallas on 11/22/63.

Great Milteer resources:

Don Adams new book "From An Office Building With A High Powered Rifle" (2012)+ ADAMS 2 DVD SET available thru his website [includes taped Milteer threat]:
http://adamsjfk.com/


"High Treason" by Harrison Livingstone (1989);

"Murder In Dealey Plaza" by Prof James Fetzer (2000);

my book :O)

"Treachery In Dallas" by Walt Brown (1995);

"Ultimate Sacrifice" by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann (2005);

"The Men Who Killed Kennedy" dvd;

"Crossfire" by Jim Marrs (1989);

"LBJ: The Mastermind of the JFK Assassination" by Phil Nelson (2012);

"Legacy of Secrecy" by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann (2008);

"Watergate" by Lamar Waldron (2012);

"Bloody Treason" by Noel Twyman (1998);

"J. Edgar Hoover: The Father of the Cold War" by R. Andrew Kiel (2000);

"The JFK Assassination Debates" by Michael Kurtz (2008);

"The Encyclopedia of the JFK Assassination" by Michael Benson (2002)

Fine Richard Girard article

Please see:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/A-Festering-Wound-by-Richard-Girard-120719-78.html

A Festering Wound

By Richard Girard

"My heart burnt within me with indignation and grief; we could think of nothing else. . . . All night long we had only snatches of sleep, waking up perpetually to the sense of a great shock and grief. Every one is feeling the same. I never knew so universal a feeling."

Elizabeth Gaskell, English novelist. Letter, 28 April 1865, to Harvard professor Charles E. Norton, on the news of Lincoln's assassination reaching England.

"The scientific mind does not so much provide the right answers as ask the right questions."

Claude Lévi-Strauss, French anthropologist. The Raw and the Cooked, "Overture," section 1 (1964).

It has been almost forty-nine years since President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was murdered from ambush in the streets of Dallas.

And we are no closer to ending the pain of that awful moment today then we were then.

Like an ulcerated wound, our nation can never fully heal from the effects of this crime until we know the truth.

The findings of the Warren Commission are regrettably not the truth. It is a mass of hypothesis and conjecture dependent on investigative agencies who were more interested in covering up their own mistakes or culpability than finding the truth. This is best demonstrated by the March 3, 1964 memo from CIA Director John McCone to Secret Service Chief James Rowley revealing that Lee Harvey Oswald was a trained CIA operative. This information was never given to the Warren Commission, according to an October 17, 2009 NY Times article by Scott Shane, "C.I.A. is Still Cagey About Oswald Mystery." If Jim Garrison had this information, would Clay Shaw have been declared "not guilty?" I doubt it.

There is also the recently discovered film of Secret Service Agents Henry Rybka and Don Lawton being ordered off of the back of JFK's limousine as it was leaving Love Field that fateful November day. These orders were vital to the assassination, because it opened up JFK to being shot from the rear, and prevented the immediate shielding of the President's and First Lady's bodies by those of the Secret Service agents on the back of the limousine. The reason for, as well as the ultimate source for this stand-down order has never been properly investigated. There is photographic evidence that Secret Service agent's were on the back of the limousine for the motorcade in San Antonio the day before. The surviving members of Kennedy's Secret Service detail deny receiving an order from President Kennedy to stay off the rear of the limousine. In fact the order seems to have come from Assistant Special Agent in Charge Vincent M. [ sic LOL: FLOYD M] Boring, without authorization by any other superior. (Vincent Palamara, "The Secret Service on the Job in Dallas;" Murder in Dealey Plaza: What We Know Now That We Didn't Know Then About the Death of JFK ; James H. Fetzer PhD., editor; Catfeet Press; Peru, Illinois; copyright 2000; pp. 159-174)

Other evidence was withheld from the Warren Commission. One of these pieces of evidence was the photograph of the two empty shell casings and one unfired round of 6.5 mm ammunition that were found in the area of the so-called "sniper's nest" on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) (photographed in the Baltimore Field Office of the FBI), as well as the original evidence sheets submitted to the Dallas Office of the FBI by Special Agent Vincent E. Drain on November 23, 1963.

This means whoever was up on the sixth floor of the TSBD may have pulled the trigger three times, but that sniper only sent two bullets hurtling downrange towards President Kennedy that murderous Texas afternoon. If the 6.5 mm Mannlicher-Carcano carbine (not rifle) found "hidden" among the boxes of books at TSBD only fired twice that afternoon, there has to be--by the Warren Commission's own logic--more than one assassin. (This also explains why the FBI tried so hard to get James Teague to say he was not grazed by concrete from a bullet that hit the curb when he reported it after the assassination.)

I say whoever because I have very strong doubts that Lee Harvey Oswald was anything other than what he claimed to reporters in the Dallas jailhouse, "a patsy." I think he served the exact purpose he was supposed to at the TSBD that afternoon--slow down any initial police response to the sixth floor (by being present in the building's central second floor lunchroom), while the gunman hid the carbine, and assumed an identity (either Secret Service or Military Intelligence credentials) that permitted his escape in the chaos.

I have changed my thoughts on the scenario for what happened in the Dealey Plaza kill-zone that November afternoon since I published my OpEdNews article " The Great Enemy of the Truth " in March of 2010. I believe the weapons fire in the Dealey Plaza kill-zone followed this time-line :

The sniper on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository (from this point forward Sniper 1), using Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano carbine, fires a shot at JFK and misses. The shot ricochets off a concrete curb, and slightly wounds James Teague in the cheek. Whether or not Sniper 1 is actually Oswald is a question for someone else to answer, but if this bullet had hit and killed President Kennedy, it would have created an air tight frame on Lee Harvey Oswald.

Sniper 1 takes his second shot at JFK, hitting him in the back, center mass. However, the propellant in that cartridge had degraded over the previous twenty years, so that rather than a kill shot, the bullet only penetrated 3-4 inches into the President's back, bruising the upper part of the President's right lung.

Secret Service Agent William Greer abruptly applies the brakes of the Presidential limousine, slowing it to under five miles per hour, perhaps even ultimately bringing it to a stop.

The sniper in front of JFK (Sniper 2, who I believe was the only military trained sniper, as opposed to a marksman, and whose orders are not to fire unless the first two rounds fail to kill JFK, fires a round using a long gun (possibly an M-1 carbine) with a sound suppressor and frangible ammunition. Because of Greer's abrupt braking, this round hits JFK in the lower middle throat, missing all of the major blood vessels, which the assassin knows from experience may or may not kill the President.

A third sniper (Sniper 3), who was probably on the roof of the Dallas County Records Building (where a .30-06 shell casing was found by workmen repairing the roof in 1977), fires his first round at almost the same instant, using a rifle with a sound suppressor. However, when the Presidential limousine abruptly brakes, it ruins Sniper 3's aim. The bullet narrowly misses JFK, passing over his left shoulder, and hits Governor Connally in the upper back instead, passing through his chest, wrist, and finally entering his thigh. Sniper 3 is not using frangible bullets. He was probably using sabot rounds: a 6.5 mm (.256 caliber) bullet in a 7.62mm (.30 caliber) plastic jacket, which it loses as the bullet leaves the barrel. This permits you to take a bullet that has already been fired from another rifle, say Oswald's, and use it again without adding any striations to the bullet. The sabots were used in this weapon in order to ensure Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano would be found to be the assassin's weapon in post-assassination ballistic tests.

The Kill Shot. I think that all of the snipers had an order to aim for the head, and make sure that President Kennedy was dead at the spot that would become known as frame 313 of the Zapruder film. I think Sniper 1, with the Mannlicher-Carcano, had another misfire, either a primer failure of the chambered bullet, or some mechanical problem. This is the reason there are two shell casings and one live round in the photo I cited above. Snipers 2 and 3's bullets hit the President almost simultaneously, killing him, and placing this nation on its current course of an increasingly less benevolent oligarchic dictatorship.

The only question in my mind is this: did Secret Service Agent William Greer panic when he slammed on the brakes, or was he part of the conspiracy? We can't ask him: he died in 1985, denying until the end of his life that he had stopped or slowed the Presidential limousine there in Dealey Plaza. Fifty-nine witnesses, including Jackie Kennedy, John Connally, U.S. Senator Ralph Yarborough, ten police officers and seven Secret Service Agents say otherwise. ("59 Witnesses: Delay on Elm Street," Vincent Palamara; Murder in Dealey Plaza: What We Know Now That We Didn't Know Then About the Death of JFK ; James H. Fetzer PhD., editor; Catfeet Press; Peru, Illinois; copyright 2000; pp.119-128)

We have so much contradictory information about the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the key to finding the truth may be to ignore most of it until you find the pieces of information that were somehow overlooked by the conspirators 50 years ago. We must always remember that no matter how powerful these "Masters of the Universe" -- as Tom Wolfe called them in Bonfire of the Vanities --are, they are still human, and they will still make mistakes, especially when you consider the mountains of evidence involved in this murder. Above, I have presented the three most damning pieces of evidence that I have learned about in the last three years. These three pieces, taken together, effectively undermine the "official" explanation of the oligarchs and their lap dogs, like Gerald Posner, and cannot be explained away by sophistry.

When Jack Kennedy was murdered in Dallas, we lost more than a President. Our Constitutional Republic has been on life support ever since. Grey men in gray suits, without hard-won title or proper right, legitimate power or electoral authority, have run our country from the shadows. Loyal servants to Mammon's wealth, Belial's power, Beelzebub's lies, and Lucifer's pride, but not our country or its Constitution; they have done everything that is within their power to destroy those things which make this country truly great, and replace them within the hearts and minds of our people with the most damnable corruption. They are perfectly represented by men such as Mitt Romney, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Caspar Weinberger, Oliver North, and the two Presidents Bush.

This "power elite" as C. Wright Mills called them, the "One Percenters" of whom the Occupy Wall Street Movement have said so much, have always hated anything that smacked of "real democracy" in this country. After FDR's New Deal, the One Percenters saw a very real possibility that they might lose their power and influence forever, and that President Kennedy might be the vehicle of that loss.

Danger for the oligarchs was everywhere in 1963. The oil companies were looking at losing almost half of their oil depletion allowance if JFK were reelected. The banks and financiers were looking at the potential loss of billions of dollars annually as President Kennedy began the switch of the issuing of currency from the Federal Reserve to the United States Treasury directly, costing the Federal Reserve's member banks of their cut of Treasury Bonds and the costs of issuing currency to non-member banks on Federal Reserve Notes. The steel companies had found out the hard way that JFK would take away government contracts if they raised their prices beyond those agreed to during government arbitration with their unions. The separation and suspicion between the White majority and the Black and Latino minorities that had so successfully been exploited to weaken both sides of the working class for one hundred years was dissolving, leaving a middle class--and more importantly their children--that questioned the need for the segregation of human beings by race or any other consideration.

But the primary reason behind of Jack Kennedy's death was much simpler. James W. Douglass wrote of it in his book JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters . I first wrote about it and published it in my article " Pacem in Terra ," in OpEdNews on February 4, 2010. After the Cuban Missile Crisis, an unusual but nearly unstoppable troika had formed: Pope John XXIII, Soviet Party General Secretary and Chairman of the Politburo Nikita Khrushchev, and President John F. Kennedy. They had a single goal in mind: peace and prosperity for the people of the World, rather than the nuclear suicide of humanity that had almost occurred in October of 1962.

The oligarchs knew that if JFK helped bring peace to the World, and fulfilled FDR's dream of what the United Nations should be (which his wife Eleanor had worked so hard to attain in the seventeen years after FDR's death), a true World peacekeeping body, their ability to use American military and intelligence assets to get what they wanted around the world, let alone maintain power at home, was over. There were many in the Pentagon, including arch-Hawk Curtis LeMay, Chief of Staff of the Air Force, who had no desire to see real "peace in our time."

Part of these American oligarch's problems were solved when Pope John XXIII died in June of 1963. With the Pope gone, the major source of President Kennedy's protection was gone. The oligarchic conspirators could begin to plan the young President's death in earnest.

Why was the death of the elderly Pontiff necessary before JFK could be murdered? Stalin had once cynically asked "How many divisions the Pope had?" The oligarchs knew that while the Pope might not have a single division of troops, he had millions of voters around the World, voters who would have listened intently if the Pope had questioned the death of the young man he lovingly called "Giovanni." John XXIII would not have accepted so slapdash an investigation as was done by the Warren Commission in the matter of JFK's assassination, and if he did not accept it, neither would millions of American Catholics. The Vatican has the oldest intelligence service in the world, supplemented by thousands of Jesuits, who know well the importance of keeping their eyes and ears open and their mouths shut. (Read Robert Ludlum's book The Gemini Contenders for a glimpse into the world of the Vatican Secret Service.) If John XXIII had been around to say "Find out the truth," I believe it would have been discovered. The eighty-two year old Pontiff had to pass away before JFK could be murdered.

President Kennedy's commencement address at American University was his signal to Chairman Khrushchev that Pope John XXIII's death made no difference: he was still committed to the cause of peace. It was also the last straw for the hawks in the Pentagon, the CIA, and the industrialists of America's military-industrial complex who had not been directly affected by Kennedy's assault on Big Steel, Big Oil, and Wall Street. There was no money to be made in peace.

There were others who wanted President Kennedy dead: Organized Crime, who the oligarchs had used for years to keep the blacks and Latinos in their place, and the powerful unions under some semblance of control, were now being actively prosecuted by JFK's brother Robert, who was the Attorney General; anti-Castro Cuban refugees who thought Kennedy had abandoned them at the Bay of Pigs (which technically he did); White Supremacists who were frightened to death that the Negroes were going to take over everything if Kennedy wasn't stopped. All of these foes were facing a young President whose popularity was rising in almost every poll, who would almost certainly have rid himself of Lyndon Johnson as Vice President over the growing Bobby Baker scandal, thus leaving the oligarchs without an "inside man" in JFK's second term. There was also J. Edgar Hoover, who had helped the oligarchs maintain their control since before the end of FDR's administration, using secret files that went back four decades. The FBI's director was facing mandatory retirement from Federal service in 1965, and the animosity between Hoover and the Kennedy's made it a certainty that Hoover would receive no special dispensation from them.

Only three Presidents have ever faced comparable opposition in their first term: Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Barrack Obama. John F. Kennedy knew he faced a daunting level of opposition in November 1964; he probably never realized that his enemies were unwilling to wait that long.

The Roman historian Tacitus wrote of the assassination of the Emperor Galba ( The Histories, Book 1, section 28,) "A shocking crime was committed on the unscrupulous initiative of few individuals, with the blessing of more, and amid the passive acquiescence of all." The "all" of which Tacitus wrote was Rome's One Percent. The People of Rome had by this time been so cowed into submission by tyrants such as Tiberius, Caligula, and Nero, they would rarely play a role in Rome's politics until the Western Empire fell in 476 C.E..

The Murder of President John F. Kennedy is the beginning of the decline that we see continuing with such vicious speed and certainty today. JFK is for the American Republic what Tiberius Sempronius Gracchus was for the Roman: the first casualty in the war between the optimates and the populares , Rome's names for the One Percenters and its struggling working and middle classes. This struggle reached its crescendo with the assassination of Julius Caesar on the Ides of March, 44 B.C.E., and ended almost anticlimactically at Actium thirteen years later.

There is still time to save our Republic, if only just barely. But first, we must accept the truths of President Kennedy's death, and the consequences that we are living with today.

The first truth is that JFK was going to get the United States completely out of Vietnam. CIA attempts at intervention in Laos and South Vietnam in 1961-2 had proven that the U.S. backed governments had no support among the majority of people in those two countries, due to extreme corruption. Douglas MacArthur had warned JFK against becoming involved in a war in Vietnam. The General may have been an egomaniac, but he was no fool. As Oliver Stone pointed out in his movie JFK , one of the first things that Lyndon Johnson did when he became President was rescinding President Kennedy's order to pull 1000 military advisers out of Vietnam.

The second truth is that President Kennedy was murdered as the result of a far-ranging conspiracy of America's power elites. This included Texas oilmen, Wall Street bankers, high-ranking current and former military officers, select members of the American intelligence and law enforcement community (both at the Federal and local level), White Supremacists, members of the political establishment, anti-Communist Cuban exiles, right-wing political extremists, and members of Organized Crime from around the world. If LBJ and J. Edgar Hoover were not complicit in the actual assassination, they were in the cover-up.

The third truth is that it was the opening round of a series of events which was meant to regain control of the country for the power elite. Malcolm X, Dr. King, and the President's brother Bobby were the next sacrifices made on the oligarch's altar to wealth as power, together with nearly 60,000 Americans in Southeast Asia.

The fourth truth is that Nixon tried to push through a program of oligarchic control under the guise of "law and order." The oligarchs learned their lesson, and have spent the last four decades doing slowly what Nixon rushed. By undermining the New Deal, our civil liberties, and every related program that made a large, robust middle class possible one piece at a time, Reagan, Bush 41 and 43, and today's pro-oligarch Supreme Court are close to establishing a new order in our nation: an order of the idle rich and working poor. Edmund Burke would be so pleased.

The final truth is we must admit that if men such as John and Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., can be publicly killed, and if a criminal such as Richard Nixon can commit heinous crimes against the people of the United States and the World, and no one is held to account for these crimes; if after such lackadaisical investigations (like those that occurred in the murders of JFK, RFK, and MLK), we can somehow still have a summary "Rush to Judgment" (as Mark Lane's book called JFK's assassination) with events such as Oklahoma City and September 11, 2001; how can any American hope for justice or feel unthreatened in their home tonight?

The answer is we cannot. These oligarchs--both the blood and spiritual descendants of the dark conspirators in Jack Kennedy's death--can have us arrested, or murdered in our beds, with complete impunity if it suits their unholy purpose. We must solve the murder of President Kennedy, even if no one ever pays for the crime, as a simple act of self-defense. We must explicitly say to these oligarchs once and for all, "No, your wealth and power does not place you above this nation's laws." We must close the festering wound of JFK's assassination.

We must do this for our children, and our children's children.

EXCITING new JFK blog!!!

http://kennedydetailagents.blogspot.com/

Vince Palamara

50th anniversary 11/22/2013

OFF TOPIC: Jon Lord of Deep Purple, RIP

[VMP- Jon Lord was and always will be my favorite keyboard player from my favorite band, Deep Purple. He was a fine gentleman and his music will live on forever. See the bottom for a funny, albeit somewhat embarassing, 1999 exchange I had with Mr Lord]


Jon Lord




Deep Purple keyboard player



Jon Lord, 71, a British keyboardist for Deep Purple and Whitesnake, died in London on Monday of a pulmonary embolism after a battle with pancreatic cancer, said a statement on his official website.



Lord co-wrote some of Deep Purple's most famous tunes, including "Smoke on the Water," and later had a successful solo career after his retirement from the band in 2002.



The Leicester, England-born musician got his start playing piano, first taking classical music lessons before shifting to rock 'n' roll.



After moving to London to attend drama school, he joined blues band the Artwoods in 1964 and later toured with the Flowerpot Men — known for their hit "Let's Go to San Francisco" — before joining Deep Purple in 1968.



Deep Purple — which at its peak featured Lord along with singer Ian Gillan, guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, drummer Ian Paice and bassist Roger Glover — was one of the top hard-rock bands of the 1970s. Influenced by classical music, blues and jazz, Lord took his Hammond organ and distorted its sound to powerful effect on songs including "Hush," "Highway Star," "Lazy" and "Child in Time."



The group sold more than 100 million albums before splitting in 1976.



Lord went on to play with hard rock group Whitesnake in the late '70s and early '80s and, later, a re-formed Deep Purple.


Jon Lord has sadly passed away


July 16, 2012



It is with deep sadness we announce the passing of Jon Lord, who suffered a fatal pulmonary embolism today, Monday 16th July at the London Clinic, after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. Jon was surrounded by his loving family.



Jon Lord, the legendary keyboard player with Deep Purple co-wrote many of the bands legendary songs including Smoke On The Water and played with many bands and musicians throughout his career.



Best known for his Orchestral work Concerto for Group & Orchestra first performed at Royal Albert Hall with Deep Purple and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in 1969 and conducted by the renowned Malcolm Arnold, a feat repeated in 1999 when it was again performed at the Royal Albert Hall by the London Symphony Orchestra and Deep Purple.



Jon’s solo work was universally acclaimed when he eventually retired from Deep Purple in 2002.



Jon passes from Darkness to Light.



Jon Lord 9 June 1941 – 16 July 2012.



Personal message from Ritchie about Jon Lord's passing:


Jon was not only a great musician, he was my favorite dinner companion. We are all deeply saddened. We knew he was sick but the word was that he was recovering and doing much better.

This news came as a complete shock. Without Jon there would be no Deep Purple. He lives on in our hearts and memories.

TributesHearing of Lord's death, Richard Jones of Welsh band Stereophonics, commented, "Deep Purple in Rock was the 1st album I bought. RIP Jon Lord." Geezer Butler of the band Black Sabbath wrote, "One of the great musicians of my generation", while jazz musician Jamie Cullum said, "RIP Jon Lord – a hero of the keys." American rock guitarist Tom Morello commented, "Deep Purple's cornerstone/keyboardist. So many great great songs and that incredible SOUND of his!"[1]




Former keyboard player of rock band Yes, Rick Wakeman, who was a friend of Lord's, said he was "a great fan" and added "We were going to write and record an album before he become ill. His contribution to music and to classic rock was immeasurable and I will miss him terribly."



The Kinks posted at their website: "RIP Jon Lord. A fantastic pianist and composer. With The Kinks, he played keyboards on You Really Got Me. Legend." Dee Snider of heavy metal band Twisted Sister tweeted: "What an amazing musician and a true gentleman. We lost a great one", while Slash, former guitarist with Guns n' Roses commented, "One of the biggest, baddest, heaviest sounds in heavy metal. One of a kind."[18]



Singer Bryan Adams wrote online, "RIP Jon Lord – incredible organist for Deep Purple, one of my fave bands growing up" while veteran DJ Bob Harris said Lord was "a gentleman." Actor Ewan McGregor tweeted, "Jon played with my great friend Tony Ashton. They'll be jamming upstairs now!"[19]



National Turk commented, "Every kid who gets a guitar quickly learns to bat out the guitar riffs of "Smoke on the Water". But listeners should be just as aware of the fat, satisfying chords of Jon Lord’s organ, a force which gave Blackmore’s iconic chords their ideal answer."[20

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Lord


---------------
My most embarassing moment on this newsgroup: Lord responds 5/11/01

Date: 1999/05/09


LordYewden wrote:

> Vince wrote

>

> >there IS a difference with IG: there's the one who used to be able to



> >sing...then there's this other guy nowadays called IGwho can't

(except in >the

> studio alittle bit).

>

> Then there's the one I stand behind on stage every night who sings


like an


> absolute dream. Mind you what do I know - I've only been playing organ


for him


> to sing to for the past 30 years.


> Regards


> Jon



Wow---is this REALLY Jon Lord? 8-)



If so, I'm only agreeing with Ritchie regarding Ian's voice nowadays.

Then again,

I'm basing this largely on the "Come Hell or High Water" video.



Vince

THE KENNEDY DETAIL: ANOTHER THING OR TWO

-Blaine says former Shift Leader Art Godfrey gave his blessings to his book [6th Floor Museum video]. Godfrey died in 2002, while Blaine, by his own admission in press interviews, did not begin writing his book until the Summer of 2005!;




-Blaine says he was never interviewed by any author of any book [C-SPAN], yet, William Manchester, in his massive best-selling book “The Death of a President”, references a 1965 interview with Blaine, even thanking Blaine AGAIN in his 1983 book “One Brief Shining Moment.” If that weren’t enough, I interviewed Blaine twice, not including e-mails, for my own book “Survivor’s Guilt”, while Blaine is mentioned in the updated version of Waldron & Hartmann’s “Ultimate Sacrifice”;



-Blaine later added that he was NOT interviewed by Manchester [joint 6th Floor Museum interview video with Clint Hill]---a fact disputed by Manchester’s own notes and book---and confirms (as I already knew) that Floyd Boring was not interviewed by Manchester;





-Blaine states in his book that Ike rode in a CLOSED car all the time, yet numerous photos and films demonstrate the opposite: Ike most often rode in an OPEN car [You Tube video compilation of 35+ photos];



-Blaine claims that the bubbletop was rarely used by JFK and, if it was, it was only used in bad weather conditions, yet this author has found quite a few photos and films showing the bubbletop in use in bright, no-rain conditions by a smiling JFK (who allegedly hated the top), including those depicting the PARTIAL top: just the front and rear pieces assembled with the MIDDLE part missing, thus allowing a semi “open” car and protection, as well [2 You Tube compilations+ numerous blog photos];



-In PERHAPS a misstatement, Blaine says on that same solo 6th Floor Museum video “We were violating our fellow agents who have passed on”…?!?!?!;



-On MSNBC, Chris Matthews asked Blaine if ANYTHING could have been done to prevent the assassination. Blaine’s response: “NO, nothing could have been done.” What? Incredible. On the same show, as he said elsewhere, Blaine DID say “We were 100 % failure.” Agreed.;



-Blaine was NOT in Dallas on 11/22/63 and both is co-author Lisa McCubbin and I were born after that date (I mention that only because he made an issue out of it on C-SPAN);





-On pages 359-360 of his book, Blaine takes me to task for my misidentification of the Love Field recall agent as being Henry Rybka, when , in actual fact, it was Don Lawton, a relatively minor error in the big scheme of things. That said, I have addressed this issue at length via two different You Tube videos, various blogs, etc. The bottom line: Rybka’s report and film depicted in the 2009 History Channel documentary “JFK: 3 Shots That Changed America conclusively confirm that Rybka DID indeed walk/ jog beside the limo, but that he was relieved by Lawton, who was the agent famously recalled by Roberts. Also, Lawton’s alleged 2010 statement that he was “going to lunch” and so forth is not credible…at all;



-During yet another 6th Floor Museum appearance (with Hill & Blaine, hosted by Gary Mack), co-author Lisa McCubbin mentions that, during the writing of the book, she would find things that contradicted what Blaine was telling her. Ultimately, she copped out, stating “he was there”…no, he wasn’t there on 11/22/63 in Dallas AND WHAT ABOUT ALL HIS COLLEAGUES WHO REFUTE HIM? Geez. McCubbin strikes me as a good investigative reporter. One wonders if her closeness to Blaine (she grew up with him and even dated his son!), along with the allure of big money, swayed her to “look away”, so to speak, at all the conflicting and contradictory evidence



BUT, IN THE MAIN, PLEASE SEE:




http://www.ctka.net/reviews/kennedydetailreview.html




http://ctka.net/reviews/slick_propaganda.html




http://www.ctka.net/reviews/MrsKennedy_Hill_Review_Palamara.html

Lisa McCubbin sends me a message...

(via Goodreads)
message 9: by Lisa (new) - rated it 5 stars 5 minutes ago

With all due respect, Mr. Palamara, your 22-page letter had absolutely nothing to do with either of these books. I am the co-author of both books, and I know exactly how everything developed. To insert yourself into the equation is erroneous and arrogant. Please discontinue from spreading this notion. Thanks.





by Vince 0 minutes ago

"Thanks" yourself haha! With all due respect (and I DO really like your book with Clint Hill), I know the REAL story: Clint Hill received my 22-page letter; Hill and Jerry are very good (best?) friends; Jerry *quoted* from the letter when I called him a few days later; Jerry had 0.0 notion of writing a book until that event: reading how many of his colleagues said JFK did NOT order the agents off his limousine; Jerry's attorney sent me a letter (ahem...); Jerry and Clint talked about me on C-SPAN, including showing a video of mine; Clint again spoke of me on C-SPAN; I am on pages 359-360 of Blaine's book; and former agent Larry Newman told me some things confirming my statements. I had 0.0 to do with the writing of either book (of course!)...but I am firmly convinced my letter prompted Blaine into action. Vince Palamara: SAIC Behn, ASAIC Boring, ATSAIC Godfrey, and many other agents told me, in writing+, that JFK never interfered with their actions, nor did he order the agents off his limo. ALSO: several prominent White House staffers told me the same exact thing, a total stranger on the phone and/ or via mail, all YEARS BEFORE Blaine's book appeared. Have a lovely day :O)




by Vince 0 minutes ago

P.S. Lisa, you were very good on C-SPAN the other day. Nice to see Clint looking good again! (and I know what you're thinking: "spare me, Vince" haha) :)
http://thekennedydetailsecretservicejfk.blogspot.com/2012/06/secret-service-did-indeed-have.html

TV’s most ‘impactful’ moments: 9/11, Katrina, O.J., Nielsen study says

 MOST POWERFUL EVENT IN TV HISTORY

These iconic scenes all gripped the nation, but nothing was as "universally impactful" as another event

TV’s most ‘impactful’ moments: 9/11, Katrina, O.J., Nielsen study says (7/11/12)


The Sept. 11th tragedy was the most powerful event in television history, according to a new study released Wednesday by Sony Electronics and Nielsen.




According to Nielsen's survey of 1,077 American adults, 9/11 was the most "universally impactful" televised moment of the last 50 years, followed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the O.J. Simpson verdict in 1995, Challenger space shuttle disaster in 1986 and death of Osama bin Laden last May.



To measure impact, Nielsen and Sony combined the number of people that viewed the event live, could recall where they were and people could remember who they discussed it with--which may explain why the surreal, slow-speed chase of Simpson's white Ford Bronco on June 17, 1994 ranked higher on the list than the earthquake in Japan, Columbine High School shootings and 2010 BP oil spill.



It may also help explain why the endlessly-hyped wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011 was more "impactful," according to Nielsen, than the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963.



Here is the top 20, according to the survey:



1. September 11th tragedy (2001)

2. Hurricane Katrina (2005)

3. O.J. Simpson verdict (1995)

4. The Challenger space shuttle disaster (1986)

5. Death of Osama bin Laden (2011)

6. O.J. Simpson white Bronco chase (1994)

7. Earthquake in Japan (2011)

8. Columbine High School shooting (1999)

9. BP oil spill (2010)

10. Princess Diana's funeral (1997)

11. Death of Whitney Houston (2012)

12. Capture and execution of Saddam Hussein (2006)

13. Barack Obama's acceptance speech (2008)

14. The Royal Wedding (2011)

15. Assassination of John F. Kennedy (1963)

16. Oklahoma City bombing (1995)

17. Bush/Gore election results (2000)

18. L.A. riots (1992)

19. Casey Anthony verdict (2011)

20. Funeral of John F. Kennedy (1963)

Five (bin Laden's killing, the earthquake in Japan, Casey Anthony verdict, royal wedding and death of Whitney Houston) of the top 20 most powerful moments occurred within the last two years, while JFK's assassination and funeral in 1963 were the only televised events from the 1960s and '70s. And just one from the 1980s--the Challenger disaster--registered among the 20 most resonating, TV-wise.



The survey was conducted by Nielsen in February. Sony commissioned the study, in part, to prove that despite the prevalence of Facebook and Twitter, people still watch major news events on television. "The study shows that we still turn to TV to inspire those [social media] discussions," Sony Electronics VP Brian Siegel said. (Loose translation: We should buy more TVs, preferably from Sony.)



It also showed that age and gender play a big part in what we consider "must-see" TV.



Apart from 9/11, the most highly recalled events among females were the 1997 funeral of Princess Diana, the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton and the 2004 finale of "Friends." Among men, the killing of bin Laden and the U.S. hockey team's 1984 Olympic win were the most "impactful" television events excluding the 2011 terror attacks.



Among women aged 18-34, the Tiger Woods cheating episode ranked highest in the scandal category, whereas President Bill Clinton affair with Monica Lewinsky had a greater effect among men in the same age range.



Men over the age of 55, meanwhile, were impacted heavily the "Thrilla in Manila" bout between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, and Joe Namath's touchdown pass during Super Bowl III. But 18-34-year-old men said they were most "impacted" by LeBron James' decision to sign with the Miami Heat.

.POLL What was the most powerful event on TV in the past 50 years?What was the most powerful event on TV in the past 50 years?


September 11 O.J. Simpson verdict JFK’s assassination Vote View Results »

..84,672 votesMost powerful event on TV revealed »

.

What was the most powerful event on TV in the past 50 years?



September 11



81%

O.J. Simpson verdict



1%

JFK’s assassination



18%

Thank you for voting.

..85,730 votesMost powerful event on TV revealed »

.

..

Former Philadelphia Police Commissioner & Secret Service Agent Kevin M. Tucker Was A Rahway Resident

Former Philadelphia Police Commissioner & Secret Service Agent Kevin M. Tucker Was A Rahway Resident

June 20, 2012

Obituary



Kevin M. Tucker

MOUNT HOLLY — Kevin M. Tucker, 71, passed away on Tuesday, June 19, surrounded by family at Samaritan Hospice Inpatient Center at Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly, after a long and courageous battle against a brain tumor.



Friends and family may call at the Bradley Funeral Home, 601 Route 73 South, Marlton, on Thursday, June 21 from 2 – 4 p.m. and 6 – 9 p.m. His Funeral Mass will be at St. Mary of the Lakes Church, 40 Jackson Road, Medford, on Friday, June 22, at 10:30 a.m. There will be a private internment for the family immediately following the funeral at Gate of Heaven Cemetery, East Hanover.



Born in New York City on June 21, 1940, Mr. Tucker was one of six children born to the late William and Catherine Tucker, themselves Irish immigrants. Prior to entering high school, the family moved to Rahway, where Mr. Tucker attended St. Mary High School in Elizabeth.



Mr. Tucker served in the military police of the United States Army for three years after high school and then received his undergraduate degree from New Jersey State Teacher’s College, now known as Kean University. He met his wife Judy Kreshok of Hillside while attending college, and they were married on July 16, 1966.



While in college, Mr. Tucker supported himself by working nights as a police officer in Rahway and credits his later career in the Secret Service to his single-handed apprehension of three would-be car thieves who were wanted by the Secret Service.



He was hired by the Secret Service shortly after those arrests. His first assignment was to protect First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and her children Caroline and John, following the President’s assassination. He became close with the family and remained with them until Jacqueline Kennedy remarried in 1968. He was then transferred to Secret Service Headquarters in Washington, D.C., where he spent the next five years. During that time he and his family lived in Rockville, Maryland.






Mr. Tucker was then promoted to Special Agent-In-Charge of the Philadelphia field office, overseeing operations in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. A significant highlight for Mr. Tucker during that time was managing the protection of Pope John Paul II when he visited Philadelphia in 1978. Upon leaving the Secret Service after a 20-year career, Mrs. Kennedy inscribed a book of President Kennedy’s speeches: “To Kevin Tucker, whose humor and intelligence made our time together so memorable and so missed.”



After retiring from the Secret Service, Mr. Tucker was selected in 1986 by Mayor Wilson Goode of Philadelphia to become the first outsider appointed Commissioner of the Philadelphia Police Department in over sixty years. During his tenure, Mr. Tucker created a special task force charged with studying the role of the Police Department in the community, which led to the establishment of community policing and other key innovations. He is credited with having brought sweeping reforms and restoring public confidence in the Philadelphia Police Department. In June, 1997, the Police Athletic League honored him by opening the Kevin M. Tucker PAL Center, located at Alexander Wilson Elementary School in Southwest Philadelphia.



Leaving the Philadelphia Police Department for the private sector, Mr. Tucker served as a Senior Vice President of PNC Bank. He was also very active in community service, founding the Corporate Alliance for Drug Education (CADE), and was a strong supporter of INROADS and the Police Athletic League, among other organizations.



Following his diagnosis with a brain tumor in 1990, Mr. Tucker became involved in biomedical research, and served for more than 12 years as a member of the Board of Managers of The Wistar Institute, a National Cancer Institute Cancer Center focused on biomedical research in Philadelphia. He chaired Wistar’s Board from 1998 until 2005. During his tenure as chair, Wistar recruited a new president, approved a new strategic plan that called for expansion of the Institute’s faculty and renewal of its facility, and made remarkable strides in fundraising and board development, among many other achievements. In 2007, Mr. Tucker was named “Man of the Year,” by Wistar, for his continued commitment and dedication to cancer research. It was his hope that though he may not benefit from this research, that others someday would find a cure in the brain tumor work being conducted at Wistar.



Mr. Tucker was an avid golfer, and enjoyed traveling and spending the winters at his home in Jupiter, Florida in his retirement. Despite a luminous career, his greatest joy was his family, who will miss him terribly.



Mr. Tucker will be remembered as a loving husband, a devoted father and a proud grandfather. Surviving is his devoted wife Judy, his daughter, Christine Tucker Boyle, and son-in-law Brian Boyle of Centreville, VA, and his son, Kevin D. Tucker, and daughter-in-law Katherine Tucker, of Danbury, CT. Kevin is also survived by his four grandchildren; Sarah Boyle, Andrew Boyle, Caroline Tucker and William Tucker, along with his twin brother John Tucker, brothers Edmund Tucker, William Tucker, and sister Kathleen Tucker Cadigan and their families. He was preceded in death by his sister, Maureen Tucker Crue.



In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Mr. Tucker’s memory to the Albert R. Taxin Brain Tumor Research Center at The Wistar Institute, 3601 Spruce Street, Suite 242, Philadelphia, PA 19104. Donations can be made by calling 1-215-898-3930 or online at http://www.wistar.org/our-science/research-areas/give

Obituary: Glenn L Weaver

Glenn L. Weaver


GLENN L.

WEAVER, 79



WINTER HAVEN - Glenn L. Weaver, 79, passed away Sunday, April 4, 2010 in Winter Haven due to Alzheimer's.

He was born December 17, 1930 and was raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Glenn was the son of the late Roy and Inez Weaver. He attended Creston High School graduating in 1949. Glenn served in the U.S. Coast Guard aboard a Destroyer Escort from 1951-1954 performing Air Sea rescue between Hawaii and the Philippines. He received a B.S. in accounting and police administration and graduated with honors from Michigan State College in 1956.

Mr. Weaver became a Special Agent, United States Secret Service in 1957. He was assigned to offices in Washington, DC, the White House Presidential Protective Detail and was the Agent in Charge of the Humphrey Vice Presidential Protective Division Detail from 1962-1966. Glenn attended the Industrial War College at Ft. McNair from 1970-1971 earning a M.B.A. degree as the Treasuries Representative. His last assignment was as Special Agent in charge of the Denver Field office from 1970-1980. He enjoyed woodworking, gardening, photography and loved his family deeply.

He is survived by his wife, Marie Weaver, Kissimmee, FL; his son, Terry Weaver, Lakewood, CO; his daughter, Bonnie Hahn, Denver, CO; his stepchildren, Monica Wamken, Jakarta, Indonesia, Tina Carver, Ouray, CO and Patricia Burlingame, Amarillo, TX; his grandchildren, Elizabeth, Catherine, Rebecca, Austin, Adalyn, Jessica, Luke, Jake, Blake and Ashley.

Memorial services will be held on Saturday, April 10, 2010 at 11 00 AM at the First Presbyterian Church of Haines City, FL.

Memorial contributions can be made in Mr. Weaver's memory to the Hawthorne Inn 625 Overlook Drive SE, Winter Haven, FL, 33884, Good Shepherd Hospice 105 Arneson Ave., Auburndale, FL, 33823 and the First Presbyterian Church 104 Scenic Hwy, Haines City, FL 33844.

William Kelly: The Tampa Plot in Retrospect

The Tampa Plot in Retrospect

JFK at MacDill AFB, Florida, November 18, 193

Former SS Agent Blaine said that he has kept some of the advance reports on the Tampa trip, reports that had previously been reported destroyed.

The Tampa Plot in Retrospect - By William Kelly

Four days before he was killed in Dallas President Kennedy visited Tampa, Florida, where he addressed the Steelworkers Union and then later in Miami the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) to whom he delivered a major speech on Cuba, part of which was said to have been designed to confirm his support for a coup in Cuba.

In the course of this trip, which included a long motorcade that began and ended at MacDill AFB, Kennedy met privately with the commander of MacDill, a base where a quick-strike unit was prepared to intervene in Cuba if called upon to do so. As Peter Dale Scott has pointed out, MacDill AFB was the recipient of the special message from Dallas PD officer Stringfellow informing the Quick-Strike unit that the accused assassin was a Cuban Communist, a possible instigation to mobilize.

Also in the course of the visit to Tampa, the Secret Service and local authorities investigated a plot to kill the president, a conspiracy that included shooting the President with a high powered rifle while he rode in the motorcade, and a patsy, Gilberto Lopez, a Cuban affiliated with the FPCC who was trying to get back into Cuba, and eventually did so, via the same route Oswald allegedly tried to take via Texas and Mexico City.

News of the Tampa plot was confined to a single newspaper report, and picked up by the UPI, but Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann explore this plot further and in some detail in their books “Ultimate Sacrifice” (Carroll & Graf, 2005) and “Legacy of Secrecy” (Counterpoint, 2008).

While their view of the assassination is somewhat warped by the adherence to their theory that what happened at Dealey Plaza was planned by Mafia dons in league with some CIA officers and Cubans planning a “C-Day” coup and US invasion of Cuba, much of what they have uncovered is true and can be independently verified.

Laying the basic ground work in “Ultimate Sacrifice – John and Robert Kennedy, the Plan for a Coup in Cuba, and the Murder of JFK,” at first they intentionally neglected to name their primary suspect to lead the Coup in Cuba, a coup that the CIA was unmistakably plotting. Desmond Fitzgerald (on September 25, 1964) informed the Joint Chiefs of Staff of their “Valkyrie” plan, based on a failed plot to kill Hitler adapted to Cuba. This plan targeted disenchanted Cuban military officers and a few revolutionary figures close to Castro.

That alone is a major research breakthrough, and if they would have stopped right there and entwined the details of how that Cuban coup planning was redirected to Dealey Plaza, it would have been enough, but they further developed their theory with the additional details - that the Kennedys had a approved a coup in Cuba to take place on C-Day (Dec. 1) and that this plot was hijacked by Mafia dons Santo Traficante and Carlos Marcello and used to kill Kennedy.

Although he is not named in the first edition of their book, Juan Almeida is identified in hastily published follow up edition after Almeida was named by others.

My primary problems with their work is centered on the fact that they made up the term “C-Day” for the date of their planned coup and invasion of Cuba, so it is not a term you will find in any government records, although the idea of a coup in Cuba was the subject of many discussions that are memorialized in memos and documents, especially the military records found among the Califano papers, released under the JFK Act [ and posted on-line at Mary Ferrell ]

It has also been brought to our attention that on the date of the supposed coup, it has been documented that Almeida was in an airplane on the way to Africa to lead Cuban forces in the Congo, so he was in no position to lead a coup in Cuba and in any case, he didn’t, and is still considered in the good graces of the Castro government in Cuba.

My other problem with the Waldron/Hartman theory is that the coup plan was known to, infiltrated and hijacked by Mafia dons, when in fact the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who were in cahoots in the Valkyrie Plot, were quite capable of redirecting the Havana coup from Castro to Kennedy without any help from their Mafia friends, though they certainly could have been used in some of the tactical aspects (ie. silencing the Patsy).

Nor do I think that their extensive use of anonymous sources contributes to their credibility, though I believe their unidentified ONI source as having shadowed Oswald and destroying official government records related to Oswald immediately after he was arrested.

That said, Waldron and Hartmann have done extensive research into the Tampa plot, and reported what they knew in their books, some of which is quoted here.

In “Ultimate Sacrifice” (p. 145), they write: “Authorities had received credible reports of threats against JFK, and Tampa authorities had uncovered a plan to assassinate JFK during his long motorcade there...Long-secret Congressional reports confirm that ‘the threat on November 18, 1963 was posed by a mobile, unidentified rifleman shooting from a window in a tall building with a high power rifle fitted with a scope.’ One Secret Service agent told Congressional investigators that ‘there was an active threat against the President of which the Secret Service was aware in November 1963 in the period immediately prior to JFK’s trip to Miami made by ‘a group of people.’”

“The Tampa threat was confirmed to us by Chief of Police (J.P.) Mullins, who also confirmed that it wasn’t allowed to be published at the time. However, as with Chicago, JFK knew about the Tampa assassination threat. In the words of a high Florida law-enforcement official at the time, ‘JFK had been briefed he was in danger.’”

JFK at MacDill - Mary Ferrell Photo Archives

“After JFK arrived in Tampa on November 18, 1963, newspapers say that he was first ‘closeted’ with ‘General Paul Adams, commanding officer of the Strike [Force] Command’ for a ‘secret session at MacDill.’ Joining General Adams were the commander of the Tactical Air Command headquartered at Langley AFB, Virginia, and the Commander of the Army Command based at Fort Monroe, Virginia…The Strike Force Command is known as Central Command, or CentCom, today. It was described in newspapers at the time as ‘the nation’s brushfire warfare force,’ designed for rapid deployment to trouble spots…Following his brief meeting with the military leaders, JFK continued a heavy schedule of speeches and public appearances. His main motorcade for the public lasted about forty minutes….”

JFK at MacDill - Mary Ferrell Photo Archives

After the motorcade JFK addressed the United Steelworkers at the International Inn, where Waldron and Hartman say, “Just four days later, Trafficante would go to the site of JFK’s last speech in Tampa, the International Inn to publicly toast and celebrate JFK’s death in Dallas.”

After that Tampa speech, Kennedy went to Miami to address the media, and reportedly included in his speech, a special message for those who were contemplating a coup in Cuba.

“The Tampa Police Chief on November 18, 1963, J.P. Mullins, confirmed the existence of the plot to assassinate JFK in Tampa that day. While all news of the threat was suppressed at the time, two small articles appeared right after JFK’s death, but even then the story was quickly suppressed. Mullins was quoted in those 42-year old articles, and he didn’t speak for publication about the threat again until he spoke with us in 1996, confirming not just the articles but adding important new details.” (p. 254)

“The Tampa attempt is documented in full for the first time in any book later; but briefly, it involved at least two men, one of whom threatened to ‘use a gun’ and was described by the Secret Service as ‘white, male, 20, slender build,’ 28.….According to Congressional investigators, ‘Secret Service memos’ say ‘the threat on Nov. 18, 1963 was posed by a mobile, unidentified rifleman shooting from a window in a tall building with a high powered rifle fitted with a scope.’ 29. That was the same basic scene in Chicago and Dallas.”

“Chief Mullins confirmed that the police were told about the threat by the Secret Service prior to JFK’s motorcade through Tampa, which triggered even more security precautions. One motorcade participant still recalls commenting at the time that ‘at every overpass there were police officers with rifles on alert.”

“Secret Service agents in Tampa were probably subjected to the same pressure for secrecy as those in Chicago…It also explains why, in the mid-1990s, the Secret Service destroyed documents about JFK’s motorcades in the weeks before Dallas, rather than turn them over to the Assassinations Records Review Board as the law required. 36 As noted earlier, that destruction occurred just weeks after the authors had first informed the Review Board about the Tampa attempt.” 37 (p. 256)

“There is clear evidence that the Secret Service and other agencies handled the serious JFK assassination attempts in Chicago and Tampa far differently from earlier assassination attempts we’ve researched. Since just after JFK’s election, most attempts to kill him would briefly make the newspapers at the time of the incident. 38 That was even true for minor, routine threats to JFK in Chicago and Tampa in the fall of 1963,…”

“The Tampa attempt was kept completely out of the news media at the time of JFK’s visit, and for four days afterward. Only two small articles about the Tampa attempt finally appeared after JFK’s death, one in Tampa on Saturday, November 23. By the time the next article appeared in Miami on Sunday, the authorities had clammed up and were no longer talking. There were no follow-up articles in either paper. 40 The two articles went unnoticed by Congressional investigators and historians for decades…”

“What made the attempts to kill JFK in Chicago and Tampa (and later Dallas) different from all previous threats was the involvement of Cuban suspects – and a possible Cuban agent – in each area. In addition, these multi-person attempts were clearly not the work of the usual lone, mentally ill person, but were clearly the result of coordinated planning. The Chicago and Tampa assassination attempts took place… when US officials were making plans for dealing with the possible “assassination” of “American officials” in retaliation for US actions against Castro…”

“In both the Tampa and Dallas attempts, officials sought a young man in his early twenties, white with slender build, who had been in recent contact with a small pro-Castro group called the Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC). In Dallas that was Lee Harvey Oswald, but the Tampa person of interest was Gilberto Policarpo Lopez, who – like Oswald- was a former defector. 44 We later document eighteen parallels between Dallas suspect Lee Harvey Oswald and Gilberto Policarpo Lopez, but here are a few: Like Oswald, Lopez was also of interest to Navy Intelligence. Also similar to Oswald, Gilberto Lopez made a mysterious trip to Mexico City in the fall of 1963, attempting to get to Cuba. Lopez even used the same border crossing as Oswald, and government reports say both went one way by car, though neither man owned a car. Like Oswald, Lopez had recently separated from his wife and had gotten into a fistfight in the summer of 1963 over supposedly pro-Castro sympathies. 45 Declassified Warren Commission and CIA documents confirm that Lopez, whose movements parallel Oswald in so many ways in 1963, was on a secret ‘mission’ for the US involving Cuba, an ‘operation’ so secret that the CIA felt that protecting it was considered more important than thoroughly investigating the JFK assassination.” 46

“Since the initial publication of Ultimate Sacrifice, a few additional references to Tampa have surfaced. On June 10, 2005, - five months before the first public revelation of the Tampa attempt in our book – the Secret Service’s advance agent for JFK’s trip to Tampa made an intriguing comment during an interview with researcher Vince Palamara. Retired agent Gerald Blaine said there were ‘more characters’ for the Secret Service to worry about ‘in Tampa’ than in Dallas. Blaine said ‘we were really concerned about that. We did a lot of work on that.’ Palamara writes that “Blaine added that he was riding in the lead car with the Chief of Police’ during JFK’s Tampa motorcade.” 36 (p. 718)

(36 Vince Michael Palamara Survivor’s Guilt: The Secret Service & the Failure to Protect the President (Pennsylvania, 2005, pp. 20, 21)

Also see:

2. “Threats on Kennedy Made Here,” Tampa Tribune 11/23/63; “Man Held In Threats to JFK,” Miami Herald 11-24-63 – it is bylined Tampa (UPI), so it may well have appeared in other newpapers.

3. Frank DeBenedictis, “Four Days before Dallas, “ Tampa Bay History Fall/Winter 1994

[BK Notes: If anyone can obtain the Tampa Tribute Article “Man Held in Threats to JFK” of 11/23/63, I’d like to have the text copy so I can post it, as well as Frank’s article.]

Military ready for action. Caption reads: Initial USAF deliveries to MacDill AFB, Florida, in November 1963, were 29 "borrowed" Navy F-4Bs (given USAF serial numbers, but eventually returned). These 12th and 15th Tactical Fighter Wing aircraft were soon joined by production F-4Cs. Both types appear in this photo.

A moment in history before Kennedy tragedy

Saturday 7 July 2012

A moment in history before Kennedy tragedy

Paul Elgood, author of a new book on JF Kennedy's 1963 visit to Birch Grove in Horsted Keynes

Published on Thursday 28 June 2012 18:00

THIS weekend sees the 49th anniversary of the visit by John F Kennedy to Birch Grove, the Horsted Keynes home of then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan.

Kennedy arrived on Saturday, June 29, 1963, and stayed one night at Macmillan’s private home in the country before flying from Gatwick to Italy to continue a European tour.
Less than six months later, on November 22, 1963, he was shot dead in Dallas in what was a moment of violent madness that became etched in history books forever.
Now, Paul Elgood, the author of a new book, claims to shed further light on JFK’s visit to Birch Grove, which took place at the height of the Cold War.
Paul says the brief 24-hour visit is often overlooked, but the time spent together by the two heads of state, in the Sussex countryside, cemented their relationship and the Anglo-American friendship.

Afterwards, both men saw their work curtailed, Macmillan when he resigned as Prime Minister in October, and Kennedy, when he lost a child just weeks later and then his own life to an assassin’s bullet.
Paul describes his 82-page book as a short history written using three sets of government files – those at the UK National Archives in Kew, the JFK Library in Boston and the East Sussex archives in Lewes.
He said: “Whilst not newly released, it is the first time anyone has pieced the three sets of files together. And what a story emerges!”
In the book, entitled Kennedy at Birch Grove – The Extraordinary Story of President Kennedy’s 1963 Visit to the Sussex Countryside – Paul reveals that Macmillan had to borrow a butler for the occasion, while his housekeeper was asked to move bedrooms to allow the president’s Secret Service agent to sleep in the room adjacent, and a small army of police officers got lost on their way to protect him.
East Sussex police chief R Berefit arranged protection for the president, even having three magistrates sitting through the weekend in case they were needed. But Kennedy’s own Secret Service security bubble was so tight that the local police were left as by-standers to the immense US operation, which include three jumbo jets, two helicopters and more than 100 members of the press.
Paul said: “The visit has almost become folklore in the local area, and the actual government files made fascinating reading.
“Reading them is literally like going back in time and re-living those 24 hours in real time.”
He added: “Sadly, Kennedy was assassinated a few months later, and so much of the preparation of the Birch Grove visit mirrored that tragic day in Dallas. He was with the same people, used the same vehicles and planes and the arrangements were identical.
“Locally it is a well-told story, but further afield it became eclipsed by the historic visits to Berlin and Ireland in the days prior to the Birch Grove visit. Nearly 50 years on I really felt it deserved being re-told.”
Paul, who studied American History and Politics at university and is a former Brighton City councillor who also worked on Barack Obama’s 2008 election campaign, says he has been a JFK fan since he was 16 and first heard the Birch Grove story.
He now hopes events will be organised in Sussex next year to mark the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s visit as they are being elsewhere in Europe.
l Kennedy at Birch Grove, by Paul Elgood, 2012, is available at www.amazon.co.uk.
Publisher: CreateSpace (14 Jun 2012) ISBN-10: 1467996548 ISBN-13: 978-1467996549