Curtis LeMay on the Kennedys and the assassination-WOW!!

http://web2.millercenter.org/lbj/oralhistory/lemay_curtis_1971_0628.pdf








Frantz : Where were you at the time of the assassination?







LeMay : I was in Washington at the time--the Chief of Staff of the Air Force .







Frantz : You were at work on that particular day?







LeMay : No, I was off some place, at the actual time of the assassination, I was

called back .







Frantz: Yes, what was the situation that you found when you got back to Washington?

Was there a little bit of tenseness or was it pretty well decided that Lee

Harvey Oswald was just after one man?







LeMay: Well there wasn't much of a flap . Everybody was a little concerned that they

didn't know what made the attack, the assassination, so they wanted

everybody present for duty . That's the reason they were called back.







Frantz: Was there any great difference between working on the Joint Chiefs under

Johnson than it had been with Kennedy or did the fact that you had the same

Secretary of Defense insure the continuity?









LeMay : No, I didn't understand exactly what was going on . For several months

before the President was assassinated they were rumors, and then they

got to be a little more than rumors, Vice President Johnson was going to

be dropped for the coming election . And all the Kennedy team was finally

got to openly to giving to the Vice President to the back of their hands,

and it was rather embarrassing for the country around Washington because

it was so apparent . Then bang, all at once he is President .







Frantz : Yes.









LeMay : And I believe all of this hard feeling grew up around the flight from Fort

Worth back was brought on by these people who had really been vulgar in

my opinion and snubbing the Vice President who expected to be stepped on

like the cockroaches they were, and he didn't do it . As a matter of fact

quite the contrary . From all I got the President was extremely polite to

Mrs . Kennedy and the family and bent over backwards to do everything he

could to soften the blow if that is possible . It isn't, but he certainly

was a Southern gentleman in every respect during this period . And I think

this rather surprised these people because they expected the same kind of

treatment that they had given him and he didn't give it to him . Why, I don't

know : I really don't know because well I can understand in having to face

an election and I can understand him being a smart enough politician to

know if he threw out all of the Kennedy crowd and put his in, this might

split the Democratic party at the time in the next election and so forth .

So I can understand him keeping these people around until the election was

over, but then he won the election--he won it with the greatest majority

that any President has ever had, but he still kept these people around .

The same people that had treated him so miserably during this period just

before President Kennedy's assassination .



Frantz : This is curious .







LeMay : Yes . I could never understand, never could figure it out yet . The only

answer I could come up with is that knowing the vindictiveness of these

people, knowing the moral standards of these people, how ruthless that

they were, they must have had some threat over the President that he

knew that they would carry out .







Frantz: Did you get the feeling that he was satisfied with Secretary McNamara's

performance as Defense Secretary?







LeMay : I don't know that I can answer that question . It would seem that if he

wasn't satisfied, why he would have gotten a new one early in the period .

Afterwards I think he was actually dismissed finally . Things got so bad

that he had to get rid of him, but he did it in such a way to make it look

like it was a normal progression .









Frantz: Did you ever get any idea where he stood on this manned-bomber vs . missile

controversy?









LeMay: Well I don't know that there was a manned-bomber vs . missile controversy,

one being "either," "or ." We never believed that in the Air Force or any

place else . We thought we needed both . We needed both . As a matter of

fact, I get credit for being the big bomber General . Can't see anything

beyond the blinders . When I was in the research and development business

after the war started all in the big missile programs, the Atlas and the

Navaho and the basic facilities that gave us the missiles, we had to have

them, still like we have to have them and that we need both, we need both .









Frantz: There was it seemed to me at this time an outbreak of increased emphasis on

missiles and loss of flexibility of the manned equipment .









LeMay : It became apparent to me that McNamara's goal was to try to build a strategic

force that was equal to the Russian force . Sort of dragged his feet until

the Russians built up to what we were equal . These men believed that if

we were equal in strength then there wouldn't be any war . Well this is

an indication of how impractical these type of people are . To me this is

the best way of guaranteeing a war because you can only have peace if you

have a mutual respect between people, and if you don't have that and one

is plotting against the other, then eventually when he thinks he can get

away with it, he will come attack you . This has always been true in

history in the past . If they have got something you want and if he thinks

he can get it, he goes and gets it . This is just a human history . Even

if by some miracle you could design these two forces where they would be

equal, will everybody think they are equal? You can't control men's

minds . Then, if by some miracle you can design these tLwo forces, how long

are they going to stay equal? One is an opened society ; the other a closed

society . When is the closed society going to come up with a breakthrough

on some weapon system that will give them a tremendous advantage that you

don't know anything about? You're handicapping the open society by such

an arrangement . So I believe this is what Mr . McNamara was aiming at,

although he would never admit it any place along the line . He wouldn't

admit it now, I am sure, but that was what it was aimed at, and I honestly

believe that he thought about 1000 minuteman missiles would be enough for

this .

PAUL LANDIS: SUPER SECRET AGENT HERO? by Cantara Christopher

PAUL LANDIS: SUPER SECRET AGENT HERO? by Cantara Christopher

I swear this is genuine. Paul Landis, one of the Secret Service agents on the Kennedy protection detail in Dallas iwho failed to protect the president from an assassin's bullet back on that fateful November 22, 1963, has his own idea of how to start a picture. Got this personally from the director of the upcoming feature film The Kennedy Detail:




"Stephen, I don't know how you intend to open your movie, but I have an idea that I would like to run by you, not intending to intrude into your creative space. Just a thought. Please forgive any miss spelled words. I'm just going with the flow."

Paul (not Paulie)

Opening Scene: Taking place while titles, actors ,credits, etc. burn thru in white.

Start - Surround sound - Motorcycle engine starts - Loud - ...Varoom. Then a second - same sounds - Varoom...Varoom. Followed by other sounds, cars starting, "Let's roll", voices, commands, close ups of car wheels starting to move, cycles shifting into gear, Presidention flag on fender, feet walking & starting to jog, all close ups & tight shots...lots of quick shots & cuts...people waving...shouting...fenders...cycle exhause pipes...flashers blinking...Clint/Paul exchanging glances..."Jackie, Jackie"..."Mr. President"..."Over here, over here Mr. President" etc., etc. More pix of buildings, people in windows...waving. Someone running towards presidents limo, arm extended...Agent looks at hand, quick flash close up...gun?...Knife?...finally a camera. Another Agent pushes person back towards crowd. the person tumbles...motorcade continues.

All sorts of scenes taking place and building in intensity as motorcade reaches & continues down Main Street in Dallas. Finally, as motorcade slows & turns right onto Houston...sounds start to fade...crown thinning out.....camera scanning buildings, Plaza, overpass, etc. As other sounds fade out, an erie background sound starts to fade in. We are now going into slow motion as cars start turning left onto Elm St...Silence....Sound (Click, click...lock & load)...theatre audiance in suspense, silent, intence, waiting in anticipation. Everyone knows what is about to happen...silence......BAM...Screen goes White. Blank!

Next Scene: Version of scene 12 - Paul getting shot, etc...Paul wakes up with a start...covered in cold sweat. (His idea of how it should have been).

CUT

Page 2, Scene 20 - WRHS (either 2010, age 75, or 2011, age 76).

To be continued..................................

God save us from amateurs.



Cantara Christopher

Screenwriter, Bolden

Interesting Hollywood production re: Secret Service

Olympus Has Fallen: Director Antoine Fuqua Talks Trailer Debut

byJoel D AmosatJanuary 23, 2013 11:53 am

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Movie Fanatic was summoned to a Hollywood editing studio for a visit with director Antoine Fuqua as he put the finishing touches on his recently premiered Olympus Has Fallen trailer.

The director, whose last film gave us such stellar Training Day quotes, talked to us about the movie that follows Gerard Butler as a Secret Service Agent trying to save the President (Aaron Eckhart) from North Korean terrorists who have taken over the White House. Moments after he was done with the teaser, he showed it to Movie Fanatic and then… we asked his first impressions.
“I’m pretty excited about it,” Fuqua said.
Given the fact that this entire production was put together at warp speed, the helmer seems pretty pleased with what he sees… as do we. “I literally prepped this movie in six weeks. But the thing about it is that I hired great people -- smart technical people to help me. We built the White House ourselves in an empty freeway lot [in Louisiana]. Because of the technology today, we built Washington! I’m really proud of it and what we pulled off. And... I’m still working on it.”
Olympus Has Fallen lands in theaters quite soon and Fuqua admitted to being up to his ears in work to this day. “We are literally approving 200 shots a day and the movie has to be in theaters on March 22nd. I’ve never ever made a movie in this short of time. It does put a certain pressure on you,” he admitted. “You are going to see some scenes for yourself.”
Then, the helmer showed off a scene that takes place near the beginning of the film where Butler’s character is chaperoning the President and First Lady’s son in a caravan with the First Family leaving Camp David. Suddenly, the blinding snow causes a horrible accident. Butler swings into action to save the First Lady, and as shown in the newly released teaser… he does not succeed.
Butler, fresh off of Chasing Mavericks, envelops a character that is so distraught over the loss that he leaves the Presidential detail and joins the Treasury Department (that puts him geographically near the White House when the titular attack occurs).

Fuqua was taken by conversations he had with real Secret Service Agents and how they would react to tragedy. “One thing I learned from these guys and you know this as well because you know history: The Secret Service job is either 100-percent success or 100-percent failure. There is no in between for them," Fuqua said.
"Kennedy dies, it’s a failure. First Lady dies, it’s a failure. Your job is to protect the President. Even when Reagan got shot, that’s a failure. The fact he was even hit with a bullet and could have died, it was a failure. Their job is so extreme. For a guy like Banning (Butler), who’s always there to protect and put his life on the line for what he believes in, to remove himself because he felt he failed is quite real."
The director took inspiration from those charged with protecting President Kennedy. "There were a lot of guys who were involved in the Kennedy assassination, as far as Secret Service guys, who went through serious depression and alcoholism," he said.
"A lot of these guys go through so much emotionally when it happens because their job is prevention. It shouldn’t happen. Just like 9/11 shouldn’t have happened. One mistake… one time, these things can happen.”
Fuqua believes he’s achieved a classic hero’s journey with Olympus Has Fallen, perhaps a polar opposite journey of his main character in his last directorial effort, Training Day. “It’s like going into the belly of the beast, which is the White House," Fuqua said. Butler's character wants back in, but doesn't feel he deserves it. "It shows that if you ask for something, you might get it. Not exactly the way you want it, but it’s coming right at you."
The villains in this film are the North Koreans and Fuqua found that given their place in the world currently, and how films have overdone other geopolitical foes, it was a perfect fit.
“The Middle East has been done and done. You know that story. We’ve dealt with that. It seems to me, and we talk about this a lot, North Korea is the black spot on the globe. There is the least known about the country. They don’t let anybody in. They don’t let cameras in," Fuqua said.
"There was a great special on CNN that Lisa Ling narrated where they snuck cameras in and they showed public executions, people starving on the street. It’s a dangerous place. It’s so close to South Korea, it’s right at the border. Part of the thing we deal with in our movie is the Seventh Fleet, which is there to keep the peace and make sure North Korea stays in place.”

What also feels so real is in the footage we saw, the attackers come at the White House posing as tourists, something that sadly, could really happen.
“You see them getting off the bus. It’s set up, and that’s what I enjoyed about it. Anyone can come to this country and that is the beauty of it. It’s also scary, we all see people walking down Pennsylvania Avenue all the time. I’m sure they run these scenarios. For a movie, it’s great to explore. The attack happens [in the movie] on July 5. It’s the classic tale of hitting them while they sleep,” Fuqua said.
The director is still keenly aware that a film is meant to enlighten and entertain. “It’s a balance because it is supposed to be fun and it is a take over the White House movie but I wanted to make it feel authentic. I wanted you to believe this could happen, and I want you to think about that.”

Hank Halterman: his uncle Dennis R Halterman

Re: JFK Secret Service Agent Dennis R Halterman, deceased 1988

"Not my dad, [Harry D. Halterman] DRH was known to me as *Uncle Dennis* but I think actually the uncle of my dad and his brothers, still called that by everyone in our family including my grandmother and my mom. We got back to the states in March '58 after Fidel started targeting Americans [dad was a Texaco/CalTex refining engineer at the CalTex Santa Clara plant, followed by reworking cooling lines at the Port Arthur TX refinery after Hurricane Debbie in '59.] and he was a visitor at a couple of the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners at grandmother's house in Indiana, just across the river from the Lawrenceville. IL Texaco *Indian* refinery, where dad eventually spent 7 years or so. Among other things: mom and dad divorced in '65 and I think that Thanksgiving was the last year I saw *uncle Dennis* passing through downstate IL en route to Chicago, I believe. By then I'd pretty much planned on going into the Army after graduation, which I did in May '66. Among other things, I ran the question by him about going into the MPs, and if I did, what were likely prospects for a just-discharged ex-MP as to going into a federal law enforcement job, He told me not to avoid anything federal, that the quality and professionalism had so detiorated in the last decade as to make it a poor choice for a career, but if I just had to, to go for either the Border Patrol or Postal Inspectors. As it turned out, I did neither, and had a swell time as a tank crewdawg. # Discussing *the incident* at the dinnertable was taboo, but there's a story or two you might find amusing. # Any thoughts about the Steven King or O'Reilly JFK hit novels, or the new one out about Abraham Bolden?
---
In the Summer of 1960 I went to Camp Perry OH and attended the National [rifle] Matches and took the small arms firing school, where we were taught basic safety and operation of the rifle mostly in use at the matches at that time, the M1 Garand. This was nothing new for me; our Cub Scout pack was sponsored by the local Air National Guard unit and our meetings held at their armory, which included an indoor rifle range. When lousy weather made scheduled outdoor activities impractical, a session on the indoor range was common, and our unit's presence in local parades included an honor guard which was coached by the Guard's sergeants and which was equipped with the big M1 rifles; pretty hefty for 11 and 12-year old Scouts. In '60 I was 12. youngest in my SAFS class, which did include a couple of 13-year-olds, tho not as familiar with an M1s rifle as I was. I fired my score on the range, nothing Earth-shattering but not bad, and had a baseline to try to better next year. And so I did. I shot the matches again in August of '63, and yeah, I had improved, though I had discovered motorcycles and a new neighbor girl down the road by then. Uncle Dennis wasn't around for Thanksgiving in November that year, nor for Christmas. We kind of figured we knew why.
# The next year, he did show up, and asked me how my rifle team work had been going; it was about as close to the matters in Dallas of anything that had been said, and I told him. My dad's youngest brother was a university teacher and mouthy sort in a mostly Republican Baptist family, and uncle Jean made some comment about the limp Dennis had at the time, and asked, sarcastically, I think, if he had been hit by rifle fire in Dallas. He was told in no uncertain terms to shut his mouth and never say anything of the sort again, and that if he did, he could expect to look forward to a new career making duffel bags and combat boots as a convict laborer in a federal pen. It was the only time I can ever remember uncle Denny really mad about anything, though he didn't put up with stupid much, from me or anyone else. After my grandmother passed away in 1974, I'd lost all contact with him- the last time I saw him was at my dad's funeral in 1968."

Hank Halterman wrote- "*my [VINCE PALAMARA'S]book, COMING OUT FALL 2013 WORLDWIDE, will crucify him and his "pals*" Hope that includes Paul Landis and the gang at the Ft worth Cellar Club. Pity Pat Kirkwood's not around to retell THAT story! 2/26/13

CIA Director told RFK “there were two people involved in the shooting.”

CIA Director told RFK “there were two people involved in the shooting.”




In Dallas on the night of the assassination, one copy of the Zapruder film of the assassination of President Kennedy was hand delivered to the Grand Prarie Naval Air Station where a jet pilot flew it to Washington D.C.



The film was taken to Secret Service headquarters and it was reviewed, but since the Secret Service wasn’t in the business of analyzing films, two Secret Service agents took the film to the National Photo Interpretation Center (NPIC) at the Navy Yard where it was turned over to Dino Brugioni. Brugioni’s team analyzed it and made still blow ups of select individual frames that were mounted on briefing boards. They worked on the film throughout the night and in the morning the director of the NPIC, Art Lundal, took the briefing boards to the CIA Headquarters.



Lundal’s October 1962 briefing to JFK on U2 photo evidence of Soviet missiles in Cuba set off the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy was so impressed with Lundal’s briefing he sent Lundal to London and Paris to brief the US Ambasador (David Bruce), the Prime Minister and DeGaul. The content of Lundal’s briefing to CIA director John McCone is unkown, but it ostensibly was based on the NPIC analysis of the Zapruder film and the reports of the Secret Service agents who witnessed the assassination.



But when McCone went to the White House to brief the President, not only on the assassination but on international affairs, he found LBJ in the basement Situation Room monitoring reports from Dallas. When LBJ saw McCone, he waved him off, he didn’t need to know anything the CIA had to say about the assassination or anything else.



Brugioni wrote: "McCone found Lyndon Johnson colorless and crude in intelligence matters and, as president, clumsy and heavy-handed in international affairs. Instead of personally carefully considering prepared intelligence memorandums on intelligence matters, he preferred to be briefed by trusted advisors. Increasingly, the president sought intelligence information almost exclusively from Secretary McNamara and the Defense Department. McCone's advice simply was no longer actively sought by the president. His role diminished, his influence faded, and the ready access he had enjoyed during the Kennedy administration became very limited…"



While LBJ wasn’t interested in what the CIA had to say about the assassination, Robert F. Kennedy was interested, and a few weeks later, on December 9, RFK crossed paths with Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., a close aide and advisor to President Kennedy. When Kennedy’s casket was moved from the White House to the Capitol for the state funeral, RFK asked Schlesinger if the casket should be opened or closed. Schlesinger looked at the dead president’s lifeless body and waxed face and said it should be closed, and RFK agreed.



When they met on December 9th, Schlesinger asked RFK what he thought about the assassination, and in his journal Schlesinger wrote: “I asked him, perhaps tactlessly about Oswald. He said there could be no serious doubt that he was guilty, but there still was argument whether he did it by himself or as a part of a larger plot, whether organized by Castro or by gangsters. He said the FBI people thought he had done it by himself, but that McCone thought there were two people involved in the shooting.” (published in 2007 as Journals 1952-2000 (Penguin Press, Diary entry December 9, 1963 page 184),



That the Director of the CIA would tell the Attorney General he thought “there were two people involved in the shooting,” was not just a belief or an opinion, but was a determination based on the NPIC analysis of the Zapruder film and the reports of the Secret Service agents that witnessed the assassination who said that the President and Governor Connally were hit by separate shots, which indicated there was more than one gunman.

Vince Palamara:1/11/13 radio program- debunking The Kennedy Detail PLUS more

Vince Palamara:1/11/13 radio program- debunking The Kennedy Detail PLUS more

Letter to Secret Service Expert Vince Palamara 

Posted by The Memetrix to Stephen Gyllenhaal and The Kennedy Detail

by Cantara Christopher

Dear Vince,
First of all, I think you're right to shift your attention from Gerald Blaine's memoir and focus instead on the film version of The Kennedy Detail, as it will probably attract a larger audience than the book (though this is far from a certainty). There are quite an interesting number of JFK Assassination movies coming out this year. Let's consider how The Kennedy Detail stacks up against its competition:
Parkland is a major motion picture produced and starring Tom Hanks. Its theme: Valiant Doctors Battle the Odds to Save the President. It follows the no-conspiracy line, but audiences should warm to this movie easily. It's got Tom Hanks!
Legacy of Secrecy is another major motion picture that's been in the works for over two years and stars Leonardo DiCaprio. Its theme: The Mafia Did It. Sounds more edgy and intriguing than the Oliver Stone movie. It's got my interest because it's based on the books by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann. And while I think Waldron jumps to the wrong conclusions a little too often, I appreciate Hartmann for doing his bit to exonerate Abraham Bolden, the former Secret Service agent who Blaine smeared, in not-too-subtly racist terms, in his own book.
Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot is the working title for the History Channel movie based on Fox News pundit Bill O'Reilly's book and produced by top director-producer Ridley's Scott's outfit, Scott Free Television. Its theme: JFK's Assassination Changed the Course of History. I hear the book was fairly lame, but the producers intend to fill out their two-hour movie with recreated scenes, archival footage, and talking heads expounding their theories of what Kennedy's death has meant to America. I'm no fan of O'Reilly, and I've heard these arguments before, but this project smells as sweet as a rose compared to
The Kennedy Detail, produced by Achity Entertainment and Ramos & Sparks, with absolutely no big names attached as of this moment, and I doubt we'll be hearing of any come March when the cameras start rolling. As my friend, a Hollywood publicist who wishes to remain anonymous, pointed out, Achity Entertainment spends an inordinate amount of time trawling around writing schools and workshops in order to exploit hungry novice writers, while Ramos & Sparks primarily does public relations for sports personalities. The production team though includes some competent below-the-line people; the line producer, set designer, and casting directors all have good reputations, so the look of the movie may turn out all right.
Unfortunately, they plan to show it first on the Discovery Channel, a basic cable channel already notorious for offensively dubious “reality” programs like Amish Mafia.
Even if this movie had a serviceable script, I'd have reason enough to doubt its success. But Stephen Gyllenhaal (mediocre director and way less than mediocre screenwriter—check out his last effort Grassroots) seems to consistently have writing problems. So it comes as no surprise that he has enlisted his new young wife (who has absolutely no screenwriting credentials whatsoever outside the academic world) probably to bail him out from an embarrassing failure. Being no fool, she quickly seized the opportunity to wangle her first Hollywood co-writing credit, as evidenced by the movie poster.
Oh by the way, the theme of The Kennedy Detail: Yeah We Fucked Up, But It's Kennedy's Fault.
All this is to say that if you want to nail Blaine on his questionable account of What Really Happened, you won't accomplish it by going head-to-head with him armed with mere facts. Because at no point has Gerald Blaine ever attempted to defend factually the truth of his case and he never will. He's just a shill—for his book and now for the movie. So no, you are never ever going to get him to engage in an honest debate.
The best way to back him against the wall, in my opinion, is to question the veracity of the film and to do it publicly and repeatedly. Here are a few points you should make:
1. There Is No Disinterested Historian Attached to The Kennedy Detail Film
Do you recall that TV moderator who dismissed your commendable research and your offer to confront Blaine because you were “too young to remember the assassination”? Well, Associate Producer McCubbin is also “too young to remember” and so is co-writer Kathleen Gyllenhaal, Stephen's new wife, who's around his daughter Maggie's age (Maggie was born in 1977).
2. Blaine Was Not Present at the Assassination
Remember that TV moderator also sneeringly remarked that “you weren't there”? Well, Blaine, who was supervising agent of the actual Kennedy Secret Service detail, may have pretentions to being the absolute last word regarding the president's murder, but let's not forget that HE wasn't in Dallas either--he had been sent on to Austin that day.
3. Not All Secret Service Agents Present At the Assassination Agree with the Warren Report
And here's another thing you ought to make clear again and again: Of the three agents still living who were actually present at the assassination, two—Win Lawson and Paul Landis—gave testimony that conflicted with the Warren Report aka The Official Story. Never mind how much flattery or chicanery Achity might have used to get them to sign releases to be depicted in this fiction. Never mind what contributions Lawson and Landis may want to make to this story. As I've said, this is Hollywood, they'll be cute and irrelevant. Landis only wants to talk about Caroline Kennedy's horse Macaroni anyway. Hell, I remember Macaroni.
5. Using CGI, They Plan to Interpolate Images of the Real JFK to Interact with the Other Characters
Even with the disclaimers, there will be morons out there who will nevertheless believe they're watching the real President Kennedy really joking anound with his real bodyguards. Wow, the story must be true 'cause Kennedy himself is starring in it! I will bet a more than a dollar the producers are counting on this.
Before the cameras even roll, this film already is destined to be more offensive to more people than Discovery's Amish Mafia is to the Amish. Offensive to the memory of JFK, offensive to honest filmmakers, but most of all offensive to admirers of the late president. You mention propaganda in your writings a lot, Vince. Well, I agree wholeheartedly with your use of the term, and this little Hollywood trick they plan to use is the smoking gun.
Best,
Cantara

WASHINGTON – A Drug Enforcement Administration agent arranged for a prostitute to have a sexual encounter with a Secret Service agent in Colombia ahead of President Obama's visit last year, according to the Justice Department.

DEA agent hired prostitute for Secret Service agent in Colombia, report says

Published January 11, 2013

FoxNews.com

WASHINGTON – A Drug Enforcement Administration agent arranged for a prostitute to have a sexual encounter with a Secret Service agent in Colombia ahead of President Obama's visit last year, according to the Justice Department.
The DEA agent stationed in Cartagena, Colombia, admitted to arranging for a prostitute to give a visiting Secret Service supervisory special agent a massage at the DEA agent's residence, a one-page summary of the Justice Department investigation stated.
The pair later had a sexual encounter and the drug agent arranged to pay the woman, the summary stated. The Justice Department's inspector general produced the summary, which was dated Dec. 20.
The Justice Department probe was part of a broad investigation into the hiring of prostitutes by Secret Service employees who were visiting Colombia last year in advance of President Barack Obama's arrival for a South American summit.
NBC News first reported the Justice Department's findings.
An investigation by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general found that 13 Secret Service employees had "personal encounters with female Colombian nationals," some of whom were prostitutes, while they were in Cartagena.
The incident became public after a Secret Service agent had a fight over payment with a woman in the hallway of a hotel.
According the Justice Department, three DEA agents were initially at the Cartagena residence the night the prostitute was hired, though one agent left before the sexual encounter.
Investigators found that the drug agents deleted data from their government-issued Blackberry smartphones amid the DOJ investigation. The trio later admitted they had "paid for sexual services and used their DEA Blackberry devices to arrange such activities," according to the summary.
In a letter to DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said the finding that the agents obstructed the inspector general's investigation is "deeply troubling."
A DEA spokesman said the matter is under review by the Board of Professional Conduct, though legal action will not be taken, according to the summary.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/11/dea-agent-got-prostitute-for-secret-service-agent/#ixzz2HnZD93VT

Obama signs bill, gets Secret Service protection for life

Posted by

CNN's Kevin Liptak

Washington (CNN) – With the stroke of a pen Thursday, President Barack Obama gave himself and his wife Secret Service protection for the rest of their lives.

The new law, which passed the House and Senate in December, designates that all former U.S. presidents who served after January 1, 1997, along with their spouses, receive protection from the Secret Service for their entire lifetimes – meaning former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura are also covered. The law also stipulates that children of presidents receive protection until the age of 16.

Lifetime government-provided security for former presidents was the law of the land until 1997, when Congress passed legislation limiting Secret Service protection to ten years after leaving office.
The 1997 law said any president serving before January 1, 1997 would still receive the lifelong protection. That means with the law signed Thursday, every former president – Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush – along with Obama will continue to receive Secret Service details for the rest of their lives.

SA Ron Pontius

5 questions with Ron Pontius, Nixon Secret Service

By FRED SWEGLES / ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

San Clemente resident and retired Secret Service Agent, Ron Pontius worked the White House detail for more than 17 years. He agreed to answer five questions by email about his service to President Richard Nixon and his life in San Clemente:
Q. What was� President Nixon's legacy for San Clemente?

Retired Secret Service Agent Ron Pontius is reflected in the mirror of a curio cabinet containing memorabilia he has from his time protecting four U.S. Presidents, beginning with Kennedy and finishing with Ford. Pontius lives in San Clemente.

DAVID BRO, FOR THE REGISTER

A. Nixon put this small town on the map. In my travels with the RV in the USA, my wife Barbara or I would be asked "where are you from?" When we answered "San Clemente, Calif." they would say, "That's where President Nixon lives." Same thing on ocean cruises here and on European riverboat cruises.
Q. Did the president's resignation change the course of your career?
A. Short term, no. I stayed on the Presidential Protection Division with President Ford for the next two years. � Early 1976 headquarters asked me if I would be interested in being the Agent in Charge of the Nixon Protective Division.� I remembered� the ocean, golf course, tennis courts. Just great all around weather with a small-town atmosphere. If President Nixon had stayed in Washington, D.C. to the end of his term, I probably would have retired there or maybe� the Austin, Texas area.� I liked the dry air.
Q. What led you back to San Clemente, and what prompted you to stay?
A. I told the family how I liked the weather, ocean, small town. A great place to live and work.
Q. What was it like taking the president golfing?
We played the city course maybe twice. He preferred Shorecliffs. It was a shorter course and it would play faster than the Muni course or Camp Pendleton, and less disruptive of the golfers. He requested that we never make a request to pass through a group in front of him. When the lead agent arrived at the tee, the golfers knew that it was President Nixon and wanted to shake his hand or have him autograph a score card. It was our agents' preferred golf course.
Q. Tell us about President Nixon and the teams you coached.
�
On a drive to Palm Springs, he asked what I was doing in my spare time. When I told him that I was coaching a girls' soccer team and we were in first place, he said to let him know how the season went. Mrs. Nixon added that she would have a patio party if we won. We won� the San Clemente girls division, and Mrs. Nixon served the kids and parents who could make it� with punch and cookies on their patio. On another trip President Nixon asked me what I was going to do for an� encore. I told him that I was coaching a Bobby Sox softball team. He said that if I won again they would do the party again. We won the season at 10-1� and the president and Mrs. Nixon invited us to another patio party at the president's office. Mrs. Nixon and her friend Helene Drown� baked cookies for the team. The� two women were hostesses at the party, serving the parents and kids. Some of the kids even sat at President Nixon's desk for photos.

RFK and his children believe there was a CONSPIRACY in the death of JFK!

RFK and his children believe there was a CONSPIRACY in the death of JFK!

DALLAS (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is convinced that a lone gunman wasn't solely responsible for the assassination of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy, and said his father believed the Warren Commission report was a "shoddy piece of craftsmanship."
Kennedy and his sister, Rory, spoke about their family Friday night while being interviewed in front of an audience by Charlie Rose at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas. The event comes as a year of observances begins for the 50th anniversary of the president's death.
Their uncle was killed on Nov. 22, 1963, while riding in a motorcade through Dallas. Five years later, their father was assassinated in a Los Angeles hotel while celebrating his win in the California Democratic presidential primary.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his father spent a year trying to come to grips with his brother's death, reading the work of Greek philosophers, Catholic scholars, Henry David Thoreau, poets and others "trying to figure out kind of the existential implications of why a just God would allow injustice to happen of the magnitude he was seeing."
He said his father thought the Warren Commission, which concluded Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing the president, was a "shoddy piece of craftsmanship." He said that he, too, questioned the report.
"The evidence at this point I think is very, very convincing that it was not a lone gunman," he said, but he didn't say what he believed may have happened.
Rose asked if he believed his father, the U.S. attorney general at the time of his brother's death, felt "some sense of guilt because he thought there might have been a link between his very aggressive efforts against organized crime."
Kennedy replied: "I think that's true. He talked about that. He publicly supported the Warren Commission report but privately he was dismissive of it."
He said his father had investigators do research into the assassination and found that phone records of Oswald and nightclub owner Jack Ruby, who killed Oswald two days after the president's assassination, "were like an inventory" of mafia leaders the government had been investigating.
He said his father, later elected U.S. senator in New York, was "fairly convinced" that others were involved.
http://m.usatoday.com/article/news/1828405?preferredArticleViewMode=single

Washington Post notes O'Reilly's lame statements AND Secret Service laxity

Killing Kennedy,’ reviving monotony


Posted by Erik Wemple on January 7, 2013 at 6:48 pm


Last week brought the news that National Geographic’s cable channel had bought the rights to “Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot,” a book by Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly and partner-in-narrative Martin Dugard. The move makes some sense: O’Reilly and Dugard, after all, put together a quick-read runup to that fateful day in November 1963.



An amplification here: They put together a cheesy quick-read runup to that fateful day in November 1963.



The cheese flows from the authors’ dogged insistence on reminding us whenever possible just how much longer the president has to live, not that a single such reminder is necessary. So as the producers for National Geographic look over “Killing Kennedy,” they’d be well advised to minimize the O’Reilly-Dugard meme that pops up on….



Page 7: “The man with fewer than three years to live has his left hand on the Bible.”



Page 13: “But there will be no second inaugural. For John Fitzgerald Kennedy is on a collision course with evil.”



Page 32: “But even Dave Powers, with his remarkable powers of intuition, cannot possibly know what “anything” means—nor can he predict that even as he witnessed John Kennedy’s first-ever political speech, he will also witness his last.”



Page 41: Jackie Kennedy “thinks she has years to finish [a White House makeover]. At least four. Perhaps even eight. She thinks.”



Page 86: “The president has no way of knowing that he will celebrate this special day [his birthday] just one more time.”



Page 132: “The president and the attorney general laugh. ‘If you go’ to the theater, Bobby answers, ‘I want to go with you.’ Little do they know how macabre those words actually are.”



Page 141: “That is why the Secret Service never lets its guard down. Not yet, at least.”



Page 152: “And so two intense and ruthless politicians are set against each other. But neither one has an inkling about the calamity that is now just eight months away.”



Page 154: “The man with seven months to live is talking to Winston Churchill.”



Page 176: “The man with six months to live doesn’t contemplate it, but those closest to him may remember his last birthday party as his very best.”



Page 181: “Martin Luther King Jr. have five more years to live. John Fitzgerald Kennedy has precisely five months.”



Page 209: “[N]either man can possibly know that it will be Cronkite who will appear on national television in just twelve weeks to make an announcement that will shock the world.”



Page 216: “It has been exactly fifty-two days since she endured the tragedy of baby Patrick’s death. It is exactly fifty-two days until she will endure another unspeakable tragedy.”



Page 236: “The man with nine days to live admires Greta Garbo….”



Page 239: “But Camelot is not a dream. It is reality — and that reality is about to take a turn that will alter America forever.”



Page 245: “In the final hours of his life, President John F. Kennedy is flying in style aboard Air Force One.”



Disclosure: The Erik Wemple Blog may have missed several similar iterations in “Killing Kennedy.”