GERALD POSNER'S ALLEGED SECRET SERVICE "INTERVIEWS"

http://www.assassinationweb.com/Pal3.htm

Electronic Assassinations Newsletter

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Issue #1 "Case Closed or Posner Exposed?"

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GERALD POSNER'S ALLEGED SECRET SERVICE "INTERVIEWS"

by Vincent Palamara

On page 503 of his book Case Closed, Gerald Posner writes:

"David Whipple, president of the association of retired intelligence agents, HAMILTON BROWN, WHO HOLDS THE SAME POSITION FOR RETIRED SECRET SERVICE AGENTS, and Les Stanford, for Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, were DILIGENT IN FINDING THOSE LONG-RETIRED FROM THEIR RESPECTIVE AGENCIES" (emphasis added).

So what's the problem? Well, as someone who has interviewed and corresponded with many retired Secret Service agents (and documented each and every contact), I was amazed to find not one specific agent cited in the entire text or endnotes of Case Closed as being interviewed/contacted by Mr. Posner. Knowing full well how Hamilton Brown does not like dealing with the press on controversial topics, my skepticism rose to a high level (examples of Brown's evasiveness are: 1) my attempt to interview Brown at length, 2) Washington Post reporter Ann Eisele's unsuccessful attempt to do the same and 3) Brown's anger at the agents who spoke to myself, Seymour Hersh, and Kenneth Starr.

You see, even though I knew Posner did contact, on his own, one former agent, Floyd M. Boring, a major planner of the Texas trip [see author's article in The Fourth Decade research journal, May 1995 ], Boring told me, in no uncertain terms, that he told Posner nothing at all - he merely forwarded him on to Hamilton Brown.

In addition, no other agent I contacted spoke to Posner (including Sam Kinney, Jerry Behn, Rufus Youngblood, Jerry Kivett, John Joe Howlett, Robert Steuart, Forrest Sorrels, James Rowley, Arthur Godfrey, and Win Lawson (pretty important Secret Service contacts to the events of 11/22/63, don't you think?).

OK, so what if maybe Mr. Posner chose, for whatever reason, not to reveal his interviews with the former agents in his book (in sharp contrast to his documentation of every other alleged interview), you say? This is a possibility, right? Well, this is where the matter rested... until I e-mailed Gerald Posner on 3/4/98 and asked him directly the following two questions:

1) How many former Secret Service agents did you speak to?
and:
2) Specifically, what were their names?

This is the alarming response I received (printed below, exactly as he wrote it):

"Dear Mr. Palamara, Without checking my files (you're asking about research six and seven years ago), I don't remember interviewing any SS agents for the record, and I don't remember off hand even talking to any for background. I am almost certain I merely relied on orig. docs, or the agents' original interviews and/or testimony.
Hope it helps, Gerald Posner"

"Hope it helps", indeed! This helps demonstrate, once again, some of the tactics used by Gerald Posner for his book. He "contacted" Boring, who told him nothing other than Hamilton Brown's phone number, and then he (presumably) "contacted" Brown, who apparently told him to get lost, if Posner's recent e-mail to me is accurate, which I strongly believe it is. Still, he can technically hold on to the claim that he did indeed "speak", "locate", and "contact" former Secret Service agents (plural: two). Although the fine print is: they told him nothing that made it into his book, despite the obvious attempt to demonstrate the opposite as shown above (Case Closed, page 503).