In 1962 I left Okinawa on a Marine airplane that was carrying a crash truck, the kind that is used at air bases to put out airplane fires. On the plane with me were about a dozen Marines who were dressed for jungle combat. They carried the weapons necessary to defend themselves. In conversation with them I learned that they were going to someplace in Vietnam where the U.S. Marines had set up an air strip. The name of the place was not familiar to me. It is long gone from my memory. The plane landed in the Philippines to refuel. I wished them luck and disembarked. I was not dressed for combat although I was wearing a Marine uniform.
Our forces went into Vietnam even prior to that point by dribs and drabs. It would take 13 more years from my encounter on that plane for us to get out of there. Between those dates almost 60,000 American fighters would die. We eventually decided there was no way we could win the war fighting it as we were doing. We figured the best thing would be to skedaddle which we did.
Years of recriminations followed. Out of the disaster in Vietnam came the Powell Doctrine with its eight check points. Read it and weep. It is a total repudiation of all we are doing today.
We slowly got sucked into that war. We’d hoped that the South Vietnamese people would fight for themselves if we just gave them sufficient time to stand up an army. While we waited, having dipped our toe in its waters, we kept wading in slowly but surely going deeper and deeper until we found we were doing most of the fighting ourselves and at one point having over a half of million Americans at war in that country.
Those thoughts of Vietnam remind me of our new war. We have just opened the sluice gates to our deep involvement in the Levant. That area traditionally included Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus but today it has been expanded to include Iraq. It borders hard up against Turkey.
I recall Vietnam because we are approaching this new war in the same way. Step by step we will look for the light at the end of the tunnel. Step by step we will get more forces enmeshed into the quagmire of this war.
The Islamic State (ISIS, ISIL, IS) in a malignant force. It beheaded two Americans. We are rightfully angered. Although we shouldn’t, we act out of anger without thought. Our military leaders knowing only military solutions even now tell us we’ll need more ground troops. They also tell us this is going to be a long war. The president cowed, confused, conflicted, bothered and unpopular muddles along.
ISIS an evil force has been slowly rising for years. It is a radical religious group. It adheres to a puritanical and intolerant version of Sunni Islam espoused by Saudi Arabia called Wahhabism. It should be defeated. But it is not our fight. It is a Muslim fight. ISIS mainly threatens the Shiite Muslims and secondarily the Sunni Muslim kingdoms. They must fight it not us. They won’t because they know we will.
I could scream. Don’t our leaders see we are blithely walking into another Vietnam. There’s no way to win, there’s no way out except in ignominious defeat.
Did we ever consider we are doing what ISIS hoped we would do after it did its vile acts against those two Americans? Do we understand that our air attacks can’t kill ISIS and if it is not killed it becomes stronger? There are several radical Islamic groups, even one I never knew existed before we attacked it, Khorasan. Their fighters will now seek to join the ISIS because that is the one group that can brag “join us in the war against the Great Satan.” That we have gone to war with ISIS will significantly increase its status throughout the Muslim world and beyond.
We never intended to get bogged down in the Middle East. We wanted to bring our troops home. Now the fickleness of our leaders, the military desire to use its war toys (imagine using the 185 million dollar fighter plane the F-35 as an attack bomber), and the brutality of ISIS throws us back into another long war. Should we plan now for a Levant Wall on the National Mall where we can descent into a valley of death filled with the names of our brave dead youth.
Our boots will never be able walk all over these radical Islamic groups. Only their fellow religionists can stop them. After we waste billions of dollars more in military equipment, spend billions more supporting our troops, and lose God knows how many more American lives will we recognize our folly.
And to think It took us only 45 years to totally forget the lessons of Vietnam. When will we ever learn. When will we ever learn.
Msfreeh: Your post on the Government creating phony social media persona is current, topical and on point. Our federal government is out of control. In my unread book (all my books no one reads) “Shots Heard Round the World”, two volumes, I pointed out how the DOD has propaganda offices to promote the DOD’s and NATO’s Napoleonic world views and on point is your point about Homeland Agencies’ manipulation of opinions. This is cogent and contemporary and relevant commentary. Let’s call a spade a spade and alert our fellow American’s to current skullduggery in our government, in our DOJ, IRS, DOD, Congress, Executive’ Agencies and Courts.
2. John Connolly has been falsely held for over six years by Florida authorities at the instigation of Federal Lead Counsel Fred the Fed Wyshak, and predictions of his early release I have heard before and the predictions have proven false, befuddling and dumbfounding. Want to heighten your indignation at Federal Governmental Abuse in America: study closely what happened to John Connolly in Miami. The FEDs worked very hard to persuade Florida authorities to conduct a kangaroo court and falsely accuse and persecute an innocent man. I would not be so cavalier about Big Government’s and Big Media’s present abuses of power. The Disinformation Campaigns are sickening in this country. Harken back to the messes in Yemen and Libya: to McCain’s and NATO’s “no fly zones” which they sold to Americans and then turned into “free fire zones” when they immediately bombed Ghaddaffi’s soldiers in the field and his homes (compounds). No fly zone, my foot! Remember, the FEDs said 10,000 lives are at risk in Benghazi if we don’t intervene, and after we intervened 50,000 were killed. Focus, please, on current events, or events of the last three decades that still impinge upon current events. Don’t be so dismissive of others’ views! Neither you nor I have a monopoly on truths, facts or viewpoints. Four of the smartest men I knew and know (I grew up with them) were high school drop outs. I remember one, John Francis, as a teenager, had finished reading Shirer’s weighty “the Rise and Fall of the Third Reicht (sp?)” We can learn from everyone. We all make mistakes.
William, I agree. John
John, thanks. I’ve heard from others who agree, too.
Msfeeh and Matt: this blog has welcomed heated debate and an infinite variety of views. But . . . But . . . . I want to pull no punches when I say this ( I know people think very negatively of my views (I recall when Lawyers Weekly received a letter from a top flight Peabody & Arnold lawyer asking that Paul Walkowski and my views not be printed any more–many leftist lawyers “couldn’t handle the truth” about the St. Pat’s Parade case (circa 1991-19956), BUT I honestly believe Msfreeh is either (1) simply way off base (2) a Fed murk-maker; (3) an ancient history obsessive (JFK assassination, Hoover, e.g.) (4) off his rocker (we all need more rocker time as we age, nothing wrong in taking naps) OR (5) all of the above. So, please condense his posts. He always starts flattering you “Semper Fi, Matt; good going” then posts 1,000 irrelevant words.
Matt, I recommend you include only the first paragraph of Msfreeh’s posts; it takes 30 seconds just to scan past them before we get to relevant commentary. Bill
Msfreeh: I conclude you are an obstructionist and are trying to make Matt’s blog look like a home for Kook Conspiracy Theorists. Like you said, Actions speak louder than words; You’ve plastered this blog with hundreds of lengthy posts about remotely related issues. Save the blasts from the past for your other blogs! Please.
* Myrmidons is a word not used enough in stead of ” minions ” . The Justice Department and their Press arm quartered at the Globe, but not exclusively there, fell in love with the expression ” Bulger’s minions.” It has a sort of feudal ring to it. Suddenly, independent agents like Weeks and Flemmi become … Minions !!! … of the evil crime master Bulger. Excuse me, I should have said : The Justice Department and its myrmidons in the local Press. 🙂
Excellent observations John King McDonald. Signed, William Matthew Connolly. Oxford Dictionary: Myrmidon: 1. A hired ruffian 2. A lowly servant. The Globe’s reputation, where I come from, is that of a biased anti-Irish anti-Catholic anti-Conservative anti-neighborhood anti-ethical elitist lying thuggish bully boy yellow-dog journal. The Globe’s myrmidon’s are their prejudiced leftist columnists and editors, mostly atheistic antagonists, including their bully boy holier than thou conservative Jacoby (the one conservative they’ve employed for decades), who jumped on Billy Bulger for the first time when Billy was retired, in his 80s and recovering from heart surgery. Jacoby, the bum, called on “the elite” in politics and inferentially the press to “shun” Billy Bulger. Took a lot of guts to do that, Jeff, didn’t it, kicking someone when he’s out of power and down on his luck? You liked joining in the Fed’s-Globe’s gang bang, didn’t you? You sick so and so. Jacoby’s another piece of sheeite-shinola at the Globe, likes to blacken reputations; he’s as scummy and backstabbing as they make em, and it’s true I once enjoyed reading him and identified with many of his views; turns out he’s probably the best the Globe has—a pathetic lot—but the bottom line is he’s a character assassin, too.
Matt, to re-emphasize: DOD-McCain-creates a dummy “third force” in Syria, which we will fund, train, and soon fight beside (special forces then regular army). Exactly the same thing we did in Vietnam (as the DVD “the Quiet American shows[ it is based on our actions in 1952-54 (year Greene’s prescient book was published). Everyone spend 1.5 hours watching it. We’ve learned nothing. The CIA-DOD-McCain type War Mongers know exactly what they’re doing and why: American Hegemony-Imperialistm-Napoleonism. The War Monkeys-on-our-backs-War MOngers must be fought as hard at home and abroad as the Heroin Traffickers: also note the nexus between Southeast Asia’s Opium Triangle and Afghanistan-Iraq-Turkey-Albania-Kosovo-Italy Heroin-Hashish trade routes. Big OIL and BIG Gov and BIG Bz Internationalist also must be purged of their imperialists, interventionists, traffickers and billion-dollar lobbyists.
Matt, a new phrase: the War Monger Mongrels: the Mongrels are not true Americans, as Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln envisioned us, but Mutts: half American, half European-Asian-Imperialists. the Mongrels auger new land-grabbers, new Mongolian Hordes or new Ming’s Minions (not sure who Ming is, but it’s alliterate): the Mongrels portend and promise endless predatory warriors surging and resurging against other countries, cultures and civilizations. The Dogs of War are American-NATOnian War Monger Mongrels. Mutts rhymes with smut, and that’s what that dirty wars are and what they’ll lead to is another quagmire, Vietnam; endless big checks for DOD big government types. I can hear the champagne glasses clinking in some sordid fancy quarters along the Potomac. More arms shipments from the Mongrel Monger’s Armerica!!
Matt, excellent analysis of Vietnam and thanks for Powell’s Doctrine (I’ve saved it as a Favorite.) 2. Every time you post a critical post of Contemporary Federal fumbglins, MSFREEh posts an excessively lengthy post about Forty Year Ago fumbglings. 3. Is MsFreeh trying to divert out attentions from current events. 4. History is important, but our contemporary DOD, CIA, DOJ fumblings are pressing and need prescient analysis. We get the FEDs screwed up royally in the past; As Matt is emphasizing they are doing more so today, in spades. 5. To understand how long our post-WWII CIA imperialists have gummed things up, get the DVD Quiet American based on Graham Greene’s novel; the DVD shows how American intermeddling, setting up a third CIA-DOD bottle-fed and arms-fed combatant force in Vietnam in the early 1950s (before Dienbienfu (sp?) led to the 60,000 deaths. 6. The long term solution: Stop American Imperialism (loafers and boots on the ground); stop NATO Napoleonism; Dismantle the IMperial City, Washington D.C., and make it a respectable Backwater, like Boston or Chicago, not a Monstosity with 10,000 lawyers working for DOD and 15,000 more IRS agents to implement Obamacare; 7. Keep military and health strong; otherwise shift all federal funds/programs/fedagency functions to the States. 8. End Big Government. 9. Up the Market Baskets of the World, the Peace Corps, the teach AmeriCorps. 10. Keep, as said, our Military the strongest in the world but purge the DOD of the Interventionists, Imperialists and War Mongers, and let Poland be Poland and the Muslims excise the cancers in their own communities, in their own hearts, in their own texts. 11. Pakistan Premier ? the woman Bhuttari (sp) said that only one percent of Muslims were jihadists; when the world reaches 9 billion, more than half will be Christian (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox etc) and one third will be Muslim: that’s 3 billion, and 1% of 3 billion is 30 million (more than the armies of the Axis, (Germany and Japan and Italy combined) during WWII. Europe and China should have been better prepared to meet the Axis threat in WWII; the Muslim world overseas first and foremost must meet the ISIS-Jihadists type threats; US’s role should be secondary—no soldiers! Harken back to LBJ’s words (not history is invoked in sentence not a score of paragraphs): “American boys will not be sent to do what Asian boys should do!” Muslim boys should do the surgery on the hate mongers, jihadists and ISIS types in their own communities, here and abroad.
Bill:
As Andrew Vachss said on his website “blogging is not truth.
Behavior is truth.” That is why I created, organized and ran
a conference for 13 years investigating crimes committed
by FBI agents.
An active barometer of the success or failure of the
conference was FBI agents created 911 in the 12 th year
of holding our event. I then had to help make the documentary
911 Press for Truth to detail the evidence for FBI agents creating
this terrorist event.
As I write this I am reminded that my buddy Ed Tatro is
speaking this weekend in Virginia at a conference being
held on the 50 the anniversary of the President Kennedy
assassination. He will present evidence that FBI Director
Hoover conspired with Lyndon Johnson , the US Military,
the CIA, the Secret Service, the Mafia, and Texas Oil
to murder the President of the United States.
Just down the road from where Ed is speaking
another group of researchers are focusing on
the CIA ‘ s role in assassinating President Kennedy.
I will post a news article about this event
covered by reporters yesterday.
Yep Texas Oil funded the hit. Was it about the oil
in the South China Sea? Yep.
When you are the the FBI ,a law enforcement agency investigating the murder you just committed of President Kennedy
you can and will cover up the crime by falsifying evidence.
see link for full coverup
OSWALD DISMISSED AS LONE GUNMAN IN JFK KILLING
Forensic pathologist calls single-bullet theory ‘pure nonsene.
September 27 2014
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht kicked off the second day of the Assassination Archive and Research Center, or AARC, conference on the John F. Kennedy slaying by insisting Lee Harvey Oswald could not have been the lone shooter.
“I think the single-bullet theory is pure nonsense,” Wecht told an all-star cast of JFK assassination “conspiracy theorists” at the conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of the publication of the Warren Commission Report.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2014/09/oswald-dismissed-as-lone-gunman-in-jfk-killing/#XbEpkM0uTtpqqCZy.99
Wecht proceeded to explain the gyrations and changes in direction required for one bullet to have hit JFK, passing up through JFK’s body from the entrance wound in the back, to exit through JFK’s neck (moving upward at an 11 degree angle), to enter Connelly’s back, break a rib, exit Connelly’s chest and break Connelly’s right wrist, only to end embedded in Connelly’s left thigh.
“The explanations are ridiculous,” Wecht challenged. “Was JFK bending over tying his shoe when he got shot? Not if you look at the Zapruder film. JFK was sitting upright, and the entrance wound in his back was lower than the supposed exit wound in this throat. How is it possible that a bullet fired from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository moved in an upward direction transiting through JFK’s body?”
Secret details of JFK’s assassination are unlocked in Jerome Corsi’s “Who Really Killed Kennedy?”
Wecht insisted the burden of proof rested with the prosecution.
“All the defense has to show is that Lee Harvey Oswald could not possibly have been the sole gunman, and that can be established by science,” he insisted. “We do not need to prove who did the shooting to prove the government is lying. I’ll let you assume Oswald was a shooter if you want. The point is that if Oswald was not the sole shooter, the Warren Commission Report is a cover-up and the government has been lying to us for 50 years.”
Wecht concluded by insisting the RFK shooting was also an assassination.
“Again the case is settled by forensic pathology,” he again insisted. “The shot that killed RFK was fired from the back at a distance of approximately 1.5 inches from his head, when it’s clear Sirhan Sirhan was standing in front of RFK at a distance greater than 1.5 inches during the shooting.”
Autopsy “junk science”
Dr. Gary Aguilar, an ophthalmologist by training, pointed out that neither James Hume, the senior pathologist and director of laboratories at Bethesda Hospital, nor Navy pathologist J. Thornton Boswell, who assisted Hume at the JFK autopsy, had ever conducted an autopsy of someone shot by a gunshot wound prior to undertaking the JFK assassination, perhaps the most historically important autopsy in U.S. history.
Aguilar went through a detailed analysis of the JFK autopsy evidence, pointing out that Hume allowed their forensic analysis to be strongly influenced by the hearsay testimony provided by government officials attending the autopsy that JFK was hit from behind and that his head was thrown violently forward as a result.
He demonstrated evidence subsequently developed from examination of the autopsy photographs and notes makes clear Hume and Boswell missed key facts that would have influenced their conclusions had they been known on the evening of Nov. 22, 1963, when the autopsy was conducted, including numerous bullet fragments found in the rear portion of the skull and measurements that show JFK’s back wound was not at the base of the neck but below the shoulder some two inches from the spine.
“The conclusions of the Bethesda autopsy are best classified as ‘junk science,’” Aguilar insisted, not the type of professional forensic pathology required in an autopsy trying to determine the cause of death of a U.S. president assassinated by gunfire.
Gunshots recorded
Acoustical expert Dr. Don Thomas presented evidence from his 2013 book “Hear No Evil: Politics, Science, and Forensic Evidence in the Kennedy Assassination,” that the National Academy of Sciences panel was severely flawed in dismissing a police dictabelt recording that provided proof of a fourth shot from the grassy knoll – evidence that persuaded the House Select Committee on Assassinations to conclude Oswald was not the lone gunman.
Thomas had presented his analysis initially in a peer-reviewed article in “Science and Justice,” a quarterly publication of Britain’s Forensic Science Society.
The sounds of the JFK assassination were recorded at Dallas police headquarters when a motorcycle policeman in the JFK motorcade accidently left his microphone switch “on,” recording the sounds from Dealey Plaza as JFK was being shot.
Thomas played for the conference the sounds recorded by the dictabelt on which the gunshots can be heard, recorded in real time, as JFK was being assassinated.
Thomas explained how “cross-talk” on two different police channels recorded during the assassination and “test shots” fired in Dealey Plaza at the time of the initial HCSA analysis provided evidence the shots discernable through the static of the recording confirms the initial HCSA conclusions: a fourth shot was fired from the grassy knoll during the assassination.
Stiffed by the CIA
Prof. G. Robert Blakey explained the JFK assassination began with the Bay of Pigs invasion.
“President Kennedy was sucked into the Bay of Pigs invasion by being fed bad information by the CIA,” he explained. “Kennedy knew the invasion’s chances of success were never great, but the CIA had assured him of Cuban support for the invasion that never materialized.”
Blakey confessed that over time his view regarding the CIA has changed in the years since he was chief counsel and staff director for the HSCA from 1977 to 1979.
“I was aware the HSCA research staff was getting frustrated by the CIA’s unwillingness to provide documents to us,” he said. “We knew Oswald was involved with the Cuban DRE, but the CIA was not cooperative with us. The facilitator the CIA put in place to work with us ended up playing a disinformation role, denying access to documents we wanted to see. Through subsequent FOIA requests, we now know the CIA facilitator was playing an undercover role, if you can imagine that, and until today, I am not sure we know what the CIA denied us access to see.”
Blakey pointed out the CIA also withheld from the Warren Commission that Oswald had a CIA file, as well as denying the Warren Commission key information from wiretaps that top organized crime figures had threatened to kill both JFK and RFK.
“At that time, I couldn’t imagine the mob was involved in the JFK assassination,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine the mob would take on the high risk of being involved in trying to assassinate the president. I don’t believe Sam Giancana in Chicago, for instance, was involved, because the FBI had wiretap coverage of him – and in my work as an attorney for Robert Kennedy in the Justice Department, we had access to the FBI reports on Giancana.”
Blakey admitted he signed onto the HCSA findings, believing the Warren Commission Report was probably honest and accurate.
“I admit now I was wrong,” he told the conference attendee. “Just take this one point – the Warren Commission said there was no evidence additional shooters, but today I can name for you multiple witnesses who were ready to testify to additional shooters from the grassy knoll, but the Warren Commission did everything possible to ignore them or to discredit their testimony.”
He also pointed out that the Dallas police immediately after the JFK shooting ran up the grassy knoll because that’s where the believed the shooting came from.
“I lost confidence in the Warren Commission Report,” he said clearly. “The purpose of the Warren Commission was not to investigate and report the truth, but to cover up any evidence that did not tend to incriminate their conclusion Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone-gun assassin. The CIA also covered up their complicity, their ineptness. The CIA made an effort not to cooperate with us, so I concluded everything the CIA told us was most likely a lie.”
He stressed that the remaining JFK documents must be released “so we can discover what we don’t know – what has been hidden from us until today.”
He called the CIA “a culture of dissemination” that does not know the difference between the truth and lies.
“Whatever the CIA tells you is said because it serves a purpose,” he said. “That means you cannot believe anything the CIA says until you know the purpose that explains why they are saying what they are saying.”
He also said that he now believes organized crime figures Santos Trafficante in Tampa and Carlos Marcello in New Orleans were two mob figures involved in the JFK assassination.
He concluded by saying he did not believe the Mafia recruited Jack Ruby to kill Lee Harvey Oswald until after Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested.
What’s still being hidden
AARC President James Lesar began the conference by urging attendees to lobby Congress in support of a Freedom of Information Act request his organization has filed with the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA.
AARC is protesting a NARA decision to withhold from the public until at least 2017 more than 1,000 classified government documents on the JFK assassination. Lesar and his organization argue the 1992 JFK Records Act mandated the public release of all JFK assassination files in the government’s archives.
Attorneys Dan Hardway and Edward Lopez, who as law students co-authored the House Select Committee on Assassinations’ long-suppressed report, “Oswald, the CIA, and Mexico City,” kicked off the conference with details of their accusation that the CIA suppressed information about Oswald’s trip to Mexico City prior to the assassination. They say Miami-based undercover CIA agent George Joannides suppressed information on Oswald’s efforts to penetrate the CIA-created Cuban Student Directorate.
Hardway and Lopez, along with a diverse group of authors and legal exports supported by former House Select Committee on Assassinations’ chief counsel G. Robert Blakey, filed a lawsuit to force the CIA to release information on the agency’s involvement with Oswald and various Cuban groups.
The report by Hardway and Lopez, suppressed under a national security classification for nearly 30 years, was commissioned by HSCA lead investigator Gaeton Fonzi. Hardway and Lopez were sent to Mexico City in the late 1970s to investigate Oswald’s 1963 trip there.
“The CIA refused to cooperate with us in our investigation of Oswald’s trip to Mexico and his involvement with various Cuban activist groups, going so far as to hide from us names and other information material to our inquiry,” Hardway explained to the group.
“George Joannides shut down the HSCA investigation into these subjects, in a move motivated by CIA counter-intelligence and propaganda goals,” he said.
Hardway asserted the CIA “had something to hide from the HSCA, and Joannides knew what the CIA was hiding.”
“What remains at question was whether the CIA had advance knowledge, or even worse, was involved in the assassination of JFK, and went to great lengths to suppress that information,” he said.
Lopez confessed that during their time together working as HSCA staff, he and Hardway showed up at the CIA with long hair and wearing flip-flops.
“It didn’t help our investigation,” he admitted.
“Seeing us, the CIA didn’t trust us, but I would probably do it again. If I had behaved better, I might have become the first Latino Supreme Court justice. But I still don’t trust the federal government when it comes to suppressing information from the public.”
CIA ‘dark operations’
Former U.S. Army intelligence officer John Newman, author of the 1992 book “JFK and Vietnam: Deception, Intrigue, and the Struggle for Power” and the 2008 book “Oswald and the CIA: The Documented Truth about the Unknown Relationship Between the U.S. Government and the Alleged Killer of JFK,” said CIA “dark operations” are tricks of tradecraft designed to prevent penetration by counter-intelligence agents or the public.
Newman reviewed his current work of trying to unravel the names and identities of CIA operatives involved in the various plots launched by Robert Kennedy, then attorney general, to assassinate Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.
His current research documented a CIA attempt to screen the possible double-agent role CIA agent David Atlee Phillips played both in the Kennedy administration effort to assassinate Castro and what he calls a rogue CIA attempt to mask connections Lee Harvey Oswald had to various CIA operatives in Cuba, including several involved in the Castro assassination plots.
David Talbot, author of the 2008 bestselling book “Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years,” spoke by teleconference link-up. He believes Allen Dulles became a central figure in planning the Kennedy assassination, seeking revenge after the president accused him of lying and fired him following the Bay of Pigs disaster.
“After JFK, Dulles became the head of a government in exile. He worked from his home in Georgetown as if he were still head of the CIA, now working to undermine key Kennedy agency policies,” Talbot said, discussing a new book he is working to complete on Dulles.
“Even after he was fired, Dulles continued to see a number of CIA operatives, including CIA counter-intelligence chief James Angleton, Richard Helms and Howard Hunt, almost as if he never left the CIA,” Talbot said.
“I also developed evidence Dulles and his circle of operatives within the CIA were implicated in the Robert Kennedy assassination as well.”
Talbot said his research has established connections between CIA operative Robert Maheu, in his role as an adviser, and various organized crime figures. Talbot also ties him to Howard Hughes, suggesting Maheu operated in conjunction with Dulles to participate in both in the JFK and RFK assassinations.
Double agent?
Pulitzer Prize finalist Anthony Summers, an investigative journalist residing in Ireland and the author of the 2013 book “Not in Your Lifetime: The Defining Book on the JFK Assassination,” said he hoped “the autopsy of a homeless person, even in the U.K., would be conducted more professionally than the JFK assassination was conducted.”
Summers told the group he believed Oswald was a double-agent in a staged defection to the USSR, noting his involvement with pro-Castro groups, including famously the Fair Play for Cuba committee, after he returned to the U.S.
“The files now show the Fair Play for Cuba Committee had been targeted and penetrated by the FBI,” Summers pointed out.
He suspects Oswald had a double-agent role with the FBI as well as with the CIA.
Summers played a tape of interviews he conducted recently with a Cuban commando from the Batista era naming Herminio Diaz, a contract killer with ties to the Mafia and CIA. Summers suspects Diaz, who had worked security for Santo Trafficante’s casinos in Cuba, was the second gunman in the JFK assassination.
Late in the afternoon of the first day, Antonio Veciana, an 86-year-old exile from Cuba who settled in Miami and formed the anti-Castro group Alpha 66 in 1962, addressed the conference in Spanish.
In 1976, Veciana testified to the HCSA that he met with CIA operative Maurice Bishop in late August or early September 1963 and claimed to have seen Bishop talking with
MSFREEh: As I said, it seems your commentary focuses on stale fifty year old events. Congrats on investigating the foibles and malfeasance of the FBI. Bravo for all the good you and your mates have done!!! We have pressing present problems, today. Shed more daylight on these. The DOJ-FBI-DOD-Arms Lobbyists hierarchies have gotten worse over the last 40-50-70 years: more secretive, underhanded, imperious, scapegoating, more rapacious, more greedy, more at odds with American values. History helps shed light on present events; but focusing on the past can get you stuck in its muck. 2. Let’s do what MD’s do: Identify the PI, present illness; fully address and treat that, review all present systems and assess present symptoms and assay present treatments. Then in leisure in the library or lab we can do our historical analysis and post-mortems. Give us a few paragraphs on present illnesses. The Lusitania’s and Maine’s sinkings are fascinating, but the Gestapo-like Napoleonic Imperialists are presently knocking on our doors and seizing control of our government—- today. Let’s do something about this! All I am criticizing is your exhaustive focus on the past, not on the present, and not on presenting solutions to today’s pressing problems.
Bill:
I hear your angst about my bringing up a 50 year old
unsolved murder of a US President by FBI agents
members of the Mafia and other sordid characters.
I just don’t want to co-enable Matt as he parades
before us in cyber space in his perpetual stations of the cross melo….drama carrying his John Connolly
” johnny boys’ been framed cross”.
Yes I know you forgot about the 1999 Memhis Jury decision that said FBI agents had assassinated Martin Luther King with the help of the Mafia, US Military, CIA
and other sordid characters. hint google
mlk FBI Rockwell james douglass
Tell Matt not to worry .Johnny Boy will be home soon.
It just takes the FBI plausible denial machine
a little more time to get up a head of steam.
In other news tell Matt to keep his eyes open
for this software
US Gov. Software Creates ‘Fake People’ on Social Networks to Promote Propoganda
see link for full story
The US government is offering private intelligence companies contracts to create software to manage “fake people” on social media sites and create the illusion of consensus on controversial issues.
The contract calls for the development of “Persona Management Software” which would help the user create and manage a variety of distinct fake profiles online. The job listing was discussed in recently leaked emails from the private security firm HBGary after an attack by internet activist last week.
Matt: great to hear about your Semper Fi….ing
for BP and Exxon Mobil in South Vietnam securing
a beachhead for the oil in the South China Sea.
Do you remember Congressman Trafficant?Congressman Trafficant exposed the FBI agents in Youngstown Ohio collaborating with the Mafia.
Taxpayer funded FBI agents tried to then kill him.
Did they succeed?
couple of reads
1st
http://m.19actionnews.com/19actionnews/db_348172/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=wnavnNRy
Jim Traficant, former congressman dies at 73
Sep 27, 2014 01:31 PM
YOUNGSTOWN, OH (WOIO) – Former Valley congressman Jim Traficant has died as a result of injuries he received in a tractor accident at his daughter’s farm in Greenford Tuesday evening.
Family spokeswoman Heidi Hanni confirmed Traficant’s death and said that funeral arrangements are pending.
The man who many saw as representing the little guy grew up like many boys in the Valley. As a teenager, Jim Traficant played football for Mooney High School in the late 50’s. Wearing the number 70, he went on to play at University of Pittsburgh and even tried out for the Steelers. Eventually he returned to his hometown working as a drug counselor before running for Mahoning County Sheriff in 1980. In an interview years later, he admitted regretting that.
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The following reflects the truthful and reliable investigation by Congressman JAMES TRAFICANT into the association between the FBI and organized crime (mafia) in Youngstown, Ohio and surrounding areas.
MOB OWNS FBI IN YOUNGSTOWN — HON. JAMES A. TRAFICANT, JR. (Extensions of Remarks – July 11, 2002)
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HON. JAMES A. TRAFICANT, JR.
OF OHIO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, July 11, 2002
Mr. TRAFICANT. Mr. Speaker, the following reflects the truthful and reliable investigation by Congressman JAMES TRAFICANT into the association between the FBI and organized crime (mafia) in Youngstown, Ohio and surrounding areas.
In addition, FBI agent, Anthony Speranza did rape one of my constituents. The matter was adjudicated in the Northern District of Ohio Court of Judge O’Malley, where Speranza admitted to “digital penetration” of a woman who had suffered problems of mental instability, which under Ohio law is felony one rape.
The following facts and sources speak for themselves, making FBI-mob connections in Boston, Massachusetts look like a Rotary meeting.
TRAFICANT INVESTIGATION
JOSEPH NAPLES–JAMES PRATO
1. Fact: Joseph Naples issued a contract to kill one Paul Calautti; Source: FBI Affidavit; Result: Paul Calautti murdered October 11, 1968; Finding: Joseph Naples never brought to trial.
2. Fact: Joseph Naples issued a contract to kill one Joseph DeRose; Source: FBI Affidavit; Result: Joseph DeRose suffered two bullet wounds May 13/14 1980. Joseph DeRose missing-murdered or in protective custody; Finding: Joseph Naples never brought to trial.
3. Fact: Joseph Naples issued a contract to kill one Robert Furey; Source: FBI Affidavit; Result: Robert Furey murdered April 12, 1979; Finding: Joseph Naples never brought to trial.
4. Fact: Joseph Naples and James Prato issued a contract to kill Charles Carrabbi; Source: La Cosa Nostra underboss Angelo Lonardo’s testimony under oath during a U.S. Senate hearing on organized crime (1988); Result: Charles Carrabbia missing-presumed murdered; Finding: Joseph Naples and James Prato never brought to trial.
5. Fact: Joseph Naples ordered the burning of a car belonging to a Youngstown City Councilman one Robert Spencer; Source: FBI Affidavit and Robert Spencer’s Affidavit presented during a U.S. Senate hearing on organized crime (1984); Result: Robert Spencer’s car fire bombed and totally destroyed. (1978/1979); Finding: Joseph Naples never brought to trial.
6. Fact: Joseph Naples ordered the burning of the Desert Inn; Source: FBI Affidavit; Result: Desert Inn bar burned; Finding: Joseph Naples never brought to trial.
7. Fact: Joseph Naples ordered numerous other arsons and bombings; source: FBI Affidavit; Result: Numerous other arsons and bombings occurred; Finding: Joseph Naples never brought to trial.
8. Fact: Joseph Naples and James Prato had influence with Sheriff Yarash and associates around Sheriff Tablack; Source: FBI Affidavits. Affidavit and Testimony submitted during U.S. Senate hearing on organized crime (1984); Result: Organized crime activities continued; Finding: Joseph Naples and James Prato never brought to trial.
9. Fact: James Prato gave an attempted campaign contribution to Sheriff candidate James Traficant; Source: FBI Affidavit–James Traficant Trial. Testimony submitted during U.S. Senate hearing on Organized Crime (1984); Result: James Traficant acquitted; Finding: James Prato never brought to trial.
10. Fact: James Prato gave an $80,000 campaign contribution to Sheriff candidate Terrence Sheidel; Source: Michael Terlecky Affidavit. Affidavit of Congressional Lead Staff Investigator Frederick V. Hudach; Result: Terrence Sheidel advertised aggressively during his campaign for Sheriff; Finding: James Prato never brought to trial due to no grand jury being assembled.
11 Fact: Informant who wished to stay anonymous for now revealed the following: (1) On or about 1979 and 1980 Terry Sheidel, a faculty member at Youngstown State University who taught Criminal Justice courses, was running for Mahoning County, Ohio Sheriff at the same time James A. Traficant was seeking the same position; (2) Informant advised Terry Sheidel that he did not have enough money to forge an effective campaign against James A. Traficant and that he (informant) could ask Lenny Strollo for campaign money for him (Sheidel). Terry Sheidel agreed to informant’s recommendation to ask Lenny Strollo for campaign money; (3) Informant met with Lenny Strollo and he (Strollo) gave him (informant) $80,000 in cash for Terry Sheidel’s campaign for Mahoning County Sheriff. Strollo also told informant that if Terry Sheidel needed more money he would give him another $80,000; (4) Informant felt that James A. Traficant had to take the money from whoever gave him the money to keep it off the streets or it would have certainly been used against him to keep him from becoming the Mahoning County, Ohio Sheriff; (5) As far as informant knows, Terry Sheidel never received the second $80,000 from Lenny Strollo. James A. Traficant won the election.
Source: Michael Terlecky Affidavit. Affidavit of Congressional Lead Staff Investigator, Frederick V. Hudach; Result: Terry Sheidel never investigated by FBI; James Traficant investigated by FBI; Finding: Incident never thoroughly investigated by FBI Agents before bringing James Trafficant to trial.
STANLEY PETERSON AS FBI AGENT
1. Fact: Isabella Callard witnessed her husband Joe Ezzo giving money to FBI Agent Stanley Peterson so that he would permit gambling and other illegal activity to continue; Source: Isabella Callard Affidavit; Result: Illegal activity continued; Finding: Stanley Peterson retired from the FBI and subsequently became the Chief of Police of Youngstown, Ohio.
STANLEY PETERSON/FRIEND OF THE MOB/CHIEF OF POLICE
1. Fact: The FBI was informed that a candidate for Mayor of Younstown, Emanuel Catsoules stated that in 1978 a friend of organized crime wanted Stanley Peterson to be his Chief of Police.
2. Fact: The FBI was informed that a candidate for Mayor of Youngstown, Thomas A. Shipka, was contacted by a friend of the mob who would support his campaign based on
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certain conditions, one of which that he would appoint Stanley Peterson as his Chief of Police.
3. Fact: Thomas A. Shipka turned over his information to the FBI and actually brought 13-14 police officers who had first-hand knowledge of gambling joints, prostitution, and other activities that they alleged Mr. Peterson was protecting.
4. Fact: Allegation of Mr. Peterson being involved in an illegal wiretap of a rival mob group was given to the strike force.
5. Fact: The FBI was informed that in 1969, Jack Hunter, a candidate for Mayor of Youngstown, was contacted by an intermediator representing organized crime figures who were well known. They wanted veto powers over Chief of Police in exchange for campaign funds. A high ranking official in the Sheriff’s Department was to act as the bagman.
6. Fact: The FBI was informed that in 1971 an intermediary for organized crime contacted Mayor of Youngstown, Jack Hunter, expressing a desire for him to name Stanley Peterson as Chief of Police.
7. Fact: On two separate occasions during the period that Stanely Peterson was Chief of Police of Youngstown, concerned citizens took substantial evidence to the local FBI office implicating Peterson in promoting or protecting organized criminal activity in the City of Youngstown. The Youngstown Police Department took evidence to the FBI identifying over 30 specific sites where organized criminal activity was being permitted to operate within the city.
8. Fact: Evidence was presented to the FBI that Chief of Police, Stanley Peterson was disciplining certain members of the Youngstown Police Department to discourage them from taking action against operations being conducted by LCN figures within the city.
Source: Affidavits and testimony submitted during U.S. Senate hearings on Organized Crime (1984); Result: The FBI said they were aware of the information about Stanley Peterson and that they investigated same, however, the nature of the information lacked specificity; Finding: The evidence against Stanley Peterson was never brought before a Grand Jury.
1. Fact: Joseph Naples and James Prato who were aligned with the Sebastian John LaRocca Mafia Family located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ran the organized crime faction in the Mahoning County, Ohio area which included: conspiracy to commit murder, murder for hire, aggravated murder, arson, bombings, burglary-criminal trespass, extortion, illegal gambling, numerous illegal campaign contributions, promoted the hiring of certain police officers, “signed off” on key elected officials, sheriffs, prosecutors and mayors.
Source: FBI Affidavits. Testimony, written statements and affidavits submitted to the U.S. Senate hearings on Organized Crime (1984 and 1988).
2. Fact: An informant who wished to stay anonymous for now, revealed the following: (1) Informant was a Youngstown, Ohio police officer during 1977 and 1978; (2) Informant during 1977 and 1978 worked for six months on Phillip Richley’s campaign for Mayor of Youngstown, Ohio. Informant felt that his campaign work for Philip Richley would bring him a patrolman to white shirt and tie promotion with the Youngstown, Ohio Police Department. After Phillip Richley won the election and became the Mayor of Youngstown, Ohio, retired FBI Agent Stanley Peterson became the Youngstown, Ohio Chief of Police. Informant became angry when he was made aware that he was not going to get his expected promotion. Informant then contacted Lenny Strollo, who at the time along with Vic Calautti and Joey Naples reported to James Prato. Immediately after informant told Strollo of what happened to him, Strollo made a telephone call. Immediately following Strollo’s telephone call, Strollo told informant he was promoted to a white shirt and tie promotion. Informant did not hear Strollo’s telephone conversation, however, he strongly feels that Strollo talked to Youngstown, Ohio Chief of Police, Stanley Peterson, the retired FBI Agent; (3) Informant revealed that when Stanley Peterson was an FBI Agent he was often seen at Standard Motors, 901 Andrews Avenue, Youngstown, Ohio where mafia affiliated often met. Informant said that FBI Agent Stanley Peterson “had a key to the place.” Informant also stated that Stanley Peterson was Joey Naples’ man.
Source: Affidavit of Congressional Lead Staff Investigator, Frederick V. Hudach; Result: The evidence against Stanley Peterson never brought before a Grand Jury; Finding: Stanley Peterson, friend of the mob.
LENINE STROLLO/FRANK FASLINE–TELEPHONE CONVERSATION, NOVEMBER 23, 1996
Fact: Lenine Strollo told Frank Fasline during a November 23, 1996 telephone conversation: that FBI Agent Robert Kroner was on Joseph Naples payroll; that FBI Agent Robert Kroner said in essence that he has lots of friends, that they can do whatever they want to do in this valley as long as they cooperate with him; that the FBI got away with illegal activity in the Mahoning Valley and the FBI was planning to get away with illegal activity again; that the FBI got involved in illegal activity and that the FBI wanted to make him (Strollo) a scapegoat again.
Source: FBI transcript of telephone wiretap titled Government Exhibit #4; Result: Lenine Strollo recanted above statements. Lenine Strollo in a plea bargain kept over $10 million in assets; Finding: Lenine Strollo traded the truth in exchange for his assets.
ASSOCIATE OF LENINE STROLLO PROFFER
Fact: (1) He caught Youngstown Police following him in Campbell and he heard that the FBI was across the road, in the mill with binoculars. Paulie told him not to worry about it because they had an “inside guy” in FBI. (Page 4); (2) Lenny Strollo told him about Biondillo running stags in the City of Youngstown and they wondered how he was able to do it. Lenny Strollo told him he heard that money went from Biondillo through Vic Calautti to the Randall Wellington campaign and that Biondillo had to have the okay from Wellington to be able to hold stags inside the city of Youngstown. (Page 45). He said that he heard that Biondillo paid $25,000 to Vic Calautti to donate to Wellington’s campaign. (Page 49); (3) Lenny Strollo and he thought that the guys at the Center (Youngstown United Music) were doing business with FBI Agent Kroner as they were operating without any pressure and therefore must have had the FBI’s okay. Lenny or Danny Strollo told him that Biondillo was talking to and dealing with the FBI. (Page 58); (4) Lenny Strollo told him that an agent told someone who told Strollo that FBI Agent Kroner and those guys were on the Naples payroll for years. He heard from Strollo that someone went to Kroner’s father to see if he could control Kroner. That person found out that his father had no control over what he did. The reason for this was to see if Lenny Strollo could have control over Kroner like Naples did.
Source: The Proffer of a Lenine Strollo Associate given at the Euclid City Jail, Euclid, Ohio on 5-28, 6-4, 6-9, 6-30, 9-1, 11-13, 1998 in the presence of Assistant U.S. Attorneys, FBI Special Agents and a Special Agent of the IRS; Result: Information within Proffer suppressed; Finding: Obstruction of Justice-Misprision by Assistant U.S. Attorneys, Special Agent FBI and Special Agent IRS.
Fact: Informant, who wished to stay anonymous because of fear for himself and family revealed the following: during the early fall of 1997, Lenny Strollo, reputed leader of Youngstown, Ohio Organized Crime, told me at his now closed restaurant, at the northwest corner of Calla Road near Market Street, North Lima, Ohio that Joey Naples had told him the following: (a) he (Joey Naples) owned the FBI; and (B) he (Joey Naples) made payoffs to the FBI through Special Agent Lynch.
Source: Affidavit of Congressional Lead Staff Investigator Frederick V. Hudach; Result: FBI cover-up; Finding: FBI Agents on Joey Naples’ payroll.
JUDICIAL CORRUPTION
Fact: Five separate crimes reported to the Youngstown office of the FBI and the Department of Justice, and three separate crimes reported to the Youngstown office of the FBI and IRS who used their authority in aid of and in furtherance to conceal the reported crimes by refusing to investigate and prosecute members of the bench and bar in both Mahoning and Trumbull Counties, Ohio; Source: Robert A. Frank Affidavits; Result: FBI and Office of the U.S. Attorney refused to totally investigate and prosecute; Finding: FBI, IRS and office of U.S. Attorney has carried out and made effective a pattern of selective prosecution and in some cases became an accessory after the fact.
Fact: An Investigative Chronology Exposing Extortion within the Trumbull County Common Pleas Court System of four Defendant’s families for buyouts from prison was presented to both the FBI Offices in Youngstown and Cleveland and to the IRS Office in Youngstown; Source: Affidavit of Congressional Lead Staff Investigator, Frederick V. Hudach. Affidavit of Carl Stere; Result: No action taken by the United States Department of Justice; Finding: Selective Prosecution. The FBI/IRS/U.S. Attorneys will not prosecute their criminal friends for political reasons.
FBI refused to help a citizen of Trumbull County, Ohio who was being extorted by members of the Aryan Brotherhood. If the extortion money was not paid the citizen’s son would be killed in prison; Source: Affidavit of Congressional Lead Staff Investigator, Frederick V. Hudach; Result: Troopers of the Ohio State Highway Patrol saved the life of the son of the citizen and arrested members of the Aryan Brotherhood; Finding: Members of the FBI were deliberately indifferent to their jurisdictional responsibility.
Fact: Two Investigative Summaries exposing police perjury and a bogus autopsy which occurred in Trumbull County, Ohio was submitted to Members of the FBI and the Office of Professional Responsibility; Source: Correspondence between Congressional Lead Staff Investigator Frederick V. Hudach and members of the FBI and member of Office of Professional Responsibility; Result: Assistant U.S. Attorney decided they did not have jurisdiction; Finding: Assistant U.S. Attorney practiced selective prosecution.