50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: CBS and Dan Rather's Reporting Historically

A 1990 book by Monte Evans, entitled The Rather Narrative: Is Dan Rather The JFK Conspiracy San Andreas Fault?, apparently "accused [former CBS Evening News Anchor] Rather of aiding the conspiracy through his `long history of inaccurate reporting of the circumstances of [the] assassination,'" according to Covering The Body: The Kennedy Assassination, The Media, and The Shaping of Collective Memory by Temple University Professor Barbie Zelizer. Covering The Body also observed that former CBS Evening News Anchor Rather, coincidentally, "invested considerable efforts in addressing JFK and Oliver Stone" and "In February of 1992 Rather devoted a special program of `48 Hours' to an investigation of Kennedy's death, where he paid special attention to the controversy surrounding Stone's movie."

On Rather's anti-JFK program, JFK Director Stone responded to the former CBS Evening News Anchor's hostile questions by stating the following:

"Dan, when the House Report came out implying that there was a probable conspiracy in the murder of both Kennedy and King, why weren't you running around trying to dig into the case again? I didn't see you, you know, rush out there and look at some of these three dozen discrepancies that we present in our movie."

According to Covering The Body, in February 1992 "an NBC poll reported that a full 51 percent of the American public believed...that the CIA was responsible for Kennedy's death" and "only 6 percent believed the Warren Commission." Yet as Coup D'Etat! November 22, 1963 by Stanley Marks asserted: "The responsibility for the `success' of the Warren Commission and its `Report' must rest solely upon the mass communications media which went out of its way to protect the duplicity, deceit, and deception practiced by the Commission upon the American Citizen..."

(Downtown 10/27/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Did Ruby, Oswald and Ferrie Work For CIA Together?

In Chapter 1 of its report, the Warren Commission asserted that "No direct or indirect relationship between Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby has been discovered by the commission, nor has it been able to find any credible evidence that either knew the other, although a thorough investigation was made of the many rumors and speculations of such a relationship."

Yet in his early 1990s book First Hand Knowledge: How I Participated In The CIA-Mafia Murder Of President Kennedy, former CIA operative Robert Morrow claimed that on October 9, 1962 CIA official Tracy Barnes told him that both Jack Ruby and Lee Oswald were members of Clay Shaw's "inside group." And Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs also stated the following:

"Beverly Oliver...was 19 years old at the time of the assassination and worked for the Colony Club, a stri-show club located next door to Jack Ruby's Carousel Club...Oliver...said that three weeks prior to the Kennedy assassination, she was visiting in Ruby's club. There she met a man whom Ruby introduced as `Lee Oswald of the CIA.' She later recognized Oswald when his picture was broadcast following the assassination.

"She also said David Ferrie was in Ruby's club in late 1963, in fact, he was there so often, Oliver mistook Ferrie as an assistant manager of the Carousel Club.

"A friend of Oliver's also knew of Oswald being in Ruby's club and spoke openly about itt. According to Oliver, her friend disappeared and she `decided it would be in her best interests not to say anything.'"

(Downtown 9/29/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Where Was Dan Rather At Moment of JFK Assassination?

In his 1977 book, The Camera Never Blinks, former CBS Evening News Anchor Dan Rather claimed that he was in Dallas "on the other side of the railroad tracks, beyond the triple underpass 30 yards from a grassy knoll," at the very moment JFK was eliminated. Yet, according to Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs, "...discovered film footage of the west side of the underpass has now become public" [in the early 1990s] and "the film plus some still photographs show the Kennedy limousine speeding through the underpass and on to Stemmons Freeway--but no sign of Dan Rather."

The same book also stated:

"The major news media have been content to let sleeping assassination conspiracies lie, compounding this timidity by characterizing anyone who dared look hard at the case as a `buff,' `fantasist,' `paranoid,' or `sensationalist'...

"Who done it?--A consensus of powerful men in the leadership of U.S. military, banking, government, intelligence and organized crime circles ordered their faithful agents to manipulate Mafia-Cuban-Agency pawns to kill the chief..."

(Downtown 9/29/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Did CIA's Hunt Correct `Projecting Ears'?

A number of U.S. writers have historically asserted that CIA Official Tracy Barnes' chief of Covert Activities in the early 1960s--E. Howard Hunt--was one of the press-photographed derelicts or "tramps" who was temporarily taken into custody in the area behind the grassy knoll, shortly after JFK was eliminated on November 22, 1963. As the volume VI appendix of the House Select Committee On Assassinations Report noted in 1979:

"It was claimed that two of the derelicts or `tramps' as they had come to be called, bore striking resemblance to Watergate burglars E. Howard Hunt and Frank Sturgis respectively. Allegations have been made that Hunt, who had been a CIA employee in 1963, and Sturgis, who--had been invoved in CIA-related activities, had been together in Dallas on November 22, 1963 and had participated in the assassination as part of a CIA conspiracy..."

The House Select Committee On Assassinations also revealed that Hunt may have altered his appearance by surgery after the assassination, so that he now bears less of a resemblance to the press-photographed "tramp":

"From his photographs, it is apparent that Hunt underwent surgery to correct his rather projecting ears. The date of this operation was not determined but from the photographs, it would appear to have been within a few years before or after the assassination. In degree of projection, the Tramp's ears appear to more closely match Hunt's pre-surgical condition."

(Downtown 9/29/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Oswald's `201' CIA File

On September 22, 1978, the following exchange took place between former CIA Director Richard Helms and House Select Committee On Assassinations Senior Staff Counsel Michael Goldsmith:

Mr. Goldsmith: "Did the Agency ever conduct an investigation to determine whether Lee Harvey Oswald had been connected with the CIA?"

Mr. Helms: "Yes, and I believe that Mr. McCone [former CIA Director] presented to the Warren Commission a sworn affidavit saying that he had no formal connectiion with the CIA of any kind...

"...He was not an agent of the CIA and I was horrified this morning to have Mr. Blakey [House Select Committee On Assassinations Chief Counsel], as a part of this committee's work coming out with the allegation at this late date that he had some identification with the Agency. Can't this ever be put to rest? What does it take to put it to rest?

"Excuse me. I am asking you a question. I will rephrase it. I would hope that at some juncture someone would find some means of putting this allegation to rest..."

Mr. Goldsmith: "Was there a written report summarizing the Agency's investigation?"

Mr. Helms: "I don't know."

Mr. Goldsmith: "Do you think one should have been filed?"

Mr. Helms. "I don't know."

Mr. Goldsmith: "Why not?"

Mr. Helms: "I don't have any idea why it should have. If it manifests itself in the affidavit sworn by Mr. McCone, isn't that evidence enough?:

Mr. Goldsmith: "Are the Agency's files sufficiently accurate to resolve that issue?"

Mr. Helms: "I don't know..."

Mr. Goldsmith: "Does this memorandum make reference to 37 documents being missing from Oswald's `201 file'?"

Mr. Helms: "Yes, it does..."

According to Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy by Jim Marrs, "at least three former CIA officers have stated publicly that the mere existence of a 201 file on Oswald indicated a relationship between the ex-Marine and the Agency" and "Vincent Marchetti, formerly an executive assistant to the CIA's deputy director, said `Basically, if Oswald had a `201' file, he was an agent.''"

(Downtown 9/15/93)

Hidden History of Texas: 1954-1973--Part 15

(This article was originally posted on The Rag Blog on April 22, 2013)

In 1966 an African-American, Barbara Jordan, was elected to the Texas State Legislature, and by 1971 African-American City Council members had been elected in Austin, Bryan, Fort Worth, Galveston, Hearne, Houston, Huntsville, Malakoff, Port Arthur, San Antonio, Waco, and Wichita Falls.

But institutional racism in Texas did not disappear during the last half of the 1960s and the early 1970s, despite the victories achieved by local civil rights movement activists in the early 1960s struggle to end legal forms of racial discrimination, white supremacy, and racial segregation in Texas.

In Austin , for example, local residents voted to repeal a Fair Housing Ordinance in a May 1968 referendum; and the U.S. Justice Department initiated a lawsuit against the Austin School District in August 1970 because of the failure of city officials to desegregate Austin’s public school system.

In addition, in the early 1970s the Austin Human Relations Commission reported that discrimination in employment in Austin was still “widespread and well-documented,” according to David Humphrey’s Austin: An Illustrated History.

In 1969, the University of Texas administration still only employed one African-American faculty member. And although the poll tax in Texas was finally declared unconstitutional in 1966, as late as 1966 the Texas Rangers law enforcement agency still included no African-Americans.

African-Americans in Texas were still also likely to live in poverty. Around 39 percent of all African-American residents of Texas still lived in poverty in 1970, for example, whereas 90 percent of all white Anglo residents of Texas did not live in poverty.

Dormitories at Texas Southern University that housed African-American students were shot up by Houston police in 1967; and in the late 1960s, “Lee Otis Johnson, who led anti-war protests at Texas Southern University and publicly criticized the mayor and police of Houston at a Martin Luther King memorial rally, received a 30-year sentence for giving a police undercover agent a marijuana cigarette,” according to Alwyn Barr’s Black Texans.

After People’s Party II was formed in Houston in the summer of 1970, its African-American chairman, Carl Hampton, was killed by Houston police on July 26, 1970; and three African-American supporters and a white supporter of People’s Party II were wounded by the Houston police in the same incident.

During the late 1960s and early 1970s, “Negroes in many Texas cities continued to complain that police stopped and searched them without reason, used dogs to move non-violent persons or groups, and still used... profane terms in addressing black people,” according to Black Texans. Not surprisingly, there was an African-American urban rebellion in Midland, Texas, in July 1968 and an African-American urban rebellion in Lubbock, Texas, in September 1971.

Affordable housing opportunities for African-Americans who lived in Texas cities like Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio were also still limited in 1970 because residential segregation still existed in these three cities at that time -- although 26 percent of all Houston residents and 25 percent of all Dallas residents were now African-American in 1970.

And in Austin, “as a result of the Keating urban renewal project in Austin during the 1960s... one-third of the families in the `renewed’ area did not get decent homes, 70 percent paid more rent or higher house payments afterward, and 19 percent of the pre-project home owners had become renters;” and “highway construction in Austin went far toward eliminating the small black enclave called Clarksville on the overwhelmingly white west side of the city,” according to Black Texans.

The official unemployment rate for African-American workers in Texas also continued to be nearly double the official unemployment rate for white workers in the state during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Between 1967 and 1970, the jobless rate for African-American workers in Texas was between 5.7 and 7.6 percent, while the jobless rate for white workers in Texas was between 2.7 and 4 percent.

And as late as 1970, African-American workers were still apparently being excluded from membership in the construction worker unions and skilled trades unions in Texas. And, although in the late 1960s “Negroes formed 20 to 25 percent of the population in Dallas and Houston, they owned only about 3 percent of the businesses in each city” and whites still “owned a majority of the businesses in the black community,” according to Black Texans.

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Ferrie's Pre-JFK Assassination History

In his early 1990s book, First Hand Knowledge: How I Participated In The CIA-Mafia Murder Of President Kennedy, former CIA operative Robert Morrow stated that on July 1, 1963 he was told to purchase four Mannlicher rifles in Baltimore by a CIA official named Tracy Barnes and, on July 15, 1963, Barnes instructed him to hand "the very weapons responsible for the death of the President of the United States [on November 22, 1963]" over to David Ferrie during the first week of August 1963. The then-45-year-old Ferrie was apparently a well-educated, highly-skilled right-wing political fanatic in August 1963. As volume 10 of the March 1979 Report of the House Select Committee on Assassinations revealed:

"Ferrie was born in 1918 in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of James Howard Ferrie, a police captain...Several of Ferrie's associates indicate he was...a misogynist...In 1941, he received a bachelor of arts degree from Baldwin-Wallace College, majoring in philosophy. He also received through a correspondence course, a doctorate degree in psychology from...Phoenix University, Bari, Italy. In August 1957, he traveled to Italy to take the final board exams...

"Ferrie...was rabidly anti-Communist...and frequently critical of each presidential administration for what he perceived to be sell-outs to communism.

"Ferrie often spoke to business and civic groups about politics...

"Ferrie was asked to discontinue his remarks in July 1961 before the New Orleans chapter of the Military Order of World Wars. His topic was the presidential administration and the Bay of Pigs fiasco. The organization put a stop to Ferrie's remarks when he became too critical of President Kennedy...

"Ferrie's major avocation and occupation was flying...He took lessons at Sky Tech Airway Service in Cleveland, Ohio between 1942 and 1945. He then worked asa a pilot for an oil drilling firm which had jobs in South America...

"In 1950, Ferrie...joined the Army Reserve for a three-year stint, leaving with an honorable discharge in 1953...In 1951...Eastern Airlines hired him in Miami and soon transferred him to New Orleans.

"Ferrie had always been engrossed in activities related to flying, including the Civil Air Patrol...

"Ferrie's job and ownership of an airplane enabled him to travel around the country with relative ease. He told officials he frequently traveled to Texas and other parts of the South, including Miami...

""Ferrie's vacation in April 1961 coincides with the Bay of Pigs invasion...

"Ferrie's account of his travels between November 22 and November 25 [1963] contains some contradictions...

"Ferrie later admitted that after the Bay of Pigs invasion, he severly criticized President John F. Kennedy, both in public and in private. He said he had also been critical of any President riding in an open car and had made the statement that anyone could hide in the bushes and shoot a president..."

(Downtown 9/1/93)

Did CIA Violate 1992 JFK Assassination Records Collection Act In 1993?

In August 1993, Assassination Archives and Research Center [AARC] President James Lesar and other AARC researchers "accused the CIA of [at that time] withholding more than 160,000 pages of assassination documents in spite of the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, which called for the disclosure of virtually all of the government's files relevant to the investigation." (Syracuse Post-Standard 8/24/93)

The New York Times (8/24/93) also noted in the early 1990s that many of the JFK Assassination documents released by the National Archives in Washington in August 1993 just "consisted of newspaper clippings stamped secretly by the CIA and multiple copies of the same report from different files" and "researchers noted the continuing classification of files on a CIA plan code-named ZR Rifle, which contemplated the assassination of foreign leaders."

AARC research co-ordinator Jonathan Myers also "said one withheld series of documents marked `top secret' apparently deals with the CIA's connections with organized crime in covert operations against Castro." (Syracuse Post-Standard 8/24/93)

(Downtown 9/15/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Possible CIA Motives For JFK Assassination?

In an essay that appeared in the 1978 book Uncloaking The CIA, entitled "Spies With and Without Daggers," Kirkpatrick Sale stated the following:

"Take the Kennedy assassination. The CIA top echelons may have had a number of reasons for...doing away with John Kennedy...It seems to me...that the overriding reason was survival--survival of the careers of the CIA men, of the agency as they felt it should be...It was being reorganized according to a Kennedy plan that was to abolish its so-called Research Division and limited its covert activities...

"The CIA was threatened by Kennedy's new dovish stance on Vietnam...Its Cuban operations...were also being curtailed by the president, who ordered the arrests of Cuban trainees at CIA-operated camps on at least four separate occasions in 1963. The agency had even been threatened outright by Kennedy, who had said not long before that fateful trip to Dallas that he was going `to splinter the CIA in a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds.'

"Such was the danger to the agency in November 1963. By December 1963 everything had changed..."

(Downtown 9/1/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Was CIA Official Hunt In Dallas On November 22, 1963?

In its June 6, 1975 report, entitled "Allegations Concerning the Assassination Of President Kennedy," the Rockefeller Commission On CIA Activities Within The United States stated that "the personal, payroll and travel records of the CIA were checked with respect to" Tracy Barnes's Chief of Covert Activities--E. Howard Hunt--and that "What records remain...disclose that Hunt...used 11 hours of sick leave in the two-week pay period ending November 23, 1963," and "there is some indication...that some of these 11 hours of sick leave may have been taken by Hunt on November 22, 1963." The Rockefeller Commission Report also stated that "it cannot be determined with certainty" where convicted Watergate break-in affair participant Hunt was "on the day of the assassination."

(Downtown 8/4/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Did CBS News Cover-Up Conspiracy?

In the early 1990s CBS News still wasn't very eager to investigate the allegations by some U.S. writers that the CIA was involved in the elimination of JFK on November 22, 1963. Yet CBS News apparently was very eager to prove in the 1960s that the Warren Report was not a U.S. Establishment fabrication. In an article that appeared in The Assassinations: Dallas And Beyond--A Guide To Cover-Ups And Investigations, entitled "The Media And The Murder of John Kennedy," Jerry Polcoff wrote the following:

"CBS designed spurious tests to support the Warren Report. When these loaded tests disproved the report, they were interpreted to support it anyway...CBS concluded that `Oswald was the sole assassin'...The Kennedy assassination cover-up has survived so long only because the press, confronted with the choice of believing what it was told or examining the facts independently, chose the former..."

In his book, Maverick: Fifty Years Of Investigative Reporting, Fred Cook also wrote the following:

"Early in December 1963 I went to Washington on a magazine assignment, and I learned from a number of sources that many veteran newsmen were as concerned as I about the lightning-fast wrap-up of the case.

"One of my contacts, who had been talking to a CBS news executive, told me that the executive was deeply disturbed and frustrated. His team in Dallas, he said, had uncovered leads that seemed to require further digging, but had run into the stonewall of...indifference."

(Downtown 8/4/93)

Hidden History of Texas: 1954-1973--Part 14

(This article was originally posted on The Rag Blog on February 26, 2013)

Between 1953 and 1964, the percentage of non-agricultural workers in Texas who were unionized dropped from 16.8 to 13.3 percent; but the number of labor union members in 1964 in Texas —around 375,000—remained about the same as it had been in 1953. As F. Ray Marshall’s Labor in the South observed:

“The main losses in Texas were the OCAW, which had 31,000 members in 1955 and about 20,000 in 1964; and UAW, whose membership had declined from 16,057 in 1955 to about 14,000 in 1964; the carpenters, who had 27,321 members in Texas in 1957 and about 15,000 in 1964; the packinghouse workers, who had 2,035 members in 1955 and 1,200 in 1964; and the textile workers who had 720 members in 1955 and only 185 in 1964. The main unions to gain membership in Texas between 1960 and 1964 were the American Federation of Government Employees, the National Association of Letter Carriers, the state, county and municipal employees; the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters.”

Yet between 1947 and 1973, the number of factories in Texas increased from 7,128 to 14,431; and the number of factory workers in Texas exceeded 730,000 by 1972.

By 1960, the number of African-Americans who still lived in rural Texas had dropped to 256,750 and the number of African-American tenant farmers and sharecroppers in Texas had dropped to 3,138; while the number of African-Americans in Texas who still owned their own farms had declined from 52,751 in 1940 to 15,041 by 1960. And “by 1960 only 8 percent of all black workers in Texas remained in rural areas—a sharp decline from the 32 percent of two decades before,” according to Alwyn Barr’s Black Texans. But, in contrast, the “urban black population in Texas grew from 428,110 in 1940 to 905,089 in 1960,” according to the same book.

Although “Texas Attorney General John Ben Shepperd made a concerted effort to drive the NAACP out of Texas by suing the association” in 1956, according to Merline Pitre’s In Struggle Against Jim Crow, after the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled that racial segregation in U.S. public school systems was unconstitutional, African-American civil rights activists in Texas continued to protest against racism within Texas society during the 1950s and 1960s; and—despite the political opposition of some white Texans who wanted to preserve legalized segregation in the state—were able to win some of their anti-racist demands between 1954 and 1973. As Black Texans recalled, “protests by local black organizations and court cases brought the integration of publicly owned restaurants, golf courses, parks, beaches and rest rooms in Houston , Beaumont , and other Texas cities during the 1950s.” In 1954, for example, Houston ’s public golf course and public library were de-segregated; and between 1954 and 1956 all major Texas cities ended racial separation on their city buses.

Yet “at Texarkana College in 1955—a crowd of whites prevented blacks from enrolling” and “White Citizens Councils, an anti-desegregation group…appeared in Texas during the summer of 1955 and soon claimed a membership of 20,000,” according to Randolph Campbell’s Gone To Texas, with 250 delegates attending its 1955 convention. And, “although enrollment at UT was fully integrated by 1956, blacks were banned from varsity athletics and relegated to segregated and substandard dormitories;” and “Austin in the early 1950s was still segregated in most respects—restaurants, hotels, movie theaters, drug stores, public schools, parks, swimming pools, hospitals, housing and public transportation,” according to David Humphrey’s Austin: An Illustrated History. Barton Springs, for example, “was off limits to blacks as late as 1959” and “some residents saw in [former Austin Mayor] Tom Miller’s plans for an interstate highway just an extension of the wall of separation,” according to the same book.

Near Fort Worth, “forceful opposition to school integration at Mansfield” also developed in the fall of 1956 “when over 250 whites stopped the entry of black pupils into formerly white schools” and then-Democratic Texas Governor Shivers “used Texas Rangers, not to disperse the mob, but to remove the students,” according to Black Texans; and “Mansfield schools remained segregated for at least 2 more years,” despite the 1954 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, according to the same book. Houston also still had the largest racially segregated public school system in the United States in 1957. And while Southern Methodist University [SMU] administrators finally began allowing African-American applicants to attend this college in 1955, Texas Tech, Rice University , Baylor University and Texas Christian University administrators apparently didn’t allow African-American applicants to become students on their campuses until 1960.

So, not surprisingly, anti-racist civil rights protests and demonstrations by both students and non-students in Texas continued during the 1960s. As Black Texans recalled:

“In the early 1960s black and white students from Texas Southern University in Houston , the University of Texas in Austin, and other colleges across the state began to protest restaurant and theater segregation. Bishop and Wiley college students in Marshall undertook one of the first series of non-violent demonstrations in Texas during the spring of 1960. Prairie View students with limited white support boycotted Hempstead merchants in the fall of 1963. Local chapters of the NAACP and the Congress of Racial Equality [C.O.R.E.] also picketed, petitioned and boycotted against segregation in Austin, Houston, and San Antonio…In El Paso, where Negroes formed only 2 percent of the population, the city desegregated public accommodations by ordinance…In some smaller East Texas towns, such as Huntsville and San Augustine, sit-ins and protests remained necessary even in 1965 to bring integration of public accommodations…”

Since University of Texas “dormitories were still segregated” and African-American students at UT were “still excluded from varsity athletics” in 1960, in Austin during the spring of 1960 “black and white students protested UT’s dormitory and athletic policies” and also “picketed nearby restaurants” and “staged sit-ins at downtown” Austin “lunch counters,” according to Austin: An Illustrated History. But the same book also observed:

“Most downtown eateries stood pat…Demonstrations accelerated in December [1960] when groups of 100 to 200 UT students participated in `stand-ins’ at the two movie theaters on the Drag…Hundreds of demonstrators celebrated Lincoln’s birthday in 1961 with stand-ins at both movie houses on the Drag and the State and Paramount theaters downtown…In September [1961] the two theaters on the Drag agreed to integrate…Sit-ins at a white dormitory brought disciplinary probation to several participants…Finally, the regents gave in on integrated housing in 1964…”

At UT in Austin (whose student body included only around 200 African-American students in 1961), the Students for Direct Action campus group (which was founded in the fall of 1960) also picketed in 1962 “the Forty Acres Club, a newly-opened private `whites-only’ faculty club often used for university meetings and entertaining official university visitors,” according to the 1988 “History of Student Activism at the University of Texas at Austin (1960-88) thesis by Beverly Burr that was posted on the www.utwatch.org site. And in the fall of 1962 student activists on UT’s campus also founded the Negro for Equal Rights [NER] and Campus Inter-racial Committee [CIC] civil rights movement campus groups which were apparently successful in pressuring the University of Texas administration to finally hire its first African-American faculty member (an assistant professor of civil engineering named Ervin Perry) in May 1964; and to finally allow African-Americans to become members of the UT faculty’s Forty Acres Club in March 1965.

Yet despite the 1960, 1962 and 1962 civil rights movement protests in Austin, as late as the fall of 1963, Austin’s 24,413 African-American residents “were still barred from half or more of Austin’s white-owned restaurants, hotels, and motels and from business schools and bowling alleys,” “9 out of 10 black elementary-age children attended schools that were at least 99 percent black” and “discrimination in employment and housing was common,” according to Austin: An Illustrated History. So, not surprisingly, Austin’s NAACP chapter held a 6-day civil rights filibuster at an April 1964 meeting of Austin’s City Council to demand that it pass an anti-discrimination ordinance; and Joan Baez even held a “freedom hootenanny” on the front of Austin’s City Hall before an audience of 200 local civil rights movement supporters on the first day of this Austin NAACP civil rights filibuster.

Revisiting History of Korea Again--Part 3

In his 2004 book, Target Korea: Pushing North Korea To The Brink of Nuclear Catastrophe, Australian National University Professor Gavan McCormack provided some historical background to the current crisis in Korea, when he wrote the following about the situation in Korea after World War II in the late 1940s:

"In the Soviet zone...broadly popular social and economic reforms were implemented, including the purge of Japanese collaborators, land reform, the emancipation of women, and the transfer to public ownership of all Japanese assets...

"Widespread discontent...exploded on the island of Cheju, off [South] Korea's southern coast [in 1948-49]. As a result, between 10 and 25 percent of its 300,000 inhabitants were massacred, more than half of their villages burned, and the panoply of anti-guerrilla measures later developed to the full in Vietnam--herding of the population into strategic hamlets or fortified villages, destruction of crops, scorched earth, slaughter of villagers--put into operation...

"...Syngman Rhee...launched cross-border raids in 1949 to test Northern defenses...Stalin gave his consent to the invasion plans [of North Korean government leader Kim] only reluctantly, after forty-eight telegraphic pleas from Kim...

"...Through early 1950...Rhee grew even more strident in his calls for a `march' north to unify the country and his forces stepped up raids..."

Revisiting History of Korea Again--Part 2

In his 2004 book, Target Korea: Pushing North Korea To The Brink of Nuclear Catastrophe, Australian National University Professor Gavan McCormack provided some historical background to the current crisis in Korea, when he wrote the following about the situation in Korea after World War II in the late 1940s:

"With the announcement of the Japanese surrender, the capital, Seoul, was swept by joyful anticipation and a spontaneous network of popular local organizations, the `People's Committees,' emerged...The People's Committees were quickly banned...and the rich conservative and staunch anticommunist, Syngman Rhee, an `emigre' Korean who had lived for decades in Washington, developing strong ties to conservative Americans, was imposed at the head of a new regime...

"[General] Hodge [the U.S. military commander]'s intelligence told him in February 1946 that leftist elements in the South would be bound to win any fair election, and in that same month a survey found that 49 percent of South Koreans felt that conditions were worse under the Americans than they had been under the Japanese.

"Those associated with the People's Committees...were...arrested or driven underground...The most prominent figure...seeking accommodation with the north, Yo Unhyong, was assassinated in July 1947...

"On November 11, 1947, Patrick Shaw, then head of the Australian diplomatic mission in Tokyo, described the situation in South Korea:

"`Real power is apparently in the hands of the ruthless police force which works at the direction of the G2 Section of the American G.H.Q....Korean prisons are now fuller of political prisoners than under Japanese rule. The torture and murder of the political enemies of the Extreme Right is apparently an accepted and commonplace thing.'..."

Revisiting History of Korea Again--Part 1

In his 2004 book, Target Korea: Pushing North Korea To The Brink of Nuclear Catastrophe, Australian National University Professor Gavan McCormack provided some historical background to the current crisis in Korea, when he wrote the following:

"Nearly 37,000 Americans, and an estimated three million Koreans, died in the Korean War of 1950-1953...

"...We now know that many of the greatest atrocities in that awful [Korean] war were committed by the South Koreans and the United States--at Nogunri, Taejon, and elsewhere--and then by the United States alone, when in its air campaign against the North it devastated dams, power stations, and the infrastructure of social life in breach of international law. In other words,...much of the terror was inflicted by the forces acting in the name of the United Nations...

"...The United States, to suit its global needs, divided a country that had been united for over a thousand years and whose culture and tradition were extraordinarily coherent...In the State Department an arbitrary line was drawn across the map at the 38th parallel, a geographical marker of no previous political or cultural significance, which had the effect of placing Korea's capital, Seoul, and most of its population under American influence...

"Koreans below the 38th parallel who welcomed liberation from Japanese imperialism...were forced instead to accept a subordinate state...The objectives of American policy-makers were...to establish a cooperative regime that would reflect U.S. strategic interests...Nationalist aspiration was anathema to the Americans and had to be crushed..."

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Dan Rather And JFK Assassination Coverage

In his 1977 book, The Camera Never Blinks, former CBS Evening News Anchor Dan Rather claimed that--around three weeks before JFK was ambushed--he was told by then-CBS News Editor Ralph Paskman to set up extensive coverage of JFK's November 22, 1963 motorcade through Dallas.

Yet in his 1978 book, Air Time: The Inside Story Of CBS News, former CBS News writer Gary Gates indicated that--rather than being told by Paskman to set up extensive coverage of JFK's Dallas motorcade--former U.S. Marine Rather "persuaded his editorial superiors in New York to lay on extra coverage for the President's visit to Dallas" because "Rather was among those who felt, most acutely, that `something unusual' might happen while Kennedy was in Dallas." Gates also noted that "When it was all over, CBS News executives in New York would remember" Rather's "foresight" and "only a few weeks after the assassination, he was appointed CBS News White House correspondent over the heads of several more experienced reporters in Washington."

(Downtown 8/4/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: JFK Assassination Archives Head Fensterwald's Strange Death

In his book Maverick: Fifty Years Of Investigative Reporting, Fred Cook recalled that "In 1968 I joined the Committee to Investigate Assassinations formed by Bernard Fensterwald, Jr., a Washington attorney who had served as a counsel to different Senate committees." Cook noted that after leaving government service, "Fensterwald decided to devote his time to probing assassinations--not just that of President Kennedy, but also the 1968 slayings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy."

In the 1990s, Bernard "Bud" Fensterwald apparently continued to devote his time to investigating the events of November 22, 1963, as the head of the JFK Assassination Archives prior to his death in 1991. And in his early 1990s book, First Hand Knowledge: How I Participated In The CIA-Mafia Murder Of President Kennedy, former CIA operative Robert Morrow described some strange circumstances which apparently surrounded Fensterwald's death:

"Gus Russo...was working on a PBS-Frontline television series about the JFK assassination. Gus told me he had been in Florida interviewing a man whom I had identified as a possible CIA bag-man in the conspiracy. This man, also a former Air Force Colonel, was a good friend and former business associate of Col. Howard Burris...

"Gus Russo felt the man was ready to talk about the assassination and, based on this assessment, the head of the JFK Assassination Archives in Washington, D.C., attorney Bud Fensterwald, was ready to head to Florida to interview him. When I heard of Bud's intention, I told Russo...that Bud would never be allowed to approach the man and, if Bud attempted to go through with the interview, he would be killed...Bud asked me to set up a luncheon date with the Colonel...

"I set up the luncheon date for the 11th of April, 1991, with the Colonel, and told Bud. He said he would send me the money for the tickets and meet me at the Palm Beach airport just before noon...Just days before I was to meet Bud, I received a call from Bud's secretary that he had died the previous night. Before I could do anything, Bud's body was cremated and an autopsy had not been performed..."

(Downtown 8/4/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Connally And The JFK Assassination

Like JFK, the now-deceased former Governor of Texas--John Connally--was mysteriously hit by gunfire on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. But, unlike JFK, Connally lived to dispute the Warren Commission Report's tale of which "magic bullet" actually hit him. In its report, the Warren Commission also described the role Connally played in arranging for JFK to, coincidentally, appear at the Dallas ambush site on November 22, 1963:

"The basic decision on the November trip to Texas was made at a meeting of President Kennedy, Vice-President Johnson, and Governor Connally on June 5, 1963, at the Cortez Hotel in El Paso, TX...The three agreed that the President would come to Texas in late November 1963...When Governor Connally called at the White House on October 4, 1963 to discuss the details of the visit, it was agreed that the planning of events in Texas would be left largely to the Governor..."

Prior to being named Secretary of the Navy by JFK, and subsequently winning election as Texas governor in the early 1960s, Connally had been employed in the 1950s by a Texas oil billionaire and leading supporter of Republican President Eisenhower named Sid Richardson. Coincidentally, Connally's college roommate--Henry Wade--was the Dallas District Attorney on November 22, 1963.

(Downtown 7-8/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Did CIA Buy JFK Assassination Rifles?

In chapter III of its report, entitled "The Shots From the Texas School Book Depository," the Warren Commission stated that "Lee Harvey Oswald purchased the rifle used in the assassination" and that "the commission concluded that the rifle used to assassinate President Kennedy and wound Governor Connally was owned and possessed by Lee Harvey Oswald."

Yet in his early 1990s book, First Hand Knowledge: How I Participated In The CIA-Mafia Murder of President Kennedy, former CIA operative Robert Morrow stated the following:

"I bought the 3 Mannlicher rifles that would be used to shoot Kennedy.

"I supplied Kennedy's 3 hit squads with communications devices more sophisticated than any previously designed...

"To comprehend why the CIA found it necessary to commit the seemingly treasonous act of murdering the country's Commander-in-Chief, one must understand the political climate of that age...

"As a CIA operative, I witnessed first hand the events that led to the murder...I do not mean to defend or condemn the murder of President Kennedy. I just hope to explain how and why it happened...

"...I will...take you through my...years with the CIA so that you will understand why the United States intelligence community concluded that the President had to be eliminated..."

And in his introduction to this same book, the author of The Kennedys: Dynasty & Disaster, John Davis, wrote the following:

"Mr. Morrow...has given us a first-hand, factual account of the plot to assassinate President Kennedy...When he was ordered by his CIA case officer Tracy Barnes to purchase four...surplus Mannlicher-Carcano rifles he was not informed of their intended use in the JFK assassination.

"Robert Morrow identifies the major players in the plot to assassinate President Kennedy: his CIA case officer, Tracy Barnes; Marshall Diggs, an attorney and former Comptroller of the U.S. Treasury under Roosevelt...

"In addition, Morrow names one of the shooters in the ambush of the president, John Michael Mertz, who he identifies as a former French mercenary and `an assassination expert who worked on the CIA's official hit squad.'"

Coincidentally, in its report, the Warren Commission also noted that--on November 23, 1963--when Dallas Police Captain "Fritz confronted Oswald with the evidence that he had purchased a rifle under the fictitious name of `Hiddell,'" Mr. Oswald "said that this was not true."

(Downtown 7/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Was CIA Involved In JFK Assassination Plot?

In its June 6, 1975 report, entitled "Allegations Concerning The Assassination of President Kennedy," the Rockefeller Commission On CIA Activities Within The United States stated the following:

"The second theory advanced in support of allegations of CIA participation in the assassination of President Kennedy is that various links existed between the CIA, Oswald and Ruby...

"There is no credible evidence that either Lee Harvey Oswald or Jack Ruby was ever employed by the CIA or ever acted for the CIA in any capacity whatever, either directly or indirectly..."

Yet in his early 1990s-published book, entitled First Hand Knowledge: How I Participated In The CIA-Mafia Murder Of President Kennedy, former CIA operative Robert Morrow stated that on Wednesday, October 9, 1962 a CIA official named Tracy Barnes "called and asked if I could meet with him at 7:30 p.m. that evening" and, when Morrow met with Barnes that evening, "Tracy reached into a briefcase next to his chair and pulled out a number of folders" and said the following to Morrow:

"To recapitulate, here's a rundown on [Clay] Shaw's inside group...His official relationship with the Agency is as a consultant...There is Jack [Ruby]...There is one other. The young man who served in the Marine Corps who now has the young Russian wife. His name is Lee Oswald...He served a covert stint in the Philippines with his MAAG group and, in September of 1959, at our request, he applied for and received a hardship discharge within three days. For obvious reasons, when we sent him to Russia posing as a defector, it was changed to a dishonorable discharge. From the marines, he went home to New Orleans. After spending a few days with his mother, he was reimbursed $2,000 from our local New Orleans office.

"...Oswald's...job was to make contact with a girl in Moscow who's the niece of a KGB colonel and get her out of Russia so her uncle could defect.

"The operation worked perfectly in the opening stages, but he was then exiled to Minsk for two years...

"On the night of his arrival back in the U.S. one of our people debriefed him and immediately reported into headquaraters in D.C.. He was told to send Oswald directly down south to await further contact. He finally hooked up with Jack [Ruby] in Dallas..."

Morrow also described what happened on Sunday morning, November 10, 1963:

"I checked into a motel on Pulaski Highway near my home, and placed the 5 p.m. call to [anti-Castro Cuban refugee leader Eladio] del Valle.

"Initially, del Valle queried me about the operation of the transceivers...

"...del Valle exclaimed, `They had better be perfect, compadre. They are for Texas!'

"`Texas?' I replied.

"`For the big one. Along with the rifles, in Dallasa. A head of state, remember?'

"`I don't understand del Valle,' was all I could manage to say in my confusion.

"`You will, compadre. I found out about it last night. Kennedy's going to get it in Dallas.'

"After this last statement, del Valle signed off."

(Downtown 7/21/93)

CIA Official Barnes's Rockefeller Connection

The former CIA official who Robert Morrow stated was apparently involved in the plot which assassinated JFK--Tracy Barnes--was apparently related to the family of a cnadidate for the 1964 Republican presidential nomination named Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller. As The Man Who Knew Too Much by Dick Russell observed:

"...An athlete at Groton and then Yale, Barnes was another of the CIA's Ivy League lawyers who married well. His wife, Janet, was an Aldrich, related to the Rockefeller family."

The same book also noted that "Barnes retired from the CIA in December 1966...to become a special assistant" to "Yale University President Kingman Brewster, Jr." before dying of a heart attack on February 18, 1972.

On November 22, 1963 Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, the first announced presidential candidate to challenge JFK, was lunching privately with 1948 Republican Party presidential candidate Thomas E. Dewey at the very moment JFK was shot. And according to Thomas E. Dewey And His Times by Richard Norton Smith, Dewey was also "due to meet Nixon for lunch" on that very same day, after Nixon returned from his Dallas "business trip."

During the 1970s, CIA official Barnes's Aldrich-Rockefeller relation was named both vice-president of the United States and chairman of the Rockefeller Commission On CIA Activities within The United States by former Warren Commission member and then U.S. president Gerald Ford.

(Downtown 7/21/93)

Black Worker Unemployment Rate Still 13.3 Percent In March 2013

The official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all Black workers (youth, female and male) in the United States was still 13.3 percent in March 2013; while the total number of Black workers not in the U.S. labor force increased by 148,000 (from 11,583,000 to 11,731,000) between February and March 2013, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data..

The official “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Black female workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States was still 12.2 percent in March 2013; while the number of Black female workers over 20 years-of-age who still have jobs decreased by 76,000 (8,302,000 to 8,226,000) between February and March 2013. In addition, the number of Black female workers over 20 years-of-age still in the U.S. labor force also decreased by 126,000 (from 9,491,000 to 9,365,000) during the same period.

The official unemployment rate for Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 33.8 percent in March 2013; while the official jobless rate for Black male workers over 20 years-of-age was still 12.7 percent in that same month.

The official jobless rate for white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age increased from 22.1 to 22.5 percent between February and March 2013; while the number of white youths who still have jobs decreased by 99,000 (from 3,645,000 to 3,546,000) during the same period.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latino youth between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 28.1 percent in March 2013; while the number of Latino youths who still have jobs decreased by 26,000 (from 716,000 to 690,000) between February and March 2013.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Latina female workers over 20 years-of-age was still 9.3 percent in March 2013; while the number of Latina female workers over 20 years-of-age who still have jobs decreased by 90,000 (from 8,980,000 to 8,890,000) between February and March 2013. In addition, the number of Latina female workers over 20 years-of-age still in the U.S. labor force also decreased by 170,000 (from 9,975,000 to 9,805,000) during the same period.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age was still 8.2 percent in March 2013; while the number of Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age still in the U.S. labor force decreased by 16,000 (from 13,534,000 to 13,518,000) between February and March 2013.

According to the “seasonally adjusted” data, the total number of Latino workers who still have jobs decreased by 93,000 (from 22,215,000 to 22,122,000) between February and March 2013; while the total number of Latino workers not in the U.S. labor force increased by 282,000 (from 12,606,000 to 12,888,000) during the same period. In addition, the “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all Latino workers (youth, male and female) was still 9.2 percent in March 2013.

The total number of white workers in the United States who still had jobs decreased by 170,000 (from 115,250,000 to 115,080,000) between February and March 2013, according to the “seasonally adjusted” data; while the number of white workers not in the U.S. labor force increased by 232,000 (from 70,233,000 to 770,565,000) during the same period. And the unemployment rate for all white workers (youth, male and female) was still 6.7 percent in March 2013.

The number of white male workers over 20 years-of-age who still have jobs decreased by 65,000 (from 60,659,000 to 60,594,000) between February and March 2013; while the number of white male workers over 20 years-of-age still in the U.S. labor force decreased by 171,000 (from 64,720,000 to 64,549,000) during the same period. In addition, the official “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for white male workers over 20 years-of-age was still 6.1 percent in March 2013.

The official “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for white female workers over 20 years-of-age increased from 6 to 6.1 percent between February and March 2013; while the number of unemployed white female workers over 20 years-of-age increased by 37,000 (from 3,278,000 to 3,315,000) during the same period. In addition, the number of white female workers over 20 years-of-age who still have jobs decreased by 6,000 (from 50,946,000 to 50,940,000 between February and March 2013.

According to the “not seasonally adjusted” data, the number of Asian-American workers not in the U.S. labor force increased by 80,000 (from 4,619,000 to 4,699,000) between February and March 2013; while the unemployment rate for Asian-American workers was still 5 percent in March 2013.

The total number of all youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age in the United States who still have jobs decreased by 25,000 (from 4,376,000 to 4,351,000) between February and March 2013; while the number of youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age not in the U.S. labor force increased by 91,000 (from 11,012,000 to 11,103,000) during the same period. And the official “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 24.2 percent in March 2013.

For both all male workers in the United States over 16 years-of-age and all female workers in the United States the official unemployment rate was still 7.6 percent in March 2013; but the total number of workers not in the U.S. labor force increased by 663,000 (from 89,304,000 to 89,967,000) between February and March 2013. In addition, the total number of workers in the United States who still have jobs decreased by 206,000 (from 143,492,000 to 143,286,000) during the same period and 11,742,000 workers in the United States were still officially unemployed in March 2013.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ April 5, 2013 press release:

“…The unemployment rate was little changed at 7.6 percent…Employment…declined in retail trade…In March, the number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 4.6 million. These individuals accounted for 39.6 percent of the unemployed.

“The civilian labor force declined by 496,000…The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) fell by 350,000 over the month to 7.6 million. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job.

“In March, 2.3 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force…These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey.

“Among the marginally attached, there were 803,000 discouraged workers in March…Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them….

“In March, retail trade employment declined by 24,000…Job declines occurred in clothing and clothing accessories stores (-15,000), building material and garden supply stores (-10,000), and electronics and appliance stores (-6,000).

“Within government, U.S. Postal Service employment fell by 12,000 in March…”

45th Anniversary of MLK's Assassination Folk Song Tie-In

To mark the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Civil Rights Movement activist Martin Luther King Jr at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968:

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: CIA's `Oswald Papers' Were Still Classified In 1990s

Although most members of the Love Generation were curious about Lee Oswald's possible relationship to the CIA, in the early 1990s the Clinton Administration was stilll not willing to de-classify the CIA's "Oswald Papers." According to the early 1990s book Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba And The Garrison Case by James DiEugenio:

"In 1976, a CIA document was releaased that noted Agency interest in recruiting Oswald. The document suggested that interviews should be held with him through the Domestic Contacts Division. Later, the Agency revealed it has a `201' (or personnel) file on Oswald...A 201 file would strongly suggest that Oswald was an agent...The file the agency had on Oswald was voluminous. It began with documents from 1959...The file itself contains 1,196 documents, some of them hundreds of pages long. Of these, more than 200 are still classified , almost 30 years [in early 1990s] after his death. Many of those released are heavily censored..."

Spy Saga: Lee Harvey Oswald And U.S. Intelligence by Philip Melanson also noted in the early 1990s:

"Approximately 5 percent of the Warren Commission's papers remain secret after nearly 3 decades [in the early 1990s]...Numerous CIA documents are among the still-classified Commission records [in the early 1990s]. The Agency also refused [in the early 1990s] to release most of the data it provided to the House Assassinations Committee between 1976 and 1978."

Professor of Political Science Malanson also stated the following in the early 1990s:

"In 1984 I initated a Freedom of Information Act request to obtain Rockefeller Commission documents dealing with CIA activities in Dallas in 1963. The Commission papers are held by the Ford Presidential Library in Ann Aror, Michigan. Don W. Wilson, then director of the library, denied my request."

(Downtown 7/7/93)

CIA Put U.S. Writer Under Surveillance In 1990

When a Cincinnati alternative newspaper, East Side Weekend, published an article that revealed the CIA's apparent role in the elimination of President Kennedy, the author of the article--Robert Morrow--was apparently put under illegal CIA domestic surveillance. As Morrow noted in First Hand Knowledge: How I Participated In The CIA-Mafia Murder Of President Kennedy:

"...In 1990, I was asked by one of the alternative newspapers, called East Side Weekend, to write a story on why John F. Kennedy was really killed.

"The story came out on August 16, 1990, entitled `Did The CIA Kill Kennedy?' and...shook most of the midwestern community who read it. It also shook the CIA. Within days, I was under surveillance...The CIA even approached one of my friends, an ex-homicide detective, identified themselves as ex-CIA agents and queried him with regard to my activities."

(Downtown 7/7/93)

50 Years Since JFK Assassination Retrospective: Did Oswald Work For U.S. Intelligence?

In Chapter 1 of the Report of the President's Commission On The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, entitled "Summary and Conclusions," the Warren Commission stated that "All of the evidence before the Commission established that there was nothing to support the speculation that Oswald was an agent, employee, or informant of the FBI, the CIA, or any other government agency."

Yet in his 1990 book Spy Saga: Lee Harvey Oswald and U.S. Intelligence, Southeastern Massachusetts University Professor of Political Science Philip Melanson stated the following:

"Lee Harvey Oswald spent nearly all of his adult life working for U.S. intelligence--most likely for the CIA--as agent-provocateur. He did so in both the domestic and international arena, right up to his involvement in the assassination.

"Oswald is enigmatic partly because he spent so much of his life in the shadowy, compartmentalized world of U.S. intelligence...He maintained a facade of leftism...In contrast, his associations and contacts were decidedly right-wing and anti-communist...False information was purposely created about Oswald...

"This analysis will reach a conclusion about a conspiracy in John F. Kennedy's assassination. It will demonstrate that Oswald's movements were still being choreographed by his handlers in U.S. intelligence--however fringe or renegade they may have been--at the time of the assassination...Persons who knew his background were fabricating...evidence of his guilt in the assassination. Such activity...constitutes conspiracy...

"In Oswald's case, the conclusion that he was a U.S. intelligence agent is not a footnote to the crime of the century but rather a window onto the conspiracy behind President John F. Kennedy's assassination..."

Professor Melanson also asserted that "The CIA has continuously obstructed pursuit of the truth about Oswald" and "The mainstream media remains captive to decades of secrecy and disinformation regarding Oswald: much of it emanating from the CIA." Spy Saga: Lee Harvey Oswald and U.S. Intelligence noted that "Intimations by CIA officers that the only missing piece of the Oswald puzzle and the only valid question of conspiracy related to the Soviet Union was endorsed on January 7, 1990 by the New York Times..."

(Downtown 6/23/93)