Parsing Key Aspects Of The JFK Assassination Documents Release

JFK and Jackie in limo moments before he was killed by a head shot coming from the Grassy Knoll area.

Lee Oswald killed by Jack Ruby on orders from mob-CIA Staff D conspirators.

With the release of the first batch of JFK assassination files late Thursday, it is important to try to get a grasp of what they mean- including future ones.  In this post, I parse the basics. While many may find their head spinning- I have made every effort to break down the most critical elements of what you will hear and see from the media - and why various aspects are important - or not.

1. The one important thing we learned thus far:

As Chip Reid reported on CBS Early Show, the FBI  had called the Dallas police the night before Oswald's murder and cited a memo from J. Edgar Hoover in which one reads:

"We received a call in our Dallas office from a man talking in a calm voice he was a member of a committee organized to kill Oswald. We at once notified the Chief Of Police and he assured us Oswald would be given sufficient protection.  

This morning we called the Chief of Police again warning of some effort against Oswald and he assured us adequate protection would be given. However, this was not done."

Why wasn't it done?    Why did Chief Jesse Curry give assurances to the FBI that weren't followed through?  The trope that the Dallas cops let their "friend" Jack Ruby into the basement because they knew him (Jack gave them free drinks at his Carousel Club) is pure bull pockey.  Former British Intelligence officer John Hughes-Wilson concurs with former Justice Dept. agent Walt Brown ('Treachery in Dallas', Chapter 'Blue Death) ',and author James Douglass ('JFK and the Unspeakable') that the Dallas cops were part of it.   They needed a backup plan - likely in concert with the Dallas mob - to stop Oswald so he wouldn't talk.  The "committee" in Hoover's memo then was likely made of an alliance between the mob and the Dallas cops. 

Before proceeding, let's appreciate that Hoover had no soft spots for Lee Harvey Oswald. The call to Curry to ensure his safety was entirely about keeping Lee alive to extract a confession from him as the sole assassin. Of course, J. Edgar was totally delusional as there was no way in hell Lee would do that - short of ripping out his nails and water boarding - and I doubt he'd do it then. No, he wanted his public say to clear things up at a public trial and no Hoover, LBJ or others were going to take that away. But that was precisely what cost him his life and the "committee" knew it.

To the point, the Dallas cops' original orders (likely from Dallas Mob boss Joe Civello) were to kill Oswald at the Texas Theater so there'd be no chance of his ever getting his say at a public trial.   Douglass (p. 292) makes it known that the Dallas cops who entered the theater approached Oswald (in his seat) "almost as if they were provoking the suspected police killer to break away from his seat ..which would have given Tippet's enraged fellow officers an excuse to kill him".

But Oswald did no such thing. He knew their game and he wasn't that stupid.  Nor did he attempt to fire any shots. Lee clearly and obviously knew by now he'd been set up as the patsy and the last thing he wanted to do was make these Dallas cops his judge, jury and executioners. No, he wanted to have his trial and his say, and let it be known how and why he'd been set up. So, rather than mindlessly react he expressly said: "I am not resisting arrest! Police brutality!" He never said "It's all over now" - those words were put into his mouth by the WC's cavalcade of faux witnesses, puppets and liars.

Hughes-Wilson cites his own source (p. 176, 'JFK - An American Coup  d 'Etat') who overheard two Dallas cops talking about how Oswald was to have been killed before he ever arrived at the station. One, in a snarling voice, said to the other (ibid.) "You were supposed to kill Lee....you stupid son of a bitch, then you go and kill a cop". Referring to the shooting of officer J.D. Tippet.

So there were snafus along the way. Even the best planned conspiracies can go awry, but in the JFK case the architects ensured there was always a back up plan. In this case, to recruit former Chicago mobster Jack Rubinstein, aka Ruby, to snuff Oswald. Mark North, using actual, released FBI files, documents many of Ruby’s Mob connections in his book, Act of Treason- including his reported “gangster connections in Dallas”, especially to Joseph Civello, the Mafia boss in Dallas. The same files disclose that Ruby, on October 26, 1963, “placed a 12 minute person to person call to Irwin S. Weiner at Weiner’s Chicago home”.

It is further noted that Weiner was a mob lawyer:

This dovetails with what most serious researchers already know, that Jack Ruby didn't just kill Oswald out of the goodness of his little heart to spare Jackie from having to testify.

The document trail unearthed by Mark North ('Act of Treason') is revelatory here, namely the FOIA -released files retrieved in the 1990s that showed Ruby had an outstanding  debt to Uncle Sam - owing more than $40,000 in back excise taxes to the federal government, plus $20,000 in other back taxes. A phone call (also documented)  then would have assured Ruby his tax problems would “disappear” if he performed one more job: offing Oswald. Given the mob link to ZR/Rifle, such a scenario would be totally logical. Few people today, unless they've  mined the document trail, are remotely aware of the extent to which the CIA and Mob worked hand in glove, especially on the ZR/Rifle Castro assassination operations.

We also know mobster Johnny Roselli was offed before he could provide any testimony to the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) about Ruby's role.  Again, this was the only legitimate government investigation to ever come about - the Warren Commission being merely an artifact created by Lyndon Johnson - mainly to cover up his own tracks.

Thus it was that prospective HSCA witness Roselli had to also meet his cruel end, as described below by Gaeton Fonzi in 'The Last Investigation', p. 375:

"In July, 1976, Roselli had disappeared and in August, the month before the Committee (HSCA) was established, Roselli surfaced in the shallows off the Intracoastal Waterway in North Miami. He had been smothered to death and shot, then cut open from chest to navel. His legs had been hacked off and stuffed with his torso into a 55-gallon steel drum which was wrapped with heavy chain and moored to a weight in the water. The mooring broke when the gases from Roselli's decomposing body forced the drum to float to the surface."

The killers wanted to make damned sure there were no flapping gums.. They wanted to ensure Roselli never talked about Ruby's role - or his connections - to do with  eliminating Oswald.. Murdering witnesses does wonders to keep a conspiracy under wraps - while moron media blabbermouths and their useful idiot lackeys keep babbling about "tin foil hats."

2. The Oswald- Russia "Association":

Anyone who pays any attention in the coming days and weeks will hear a lot about the Oswald -Russian connection, or rather alleged connection. The problem as usual is that while the mainstream media pushes this stuff out it never takes the time for any critical analysis or history. No surprise then the public only gets a half-assed version and is left to deal with the releases piecemeal and in an uninformed context via unrelated formats. So here is what you need to know in advance concerning the soon to be hyped Oswald-Russia link:

The CIA originally confected the false narrative that Oswald was a "KGB -linked assassin"  hired to kill Kennedy. It was based on a supposed "Oswald" phone call to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City with a KGB agent, Valeriy Kostikov. From this, and the visit of a fake Oswald to the Soviet Embassy (see the asset "masquerading" as Oswald in Mexico City in the photo below - right)


  A series of falsified cables was generated under the fake name "Lee Henry Oswald"* . These became part of a CI/SIG (Counter Intelligence Special Investigation Group) file on Oswald dating back to 1960, and as researcher Peter Dale Scott notes, has their handiwork all over the false trail.  The purpose, as noted by Scott, was clear:

"to incriminate him falsely as an apparent KGB assassin"

While the "Oswald as KGB assassin"  ruse was never used  or published in The Warren Commission Report, "it almost certainly contributed to the Warren Commission's determination to close the case as the work of a lone assassin" (Scott, Deep Politics, 113)   This is actually validated and was foreseen when one examined a key paragraph in the Katzenbach memo which readers can see in full here: http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?absPageId=756877 Note in particular paragraph (2):

"Speculation about Oswald's motivation ought to be cut off, and we should have some basis of rebutting thought that this was a Communist conspiracy".

This was also the primary directive for J. Edgar Hoover, and why he insisted the Dallas Police keep Lee Oswald alive after a death threat was called in to the Dallas FBI office.. Hence, Hoover's warning memo (see (1)) must be interpreted in the context, i.e. convicting Oswald as the one and only assassin, So there could be no loose ends pointing to conspiracy. LBJ wanted this too, as author Noel Twyman makes clear in his book, 'Bloody Treason'.  This is why he. ordered that the entire investigation be conducted by the FBI under the supervision of J. Edgar Hoover (his dear pal) and he ordered all other investigations, i.e. under federal government or local government be stopped. As Twyman puts it:

"This placed Johnson in virtual control of the investigation through J. Edgar Hoover."

This is why serious researchers, as opposed to lone nut buffs, regard the Warren Commission as an artifact or creature of Johnson, designed for no other purpose than to cover up his own role.  As one wit once put it: "To commit the perfect crime all that is necessary is to be in charge of the investigation that follows."  Johnson totally succeeded in doing that via his "Warren Commission", even getting Hoover to threaten disclosure of an Earl Warren incident if Warren refused to bestow his name cachet.

It is clear the Commission was driven to the lone assassin bunkum as the only safe alternative to the KGB assassin hypothesis. (For which Johnson had warned of the threat of nuclear war if pursued.)

This was reinforced after the Commission was informed  by CIA head Richard Helms** of the Kostikov -Department Thirteen connection ("Department Thirteen" was that KGB Section assigned to assassinations) . Earl Warren evidently became so spooked that he felt the only alternative to a possible nuclear  confrontation  was to find for the lone assassin theory. From then, all evidence, documents and tests became devoted to framing Oswald as the lone perp. It was either that or find him a KGB- hired contract killer, which many (including LBJ) felt would have led to war.

The point was that the CIA had compiled such a compelling false narrative and guilt trail using phony cables, photos  phone calls etc. that the Commission bit into it hook, line and sinker and never remotely considered (or seriously considered) the alternative: that a right wing based- military- intelligence operation had targeted Kennedy. One that included powerful forces enraged at his backing down (from invasion) during the Cuban Missile Crisis, his removal of Gen. Edwin Walker from command, his intent to pull out of Vietnam and his efforts at rapprochement with Fidel Castro..


-------------------------------
Footnotes (2):

* Scott conjectures that the false name of  'Lee Henry Oswald'  may have been used to deceive investigators into Kennedy's killing. It may also have been what agent James Jesus Angleton called a 'marked card' operation in which falsified information 'like a  bent card' is passed through an intelligence channel to see where it ends up.

**  Memo of 1/13/ 64 from Richard Helms to the Warren Commission Counsel J. Lee Rankin, CIA Document 509-803.


3, The "Oswald as Commie " myth:

The typical twaddle the corporate media and government lackeys have been trotting out for 50 years now, but which any reasonably intelligent person can disprove with just a modicum of effort and  investigation. "Oswald as communist" was actually the cover story for him to be used as a false defector to gain access into Russia. People first became aware of the CIA-ONI false defector program after the publication of 'The Cult of Intelligence' by Former CIA Agent Victor Marchetti- who  actually informed researcher Anthony Summers about this program as well, noting:

“At the time, in 1959, the United States was having real difficulty in acquiring information out of the Soviet Union. The technical systems had, of course, not developed to the point they are at today, and we were resorting to all sorts of activities. One of these activities was an ONI (Office of Naval Intelligence) program which involved three dozen, maybe forty, young men who were made to appear disenchanted, poor American youths who had become turned off and wanted to see what communism was all about.

Some of these people lasted only a few weeks. They were sent into the Soviet Union or into eastern Europe with the specific intention the Soviets would pick them up and ‘double’ them if they suspected them of being U.S. agents, or recruit them as KGB agents. They were trained at various naval installations both here and abroad , but the operation was being run out of Nag’s Head North Carolina.”

Oswald's bona fides as an intelligence asset - as opposed to a "run muck, loner psycho"-  were established by Military Science professor John Newman in his book, Oswald and the CIA. Therein he provided the documents showing three key CIA files for Oswald:  the OS-351-164 (office of security), the 201-289248 CI/SIG, and the 74-500. 

As Michael Parenti notes (The JFK Assassination  - Defending the Gangster State.):

“Lee Harvey Oswald spent most of his adult life not as a lone drifter but directly linked to the U.S. intelligence community. All of his IQ tests show that he was above average in intelligence and a quick learner. At the age of eighteen in the U.S. Marines he had secret security clearance and was working at Marine Air Control in Atsugi Air Force Base in Japan, a top secret location from which the CIA launched U2 flights and performed other kinds of covert operations in China. The next year he was assigned to El Toro Air Station in California with security clearance to work radar. “

Lee Oswald then was no "commie" dupe but an intel operative. Most researchers who've delved into this in much more depth than superficial 'buffs' come away with the conviction Oswald was set up as part of ZR/Rifle. A classic decoy.  However,  with the plot now turned against Kennedy. Oswald was likely used as the dupe or decoy so the actual perps (likely Cuban exiles, and trained assassins - from the Army's Ft. Benning Assassin school) could escape .

The proof in the pudding was the letter ‘D’ – on the cover sheet of Oswald’s 201 file – indicating a  CIA Staff D  SIGINT or signals intelligence operation run in concert with the National Security Agency or NSA. As pointed out by Peter Dale Scott (Deep Politics Quarterly, Jan. 1994): “In 1961, when William Harvey headed Staff D, he was assigned the task of developing the CIA Assassinations Project, ZR/Rifle.”

Footnotes (3)

Newman, op. cit., p. 169.

------------------------------------

4.  The "Oswald In Mexico City" Canard:

This trope gained most recent currency with the book: A Cruel and Shocking Act: The Secret History of the Kennedy Assassination by Philip Shenon, which I posted on previously (Oct. 28, 2013).Shenon   points to a statement Oswald purportedly made when at the Cuban Embassy in Mexico City and related by J. Edgar Hoover in declassified FBI files:

"He (Oswald) stormed into the Embassy, demanded the visa, and when it was refused him, headed out saying: 'I'm going to kill Kennedy for this.!"

So, basically, Shenon places his faith in one of the most ardent Kennedy haters of the era, J. Edgar Hoover. The same Hoover who possessed information about a proposed assassination plot on Kennedy from New Orleans' gangster Carlos Marcello in 1962 and who failed to disclose it. (See the documents presented in Mark North's book Act of Treason). 

Meanwhile, Shenon lets himself be played and led into a blind alley by a CIA determined to frame Oswald using the 'Oswald in Mexico City' fiction.

Shenon goes on to say that the "document then disappears" intimating that had it been circulated to the Dallas' authorities in timely fashion,  the assassination would have been prevented, Why? Because  "people in Mexico City knew Oswald was talking openly about killing President Kennedy.".

In a pig's eye.

Besides, what moron for an assassin "talks openly" about killing an American President at a foreign embassy?  One thing we do know: A moron Oswald wasn't.  An impostor seeking to frame a patsy-  to be set up to take the fall- would do so, however.

But perhaps the most cogent evidence there was no Oswald in Mexico City  - apart from the fact no photos exist (other than of an impostor) -is the following:  The primary witness was consulate officer Silvia Duran who denied even under torture by Mexican police that the man she saw was Lee Oswald. As Peter Dale Scott reports as well as HSCA investigator Gaeton Fonzi [4]  she was forced to undergo brutal torture for eight hours at the hands of Mexican police in an effort to try to get her to recant her original testimony.  I.e. that the Oswald she encountered at the Cuban Consulate in Mexico City was not the Oswald she'd seen arrested in Dallas. She'd insisted instead the man she saw was "blonde and short" (The Lopez Report, p. 190).

Ed Lopez, who sought to interview Duran again in the wake of her torture, found she was unable and broke down, weeping merely at the thought. She also feared reprisals  as a citizen of Mexico.

So be it. Now, ask yourselves this: If Oswald was indeed guilty and performing all the guilty acts Philip Shenon claims, why did the CIA find it necessary to go to such inordinate lengths to distort, hide and even concoct fake cables to paint Oswald as the bad guy?   Not to mention recruiting Mexican police to torture a woman for eight hours merely because she refused to lie about the person she observed. The Oswald in Mexico City fable, like so much else, must be regarded as specious and a concoction of the CIA and its Mexico City station chief (David Atlee Phillips). Or to use the words of John Newman in reference to a cable that surfaced within that episode "a whole cloth fabrication."

 Footnotes (4):

[4] Fonzi. op. cit., p. 409.

[5] Newman, op. cit. p. 408.

Finally, let's not get over-excited as only 2,800 files of more than 30,000 have been released by the due date.  The spooks, as I predicted earlier, were going to invoke the specious excuse of "national security concerns" which is total codswallop given these files are over fifty years old.  It is evident to me that they are concealing connections that were operative in Kennedy's assassination that they do not wish to have uncovered, like between the Dallas cops, the Mob and CIA, NSA (in Staff D operation).  They are aware of the blowback that would explode even now 50 years in the future and that was one reason why LBJ originally wanted to keep all files under wraps until 2049 - by which time all who knew or cared about the assassination would likely have died. 

What you can be sure of in the days and weeks to come is that the mainstream media still has not gotten its act together on the one true conspiracy to come along, and which they remain committed to trying to skewer - even as they mock the 60 percent of the public who accepts a conspiracy in the case. Let's just remind ourselves here that the only valid gov't investigation (the HSCA) DID find for a conspiracy in its conclusion.

Something that is too often overlooked!

See also:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article181380611.html

The Second Assassination: Fifty Years Ago Today

Lee Oswald assassinated by Jack Ruby to keep him quiet

Those not around 50 years ago, but amidst the media blather today, may not be aware that no one witnessed JFK being killed on TV - either live or in newscasts- during his motorcade through downtown Dallas. All we received were news bulletins and updates. The stills from the Zapruder film wouldn't be seen until a week after the event,  published in a Nov. 29 special issue  of LIFE, which described them as: "a remarkable and exclusive series of pictures which show, for the first time and in tragic detail, the fate which befell our President".

Meanwhile, the full film wouldn't be available until years later after being subpoenaed  in the Garrison case.

In contrast to this, millions of us on this date 50 years ago, saw Lee Oswald shot down before our very eyes. The first ever live- as it happened-  assassination, and the second victim of those dark days 50 years ago. Yes, I said victim. Not assassin, not "alleged assassin".   I seem to recall, perhaps from one long removed course I took at Loyola in ethics (chapter on American law) that "a man is innocent until proven guilty". Sadly, Lee Oswald was cut down before having his day in court, so there was no way to prove him guilty. Hence, in the strict eyes of American justice (if it means anything and isn't merely theoretical or another useless trope for the brain dead) then he must remain innocent under that law.

I do not regard the Warren Commission as any kind of official or legitimate court no matter how many names sat on its whitewash "blue ribbon"  panel. And I've already exposed this fraud in several FAQs, including: 4(a) and 4(b), 5 and 6. Indeed, (as Steve Kornacki noted yesterday morning) Warren Commission creator LBJ was on the verge of being subjected to a massive LIFE magazine expose (and Senate investigation) for the Bobby Baker scandal - including influence peddling to net millions of dollars- with the money trail to be published. Hence HE stood to gain the most, at just the right instant of time, with JFK killed.  Instantly he became the great "successor" as opposed to damaged criminal, and dropped from JFK's '64 ticket. Yes, yes, I know, it's a damned bloody thought. But recall the ancient question of Julius Caesar: "Et tu, Brute?"  His "Commission" itself nothing short of a stroke of evil genius - giving the patina of  "government" benediction while being in control of all evidence forthcoming. ("To commit the perfect crime, one need only be in charge of the investigation that follows")

See also:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQzLBYZP3mE

Watching Oswald shot down like a dog on the screen in front of me that Sunday morning, my first reaction was absolute shock. How in the hell could this bloody happen, and in a police station? How could it happen in the United States of America where every manjack was due his day in court? My mind then propelled to the obvious question: WHO would have wanted him dead?

The story at the time is that beneficent ol' Jack Ruby, owner of the Dallas' Carousel Nightclub, did it out of the goodness of his heart, to "spare Jackie from having to return to Dallas to endure a trial". (Which most critical observers even then had the intelligence not to buy.) Some time later he recanted that WC "testimony" and professed that  - if he could be taken to Washington to testify - he'd spill the beans on the real story. No one took him seriously and he died a short time later of cancer.

Again, it would be years - decades- before the documents came out to complete a picture of Jack Ruby and his connections, especially to organized crime.  Mark North, using actual,  released FBI files, documents many of Ruby’s Mob connections in his book, Act of Treason- including his reported “gangster connections in Dallas”, especially to Joseph Civello, the Mafia boss in Dallas. The same files disclose that Ruby, on October 26, 1963, “placed a 12 minute person to person call to Irwin S. Weiner at Weiner’s Chicago home”.

It is further noted that Weiner was a:

 “prominent Chicago Mafia associate” and “instrumental in coordinating the flow of cash between the Teamsters and Las Vegas casinos." (North, op. cit., pp. 333-34).  

We also learned of Ruby's past as a former Mob operative (for Santos Trafficante) in the 50s, gun-running into Cuba. In other words, the guy wasn't some little "angel" just out to do good deeds. (Let us also be aware, that the CIA's ZR/Rifle program had deliberately recruited Mafia to be part of assignments to nail Castro, given the mob had been entrenched in Cuba until Castro removed Batista - a friend to the mob).

North conjectures that  the phone call concerned Ruby 's outstanding  debt to Uncle Sam - owing more than $40,000 in back excise taxes to the federal government, plus $20,000 in other back taxes. A phone call could then have assured Ruby his tax problems would “disappear” if he performed one more job: offing Oswald. Given the mob link to ZR/Rifle, such a scenario would be totally logical. Few people today, unless they've  mined the document trail, are remotely aware of the extent to which the CIA and Mob worked hand in glove, especially on the ZR/Rifle Castro assassination operation. Given Oswald's 'Staff D' connection (from his 201 CI/SIG file) to ZR/Rifle it wouldn't have been a biggie to have this one "jokers wild" element severed - one that had become too dangerous  After all, it had been expected that this 'joker'  would be killed in the Texas Theater confrontation, not make it out alive to walk down the halls of the Dallas PD loudly proclaiming "I am just a PATSY!"

Ohhhh my god! ZR/Rifle, the mob, Ruby, Oswald doubles, CIA renegades, Richard Helms DDP, LBJ..... WAHHHHHH!  And yet even professed "liberal" sources fail to do their homework and instead pay heed to a dissembler (and likely CIA  'Mockingbird' asset) such as Gerald Posner - rather than get off their butts to do independent  research. A recent case in point is Marilyn Elias in her piece 'Conspiracy Act' , in The Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report (Winter, 2013),  in which she actually babbles (p. 15):

"They (conspiracy theorists) never mention the clear testimony that Oswald's assassin gave to the Warren Commission denying any plot and saying that he killed Oswald on impulse to save Jacqueline Kennedy the pain of returning to Dallas for a trial"


Well, we do mention it - as I have here in this post - while noting that only a moron would believe that. Evidently then, Ms. Elias is a moron or a dupe.  Apart from which, is she so stupid to believe that if Ruby really was involved he'd admit it to a bogus Commission created, owned and operated by LBJ and Hoover, which had the power to swat him down like a Texas horsefly - the same way LBJ  threatened to disclose Earl Warren's Hoover files if he didn't come onboard as a figurehead?  (See FAQ - Part 4a).

Like Philip Shenon, Elias isn't content to stop there, but bloviates onward making herself look even more like a horse's ass, when she writes (ibid.):

"In a similar way they portray as suspicious the deaths of Dorothy Kilgallen and other journalists skeptical of the story - but say nothing of the many doubting reporters who lived on unmolested."

Well, obviously they "lived on unmolested" because they were journalists within the "Operation Mockingbird" orbit: brought on in assorted media venues as reported by Kathryn Olmstead, in her book, Challenging the Secret Government: The Post-Watergate Investigations of the CIA and FBI, Univ. of North Carolina Press, p.21 noting:

According to the Church committee's final report, approximately fifty U.S. Journalists had covert relationships with the CIA, about half of which involved money. Watergate investigative reporter Carl Bernstein charged that the total number of U.S. journalists who worked for the CIA was actually much higher

To see a Youtube video on 'Mockingbird', with open admissions,  go to:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDCfTIapds0

So, perhaps Elias is too ignorant to even be doing such a piece (although yes, her prime target is Richard Belzer - using the guilt by association rap, i.e. with Alex Jones) or she's too incompetent to dig up the Mockingbird journalist links - or she is one of them herself.   As for her complaints about the connections in the witness deaths we can perhaps excuse her because of a likely deficient math education, i.e. which didn't allow any exposure to Poisson statistics, such as employed by Richard Charnin in his mathematical proof:

http://richardcharnin.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/jfk-witness-deaths-graphical-proof-of-a-conspiracy/

Now, I have no problem if people have less math ed than those who've done the physics or engineering  route, but then they need to refrain from spouting bollocks such that "the witness deaths aren't connected." This only reveals their level of ignorance, as it does for Ms. Elias - no matter how many years (26)  she's had as a USAToday reporter, before peddling her anti-conspiracy baloney for the SPLC.

But to me, the mere fact Elias probably got all her JFK assassination info based on an interview with Gerald Posner (quoted in her piece), immediately disqualifies her from commenting at all on the Kennedy assassination, no matter how hard up she is to nail Richard Belzer for being a nasty, anti-government sort because he boldly holds to the conspiracy thesis as in his new book,  'Hit List: An In-Depth Investigation Into the Mysterious Deaths of Witnesses to the JFK Assassination' .


The SPLC piece by Elias also illustrates another aspect of the Left's conspiracy phobia:  running from anything that smacks of "anti-government" sentiment, despite the fact we have reams of documents, files to support the need for a critical wariness of anything government claims (as Edward Snowden's files have disclosed). So, indeed, one faction of our own government - the national security state  -  was responsible for killing Kennedy. In this case the Left,  and its weak sister conspiracy phobics like Marilyn Elias, become part of the problem of the "unspeakable" noted by author James Douglass ('JFK and the Unspeakable') . They harp on certain conspiracy theories and aspects or connections between proponents (as between Richard Belzer and Alex Jones) of which they are frightened, but remain totally stone silent as the NSA expands its web of mass surveillance, violating the 4th amendment  - the foundation of all civil rights- for all Americans. In this case, they expose themselves to be cafeteria-style, civil rights hypocrites. So please don't hump threats of the KKK, Volksfront and Aryan Nation, etc. if you're prepared to give a pass to the national security fascists!


Yes, it may be too much for some minds to cope with. But unless we get to the bottom of it, especially why both Kennedy and Oswald were killed, we will be hostage to the zeitgeist of the architects who carried it out:  the national security and war state. (See also Peter Dale Scott's updated book, The War Conspiracy.)

As for those idiots on the UK Guardian site- online forums I saw bloviating about "no real account of how such a conspiracy could take place has ever been given" - I suggest they either get hold of the fictional account 'Executive Action' - or see the film. It probably comes closer to the actual scenario than any other.  Certainly, than any other films I've seen.

While Oliver Stone's 'JFK' can be regarded as a "counter myth" to the Warren Commission's myth of 'Oswald dunnit', Executive Action is more closely a portrayal of how the deed was really carried out - and why both JFK and Oswald were victims.

RIP, Lee Harvey Oswald. One day, when this country finally finds the heart, will and balls to  pursue the truth - as opposed to manipulating the public mind via the expedient path of lying and cover up - your name will be cleared, and your family's honor restored.

See also: http://www.projectcensored.org/project-censored-presents-key-issues-assassination-president-john-f-kennedy-special-broadcast-pacifica-radio/

Frequently Asked Questions on the JFK Assassination (4b): The Warren Commission (Cont'd)

What sort of questions did the Commission ask?

Questions for which the Commission was present include the following categories (Brown,  op. cit,, p281):

Preliminaries -         805   (2.1%)
To the point  -        1,537  (4.1%)
Not vital     -       16,073  (43.3%)
Clarification -        7,354  (19.8%)
Leading/hearsay        9,676  (26.0%)
Conclusionary -          922   (2.4%)
Foregone conclusion      323   (0.80%)
Nonsense      -          407   (1.09%)

The category basic definitions are (op. cit, p279):

'Preliminaries' - introductory questions re: background, education, job, family life, etc

'To the point' - Questions materially contributing to investigation

'Not vital' - Questions that "add nothing to the record"

'Clarification' - Questions clarifying earlier answers.

'Leading/hearsay' - 'Questions' in which witnesses were told the 'answers' in advance - then merely asked a series of yes/no questions about them

'Conclusionary' - Questions calling on witness to draw a conclusion.


'Forgone conclusion' - questions that "reflected the official version yet could not be substantiated by the witness" .

'Nonsense' - self-explanatory (i.e. Do you believe in UFOs?)

Most appalling is that the 'to the point' category comprised an insignificant 4.1 % of the total for which the Commissioners were present. For the percentage of all the questions asked - with or without the Commissioners present, that went up a 'mighty' three tenths of a point, to 4.4% (op.cit., p281). Thus, despite the motif of ponderous research, it is doubtful that this 'Report' - couched in its magnificent and portentous 26 volumes of body, approaches the investigative level of those books blithely dismissed as 'buff'.


Who were not asked questions?


200 witnesses- "each with knowledge at least as valuable as that given by the 488 commission witnesses" were not asked questions. These included:

Tom Alyea (who allegedly first filmed the sniper's 'nest'),

Charles A. Crenshaw (Parkland surgical resident at the time - who observed the massive rear head wound)

 Julia Ann Mercer, (who observed Jack Ruby driving a pickup with a rifle near the Triple Underpass)

William Harper (who found the occipital bone fragment behind the limo, on Elm St.);

 Guy Banister (who ran the 544 Camp St. office in New Orleans from which Oswald distributed leaflets);

Joseph Milteer (the right wing zealot who had been taped by an FBI informant in Miami predicting a  sniper shooting from an office bldg. - given "clean bill of health"  by FBI' (Brown, op. cit.,p383);

Sergio Archacha Smith,  likely suspect in the Walker shooting, in Dallas

Mary Moorman, took a number of photos at the instant of the head shot, and confronted by the FBI which confiscated them.

Aquilla Clemons (who observed the Tippitt shooting, and saw another man - not Oswald, doing it);

Pvt. Gordon Arnold (who was standing on the grass in front of the knoll's picket fence when a percussion from a shot made him hit the dirt - he was later sent to Alaska by the Army);

 Orville Nix - who took the Nix film, from the opposite side of Elm Street

Mary Muchmore, whose original film was cut/mutilated on return, at the instant of the head shot ( 'The Killing of a President', 1994: Groden, R.J., Viking Penguin. p. 37)

Richard Case Nagell-   Double agent, "so concerned with having an alibi for November 22, that he fired a pistol at a ceiling in a bank so as to be in jail" (Brown , p387).


The full list of all 200 witnesses not asked questions by the Warren Commission is given in Brown, 'Treachery In Dallas',  (pp381-89)


What was the Katzenbach Memo, and what has it to do with the Warren Commission?

This was a memo written to Bill Moyers, dated 25 November, 1963. Many conspiracy researchers  believe that it set the tone and the 'primary directive' for the Warren Commission's agenda - to find for the 'lone nut' at all costs. The most germane part to this discussion is:

"It is important that all facts surrounding President Kennedy's assassination be made public in a way which will satisfy people in the United States and abroad that all the facts have been told and that a statement to this effect be made now.

1. The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin, that he did not have confederates who are still at large; and that the evidence was such that he would have been convicted at trial. "

To the conspiracy thinker, the above enumerated first part of the memo provides enough evidence to disclose what the true purpose of any 'formal' or 'official' investigation would be: to arrive at a
preconceived and pre-accepted conclusion that was politically and socially expedient, rather than an outcome of an open-ended, genuine investigation. This also goes under the rubric of a fundamental logical no-no called 'Affirming the consequent' - i.e. affirming ab initio that which you need to prove. Taking the shortcut - avoiding the process, more: ensuring the outcome of the process blends with one's own 'truth'.  A much more acceptable version for public consumption. Expediency.

A multitude of Commission actions confirm their adherence to this misbegotten directive, including (but not limited to) their over-weaning reliance on a highly dubious 'witnesses' (e. g. Howard
Brennan) to the exclusion of others (e.g. Arnold Rowland) - not to mention those with direct knowledge of events who were not called (see partial list given earlier). The very list of those not called totally exposes all pretense toward objectivity claimed by either the Commission, or its apologists. Indeed, it discloses that a 'rubber stamping' expedition was under way, probably from the time of the Katzenbach memo (at least the planning of how the charade would
progress).

The Memo goes on:

"2-Speculation about Oswald's motivation ought to be cut off, and we should have some basis for rebutting any thought this  was a Communist conspiracy or (as the Iron Curtain press is saying) a right wing conspiracy to blame it on the Communists. Unfortunately, the facts on Oswald seem too pat - too obvious (Marxist, Cuba, Russian wife, etc). The Dallas police have put out statements on the Communist conspiracy theory, and it was they who were in charge when he was shot and thus
silenced.

3- The matter has been handled thus far with neither dignity nor conviction. Facts have been mixed with rumor and speculation. We can scarcely let the world see us totally in the image of the Dallas police when our President is murdered."


This section of the memo is likely referencing the Commission's fears (pushed by right wing sources, mainly) that a Castro-Soviet backed communist conspiracy was afoot.  The fear was reinforced after the Commission was informed  by CIA head Richard Helms  of the Kostikov -Department Thirteen connection ("Department Thirteen" was that KGB Section assigned to assassinations) . Earl Warren evidently became so spooked that he felt the only alternative to a possible nuclear  confrontation  was to find for the lone assassin theory. From then, all evidence, documents and tests became devoted to nailing Oswald as the lone perp, which accounts for (1) of the Katzenbach memo.. It was either that or find him a KGB- hired contract killer, which many (including LBJ) felt would have led to war.

Clearly, Katzenbach himself is skeptical of the Russian conspiracy theory, as noted in the Memo, Section 2.("the facts on Oswald seem too pat", etc.) Careful reading of his words indicates he is decidedly more aggrieved at the Dallas Police Dept., as it was they that began circulating the communist conspiracy theory, but also in their custody Oswald was killed, and by a character - Jack Ruby - well known to the DPD and who often treated them to drinks and 'winks' (of the Strippers) at his bar, The Carousel Club.. Thus, even Katzenbach realizes that the facts -as given, do not add up.

Yet, despite this clear recognition, and rightful skepticism, this second highest prosecutor of the land, is prepared to commit himself to paper saying "the public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin" etc.  In other words to flout the essence of justice in this country, by finding a man guilty even before being brought to trial

Why not dissent more boldly and declare the need for a truly objective Commission process, as opposed to a Kangaroo court sideshow and whitewash? Probably because the threat of LBJ blackmail hung over him, to coerce him to conform, as it hung over Earl Warren and god knows how many others.


The Memo is used by some as a proof that Oswald didn't do it. No?

It cannot be used as 'proof' one way or the other. However, it shows an implicit directive to overlook any evidence pointing to suspicious others named by witnesses, apart from Oswald.  In other words, it is a revelation of an ideal cover for those who might actually have been involved, whether Katzenbach intended it to be such or not. It is a sordid revelation, in other words, of blatant prejudice - as opposed to the appearance of a full and open inquiry which the Warren Commission sought to portray.

At worst, this memo indicates a conspiracy to convict Oswald, which is not the same as a conspiracy to kill Kennedy.  If the existence of the memo is indicative of a conspiracy to frame Oswald (he couldn't be 'convicted' because this wasn't an actual trial) then it is ipso facto also indicative of a conspiracy to protect those who actually did kill Kennedy. Else, why try to set up Oswald by so consistently by selectively refuting anything that might point the other way? This is the $64,000 question any serious dissenter must address and answer honestly without obfuscation, spin or the usual distractive tactics ('change the topic if the going gets too hot'). I have yet to see a single coherent statement or response in which dissenters deal with the Katzenbach memo in a forthright and honest  manner.

Did J. Edgar Hoover play any role in the Warren Commission?

It appears that he supported the propaganda circulated in the Katzenbach Memo, as Mark North notes ('Act of Treason', p392):

"Before JFK's casket reached Andrews Air Force Base and Oswald is charged with anything, Hoover is asserting in writing that Oswald is guilty."

Hoover also conveyed instructions to Dallas Attorney  Shanklin to 'sanitize' Oswald's files, thereby cleansing them of any FBI affiliations (ibid.).  (Researchers believe this was important since Oswald likely worked as a part time FBI asset, i.e. in trying to expose illegal gun purchases - and this explains why he ordered the 6.5 mm Mannlicher Carcano by mail. This was in relation to a law to exclude from importation or re-importation into the United States arms or ammunition originally manufactured for military purposes in foreign nations.)

As North also  puts it (ibid.)

"This amounts to wholesale destruction of evidence and nothing less than obstruction of justice."

Later, Hoover goes into action to force retractions of statements (i.e. by Police Chief Jesse Curry and others) that Oswald had FBI associations (op. cit, p. 393). In addition to the above, Hoover (according to North, ibid.):

- "attempted to prevent the Warren Commission from learning of the 9/62 contract by the Marcello organization" (New Orleans' Mafia) on JFK's life (op. cit, . p.394)

- "Launched a disinformation campaign to prevent the media from getting a clearer picture of the assassination" (op. cit. p. 395)

This includes suggestions that the paraffin test (which actually suggest his innocence) really implicated him. (ibid.)

- "Supplied a copy of his Report (to the Commission), after much prodding, only on condition that "members of the Commission publicly agree with his conclusions" (op. cit., p. 397)

- Attempts to recruit Johnson in deflecting the Commission's demand for 'raw' FBI files (op. cit., p. 398).

He is unsuccessful, only "managing to delay compliance for almost one month".

-"Attempts to inundate the Commission with irrelevant data" (op. cit. p. 399)

This apparently fails "as evidenced by 52 written interrogatories sent to him on March 26, 1964". (ibid.)

Clearly, from the preceding, Hoover had little interest in getting to the truth and greater interest in using Oswald as a convenient foil. As a pal of LBJ's this also makes total sense, to help cover LBJ's tracks.


As North also notes (in regard to the latter): op. cit., p. 392:

11/22-11/24:

"The aging icon is given control of the case, and immediately sets about  gaining control of the Dallas PD, no small task. In the ensuing chaos, Marcello functionary and Dallas P.D. liaison Jack Ruby murders Oswald. This is an incredible stroke of luck for Hoover, who wastes no time capitalizing on the new situation. Sunday afternoon the Director instructs Dallas SAC Shanklin to sanitize Oswald's file. The official quickly complies. This amounts to wholesale destruction of evidence and nothing less than obstruction of justice."

op. cit. p. 394:

"Hoover's next and near simultaneous objective is to attempt to prevent the public, and the Warren Commission, from learning of the Marcello contract, as well as his, Clyde's and Evans involvement in it. Fortunately for the Director, he has an ally in the Dallas P.D., which is not anxious for the American people to learn that Ruby was Carlos Marcello's liaison to the dept."

"The week of November 25, Hoover makes direct attempts to  prevent Bureau personnel from examining the Marcello organization, with only limited success. Ruby's ties to Civello and McWillie also  become apparent."

op. cit., p. 400:

"From 11/22/63 onward, the symbiotic nature of the Hoover/Johnson relationship becomes evermore apparent. From the beginning, Johnson is deeply indebted to the Director. Having contained the (Billy Sol) Estes scandal and blunted the initial investigation into the (Bobby) Baker/Johnson/ mafia connection, Hoover is now in a position to demand much. LBJ, with his ill-gotten power, is in a position to comply...... from the morning of November 23 onwards, Johnson gives Hoover complete control of the investigation. Justice Dept. access to Bureau files on Baker-Levinson etc, is cut off. The following day, Johnson meets with Texas A.G. Waggoner Carr, undoubtedly  suggesting the official give Hoover his full cooperation. By November 25, Johnson is telling everyone concerned that Hoover is in charge of the investigation."


op. cit., p. 402:

"With the assassination, Robert Kennedy is effectively removed from power. By November 30, his hotline to Hoover is disconnected."


op. cit,.p. 404:

"With the murder of Oswald, and the advent of Hoover's disinformation campaign, the overall quality of reporting suffers. Clearly the press becomes confused, not knowing whom to believe. The European press, viewing the events from a position of greater objectivity, is not fooled. By November 27, they openly accuse Hoover of complicity, and suggest the mafia is behind Ruby. Domestically, disinformation releases regarding Oswald intensify."


What was the actual purpose of the Warren Commission?

In all probability, given the highly incriminating memo of Katzenbach (above) in concert with the Johnson- Hoover hijinks (including Johnson's ordering evidence destroyed, such as JFK's suit coat as well as the limo disassembled,  the dual purpose was: a) to protect LBJ's ass from any suspicion of complicity and b)  to do 'damage control' on the U.S. International image, while scotching rumors that the country's leader was felled by an internal conspiracy. Perhaps this has been forcefully argued nowhere more compellingly that in an article written for The New Republic of June 13, 1964 by Murray Kempton. Some excerpts:


The Warren Commission has come to the moment of decision, and now the only voice we hear from it takes us back to Lord Jeffreys, so exacerbated by the mere sight of a defense, that he cannot endure the formal processes of its trial before shouting it down from the bench. "
            ---------------------------------
The Warren Commission began with the serious handicap of a conception that its duties included a cosmetic job on the American image. Its assignment was not just to find out the truth about a terrible tangle of events but also --- one fears even primarily --- to reassure and unite America and to reassure and quiet down Europe. This aspiration reflected itself in the composition of the commission. It cannot be said that every American trusts every member of the commission; but certainly every member happens to be trusted by someone or other whose good opinion is worth having."
                             ---------------
The commission may have been conceived as nothing more than a transient instrument to promote foreign relations and to insure domestic tranquility But, if it was politics that put them there, it is history which holds these men now, because they are all the servants it has. They sit under the claim of history and of all we owe the memory of John F. Kennedy and, let us not forget, the ghost of Lee Oswald.  If the burden of service to all these things does not demand from these men the conduct we expect from a court of law, then just where is the court of law whose functions are so much more consequential than theirs as to demand --- dignity, a decorum and a detachment that we do not expect
from them?
      ------------------------------------------------------
the Warren Commission has kept the direct physical evidence secret. It is hard to understand why this is necessary
       ----------------------------------------------------

The pattern has been to say what this evidence shows without ever showing the evidence. The commission spokesman tells Anthony Lewis, how many shots were fired and where two of them landed without offering the medical report upon which I certainly hope and would like to believe any
statement from an official source would be based.


-----

In conclusion, let's be aware that by way of his creation of  the Warren Commission on November 29, 1963, LBJ acquired the total power to block any House, Senate or Texas state investigations, while awarding himself the power (via underlings like Hoover, Dulles)  to control all evidence that might possibly surface, and either ignore it, suppress it or allow it to be distorted- thereby further distancing himself, all in the name of “seeking justice”.

The wary reader doesn't have to accept this at first blush, or exposure, but all one can ask is that reader put on his critical thinking cap and go through all of LBJ's documented actions. He in effect, devised the perfect vehicle to cover up the executive action carried out by the national security state and its cronies - and thereby benefited from the state once Kennedy was dead.


Despite Vince Bugliosi’s mythologizing,  or Bill Moyers being “appalled”, Johnson remains the key suspect in at least finalizing the plans for the assassination, probably in collusion with his “Texas Rangers” fund raisers: Mayor Earl Cabell of Dallas (brother of JFK-terminated CIA Deputy Chief Charles Cabell), and H.L. Hunt. The last two, in conjunction with the Dallas Police, were responsible for altering the motorcade route at the last minute, so instead of going directly along Main St. – which would have been the traditional motorcade route in Dallas-  they included a slow and fateful hairpin turn onto Houston Street, then onto Elm Street, directly into the pre-prepared kill zone.

As for Johnson, the ultimate  “smoking bullet” in the sad and sorry inventory of that era is none other than his own fraudulent “commission”.  For if LBJ truly wasn’t involved, then why on earth would he not want to go all out to penetrate every last nook and cranny in a no-holds barred investigation? But as the evidence shows, there were plenty of holds, set up not only by his pal Hoover, but also Dulles with the CIA.  That such a Commission could even come to be, with its veneer of gravitas – designed to cover –up the greatest crime of the 20th century is an unspeakable blight on this nation's honor and values that even a late turn toward truth may not remove.

Bottom line: Anyone, any author, any reporter,  any TV  or media person, who accepts the conclusions of this Commission accepts a fraud, and can therefore himself be deemed a fraud, a dupe or worse, part of the ongoing cover up.

The Pre-Assassination Framing of Lee Harvey Oswald (1)

“As Lee Harvey Oswald was being set up as an individual scapegoat, so too was the Soviet Union, together with its less powerful ally, Cuba.” -

James Douglass, JFK and the Unspeakable, p. 277.

As we approach within a month of the 50th anniversary of the JFK assassination it is well to also focus attention on another assassination victim several days later: Lee Harvey Oswald, shot by Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas PD.

Millions, including me, watched horrified on the Sunday morning after Kennedy was killed as Oswald was shot down in cold blood. The first ever live televised murder.

Many of us smelled a rat even then, and as one of my math teachers said the next day in class: "Someone just saved the Dallas attorney's office a whole lot of money and the feds a whole lot of prosecution time and headaches."

But it goes beyond that, because the man never had a chance to defend himself against the fell and outrageous claims made against him in a court of law. His family was smeared from pillar to post by the scurrilous claims of a "deranged loner", so much so that Marina Oswald-Porter had to go into hiding with her two girls. Only years later did Marina begin to process - outside of the veil of fear (of deportation)-  how much she'd been manipulated at the time by the Warrenites.  By the time of her 1993 interview with Tom Brokaw she was no longer under any illusions regarding the bogus "lone nut" spell confected by Arlen Specter,  Gerald Ford and others - but had come to see how she had been exploited by an enclave of vermin to protect the actual perps. Brokaw, meanwhile, had been contaminated by lies, distortions and disinfo circulated in Gerald Posner's 'Case Closed' ( recycled more recently with Vince Bugliosi's ironically named  'Reclaiming History'). Those who wish to see the lowdown on Posner's shoddy work can go to this link:

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

But the questions that then arise are: 1) What prompted the lone nut assassin bunkum in the first place? And: 2) How is it that the narrative became so compellingly woven by the time of Oswald's arrest? We now know most of the sordid details and we have to thank deep politics expert and JFK assassination researcher Peter Dale Scott for exposing how Oswald was framed (by the CIA) in the months leading up to the assassination.

Most of this would never have become possible without the rush of documents accessible in the wake of passage of the JFK Records Act (spurred in large part by Oliver Stone's movie, 'JFK') . The release of so many critical files (now nearly slowed to a crawl since Bush  Jr. and Obama were elected) made it possible to ascertain the existence of  CIA (and other) secret files on Oswald and which were exposed in books like John Newman's 'Oswald and the CIA' and Peter Dale Scott's 'Deep Politics and the Death of JFK'.  In a 1995 essay in Deep Politics Quarterly, Scott also noted the stake Americans have "not just to learn about the government's secretiveness with respect to this one assassination" but to "create a precedent against the rule of secrecy that has so vitiated democracy in this country" since the end of WWII.

While there was an open window for critical and massive file access,  just after passage of the JFK Records Act (and following an Executive order) in Clinton's 2nd term, it slowed to a crawl once Bush Jr. was shoehorned into power then even more after 9/11 and the "war on terror". It was felt that rather than government transparency, secrecy was the order of the day and the less citizens knew about their gov't (and conversely the MORE the gov't knew about them) the better. Thus the spread of the NSA national security state, to the  insidious, monolithic beast Edward Snowden has revealed.

Despite the closure of the file release windows (the National Archives refuses to release many critical ones in this 50th marker year) Peter Dale Scott did unearth enough to expose how Lee Oswald was framed as the "lone assassin". In 1995,  Scott also advised us - based on these files- that 3 different stratagems needed to be distinguished by the researcher: 1) a sophisticated intelligence operation (or complex of operations), i.e. to frame Lee Oswald, 2) the conspiracy to kill the President and 3) the ensuing cover-up.

The problem is that all too often a lazy (or compromised) corporate media has never properly separated these stratagems. Indeed, in many cases they've ignored both (1) and (3) - the latter hardly surprising given "Operation Mockingbird"- and made fun of "tin foil hats" in (2).  Indeed, as Scott has observed, in the 30th anniversary year of 1993 - in the wake of "Posnermania" -  the corporate media simply trotted out the same recycled canards including that of a

"neurotic frustrated by neglect, and 'angered' (Posner's words) that 'others failed to recognize the stature he thought he deserved."

This codswallop was then additionally integrated into the CIA- confected narrative that Oswald was a "KGB -linked assassin"  hired to kill Kennedy. It was based on a supposed "Oswald" phone call to the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City with a KGB agent, Valeriy Kostikov. From this, and the visit of a fake Oswald to the Embassy (see the asset "masquerading" as Oswald in Mexico City in the photo above - right) a series of falsified cables was generated under the fake name "Lee Henry Oswald"* . These became part of a CI/SIG (Counter Intelligence Special Investigation Group) file on Oswald dating back to 1960, and as Scott notes, has their handiwork all over the false trail.  The purpose, as noted by Peter Dale Scott, was clear:

"to incriminate him falsely as an apparent KGB assassin"

While the "Oswald as KGB assassin"  ruse was never used  or published in its Report by the Warren Commission, "it almost certainly contributed to the Warren Commission's determination to close the case as the work of a lone assassin" (Scott, Deep Politics, 113)   This is actually validated and was foreseen when one examined a key paragraph in the Katzenbach memo which readers can see in full here: http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?absPageId=756877

Note in particular paragraph (2):

"Speculation about Oswald's motivation ought to be cut off, and we should have some basis of rebutting thought that this was a Communist conspiracy".

When this is interpreted in the context of the rest of the memo, and especially Part (1) pertaining to convicting Oswald, it is clear the Commission was driven to the lone assassin bunkum as the only alternative to the KGB assassin hypothesis.

The surge to do this was reinforced after the Commission was informed  by CIA head Richard Helms** of the Kostikov -Department Thirteen connection ("Department Thirteen" was that KGB Section assigned to assassinations) . Earl Warren evidently became so spooked that he felt the only alternative to a possible nuclear  confrontation  was to find for the lone assassin theory. From then, all evidence, documents and tests became devoted to nailing Oswald as the lone perp. It was either that or find him a KGB- hired contract killer, which many (including LBJ) felt would have led to war.

The point was that the CIA had compiled such a compelling false narrative and guilt trail using phony cables, photos  phone calls etc. that the Commission bit into it hook, line and sinker and never remotely considered (or seriously considered) the alternative: that a right wing based- military- intelligence operation had targeted Kennedy. One that included powerful forces enraged at his backing down (from invasion) during the Cuban Missile Crisis, his removal of Gen. Edwin Walker from command, his intent to pull out of Vietnam and his efforts at rapprochement with Fidel Castro. More to come.
-------------------------------
Footnotes:

* Scott conjectures that the false name of  'Lee Henry Oswald'  may have been used to deceive investigators into Kennedy's killing. It may also have been what agent James Jesus Angleton called a 'marked card' operation in which falsified information 'like a  bent card' is passed through an intelligence channel to see where it ends up.

**  Memo of 1/13/ 64 from Richard Helms to the Warren Commission Counsel J. Lee Rankin, CIA Document 509-803.