JFK Lancer 1999 Conference on
To ALL:
John Newman gave a "blow your socks off" presentation,
approximately 90
minutes in length, at JFK Lancer's November 1999 conference in
Dallas on
this very subject---backstopped by approximately 130 documents---which
provided overwhelming documentary evidence that: (a) tapes of
such
conversations did exist after the assassination, were listened
to by
numerous people, and that the voice of "Oswald" on the
tapes was not the
voice of the man arrested in Dallas 11/22/63; and (b) that the
few
documents in the record contradicting their existence were part
of a
subsequent government-wide cover-up (implemented more than one
day after
the "tape problem" became known to LBJ and Hoover),
i.e., the "lone nut did
it" cover story, implemented by LBJ using the threat of "World
War III" as
leverage on all of the participants.
Using new documents now in the JFK Collection, Newman provided
the most
complete documentary picture of this event yet collected. In my
view, what
he presented was much more than a persuasive hypothesis---it was
as close
as one can come to "proving" anything historical.
His chronology of the many, many documents that support the
existence of
the tapes, and of the very few documents that deny their existence,
presents: (a) very robust early evidence that the tapes definitely
existed
and were studied after the assassination, and (b) evidence for
the
development of the subsequent cover-up. I felt his presentation
was a
"smoking gun" for the argument that the U.S. Government
lied about the
nature of Oswald's visit to Mexico City.
His 2-part presentation on Friday night, 11/20/99, was the
highlight of the
conference and I encourage everyone to purchase the videotape
when it is
available.
Larry Hancock
11-23-99
NOVEMBER IN DALLAS; 1999
The following are my personal impressions of what I felt to
be a fantastic conference
and possibly the best to date (THANKS DEB, STEVE AND TOM!!!)
All observations, impressions and comments are my own and will
be typically reserved
(yeah right) as always and shown in parenthesis (.........)
Craig Roberts led off with an analysis of the shooting patterns,
types of weapons
and number of shooters. If anyone knows how it was done it's Craig
(although
I'd like to hear Frank Camper give a presentation on this as well).
A minimum of 6 shots from 3-4 buildings, real shooters to the
west end of the TSBD
and 2 hulls planted in the SE window with only a diversion there.
A mauser found
in the TSBD, a 30-06 on the knoll with mercury filled hollow point
(hence the
need to hold back the results of any real brain exam which would
show mercury
traces).
A very good detailing of the problem with the stripper clip
and the observation that
the clip in the archives is circa '64 or later based on it's color
(black not bronze);
the clip should fall out alright, should have been in the SE window
area, why pick
up a clip and not hulls... (Hancock - suggests to me that if the
MC was fired at all it
was only one shot from chamber with no clip). (also - has anybody
ever seen any
indication that DPD opened any of the wooden book box containers
that could easily
have been used to stash a few rifles?)
....................................
A summary of the ZR Rifle program followed and was brief but
educational; raised
the issue of two sets of briefing notes and the possiblity of
a participant other than
Harvey. Also raised Bissell's statements which take issue with
the notes Harvey
annotated on the subject of the President initiating the Executive
Action program.
(Hancock - a little revision from Harvey here? a little justification
or self delusion on
JFK being evil...just a thought).
(also raised the issue of why Harvey personally closed out
ZR Rifle, who called him
back to the States from Italy to do so and who signed off on his
TDY and his
expense form?)
.....................................
John Newman spoke in two parts on the Impersonation
in Mexico City and I doubt
that I can even do justice in a synopsis, nor convey the impact
of the documents he
showed (with Deb's able help and immense patience at shuffling
transparencies)
The basics are that the documents of Friday night and Saturday
clearly reflect that
intercept tapes were located, played and compared to Oswald and
reveal an
impersonator. An impersonator who clearly takes great effort to
begin by identifying
himself - "I am Oswald", speaks broken Russian and good
Spainish, and makes a
call back to the Soviet Embassy implicating Kostikov but also
establishing a
mutual conspiracy between the Russians and the Cubans because
the Cubans "know
his address" while he gave an incorrect one at the Russian
Embassy (a reference to
where he is being locally housed obvously, since the Cubans are
unlikely to know
his US address any better than he did himself).
We also learn for the first time that Kostikov is known for
his KGB role in sabotage
and assassination becasue the FBI turned one of his informants
a year earlier and
has been getting reports on him. In truth the merest report of
Oswald associating
with this guy should have put a tail on him if not get him arrested
upon return to the
States. And the important thing beyond this is that the intercept
is managed to
downplay any additional focus on Oswald at the time, even to the
extent of CIA
DC staff signing off on reports on Oswald (no new info in his
file since May of '62)
which they know is false.
Bottom line, two tapes existed, they were played, they continued
to exist and
gradually over the next 48 hours their existance is gradually
erased from the official
cable traffic record......not by destruction but by a mutual agreement
from all parties
to begin talking about them as being erased and to squelch the
impersonation issue.
A key item is the 10:10 conversation on the 23rd where Hoover
tells Johnson that
his people in Dallas have received both tapes and photos and compared
them and that
neither is Oswald. Two Dallas agents have compared Oswald's voice.
(one wonders
which agents these really were; if not Hosty who was familiar
with Oswald's voice?)
Net result is that two tapes existed of two separate calls and
neither was Oswald.
But by 6pm Saturday the CIA is describing all tapes as erased.....Mexico
City is that is
while DC is still asking for the tapes described earlier. On Sunday
the FBI is still
asking for more tapes in addition to what it has....but the coverup
begins in Mexico
City cables. CIA Mexico City begins telling everybody they are
confused, no tapes
have been sent (was this an order to begin the coverup from that
end?).
By Sunday evening though everybody has their story straight,
all tapes were erased and
no voice records exist - although John Scelso does state under
oath that tapes were
found and transcriptions done after the assassination and that
"tapes are probably
still in existence (of course we now know that HSCA staff do hear
them but
where do they go then....hmmmm, remember the CIA guy and the safe
incident?)
(BUT - everyone must realize that this has not been just an
impersonation linking
Oswald to the KGB and Cubans - done by intelligence types; it
has a far higher
level of sophistication in that the KGB part of the intercept
is actually not reported
and the FBI is hung out to dry .....if this was a Phillips plan
to just blow apart
the FPC that could have been done immediately...can't you see
it "Commie defector
caught in Mexico after being briefed by KGB".....what more
would you need?)
The cable covering the intercept sent out of Mexico City does
NOT mention
Kostikov or the KGB - again, the man who's agent "Tumbleweed"
has been
turned and who is everybody's hot button. CIA DC says no new info
on
Oswald (his file is full of his FPC contacts and New Orleans escapades)
in '63 and
Mexico City deletes the Kostikov reference. Winn Scott reports
the event and even
INS in Mexico City tells INS in Dallas....but nobody actively
sics the CIA or FBI
on Oswald.....so the poison pill just lays there until November
22....
But Newman shows the documents to prove that in Mexico City
the FBI is
investigating Oswald aggressively in October and November - not
realizing that
nobody told the folks back in the US to get serious like they
are. Of course
they have all Oswald's Cuban connections from their own files
while the CIA
has nothing becasue CIA DC said there was nothing new!! Heck,
in October when
Mexico City is investigating the photos of the impersonator CIA
DC won't even
send them an Oswald photo but refers them to the Navy who never
gets around to
it. They still don't have one on Nov. 22 and get it from the wire
services before
anything comes down from DC.
But on November 22 as soon as Oswald is arrested CIA DC goes
absolutely ballistic
as soon as they find the reference to Kostikov and Oswald (not
to mention later
when the "Kostin" reference shows up in Oswald's letter
to the Soviet Embassy
in DC......either Oswald is helping set himself up or is being
set up by somebody
with immense attention to detail)
And Johnson uses the Mexico City incident to recruit his Warren
Commission members -
yes indeed, he doesn't talk just generally about a war scare,
he specifically talks
about the Russians and Cubans in Mexico City and an incident which
would push one
side or other over the nuclear edge....... He's got a serious
stick to wield, whenever
he really needs it.
NOVEMBER IN DALLAS
Presentation Report - Part 2
As before my personal observations or comments are in parenthesis...
Wallace Millam reported on an extremely interesting subject,
the "Secret"
investigation of conspiracy in the assassination conducted by
life circa 1966
(almost coincident with Garrison's first private inquiries it
seems to me?).
This investigation was headed by the Dallas Bureau Chief for
Life...Mr. McCombes...
who was a close personal friend of both Henry Luce and Clay Shaw
and a founding
member of the New Orleans International Trade Mart. On a side
note it appears that
McCombes was involved with the ONI before the war and indeed assisted
Luce, Life
and perhaps the intelligence community in using his connections
to place a spy in the
Mexican government.
This is all part of a huge cache of records in the University
of Tennessee Martin
collection, with 7,000 pages on the Kennedy assassination investigation.
Wallace noted that Life used both Josiah Thompson and Hugh
Aynesworth in
this investigation. He also related a number of other facts about
Aynesworth
including his involvement with the Oswald diary, these facts all
tend to support the
general picture of Aynesworth (support, confirm, whatever, it
doesn't smell nice
for sure).
Wallace did not go into great detail on the assassination records
which still require
active research; he strongly suggested that we all need to head
to Tennessee
(he and the two FBI agents that went in after him are apparently
the only serious
visitors to the collection so far...) He did come across one memo
that describes
the investigators work on the Hidel alias as being well in progress
and tracing
the name to a bartender in the Blank Lamp Bar in Baton Rouge and
connecting
Oswald to the McCurley Brothers?
Among the topics in the files are Arcacha Smith, Howard Brennan, and Roger Craig.
One interview with a construction crane operator working to
the rear of the
school book depository describes his story of a heavy set man
leaving the back of
the TSBD and going towards a railroad flatcar.
Another memo mentions the fear that Garrison will go after
the Anti-Castro
Cubans - apparently described as going "out of bounds"?
Strangely enough, in 1967 when Garrison became focused on Clay
Shaw the
investigation is abandoned and the team disbanded - with no summary
report nor
even mention ever appearing in Life Magazine.
....................................................................................................
Bob Cochran was kind enough to allow Lancer to show us a variety
of personal
photos and video interviews of Frank Sturgis.
Sturgis refers to extensive intelligence training and a career
servicing intelligence
organizations. But most interestingly, after Watergate he talks
at length about
a JFK assassination conspiracy. One involving the KGB, the Cubans
and Jack
Ruby. Oh yes, and their was a woman involved too...from Argentina
no less
(now why does he need to insert a Latin women into this story?)
(for those of us who have heard this same basic story from
John Martino, John Roselli,
David Phillips, Lynden Johnson and even the redoubtable Mr. Angleton
as late
as '75 and '76 - see Russell page 199 - it's time that we begin
checking into who
was doing their scripts!)
Among the Sturgis photos are a variety of shots from 1962....including
an Oswald
lookalike in training and apparently in a plane. But no snapshots
from 1963.
.............................................................................................
Richard Case Nagell
OK, I'll be brief on this one, for anybody ready to sacrifice
what's left of their
sanity just let me know and I'll mail you a copy of the 30 page
presentation
eventually (thanks for turning the transparencies Ian !!). And
Tom has a rather
extensive book for sale at Lancer that gives you a detailed Nagell
chronology and
a couple of hundred documents which support it and which you have
to read to
validate my presentation.
The presentation covered Nagell's travels in '62 and '63 and
shows that he definitely
was in several places that were hotbeds of Cuban Exile activity
- New York, Florida
and Los Angeles. He was associated with intelligence agents in
Mexico City including
one Maria del Carmine who deserves some serious research and matches
a Latin
woman mentioned in the Trapnell recruiting attempt in the Spring
of '63 as well
as a Latin woman reported in Dallas associating with Oswald.
(anybody who is in contact with Malcolm Smith and/or Mr. January
of Red Bird
airfield is encouraged to inquire about the appearance of the
young woman and man
looking to rent a plane with a companion looking like Oswald.
After taking a look at Nagell's travels, the bank incident
was analyzed in detail with
the conclusion that based on first day evidence there a) was clearly
no robbery nor
intent to rob, b) Nagell accomplished entering a variety of evidence
showing his
intelligence, Cuban and possibly Oswald connections into Federal
evidence (but
since it was not allowed into Court and indeed much of it not
ever returned to him
this effort was fruitless) and c) Nagell's first day motive was
political and related to
avoiding the commission of treason.
Nagell's personality and mental state were also examined and
consistent testimony
from acquaintances, family and medical authorities was reviewed
to evaluate him
as passive-aggressive and paranoid - with no evidence of neurosis,
psychosis or
other mental problems which would undermine his basic credibility.
In fact his
tendency to paranoia is very consistent with his propensity to
document and record
his activities and helps explain why he stored away such a paper
trail (a trial
unfortunately heavily neutralized during his extended legal battles).
Finally, Nagell's core story was reviewed; the parts formally
stated to government
officials and supported in legal affidavits and with offers of
polygraph tests.
This core story suggests that Nagell can indeed confirm that
Oswald had been
recruited and set up as a patsy, that he had been used even before
Mexico City to
create a "frame" for Communist sponsorship of a conspiracy
- one targeted for
Washington DC in late September, and that the conspiracy was domestically
sponsored and involved both Americans and anti-Castro Cuban exiles.
There are also some indications based on early FBI interviews
of Marina Oswald and
questions pertaining to Oswald's Washington DC trips (?) and Nagell
that Nagell's
story of a warning letter to Hoover and the FBI may indeed be
true.
by Michael Parks
Two hot items came out of the Lancer conference this years
pertaining to
assassination day films. The first was from Beverly Oliver. She
stated her film may have
finally been uncovered. Several frames from a film were sent to
her for analysis. This film is
now in the hands of a foreign group. We can always hope.
The second hot item came from Dallas Police Officer L.E. Jez.
He spoke
for the first time this year and appeared with his wife. He said
that ten days after the
assassination, he was dispatched to the Dal-Tex to retrieve the
Zapruder film from Abe. He
felt this was the out-of-camera film!!! His wife agreed with the
date. Now, if we could
only get his partner, J.M. Poe, to talk. Ten days!!!!
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