New AARC FOIA Requests

AARC Counsel of Record for the "Hitler Plot" case going before the Supreme Court isn't wasting any time waiting for them to deliberate and make a decision, he's fired another round of Broadsides requesting the CIA records on D. H. Byrd, the owner of the Texas School Book Depository, Byrd's safari hunting partner Werner von Alvensleben, Jr., and records related to the Doolittle Report on CIA covert activities, that was prepared by General James Doolittle, another Byrd safari hunting partner. 

July 4, 2020

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT REQUEST

Information and Privacy Coordinator
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505

Re: Freedom of Information Act Request

Dear Information and Privacy Coordinator:

On behalf of my clients Assassination Archives and Research Center, Inc. and attorney James
H. Lesar, I make the following request of the CIA under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 USC
Sec. 552:

1. Search for and release all records or information in any format related to David Harold
Byrd (deceased) of Dallas, Texas. Mr. Byrd died on September 14, 1986 (see attached
obituary from the Dallas Times-Herald). Mr. Byrd owned the Texas School Book
Depository Building at the time of the assassination of President Kennedy in 1963, and
reportedly removed the “sniper’s window” from the building after the assassination and
displayed it in his mansion. Mr. Byrd was an owner and financier of government
contracting companies including Texas Engineering Manufacturing Company (TEMCO),
E-Systems, and Ling-TEMCO-Vaught (LTV). E-Systems was well known as a CIA
contractor, so much so that in 1975 CIA solicited E-Systems to purchase its proprietary
airline, Air America. David Harold Byrd was also active in the oil business and varied
other business enterprises. David Harold Byrd co-founded the Civil Air Patrol (CAP) in
1941 and served in command capacities in CAP until the early 1960’s. Civil Air Patrol is
the official auxilary of the US Air Force. In the 1950’s Mr. Byrd served with Cord
Meyer, Sr. on the national executive board of CAP (Cord Meyer, Jr. was a ranking CIA
executive).

2. Search for and release all records and information in any format related to Werner von
Alvensleben, Jr. (died 1998), of Mozambique (formerly Portuguese East Africa). Mr.
Alvensleben owned and operated the big game hunting company named Safarilandia in
Portuguese East Africa, later Mozambique. According to released Office of Strategic
Services (OSS) records, Mr. Alvensleben served as a valued double agent for OSS during
World War II in Portuguese East Africa. OSS records state that Mr. Alvensleben was a
member of the Bavarian Military Police in 1933, headed by Heinrich Himmler (the
Bavarian Military Police became the Nazi SS, according to OSS records). In 1933 Mr.
Alvensleben was sent to Austria to participate in the assassination of an Austrian official.
Mr. Alvensleben was arrested by the Austrians and imprisoned for this activity.

According to reports in the Dallas Morning News, Mr. Alvensleben was in Dallas, Texas
as a guest of David Harold Byrd in late 1963. Further, David Harold Byrd was reported
to be present at Mr. Alvensleben’s Safarilandia on November 22, 1963, the day of
President Kennedy’s murder. Due to Mr. Alvensleben’s service as a valued double agent
for OSS in World War II, it is likely that Mr. Alvensleben served as an asset of the CIA
after the war, or had contact with the CIA.

3. Search for and release all records and information in any format related to the Doolittle
Report of 1954 and its appendices A-D. The Doolittle Report was the result of a
commission established by President Eisenhower to study the activities of the CIA and
headed by General James Doolittle. The Doolittle Report called for more aggressive CIA
covert activities that had previously been believed to be repugnant and contrary to
American values. Requesters seek full release of the requested materials. As shown in
the attached obituary of David Harold Byrd, General Doolittle and Mr. Byrd were
substantial friends who shared an interest in aviation from the early years. Mr. Byrd and
General Doolittle were Safari hunting partners on several occasions.

If it is your position that any portion of the requested records is exempt from disclosure,
Requesters request that you provide them with an index of those documents as required under
Vaughn v. Rosen, 484 F.2d 820 (D.C. Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 415 U.S. 977 (1974). As you are
aware, a Vaughn index must describe each document claimed as exempt with sufficient
specificity “to permit a reasoned judgment as to whether the material is actually exempt under
FOIA.” Founding Church of Scientology v. Bell, 603 F.2d 945, 949 (D.C. Cir. 1979).
Moreover, the Vaughn index must “describe each document or portion thereof withheld, and for
each withholding it must discuss the consequences of supplying the sought-after information.”
King v. U.S. Dep’t of Justice, 830 F.2d 210, 223-24 (D.C. Cir. 1987) (emphasis added). Further,
“the withholding agency must supply ‘a relatively detailed justification, specifically identifying
the reasons why a particular exemption is relevant and correlating those claims with the
particular part of a withheld document to which they apply.’” Id. at 224 (citing Mead Data
Central v. U.S. Dep’t of the Air Force, 566 F.2d 242, 251 (D.C. Cir. 1977).

In the event that you contend some portions of the requested records are properly exempt
from disclosure, please disclose any reasonably segregable non-exempt portions of the requested
records. See 5 U.S.C. § 552(b). Claims of nonsegregability must be made with the same degree
of detail as required for claims of exemptions in a Vaughn index. If a request is denied in whole,
please state specifically that it is not reasonable to segregate portions of the record for release.

Public Interest Fee Waiver Request

In accordance with 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(4)(A)(iii) requesters request a waiver of fees
associated with processing this request for records based on the fact that a waiver is in the public
interest. The subject of this request concerns the operations of the federal government and its
expenditures, and the disclosures will likely contribute to a better understanding of relevant
government procedures by the general public in a significant way. Moreover, the request is
primarily and fundamentally for non-commercial purposes. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals
has recognized that Congress amended FOIA to ensure that public interest fee waivers be
“liberally construed in favor of waivers for noncommercial requesters”. Judicial Watch, Inc. v.
Rossotti, 326 F.3d 1309,1312 (D.C.Cir. 2003). Assassination Archives and Research Center and
Mr. Lesar are noncommercial requesters and thus falls in the category of authors, researchers and
public interest groups favored for a fee waiver. Campbell v. U.S. Dept. of Justice, 164 F.3d
20,35 (D.C.Cir. 1998).

The Assassination Archives and Research Center (“AARC”) was founded in 1984 as a
non-profit organization to house records related to political assassinations and to encourage
research in the field. Mr. Lesar was a cofounder in 1984 and has served as President of the
Center since 1991. AARC maintains a website which includes a public library of released
government documents for use of the public. AARC maintains the largest collection of materials
on the assassination of President Kennedy in private hands.

\

Sincerely,
/s/ Daniel S. Alcorn
Daniel S. Alcorn
Counsel for Requesters

Enclosure-
Byrd-von Alvensleben- Doolittle FOIA request + obit

The Supreme Court Takes on a JFK Case

THE SUPREME COURT TAKES ON A JFK CASE

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Billkelly3@gmail.com

While most of the government and society grounded to a virtual halt during the pandemic of 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States kept chugging along, ruling on a number of cases that will have a major impact on laws, elections, the president’s finances and how government works. The gears of justice grind slow however.

Eight years ago, on August 25, 2012, lawyers for the Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC) filed a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) for some specific records that are mentioned in another document that was previously released under the JFK Act of 1992.

The Assassination Archives and Research Center, is a privately funded, Maryland-based organization founded by Bud Fensterwald in 1984 “to provide a permanent organization which would acquire, preserve, and disseminate information on political assassinations.”  The attorney’s for AARC in this case are AARC director James Lesar and Dan Alcorn. [https://aarclibrary.org/  ]

Government agencies usualy drag their feet in response to all FOIA requests, and those filed by individuals often drag on until the requester loses interest or dies, but those filed by permanent organizations are not going to go away. So they get more attention.

The case stems from a document dated September 25, 1963 detailing a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who were briefed by CIA official Desmond FitzGerald on covert operations against Cuba.

Daniel Alcorn, the AARC attorney and Counsel of Record, said the document contained an intriguing reference to the CIA basing a plot to kill Fidel Castro in 1963 on an earlier plot to kill Adolph Hitler during World War II.

[ http://jfkcountercoup2.blogspot.com/2018/07/the-higgins-memo-of-jcs-meeting-of-sept.html ]

[Thanks to Rex Bradford at Mary Ferrell for the Original Documents: Sept. 23 memo Re: Special Group Security: 

https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=189164#relPageId=18

Sept 25 memo: https://www.maryferrell.org/showDoc.html?docId=10331&relPageId=3  ]

Known as the Higgins memo for its author, Colonel Walter Higgins, who was adjunct to General Victor “Brute” Krulak, USMC, the officer responsible for the military’s assistance to the CIA’s covert operations, especially against Cuba.

I listed the Higgins Memo - as the Number One Smoking Document released under the JFK Act for a number of reasons.

[http://jfkcountercoup.blogspot.com/2018/11/top-ten-jfk-assassination-records.html ]

The meeting was chaired by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Curtis LeMay because General Maxwell Taylor was in Vietnam on a special mission for the president. The purpose of the meeting was for the Joint Chiefs of Staff to be briefed on CIA Covert Operations against Cuba by Desmond FitzGerald, who had replaced William Harvey as head of the CIA Cuban desk -Task Force W. Renamed by FitzGerald as the Special Group of the National Security Council that was responsible for approving or disapproving covert operations.

The key paragraph is bullet point # (13):

 "He (Desmond FitzGerald) commented that there was nothing new in the propaganda field. However, he felt that there had been great success in getting closer to the military personnel who might break with Castro, and stated that there were at least ten high-level military personnel who are talking with CIA but as yet are not talking to each other, since that degree of confidence has not yet developed. He considers it as a parallel in history, i.e., the plot to kill Hitler, and this plot is being studied in detail to develop an approach.”

“This was new information to us when we saw it,” Alcorn said, so filed the AARC Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for any documents or records of this detailed study of the German military plot to kill Hitler.

Over the course of a few years the CIA responded by saying that it could not find any reference to the “detailed study” that the CIA had conducted in 1963 of the July 20, 1944 German military plot to kill Hitler that was being adapted “to develop an approach” for use against Castro.

Then the CIA reversed itself and acknowledged that they found one reference to the plot to kill Hitler in a 1964 propaganda pamphlet that blamed the failure of the 1944 plot on communists.

The CIA’s chief historian David Robarge was consulted, and he recommended that the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) records be checked at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).

Frustrated, the center sued the agency in federal court in Washington, D.C. on January 25, 2017.

[ https://aarclibrary.org/center-seeks-cia-documents-on-plots-to-kill-hitler-castro/ ]

When a three judge appeals court reviewed the case, one of the judges asked the CIA some important questions, wondering if the CIA kept copies of OSS records, a question that went unanswered.

The case appeared to be dead in the water until June 8, 2020, when the Solicitor General of the United States, Noel J. Francisco, filed a waiver of response in AARC’s petition to the United States Supreme Court seeking documents related to new information related to the assassination of President Kennedy. 

“AARC seeks documents related to a briefing of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on September 25, 1963 by CIA Cuban operations head Desmond Fitzgerald.  Fitzgerald informed the Joint Chiefs that CIA was studying in detail a parallel in history to develop an approach to dealing with Fidel Castro- the July 20, 1944 plot by German military officers to assassinate Adolf Hitler."

As the AARC notes, one-time CIA Director Allen Dulles, and Warren Commissioner, was in close contact in 1944 with the German plotters from his position as head of European operations for OSS in Bern Switzerland. 

The CIA denied finding any such records and instead pointed to the National Archives as a possible source for information. Alcorn responded, “Clear Supreme Court case law holds that federal agencies cannot shirk their duties under the Freedom of Information Act by pointing requesters to another agency of the government, as CIA has done…. Solicitor General Francisco’s waiver of a response is another instance of CIA failing to address troubling facts related to the assassination of President Kennedy.”

A copy of the waiver is attached.  The Supreme Court is likely to take up AARC’s petition in late September and rule in October during its fall session.

AARC v. CIA12 CIA Waiver Letter 19-1273 AARC v. CIA12 CIA W

The Supreme Court had previously granted  a writ of certiorari on February 28, 2020 in case # 19-547, Fish and Wildlife Serv., et al. v. Sierra Club, Inc. According to the AARC, “That case presents an issue closely similar to one in Petitioner’s case involving the deliberate process privilege under Exemption 5 of the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552(b)(5). The results of the two cases arising from different circuits are in conflict.”

“The Fish and Wildlife Service case presents an issue of compelled release under the FOIA of draft documents for which the government asserts a deliberative process privilege under FOIA Exemption 5….Petitioner AARC’s case involves the Central Intelligence Agency’s successful assertion of the Exemption 5 deliberative process privilege for information reflecting CIA’s search activities in responding to Petitioner’s FOIA request. Petitioner’s FOIA request relates to a matter of public importance- new information about the circumstances of the assassination of President Kennedy.”

 [https://aarclibrary.org/8-june-2020-update-on-aarcs-petition-for-certiorari-to-the-united-states-supreme-court/]

The appeal to the Supreme Court centers on the “deliberative” process and exemption, which is being used in this case to withhold the inter-office memos, emails and phone calls that detail the extent to which the CIA searched for the relevant records.

According to the AARC attorneys, “The United States Supreme Court has officially requested that the Department of Justice file a response to the AARC’s ‘Hitler plot’ lawsuit. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has waived its right to file a brief opposing the AARC’s petition. Now at least one member of the Supreme Court has requested that the Solicitor General, acting on behalf of the Department of Justice, explain why the CIA has not set forth its position on the facts and legal issues raised by the AARC’s petition.”

“The ultimate goal in a petition for a writ of certiorari is to get the United States Supreme Court to issue the writ. The issuance of this week’s (16 July, 2020) request by the Supreme Court places the AARC just one step away from achieving this goal.”

“ The challenge of this effort remains a daunting and problematic process, but at least the AARC has reached the very threshold of success.  The AARC is encouraged by this development and remains optimistic about reaching the top of this nation’s judicial pyramid.”

The AARC will have the right to reply to the Solicitor General’s contentions.

View the Supreme Court’s request to the Office of the Acting Solicitor General by clicking HERE: 19-1273 Response Request.

The Acting Solicitor Genera must respond to the Supreme Court by mid-August, and the Supreme Court will begin review of the records on September 24, nearly fifty seven years to the day the Higgins Memo was written. They should have a ruling sometime in October. 

Oliver Stone's "Destiny Betrayed" Documentary

JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theories with Upcoming Documentary

https://ventsmagazine.com/2020/07/24/director-oliver-stone-reopens-jfk-assassination-conspiracy-theories-with-upcoming-documentary/

Director Oliver Stone Reopens JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theories with Upcoming Documentary

Ryan Vandergriff 2 days ago Entertainment News Leave a comment

"If you want to know what's in the JFK files, ask Bill Kelly." - Oliver Stone at 2019 CAPA Conference

It is perhaps the greatest murder mystery in the history of our country: On November 22, 1963, while riding in a motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, President John F. Kennedy was gunned down by a lone assassin from atop the Texas School Book Depository. At least that’s the way the government spear-headed Warren Report and American history books have sold it to the world over the last fifty six years.

 Legendary director Oliver Stone (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Nixon) laid out a far more sinister and insidious theory as to what exactly happened to the president on that long ago autumn day in his Oscar winning 1991 film, JFK. Through the eyes of New Orleans D.A. Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner, rarely better), Stone methodically and dramatically presented evidence of a conspiracy by a shadowy group with potential ties to the U.S. government and military complex who were intent on taking out one of the most revered and controversial political figures of modern times.

 Almost thirty years after the premiere of JFK, Stone is returning to this sad and fertile ground for a follow-up to his original opus in the form of a docu-series for AGC Television which they describe as not only probing, but also explosive. AGC acquired worldwide rights to Stone’s reexamination of the tragedy late last year. 

Going by the title Oliver Stone’s “JFK: Destiny Betrayed” and based off of the riveting book Destiny Betrayed: JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case by author James DiEugenio, it promises to be a searing and illuminating indictment against the possible shadowy conspiracy that forever altered the shape of our future from ’63 onward.

 “Stone will put Kennedy’s assassination in context politically, and present interviews, documents, and forensics reports that will change forever how Kennedy’s life, political career, and assassination will be considered,” an AGC press release stated.

“Those interviewed in the series include John Tuneim, chairman of the Assassination Records Review Board, criminologist Henry Lee, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., James Galbraith, and Salon founder David Talbot.

  “It’s not an exaggeration to state that this series features the most distinguished collection of talent and knowledge on the JFK case ever assembled,” concluded the AGC statement.

A lot has happened in the JFK assassination investigations (mostly funded and undertaken by private citizens) since Stone took a turn at the wheel back in 1991 and much of that new material will serve as the foundation for the launch of the director’s new investigation into Kennedy’s demise in this new docu-series. Recently declassified files related to the president’s killing will be one of the damning bits of evidence put center-stage as the series follows Stone and author James DiEugenio as they put the new evidence in a much larger context.

AGC president Lourdes Diaz adds that AGC “have long admired Oliver Stone and his work, and the revelatory information his new documentary brings forward not only sheds a new light on JFK’s presidency and his assassination, it informs us about our contemporary world.”

 JFK: Destiny Betrayed will also feature a number of reunions between Oliver Stone and a lot of his original collaborators from JFK: Jeff Beal, who is a renowned composer and cut his teeth on the original film will return to assist on the score. “I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with Oliver Stone once again,” enthused Beal. Another JFK alumni returning is cinematographer par excellence Robert Richardson who shot Stone’s first foray into smoky, conspiracy-laden back rooms and who won the first of three Oscars in doing so.

 “This documentary film represents an important bookend to my 1991 film” Stone said in a statement. “It ties up many loose threads, and hopefully repudiates much of the ignorance around the case and the movie.”

JFK: Destiny Betrayed is being produced by Rob Wilson (late of Showtime’s excellent Stone series The Untold History of the United States) along with Ingenious Media.

Stuart Ford and Diaz, Ingenious Media’s Andrea Scarso, Peter Touche, Amit Pandya and Angela Ceccio and Fernando Sulichin act as executive producers.

An official air date for JFK: Destiny Betrayed has not yet been announced, but keep an eye on Vents for any updates as we get closer to the anniversary of President Kennedy’s death.

The Telegraph Article on Oliver Stone and Garrison Annotated

From the UK Daily Telegraph July 2020

Why Oliver Stone’s JFK is the greatest lie Hollywood ever told

BK: WHY IS THIS FILM STILL SO THREATENING TO PEOPLE? IT’S JUST A MOVIE ABOUT JIM GARRISON AND HOW HE GOT INVOLVED IN THE ASSASSINATION DRAMA.

JFK’s assassination came in a time of political divide, fake news, conspiracies and the unfulfilled promise of America. What has changed?

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/oliver-stones-jfk-greatest-lie-hollywood-ever-told/?fbclid=IwAR1M5tvqf9JJ3Q5UaQILRYTApidKc99gbgQp2rEySI_ALCOBPcyj-e33-AU

Under the watchful gaze of the Lincoln Memorial, Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner – Hollywood’s then-good and true leading man) meets a mysterious whistleblower known only as “X” (Donald Sutherland). Garrison is the New Orleans district attorney; X is a former black ops man-turned-deep throat. (“One of those secret guys in the Pentagon,” X says.) Garrison is investigating the assassination of President John F Kennedy – shot on November 22 1963, at the Dealey Plaza in Dallas – and determined to prove that Lee Harvey Oswald was just “a patsy” in a bigger plot.

BK: “X” IS BASED ON COL. FLETCHER PROUTY, WHO DID WORK AT THE PENTAGON.

“You’re close,” X tells him. “Closer than you think.”

In Oliver Stone’s three hours-plus JFK, this scene is the towering dramatic centrepiece: a blistering 15-minute monologue that blows apart the conspiracy that killed Kennedy – tensions between Kennedy and the CIA; Kennedy’s soft stance of communism and intention to pull out of Vietnam; the Cubans, the Mob, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, all gunning for Kennedy from the shadows; the teams of shooters brought in to kill him in a “turkey shoot” (with one shooter, of course, placed on the grassy knoll); and the “fiction” of the of the Warren Report, the official investigation into Kennedy’s murder.

BK: THE JOINT CHIEFS WERE GUNNING FOR KENNEDY FROM THE SHADOWS AND THERE WERE TEAMS OF SHOOTERS.

“Very strange things were happening, and your Lee Harvey Oswald had nothing to do with them,” says X, before asking the all-important questions that underpin Stone’s film: “Why was Kennedy killed? Who benefited? Who has the power to cover it up?”

The scene encapsulates JFK perfectly: densely packed with information; gripping from the start to finish; and a dizzying whirlpool of ever-deepening conspiracies. It’s also, rather disappointingly, hokum. In retelling the story of Jim Garrison, still the only man to bring a trial in the murder of Kennedy, and the conspiracy he claimed to have uncovered, Stone’s JFK treads the deliberately-blurred lines between half-truths, speculation, and bold-faced nonsense.

Michel J Gagné is a humanities lecturer at Champlain College St-Lambert, Quebec. He calls himself a historian of ideas and “a recovering conspiracist”. He’s written about how he was duped by the film when he first saw it back in 1991.

BK: YEA, A LOT OF PEOPLE WERE DUPPED, AND STILL ARE BEING DUPPED, ESPECIALLY THOSE CONSPIRACY FREAKS WHO FLIPPED AND ARE NOW DEVOTED LONE NUTTERS, AND THERE ARE MORE THAN A HANDFULL. THEY ARE ERIC HOFFER’S TRUE BELIEVERS WHO AS CONVERTS ARE EVEN MORE FAITHFUL THAN THOSE BORN AND BAPTIZED.

“People my age just took the film as fact – hook, line and sinker,” he tells me.

BK: IT ARE THOSE WHO BOUGHT THE WARREN REPORT’S CONCLUSION THAT ONE MAN ALONE WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ASSASSINATION WHO SWALLOWED THE HOOK, LINE AND SINKER.

The JFK assassination was the actual crime of the century. It changed America, and the events that surrounded it feel relevant today: civil rights, political division, fake news, deep suspicion of government.

“To this very day, JFK represents the unfulfilled promise of America,” says Tom Stone, a professor at Dallas’s Southern Methodist University. “This is the guy who seemed to aspire to move beyond militarism, beyond racism, beyond complacency. There are all sorts of ways in which the real America has failed to live up to our ideals. That gap between aspiration and reality is a reason why Kennedy is still an important figure to this day.”

More than just historical inaccuracy for Hollywood’s sake, JFK has an agenda. But did Oliver Stone have a greater responsibility to the known facts surrounding Kennedy? Is JFK a conspiracy to cover up the truth?

BK: OLIVER STONE’S JFK IS NOT HISTORICALLY INACCURATE. HE PUBLISHED A BOOK THAT DOCUMENTS EVERY SCENE WITH FOOTNOTES. IT’S THE STORY OF NEW ORLEANS DISTRICT ATTORNEY JIM GARRISION, AND HOW HE GOT INVOLVED INVESTIGATING THE NEW ORLEANS LINKS TO THE ASSASSINATION IN HIS JURISDICTION.

Tom Stone began teaching courses on John F Kennedy around the time the film was released. Each version of his course has begun with a screening of JFK.

“It’s a very well made movie and the best introduction to the conspiracy theories – even if the rest of the semester is spent poking holes in it,” he says. “I believe that nobody should trust any one source about the assassination. Everyone comes to it with an agenda. It’s easy to manipulate and cherry-pick because the evidence is contradictory and all over the place. It’s like the Bible. You can start plucking stuff out to prove just about anything.”

BK: THAT’S WHY ALL SILLY CONSPIRACY THEORISTS AND DEVOTED LONE NUTTERS ARE IN THE SAME SINKINIG BOAT ON SHIT’S CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE – BECAUSE THEY ARE COCK SURE THEY KNOW WHO KILLED JFK WHILE THOSE OF US WHO DON’T KNOW WHO KILLED HIM ARE TRYING TO ANSWER THE STILL OUTSTANDING QUESTIONS, AND ARE DOING JUST THAT.

Dr Ken Drinkwater, a lecturer and conspiracy expert from Manchester Metropolitan University, says he keeps “an open mind” about JFK.

BK: NEITHER SILLY CT NOR DEVOTED LNS KEEP “AN OPEN MIND.”

“It’s about understanding how conspiracies can be formed,” he says. “You can take a belief system you already have, and it’s adapted by the information you think is more pertinent to your belief.”

BK: WHY DO LONE NUTTERS WANT TO STUDY THE PSYCHOLOGY OF SILLY CONSPIRACY THEORISTS? SOMEDAY THERE WILL BE A STUDY OF THOSE WHO BOUGHT THE OFFICIAL COVER STORY AND SEE HOW THEIR MINDS WORK.

That seems true of both Jim Garrison and Oliver Stone. Stone first learned of Garrison’s book, On the Trail of the Assassins, after a chance meeting with its publisher at a Cuban film festival in 1988. By then, Garrison had been written off as a kook. Even the conspiracy community saw Garrison as an embarrassment: his farcical trial of respected and popular New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw had damaged their cause. Garrison’s revisionist account was just as hokey.

BK: GARRISON DIDN’T INDICT CLAY SHAW – A GRAND JURY DID – AND THAT’S WHERE THE HOUMA BUNKER RAID FACTS CAME OUT – FACTS THAT PROVE THE BANNISTER-FERRIE-GORDON NOVEL-TOM BLACKMON AND CUBAN CLOWNS DID NOT PULL OFF THE CLEAN CUT DEALEY PLAZA OPERATION. AND THAT SHAW AND FERRIE WERE CONNECTED TO OSWALD WAS IN THE GRAND JURY TESTIMONY OF THE CLINTON –CORE WITNESSES, WHO DIDN’T TESTIFY AT THE TRIAL. WHY WEREN’T THE HOUMA BUNKER RAID AND THE CLINTON WITNESSES BROUGHT IN TO TESTIFY AT THE TRIAL AS THEY DID BEFORE THE GRAND JURY? THEN THE NEXT DA HARRY CONNACK ORDERED THE GRAND JURY RECORDS DESTROYED, BUT HIS OFFICE AIDE RECOGNIZED THEIR SIGNIFICANCE AND TURNED THEM OVER TO THE ASSSASSINATONS RECORDS REVIEW BOARD SO WE CAN READ THEM NOW.

“The book was riddled with striking inaccuracies and outright lies,” wrote Clay Shaw biographer Donald H Carpenter.

BK: I HOPE SHAW’S BIOGRAPHY CONTAINS HIS CIA FILE AND WORK FOR PERMINDEX..

Stone purchased the rights for $250,000 and hired Zachary Sklar, the editor of Garrison’s book, to co-write the screenplay.

“The movie is kind of quoting itself,” says Gagné. “There’s some of this circular reasoning going on. Sklar wrote the screenplay based on a book that he himself had heavily edited.”

Stone also snapped up Jim Marrs’s Crossfire: The Plot That Killed Kennedy, a catch-all book on JFK conspiracies, and enlisted Robert Groden, Larry Howard and L Fletcher Prouty as advisors – all conspiracists. Prouty was one of the inspirations behind X. He was an Air Force chief-turned-conspiracy whistleblower who associated with Liberty Lobby, a Right-wing group with links to Holocaust denial.

BK: AND JEWISH LAWYER MARK LANE DEFENDED THE LIBERTY LOBBY AT TRIAL WHEN THEY WERE SUED BY DAVID ATLEE PHILLIPS.

“People who worked with him thought he was deeply paranoid,” says Gagné. “A lot of stuff in his books is paranoid anti-CIA speculation.”

BK: PROUTY WAS PARANOID ALL RIGHT, AND WITH GOOD REASON. HE WAS THE FIRST TO CALL ATTENTION TO THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF, WHOSE OFFICE WAS RIGHT DOWN THE PENTAGON HALL FROM HIM. HE WAS ALSO THE FIRST TO CALL ATTENTION TO GENERAL KRULAK – THE USMC WHO PROVIDED MILITARY SUPPORT TO THE CIA AND WHOSE AIDE COL. HIGGENS WROTE THE MEMO THAT IS NOW THE SUBJECT OF AN FOIA CASE THAT IS GOING BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT. AND IT WAS KRULAK AND PROUTY WHO BOTH AGREE THERE IS A PHOTO OF ED LANSDALE WALKING IN DEALEY PLAZA IN ONE OF THE TRAMP PHOTOS. WHAT’S LANSDALE DOING THERE? THEY WANTED TO KNOW, AND SO SHOULD WE.

"This murder in broad daylight ... Everything changed," said film director Oliver Stone while recreating the assassination on camera  

Oliver Stone wrote the introduction for Prouty’s book, JFK: The CIA, Vietnam and the Plot to Assassinate John F Kennedy.

“They didn’t consult mainstream historians,” says Gagné. “Robert Dallek, for example – no one asked him to be an advisor, even though he’s one of the foremost experts on JFK. They used people from the fringe.”

BK: MAINSTEREAM HISTORIANS WON’T TOUCH THIS SUBJECT, IT’S TOO HOT FOR THEM TO HANDLE.

According to Patricia Lambert’s False Witness, a damning book on the Garrison-Shaw trial, Oliver Stone went into top-secret mode for JFK. He dubbed the film “Project X”, made the crew sign non-disclosures, and swept his office for bugs.

He also paid $50,000 to film on the sixth floor of the Book Depository, where Oswald shot Kennedy, and restored the “grassy knoll” area to how it looked in 1963. But his portrayal of Jim Garrison and Clay Shaw (played in the movie by Tommy Lee Jones) was less authentic, and more problematic: Garrison as a lone crusader of American justice, and Clay – a proven innocent man – as a smug, sexually deviant conspirator.

The real Garrison is often described as “larger than life” and hugely charismatic – but also bullish, narcissistic and manipulative.

BK: YOU SHOULD READ JACK ANDERSON’S REPORT TO THE FBI AFTER HAVING A SIX HOUR DINNER INTERVIEW WITH GARRISON.

“I believe the real Garrison was kind of a charlatan who would do anything to win and didn’t mind a bit of publicity,” says Tom Stone. “Anyone who sees the movie and thinks they know what the real Jim Garrison was like… it’s almost funny how wrong that is.”

Garrison investigated a former pilot named David Ferrie (played by Joe Pesci), an oddball who wore a homemade wig and stick-on eyebrows, and linked Ferrie to Clay Shaw.

Garrison accused Shaw of using the alias “Clay Bertrand”, a mystery man whom a shyster DA named Dean Andrews said contacted him about Lee Harvey Oswald (Gary Oldman in the film). Andrews later confessed he invented the story.

Garrison claimed that Shaw, Ferrie, and Oswald had conspired to shoot Kennedy as part of a “homosexual thrill kill”.

BK: WHILE FERRIE, SHAW AND BANNISTER WERE CONNECTED TO OSWALD THE PATSY IN THE SUMMER OF ’63, THEY WERE IN NO WAY RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT WENT DOWN AT DEALEY PLAZA. THAT WAS A VERY WELL PLANNED – NOT PLOTTED, MILITARY STYLE AMBUSH, NOT ONE CONCOCKTED BY A BUNCH OF LOONEYS AND GAYS SITTING AROUND SMOKING AND DRINKING AND TALKING ABOUT WACKING KENNEDY.

But there was no proven link between the three men.

BK: WAIT A MINUTE. THERE’S A PHOTO OF OSWALD AND FERRIE TOGETHER IN THE CAP. AND THE THREE WERE LINKED TOGETHER IN CLINTON DURING THE CORE VOTER REGISTRATION DRIVE.

Later, Garrison claimed Shaw was a CIA agent, convinced by a story he’d seen on an Italian communist newspaper, Paese Sera – a story reportedly planted by the KGB.

BK: THE FAKE KGB DEFECTOR PLANTED THAT STORY – AND GARRISON DIDN’T READ THE STORY ABOUT SHAW’S CONNECTION TO PERMINDEX – HE GOT IT FROM BILL TURNER. AND IN ORDER TO ESTABLISH HIS BONIFIDES, MITROKIN GAVE UP A FORMER NSA CODE CLERK, WHO WHEN ARRESTED, TOLD THE JUDGE HE SAW AN NSA DOCUMENT WITH THE NAME OF JFK’S REAL ASSASSIN. WHEN A REPORTER ASKED HIM WHAT THE NAME WAS HE SAID – LUIS ANGEL CASTILO.

The CIA-killed-Kennedy theory continues to this day.

BK: YES, AND THE CIA DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN TO BLAME THE DEALEY PLAZA OPERATION ON CASTRO CONTINUES TO THIS DAY AS AN ACTIVE MEASURE – WITH FORMER CIA AGENTS BRIAN LATELL AND BOB BAER AND THEIR MEDIA ASSETS GUS RUSSO AND PHIL SHENON PUBLISHING BOOKS AND MAKING MOVIES ON HOW CASTRO CONTROLLED OSWALD – THE GUY WHO DIDN’T KILL JFK.

“Garrison deduced a theory, then he marshalled his facts,” wrote Patricia Lambert. “And if the facts didn’t fit, he’d say they had been altered by the CIA.” 

David Ferrie died in February 1967 (not murdered for confessing, as depicted in the film, but killed by a brain aneurysm), and Garrison arrested Clay Shaw the following month. 

An insurance salesman named Perry Russo claimed that he’d witnessed Shaw, Ferrie, and Oswald plotting to kill JFK at a party. But he only made the claims after being subjected to hypnosis and the “truth serum”, sodium pentothal. Russo is omitted from the film. Also absent is a crackpot investigator who made up evidence and most of the case for the defence.

Unsurprisingly, Stone met resistance in New Orleans from people who were involved with the real trial. A defense attorney who represented Shaw told Oliver Stone that “he did not believe Garrison acted in good faith.” Rosemary James, a reporter who covered the trial, wrote: “I know for a fact that Garrison deliberately proceeded with a fraudulent case against Clay Shaw.” Harold Weisberg, a veteran assassination investigator, leaked an early draft of the script to The Washington Post, creating more high-profile criticism.

Stone defended himself in interviews by saying “I’ve created a counter-myth to the official one – is that so bad?” But he would also call himself a “cinematic historian” and hoped to be remembered as “a good historian as well as a good dramatist”.

Indeed, Stone’s documentary-style film making does pertain to absolute truth. Newsreel-like grainy, black-and-white handheld scenes blend with real archive footage, such as Walter Cronkite on live TV announcing to the nation that Kennedy has died, and the Zapruder film, amateur footage of Kennedy’s motorcade passing through Dealey Plaza.

Reclaiming History, a 1,500-page doctrine debunking JFK conspiracies, by American attorney and author Vincent Bugliosi, includes a searing chapter on the film.

“The problem with Stone is not, really, that he egregiously fictionalised the Kennedy assassination,” said Bugliosi. “It’s that he tried to convince everyone he was telling the truth.”

Stone said he wanted JFK to be like Japanese classic Rashomon, by offering up different perspectives, most of which have Oswald, Jack Ruby (Brian Doyle-Murray), and Clay Shaw wandering in and out. “It explores all the possible scenarios of why Kennedy was killed,” Stone told the New York Times.

Stone does throw in lots of theories: Oswald was framed for the murder of police officer JD Tippit, killed 45 minutes after Kennedy; a famous photograph of Oswald posing with his rifle was faked; witnesses at the Dealey Plaza heard six shots, not three; others saw suspicious men at the grassy knoll; Oswald was a poor shot; expert shooters couldn’t replicate the time of Oswald’s three shots at Kennedy. Different perspectives perhaps, but a unifying “truth”: it was conspiracy.

Bugliosi dismantles the film’s many claims with convincing ferocity. For instance, ten witnesses put Oswald on the scene of Tippit’s murder; Oswald was actually a sharpshooter; one of the expert shooters didn’t just replicate but improved on Oswald’s shooting; only one person at Dealey Plaza claimed to hear six shots, while 136 people heard three; and many witnesses quoted by Stone were unreliable.

According to Bugliosi, there’s also key evidence left out: “Evidence like Oswald carrying a large brown bag into the Book Depository Building on the morning of the assassination, his fingerprints and palm print being found at the sniper’s nest, his being the only employee of the building to flee the building after the shooting, the provable lies he told during his interrogation… Stone presented none of this to his audience.”

The claim that Kennedy would pull out of Vietnam is also misleading. Memo NSAM 273, which the film claims Lyndon Johnson signed to give the military its war, thereby reversing Kennedy’s position just days after his death, was actually drafted before Kennedy’s death.

“I don’t think anyone could have known for sure what Kennedy was going to do about Vietnam,” says Tom Stone. “The idea they took him out because of Vietnam is based on a false assumption.”

BK: THE FALSE ASSUMPTION IS THAT OSWALD KILLED JFK, NOT THAT JFK WAS GOING TO PULL OUT OF VIETNAM – WHICH HAS BEEN CLEARLY ESTABLISHED.

JFK’s biggest myth may be Kennedy himself, who was not a saint-like figure of progressive politics. Kennedy was late to embrace the civil rights; had mob connections; he was anti-communist; and had multiple affairs.

“He was a morally fraught person,” says Gagné. “One big criticism is that a lot of his decisions were made with his eye on opinion polls. He did not have a deep ideology.”

Still, Stone’s film is a persuasive masterclass. See the moment in which Costner’s Garrison explains the “magic bullet theory”.

As Garrison details, a single bullet caused a total of seven wounds between Kennedy and Governor John Connally, sat in front of Kennedy in the motorcade. To achieve this, the bullet must have stopped in mid air and made several unfathomable turns – through Kennedy's neck, and Connally’s back, chest, wrist, and leg. Surely there had to be more bullets, and therefore more shooters. But that isn’t what the Warren Report says. The magic bullet was the creation of conspiracists.

“When I read the Warren Report, I realised there is no zig-zagging bullet,” says Gagné. “Instead there’s a bullet that goes in a straight line and straight through both men. That’s when I realised Oliver Stone was manipulating information.”

In the film’s closing scene, Costner delivers a stirring speech about the dishonesty at the heart of America. He accuses every law agency within spitting distance of the conspiracy. The real Garrison didn’t mention the CIA. In fact, he only averaged one day per week in court and wasn’t he there to cross-examine Shaw. He was also absent when Shaw was acquitted in 54 minutes. But is the rousing Americana just fair dramatic licence?

“I think the film can be treated too harshly,” says Ken Drinkwater. “It’s entertainment and based on some facts. There is a licence for a filmmaker to present more of an exaggeration. If it was a documentary pointing to Lee Harvey Oswald not being the lone assassin, it wouldn’t have sold as many box office tickets!”

The film did convince audiences about conspiracies (me included). Its cultural impact turned political: George Bush established the Assassination Records Review Board, which led to the release of more than 3,000 documents in 2017, though there were no major revelations.

“I’m sure if there was a smoking gun in the files it was accidentally shredded and flushed,” laughs Tom Stone.

BK: OLIVER STONE SAID HE EXPECTED THE FILES TO BE LIKE A MERCEDEZ BENZ LEFT IN HARLEM FOR TWENTY YEARS – STRIPPED TO THE FRAME BUT STILL IDENTIFIABLE AS A MEERCEDEZ, JUST AS THE FILES SUPPORT THE FACT THAT THE ASSASSINATION WAS A COUP.

But as Ken Drinkwater points out, conspiracies have been proven in the past, such as the MK Ultra mind-control tests; or Kennedy signing off an attempted assassination of Field Castro, which is now widely known.

BK; HOLD ON THEIR NELL! “KENNDY SIGNING OFF AN ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF FIELD (SIC FIDEL) CASTRO, WHICH IS NOW WIDELY KNOWN.” OH YEA, WHICH ONE OF THE ASSASSINATION ATTEMPTS DID HE SIGN OFF ON? NONE THAT I KNOW OF. AND THAT’S WIDELY KNOWN.

And there are still mysteries to be solved around JFK and files still unavailable.

BK: YES, LET’S SOLVE THE STILL RESOLIVABLE MYSTERIS AND MAKE THE REMAINDER OF THE FILES AVAILABLE – BUT WILL THE TELEGRAPH PRINT THAT?

Both Tom Stone and Michel Gagné cite a trip which Oswald took to Mexico City weeks before the assassination. Oswald made mysterious visits to the Cuban and Soviet Embassies. Did someone get in Oswald’s ear?

 BK: YEA, SHENNON WROTE A WHOLE BOOK ABOUT HOW OSWALD ATTENDED A TWIST PARTY AT SYLVIA DURANS WITH TWO AMERICAN GRINGOS – AND I TRACKED DOWN THE GRINGO AND INTERVIEWED THEM AND THEY WERE THERE AT THE TIME OF THE ASSASSINATION AND NOT WHEN OSWALD WAS THERE, SO NO ONE COLD ‘GET IN OSWALD’S EAR.”

“Just because Oswald was the only shooter,

BK: OSWALD WASN’T THE ONLY SHOOTER, HE WASN’T A SHOOTER OR EVEN ON THE SIXTH FLOOR AT THE TIME.

doesn’t mean there wasn’t some small-scale conspiracy to put him up to it,” says Stone. “I still think there are legitimate concerns about influence. If we could ever know who said what to Oswald in Mexico City, we’d have a solution to the case.”

With JFK, Oliver Stone may have become the new Jim Garrison. Gagné agrees: “He used a lot of the same methods, cherry-picking evidence to prove what he assumed at the beginning was true. He doesn’t seem to notice that historians exist. Maybe he thinks they’re part of the cover-up.”

And certainly, Oliver Stone knows the power of film. In the Clay Shaw trial, he screens the Zapruder film – just as the real Garrison had. The footage is gut-churning: Kennedy’s head bursts open, 

Jackie screams silently. As Costner’s Garrison says: “A picture speaks a thousand words, doesn’t it?”

BK: AND NOW WE CAN’T WAIT FOR STONE’S NEXT JFK FILM – A DOCUMENTARY WITH JIM DIEUGENIO CALLED “DESTINY BETRAYED,” THAT WILL ADDRESS MANY OF THESE ISSUES AND IS NEARING RELEASE.