Dear Bill,
I just finished reading your new article on the Cuban Missile Crisis
and the Assassination. Great stuff as always. Very informative and
inspiring.
The whole piece about Arthur "Art" Lundahl was new to me,
and I found
it terribly interesting. I had never heard of Lundahl but can tell
you
for certain he's got Swedish ancestry, as Lundahl is a uniquely
Swedish surname. I looked up his Wikipedia but there wasn't a whole
lot of biographical info on him.
You mentioned that Arthur Schlesinger had entered in his journal that
"when he asked RFK about the assassination, RFK replied that the CIA
thought there were two gunman, probably based on Lundahl's briefing."
That's what really caught my eye. I know Schlesinger had been
"agnostic" (let's put it) about the assassination, but I had never
come across this piece of information. Would you happen to have a
reference to where one can find it?
The two-gunmen analysis jibes with John Orr's and my own, which is
based on Orr's but also the acoustics evidence. If you reconcile the
two, you'll have five shots fired from two locations, by two gunmen
that is. Both were located behind the limo, one at the TSBD sniper's
nest and the other, on the roof of the County Records Building Annex.
I've fine-tuned the synthesis and the resulting sequence reads as follows:
1. First shot fired at Z186, passes limo at Z187. Report reaches "bike
with mike" at Z188, Zapruder at Z190.
2. Second shot fired at Z214, hits Kennedy at Z216. Report reaches
"bike with mike" at Z216, Zapruder at Z218.
3. Third shot fired at Z234, hits Connally at Z236. Report reaches
"bike with mike" at Z236, Zapruder at Z238.
4. Fourth shot fired at Z311, hits Kennedy at Z313. Report reaches
Zapruder (direct) at Z315, "bike with mike" (echo) at Z325.
5. Fifth shot fired at Z324, passes limo at Z326. Report reaches
Zapruder (direct) at Z328, "bike with mike" (echo) at Z333.
This sequence is consistent with Zapruder's film, the dictabelt
acoustics, and with the Alvarez jiggle chart. It's also broadly
consistent with Orr's analysis, with a few adjustments to accommodate
the other sources.
Note also that there is NO WAY a third shooter was firing from the
Grassy Knoll, and NO WAY Kennedy was hit twice in the head. All of
that is pure clown show stuff, which is quite easy to prove.
In your article, you refer to the PATHFINDER plot to kill Castro, "by
shooting him in the head as he rode by in an open jeep". I did not
know Brugioni wrote that memo, nor did I know he had been involved
with developing the Zapruder film. So that's also terribly interesting
and I will set aside time to look into it.
Regarding "shooting him in the head", note that the shooter on the
CRBA roof in Dealey Plaza fired twice and hit Kennedy both times –
first in the back and second, of course, in the back of the head. Why
fire twice at Kennedy, only wounding him the first time? The wounding
shot was placed near the spine to immoblise him in the "Thorburn
position", which is an involuntary neurological reaction to such
spinal wounds, forcing up the elbows and folding in the arms towards
the throat.
Once you're hit in the spine, you're completely immobilised and simply
can't move – nor do or say anything much, except for involuntarily
move the arms like Kennedy did in the Zapruder film as the limo
emerged from behind the road sign. That's important as the head will
be kept still and thus easier for the assassin to target with the
second kill shot. A headshot is otherwise a risky proposition as
people constantly move their heads around, which could easily cause
the shot to miss its target.
Speaking of Schesinger, as an anecdotal aside, I was actually invited
to his home once – for a cocktail party at that. That was in winter
1998/99, my then-girlfriend was working with the grand old man's son,
Stephen Schlesinger, at the World Policy Institute. So we got invited
to this little shindig thing at the Schlesinger residence, a stately
second-floor apartment overviewing the East River, in the diplomat
quarters right north of the UN Building. Arthur was there to receive
us, sitting in a chair in front of his fireplace, bowtie and all. A
very "Breakfast at Tiffany's" experience!
Are you in New Jersey, Bill, or is that only a figment of my imagination?
Best regards,
- Per
Per Berglund, PhD (economics)
formerly global head macro quant, senior research fellow, PwC New York
now retired and safely ensconced in Stockholm, Sweden
ARTHUR C. LUNDAHL, 77, DIES
By Bart Barnes
June 25, 1992
Arthur C. Lundahl, 77, a pioneer in photographic intelligence and the art of photographic interpretation who in 1962 informed President Kennedy that the Soviet Union had installed missiles in Cuba, died of respiratory failure June 22 at Suburban Hospital.
Mr. Lundahl was the first director of the Central Intelligence Agency's National Photographic Interpretation Center, and in that capacity he reviewed aerial photographs of construction activity in a field near San Cristobal, Cuba, that were taken in early October. On Oct. 16, he reported his findings to the president.
"Mr. President, I am as sure of this as a photo interpreter can be sure of anything," former colleague Dino A. Brugioni quoted him as saying in a book on the Cuban missile crisis, "Eyeball to Eyeball." " . . . I am convinced they are missiles."
Those findings led the president to impose a naval blockade and quarantine on Cuba. The crisis passed when the Soviets withdrew the missiles.
A Navy veteran of World War II, Mr. Lundahl began his career as a photo interpreter in the Aleutian Islands, where he analyzed photography obtained on reconnaissance flights over Japan.
After the war, he came to Washington as civilian chief of the photogrammetry division of the Naval Photographic Center. Later he became assistant chief engineer there. By the early 1950s, he had developed a reputation as a brilliant photo interpretation specialist and photo scientist who also was an articulate speaker with a talent for making highly technical material understandable to laymen.
This led the CIA to hire him to organize and develop its fledgling photographic intelligence division to process and interpret photography from U-2 reconnaissance flights, which were opening new directions in the intelligence field. For the first time, intelligence agencies had available precise and current data on land mass and physical installations throughout the world.
This intelligence-gathering process originally was intended to collect information on the Soviet Union, but it also was used elsewhere. Mr. Lundahl regularly briefed President Eisenhower, the secretaries of state and defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the photographic findings.
After Francis Gary Powers's U-2 was shot down over the Soviet Union in 1960, the National Security Council ordered that a centralized photo interpretation center be set up for all the intelligence agencies. Mr. Lundahl was named its first director in December 1961.
Operating out of the Steuart Motor Car Co. building at Fifth and K streets NW in Washington, Mr. Lundahl's unit reviewed photographs the next fall of what at first glance appeared to be farmland in Cuba. But enlargements of the photographs allowed the interpreters to discover objects such as missile transporters, launcher-erectors and other equipment indicating the installation of a missile base. It was that information that he took to the president.
A resident of Bethesda, Mr. Lundahl was born in Chicago. He graduated from the University of Chicago, where he later was an instructor in photogrammetry, photo interpretation, cartography and surveying as part of a war training program.
He retired from the National Photographic Interpretation Center in 1973 because of severe arthritis. He also retired from the Naval Reserve as a captain that year.
At his retirement, Mr. Lundahl received the CIA's Distinguished Intelligence Medal, the Presidential National Security Medal and the Defense Intelligence Agency director's Exceptional Civilian Service Award.
The citation on the CIA medal called Mr. Lundahl "a superb technician in the science of photographic interpretation and photogrammetry with few, if any, peers."
Mr. Lundahl also received an autographed picture of former Intelligence director Allen W. Dulles. "Art Lundahl has done as much as any man I know to protect the security of this nation," was the inscription.
Mr. Lundahl was a member of Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church and the Cosmos Club, and he was a former president of the American Society of Photogrammetry.
His wife of 42 years, the former Mary Emily Hvid, died in 1986.
Survivors include two children, Ann and Robert Lundahl, and a granddaughter, all of Chevy Chase.
RODERIC W. MOSES.
Security Specialist
Roderic W. Moses, 52, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who was a security specialist and senior vice president of a Rosslyn technical services firm, died of a heart attack June 16 at a hospital in Moscow, where he was on a business trip. A resident of the Washington area off and on for 20 years, he lived in Alexandria.
Col. Moses retired from the Air Force in 1982 after more than 20 years of service. Since then he had worked for EG&G Dynatrend as a physical security and property management specialist.
His Air Force posts included Vietnam, where he was an operations and intelligence officer; the Pentagon; Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama; Bitburg, Germany, and Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts.
He worked on security for nuclear weapons and against terrorist attacks and had testified before Congress on national security matters. He helped form the team that installed the first operational security system for ground-launched Cruise missiles.
A native of Eau Claire, Wis., Col. Moses was a graduate of the University of Wisconsin. He received a master's degree in criminal justice from Troy State University and did additional work at the University of Southern California, the Air Command and Staff College and the National FBI Academy.
His military decorations included the Bronze Star, four Meritorious Service Medals and four Air Force Commendation Medals.
He was a member of the Air Force Security Police Association, the American Defense Preparedness Association, the Retired Officers Association and Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Alexandria.
His marriage to Mary Gayle Asher ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife, Emily Currie-Moses of Alexandria; two children from his first marriage, Tiffany P. Moses and Todd R. Moses, both of Chelmsford, Mass.; his mother, Doris Wray Moses of Altoona, Wis.; a brother, Richard W. Moses of Menomonie, Wis., and a sister, Marilee Moses-Bennett of Chippewa Falls, Wis.
ARTHUR LEWIS QUINN.
Lawyer
Arthur Lewis Quinn, 91, a retired Washington lawyer who was an authority on the sugar industry and a past president of the Society of Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, died of heart ailments June 24 at the home of a daughter in Miami.
Mr. Quinn was born in Portsmouth, N.H. He moved to Washington in 1920, and he graduated from Georgetown University Law School.
In the 1920s, he worked for the State Department on claims against Mexico. In 1933, he entered the private practice of law.
In 1940, after a period as a member of a law firm, Mr. Quinn became a sole practitioner. In 1963, he was joined by his son, Arthur Lee Quinn. They practiced together until 1980, when the father retired from the firm of Hamel, Park, McCabe & Saunders, where he was of counsel.
Much of Mr. Quinn's work involved the sugar industry. In his book "The Super Lawyers," a study of the Washington legal establishment, Joseph Goulden referred to the Quinns, father and son, as "the uncrowned kings of the sugar lobby." Mr. Quinn numbered among his clients Tate & Lyle and other firms prominent in the sugar trade.
Mr. Quinn, who had lived in Miami since 1989, was a former member of the parish of Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church in Washington.
His wife, Elizabeth White Quinn, died in 1978.
In addition to Arthur Lee Quinn, who lives in Potomac, survivors include two daughters, Mary Immer of Miami and Elizabeth Kelly of Annandale; 11 grandchildren; and a great-grandchild.
https://www.nga.mil/innovators-leaders/Arthur_C_Lundahl_.html
As the father of modern imagery analysis, Arthur Lundahl briefed President John F. Kennedy on critical intelligence issues. As head of the National Photographic Interpretation Center — a predecessor to NGA — Lundahl kept Kennedy informed of Soviet movements during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He has been honored by presidents and was even inducted into the Order of the British Empire with the rank of Honorary Knight Commander by Queen Elizabeth II.
Lundahl was inducted into the GEOINT Hall of Fame in 2001.
