-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.operationheadshots.com/ <A HREF="http://www.operationheadshots.com/">Operation Headshots</A> ----- � 1998 Chip Mosher. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this product and web site is provided to you. HOAX? CIA PLANT? OR CIA SPONSORED DOCUMENTARY? ....YOU DECIDE! In early 1998, this incredible film was allegedly recovered from a dumpster in Langley, Virginia. The film purports to show two CIA agents in a diabolical cover story - posing as film students making a documentary on the JFK assassination research community. If true, the film offers clear evidence of illegal domestic surveillance on part of the CIA and undeniable complicity in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. If a hoax, then someone has gone to alot of trouble to bring this frighteningly real documentary into the public eye. Hoax? CIA plant? Or CIA sponsored documentary? ...YOU DECIDE! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ �Look at the insidious excerpt from the film! �Read our informative press release and press clippings on the film! �Review some of the corollary evidence that was allegedly found with the film! �Order your own copy of the film to review again and again. �See a 360 degree QTVR of the video box!. ===== News �Look! On 12/2/98 Ain't It Cool News reviews Operation Headshots. Scroll down to get the the heart of the issue! � Click here for information on our terrific Nov. 22nd Austin, TX theatrical premiere and premiere poster. �Check out the 360 degree QTVR of the video box! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Press Releases and KRADL Flame War on alt.conspiracy.jfk! �Annoucing: OPERATION HEADSHOTS on 11/8/98 link to KRADL's denunciation of OPERATION HEADSHOTS on 11/10/98 �Camp/LaFayette's response to KRADL's accusations - "We Stand By Our Product!" on 11/11/98 link to KRADL's follow-up on "FILM FACTS" on 11/12/98 �Camp/LaFayette's response to KRADL's potshots - "The Public Decides" on 11/13/98 link to KRADL's response against the "public trust" on 11/15/98 �Camp/LaFayette's response - "KRADL Should Not Stop Public From Watching This Film" on 11/17/98 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Review Copies �If you would like a review copy for your publication please contact us at: Operation Headshots PO Box 50581 Austin, TX 78763-0581 [EMAIL PROTECTED] toll free: 877-222-5593 fax: 512-478-6406 ===== For instance... Last weekend, on Sunday, November 22, a locally produced independent documentary entitled "Operation Headshots" was unveiled at the Dobie Theater. This premiere, in fact, was publicized as taking place "35 years to the minute" after the assassination of JFK. While at first glance such scheduling might seem to be in questionable taste, it is one of many details which makes the story about this little-docu-that-could perhaps even more interesting than the film itself. But I'm getting ahead of myself. On Wednesday, November 4, I got a press release, videotape and poster promoting this film. I'd already heard about it, but seeing it on my doorstep raised my intrigue quotient. First off, there was the pretty slick cassette sleeve. Granted, there's the old adage not to judge a book by its cover, but then, whoever said that never got deluged by the kind of mail we get here at AICN. This "book cover" sure got my attention, as I was taken aback by its fairly startling imagery (that of a victim of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound slumped over a bloodied desk strewn with paperwork). Upon closer examination, however, a smile crept upon my face. There was something deliciously twisted and charmingly toungue-in-cheek about the self-aware absurdity of the packag e. "New evidence in the assassination of JFK?" was emblazoned across the front of the sleeve, while the back proclaimed "Digitally remastered never before seen footage!" This was tailor-made for Agent Mulder and the Lone Gunmen. The back cover copy read with a delightful tinge of sarcasm, stating the film was "allegedly recovered from a dumpster in Langley, Virginia" and "purports to show two CIA agents... posing as film students making a documentary on the JFK research community." (Uh-huh.) "If true," it continues, it "offers clear evidence of illegal domestic surveillance" by the CIA, and therefore "complicity in the assassination." Then, the caveat "If a hoax, then someone has gone through a lot of trouble to bring this frighteningly real documentary to the public eye." And then, in larger letters, the questions "Hoax? CIA plant? Or bona fide CIA sponsored documentary?" appear, followed by "You decide!" Okay, this is sorta funny -- expecially since below that, as if to futher impress upon the reader that one's tongue should be placed firmly in cheek (as if there was any doubt at this point), are the film's credits which identify clear as day Chip Mosher and Otis Maclay as the project's creators. Mosher's name piqued my interest. The last project I saw his name attached to was the trippy-bordering-on-aneurysm-inducing "Strange Attractor," which was more a work of digital video art than a watchable narrative movie, with flashes of wonder adrift in a maze of staggering incoherence. While the experience of viewing that film had been akin to getting a lobotomy or seeing Sankai Juku perform, I was very curious to see what he would do next. This was certainly a step in a different direction. Anyway, over the following weeks leading up to the premiere, I started getting some interesting mail. First, a press release from KRADL (Kennedy Researchers Anti-Defamation League) strenuously denouncing the authenticity of the film as CIA-produced, and criticizing the film's marketing for inferring that it might be. Hmmm... Then I got a response in the mail from the producers of the film. Then a counter-response from KRADL. Then a counter-counter-response by the filmmakers. Each successive one was more amusing and tongue-in-cheek than the last. This carried over into the alt.conspiracy.jfk newsgroup as a "flame war," as well. All of these are online, by the way, at the "official" KRADL web site, and the "Operation Headshots" web site. Speaking of which, as far as movie web sites go (especially low-budget indie documentaries) this one is really quite a nice piece of work, designed with a cool file folder motif. In the "Press" section there's a rundown of the whole aforementioned exchange, along with a link to a QuickTime VR of the video box. Under "Excerpt" there's an excerpt from the film (of an interview with JFK assassination expert and author Robert Grodin) in QuickTime and RealVideo formats. There are other goodies, too, and of course a secure order form so you can order a copy of the film online. So what about the film? In a nutshell, it's a half-hour documentary chronicling the four-day Assassination Symposium on John F. Kennedy, which was held in Dallas five years ago, as seen through the eyes of an earnest teenaged researcher from Prodigy Online (remember that?) named Jonathan Cohen. The film opens with a stark introductory title sequence, quoting the aforementioned copy verbatim. Then, after the film's logo appears, we are met with a film countdown, all grainy and scratched, setting up the archival-esque "look" of the film. We then have a short CG sequence of a CIA computer readout purporting to "brief us" on the film we're about to see. (I actually found this bit to be pretty slick, and unexpected.) Then the film starts, and although you can tell it was shot on video, it's been digitally processed to look like an old film. At first it's so startling I worried it might be too intrusive, but it's so well executed that it really adds texture to the footage and enhances its watchability. Immediately, we are introduced to a few attendees of the conference, intercut with excerpts from the keynote speech by none other than Norman Mailer. Is it a great film? Well, no. Good? Yes. There is some pretty sharp film and sound editing -- particularly at the film's opening, and later during a couple of montages of interview excerpts -- and overall it does a very capable job of transporting the viewer to this conference, and providing a snapshot of what it was like to have attended. It is particularly interesting to look back at the commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the assassination from the vantage point of the 35th -- though herein lies one of my slight frustrations with the film; after viewing it, I would have really liked to have seen a brief "epilogue" bringing us up-to-date on the people we were introduced to, and the overall state of the JFK assassination research movement. Perhaps that's something that can yet be appended to this film, in some form or another and some point or another, maybe even online somehow. I dunno, I'm just thinking out loud. As for the marketing of the film, some might call it borderline exploitive and perhaps even in questionable taste -- even I might on a particularly cranky day -- but it's done tongue-in-cheek. The filmmakers themselves have poked fun at their own campaign. But the film itself doesn't make fun of its subjects or subject matter, nor does it take itself too seriously. It does offers some genuine insight into the whole sub-culture of the JFK assassination research community. And while the film is by no means the most accomplished documentary I've seen recently, I actually find it rather fascinating, and am impressed by the amount of work that's been put into its search for an audience. In a few months, I'll be curious to check in with the producers on how their experiment in guerilla independent filmmaking and online marketing turns out, and hope I can talk them into sharing all their secrets in a sort of "How To" format, which I think could be of great interest and real value to a lot of aspiring filmmakers who read this site. Meanwhile, I encourage you to check out their web site at www.operationheadshots.com, which I expect will continue to offer an ongoing chronicle of the enterprise. (And, if you happen to be a student of JFK assassination lore, or just want to support this media experiment, there are worse things you could do with your dough than buy a copy.) So what's the point of all this excessive Robo-rant, you might be asking? Simply this: We've heard a lot about the promise held by the internet as a marketing tool and distribution channel for independent film, and here's a project right now that's testing the viability of this new economic model. If it, and others like it, happen to succeed, then we could be witnessing the birth of a whole new paradigm that might open the floodgates for a host of low-budget indie films to find an audience. For instance, imagine if "virtual indie studios" started popping up online, self-distributing projects that might otherwise never get seen. In my book, that's fairly significant -- and pretty darn cool. And you, dear reader, hold at your fingertips the power to start this ve ry sort of media (r)evolution. Kinda makes you think, huh? Send well-written e-mails of holiday cheer to... -- Robogeek! ===== To view to original KRADL post from their site click here! KRADL OPERATION HEADSHOTS A BONA FIDE HOAX! Do the lies ever stop! While we at the KRADL enjoy a good marketing campaign and we understand that the market for documentaries is non-existent, and that documentary filmmakers need to approach the marketing of their product in a novel way, we do believe that SOME topics are sacrosant. After purchasing and viewing the so-called OPERATION HEADSHOTS, we must say that YES it is a frighteningly real documentary and YES it is a hoax. It is more than obvious, to even the casual viewer, that this was never a film found in a dumpster, but a digitally treated video - in the vein of those absurd Zapruder copies that show the driver shooting the late President. Please do the public a favor, and report this story as a hoax - cloaking an otherwise enjoyable "warts and all look" at us - the JFK research community. Don�t advance the hoax! The JFK Researchers Anti Defamation League started in the fall of 1993 after widespread media acceptance of Gerald Posner's book - CASE CLOSED. KRADL is dedicated to protecting the dignity of the research community by debunking those shallow, but widely accepted few, that claim Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and was the master of a single bullet. ===== OPERATION HEADSHOTS IS AN OBVIOUS HOAX AND HERE�S HOW! While we cannot divulge our sources on how our spies have gotten Camp/LaFayette's press list - we do want people to know that KRADL is watching and that any story that crops up that even seems remotely like it will discredit our "Movement" - it will be dealt with. We are committed to never let a "Posner" discredit us again. Here are simple observations from our forensic expert that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that OPERATION HEADSHOTS is a hoax! There are a tremendous number of stains on the print. Unfortunately, the spots are lighter than the film which means they were on the negative. But this film is reversal so there is no negative! The people who concocted this farce were skilled but stupid. The scratch patterns often change exactly when the scene changes which means the different scenes were processed at different times! But film damaged in a dumpster would have scratches running through the scene changes. Any film damaged as much as this would invariably have damage to the sound track. Yet the sound is perfect! This may be the most damning evidence of all. Even though the quality is fuzzy, certain artifacts of any medium remain. In this case, it�s obvious that this film� was shot with video. Many characteristics support this conclusion. The pattern of lights. Blooming. Trail patterns. While many "layman" might be confused at how this might be done, a quick glance at Cinelook by DigiEffects will show how this could be done - and affordably at that. Chris Athanas, president of Digieffects, could not be contacted to confirm or deny a possible sale of Cinelook to Camp/LaFayette. Of course, any of these facts prove that this film is a hoax. But if you still doubt our conclusion, look for the shadow of a Sony Hi 8 Video Camcorder in the scene on the Tower. This is the best evidence, and we�re using it. These people are really pitifully careless. They must think we�ll swallow anything. For more info please refer to: http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dungeon/2330/ or email us at [EMAIL PROTECTED] ===== For Immediate Release: YOU DECIDE. WE WON'T STOP YOU. The organization KRADL, probably wanting us to think about liberty, has released proof that "Operation Headshots" is a hoax. They have pointed out certain inconsistencies, in the quality of the film. They talk about scratches and stains. They talk about blooming and trails. Sounds like a horticultural exhibit, doesn't it? But they never address the substance of the film. Do people attending these symposiums, actually form plots and conspiracies? What really goes on behind the closed doors in the highest corridors of power? Does KRADL address any of these substantive questions? Or are they spending their time looking for sprocket holes with a microscope? Answers are cheap. Everyone has answers. But, as Norman Mailer says in "Operation Headshots", some questions are better than others! While KRADL (Kennedy Researchers Anti-Defamation League) persists in attacking us for presenting the truth, we want to make it clear that our call has always been to let the people decide. It's unfortunate but true that organizations tend to act in their best interest, even if it takes them away from their declared purpose. Nowhere in any of our literature do we say that this film is truly what it says it is. It very well may be a hoax. But unlike these organizations, we feel it's not up to us to decide. Our job is to let the viewers decide. We have faith that whatever conclusion people come to, they will reach it fairly and without prejudice: they have no ax to grind. Camp/Lafayette stands behind the film absolutely. Whether it's a hoax or not, you decide. We will not stop you. For More Information Please Contact: Camp/LaFayette Productions at Operation Headshots PO Box 50581 Austin, TX 78763-0581 [EMAIL PROTECTED] toll free: 877-222-5593 fax: 512-478-6406 ===== Did the agents involved in making "OPERATION HEADSHOTS" carry the same kind of Department of Defense card as Oswald? Any self respecting student of the assassination knows that at the time of his arrest, Oswald carried with him the same type of Dept. of Defense or D.O.D. card that Gary Powers was found with when he was shot down over Russia. Did the agents, posing as film students, also carry this same type of ID? These IDs were allegedy found with the film. They had been already redacted. We have to wonder if these documents were scheduled to be released and then maybe someone had second thoughts. If this is true, then it would go along way to proving that this is not an elaborate hoax. If it is a hoax then someone has gone to alot of trouble not just to forge a film, but also supporting corollary evidence along with it. You decide! ===== from: http://www.redacted.com/idcard.htm <A HREF="http://www.redacted.com/idcard.htm">Redacted: Oswald's Military ID Card</A> ----- Oswald's Military ID Card [Home] [JFK Assassination] [UNABOM] [Zodiac Killer] [Misc. Crimes & Acts] [Research] [Links] [Email] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DD 1173 Oswald could have been issued a DD 1173 for one of two reasons: because of an injury while on active duty entitling him to medical privileges, or because he was a civilian employee overseas needing a military ID Oswald ID Card May Be Missing Link Houston Post, 11/92 By Ray and Mary La Fontaine DALLAS -- On the tense evening of Nov. 22, 1963, the 112th Army Intelligence Group at Fort Sam Houston transmitted a confidential priority message to the U.S. Strike Command at Florida's McDill Air Force Base. The cable from San Antonio to McDill, which remained on Red Alert following the morning's assassination in Dallas of President John F. Kennedy, identified arrested suspect Lee Harvey Oswald as a "card carrying member of (the) Communist Party." He was not, but 29 years ago today Oswald was carrying a card that suggests he may have been an employee of an organization much closer to home. Found by Dallas police in Oswald's wallet -- along with a photograph of his wife, Marina -- was a U.S. Department of Defense "Uniformed Services Identification and Privilege Card," or simply, a DD Form 1173. It's a card officials today say Oswald should not have had. But why he had it and what it might have meant is one of a lengthy list of unanswered questions surrounding Kennedy's death. Also in question is whether Oswald -- as the Warren Commission concluded -- acted alone in shooting the president that clear crisp day in Dallas, or was he part of any one of several conspiracies that have been offered up over the past three decades. The DD 1173 bears Oswald's photo, the circular seal of the U.S. Department of Defense, and what appears to be a postmark -- dated Oct. 23, 1963, less than a month before the assassination. Oswald was issued the identity card by the U.S. Marine Corps on Sept. 11, 1959, nine days after his request for a dependency discharge from the corps was approved. His stated reason for the request was to support his mother, Marguerite, then living in Fort Worth. Five weeks after receiving the card issued at El Toro Naval Air Station, Santa Ana, Calif., Oswald crossed the Finnish-Soviet border on his way to Moscow. Two weeks later, he announced his intention to defect to the Soviet Union. Oswald's military record notes the identity card was issued "in accordance with paragraph 3014.5 PRAM (Personnel Records and Accounting Manual)." However, this paragraph pertains only to the issuance of USMC member cards and does not apply to a DD 1173. The appropriate card for the discharged Oswald, as stipulated by the PRAM, would have been a 2MC (RES), reflecting his new status in the Ready Reserve. Lt. Kim Miller, a Washington spokeswoman for the Marines, said Oswald could have been issued a DD 1173 for one of two reasons: because of an injury while on active duty entitling him to medical privileges, or because he was a civilian employee overseas needing a military ID. But records do not show an injury to Oswald, and civilian employment, she adds, "would not have been annotated to his military book." A similar finding was reached by Dennis Velock, reference historian of the U.S. Army Military History institute of Carlisle, Penn. He notes issuance of DD 1173 was regulated under Department of Defense guidelines at the time Oswald received his card. These guidelines limited recipients of such cards largely to military dependents "and civilian who required military identification." If such a card was issued in error, says Velock, "it wouldn't have been authorized, and immediately upon being called to official attention would have been changed or revoked." There is no evidence Oswald's identity card was revoked, even after he defected, threatened to provide military secrets to the Russians and received an undesirable discharge from the Marine Corps in 1960. Oswald's card did not expire until Dec. 7, 1962. Oswald's card was not printed in the photographic evidence of the Warren Commission's report on the Kennedy assassination. But the head-on photograph of Oswald on DD 1173 is the same as two other Oswald photos included in the report. One is Warren Commission Exhibit 2892, identified by the FBI as "Photo taken in Minsk." (The "Minsk" photo has a white circular cutout in the lower right hand corner corresponding to the overlapping postmark on the Defense Department card.) The Minsk contradiction -- Oswald's trip to Russia occurred after the issuance of the DOD identity card -- was not evident to the commission, apparently because the card was not made available to its members by the FBI. In December 1966, when the FBI finally released Oswald's Defense Department identity card to the National Archives, it arrived "nearly obliterated by FBI testing," according to archivist Sue McDonough of the Civil Reference Branch. "The color, the image, the printing, everything is gone," she said. "You couldn't use it to show anything." Challenging the archivist's assertion, FBI spokesman Bill Carter of the Public Affairs Office in Washington asks, "How does she (McDonough) know it was tested by the FBI? Does she have a report?" "Who else but the FBI could have done it?" McDonough responds. She adds that there are no pictures of the card in its un-obliterated state at the archives. According to assassination writer David Lifton, there is no mention of DD 1173 in any FBI testing reports he has reviewed. These include non-published commission documents, FBI Dallas field office reports and FBI summary reports to the Warren Commission. The same photo of Oswald on DD 1173 also appeared in the Warren Report (Cadigan Exhibit 15) on a phony Selective Service classification card found in Oswald's possessions with the name Alek James Hidell, the name he supposedly used to purchase the assassination rifle by mail order. It was the 112th Army Intelligence Group at Fort Sam Houston that notified the FBI that he was carrying a fraudulent Selective Service card. How the military knew this has never been explained. The Hidell card, with its photograph of Oswald, was one of two major links between Oswald and the assassination weapon. The other is a photograph -- known by its commission designation of 133A -- allegedly taken of Oswald brandishing the weapon in the back yard of a home in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas. The 26-volume Warren Commission publication acknowledged the existence of the DOD identity card in only two places: Oswald's military record and the report of FBI agent Manning Clements, who listed the contents of Oswald's wallet on the night of Nov. 22, 1963, after the Army Intelligence tip. Clements cited both the DOD identity card and the Hidell card. Clement's report, however, did not reveal that the two cards had the same picture -- or that the DOD identity card had a photo at all. The Oct. 23, 1963, postmark on Oswald's DOD identity card is a further enigma. "If found, drop in any mailbox," the card's reverse side instructs. It then tells the Postmaster, "Return to Department of Defense, Washington 25, D.C." Reached at Notre Dame University where he now teaches law, Robert Blakey, former general counsel to the House Select Committee on Assassinations, considered the possibility that the card was lost, dropped in a mailbox, postmarked and delivered to the Defense Department. "In that case," says Blakey, "Defense would have had to have given it back to Oswald. Interesting." W. J. Liebeler, an associate counsel to the Warren Commission, expresses similar surprise at the convolutions of Oswald's mysterious ID card. "This is all new to me," he says. "Two things seem odd. The picture identified as Oswald in Minsk, and the postmark on the defense card. The postmark implies the Defense Department either mailed it back to him or gave it to him at some time." If so, that would have happened less than a month before Kennedy's assassination. Was, as some conspiracy theorists suggest, Oswald working for the U.S. government at the time? Renowned assassination researcher Paul Hoch of Berkeley, Calif., attempted to discover the significance of Oswald's DD Form 1173 as early as 1974. Today, he says "The HSCA (the House assassinations committee) attempted to deal with the possibility that Oswald had been working with the U.S. government after he left the Marines. But as far as we know, they didn't deal with this card. It may have been the missing element." Copyright Houston Post, 11/92 Reprinted with permission of the authors. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Truth is Redacted Website http://www.redacted.com � 1997 Bill Adams The page last updated 7/5/97 [Home] [JFK Assassination] [UNABOM] [Zodiac Killer] [Misc. Crimes & Acts] [Research] [Links] [Email] ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. 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