from: http://pages.about.com/search/chapter10.htm Click Here: <A HREF="http://pages.about.com/search/chapter10.htm">Preserving the legacy</A> ----- Excessive Censorship Chapter 10 The following recently recorded interview with Robert Knight, reflects the excessive degree of censorship which is still conspiring to cover up the truth about the Kennedy assassination. Mat Wilson: Mr. Knight, I was wondering whether you can send me a copy of Mr. Forrestal's oral histories. Robert Knight: I don't have his oral history. Where did you get my name? Mat Wilson: From the Kennedy library. Robert Knight: Yeah, well they're required under Forrestal's instructions to them -he dictated a number of pages of his history in the National Security Council in Washington, to the Kennedy library, he was in the Kennedy administration -and when he died, he apparently, one of the things he specified there, that if anything should happen to him, people would have to clear it with me, before they could look at his things. Now, what do you plan to do with it if you read it? Mat Wilson: I'm working on a book on the Kennedy administration. Robert Knight: Now the reason for his doing this was that he did not want anything written, based on his notes, to embarrass anyone or their widows or whatever -spouse, surviving spouse or children, about other public servants. Mat Wilson: He wasn't worried about himself, he was worried about others -I don't imagine he'd have anything embarrassing to say, you know... Robert Knight: Well, you know, people write, these days, a great many people who write books or articles love to have something scandalous in there about somebody, or how stupid they were, that kind of thing. And that's what he was trying to protect against. So my job is to be in effect a censor. But the only reason I'm censoring is to make sure that his notes are not quoted in derogation of anybody else's character. Now what you write about other people that doesn't come from his notes is up to you, but, I have nothing to do with it, and I wasn't born to be a censor anyway, but -that's my job. Mat Wilson: You're a lawyer? Robert Knight: Yes, I was a partner of Mike's. Yeah, we were very good friends -I was his boss for many years -and a very good friend -when I became head of the firm I gave him several clients. Mat Wilson: So obviously, you've read them right, I mean... Robert Knight: Yeah I read his notes. Mat Wilson: So you know there's, there's nothing embarrassing in them -I guess you know that? Robert Knight: Well there, there are things that, you know, as to what happened when, as they got in the Vietnam war that he wrote about -you know, people can take that kind of stuff and blow it up and embarrass people. And I guess there are a variety of things there that were -where there were differences of opinion that he's recording, where that could be used to embarrass somebody. That's what he -my only purpose is not to see to anything except that people are not embarrassed by anything that, for which he is cited as authority or comes out of his notes. Mat Wilson: I understand that now, can I get -are they available at any library? Robert Knight: Yeah, they're at the Kennedy library. That's where they are. And those are the terms to which he gave them to the library. First he would have to censor it on those terms. And if he died, I would. Mat Wilson: Yeah, but you can't get them from the Kennedy library. Robert Knight: Well, you can get access to them. Mat Wilson: Like, when I was there, they wouldn't show them to me. Robert Knight: They won't show them to you until you get my permission. Mat Wilson: Oh, I need your permission -okay... Robert Knight: But my permission is based solely on what I've just told you. Mat Wilson: Yeah, okay -so if I... Robert Knight: Your willingness to let me make sure that there's nothing -that those notes are not used to, to denigrate some other public servant. Mat Wilson: So he wasn't concerned about himself but he was concerned about -do you know who he was concerned about? Robert Knight: He was concerned about people in government at the time. I mean, you know -he's got his there in, whatever it was, four years on the National Security Council. And he recites, you know, the history of his being there -what happened. And that's his only concern is that they're not used to embarrass somebody. Mat Wilson: Do you have any other papers besides that? Robert Knight: I have no papers of his at all. Mat Wilson: I mean no other public figures. You're just dealing with Michael Forrestal, right? Robert Knight: Just with Michael Forrestal and just because -I didn't even know I was on this hook until after he died. Mat Wilson: Here's a question that I meant to ask you -Did he write any books? Robert Knight: No. Mat Wilson: So he hasn't, That's what -Wouldn't it be good to give it to somebody who is working on a book because he didn't. I mean -you know what I mean. Robert Knight: Yeah, I'm perfectly happy to... Mat Wilson: I'm just wondering. Do you know why he didn't write a book? Robert Knight: Yeah, he didn't have time -he was too busy. Same reason I haven't written a book -I was in government too. Mat Wilson: [I wanted to ask Mr. Knight where Mr. Forrestal found the time to commit suicide, but he obviously did not appreciate the fact that his good friend had probably been murdered, to close the book on the potential to embarass.] Are you going to write one? Robert Knight: About three people a week tell me I should, but... Mat Wilson: So why don't you? Robert Knight: Well, I have the same concern in that sense, but also, I don't have time. Mat Wilson: I see, so you're... Robert Knight: I'm busy. Mat Wilson: Are you a trial attorney? -sorry to be nosey but... Robert Knight: No, I'm not a trial attorney -but I was. I'm basically an international lawyer -a corporate lawyer -an international lawyer. Mat Wilson: Oh, so you never plan to write a book then? Robert Knight: Well, I may get to it sometime, because everybody tells me I should. Because I was in government four years too. I was in the Eisenhower administration and the Kennedy's, as a political appointee of each. Mat Wilson: I just don't understand -wouldn't it be good for you to write one because you have all this access to all those records that... Robert Knight: I have a whole lot of things to write about -not simply because of Mike Forrestal's record. Mat Wilson: Yeah, do you do interviews or -you know, I mean just because you have all this knowledge that's hard to get access, I was wondering why you don't. I'm asking the question again I guess because I kind of thought that would be like, to fill in the record, because you have access to things that nobody else does. Robert Knight: Well, the only thing that I have access to, you know, in terms of records, are Mike F.orrestal's. Mat Wilson: Well, you know, that's something. Robert Knight: But if you want to look at Mike Forrestal's stuff, write a letter to me with a carbon copy to the Kennedy foundation, asking permission to do it and saying that you'll be willing to have me look at the script -tell me the purpose of what you're doing it for, which I gather is to publish a book -and that you'd be willing to have me look at the script before it's published. And subject to my approval of what you've written, cited from those notes. Now what you quote from anybody else is none of my business -I'm not trying to censor you in any way other than your use of Mike's notes. Mat Wilson: Okay, terrific. Thank you very much. I'll do that. Robert Knight: You have my name and address? Mat Wilson: Yes, 599 Lexington, right? Robert Knight: Right. So you just write me that kind of letter and I'll write back, assuming you say you're agreeable to this. I'll write back to them with a copy to you saying I approve of this on condition that I'm shown the script before it's published. Mat Wilson: Okay, thank you very much. Sorry to take so much of your time. Robert Knight: With the right to censor any use of the notes. Mat Wilson: Okay. Robert Knight: Okay? Mat Wilson: Thank you very much. Robert Knight: And, I don't enjoy this thing but he was a very close friend of mine and I also sympathize with the idea that you ought not to use, or ought not -publishers so like scandal, that a great many people writing these things -Christ, I just read Jim Forrestal's biography a little while ago. Mat Wilson: That's his father right? Robert Knight: His father, you know he was the first Secretary of Defense -and God almighty the way they tear into people, it's ungodly. In any event, he doesn't want his notes to be used for that purpose. Anything else you write is your business, not mine. Mat Wilson: Okay, great. I appreciate the time you've taken, and I'll write you a letter. Robert Knight: Okay. Mat Wilson: Thank you very much. Robert Knight: Right-oh. Mat Wilson: Bye. Where the Vietnam war is concerned, the implications of pre-publication censorship are potentially sinister and having weighed the risk, Mr. Knight's offer to examine Michael Forrestal's notes on his terms, was rejected. At the same time, there is no reason to believe that Mr. Knight, like other "reluctant censors" before him, is anything beyond an unwitting cover up accomplice. Clearly, the reluctant censor who did not even know that he was "on the hook" until after the death of his friend, sounds like a wonderful person who has been conned into believing that he is protecting the interests of his dear friend, Michael Forrestal. In fact, Robert Knight is inadvertently covering up the truth about the Kennedy assassination. To be sure, every decent person is sympathetic to the motivation to spare the embarrassment of public officials, but when the consequence of the censorship is to ultimately give propagandists an unchallenged forum, the ultimate motivation is to cover up the truth. The genuine intent behind the excessive zeal to censor the notes of Michael Forrestal is the excessive zeal to obscure the motivation that claimed the life of John F. Kennedy. In particular, as a member of the National Security Council, Forrestal was clearly privy to the deadlock over differences about the need to prosecute the Vietnam war, and unlike propagandists like Rusk, who were obsessed by the perceived need to break the deadlock in their favor, Forrestal shared Kennedy's determination to pull-out of the war. In the final analysis, the excessive zeal to censor the work of Forrestal strongly suggests that it was only a matter of time before he too, especially if he was giving "embarrassing" interviews, or was letting others read his notes, became the target of a [permanent censorship] murder plot. In particular, when the effort to censor is as extreme and as obsessive as the determination to fraudulently dismiss the significance of Michael Forrestal, the motivation to murder is too compelling to ignore. Dean Rusk, for example, claims that Michael Forrestal did not carry any weight within the National Security Council. In his own words: "I think Mike Forrestal did not carry much weight." 1 Dean Rusk dismisses the influence of Mike Forrestal because he likes to insist that the unbridgeable conflict between his obsession to fight in Vietnam and Kennedy's determination to pull-out, did not even exist. In the words of Dean Rusk: "My own view was parallel to that of President Kennedy's. He and I saw Vietnam in about the same way."2 Despite the propaganda that Rusk obsessively and aggressively promotes, it is not possible to dismiss the influence of an intelligent presidential adviser like Michael Forrestal. Michael Vincent Forrestal was the presidential Assistant for Far Eastern Affairs, and when Kennedy sent him to Saigon to report on the situation in Southeast Asia, he was obviously very interested in what he had to say. Forrestal had serious misgivings about American military involvement in Southeast Asia, and Rusk may be disturbed about the "dangerous" dissent he espoused, but he certainly cannot credibly dismiss it. In particular, Forrestal was not a "body bag enthusiast" who sought to convince Kennedy that the war was being won. He told Kennedy that people were dying in vain in Southeast Asia, and in his own words: "no one really knows how many of the 20,000 Vietcong killed last year were only innocent or at least persuadable villagers."3 Clearly, despite Rusk's obsession to prove otherwise, Kennedy was more apt to dismiss Cold War ideologues like his own Secretary of State than to ignore the independent judgment of intelligent, objective experts like Michael Forrestal. Robert Knight, the apologetic censor [I wasn't born to be a censor anyway -that's my job.] is certainly not responsible for the deceptive, calculated campaign to distort the Forrestal record, and unlike that of Dean Rusk, his integrity and good character is intact. Rusk on the other hand, exposes the obsession and the determination to prosecute the Vietnam war through an alternative vehicle of American foreign policy -the President's own National Security Council was too divided to satisfy the ideological obsession to militarily contain communism in Southeast Asia. Indeed, the truth is so obvious that it has survived every effort to censor it. Vietnam was a conflict that divided America, and when principles collided, options were very clearly defined. In 1965, since CIA Director John McCone opposed combat involvement in Vietnam, he resigned. Between 1961 and 1963, when John F. Kennedy repeatedly denied combat involvement in Vietnam, why didn't Dean Rusk resign? If the answer is not glaringly obvious, the excessive censorship which surrounds substantial Vietnam war decisions, is responsible for all the confusion. Kennedy, for example, had recording equipment installed secretly in the White House, an apparatus that was dismantled on the day he was assassinated. "The tapes hold 260 hours of discussions on Vietnam, nuclear testing, civil rights and Lyndon Johnson's gall bladder. Nearly 90% remain classified."4 Beyond the censorship of identifiable sources, most of the substantial documents which relate to the prosecution of the Vietnam war are buried in such an excessive layer of secrecy, that the classification itself, is a secret. Most, for example, assume that documents which are not supposed to be released to the public are classified Top Secret. With respect to the Vietnam war and other covert operations which are not supposed to be publicly exposed however, meaningless code words like DINAR and TRINE are used to maintain secrecy. The code word DINAR was accidentally exposed through a New York Times Magazine photograph, wherein a sombre-looking Lyndon Johnson conferred with McGeorge Bundy who held a spiral-bound document stamped TOP SECRET DINAR, National Intelligence Bulletin, Daily Brief.5 Since it was exposed, the DINAR classification was retired and replaced at a cost of $250,000. The documents of DINAR-level classifications are stored in windowless State Department Offices which are like large vaults and are accessible only to people with special clearance and only if they pledge to maintain secrecy. A State pepartment official described the initiation rite to accessing ABOVE TOP SECRET intelligence classifications when he said:. It was a little creepy. You would go into this room with no windows, it's really like a large bank vault or a safe, and Marvel [official in charge] would brief you in a sepulchral voice. He would have a little pamphlet for each type of classification and he would read from it. Each category of Special Intelligence had its own slug, or name, and you had to have a separate briefing for each. You were told not to talk about the information. You had to sign several pledges, one for each type of intelligence, saying you would never initiate or reply to a conversation about the classification, or the information contained under it, unless you were certain that the other person was cleared, too. If the material dealt with something happening in Zambia, and somebody came in and said "Hey, Frank, did you see the material about Zambia?" then you're supposed to answer "What material?" unless you are sure the other person is cleared.6 When the "over classified" material leaves the double-locked vault, "The director puts the document in a locked briefcase that is chained to his wrist. He comes to your office and gives it to you. You read it and hand it back to him. He records the fact that you have read it. The stuff is never left with anybody."7 When Dean Rusk repeatedly urges "the historian" to look into the "facts on record," he should perhaps also direct "the historian" towards windowless vaults, to documents that lie in briefcases chained to human wrists and to Beyond Top Secret classifications which are so highly guarded, that they are absolutely beyond reach. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 2E ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1Dean Rusk, Oral History Interview #6, April 27, 1970, John F. Kennedy Library. 2Dean Rusk, Oral History Interview #2, December 9, 1969, John F. Kennedy Library. 3David Halberstam. The Best and The Brightest, p. 208. 4The Tororito Sun, July 28, 1994, p. 60. 5David Wise, The politics of Lying, p.82. 6Ibid., p.87-88. 7Ibid., p.88. ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, All My Relations. Omnia Bona Bonis, Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. 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