Here is Mike Tokarski's great blog on Legacy of
Secrecy, the new book by Lamar Waldron
and Thom Hartmann. Legacy is the astounding
sequel to their Ultimate Sacrifice, which came
out in 2005; and this new volume is as thorough
and meticulous in its research as its
ground-breaking predecessor.
Whereas Sacrifice deals with JFK's assassination,
Legacy not only sheds a lot of new light
on that crime--including the confession of Mafia
kingpin Carlos Marcello--but also
traces its dark consequences up through
Watergate. Most notably, the authors demonstrate
that the long suppression of the facts about Jack
Kennedy's murder set the stage for the
killings, five years later, of both Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobby Kennedy.
And, even more important, the authors show that
that long cover-up was driven not by
an enormous dark alliance of complicit US
agencies and corporations--the CIA, the
Army, Secret Service, Lyndon Johnson, H.L. Hunt,
the big defense contractors et al.
--but by a lot of entities compelled by motives
infinitely more prosaic. (Bobby also
helped maintain the cover-up.)
While, in other words, there was a long
conspiracy to hide the truth, and the Warren
Commission Report was indeed a crock of bullshit,
the evidence makes clear that all
such secrecy was not proof of complicity, as
Oliver Stone would have us all believe
(and as he had a lot of us believing). Rather,
that cover-up but motivated by a raft of
other, largely more innocuous--albeit, in the
long term, ruinous--concerns that
Waldron/Hartmann lay out in detail, and quite
convincingly. (Writing about Sacrifice
in his own latest book, Point to Point
Navigation, Gore Vidal states flatly that they've
nailed it.)
I believe that these two books together are
extraordinarily important, not just because
the authors have so masterfully untangled a
conspiracy, or nexus of conspiracies, that
have so long eluded comprehensive explanation.
These books are absolute must-reads
because they liberate us from the dangerous assumption--dangerous because it's
ultimately paralyzing--that anyone who dares to speak up for the good will be
cut down by violence, at the hands of an
almighty, inescapable cabal. That fatalistic
view is one that we cannot afford to hold--and one that is, in fact, unfounded,
as these two books so powerfully demonstrate.
MCM
p.s. You can order Legacy of Secrecy through my blog at markcrispinmiller.com.
Legacy of Secrecy
December 13, 2008
"Yeah, I had that son of a bitch killed.
I'm glad I did. I'm sorry I couldn't
have done it myself."
--Carlos Marcello, New Orleans mobster, to an FBI informant about
JFK's death, while serving a prison sentence in 1985.
http://pieceofmind.wordpress.com/2008/12/13/legacy-of-secrecy/
I finally finished reading a book (I should stop
and put a period there, reinforcing the notions
of my detractors) called Legacy of Secrecy, by
Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartmann. It's a follow-up
to their 2005 book, Ultimate Sacrifice.
The two books combined are over 1400 pages. Much
of it stems from conversations with Harry
Williams, a Cuban Exile who worked with John and
Bobby Kennedy on a planned invasion of Cuba in
1963. Williams retired and moved to Colorado, and
got out of the way of history. He spoke at length
with the authors. One thing led to another and
another, and 1400 pages later, we have two very
interesting books.
Both books are about the JFK assassination, the
latter also includes lengthy writings on the
assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Bobby
Kennedy, and Watergate. All three assassinations
have a common thread running through
them--the mob.
John and Bobby Kennedy made a name for themselves
in the late 1950's during the Kefauver hearings
into mob activities - some of the proceedings
were televised. Certain people who testified did
not want their faces on TV due to fear of
retribution, so while they testified, the only
thing shown on the screen was their hands.
Wringing hands. The results were electrifying.
The hearings were a sensation, and an early
indicator of the power of television.
After JFK was elected in 1960, Bobby was
appointed Attorney General, and went after
mobsters with the tenacity of a pit bull. At one
point, he even had Carlos Marcello deported to a
Central American country, dropping him off in the
middle of nowhere, forcing him to walk miles to
civilization. Bobby made powerful enemies,
including Santos Trafficante of Tampa, Sam
Giancana of Chicago, Johnny Rosselli of Las
Vegas, and Jimmy Hoffa of the Teamsters Union.
Unknown to Bobby, while Richard Nixon was vice
president, he put into action a covert operation
that would result in the Bay of Pigs fiasco in
1961. Part of that program was an alliance
between the CIA and mobsters, including those
named above, in plots to assassinate Fidel Castro.
After the Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK supposedly
agreed with Castro that he would call off the
dogs - that he would no longer try to overthrow
the Cuban government, and that there would be no
more invasions. But part of that deal was that
Castro would allow weapons inspectors into Cuba,
which he never did.
JFK therefore felt the deal was void, and set in
motion a plan for a major invasion of Cuba that
was to take place on December 1, 1963. Before the
invasion, Castro was to be assassinated by an
official high in the Cuban government, General
Juan Almeida, a hero of the revolution. Almeida's
name was not disclosed until 2006. He still sits
at Raul Castro's side during public events.
Unknown to JFK again, Richard Helms and the CIA
were still using Mafia contacts in further
attempts to assassinate Castro.
Part of the plan for Castro's demise was to have
the killing fall in the lap of a patsy, and the
CIA tried on several occasion to smuggle various
operatives into Cuba who would be the patsy, who
would then be killed, creating an open-and-shut
case. One of those operatives was Lee Harvey
Oswald, a low-level CIA contact, a former
supposed defector to Russia, who was also in
league with mob-connected CIA contacts in New
Orleans. (Oswald was not a knowing associate of
the mob. He was playing secret agent game, and
had illusions of grandeur.)
The mob learned of the Almeida plot, and turned
it against the CIA. Three attempts were made on
JFK - one in Chicago, one in Tampa, and the
successful one in Dallas. Each plot carried with
it a patsy - in the Tampa plot, the patsy was
also a supposed defector with a Russian
connection in his background, Gilberto Policarpo
Lopez. In Dallas, Oswald was to be killed by
Officer J.D. Tippett, but somehow that got
botched. Jack Ruby spent two days trying to find
another officer to kill Oswald. Under threat
himself (along with family members) by Marcello ,
he had no choice but to do the deed himself. Ruby
thought he would get off light, but instead got
the electric chair. He died before he fried.
Imagine CIA director Richard Helms' quandary when
he learned that the supposed assassin of JFK was
Oswald. He would immediately piece it all
together, realize that everything had been turned
on him. He would be forced into a cover-up.
Realizing the danger that exposure of Almeida
presented, and the damage that exposure of the
CIA Mafia plots and a confrontation with the
Soviets would bring about, Bobby Kennedy
participated in the cover-up. It was Bobby who
supervised JFK's autopsy from high above in
Bethesda, and Bobby who took control of autopsy
photographs and records, and of JFK's brain. (It
was later buried with him, as was proper, when
JFK's grave was moved in the late 1960's.)
But Bobby never believed the Oswald story, and
did a behind-the-scenes investigation, concluding
that the hit had been done by the mob in alliance
with anti-Castro Cubans and some CIA renegades.
(The CIA had no top-level involvement. Neither
did Hoover or the FBI, but all agreed that a
cover-up was essential.) The Warren Commission
was formed, and spoon-fed enough information by
the FBI and CIA to come to the lone-assassin
conclusion.
Bobby realized that the only way he was ever
going to hold those who killed JFK accountable
was to gain the presidency for himself. The
circumstances surrounding his death are murky at
best, as the Los Angeles Police Department
destroyed most evidence in 1969, but the Sirhan
story has many holes - his positioning (he was
not close enough to put a bullet behind Bobby's
ear), the number of bullets, and many other
questions. It appears to the authors as though
Sirhan created a diversion while Bobby was killed
by a professional hit man, who escaped in the
confusion.
Martin Luther King's assassination is also linked
to Carlos Marcello, although in that instance the
Don was merely pay-for-hire. A southern racist
from Georgia named Joseph Milteer (also involved
in the JFK hit), representing many people of like
mind, put up $300,000 to pay Marcello to do the
hit. James Earl Ray was a low-level drug runner.
Oddly, he was in Los Angeles experimenting with
self-hypnosis at the same time Sirhan Sirhan was
doing the very same thing. Neither man had ever
killed anyone before.
The CIA, with mob help, attempted to assassinate
Castro, according to Cuban sources, 28 times. The
Cubans put all of the evidence together in a 100
page report that was given to certain Americans
in the late 1960's. It was that document that
McCord, Barker, Fiorini, Martinez, Gonzalez,
Liddy and Hunt were after when, on June 17, 1972,
they broke into Democratic headquarters at the
Watergate.
Many in the U.S. Government, including General
Alexander Haig, believed and believe that Castro
was responsible for JFK's death. This is part of
the reason why the U.S., so many years later,
still treats Cuba with such contempt. Now that
Castro is out of power, things might thaw.
So say Waldron and Hartmann. There's much, much
more in the book. It's a fascinating read. I
don't know how much of it to believe. There are
many, many holes, and much speculation. I've long
been fascinated by the JFK hit, and have for
years believed that Lee Harvey Oswald did not
even fire a shot that day. New evidence has
trickled out, but each new lead produced new
questions. Many think that it was a domestic plot
coming out of Langley, Virginia, but the CIA had
no reason to kill JFK (though the activities of
E. Howard Hunt are very suspicious). Others, like
Oliver Stone, say it centered around Vietnam. But
Vietnam was hardly on the radar at that time, and
no one could foresee what a horrible war it would
become.
This book will not be the final word. More files
are due to be released in 2017.
This is probably all we will know until then.
Millions of files have been destroyed, most of
the participants are dead and gone, many
murdered, Johnny Rosselli having his legs severed
and body stuffed in an oil drum before he was due
to testify before Congress. Those late years of
the decade of the sixties and early seventies are
a dark chapter in our history. For most of us
alive during that time, it was extremely
traumatic.
But it's done, now, as far as I am concerned. As
Mark Crispin Miller said of the book, "Šthis
extraordinary book not only sheds abundant new
light on the central trauma in our modern
history, but in so doing it also sets us free."
And that's where I am at. No longer the dark
cloud. LBJ, J. Edgar Hoover and Richard Helms,
thought they bungled aplenty, were innocent of
murder, though each has many skeletons. And RKF
and MLK could have been spared had a true
investigation of the JFK hit been done.
Nonetheless, I have a strange and optimistic
attitude about my country and its former leaders.
I feel good about us and our prospects.
Posted by Mark Tokarski
Filed in History
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