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(From PNEWS-L Archives)
Part 2
OSWALD, a DISGRUNTLED LEFTIST, acting on his own
and the Assassination of JFK
PARANOIA AND CONSPIRACY
"The trick is distinguishing between idle paranoia and, well,
prescient paranoia. For instance, 40 years ago anyone who might have
suggested that the U.S. government had conducted radiation experiments on
humans would probably have been dismissed as overly suspicious or
anti-American. But we now know that such ethically dubious experiments did
occur with official sanction. On the other hand, conspiracy theories are
often spurious. And whether they are true, fractionally true or patently
false, they are highly communicable. They spread like viruses; they often
become urban legends that move from community to community and across
generations." [John Whalen lecture to Skeptics Society at Cal Tech
Univerity [96]]
FBI agent, James Hosty interviewed Lee Harvey Oswald just hours after
Oswald assassinated John F. Kennedy in 1963, but had actually began his
investigation of Oswalk a month before - but failed to consider Oswald a
potential risk. He was later disciplined by his superiors with a 30 day
suspension and reassignment.
Because Hosty said he destroyed his notes, a not uncommon practice for
Hosty, after dictating from his notes conspiracy theorists suggested this
was part of a cover-up. The notes were however later found and made
public. The notes describe exactly the testimony given by Hosty. [Hosty
now lives in Punta Gorda, Florida and he has said he was mistaken about
distroying the original notes.] Conspiracy theorists still point to the
case of the missing notes to feed their theory.
"I had my introduction to conspiracy theorists in the late 1980s.
Since then, conspiracy theories have crept out from the fringes of
political thought, out from the hinterlands of paranoia, and into the
national psyche in a big way. The 1990s are shaping up to be the decade of
the conspiracy theory. The federal assault on the Branch Davidians at Waco
and the shoot-out at Ruby Ridge have reinvigorated a genre of conspiracy
speculation: that the feds are out to suppress political dissenters. Last
year's bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City is wrapped up in
conspiracy theories no matter how you look at it: The bombing may have
been a right-wing "patriot"'s payback for Waco; then you have the
right-wing conspiracy buffs promoting the theory that the government
bombed itself in Oklahoma City--as a latter-day Reichstag fire, a
provocation to justify a crackdown on right-wing conspiracy buffs. Then
there's President Clinton's Whitewater affair and the suicide of Vince
Foster, another main course for conservative conspiracy buffs. The '90s
are also the decade of Oliver Stone, The X-Files, supposed alien autopsy
films, and Mexican assassinations. Recent polls show that most Americans
believe there was some kind of conspiracy behind the assassination of John
F. Kennedy. Talk radio and the Internet are abuzz with conspiracy
scenarios: black copters, United Nations invasion forces in our backyard,
UFO coverups." [John Whalen lecturing to Skeptics Society at Cal Tech
(96)]
Norman Mailer, in his biography of Oswald, asserts that Oswald was a
LEFTIST. He studied everything he could about Marxism and according to
Mailer was sincere about it. The Russians didn't know what to do with him.
They didn't trust him. They spied on him. They never granted him Soviet
citizenship.
There was a lot of the Oswald style of disenchantment and that kind of
pent up anger emerging in America, but Oswald even preceeded the anti-war
movement. Oswald was full of the complexity and confusion during the cold
war, when the government said to all of us to trust them. And, most of
what the government said and did did not deserve our trust.
The CIA records, part of the formerly classified documents which have
recently been released indicate that the Soviet Union was "horrified" to
learn that a former defector and wannabe citizen of the U.S.S.R.
assassinated the president.
The Soviets had a "3-foot high stack of KGB files" on Oswald. The KGB
was trying to determine if he was a U.S. spy or could be a Soviet asset.
It was decided according to these KGB records that Oswald was of no value
to them. These files are no public record and in the Moscow KGB archives.
The C.I.A. and the FBI have released thousands of documents under the
Freedom of Information Act and there conspiracy theorists have not been
able to conclude from any smoking gun evidence that Oswald was involved in
a plot or with anyone else in the assassination of JFK.
What these newly released records do show are the 60s dirty tricks
against Fidel Castro and even an attempt by the CIA to kill Castro with an
exploding cigar.
The FBI organized crime files did show a link between Jack Ruby and
the mob, but no evidence that Jack Ruby acted on advice or orders of
anyone and killing Oswald was the idea of this troubled and angry man
acting on his own.
"So what's going on? Has the nation gone stark-raving mad? Maybe.
But if you think conspiracy theories are a clinical symptom of mass
hysteria, America has always been insane. The popularity of conspiracy
theories in America is really nothing new. What IS NEW? The technology
used to disseminate those theories: the Internet, talk radio, photocopying
machines, videotapes--conspiracy theories travel through the Zeitgeist
faster and more widely than ever before." [John Whalen]
The best thing to come out of the Oliver Stone film in 97 was the JFK
Records Act, which provided for the release of all the previously
classified documents related to JFK's assassination signed by President
Bush, and Bill Clinton completed that mandate by appointing the
Presidential Assassination Record Review Board. The board consists of
Henry Graff, professor emeritus of history at Columbia University; Kermit
Hall, professor of history at Ohio State University; William Joyce,
librarian at Princeton University; Anna Nelson, professor of history at
American University; and John Tunheim, attorney general of the state of
Minnesota. Many documents have been released, but some only in part and
with deletions.
Two organizations have been established to help the Review Board
because of the voluminous nature of all the documents: The Coalition on
Political Assassinations and Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy
Assassination are in regular contact with the review board and its staff.
There are claims that:
* The Warren Commission was a political creation - mostly to
placate the public outrage.
* LBJ did NOT want to deal with a genuine inquiry. IT was an
election year and the commission was expected to simply ascent to the
conclusions reached by the FBI. Not exactly a coverup, just not an honest
inquiry. The object was foremost to insure the world of the stability of
American institutions. It was believed that the government could not allow
the world to to get the wrong impression. America must not appear to be
just another "banana republic." This was the advice given and accepted by
LBJ. And, that was the conspiracy and that was the motivation. Of course
it was a disservice to the American People and "Business As Usual."
CIA Director Richard Helms was even to go on television and assure the
public that Oswald had simply fallen through the cracks, even though we
know that was a lie, when he was investigated by the FBI and his activity
was monitored since he had tried to defect. In that there was a coverup.
What we do know now is the CIA did monitor Oswald and he along with
about 300 other Americans were having their mail illegally intercepted by
the CIA - that he was being monitored within days after his 59 defection.
Oswald was under surveillance by several agencies and in 1960 a
"personality profile" file was opened - yet he was not considered by a
potential risk even months before the assassination of JFK. It was a major
fuck up.
"I think the other new element fueling conspiracy theories is the
public's cynicism about government, which seems to have reached epidemic
proportions. The exposure of various government misdeeds during the last
half century has heightened that popular cynicism: I'm talking about
actual government conspiracies, including the CIA's efforts to assassinate
foreign leaders, the CIA's illegal experiments with LSD on unsuspecting
American civilians, Iran-contra, the FBI's illegal harassment of radicals
during the Vietnam era, etc." [John Whalen]
Some believe Oswald was being used by the CIA in some kind of secret
operational capacity. One in particular is John Newman, U of Md historian
and retired military intelligence analyst. John Newman wrote a book on it
called: "Oswald and the CIA."
"In his famous essay, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics,"
written in the early 1960s, Richard Hofstadter traced the American
tradition of conspiracy theorizing all the way back to the founding of the
country. He found the paranoid style in the anti-Masonic movements of the
18th and 19th centuries; within the nativist, anti-Catholic, and
anti-Mormon movements of the last century; in this century's populist
fears of an "international banking conspiracy"; and in the anti-communist
paranoia that fueled the Cold War." [John Whalen]
Jim Garrison, the New Orleans District Attorney charged that Clay Shaw
[New Orleans businessman] and Oswald conspired to kill the president and
Oswald was the fall guy. He claimed they had connections through the CIA.
Shaw was acquited by a Grand Jury and Garrison was unable to prove a
connection. Newman's book, at least to some degree establishes that there
may have been some substance to these allegations.
The evidence is still rather sketchy in some places, leading to more
suspicion: Shaw had dealings with the CIA's Domestic Contacts Service
because of his dealings abroad - but this isn't conclusive and other
businessman also had that degree of contact with the CIA.
However, there is some documentation that Shaw was given a covert
security clearance for a project called "Qkenchant." This operation is
still classified. Was Shaw involved in the agency's Clandestine Services
Branch? Was this operation part of an assassination attempt on Fidel
Castro?
Another document has been released which explains that during the 60s,
the agency used what they called "propaganda assets" in the news media to
counter critics of the Warren Commission report. This isn't new and still
goes on today.
The KGB continued to monitor the newlywed Oswalds in the Soviet Union
according to KGB files, eavesdropping on their fights and even their
lovemaking.
Oswald it appears from Mailer's descriptions was a tragic figure.
Led by Capt. Fritz, law enforcement officers interrogated Oswald over
the less than 48 hours between his arrest and death. The notes show that
the questioning began at 3:15 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 22, within hours of the
assassination.
The notes seem to confirm previous records concerning Oswald and
contain some details on his movements before and after the assassination.
For example, Oswald claims at one point that he has no political
beliefs but later tells officers that he supports Fidel Castro's communist
revolution in Cuba.
The notes also show Oswald misrepresenting his two courts-martial by
the U.S. Marine Corps: "to Marines says got usual medals."
Capt. Fritz told the Warren Commission in 1964 that he took no notes
during the interrogation but "several days later" wrote "rough notes." The
commission apparently never pursued them.
Retired Dallas homicide Detective Jim Leavelle said the notes'
truncated style was typical of his old boss, who took few notes.
Capt. Fritz tried to get a recording system for the department for two
years before the assassination. "They cut it out of the budget, saying it
was too expensive," he said. "That $1,500 would've been worth $150,000 for
posterity."
"As time went on, slowly, my favorite theories of conspiracy were
pulled out of me as if my fingers were being ripped off," he said with a
grin. "I hated ending up with the thesis I ended up with. I would much
rather have come back with a conspiracy." [Mailer]
Although Mailer also believes that the FBI and CIA leaned on Oswald
and tried to cover up their actions. Mailer's near certainty about the
shooter hangs in large measure on his detailed picture of Oswald as a man
_incapable_ of working in tandem with anyone. Mailer adds to the evidence
that Oswald was no patsy for the Soviets by demonstrating time and again
that the KGB believed, odd as it seemed to them, that this hapless Marxist
wannabe was planted in their midst by the CIA.
Hank Roth
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