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On the 46th anniversary of the assassination of John F Kennedy, it would appear that the National Security State finds it necessary to kill the facts surrounding his death. The Discovery Channel aired three misleading shows in November, “Did the Mob Kill JFK,” “JFK: The Ruby Connection” and “Inside the Target Car.” I will focus on “Did the Mob Kill JFK.” “Did the Mob Kill JFK” is based on Lamar Waldron's book titled “Legacy of Secrecy (co-written or at least co-promoted by well respected Thom Hartmann) which concludes that the Mafia assassinated Kennedy.
Thom Hartmann tells us that the Mafia orchestrated the assassination in a way that “the National Security State would cover for them for years, maybe decades, maybe centuries.” Clearly, the National Security State is still distorting the facts of the assassination, giving me the title of this article. “Did the Mob Kill JFK” starts with emphasis on mobster Carlos Marcello's alleged prison confession to FBI informant Jack Van Lingham, a character not prominent in the book. It features talking heads G. Robert Blakey, Chief Counsel and Staff Director to the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations from 1977 to 1979, who has been blaming the assassination on the mob for years. Blakely has acknowledged that the CIA lied to him but that was not revealed on this show.
The show follows Waldron's book, but the narrative is interspersed with commentary by Gerald Posner, author of “Case Closed” who claims Oswald along killed President Kennedy, despite the evidence. This has the effect of creating confusion and presenting two possible scenarios....Oswald as the lone nut, or the Mafia did it. The possibility that the National Security State itself eliminated Kennedy is not presented as a possibility, but that is no surprise.
The guts of the show correctly point out that the Mob was working with the CIA in an attempt to assassinate Cuba's Fidel Castro, and that the mob had lost their casino business in Havana and so wanted Castro eliminated. Also accurate is that John and Robert Kennedy were pressing the Mafia hard, including deportation of Carlos Marcello, and that the mafia would have considered the Kennedys as major threat. The show agrees that the Warren Commission was tasked with convicting Oswald rather than finding the truth, with the well worn reason of preventing another World War. The conclusion that the Mafia did it has long been problematic, since it does not explain the subsequent coverup. This is what Waldron's book seeks to do...explain the cover up as a result of a web of deceit and secrecy surrounding another plot to kill Castro.
The show accurately depicted the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, without mentioning that Kennedy's actions here could have been a motive in his murder. In fact, James Douglass' book “JFK and the Unthinkable” describes in excellent detail Kennedy's firing of CIA leadership following the Bay of Pigs, his refusal to engage in nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his refusal to fight the Vietnam War. Douglass documents off channel communications between Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Castro. Kennedy threatened the military industrial complex in his quest to end the cold war.
According to “Did the Mob Kill JFK” this intrigue spiraled into another Kennedy lead coup plot against Castro called AMWORLD, which was outside of the CIA/Mafia plotting but was learned by the mafia. The allegation that AMWORLD was outside CIA/Mafia control is false, but it is stated in the show. At this point, the mafia decided that they could kill Kennedy and that the National Security State (again, Thom Hartmann's words) would cover the event, because if the world learned that the Kennedy brothers were working to kill Castro, then World War III would erupt. The tenuous conclusion that a failed Castro assassination plot would somehow lead to war is simply not explained.
The reasoning so far is somewhat plausible, but now we must believe that the mafia, who with the CIA had tried and failed to kill Castro 17 times, would give up their goal of regaining their business in Havana via support of the newest coup initiative AMWORLD, and instead would assassinate Kennedy because he was a direct threat. The mafia would have needed to wait only one week for the AMWORLD plot to unfold. Although the mafia wanted Kennedy dead we are supposed to believe that their knowledge of the Castro plot was enough to grant the mafia a get-out-of-jail card for killing a President. A get-out-of-jail card which is still being used, 46 years later.
The show accurately linked Marcello to Jack Ruby, noting that Marcello used him to silence Oswald. This is believable and well documented, but this conclusion is challenged the subsequent Discovery Channel show, “JFK: The Ruby Connection” leaving any viewer of both shows confused, which is the point of this type of presentation. It went on to describe a very tenuous link between Marcello and Oswald, without any mention of Oswald's connections to the CIA, the FBI, or his defection to Russia, among other details.
The show briefly regains some level of credibility by allowing forensic pathologist and Warren Commission critic Cyril Wecht to forcefully demonstrate the fact of two shots, two shooters, and a fatal head shot from the front. The frontal shot is evident for all to see on the Zapgruder film, which was kept from the public for 7 years.. Posner then points out that he believes all shots came from behind but that Oswald still could have been part of a conspiracy. If you are not confused yet, it is not because they did not try. But that did not prevent the show from concluding with Posner noting that people want to believe in a Kennedy conspiracy, not because the evidence is overwhelming but instead because “it is hard for people to balance the importance of Kennedy's unfinished Presidency with a “sociopathic loser with a $12 rifle”. A more meaningless utterance is difficult to imagine.
I suspect that Waldron and Hartmann were not pleased by the constant disruption of the flow of their misleading narrative and conclusion with Posner's lone-nut ramblings, or by the heavy reliance on FBI informant who was not prominent in their book. The show could have been misleading and dishonest without being confusing at the same time.
If the reader is interested in learning more about the Kennedy assassination, read “JFK and the Unspeakable” by James Douglass, or view his comments at http://vimeo.com/7768119. His presentation at least makes sense. Douglass concludes that Kennedy was killed because he pushed back against the military and the cold warriors. His American University speech in June of 1963 represented a change in US foreign policy and an attempt to end the cold war. For this, the military-industrial-Congressional complex (President Eisenhower's words) or the National Security State (Hartmann's words) executed the American President in broad daylight at high noon, forever limiting the power of the President to resist war and violence.
Thom Hartmann tells us that the Mafia orchestrated the assassination in a way that “the National Security State would cover for them for years, maybe decades, maybe centuries.” Clearly, the National Security State is still distorting the facts of the assassination, giving me the title of this article. “Did the Mob Kill JFK” starts with emphasis on mobster Carlos Marcello's alleged prison confession to FBI informant Jack Van Lingham, a character not prominent in the book. It features talking heads G. Robert Blakey, Chief Counsel and Staff Director to the U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations from 1977 to 1979, who has been blaming the assassination on the mob for years. Blakely has acknowledged that the CIA lied to him but that was not revealed on this show.
The show follows Waldron's book, but the narrative is interspersed with commentary by Gerald Posner, author of “Case Closed” who claims Oswald along killed President Kennedy, despite the evidence. This has the effect of creating confusion and presenting two possible scenarios....Oswald as the lone nut, or the Mafia did it. The possibility that the National Security State itself eliminated Kennedy is not presented as a possibility, but that is no surprise.
The guts of the show correctly point out that the Mob was working with the CIA in an attempt to assassinate Cuba's Fidel Castro, and that the mob had lost their casino business in Havana and so wanted Castro eliminated. Also accurate is that John and Robert Kennedy were pressing the Mafia hard, including deportation of Carlos Marcello, and that the mafia would have considered the Kennedys as major threat. The show agrees that the Warren Commission was tasked with convicting Oswald rather than finding the truth, with the well worn reason of preventing another World War. The conclusion that the Mafia did it has long been problematic, since it does not explain the subsequent coverup. This is what Waldron's book seeks to do...explain the cover up as a result of a web of deceit and secrecy surrounding another plot to kill Castro.
The show accurately depicted the failed Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missile Crisis, without mentioning that Kennedy's actions here could have been a motive in his murder. In fact, James Douglass' book “JFK and the Unthinkable” describes in excellent detail Kennedy's firing of CIA leadership following the Bay of Pigs, his refusal to engage in nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis, and his refusal to fight the Vietnam War. Douglass documents off channel communications between Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and Castro. Kennedy threatened the military industrial complex in his quest to end the cold war.
According to “Did the Mob Kill JFK” this intrigue spiraled into another Kennedy lead coup plot against Castro called AMWORLD, which was outside of the CIA/Mafia plotting but was learned by the mafia. The allegation that AMWORLD was outside CIA/Mafia control is false, but it is stated in the show. At this point, the mafia decided that they could kill Kennedy and that the National Security State (again, Thom Hartmann's words) would cover the event, because if the world learned that the Kennedy brothers were working to kill Castro, then World War III would erupt. The tenuous conclusion that a failed Castro assassination plot would somehow lead to war is simply not explained.
The reasoning so far is somewhat plausible, but now we must believe that the mafia, who with the CIA had tried and failed to kill Castro 17 times, would give up their goal of regaining their business in Havana via support of the newest coup initiative AMWORLD, and instead would assassinate Kennedy because he was a direct threat. The mafia would have needed to wait only one week for the AMWORLD plot to unfold. Although the mafia wanted Kennedy dead we are supposed to believe that their knowledge of the Castro plot was enough to grant the mafia a get-out-of-jail card for killing a President. A get-out-of-jail card which is still being used, 46 years later.
The show accurately linked Marcello to Jack Ruby, noting that Marcello used him to silence Oswald. This is believable and well documented, but this conclusion is challenged the subsequent Discovery Channel show, “JFK: The Ruby Connection” leaving any viewer of both shows confused, which is the point of this type of presentation. It went on to describe a very tenuous link between Marcello and Oswald, without any mention of Oswald's connections to the CIA, the FBI, or his defection to Russia, among other details.
The show briefly regains some level of credibility by allowing forensic pathologist and Warren Commission critic Cyril Wecht to forcefully demonstrate the fact of two shots, two shooters, and a fatal head shot from the front. The frontal shot is evident for all to see on the Zapgruder film, which was kept from the public for 7 years.. Posner then points out that he believes all shots came from behind but that Oswald still could have been part of a conspiracy. If you are not confused yet, it is not because they did not try. But that did not prevent the show from concluding with Posner noting that people want to believe in a Kennedy conspiracy, not because the evidence is overwhelming but instead because “it is hard for people to balance the importance of Kennedy's unfinished Presidency with a “sociopathic loser with a $12 rifle”. A more meaningless utterance is difficult to imagine.
I suspect that Waldron and Hartmann were not pleased by the constant disruption of the flow of their misleading narrative and conclusion with Posner's lone-nut ramblings, or by the heavy reliance on FBI informant who was not prominent in their book. The show could have been misleading and dishonest without being confusing at the same time.
If the reader is interested in learning more about the Kennedy assassination, read “JFK and the Unspeakable” by James Douglass, or view his comments at http://vimeo.com/7768119. His presentation at least makes sense. Douglass concludes that Kennedy was killed because he pushed back against the military and the cold warriors. His American University speech in June of 1963 represented a change in US foreign policy and an attempt to end the cold war. For this, the military-industrial-Congressional complex (President Eisenhower's words) or the National Security State (Hartmann's words) executed the American President in broad daylight at high noon, forever limiting the power of the President to resist war and violence.