Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Rory Kennedy and Charlie Rose at the event at Winspear Opera House, Dallas earlier this year where RFK's son dropped the hint that the CIA murdered his uncle JFK.
RFK Jr.'s comments mirror the conclusion of the 1976 official government commission on the assassination of the 35th president, which stated that:
"The committee believes, on the basis of the evidence available to it, that President John F. Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy."Although the 1976 commission's evidence and conclusions are still hotly disputed, acoustics analysts Professor Mark Weiss and Ernest Aschkenasy of Queens College concluded that "with the probability of 95% or better, there was indeed a shot fired from the grassy knoll."
When prodded by television host Charlie Rose to discuss his feelings on likely perpetrators, RFK Jr. turns aside Rose's questions leading to a Mafia or Cuban connection, and says:
"KENNEDY: I think my father was fairly convinced at the end of that that there had been involvement by somebody ...A 2013 AP poll shows that 85 percent of Americans now believe that Oswald did not act alone.
ROSE: Organized crime, Cubans ...
KENNEDY: Or rogue CIA ..."
RFK Jr. appeared at the Winspear Opera House in Dallas with his sister Rory in January of this year, but the bombshell was reported only by one American media outlet. USA Today reported the comments the next day. The Dallas Morning News skewed its coverage by omitting the explosive charge against a faction of the CIA, and included only RFK Jr.'s remark that his father was "dismissive" of the Warren Commission Report, and had called it a "shoddy piece of craftsmanship."
Online the Huffington Post covered the story. As renewed interest builds upon the approach of the biggest anniversary yet of the president's murder, such buried facts surrounding the assassination are beginning to resurface, and take on new meaning. Journalist Russ Baker, author of the best-selling "Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, America's Invisible Government," has unearthed the startling coincidence that Lee Harvey Oswald's principle handler, after he arrived back in the states from self-imposed exile in the Soviet Union, was George de Mohrenschildt, and that De Mohrenschildt's nephew had roomed with George H. W. Bush at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. PBS's Bill Moyers has praised Baker's work for its "fierce independence."
On September 5, 1976 George De Mohrenschildt wrote a letter to Bush, who had recently become Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The letter said:
"You will excuse this hand-written letter. Maybe you will be able to bring a solution to the hopeless situation I find myself in. My wife and I find ourselves surrounded by some vigilantes; our phone bugged; and we are being followed everywhere. Either FBI is involved in this or they do not want to accept my complaints...I tried to write, stupidly and unsuccessfully, about Lee H Oswald and must have angered a lot of people - I do not know. But to punish an elderly man like myself and my highly nervous and sick wife is really too much. Could you do something to remove the net around us? This will be my last request for help and I will not annoy you any more. Good luck in your important job. Thank you so much."Through his research Baker uncovered a letter from Bush to De Mohrenschildt, from CIA official records, in which Bush wrote back (here in its entirety):
"Let me say first that I know it must have been difficult for you to seek my help in the situation outlined in your letter. I believe I can appreciate your state of mind in view of your daughter's tragic death a few years ago, and the current poor state of your wife's health. I was extremely sorry to hear of these circumstances.On March 29, De Mohrenschildt granted an interview to author Edward Jay Epstein, during which he claimed that in 1962, Dallas CIA operative J. Walton Moore had given him the go-ahead to meet Oswald. "I would never have contacted Oswald in a million years if Moore had not sanctioned it," de Mohrenschildt said.
In your situation I can well imagine how the attentions you described in your letter affect both you and your wife. However, my staff has been unable to find any indication of interest in your activities on the part of Federal authorities in recent years. The flurry of interest that attended your testimony before the Warren Commission has long subsided.
I can only speculate that you may have become "newsworthy" again in view of the renewed interest in the Kennedy assassination, and thus may be attracting the attention of people in the media. I hope this letter had been of some comfort to you, George, although I realize I am unable to answer your question completely.
George Bush, Director of the Central Intelligence Agency."
[CIA Exec Reg. # 76,51571 9.28.76]
On the same day as the interview, De Mohrenschildt was contacted by the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA.) That afternoon, he was found dead from a shotgun blast to the head. The verdict was suicide. Rep. Richardson Preyer, a member of the HSCA, said De Mohrenschildt was a "crucial witness." (See series of excerpts from Baker's "Family of Secrets" at his website HERE.)
An unusual assortment of national political figures were in or around Dallas on the day of the assassination or the day prior to it, including J. Edgar Hoover, according to William Penn Jones, an Army Brigadier General and owner of the Midlothian Mirror, Richard Nixon, according to a Pepsi Cola executive whose convention Nixon spoke at the night before, and George HW Bush, at that time a CIA operative. Nixon's recollections of the day have been inconsistent, and HW Bush initially said that he did not recall where he was on that day, although Russ Baker shows that he was in Dallas but concocting elaborate "alibis."
Other pieces of film evidence have emerged since the famous "Zapruder film", taken by bystander Abraham Zapruder. The Zapruder film was shown to the public on network television for the first time in 1975, generating public outrage, 12 years after the assassination, which led to the formation of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Another film sequence shows the Secret Service being ordered away from the limousine as it enters a hairpin turn just before the shooting began. Disputing a flurry of reports that the president was difficult to protect because he enjoyed being near the public and enjoyed campaigning, ten Secret Service agents who were in Kennedy's security detail went on-record in 1998 saying the opposite, that Kennedy never interfered with the details.
One agent who was in the detail, Clint Hill, has attempted to explain a key agent's removal from the limousine as it entered the turn by saying it was that agent's time to "go to lunch." The hairpin turn onto Elm Street which slowed the limousine to a near stop was the most vulnerable portion of the parade route. Moreover, Secret Service details are run as paramilitary operations in which the needs of the mission always take precedence over all other considerations, such as "lunch" breaks.
Dallas Mayor May Close Off Dealey Plaza to Unapproved Speakers
According to the Dallas Morning News, this November 22nd the city of Dallas may close off Dealey Plaza, the site of the JFK assassination and now a National Park, to the general public, and reserve the plaza for a ticketed event. The Dallas News reports that Nicola Longford, the executive director of the Sixth Floor Museum at the Texas Book Depository has said:
"We have reserved Dealey Plaza for that date...I think, for the 50th anniversary, we have an opportunity to offer a dignified, appropriate event for the city of Dallas."The newspaper says:
"On Nov. 22, 2013, Dealey Plaza is expected to swarm with television cameras. For the past few months, officials at the adjacent Sixth Floor Museum have been quietly at work, trying to ensure that what those cameras capture won't embarrass the city."The Sixth Floor Museum is run by a private, non-profit organization, but the property itself is owned by the County of Dallas.
OccupyGrassyKnoll.org, an organization of advocates for freedom of speech at Dealey Plaza, has reported that unticketed visitors "will be turned away at barricades and asked to watch the event at other parks."
However, a columnist for the Dallas News says that the city is showing signs of bending from its plan to:
"shut down Dealey Plaza with paramilitary force on November 22, specifically banishing anyone who would dare inform visiting media that some people still aren't sure who killed Kennedy."The Dallas News writer says:
"This may be the last group in the world that would ever agree to trudge off meekly to some state-sanctioned dissent venue distant from Dealey Plaza on the 22nd. They are going to Dealey Plaza. They have to go to Dealey Plaza. There may be a chance this could all get worked out between now and November in some way that would avoid a showdown. But if it isn't worked out, there will be a big messy showdown."Ironically, the Mayor of Dallas, Mike Rawlings, was in the audience when RFK Jr. made his pronouncement that his father, Bobby, did not in fact believe there was only one gunman. When asked by activists if JFK's nephew would be allowed to speak at the ticketed event given his point of view, the mayor answered that he would, "but he would have to stay on point."
The Question of Why
With the 1976 House Select Committee on Assassinations conclusion that Kennedy was "probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy" standing as the last official position of the government of the United States, attention has increasingly turned to the question of the motives for the assassination. The Select Committee also concluded, that despite much speculation, that Cuba, the Soviet Union, or the Mafia were unlikely to have been involved. This would narrow the list of perpetrators down drastically to those within the US government.
OccupyGrassyKnoll.org and others have called for the release of key classified documents which would shed light on many more questions surrounding the president's murder, which took place before the eyes of thousands, in a horrific and brutal manner. A letter-writing campaign is scheduled for the week of November 22 urging the release of the documents.
It has emerged through historical documents that JFK did not believe that the war in Vietnam could be won and was planning to pull out American troops, according to his Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. In addition, Kennedy in a speech at American University on June 10, 1963 revealed his intention to short-circuit rapid build-up of nuclear weapons by both the US and the USSR by favoring a policy of detente. It is speculated that Kennedy diverged from the agenda of business elites and the "military-industrial complex", a term coined by President Eisenhower in his Farewell Speech. Eisenhower warned that the powerful combination of big business and military might prove a mortal threat to democracy.
It would be great to see lots of people gather on Elm Street, wearing their V masks, standing in silence, and pointing with one outstretched arm in the direction of the grassy knoll...