New JFK Book

[American Dream]

Historian plows through new research

By Roman Modrowski
March 23, 2008

http://historyunfolding.blogspot.com/20 ... allas.html



There have been so many analyses, fantasies and
theories devoted to the assassination of John F.
Kennedy that anything purporting itself as a fresh
perspective runs the risk of suffocation. Anything less
than a smoking gun -- or two -- will cause many casual
readers to shrug with the frustration that they've
heard it all before.

The Road to Dallas (Belknap Press, 536 pages, $35),
written by David Kaiser, tries to preempt that shrug by
billing itself as the first book written on the subject
by a professional historian who has pored over the
volumes of recently declassified information.

Kaiser, a history professor at the Naval War College,
not only reports on what he has researched, but at
times he takes an active role in contacting pertinent
subjects in the declassified material.

The result is a thorough recounting of facts
interspersed with interpretations and opinions that
carry the weight of someone who knows how to analyze
history. The Road to Dallas is laboriously
comprehensive at times and shockingly illuminating at
others. It may not prove the conspiracy it suggests --
that while Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman he
wasn't alone in planning the assassination -- but it
provides unusual substance to its argument because of
the nature of the material and the background of the
author.

Kaiser isn't the first to suggest JFK was assassinated
by a conspiracy of anti-Castro Cubans upset at
Kennedy's failure to eliminate Fidel Castro and a Mafia
enraged by the obsession of JFK's attorney general, his
brother Robert Kennedy, to attack organized crime. But
Kaiser may be the first to reach the depth of reporting
the facts that support this theory.

The book is full of anecdotes that will make many
wonder why these facts weren't reported before, or at
least reported on a more mainstream level. It opens
with three men visiting a Cuban woman -- Silvia Odio --
in Dallas in early October 1963. Odio testified that
one of the men was Oswald, while the other two were
believed to be American anti-Castro mercenaries Loran
Hall and Lawrence Howard. Hall had spent time in a
Cuban prison with Florida mob boss Santo Trafficante
Jr., who owned several Havana casinos before Castro's
rise to power. During their time in prison, Trafficante
was visited by Jack Ruby.

The intermingling of key players in Kaiser's conspiracy
theory, including Jimmy Hoffa and his alliance with the
mob, allows him to connect the dots to effectively
argue that Oswald did not act alone.

It was amazing to learn about the vast number of
assassination plots and attempts against Castro that
were conceived, encouraged or at least winked at by the
U.S. government. Some of them were comical, such as a
plan to employ exploding seashells and a poisoned
diving suit. The incompetence of the endeavors was
nearly as acute as the audacity.

Lyndon Johnson, as well as others, assumed Castro
played a role in JFK's assassination.

The U.S. government's willingness to employ mob help to
get rid of Castro while at the same time Robert Kennedy
was trying to crack down on organized crime reflected
the firewalls that existed between government agencies
before 9/11.

Kaiser uncovered several quotes by people such as Hoffa
calling for John Kennedy to be assassinated. Hoffa's
mob associates relied on the money stolen from Hoffa's
Teamsters Union, so many powerful and dangerous people
suffered by RFK's personal quest to bring down Hoffa.
The Kennedy administration was an enemy to many.

It would be hard to imagine anyone but Kennedy
assassination scholars and historians not learning
something new in Kaiser's book. For fans of Oliver
Stone's movie "JFK" (1991) and JFK assassination
junkies, the book is the latest -- and perhaps best --
view of the historic event.

[Roman Modrowski is an assistant sports editor for the
Chicago Sun-Times. He was a beat writer for the Bulls
and Notre Dame football. He also covered prep sports.
Roman is a native of East Chicago, Ind., and a graduate
of Purdue University Calumet.]

[sunny]

It may not prove the conspiracy it suggests --
that while Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman he
wasn't alone in planning the assassination

JFK was assassinated
by a conspiracy of anti-Castro Cubans upset at
Kennedy's failure to eliminate Fidel Castro and a Mafia
enraged by the obsession of JFK's attorney general, his
brother Robert Kennedy, to attack organized crime.

*shrugs with frustration that I've heard it all before*

[American Dream]

sunny wrote:

*shrugs with frustration that I've heard it all before*

Just because Mr. Naval War College cites some real information, it doesn't mean that his narrative is complete, accurate and helpful in rectifying the problem. What's missing- like many 9/11 accounts- is the ways, ala Peter Dale Scott, in which it was the Deep Political System which, at minimum, participated in the coverup, and aided and abetted the crime.

The parallels to 9/11 should be obvious...

[lunarose]

quoting article:

'...the firewalls that existed between government agencies
before 9/11. '

those darn firewall were what allowed al qaeda to get us on 9/11!

good thing the patriot act fixed all that.

[8bitagent]

quoting article:

'...the firewalls that existed between government agencies
before 9/11. '

those darn firewall were what allowed al qaeda to get us on 9/11!

good thing the patriot act fixed all that.

Heh.

Yeah its like when I say Pakistan and Saudi Arabia were deeply instrumental in the 9/11 operations....thats not to say "Pakistan/Saudi Arabia did 9/11, US was just incompetent". Pakistani ISI and Saudi GID just follow their globalist puppet master's bidding

It's an INSULT to people to say JFK was killed by a conspiracy...but that it was a conspiracy by anti Castro, or even Castro Cubans...or mafia.
There are strong Cuban and Mafia involved parties, yes. But like the Pakistani and Saudi involvement in 9/11, they were just playing their scripted roles as part of a larger picture.

[MinM]

Bill O'Reilly's 'Killing Kennedy': Book On JFK Assassination Coming This Fall

NEW YORK (AP) — After the big success of "Killing Lincoln," Bill O'Reilly is back on the case of a presidential assassination.

The Fox News host and best-selling author is collaborating with Martin Dugard on "Killing Kennedy: The End of Camelot." Henry Holt and Company announced Thursday the book will come out this fall. O'Reilly says in a statement that "Killing Kennedy" will "answer many questions" about the death of JFK, who was murdered on Nov. 22, 1963.

Holt also announced Thursday that a children's edition of O'Reilly's Lincoln book, "Lincoln's Last Days," will come out in August. "Killing Lincoln," co-written by Dugard, was one of the best-selling releases of 2011 and has 1.5 million copies in print. O'Reilly's other works include "The O'Reilly Factor" and "Pinheads and Patriots."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/1 ... ?ref=media

rigorousintuition.ca ::E. Howard Hunt deathbed confession -- Rolling Stone mag

rigorousintuition.ca :: The Dreadlock Recollections (Kerry Thornley)

rigorousintuition.ca :: Mahatma Gandhi

[wordspeak2]

O'Reilly, wow. Does anyone know what he said in his Lincoln book?

[harry ashburn]

Rhett Butler did it.

[Elvis]

I'm about to start Bill "Shut Up" O'Reilly's Killing Lincoln---only because a friend sent it to me and I feel obligated to give it a shot. So, I read reviews on Amazon (which were about what I expected), which led to reviews on Killing Kennedy, which sounds like a big ZERO. According to some of the reviews, it doesn't even explain why "Oswald did it." It just assumes he did it.

[H_C_E]

I'm rather with Sunny on this one.
I thought almost the same thing as her as I read the OP.
But as has been said before, the Anti-Castroites,
as with others, didn't have the ability to make many
other unnecessary things happen. Before and after
the hit on JFK.

After years and years of digging into this I've come to two
conclusions:

One, JFK's murder will never be completely solved.

Two, to see the pieces of the puzzle that can be seen
requires reading as many of the well written and researched
texts on the subject, and connect the dots.

I'm sure it's a worthwhile book, and I'll read it. But to think that
the anti-Castro groups did it alone is choosing ignorance (ignore-ance)
of a mountain of evidence showing the involvement of so many other
groups and agencies. One for example - How could the anti-Castro
people get the Secret Service to stand down, which they most undoubtedly
did.

[compared2what?]

I
I'm sure it's a worthwhile book, and I'll read it. But to think that
the anti-Castro groups did it alone is choosing ignorance (ignore-ance)
of a mountain of evidence showing the involvement of so many other
groups and agencies.

True that. But fwiw....Well. Maybe he says this more explicitly than the review indicates. But if he doesn't, my guess would be that he knows "anti-Castro Cubans" plus "the mafia" = CIA, but is just too academic to say so. Because that's what it does equal, especially the Cubans. The mob might equal other federal agencies. After all.

I actually think the ACC/Mob/CIA triumvirate will probably end up being history's official selection when enough time has passed to make it okay to have one. There's no rigor to that, though. Just intuition.

Anyway. If/when you do read the book, I'd be curious to know how totally wrong I probably am about it!

[justdrew]

but oswald didn't shoot anyone. . and isn't it likely he was trying to infiltrate the mafia/anti-castro cuban/rightwing-nutjob circle?

[Elvis]

but oswald didn't shoot anyone. . and isn't it likely he was trying to infiltrate the mafia/anti-castro cuban/rightwing-nutjob circle?

Hm, interesting.. but on whose behalf?

[justdrew]

but oswald didn't shoot anyone. . and isn't it likely he was trying to infiltrate the mafia/anti-castro cuban/rightwing-nutjob circle?

Hm, interesting.. but on whose behalf?

America's.

probably he was one of several 'assets' used by some undercover justice department headed unit

[H_C_E]

Anyway. If/when you do read the book, I'd be curious to know how totally wrong I probably am about it!

I wouldn't use the word "wrong." History will likely reflect (IMO) that we
never know for with any degree of certainty. When you get deeply into
the subject, it starts to look like *everyone* did it. Which brings to mind
the sort of mind fuckery ala "Illuminatus" quantum indeterminacy or RAW's
Chapel Perilous.

I'm sure I'll read it. I'll read anything scholarly and\or well written, whereas
I'm leery of Jim Dieugenio types, and avoid the Fetzer's of the world rigorously.
Ha!

Oswald appears to have been manipulated by the anti-Castro Cubans, with the
help of David Atlee Phillips, Banister and possibly others. This despite his having
been some sort of intelligence operative. That to say, his actions leading up to, and
on 11/22/63 weren't as much for intelligence purposes, so much as to play the patsy, which
he didn't seem to figure out until the deed went down. It appears he thought he was playing a role
in a staged (i.e. fake) attack on JFK.

Maybe.