30-03-2018, 04:35 PM
As a response to Mr. David Josephs and his questions, I would like to continue this line of analysis by asking the following questions and making the following points for added clarification:
Mr. Josephs, you have hit on the crux of the remaining unknowns regarding my theories and/or the theories of Dr. Jeffrey Caufield. If these remaining questions could be correctly or creatively analyzed, it would be a giant leap forward in the JFK case.
Analysis:
Spy agencies (and their like) deliberately make every attempt to disguise the "master-servant" relationship between their assets and themselves. They hope that if people can't determine exactly which payroll the asset was on, then the conclusion will be that NONE OF THIS HAPPENED AT ALL!
There is no question that Senator James O. Eastland was leading a monumental effort to totally criminalize and outlaw the entire Southern Civils Rights movement in October and November, 1963. Most people don't realize how centralized the Civil Rights movement was in the South in 1963. Basically, SNCC, CORE, SCLC and similar groups were mostly subject to leadership and coordination by SCEF (run by James Dombrowski in New Orleans), the ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, etc. There is no question that Eastland only failed BY ONE VOTE in the Supreme Court with his plan to criminalize and outlaw the entire Civil Rights movement. Obviously, if he had succeeded, that would have been an even bigger deal for American history than the JFK assassination itself. This major plot by Eastland has largely been hidden from the public and kept entirely out of the press since it happened.
Eastland and SISS had been investigating and harassing Dombrowski and SCEF non-stop from 1956 to 1963. I have personally examined the contents of 110 folders containing Dombrowski's personal papers as well as a transcript of his hearing before Eastland in 1956 and his lengthy FBI file. The Supreme Court case of Dombrowski v. Pfister is a well-known case reported in the Supreme Court case reports, so there is no room to deny the basics of the activities of Eastland.
There is no doubt that Eastland controlled SISS. He had been leading many hearings of SISS since the early 1950's. Readers can't conceive of what a major organization SISS actually was. SISS had at least 40 to 50 employees including a research director, lawyers, investigators, etc. James O. Eastland was Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee (which was the "parent" committee of SISS), Eastland had the right to appoint the chairman of SISS and appoint all the members. This is a commonly-known fact about Senate Committees and their subcommittees and can be easily verified in political science texts.
As is described in the book The Austin-Boston Connection, by Champagne, Nelson and others, the partnership is described which existed between about 28 Northeastern Catholic big-city Democrats like Thomas Dodd, Richard J. Daley, Speaker John W. McCormack on the one hand, and on the other hand the Texas-led Southern Democrats like former Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas, Rep. Carl Albert of Oklahoma, and LBJ along with more extreme Southerners like James O. Eastland and Strom Thurmond. The purpose of this alliance often centered around (a) Communism and (b) Civil Rights issues.
This 50-50 partnership was reflected in SISS where Eastland was the official, legal chairman of SISS but his ally Thomas J. Dodd of Connecticut, a "liberal" Democrat was always allowed to be the "acting Chairman." Between Eastland or Dodd, either could actually be chairing a SISS committee meeting on a given day in the period 1959 to 1963. Often, under the very loose rules of subcommittees, a hearing could be held where only one committee member was present, i.e. Dodd all by himself or Eastland all by himself. This often occurred.
It is impossible that Eastland and Dodd could be co-chairing SISS, but that the left hand didn't know what the right-hand was doing. If Dodd was being paid to enable the JFK assassination and Dodd's activities for this purpose involved SISS in any major way (such as travel to Germany or financial payoffs), Eastland would have obviously known about it. To think otherwise is to gratuitously close one's eyes to an obvious reality.
Mr. Josephs classifies as an assumption that Oswald was tainting SCEF via FPCC. This relationship can be proven basically by process of elimination. The court proceedings in New Orleans in October and November, 1963 involved not only SISS but also LUAC (Louisiana Un-American Affairs Committee) and the Louisiana Sovereignty Commission. All three of these, plus the NOLA Police Department, the Louisiana State Police etc. were working totally together in this massive attempt to outlaw the Civil Rights movement.
The Court hearings and testimony mention "an informant" (only one) who supposedly had proof that SCEF and thus it's associated groups like SNCC, CORE, SCLC and others were Communist. This informant was never named. But at this very same time, Oswald (the only person that we know of) was busting his back trying to infiltrate not only the Communist FPCC but also CORE at the Clinton, Louisiana voter registration event. There has never been a good explanation of why Oswald was in Clinton trying to register to vote in a CORE event other than this role of infiltrating "Communist" Civil Rights groups .
Even if there were other informants on this project, it is still the only explanation of Oswald's attempted infiltration of Civil Rights groups such as CORE and others.
Virtually on the eve of the JFK assassination, James O. Eastland distributed the documents in the case, (which would have contained the name of this mystery informant) to his seven committee members for review. Apparently, this was to ensure that all 7 members saw the name Lee Harvey Oswald on the papers before the assassination and they would be thus "silenced" regarding anything to do with Oswald post 11-22-63.
Analysis:
The only thing known (which has been presented as legal proof by Jim Garrison) was that Oswald was getting money from Clay Shaw around this time. Of course, Shaw had ties to the CIA and also Operation Paperclip Nazis and probably I G Farben, the German petro-chemical conglomerate (as well as Italian fascists in Permindex, etc. etc.). Even the controversial Judyth Vary Baker affirms that Shaw was the paymaster for Oswald as did Jim Garrison and his witnesses.
It is unlikely that Oswald was officially on the SISS payroll. But one has to look at the nature of "compulsive infiltrators" like Oswald, Roy Frankhouser and Joseph Milteer. This type of person (which includes Oswald) is not an ordinary employee of anybody. They are just in the business of infiltrating and informing. This is why it is so confusing trying to figure out for whom Oswald was working. You have the same problem with Roy Frankhouser and Joseph Milteer (and George H W Bush). To me, it doesn't matter whether Oswald was being "run" or manipulated by SISS, the Louisiana Sovereignty Commission, or the New Orleans Police, etc. All of these forces were partnering together. If one can't prove for which agency Oswald was technically working, this doesn't disprove that he was working on the "project" which was common to all of these right-wing groups. It's a false equivalency to claim that if you can't name which one, then none is true.
A girl might sleep with ten men in a night. Then she might have a baby. If you don't know who the father is, the girl still has the baby. Being unable to name the father doesn't prove that they all are innocent, even though legally, that might be the outcome in a court. Just because we don't know who was officially paying Oswald, doesn't mean that none of these folks were paying him. Somebody was. And we know by his pattern of activities what he was up to.
Keep in mind that even the Warren Commission had been told that Oswald was an FBI informant but the specifics of who employed Oswald, if anybody, was never nailed down.
The activities of Oswald in New Orleans in 1963 were being followed by SISS. This is proven by the events on or just after 11-22-63. The following is footnote 64 of Chapter 17 in the book The Man Who Knew Too Much by Dick Russell (one of my favorite "smoking guns"):
Text:
p.403 Oswald pretty much dropped from sight. On the day of the day of the assassination, a copy of the incriminating radio debate would be immediately delivered to the national media by Carlos Bringuier's DRE affiliate group in Miami (64)
Footnote:
64. Debate to media: HSCA. 85-86. The HSCA's interview with José Antonio Lanusa revealed that the DRE in Miami first "called a CIA contact," who instructed them he needed an hour "to contact Washington head*quarters for instructions. . . . When the CIA contact called back, he told them the FBI would contact the group." The next day, Lanusa said the DRE turned over the debate tape and other material on LHOincluding the Marine Corps training manual he had dropped off with Bringuier on August 6to FBI agent James J. O'Conner.
An FBI file of November 27, 1963 (WCD 351), describes a conversation with Al Tarabochia (of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee), recounting his telephone discussion with Carlos Bringuier. Tarabochia main*tained that Bringuier had "identified Oswald as having been in New Orleans and an active leader of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee there" on the afternoon of the assassination after Oswald's arrest. The next day. "Tarabochia states that Bringuier told him he was threatened . . . by an unidentified man, believed to be American. . . . The unidentified man told Bringuier that Oswald did not kill President Kennedy and that the killing was done by a racist group rather than by a Communist or Marxist. He then said to Bringuier that he, Bringuier, would pay the penalty for accusing an innocent man. Bringuier had never seen the man before this occasion." (See Chapter Twenty-four for more on a possible link with a "racist group.")
Of course, Ed Butler and Dr.Alton Ochsner, (right-wingers in NOLA and LHO associates) both flew to Washington to testify to SISS about LHO while Oswald was still alive and in jail. Butler's testimony was classified then and is still classified today (2018). It's hard to see how SISS wasn't right in the middle of framing Oswald for being a Communist. And, of course, framing Oswald as a Communist was a part of (though probably not absolutely necessary) in the plot to kill JFK.
Analysis: This is one question that I don't think I have a 100% good answer for. Here are the arguments against the hands-on involvement of Eastland:
Arguments for Eastland being a plotter:
Summary and Conclusion:
I agree with the statement by Mr. Josephs that the fact of the control of Oswald (by Eastland) has never been explicitly proven. I think one could argue that Eastland is proven to a 90% degree of likelihood of being aware of Oswald and his infiltration activities and maybe relying on them. But that is not the same as saying that Oswald was being financially controlled by Eastland or even by any of Oswald's right-wing allies like LUAC, NOPD, Louisiana Sovereignty Commission, KKK, National States Rights Party, etc. etc.
Does the reader believe Oswald could have been working on both the "communizing" of the Civil Rights movement AND the JFK assassination? I believe it and I think that, in general, this has been proven. But as for true "smoking gun" evidence (such as the name of LHO on a document relating directly to Eastland or SISS), that has not yet turned up. But I think that the circumstantial evidence involved on this issue is more than enough proof to substantiate the basic facts. (But not beyond a reasonable doubt for purposes of a criminal conviction).
James Lateer
Mr. Josephs, you have hit on the crux of the remaining unknowns regarding my theories and/or the theories of Dr. Jeffrey Caufield. If these remaining questions could be correctly or creatively analyzed, it would be a giant leap forward in the JFK case.
- You have correctly identified the hazy and blurred status of Oswald in relationship with the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee. Was Oswald actually a paid staff person or agent or informant in a direct relationship with SISS? What exactly was the relationship between Eastland, SISS and Oswald?
Analysis:
Spy agencies (and their like) deliberately make every attempt to disguise the "master-servant" relationship between their assets and themselves. They hope that if people can't determine exactly which payroll the asset was on, then the conclusion will be that NONE OF THIS HAPPENED AT ALL!
There is no question that Senator James O. Eastland was leading a monumental effort to totally criminalize and outlaw the entire Southern Civils Rights movement in October and November, 1963. Most people don't realize how centralized the Civil Rights movement was in the South in 1963. Basically, SNCC, CORE, SCLC and similar groups were mostly subject to leadership and coordination by SCEF (run by James Dombrowski in New Orleans), the ACLU, the National Lawyers Guild, etc. There is no question that Eastland only failed BY ONE VOTE in the Supreme Court with his plan to criminalize and outlaw the entire Civil Rights movement. Obviously, if he had succeeded, that would have been an even bigger deal for American history than the JFK assassination itself. This major plot by Eastland has largely been hidden from the public and kept entirely out of the press since it happened.
Eastland and SISS had been investigating and harassing Dombrowski and SCEF non-stop from 1956 to 1963. I have personally examined the contents of 110 folders containing Dombrowski's personal papers as well as a transcript of his hearing before Eastland in 1956 and his lengthy FBI file. The Supreme Court case of Dombrowski v. Pfister is a well-known case reported in the Supreme Court case reports, so there is no room to deny the basics of the activities of Eastland.
There is no doubt that Eastland controlled SISS. He had been leading many hearings of SISS since the early 1950's. Readers can't conceive of what a major organization SISS actually was. SISS had at least 40 to 50 employees including a research director, lawyers, investigators, etc. James O. Eastland was Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee (which was the "parent" committee of SISS), Eastland had the right to appoint the chairman of SISS and appoint all the members. This is a commonly-known fact about Senate Committees and their subcommittees and can be easily verified in political science texts.
As is described in the book The Austin-Boston Connection, by Champagne, Nelson and others, the partnership is described which existed between about 28 Northeastern Catholic big-city Democrats like Thomas Dodd, Richard J. Daley, Speaker John W. McCormack on the one hand, and on the other hand the Texas-led Southern Democrats like former Speaker Sam Rayburn of Texas, Rep. Carl Albert of Oklahoma, and LBJ along with more extreme Southerners like James O. Eastland and Strom Thurmond. The purpose of this alliance often centered around (a) Communism and (b) Civil Rights issues.
This 50-50 partnership was reflected in SISS where Eastland was the official, legal chairman of SISS but his ally Thomas J. Dodd of Connecticut, a "liberal" Democrat was always allowed to be the "acting Chairman." Between Eastland or Dodd, either could actually be chairing a SISS committee meeting on a given day in the period 1959 to 1963. Often, under the very loose rules of subcommittees, a hearing could be held where only one committee member was present, i.e. Dodd all by himself or Eastland all by himself. This often occurred.
It is impossible that Eastland and Dodd could be co-chairing SISS, but that the left hand didn't know what the right-hand was doing. If Dodd was being paid to enable the JFK assassination and Dodd's activities for this purpose involved SISS in any major way (such as travel to Germany or financial payoffs), Eastland would have obviously known about it. To think otherwise is to gratuitously close one's eyes to an obvious reality.
Mr. Josephs classifies as an assumption that Oswald was tainting SCEF via FPCC. This relationship can be proven basically by process of elimination. The court proceedings in New Orleans in October and November, 1963 involved not only SISS but also LUAC (Louisiana Un-American Affairs Committee) and the Louisiana Sovereignty Commission. All three of these, plus the NOLA Police Department, the Louisiana State Police etc. were working totally together in this massive attempt to outlaw the Civil Rights movement.
The Court hearings and testimony mention "an informant" (only one) who supposedly had proof that SCEF and thus it's associated groups like SNCC, CORE, SCLC and others were Communist. This informant was never named. But at this very same time, Oswald (the only person that we know of) was busting his back trying to infiltrate not only the Communist FPCC but also CORE at the Clinton, Louisiana voter registration event. There has never been a good explanation of why Oswald was in Clinton trying to register to vote in a CORE event other than this role of infiltrating "Communist" Civil Rights groups .
Even if there were other informants on this project, it is still the only explanation of Oswald's attempted infiltration of Civil Rights groups such as CORE and others.
Virtually on the eve of the JFK assassination, James O. Eastland distributed the documents in the case, (which would have contained the name of this mystery informant) to his seven committee members for review. Apparently, this was to ensure that all 7 members saw the name Lee Harvey Oswald on the papers before the assassination and they would be thus "silenced" regarding anything to do with Oswald post 11-22-63.
- For whom was Oswald working?
Analysis:
The only thing known (which has been presented as legal proof by Jim Garrison) was that Oswald was getting money from Clay Shaw around this time. Of course, Shaw had ties to the CIA and also Operation Paperclip Nazis and probably I G Farben, the German petro-chemical conglomerate (as well as Italian fascists in Permindex, etc. etc.). Even the controversial Judyth Vary Baker affirms that Shaw was the paymaster for Oswald as did Jim Garrison and his witnesses.
It is unlikely that Oswald was officially on the SISS payroll. But one has to look at the nature of "compulsive infiltrators" like Oswald, Roy Frankhouser and Joseph Milteer. This type of person (which includes Oswald) is not an ordinary employee of anybody. They are just in the business of infiltrating and informing. This is why it is so confusing trying to figure out for whom Oswald was working. You have the same problem with Roy Frankhouser and Joseph Milteer (and George H W Bush). To me, it doesn't matter whether Oswald was being "run" or manipulated by SISS, the Louisiana Sovereignty Commission, or the New Orleans Police, etc. All of these forces were partnering together. If one can't prove for which agency Oswald was technically working, this doesn't disprove that he was working on the "project" which was common to all of these right-wing groups. It's a false equivalency to claim that if you can't name which one, then none is true.
A girl might sleep with ten men in a night. Then she might have a baby. If you don't know who the father is, the girl still has the baby. Being unable to name the father doesn't prove that they all are innocent, even though legally, that might be the outcome in a court. Just because we don't know who was officially paying Oswald, doesn't mean that none of these folks were paying him. Somebody was. And we know by his pattern of activities what he was up to.
Keep in mind that even the Warren Commission had been told that Oswald was an FBI informant but the specifics of who employed Oswald, if anybody, was never nailed down.
- Proof of Oswald's relationship to SISS.
The activities of Oswald in New Orleans in 1963 were being followed by SISS. This is proven by the events on or just after 11-22-63. The following is footnote 64 of Chapter 17 in the book The Man Who Knew Too Much by Dick Russell (one of my favorite "smoking guns"):
Text:
p.403 Oswald pretty much dropped from sight. On the day of the day of the assassination, a copy of the incriminating radio debate would be immediately delivered to the national media by Carlos Bringuier's DRE affiliate group in Miami (64)
Footnote:
64. Debate to media: HSCA. 85-86. The HSCA's interview with José Antonio Lanusa revealed that the DRE in Miami first "called a CIA contact," who instructed them he needed an hour "to contact Washington head*quarters for instructions. . . . When the CIA contact called back, he told them the FBI would contact the group." The next day, Lanusa said the DRE turned over the debate tape and other material on LHOincluding the Marine Corps training manual he had dropped off with Bringuier on August 6to FBI agent James J. O'Conner.
An FBI file of November 27, 1963 (WCD 351), describes a conversation with Al Tarabochia (of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee), recounting his telephone discussion with Carlos Bringuier. Tarabochia main*tained that Bringuier had "identified Oswald as having been in New Orleans and an active leader of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee there" on the afternoon of the assassination after Oswald's arrest. The next day. "Tarabochia states that Bringuier told him he was threatened . . . by an unidentified man, believed to be American. . . . The unidentified man told Bringuier that Oswald did not kill President Kennedy and that the killing was done by a racist group rather than by a Communist or Marxist. He then said to Bringuier that he, Bringuier, would pay the penalty for accusing an innocent man. Bringuier had never seen the man before this occasion." (See Chapter Twenty-four for more on a possible link with a "racist group.")
Of course, Ed Butler and Dr.Alton Ochsner, (right-wingers in NOLA and LHO associates) both flew to Washington to testify to SISS about LHO while Oswald was still alive and in jail. Butler's testimony was classified then and is still classified today (2018). It's hard to see how SISS wasn't right in the middle of framing Oswald for being a Communist. And, of course, framing Oswald as a Communist was a part of (though probably not absolutely necessary) in the plot to kill JFK.
- Was Eastland part of the JFK murder plot?
Analysis: This is one question that I don't think I have a 100% good answer for. Here are the arguments against the hands-on involvement of Eastland:
- Almost all political high-ups at the time of the assassination were apparently "keeping their hands clean." After all, they only needed one Jim Garrison type to bring them up on murder charges had they been actively involved. (This did not include JFK's immediate cabinet).
- Something could easily have gone wrong; like the bullets could have missed or Oswald could have "spilled the beans" in one of those jail-house press conferences, or Ruby could have talked, etc. etc.
- Eastland's mission to criminalize the Civil Rights Movement would have taken precedence for him over the assassination. As we know in hindsight, LBJ was more pro-Civil Rights than JFK, so Eastland would not have had much to gain from the murder of JFK.
- The activities of Oswald had two locations: Dallas and New Orleans. The activities of Oswald in New Orleans were not "hands-on" plot activities. The frame-up of Oswald as a Communist was more directly related to the Civil Rights issue than the assassination. Oswald could have been framed up just as well in Dallas (which he was somewhat by Michael Paine).
- Eastland was considered to be of sub-par intellect by his peers according to the book by Robert Sherrill Gothic Politics in the Deep South. He had no special skills which would have recommended him for assassination plotting. Contrast people like McCloy, Dulles, Willoughby, etc. who had been spies or had worked face-to-face with spies for years and years.
Arguments for Eastland being a plotter:
- Since Dodd was a plotter and Dodd and Eastland were co-chairmen of SISS, then Eastland was too close not to be involved.
- In my judgment, only bloodthirsty people will commit capital murder to further their political ends. Eastland was intimately involved with the murders of the three Civil Rights workers, the assassination of Medgar Evers in Mississippi, and attended picnics on his plantation where lynchings took place on Sunday afternoons.
- As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Eastland was in charge of naming all Senators to their committees as was reported in the memoir True Compass by Edward Kennedy. He would have had to be on board with the assassination before the fact (or at least multiple members of Congress of his stature).
Summary and Conclusion:
I agree with the statement by Mr. Josephs that the fact of the control of Oswald (by Eastland) has never been explicitly proven. I think one could argue that Eastland is proven to a 90% degree of likelihood of being aware of Oswald and his infiltration activities and maybe relying on them. But that is not the same as saying that Oswald was being financially controlled by Eastland or even by any of Oswald's right-wing allies like LUAC, NOPD, Louisiana Sovereignty Commission, KKK, National States Rights Party, etc. etc.
Does the reader believe Oswald could have been working on both the "communizing" of the Civil Rights movement AND the JFK assassination? I believe it and I think that, in general, this has been proven. But as for true "smoking gun" evidence (such as the name of LHO on a document relating directly to Eastland or SISS), that has not yet turned up. But I think that the circumstantial evidence involved on this issue is more than enough proof to substantiate the basic facts. (But not beyond a reasonable doubt for purposes of a criminal conviction).
James Lateer