The Truth about the WC at Last

[Tracy Riddle]

Tracy:

I did not understand your comment above about at number 20, on my original post.

I did not take anything out of context. And anyone can read everything Pat printed and see that the things I quoted are accurate. If they were not, and were contradicted elsewhere, then I am sure you would have shown us how. You did not.

Secondly, why say that Boggs and Cooper were preoccupied with congressional duties? I mean Ford was in congress also. Yet he was the second most active member of the WC. McCloy was running Chase Manhattan for David Rockefeller, he was the third most active member.

And to trot out Russell and the filibuster, I mean, really, that is what Bugliosi does. Without saying that:

1.) McCloy was running Operation Brother Sam, the overthrow of Goulart in Brazil at the time the Commission was meeting. This was done for his boss David Rockefeller. Kennedy refused to meet with Rockefeller in late 1963, because he knew this was what he wanted to talk about. LBJ took that meeting in December. And the coup was then on. With McCloy the lead man flying to Brazil.

2.) Russell, very early in the WC process, voiced objections to Katzenbach's being at the first meeting, Warren seemingly getting private information from the CIA, and how bad the FBI report was. He was so upset, he penned a resignation letter. He complained the Commission was arranging meetings behind his back. Even Burt Griffin told the HSCA how serious Russell was about mounting a real investigation.

Russell then ran his own private investigation, as Dick Russell found out. His conclusions were different than the Commission's. Then, in August, he Boggs and Cooper arranged their own interview with Marina. It is clear that Russell is quite aware of everything Marina has said prior to this. And also, the circumstances of her leaving Russia. So, unlike what you are implying, he was right on the ball about what the WC was digging up. And he was quite sharp in his questioning, as Boggs and Cooper were. In fact, as I have written elsewhere, this questioning of Marina is as close as the WC ever got to actually fulfilling their duties. Its what the WC shoudl have been. And its what the Troika pointedly avoided.

Its no coincidence that neither McCoy, nor Dulles, nor Ford, or Warren was at that interrogation in Texas. Only Rankin was there. And it was about a month before the treachery was pulled on Russell at the last meeting. Which Rankin was in on. Rankin had to have known from this interrogation that these guys were not buying the WC BS about many things, including Lee and Marina.

Willens knew what he meant. The record backs him up.

Jim, I didn't say you took anything out of context, and I'm sorry if it sounded that way. I just wanted to read all of the Willens entries for myself. I don't think they reveal anything that earth-shattering; we've known for a long time that the WC was split 3-4 on these things. And Russell was in fact fighting the civil rights legislation; that's true even if Bugliosi says it. One reason Russell is not a great hero in my book. I have no doubt his theory of the assassination would have blamed Castro or the KGB or both.

The most significant thing about those entries to me was that Dulles wanted to take the SS's powers away and give them to the Justice Department, something both Hoover and RFK wanted to do (though in different ways).

Edit: as a matter of fact, here is something I found in my files: Russell said that he felt the WC hadn't uncovered Oswald's possible relations to Soviet or Cuban intelligence. (The Lone Star, T.R. Fehrenbach, 1968 p620). Also, in a late 60s newspaper interview, he said that "whoever fired that second shot was a better shot than Oswald." Which means he still accepted that Oswald was one of the assassins. So how good was his private investigation, really?