Two former intelligence chiefs have written a book about the assassination of President Kennedy that is being hyped by the not-always reliable Daily Mail.
The internet is piling on. I’m reserving judgment.
The enduring theory that Fidel Castro was behind the assassination of President Kennedy, first propagated by CIA assets in the pay of CIA within hours the crime, remains in circulation 50 years later. Now this theory is coming in for close scrutiny in an informative series on Op-Ed News entitled The Anti-Latell Report.
Written by Arnaldo Fernandez, a former law professor at the University of Havana, the articles examine the work of Brian Latell,a former CIA analyst, who has developed a modified version of the “Castro did it” conspiracy theory, which might be summarized as the “Castro knew it” theory. In his 2012 book, “Castro’s Secrets,” Latell argued that the Cuban leader knew about Oswald in the fall of 1963, knew he might kill JFK, and did nothing about it.
The “Castro knew it” theory deserve discussion as much as any JFK theory, if only because of its growing respectability.
Now comes a welcome post from Dale Myers and Gus Russo. They say I am “fanning wisps of smoke” by seeking release of the CIA’s still-secret assassination files but they take pains to agree the records should be released. Their position wasn’t apparent in their first post so I am glad they have clarified the need for transparency. This is progress.
One of many fascinating features of the debate about the causes of the JFK’s assassination is the evident anxiety of some people who defend the theory that one man alone killed the president for no reason. As the 50th anniversary of JFK’s assassination, their anxiety is growing.
Exhibit A: Dale Myers and Gus Russo attack me for having the temerity to say that the CIA is obligated to release all of its JFK-related files.
Exhibit B: Professor John McAdams is in a tizzy by my review of the trailer for “Parkland,” the new JFK film produced by Tom Hanks, that will be released on October 4. In my post, I predicted that “Parkland” will not deal with the troubling issue of an October 10, 1963, CIA cable in which five senior CIA operations officers said Lee Harvey Oswald was “maturing.”
This is “buff stuff,” writes McAdams in an email. …
Dale Myers and Gus Russo are obsessed about conspiracy.
In recent media coverage of JFK assassination news, these two veteran JFK experts hear “Drums of Conspiracy” and seek to warn the public of impending danger: Those crazy conspiracy theorists are coming. Watch out, they say. And watch out especially for that Jefferson Morley. His purpose in reporting on the CIA’s role in the JFK story is, they insinuate, actually a ruse to promote a JFK conspiracy theory that is just about as crazy as the notion that JFK was shot by a Secret Service man.
Myers and Russo use the word “conspiracy” no less than 28 times in their piece. They especially take exception to what I told Associated Press reporter David Porter: that my legal battles for JFK files were “about transparency, not conspiracy.” Not so, they insist.
“It’s about conspiracy,” they declare, “and everybody knows it.