Whitewashes R U.S.

Date Thursday, November 27 @ 16:38:38

Topic Commentary



Excluding public scrutiny, presidential commissions and military tribunals are excellent tools for cover-ups furthering the impression that government is corrupt.

By William Marvel

I was nineteen years old when I took my first airplane ride. It landed me at Love Field, outside Dallas, Texas, on my way to basic training. The army liked to disorient its recruits by inducting them in the middle of the night, so I had a layover of eight or ten hours before boarding a propeller-driven Frontier Airlines hop to Fort Polk, Louisiana. The assassination of Jack Kennedy lay only a few years behind, and that was the only association Dallas offered for me, so in the bright afternoon sunlight I boarded a bus heading downtown and started asking for a certain infamous book depository on Houston Street.

An hour or so later I stood on the street beneath the window where Lee Harvey Oswald was alleged to have single-handedly killed our thirty-fifth president. A window on the fourth floor (I think it was) still bore a red circle several inches in diameter, which I supposed had been painted there during the investigation. For perhaps an hour I meandered the vicinity, pacing off the distances covered by a convertible Lincoln that drove directly toward the book depository and then veered left before ducking under an overpass. I noted the juxtaposition of features that seemed much different from the impressions I had drawn from televised footage of the assassination, and several times I counted off the seconds of a home movie that my generation had memorized.

Nineteen-year-old boys generally know a lot less than they think they do, and I was no exception. One subject that I did know very well, though, was firearms. Between the ages of ten and sixteen I had spent most of my spare daylight hours shooting the assortment of rifles and pistols that I had collected. I owned automatic rifles, lever-action rifles, and bolt-action rifles, both with open sights and with a telescope. One of the few boasts that I could honestly make was that I was an excellent marksman, and a few weeks later I proved it by outscoring every man in my company during our rifle-range qualification.

My youthful experience with weapons convinced me that there was something fundamentally wrong with the Warren Report on Kennedy’s assassination. Given the angle between that window in the book warehouse and the position of Kennedy's limousine, the best sharpshooter in the world would not have had sufficient time to fire one well-aimed shot from a bolt-action rifle, jack another round into the chamber, find his target again through the scope, and squeeze of another well-aimed round before the car disappeared from view. Never mind that the trajectories of the bullets came nowhere near matching the line of sight from the warehouse window; never mind abundant eyewitness testimony of a third shot; never mind all the other inconsistencies of the official report. From a mechanical perspective alone, the scenario posed by the seven-politician commission seemed impossible.

The Warren Report was, in fact, too badly botched to have resulted from mere error. Somewhere along the way evidence had to have been suppressed, or manufactured. We will probably never know who, besides Oswald, was behind the assassination, but the popularity of even the wildest conspiracy theories arises from the obvious implausibility of the official account of that day's events.

It was somewhat disconcerting to conclude, on my way into the army, that our political leaders had deceived us on a matter of such momentous importance, but a few years later I learned that those same leaders had lied substantively about a certain incident in the Tonkin Gulf. Then came Watergate, which showed us just how devious our politicians can be in covering up crimes.

The official coverup is not a new phenomenon, even in American history. At the end of the Civil War a ruthless secretary of war, Edwin Stanton, controlled the prosecution of a Confederate prison-camp commandant who was charged with deliberate attrition against Union prisoners. Stanton insisted on a military tribunal that the Supreme Court later declared unconstitutional. He denied the defendant all but the shadow of a defense, shamelessly manipulating the process to assure a conviction, for he desperately wished to distract from his own hard-line policy against prisoner exchanges. It had been Stanton’s policy, after all, that caused most of the mortality among Union prisoners of war.

Presidential commissions and military tribunals, such as those proposed by the Bush Administration, provide the perfect environment for a coverup. If they were not designed specifically to distract from and disguise the real causes and culprits in a particular misdeed, they at least lack none of the requirements to achieve those ends. Since they exist outside the restrictions of a civil courtroom, and often in complete secrecy, they can offer the most preposterous evidence and arrive at the most absurd determinations without fear of objection or appeal. They also remove the ingredient of an objective jury composed of common citizens, who can reject an improbable conclusion‹just as I (and, apparently, a solid majority of other Americans) reject the Warren Report. Their overall effect is to enhance and corroborate the growing impression of a government that has grown inherently and incorrigibly corrupt.

William Marvel is a freelance writer in New Hampshire and served in the U.S. Army from 1968-1971. His many books include the award-winning Andersonville: The Last Depot and Lee's Last Retreat: The Flight to Appomattox.

Posted Thursday, November 27, 2003

This article comes from Intervention Magazine

http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/

The URL for this story is:

http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=568

The paraffin test showed that he hadn't fired a rifle that day. Just one of many inconsistencies.

I don't believe the lone sniper theory either.

Maybe there might be some deathbed confessions??

Who knows, something may come to light eventually.

Sheep, you must be sober today, because you're coherrent. But you're still NOT making any sense.

Oswald was anything but innocent. I'm pretty confident he wasn't acting alone, but he wasn't innocent/

Not true. While Oswald didn't have nitrates on his right cheek, he DID in fact have nitrates on his hand.

You little conspiracy factoid is hollow, sheep.

http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/factoid2.htm

obviously, Max, you aren't aware of the fact that firing a rifle will leave

nitrates on your cheek. Now you will say, 'he washed them off' but was able to keep them on his hand.

The Rifle the Police recovered was not the one entered into evidence, one of the initial investigating Officers, a WWII Vet, reported the Rifle as a Mauser. The Rifle entered into evidence was NOT a Mauser.

Oswald was seen by several witnesses, including the Police, in the First Floow Cafeteria, about 90 Seconds after the Shooting.

Columnist Jack Anderson claims to have interviewed one of the Mafia Hitmen used in the Assassination.

Oswald, far from being stupid, was within 1 I.Q. Point of Kennedy.

There are many other inconsistencies with the official Story - not the least of which is the "Magic Bullet" that made 7 punctures, did a 180 Degree Turn, and looks like it was picked up out of a Ballistic Tank.

Was Oswald set up to be a Patsy?

Certainly.

Did he know what was going down? Indeterminable from the available evidence. However, the Patsy does not need to be told for what he is going to be the Patsy.

In all probability, you are correct, sheep.

Where you err is in thinking said cheek nitrates can be infallibly detected with a paraffin test.

"The Rifle the Police recovered was not the one entered into evidence, one of the initial investigating Officers, a WWII Vet, reported the Rifle as a Mauser. The Rifle entered into evidence was NOT a Mauser. "

Inadmissible. Hearsay.

"Oswald was seen by several witnesses, including the Police, in the First Floow Cafeteria, about 90 Seconds after the Shooting."

Perfectly plausible. A recent re-enactment I saw on the discovery channel showed that Oswald could have been in the cafeteria in less than one minute, without breaking a sweat getting there.

"Columnist Jack Anderson claims to have interviewed one of the Mafia Hitmen used in the Assassination. "

Hearsay.

"Oswald, far from being stupid, was within 1 I.Q. Point of Kennedy. "

And your point is?

"There are many other inconsistencies with the official Story - not the least of which is the "Magic Bullet" that made 7 punctures, did a 180 Degree Turn, and looks like it was picked up out of a Ballistic Tank. "

You've been watching too many movies.

"Was Oswald set up to be a Patsy? "

Maybe. Haven't seen any incontrovertible evidence to this end though.

Ever.

Max wouldn't admit the falseness of the "investagation" if it was shoved up its ass. Ever

Frankly, I couldn't care less. I don't see the big deal. What are you conspiracy mongers getting so worked up about?

Feel free to unearth all the whitewashed, undiscovered evidence you see fit to bring to light. No one really cares.

JFK got capped. The world didn't end. Communists didn't bury us. Time didn't stop. Life didn't cease to exist. Somehow, America managed to , barely, get through.

And for the last forty years, all people like YOU have been able to do is point your weedy little fingers and screech "CONSPIRACY!!" at the tops of your puny lungs.

But never offering a shred of solid proof.

Why dwell on the past so? What do you hope to achieve? You'll spend your whole life frothing and wake up to a bitter, aging face.

Have a nice day.

Why do we still care? And why does the cover-up persist?

The answer to the first question is, the murder of a person by the shadows that control the real process of government is illuminating to reveal the real nature of our democratic sham and the pretext of rule of the people. The fact is that the structure of policy is one of control through terror, injustice and ruling class priorities, not law. If we wish to be a nation of equal rights such things as government by assassination is not compatible.

The second question is answered by the reality that the facade of democracy is a curtain that must be maintained to keep the people from realizing that the cancer of elite rule targets each and every one of us and once realized, spells the end of their ownership of our lives as the vast majority of people don't like living in fear of a capricious few.

Too?

I don't worry about dogs (can you guess why) but you mean there is a BBD following you? You need to get out despite your paranoia.

Work off the lardbutt, stop being so wierd and stupid.

There's one for the record books, folks. Sheepdog calling someone *else* "wierd and stupid.

Sheepdog thinks we don't really live in a democratic society; that we're actually ruled by shadowy elites that control us through complicity and assasination.

But the proof is in the pudding sheepdog. Want us to believe you? Want us to buy into your blather?

Show us exactly how repressed by the government you *really* are.

Post your 1040 for last year.

At least I don't think BBDs are following me around like BA does.

Post your own 1040. I've got my own business which is doing fine upon which the bank owns not a nickel of. I think I'll putt up to the shooting range in my restored 1963 Triumph 500 today( If you need an electric starter, you are driving a womans bike) I love that English piece even though it does have a Lucas electrical system; I'll take my new BAR 7mm out for some plinking. You two can cackle among yourself. I've got some paper targets to cut.

Tell us all again sheep... How exactly are you being repressed? How exactly are those big bad government agents controlling your life?

For a moment, let's assume sheepdog is right, folks. Let's assume that the rich elitists are deviously manipulating each and every one of us. Let's assume that those coniving bastards are repressing us, that the yoke of repression is in full effect, that they've placed their boot of repression squarely upon our collective necks.

And, oh yes, that they killed Kennedy.

Now let's ponder exactly how our American lives of leisure are supposed to get any better than they already are, once we break these chains of repression...?

Perhaps our dear sheepdog might take the time out of his busy schedule to outline how we can expect our lives to improve, tenfold, once we cast off these chains.

That is, assuming he can manage to take a moment away from his *other* recreational activities, or that his thriving business can spare a moment without his watchful eye.

I would answer it for you personally, but I'm too busy today. I'm watching football and drinking coffee.

But don't worry folks. We shall overcome.

Go Panthers!

It apears to me that Sheepdog has squashed each and every one of your sorry points. Now you fools are going back to the inane and driviling. I didn't know that Browning made a 7 mm auto loader. I just looked it up and it sounds like a verynice rifle.

Blip bloop blop blup bling blang bloong.