2 comments about The official Warren Commission report on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

1. The Warren Report was the official report on the assassination of JFK. Because Lee Harvey Oswald was shot 2 days after the assassination by Jack Ruby, there was no trial. The American people would not stand for this, so President Johnson authorized the Warren Commission to determine what happened on November 22, 1963.
   
   This book is an important work in American history, regardless of which side you take: lone assassin or conspiracy. It is fairly easy to follow; the authors sum up their conclusions in each sub-chapter, make their case and then dismiss what they believe is "uncredible."
   
   Unfortunately, the book I have has no index and no table of contents. I'm not sure if this edition that I'm reviewing does or not; I suspect it also is lacking this critical apparatus. This makes reviewing their notes and conclusions somewhat muddled. Some would say that this was deliberate, all part of the conspiracy and coverup. I can't draw that conclusion.
   
   The Warren Report doesn't prove that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. It proves that Lee Harvey Oswald COULD HAVE acted alone. Many leads are dismissed out of hand. For example: a Dallas cop saw Oswald running down Houston Avenue moments after the shooting, getting into the passenger side of a station wagon. Later that afternoon, that cop saw Oswald in the captain's office being interrogated. He told his chief that's the guy he saw. The chief dismissed this and said that a little old lady saw him board a bus after the shooting. Therefore there was no getaway car.
   
   One of the reasons that Oswald was pinned down to the Kennedy killing was that he took a shot at General Walker. They pinned this crime to him in December of 1963; the shooting took place in March. The day before the shooting, a friend of Walker's saw 2 men peeking in Walker's windows. The day of the shooting, a teenager saw 2 men get into seperate cars, parked next door to Walker's house, and drive away. If Oswald did take a shot at Walker, then what of the other man? This is what I mean when I say the Warren Report proves Oswald COULD HAVE killed Kennedy. Many leads like this are not followed up.
   
   This book should be the starting point of any serious reader who wants to know what happened to JFK. Read it and take a grain of salt. Then read one of the conspiracy books that dismisses the Warren Report out of hand. Then take another grain of salt.



2. "Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of President Kennedy. The evidence is absolutely overwhelming that he carried out the tragic shooting all by himself. .... In fact, you could throw 80% of the evidence against him out the window and there would still be more than enough left to convince any reasonable person of his sole role in the crime." -- Former Prosecutor Vincent T. Bugliosi
   
   Vince is 100% correct (IMO). And so was the Warren Commission when they came to the inescapable conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone killer in Dealey Plaza on 11/22/63. Given the physical evidence in the case, that was the only possible conclusion they could have arrived at. And Vincent Bugliosi, who's got more common sense and raw fact-finding determination than anyone I've ever seen, has arrived at the same "It Was Oswald" result after studying the case for many, many years.
   
   "The Warren Commission Report" (subtitled "The Official Report Of The President's Commission On The Assassination Of President John F. Kennedy") is a remarkably-detailed piece of work, put together in a relatively-short period of time (between December 5, 1963 and late September of 1964).
   
   Considering the very large amount of material that they had to wade through, and the many witnesses that needed to be questioned, it's my view that the Commission did a very good job in just the 10-month time frame they were allotted. The Commission began taking testimony from witnesses on February 3, 1964. In all, 552 witnesses were interviewed.
   
   The Warren Commission team consisted of seven main members, led by Chief Justice Earl Warren (who served as "Commission Chairman"), plus an additional legal staff of 27 people, who served as "Assistant Counsel" and "Staff Members", which included J. Lee Rankin, who was sworn in as "General Counsel" for the Commission team on December 16, 1963.
   
   For those conspiracy theorists who might think that the Warren Commission totally ignored every conspiracy angle that might have existed in the JFK killing -- this is simply an incorrect assumption. The Commission looked a great deal into the idea that a conspiracy just MIGHT have existed on 11-22-63. But it found each of these conspiracy claims not to be credible.
   
   In fact, there is a lengthy 132-page chapter (Chapter VI) in the Report titled "Investigation Of Possible Conspiracy". That page count means that 14.86% of the entire Report focuses attention on JUST the subject of potential conspiracy! That 132-page section of the book probes many of the more popular theories of the day (circa early 1964).
   
   Plus, in addition to that whole chapter regarding potential conspiratorial activity, there's also an entire Appendix (# XII) in the book which tackles many different conspiracy theories as well. This 32-page Appendix is titled "Speculations And Rumors", and touches on literally dozens of allegations brought to the Commission's attention during the course of the panel's 10-month probe. Each one of the various theories and rumors is then followed by a "Commission Finding" section for that particular "Speculation", explaining why the Commission deems the rumor as not credible. Therefore, when you combine Chapter VI with Appendix XII, more than 18% of the Warren Report centers its attention strictly on the subject of possible conspiracies and "rumors" surrounding the Kennedy assassination.
   
   I'm sure that conspiracists will retort that these "Findings" are far too shallow and not nearly detailed and far-reaching enough to PROVE that such "speculations" were impossible -- but what this "Rumors" Appendix does show is that the Commission was not totally ignoring the rumors of a possible conspiracy. Otherwise, they wouldn't have addressed ANY of the material they do address in this "Rumors" Appendix.
   
   It's also important to note that the Warren Report doesn't specifically claim with 100% certainty that NO conspiracy existed in the JFK assassination -- the Report, instead, uses the careful language that says the Commission "found no evidence of any conspiracy", leaving the door open a crack for the possibility of an as-yet-undiscovered conspiracy of some type to still be considered with regard to the President's murder.
   
   The Commission's attention to detail also earns high praise when it comes to the history and background of both Lee Harvey Oswald and Oswald's killer, Jack Ruby. Plus, the movements of both Oswald and Ruby in the hours and days leading up to the murders that each man committed are spelled out in great detail, making it quite apparent, given the Commission's almost minute-by-minute accounting of Ruby's whereabouts in particular (and the phone calls he's known to have made), that Ruby was certainly NOT part of any pre-orchestrated "plot" to "rub out" JFK's killer (or to silence the "Patsy", as many theorists believe).
   
   Another part of the Commission's Report which strikes me as very impressive is the section detailing the finances of Lee Oswald (dating from June 13, 1962, all the way through the date of President Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963). Every single penny earned or spent by Oswald during this time period is figured into this Appendix (# XIV), including the $21.45 spent on the rifle he used to kill JFK, the $31.22 spent on the gun he used to kill Officer J.D. Tippit, and even the exact amount he forked over on November 22nd for the bus and taxi fares ($1.23). We also discover, via this finance chart, that Oswald (when arrested) had exactly $13.87 in his pockets.
   
   This type of ultra-detailed scrutiny of every penny Oswald had to his name in the 1.5 years leading up to the JFK assassination isn't, of course, proof of any kind that he shot the President -- but it just emphasizes the level of research that the Commission (as well as the FBI) performed when digging into the background of Oswald.
   
   It is also a fact that Arlen Specter, who championed the highly-controversial "Single-Bullet Theory", practically begged for the Commission to be given access to the official JFK autopsy photographs and X-rays. Specter is on record in this regard via two memos, written in early 1964. Here's a look at both of those Specter-authored documents........
   
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   MEMORANDUM OF APRIL 30, 1964:
   
   To: Mr. J. Lee Rankin
   
   From: Arlen Specter
   
   Subject: Autopsy Photographs and X-rays of President John F. Kennedy
   
   "In my opinion, it is indispensable that we obtain the photographs and X-rays of President Kennedy's autopsy for the following reasons:
   
   1.) The Commission should determine with certainty whether the shots came from the rear. Someone from the Commission should review the films to corroborate the autopsy surgeons' testimony that the holes on the President's back and head had the characteristics of points of entry. None of the doctors at Parkland Hospital in Dallas observed the hole in the President's back or the small hole in the lower portion of his head. With all of the outstanding controversy about the direction of the shots, there must be independent viewings of the films to verify testimony which has come only from Government doctors.
   
   2.) The Commission should determine with certainty whether the shots came from above. It is essential for the Commission to know precisely the location of the bullet wound on the President's back so that the angle may be calculated. The artist's drawing prepared at Bethesda (Commission Exhibit No. 385) shows a slight angle of declination. It is hard, if not impossible, to explain such a slight angle of decline unless the President was farther down Elm Street than we have heretofore believed. Before coming to any conclusion on this, the angles will have to be calculated; and for this, the exact point of entry should be known.
   
   3.) The Commission should determine with certainty that there are no major variations between the films and the artist's drawings. Commission Exhibits 385, 386, and 388 were made from the recollections of the autopsy surgeons as told to the artist. Some day someone may compare the films with the artist's drawings and find a significant error which might substantially affect the essential testimony and the Commissions' conclusions. In any event, the Commission should not rely on hazy recollections. .... I suggest that the Commission transmit to the Attorney General {Robert F. Kennedy} its reasons for wanting the films and the assurance that they will be viewed only by the absolute minimum number of people from the Commission for the sole purpose of corroborating (or correcting) the artist's drawings, with the films not to become a part of the Commission's records."
   
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   MEMORANDUM OF MAY 12, 1964:
   
   To: Mr. J. Lee Rankin
   
   From: Arlen Specter
   
   Subject: Examination of autopsy photographs and X-rays of President Kennedy
   
   "When the autopsy photographs and X-rays are examined, we should be certain to determine the following:
   
   1.) The photographs and X-rays confirm the precise location of the entrance wound in the back of the head depicted in Commission Exhibits 386 and 388.
   
   2.) The photographs and X-rays confirm the precise location of the wound of entrance of the upper back of the President as depicted in Commission Exhibits 385 and 386.
   
   3.) The photographs and X-rays confirm the precise area of the President's skull which was disrupted by the bullet when it exited as depicted in Commission Exhibit 388.
   
   4.) The characterisitcs of the wounds on the President's back and on the back of his head should be examined closely in the photographs and X-rays to determine for certain whether they are characteristic of entrance wounds under the criteria advanced by Doctors Finck, Humes, Boswell, Gregory, Shaw, Perry, and Carrico.
   
   The films and X-rays should be viewed in conjunction with CE389 (a photograph of the frame of the Zapruder film immediately before the frame showing the head wound) and CE390 (the frame of the Zapruder film showing the head wound) to determine for certain whether the angle of declination is accurately depicted in CE388.
   
   I suggest that we have a court reporter present so that we may examine Dr. Humes after the X-rays and photographs are reviewed to put on the record:
   
   1.) Any changes in his testimony or theories required by a review of the X-rays and films, and
   
   2.) Corroboration of the portions or all of his prior testimony which may be confirmed by viewing the photographs and X-rays."
   
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   I shall ask any reasonable conspiracy advocate the following -- Do the above questions and comments written by Mr. Specter sound like the words that would be put forth by a person who doesn't care at all about finding the truth regarding the investigation into who shot and killed President Kennedy? Are the above words just merely a smoke screen to hide Mr. Specter's true agenda? Is he speaking only empty lies in the above memos to Mr. Rankin when he practically demands to view the autopsy records of the dead President?
   
   Obviously, most CTers must believe just that. I, however, am not willing to feed Mr. Specter to the wolves based on the conspiracy-slanted viewpoint that his truth-finding motivations were not genuine in nature. And the same goes for the other 33 individuals who were a part of the WC team throughout its 10-month existence. And I fail to see the justification for anyone else to jump to such a contemptible conclusion regarding the true intentions and motives of the Commission's members either.
   
   As it turned out, of course, Specter and the majority of the WC (and staff) were denied access to the autopsy materials that Mr. Specter so desperately wanted to examine in detail. So the WC just had to "make do" with the materials they had available to them (the Boswell Face Sheet, the recollections of doctors, the drawings, and {probably} the info gleaned by Earl Warren, who did evidently see the autopsy photos and X-rays himself).
   
   It stands to reason (in the eyes of anyone who doesn't cry "COVER-UP!" every five seconds) that Warren himself seeing the pictures obviously verified in HIS OWN MIND that the pics corroborated and verified the OTHER materials they had seen re. the wounds to JFK's body.
   
   Why the Commission as a whole couldn't see the autopsy pics is, indeed, crazy (IMO), even from an LNer's POV. It's just silly.
   
   BUT -- It hasn't mattered at all in the long run -- because we now DO have the pictures to examine, and they DO INDEED verify the original WC's findings of rear shots only hitting the President.
   
   It's silly that the Official Government panel investigating JFK's murder wasn't (as a whole) allowed to see this all-important material (probably due to the wishes of the Kennedy family) -- but the end results would not have changed one iota had they all seen the pictures -- because we now know the photographs (which have since been authenticated by multiple HSCA photo experts in 1978) DO back up the overall findings of the Warren Commission from 1964.
   
   As the Warren Report points out in excellent detail, there is a large amount of evidence that favors a "Lone Assassin" conclusion. This evidence, of course, also supports the Single-Bullet Theory (SBT), and a "three-shots-only" shooting scenario.
   
   This evidence would include the following points...........
   
   1.) Not one verifiable, official piece of evidence exists to support the theory that a frontal shot hit any victims.
   
   2.) Given the known back (entry) wounds on both John F. Kennedy and Governor John B. Connally, there's virtually no possible way a bullet striking from behind could have hit Connally without first going through JFK.
   
   3.) No whole bullets were found inside either man, or in the limousine. A non-SBT scenario SHOULD have resulted in THREE missiles being recovered, including TWO WHOLE BULLETS in the back and neck of President Kennedy. Instead, ZERO were found in JFK, or photographed by X-ray machines. Why? Because just one single bullet ("CE399", found at Parkland Hospital) went all the way through both victims, perfectly explaining every single piece of evidence in this "double man" wounding.
   
   4.) CE399 was linked to both the bullet fragments taken from Governor Connally's wrist AND to Oswald's rifle found in the Depository Building.
   
   5.) The wounds on both JFK and Connally "line up" in such perfect (or nearly perfect) "SBT alignment" that if the SBT is NOT correct, it was THE MOST AMAZING AND INCREDIBLE PIECE OF MARKSMANSHIP (USING THREE SEPARATE SHOTS/BULLETS) THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN. No question about this one.*
   
   * = For those back/neck wounds to TWO different men to have perfectly lined themselves up in such a 'connect-the-wounds' pattern (if they had been caused by multiple gunshots) so to have "fooled" Arlen Specter, et al, into believing that all of these bullet holes were caused by just one single missile is WAY too big of a "coincidence" for even the most gullible of the species to absorb and to swallow without choking on the implausibilities of the whole thing.
   
   6.) The Zapruder Film verifies to almost 100% certainty that both JFK and John Connally were reacting to external (bullet) stimulus at exactly the same time (Z224-Z225). To think otherwise is to buy into the notion that JFK's reaction of quickly bringing his hands up to his throat (which was an obvious involuntary reaction to first being struck by a bullet, IMO) was DELAYED for many, many Z-Film frames (from about Z200 to Z226) after a point when many conspiracy theorists believe he was hit while just starting to disappear from Mr. Zapruder's view behind the Stemmons road sign at about Z200. This is not logical -- especially given the extremely rapid ascent of those arms up to his throat from Z226 to about Z233 or so (just one-third of a second in real time). WHY were JFK's hands/arms well BELOW his neck level at Z225-Z226 if he had actually been hit in the throat way back at Z200? Not logical.
   
   ---------------------
   
   In the final analysis, the totality of all the evidence studied by the Warren Commission in the JFK case certainly points an all-too-obvious finger of guilt at one Lee Harvey Oswald -- and not a single other person or persons on planet Earth.
   
   The likelihood that a massive conspiracy existed to kill the President, while at the same time having virtually all of the evidence in the crime miraculously come back to implicate an innocent "Patsy" named Oswald (as many theorists believe), is about as likely as being able to prove that the Moon is made out of green cheese.
   
   ---------------------
   
   "I believe there was no conspiracy, and I think I can convince the average reader in 25 pages that Oswald killed JFK." -- Vincent T. Bugliosi; April 22, 2004
   
   "If there's one thing I take pride in, it's that I never, ever make a charge without supporting it. You might not agree with me, but I invariably offer an enormous amount of support for my position." -- Vincent T. Bugliosi; 1998

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5 comments about Special Tasks The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness-A Soviet Spymaster.

1. This book is ESSENTIAL to understand Power in the former Soviet Union. It's almost the history of the first decades of the soviet intelligence services written in a reasonably detailled manner. It's revealing on the nature of Power under Stalin rule. I also recommend the Portuguese translation (if you happen to speak Portuguese) since it was very carefully done. If you study this subject in particular get every translation you are able to read! Great book!



2. Sudoplatov ran the NKVD's Administration for Special Tasks, which carried out some of the Soviet Union's darkest operations --- assassination, kidnapping, murder, and frequently, terrorism (the author's own words, no less). Sudoplatov also directed undercover and partisan operations behind German lines during WWII. Later he supervised all atomic espionage operations against the US and Britain after the war.
   Still a Stalinist at heart, Sudoplatov offers few regrets for a career filled with death up close and personal. One of his first solo operations entailed infiltrating a Ukrainian nationalist group. After befriending one it's leaders for the better part of a year, he dispatched him in Rotterdam with a box of chocolates loaded with explosives. Later, he went on to supervise large roving killer squads himself, such as the team that assassinated Trotsky outside Mexico City in 1940.
   The book is filled with surreal scenes, such as in the "Komandatura" in the Lyubianka, where prisoners were executed. One section was outfitted more as a hotel than a prison. But as prisoners were given a "routine" medical examination, they were administered a lethal injection, then quickly cremated. Sudoplatov, himself arrested on bogus charges after Beria'a arrest, describes receiving not one, but two spinal taps while pretending to be catatonic (so as to avoid interrogation). His simple, direct language in describing these kinds of sequences is chilling.
   More than a few of the author's historical claims are either suspect or simply false based on information long available elswhere. For instance, his assertion that Stalin was not involved in the murder of Leningrad Party leader Sergei Kirov can't be taken seriously. He also offers suspect versions concerning the demise of various defectors and other Soviet "enemies" such as Agabekov and Krivitsky. In other cases he seems to want to have it both ways. He admits Alger Hiss was a paid Soviet agent -- but before WWII, not when he was actually accused.
   Regardless, these sorts of flaws can be overlooked. This work is critical for an understanding of the mentality behind of some of the Soviet Union's most notorious policies, actions, and crimes.



3. More than any other work I've seen, Special Tasks illuminates the Soviet experience. Its author lived it from beginning to end, joining the Red Army in 1919 at the age of 12 and offering his opinion 7 decades later on what Gorbachev did wrong in his attempts to keep the Soviet Union together.
   
   During those 70 years Sudoplatov is at or close to the very center of all the Soviet leadership was known for. He lived through the purges of the Thirties, directed the assassins of Trotsky, played a major role in the defeat of the Nazis, coordinated the theft of atomic secrets from the US, was arrested and imprisoned and tortured, then spent another 20 years in a sort of twilight struggle for rehabilitation, which was finally granted him just days after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The breadth of this memoir is truly astounding. And while at times it becomes difficult to read due to his tendency to digress into details about persons most readers would not know the significance of, the details about well-known persons and events keep one reading past the digressions: Oppenheimer and Fermi feeding atomic secrets to the Russians in the altruistic belief that a balance of power was preferable to an American monopoly (one thinks of the recent Pakistani scientist who spread nuclear knowledge around for the same reason); Ramon Mercador killing Trotsky with an ice ax while his mother waited in a car outside; then giving all the details of the assassination to Sudoplatov in person in 1969--thirty years later--when they'd both done many, many hard years in prison: the control of emigre scientists in America such as George Gamow through threats to their families in Russia...
   
   Sudoplatov makes no apologies nor seems to have any regrets about what he and Stalin and the others did. He states plainly in the Prologue: "We did not believe there was any moral question involved in killing Trotsky or any other of our former comrades who had turned against us. We believed we were in a life and death struggle for the salvation of our grand experiment..."
   
   So we are left to wonder whether Sudoplatov, who seems to be a basically decent person playing rough in the service of his country really believes that 10-15 million of his former comrades had really turned against communism and deserved to die for the "salvation" of the "grand experiment". Are we to believe that he believes all of Stalin's purges were justified and Kruschev's were not?
   
   Like Albert Speer, Sudoplatov is more than a little reticent about the mass murders he was a witness to. A Ukranian by birth, he says nothing about the millions of Ukranians who died during Stalin's collectivization and subjugation of that country, though he worked in Ukraine for the Party through the Twenties, when those horrors took place. There is not the slightest mention of the famines or the shipping off of entire Ukranian villages to death camps.
   
   In a way, one can't blame him. There is a limit to the amount of such things a person can deal with. He was very young and no doubt counted himself lucky to have escaped it. Still, one would like to know what he thinks about it now.



4. The Russian version of the popular movie "Hopscotch"
   in which we learn how the spies were run that stole
   the Atomic bomb.
   Here we have the story of a "Monster" , a super spy and killer,
   the kind of man the bad guys are modeled after.
   He probably should have been executed
   because he did these acts willingly and with no conscience at all.
   It appears that the men and women in this book make
   the worst of American leadership (like Herbert Hoover) in this era look good.
   As reward for being one of the most trusted, respected and successful spooks in world history
   who only just managed to survive, but for his service was given 15 served years in prison
   and the title of criminal.
   For me this book makes me ask if there were parallels in American
   CIA and FBI history of the same era to the Soviet purges of their best Intelligence people.
   Pavel Sudoplatov's license to kill almost got him killed by his own people.
   A lot of people distrust what he says about American scientists,
   but I tend to think that he may be telling the truth for once in his life,
   but we are left with the Eublides liars paradox:
   "The statement I am making is false."



5. Extremely questionable story of a top Soviet spy. I suspect this author is telling stories that he thinks people would want to hear, rather than actual facts. Much of this book strikes me as just plain silly, and highly distorted if true.
   Zero stars in my opinion.

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