From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: Oglesby: How To Reopen the JFK Case
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: PACH
Distribution: na
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 09:23:07 GMT

/** nfd.ifeatures: 28.2 **/
** Written  8:22 pm  Apr 12, 1992 by ihandler in cdp:nfd.ifeatures **

Commentary / 1290 Words

How To
Reopen The
JFK Case

By Carl Oglesby
Insight Features

   The hard fact about the great John F. Kennedy assassination debate is that
only about 10 percent of the American people see Oswald as did the Warren
Commission, i.e., as the lone assassin.  For over a quarter of a century, well
over half of us have belived that JFK was killed by a conspiracy.  The most
recent poll, taken for Time/CNN last December (before the opening of Oliver
Stone's JFK) showed that about three out of four of us reject the lone
gunman theory and indeed that over half of us believe that the CIA itself was
somehow involved.

   Whatever the merits of this view, it may not be healthy for so large a
majority of us to be so deeply and for such a long time at odds with our
government on a matter of such concern.  No one profits from this situation,
and the government should do what it can to resolve it.  Several steps to
move the debate ahead can be taken immediately and without undue expense:

1. Release all government JFK files.

   As it closed down in 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations did
just what it began by promising not to do--and just what the Warren
Commisssion before it had done--when it sealed its files until the year 2029. 
These files are in 848 boxes.  Since each of these boxes may contain as many
as 3000 pages, the total may amount to two and a half million pages.

   A strong movement for the release of these documents has sprung up in
the wake of the Stone film.  It is supported by Rep. Louis Stokes (D-OH), who
chaired the Assassinations Committee, and Sen. Edward Kennedy, among others. 
This is to be welcomed, but the public should know that the release of these
files will almost certainly not reveal a "smoking gun" even if they contain one. 
This is because any legislation mandating their release is certain to contain
restrictions protecting confidential sources, personal privacy and national
security.  The CIA and FBI will have the final say on what is released.

   A least one particular segment of these files, however, is of particular and
perhaps sensational interest; namely, a 265-page report on Oswald's trip to
Mexico City two months before the assassination.  Known as the Lopez Report,
this document was immediately classified as secret by the Assassination
Committee, and it was mentioned neither in the Committee's 1979 final report
nor in the 1981 book, The Plot to Kill the President, by G. Robert Blakey (the
Committee's chief counsel) and Richard N. Billings (its writer).  Assassinations
Committee investigator Juan Edwin Lopez has risked violation of his secrecy
agreement to say publicly that the the investigation he carried out for the
Congress did not support the Warren Commission's conclusion that Oswald had
visited the Cuban consulate and the Soviet embassy in Mexico City, demanding
entrance to Cuba and a visa for a return to the USSR.  Lopez has said, in
fact, that the conclusion he and his investigative team reached--and
presumably documented in their report--was that Oswald had in fact been
impersonated in Mexico City.

   This conclusion is supported by the facts (a) that a CIA photo of an
"Oswald" at the Cuban consulate is clearly not Oswald and (b) that a CIA
phone tap of an "Oswald" calling the Soviet embassy 9according to two FBI
men who heard the tape before destroying it) did not have Oswald's voice on
it.  Proof that Oswald was being impersonated at such a time and place would
at least demand a radical reassessment of his alleged role in the events in
Dallas.

   The public should also be aware that even more interesting collections of
secret documents exist under the control of the executive branch.  These
include the remaining unreleased records of the Warren Commission (1964) and
the Rockefeller Commission (1975) as well as FBI, CIA and other federal agency
records which were never turned over to any other body.  Of particular
importance is the CIA's file on Oswald.  President Bush should make these
records public.

2. Declassify CIA files in the CIA-Mafia assassination program (Operation
Mongoose, JM/Wave and Task Force W). 

   Except for member Allen Dulles, who kept mum, the Warren Commission had
no idea that the CIA had contracted with Mafia leaders to murder Castro.  The
project, code-named Task Force W and led by William Harvey, was organized
under the canopy of a larger CIA anti-Castro program code--called JM/Wave,
which itself was part of a government-wide program known as Operation
Mongoose.  If the JFK conspiracy encompassed rogue agents, Mafia godfathers
and anti-Castro Cubans, Task Force W is a logical place to search.

3. Immunize and publicly depose Frank Ragano.

   Jimmy hoffa lawyer Frank Ragano has recently claimed to have been privy
to certain sectors of organized crime in the 1950s, 60s and 70s (see Dan
Moldea, The Hoffa Wars, 1978).  He has recently claimed to have knowledge
that hoffa, Carlos Marcello and Santos Trafficante plotted the JFK hit.  The
FBI should immunize and interrogate Ragano.  If his story holds up, a
congressional committee should examine him publicly.

4. Complete the analysis of the acoustics evidence.

   The single most important piece of evidence developed by the HSCA in 1978
was a Dallas police recording of the shots fired in Dealey Plaza.  Laboratory
analysis of this recording revealed that at least four shots were fired, three
from behind the President and one from ahead.  But after the HSCA was
dissolved, the National Academy of Sciences rejected this analysis when a
voice transmission known to have occurred about a minute after the shooting
was discovered in the background of the putative shots.  The Committee's two
teams of scientific experts, however, informally rebuted the NAS finding and
reaffirmed their original finding of four shots and two gunmen.  Congress
shoul seek new expert opinion and further testing on this point.

5. Conduct ballistics-lab tests of the single bullet theory.

   The heart of the lone assassin theory is the controversial claim that a
single bullet caused all the fatal wounds to the President and to Governor
John Connally.  If this conclusion falls, then the lone-assassin theory falls. 
In view of its central importance to the Warren Commission's reconstruction of
the crime, this theory ought long since have been subjected to ballistics-lab
analysis.   Congress should at last remedy this striking omission.

6. Analyze the Bronson film.

   An 8mm movie of the Dallas motorcade taken by Charles L. Bronson reached
the HSCA too late for computer analysis by its photographic panel, but
preliminary examination indicated that it may reveal two and possibly three
people in the area of the Book Depository known as the "sniper's nest," i.e.,
the area on the southeast corner of the six floor from which the Warren
Commission said all those shots were fired.  The discovery of a second person
in the sniper's nest only seconds before the shooting would have obvious
implications for the lone-assassin theory.

   These six steps can be taken quickly, without undue expense or the
creation of a special legal apparatus.  If document releases and new tests fail
to support thew lone-assassin theory, Congress should launch a new full-scale
investigation.  In view of the public's unsatisfying experience to date with the
presidential commission and congressional committee venue, any new
investigative body should include civiliam members.

                            -- 30 --

   Carl Oglesby is a freelance writer and has just published Who Killed JFK?
(Odonian Press, Berkeley, 1992).  He was president of SDS in 1965 and in the
early 1970s, co-founded the Assassination Information Bureau, which
spearheaded the drive to reopen the case back then.  This article is taken
from the March-April 1992 Heartland Journal, 7000 N Glenwood, Chicago, IL
60626.

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