JFK: The new script

Think the JFK assassination is ancient history? Get ready. The past may soon become very present.

Even if you have no abiding interest in this matter -- even if you've consider it dull or annoying -- I hope you will read what follows. Although I refuse to turn this blog into a specialists-only discussion of older controversies, we must take preventative action against a forthcoming attempt to put history into re-write. As Xymphora notes in today's column, there are growing indications that the news media will soon "reveal" that Fidel Castro was behind the JFK hit.

Of course, genuine researchers discounted the "Castro did it" theory ages ago. Nothing ever really connected Oswald to Cuba; all of his personal ties went to the right, not to the left.

Those looking for ironclad proof that Lee Harvey Oswald actually worked for a faction of American intelligence should check out Jim DiEugenio's Destiny Betrayed. Nobody has ever refuted the evidence presented in that book concerning the "Fair Play for Cuba" pamphlets Oswald passed out. The CIA had directly purchased an entire printing of that particular publication; the transaction was made while Oswald was in the Soviet Union. The copies Oswald passed out came from the CIA's private stash.

(This is no mere allegation. DiEugenio buttresses his case with publication data culled from the materials in Oswald's possession, and with evidence supplied by the original publisher.)

That data point (along with roughly ten thousand others) disproves the Castro-did-it idea. Yet we now have indications that rightist forces hope to change the history books: Goodbye, "Lone Gunman" -- hello "Evil Commie Plot." This piece by Anthony Summers discusses a new German television documentary by one Wilfried Huismann, devoted to the "blame Fidel" thesis.

Of course, there have been documentaries and pseudo-documentaries aplenty, and they have espoused all sorts of theories. But I susepct that this cinematic excerise may presage the largest JFK-related propaganda barrage since the release of Posner's book.

Summers:

In Washington, meanwhile, a senior attorney who served on the official American investigation — the Warren Commission — reversed his position on the same subject.

William Coleman, a former assistant counsel, had told me before Christmas of a mission that he carried out on the orders of the US Chief Justice, Earl Warren. He had flown to a secret location for a meeting with Señor Castro — a rare event indeed for an American official, even more so given the nature of the discussion. What Mr Coleman learnt, he said, satisfied him — and the Chief Justice when he reported back — that "Castro's regime had nothing to do with the President's murder".

Mr Coleman had spoken clearly, and in the presence of a third party. This week, however, I received a letter from him denying that the meeting with the Cuban leader had ever taken place. This is hard to explain, unless perhaps one notes that Mr Coleman — himself a former Cabinet member — is close to senior officials in the Bush Administration.

(My emphasis added.) Obviously, Coleman's false retraction came under orders. Nobody would bother to give such a directive unless a larger plan were afoot to make new use of an old scandal.

I've not yet seen the Huismann documentary. The real motive force behind the piece appears to be Gus Russo, who -- and I will happily testify to this in any court -- is a damned liar.

About fourteen years ago, Russo telephoned me out of the blue. He was scooping up information -- trying to find out who knew what -- concerning a possible witness to Oswald's activites in New Orleans. I didn't have the data, but I knew one or two people who had been researching that particular bit of business, and I gave Russo the contact information. (At the time, I did not know that this witness had made some quite startling claims to HSCA investigators; the HSCA material was then still classified.)

To ingratiate himself with me, Russo stated that he was working on a PBS documentary which would offer conclusive proof that Oswald went to the USSR under orders from the Office of Naval Intelligence. In fact, the documentary made no such claim; it was a "lone nut" job from beginning to end. Word later reached me that nobody connected with the thing had ever intended to claim that Oswald worked for ONI when he went to Russia.

Why did Russo deliberately make a false statement during that phone call? Obviously, he told me something he thought I wanted to hear in order to gain my trust. Later, it came out that Russo had strong links to high-level CIA hands, including former DCI Richard Helms.

If Wilfried Huismann trusts a Janus-faced slimeball like Gus Russo, fuck Huismann.

The sourcing for this documentary is, to say the least, open to question. The most damning claims come from an alleged "former agent" of Cuban intelligence named Oscar Marino.

Why should we consider Marino's testimony more reliable than the guff one hears from defectors? After all, Castro cannot last much longer, and anyone with any sense knows that Americans will soon run the show in Cuba once more. Marino has every motive to play nice with his future masters.

Summers' story reminded me of one of the more intriguing revelations to come out of Daniel Hopsicker's investigation of Wally Hilliard, the owner of the flight school attended by Mohammed Atta. Over the years, Hopsicker has presented much data indicating Hilliard's likely ties to one faction or another of American intelligence. (I am not calling him a "CIA agent." As Joseph Trento points out, and as I never tire of repeating, the most dangerous players in the clandestine world operate within networks outside the control of any single agency.)

Hopsicker:

While both of the terrorist pilots who crashed into the World Trade Center were students at Venice Florida's Huffman Aviation, the flight school's owner Wallace J. Hilliard, 72, of Naples, FL., was simultaneously pursuing his own diplomatic opening to Fidel Castro’s Cuba.

A photograph (left) recently made available to the MadCowMorningNews shows a smiling Hilliard strapping a Rolex with the must-have diamond beveled-face onto the presumably grateful wrist of one of Fidel Castro's top aides, Guillermo Garcia Frias, known in Cuba as "the Commandante of the Revolution."

For Hilliard, portrayed as a retired-to-Florida Midwestern insurance executive-turned-befuddled investor after the 9.11 attack, the new evidence confirms he had been doing considerably more "moving and shaking" than is customary for seniors in the Sunshine State.

Former employees confirmed Hilliard's curious Cuban venture.

The reason for this visit should be obvious. Once again, we must keep in mind the fact that Castro is far from young. The Soviet Union is gone; Cuban socialism is doomed. Smart Cubans are currying favor with the Americans who will soon re-assert their presence on the island, and smart American right-wingers are currying favor with those likely to hold power after Fidel leaves the scene.

If the Abramoff scandal proves one thing, it proves that GOP operatives have pursued a master plan to commandeer much of the world's gaming industry. A new Cuba means new casinos. A nice chunk of that action will surely go into Republican coffers.

In the meantime, there's also a nasty page of history which the Bush forces would love to rewrite.

So the question comes down to this: Did Oscar Marino get a Rolex as well?