The idea first appeared in the writings of Wayne Madsen, an online gadfly who habitually relies on unnamed sources. I doubt that Madsen spends much time investigating what he hears: He just repeats what "insiders" tell him. Hilarity ensues.
The Cruz/LHO claim migrated over to the National Enquirer, which is firmly in Trump's corner.
Previously, I have voiced my suspicion that the true originator of this claim was Trump's notorious serpentine grass-dweller, Roger Stone. Stone wrote a crappy JFK assassination book which sold well. Stone is weird, Stone is deceptive, Stone is a freaky fop who flings fakery at fools -- but he does know the case. He surely knew that the Warren Commission failed to identify the apparently-Latino young man who was photographed handing out fliers with LHO in front of the Interenational Trade Mart.
A few words about that mystery man: Although we don't know the guy's name, it's very possible that he was a nobody. Oswald hired two individuals that day. The other one was identified as Charles Steele, a student looking for work at the employment office. (There is a legitimate mystery here: Oswald was a near-pauper, so why did he bother to hire any helpers?)
Let us now pause to note a couple of problem with the USA Today story at the other end of the above link:
Trump’s evidence? A photo, disseminated in fringe circles online and then by the National Enquirer, that conspiracy sleuths claim shows the elder Cruz near Oswald. There is zero evidence the person in question is Rafael Cruz.Hold on thar, pardner. That photo is not merely a "fringe" thing -- it received wide dissemination in newspapers, articles and books back in the 1960s. The FBI made a decent effort to identify the two men working with Oswald, and for obvious reasons: At the time, people were worried that Oswald might be part of a ring of communist agents.
Those of us who have passed the half-century mark do not appreciate hearing evidence in the JFK assassination dismissed as a "fringe" stuff. No matter what your stance on the whodunnit question, that photo has always been considered significant.
That said: I see no reason to presume that the mystery man was Rafael Cruz. A basic resemblance does exist, but the mystery man could also be a zillion other guys. The fact that Cruz was in New Orleans at the time proves nothing. I've yet to see any evidence that Rafael Cruz had any relationship with U.S. intelligence.
By the way: I do not appreciate the implication that JFK assassination "sleuths" have been pointing the finger at Rafael Cruz. They have not. I've never encountered any researcher who has pursued that line of investigation. Perhaps I've missed something, but as near as I can tell, the name "Rafael Cruz" did not appear on any of the major assassination-oriented websites before Madsen came along.
UPDATE: The Zephyr connection. I have just now stumbled across an April 9, 2016 post on the Democratic Underground website authored by one David Zephyr, who claims that he has been working on the "Rafael Cruz" angle throughout the previous year.
When I found the real timetable of Rafael's actual whereabout between New Orleans and Dallas though the rubble of his many lies about his past, I began to write emails to many knowledgable about the assassination. As I a am old and almost blind, it is hard for me to post here at the DU anymore, but this is something I've been quietly working on since the Summer of 2015.Zephyr, a Hillary supporter, seems to have a long history at DU. At the end of the above-quoted post, he links to the Wayne Madsen piece which started it all. However, he does not admit that he was Madsen's source.
Zephyr seems legit -- and it should be noted that he's no fan of Roger Stone.
(Note: When I say "Zephyr seems legit," I'm not saying that he's right about the Cruz thing. I'm saying that he seems to be a genuine liberal and a well-known participant in the Democratic Underground forums, as opposed to a poser or a plant.)
That said, I still suspect Stone's involvement in this matter, if only because Stone would be Trump's logical go-to guy on any question regarding the JFK assassination.
2 comments:
At best, the photo would prove that Cruz was involved in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, as were hundreds of others, a large number of them who I know personally (many of whom have passed,) It is not unlikely that Sanders was involved, perhaps peripherally, in this as well. Why not? Wasn't LHO's involvement in the FPFC committee just a cover? It would hardly be a good source of recruits to kill Kennedy, as any serious person would have know it was riddled with FBI informants. An even odder development is that the Socialist Workers Party, the force behind the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, and the publisher of the Militant (in the famous LHO pic of him with a rifle holding the Militant Newspaper) is now very pro Trump. And of course the right is bringing up Bernie's role as an Elector for the SWP! What an interesting web developing here!.
That this came out from Trump, and then ted Cruz drops out the next day. That's a bit odd, to say the least, because Cruz would win in Nebraska next week. Who knows if its true or not. It'd be pretty wild it if is true.
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