FROM: Duke Lane, 76004,2356 TO: Anthony Marsh [J], 72127,2301 DATE: 11/22/94 2:59 PM Re: JFK News 11/22/94 (#1) Some may be repeated from earlier posts, and my apologies for the Specter stuff; I didn't write it, I just report it. --Duke NEWS Kennedys plotted against Castro - magazine RTw 11/6/94 4:24 PM (NOTE: Release at 1700 GMT, Nov 6) NEW YORK, Nov 6 (Reuter) - President John F. Kennedy and his brother Robert were involved in CIA plots against Cuban leader Fidel Castro that were being finished on the day the president was assassinated, Vanity Fair magazine reported. The report by journalists Anthony and Robbyn Summers quoted CIA sources as saying that on November 22, 1963, a CIA officer was in Paris passing an assassination weapon -- a pen modified to be used as a poison syringe -- to Rolando Cubela, a close Castro aide. Manuel Artime, a Cuban exile leader favoured by the Kennedys, told a congressional investigator that President Kennedy was personally involved, the report said. "Artime stated he had direct contact with JFK and RFK," the investigator is quoted as saying. "They in turn contacted the CIA ...AM/LASH (the CIA cryptonym for the Cubela operation) was proposed by JFK." The article did not identify the investigator. The Vanity Fair story goes on to say that on the morning of Kennedy's death, the head of CIA Cuba operations Desmond Fitzgerald, was involved in a scheme to overthrow Castro that was promoted by Robert Kennedy. The Summerses wrote that had the President not been killed, the coup would have gone ahead within 10 days. The husband and wife team also report that documents and interviews reveal that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone in the November 22, 1963 assassination and that he was caught in a web of Cuban exiles, Mafia mobsters and U.S. agents. They write that their investigation shows that a second gun was found near the scene of the assassination in Dallas and that mobsters may have been involved in the killing of the president. According to the official Warren Commission, Oswald, a former Marine who once defected to the Soviet Union, acted alone. It said he killed Kennedy with three shots fired at the president's motorcade from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depositary. Two days later Oswald himself was shot and killed by Jack Ruby while in police custody. Conspiracy theories began circulating soon after the shooting and since then Mafia, the Soviet Union, the CIA and Cuba have been linked to the crime. The Summerses reported that they have obtained FBI documents that say "a snub nose thirty eight calibre Smith and Wesson was found in a brown paper sack ... in the immediate vicinity" of the Texas School Book Depositary. The FBI has not revealed how its investigation of the gun ended, the article said. "Whether or not the weapon has any significance, it is a scandal that the public had to wait 30 years to learn that a second gun was found at the scene of the crime," the article said. It quotes John Newman, who retired from the U.S. intelligence services this year, as saying he believes he can disprove the CIA's claim that it never had contact with Oswald. He told Vanity Fair that a document he tracked down and statements by former CIA officials suggest Oswald was debriefed on his return from the Soviet Union. The magazine quoted him as saying that was "something they had every right to do. The denial that they had any interest in Oswald is a big billboard saying there's something else." Copyright 1994 Reuters America Inc. All rights reserved. Specter testing U.S. presidential waters RTw 11/14/94 1:55 PM (Eds; Recasts lead, adds background) By Randall Mikkelsen PHILADELPHIA, Nov 14 (Reuter) - With a stinging attack on what he called the "far-right fringe" of his party, Republican Senator Arlen Specter entered the jockeying on Monday for the 1996 presidential contest as a moderate standard-bearer. Specter, a third-term senator from Pennsylvania, told a news conference he was launching an "exploratory" tour of the country to help him decide whether to run for the Republican presidential nomination. Specter was visiting New Hampshire and Iowa on Monday, sites of early nominiation contests. He said he would stress "core Republican values" against what he said was the intolerance of his party's well-organised right wing. Specter, 64, is one of many Republicans who began presidential manoeuvering in earnest following last week's stunning Republican victories in Congressional and gubernatorial elections. "Last Tuesday's election has given the Republican party a unique opportunity for long-term control of the Congress and a victory for the White House in 1996 if we stay with core Republican values -- fiscal and economic conservatism (and) social libertarianism, not an extremist social agenda," he said. Many analysts said last-week's victories were fuelled in part by a strong religious-conservative Republican movement. The faction represents only about five per cent of the party, but has enough power "to be spoilers," Specter said. A former Philadelphia prosecutor, Specter achieved national prominence as a young attorney for the Warren Commission that investigated President John Kennedy's assassination. He was credited with developing the "magic bullet" theory that contributed to the conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing Kennedy. The theory has been attacked in many forums, including Oliver Stone's 1991 movie "JFK." Specter, who underwent surgery last year for the removal of a benign brain tumour, was first elected to the Senate in 1980. He alienated many supporters when he accused university law professor Anita Hill of perjury in the 1991 confirmation hearings of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who was accused of sexual harassment by Hill, a former aide. Specter only narrowly won re-election in 1992 in a campaign in which he voiced contrition over the hearings, which erupted into a battle of the sexes and a political mudfight between Republicans and Democrats, who were accused of illegally leaking reports of Hill's charges to the press. REUTER Copyright 1994 Reuters America Inc. All rights reserved. Disclosure of JFK records urged UPn 11/18/94 5:35 PM DALLAS, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- An author and investigator of the Kennedy Assassination urged a federal panel Friday to ensure that all government documents related to the crime are opened to the public. Jim Marrs was one of many witnesses who testified before the JFK Assassination Records Review Board created two years ago to review all sealed government records regarding the assassination 31 years ago in Dallas. "There has yet to be a truthful and full investigation of this case, so I hope you see how extremely vital it is to release all records pertaining to Oswald, even things so minute as his school records," he said. Marrs told the six-member panel that they are not investigators but they have the responsiblity to guarantee the American public that any relevant document is opened for inspection when they completed their work in three years. Marrs, who authored "Crossfire" and teaches a course on the JFK conspiracy theories, said many private citizens who do not accept the conclusion of the Warren Commission are still investigating. "They deserve full disclosure from their own government," he said. The Warren Commission concluded in its investigation that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone assassin of Kennedy, but numerous other theories have flourished since the assassination. The Oliver Stone movie, JFK, rekindled interest in the conspiracy theories and was behind the creation of the records review board along with some new books that came out before the 30th anniversary of the slaying. John Tunheim, the panel chairman and a deputy attorney general in Minnesota, said the members want to compile "a complete record" of the case. "We are very interested in creating a complete record so that the argument will not be when we're done that the government is still hiding records from the American people," he said. Tunheim said so far "the most signficiant surprise" has been the volume of records that exist. "We have alot of records that the review board will have to look at. Far more than I thought there would be," he said. Copyright 1994 The United Press International JFK Anniversary APn 11/21/94 5:41 PM Copyright 1994 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in this news report may not be republished or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. WASHINGTON (AP) -- People who make annual visits to the grave of John F. Kennedy on the anniversary of his assassination will this year, for the first time, also be visiting the grave of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Kennedy, the 35th president, was murdered in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963. His widow died last May 19 and was buried beside him four days later. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., and his sister, Eunice Shriver, visited the grave Sunday. Kennedy Assassination APn 11/22/94 12:04 PM Copyright 1994 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in this news report may not be republished or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. By RICHARD COLE Associated Press Writer The Secret Service was told of a possible plot to shoot President Kennedy from an office building with a rifle at least a week before his assassination, files released by the Miami Police Department confirm. The right-wing organizer who revealed the alleged plot also told a police informant the day after the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination that Lee Harvey Oswald would never talk about it. The day after that interview, Nov. 24, Oswald was shot and killed by Jack Ruby in the basement of the Dallas police department. The Miami police files confirm and add to an account by a retired police intelligence officer, Lt. Everett Kay, who said three years ago that he learned of an assassination plot from informant William Somersett. The FBI and Secret Service would not comment at the time. A newly released Nov. 15, 1963, memo from Miami detective S.J. Hebert shows the Secret Service was aware of the alleged plot before the assassination. "Agent Jamison of the Secret Service called to state that he had been requested to contact a William Somersett with reference to information given to the FBI by Somersett, and relayed to the Secret Service," the memo says. Three days later, Kennedy visited Miami -- where his motorcade was canceled -- before flying on to Texas. He was shot in Dallas 31 years ago today, and authorities accused Oswald of firing a high-powered rifle from the Texas Book Depository. Secret Service spokesman Jaime Cagigas in Washington said Monday that he would check on the Miami report, but was not familiar with the case. "But if we hear that someone is going to go up on a building and take a shot at the president, I guarantee we would check it out," he said. Somersett, who reported on the activities of white supremacy groups, secretly taped a conversation with Joseph Milteer, a wealthy member of the White Citizens Council in Georgia. During a meeting in Miami on Nov. 5, 1963, Milteer says Kennedy is a "marked man," according to the police transcript. Kay had played the tape for The Associated Press three years ago. When Somersett asks how an assassination would be done, the transcript says Milteer replied, "From an office building ... with a high-powered rifle." He explains that it would be easy to take a gun in pieces into an office building. And he dismisses Somersett's concern that an assassination would cause a furor. "Hell, they'll pick up somebody within hours after, if anything like that would happen ... just to throw the public off," Milteer says on the tape. Although Kay says he rushed the tape to the FBI, the information was never revealed in the Warren Commission Report on the assassination. There is no indication Milteer was interrogated until five days after the assassination. He professed no knowledge of the plot, the Miami police files say. Neither Milteer nor Somersett was ever called by the Warren Commission. Both are now dead. Federal authorities and congressional investigators reviewed the tape in the 1960s and 1970s, but never reported finding any link with the Kennedy assassination. According to the police files, Somersett and Milteer met in Jacksonville, Fla., the day after the assassination, when Oswald was being held by Dallas police. Milteer wouldn't tell Somersett how he knew of a plot beforehand, but said there was "a lot of money" involved and that Oswald would not disclose anything, Somersett related. "He will just not say anything, and nobody has any worry," Somersett quoted Milteer as saying, according to his police debriefing. Milteer also told Somersett that Oswald's ostensibly pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba group had been "infiltrated by the patriot underground and arranged from there to have the execution carried out and drop the responsibility right into the laps of the Communists." In the debriefing, Somersett said Milteer had indicated that "ground work was being set, maybe, in five to six different states to kill the president." Somersett didn't elaborate, but said at another point in the interview that Milteer told him the anti-Kennedy forces were organized in several Southern states including Texas.