Subject: Posner's presence in acj suspected!
Date: 7 Mar 2000 06:46:34 GMT
From: garyag@ix.netcom.com(Gary Aguilar)
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
Newsgroups: alt.conspiracy.jfk

Barb J mentioned that McNally said there is a distinguished guest
lurking about alt.conspiracy.jfk under an assumed name. Her guess is
that it is Gerald Posner, author of "Case Closed," the book that closed
the JFK case before 4.5 million pages of once secret documents had ever
seen the light of day.

If she's right, Posner's unwillingness to be forthright about who he is
shouldn't be seen as odd; it is what one would expect from an
"authority" like Posner who has been rebuked by the very authorities he
respectfully cites in his book. Yep, one doesn't need to go to "crazed
conspiracists" to see Posner badmouthed, although there's plenty of
that to be sure. One need only go to Posner's own authorities to get
the same thing. Examples of the latter abound, including Robert Blakey,
Failure Analysis Associates' CEO, Roger McCarthy, and historian David
Wrone. And just as deliciously, Posner, who has always sought to
portray himself as cooperatively pursuing the truth, was also rebuked
by the ARRB - for not cooperating at all!

ROBERT BLAKEY:
For example, in Case Closed Posner deferentially, and repeatedly, cited
Robert Blakey's opinions.  I would agree with Posner that Blakey's
opinions have some merit. Regarding Case Closed, Blakey wrote (in the
W. Post), "Posner often distorts the evidence by selective citation and
by striking omissions ... (he) picks and chooses his witnesses on the
basis of their consistency with the thesis he wants to prove." (#1)

FAILURE ANALYSIS ASSOCIATES' CEO, ROGER McCARTHY:
Posner has repeatedly asserted he fairly examined both sides of the
evidence before arriving at his conclusions. As a central aspect of his
defense of the "Single Bullet Theory," Posner cited in extenso the work
of Failure Analysis Associates, Inc. (FaAA), which prepared evidence
for both sides of an American Bar Association mock trial of Lee Harvey
Oswald in 1992. On December 6, 1993, FaAA's CEO, Roger McCarthy, swore
out an affidavit in which he declared that Posner had requested FaAA's
prosecution material, but not its defense material; that Posner failed
to disclose that FaAA had also prepared a defense, and that the jury
that heard both sides "could not reach a verdict."  (#2) So much for
Posner's claim he looked at both sides without bias.

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HISTORY PROFESSOR DAVID WRONE:
Praising his 'academic mindedness,' Posner proffered the views of the
respected JFK authority, University of Wisconsin history professor
David Wrone.  Writing in the peer-reviewed Journal of Southern History,
Wrone said, "Massive numbers of factual errors suffuse [Case Closed],"
a book which he described as, "so theory driven, so rife with
speculation, and so frequently unable to conform his text with the
factual content in his sources that it stands as one of the stellar
instances of irresponsible publishing on this subject." (#3) [I've
spoken with David Wrone on medical aspects of the JFK case. His
published comments about Posner do not overstate his view. He told me
he thinks Case Closed is the most dishonest book ever written on the
subject. But please don't take my word for it, please feel  free to
call David Wrone at the University of Wisconsin's History Department.]

ASSASSINATIONS RECORDS REVIEW BOARD vs GERALD POSNER:
Besides the unflattering comments about Posner that have emanated from
Posner's own sources, the Assasinations Records Review Board [ARRB] has
delivered its own unflattering verdict, one that rasises questions
about Posner's sincerity and honesty. The Board requested some
assassination-related notes Posner had described during testimony he
gave a congressional committee chaired by Rep. John Conyers. Posner
elected not to oblige. In its final report the ARRB wrote, "The Review
Board's initial contact with Posner produced no results. The Review
Board never received a response to a second letter of request for the
notes."  (# 4.)

And why did Posner pull a "Nixon" stonewalling the Review Board? Almost
certainly because the Review Board had received from me a tape
recording in which JFK pathologist J. Thornton Boswell,MD had declared
that he'd never spoken with Posner, despite Posner's almost certainly
purjurious comment before congress that He (Posner) had spoken with
Boswell, and that Boswell had changed his mind about the true location
of JFK's fatal skull wound. (Boswell, again, told the Review Board that
he had never changed his mind.) Posner stonewalled the ARRB when it
asked him for his evidence that Boswell had changed his mind. Since
there is no such evidence, Posner had no choice but to stonewall the
government investigators.

Perhaps Posner acolytes will someday have the temerity to ask Posner
why he stonewalled the Review Board, and where his evidence is that
Boswell changed his mind about the location of JFK's skull wound. If
they do, perhaps they'll make it public in a way that will prove it is
from Posner. For it has happened that some people have uncertainly
claimed to speak for Posner, who is often unwilling to speak for
himself, even to people besides the Review Board officials.

Gary L. Aguilar, MD

#1 G. Robert Blakey. The Mafia and JFK's Murder - Thirty years later,
the question remains: Did Oswald act alone? (enclosed)The Washington
Post National Weekly Edition, November 15-21, 1993, p. 23. (enclosed)
(As Blakey mentions in the Post piece, he originally supported the
Warren Commission, until his work as chief counsel of the 1978 HSCA
convinced him there indeed had been a conspiracy.)

#2. Affidavit of Roger L. McCarthy, 12/6/93.  Sworn to California
Notary Pubic officer, Karen Gates, Commission # 965772, San Mateo,
California.
#3. Wrone, David P. Journal of Southern History. V.61(#1):186, 2/95.
#4. In: "Final Report of the Assassinations Records Review Board."
Chapter 7, #16, "Gerald Posner." Washington,  D.C., U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1998,  p. 134.