Dallas Conferences 2014

Dallas Confrencencs and Symposium - 2014

The Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC) conference in Bethesda on the 50^th Anniversary of the release of the Warren Report in September seemed at the time that it would be the last major conference on the Kennedy assassination, at least until the release of the remaining sealed records in 2017.

With the death of John Judge, who organized the COPA conferences in Dallas and Debra Conway’s announcement that Lancer wasn’t going to hold any more conferences there, it seemed like it was JFK’s Last Hurrah. 

But then Debra Conway reconsidered and decided to hold a min-two day conference in Dallas this year and out of the blue Judith Vary Baker announced that she had raised enough money through Facebook to put on a free conference at the same time.

So once again, just as in DC in September and as usual in Dallas, there will be two competing conferences in Dallas on the 51^st anniversary of the assassination, and the Dallas COPA contingent will be meeting at the same time to plan for some future activities, including some possible conferences.

Such conferences are important to advance the state of knowledge about things and there can’t be a more important subject than political assassination.

There was an important academic conference on Guatemala in 1954, shortly before the coup there, and a conference of exiled Cuban journalists was held at the University of Miami (JMWAVE) in the summer of 1963, which I consider significant events. 

And there have been a number of important conferences on the assassination of President Kennedy. The first I attended in the mid-1970s was held at NYU in New York City, where I met Penn Jones, Fletcher Prouty, Mae Brussel and Ralph Schoeman, and COPA – the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA) was formed at the second ASK conference in Dallas in 1993, and COPA’s first two national conferences in DC were extremely important and influential in getting the JFK Act passed.

If COPA is to continue into the future, as the Dallas COPA contingent are determined to continue, it won’t be able to organize expensive annual regional conferences in Dallas, LA and Memphis as John Judge tried to do, but it can co-sponsor an annual Dallas event as long as expenses are covered and it is organized by local volunteers.

One of the reasons we formed COPA was because the company that organized the ASK conferences was a private for-profit corporation not really interested in President Kennedy or the assassination, and now we see that if the Dallas COPA doesn’t organize a conference for next year, someone else will – and it won’t necessarily be an academic seminar by eminent forensic investigators, journalists and historians, as COPA tries to be.

Of the two conferences in Dallas this year the one being organized by Lancer’s Larry Hancock and Debra Conway is attempting to present the latest state of the art research as it was presented at the Wecht Institute in Pittsburgh last October and at the AARC in Bethesda in September.

Debra and Larry recruited Alan Dale to be the master of ceremonies at their conference – a role he effectively played in Bethesda. Dale is a Washington D.C. based band leader who is comfortable in front of a microphone and is very knowledgeable about the assassination and related issues. He also produces an internet radio interview program [JFK Lancer - President John F. Kennedy Assassination Latest News and Research] similar to Len Osnic’s Black Op Radio [Black Op Radio], and recently interviewed Peter Dale Scott and UK researcher Malcolm Blunt.

JFK Lancer Conference Dallas 2014 - JFK Lancer  [www.jfklancer.com/Dallas2014/NID2014.html ] 

The Lancer people will also be at the Grassy Knoll at around noon, but recognize that COPA has the permit for the assembly and will turn over the program to COPA members Bob Groden, Tom Blackwell and Frank Caplett at the appropriate time so they can memorialize Penn Jones and John Judge and then continue their traditional moment of silence.

The other conference, a free one being organized by Judyth V. Baker  [Judyth Vary Baker / Judyth Baker], includes Jesse Ventura and the promoters from Coast to Coast radio, and Baker’s publisher - Kris Milligan along with some of the other writers he publishes including Baker and Ed Haslem, [Me & Lee – How I came to know, love and lose Lee Harvey Oswald, by Judyth Vary Baker / ME AND LEE / Judyth Vary Baker]. 

JFK Conference – Sheraton Arlingtoin   -  http://jfkconference.com/?page_id=14

While COPA will not be sponsoring a conference in Dallas this year, COPA will be hosting the Moment of Silence event at Dealey Plaza at 12:30 pm on Saturday, November 22, 2014, and then meet at a luncheon at the IHOP where they will discuss next year's event and the future of COPA in Dallas.

All are welcome.