JFK Research for Beginners - Rules
for Researchers - By Bill Kelly
Deciding to learn about the
assassination of President Kennedy has been described as entering “the Rabbit’s
Hole,” or entering the “Wilderness of Mirrors,” a vast morass you can’t easily
wade through without getting lost or stuck.
Fortunately, and thanks to those who
have gone before us, the Rabbit’s Hole and House of Mirrors is well mapped out
and a lot easier to navigate than the first generation of researchers found.
Before you begin or even look at the
maps, you have to take a pre-requisite linguistics class on the lexicon.
When the owner of the Atlantic City
Country Club asked me to write the 100 year history of his golf club, I told
him that I didn’t play golf or know much about the game, and he said he had two
thousand golfers and he needed a researcher and writer. Club golf pro told me
that all I had to do was learn the lingo of golf –the lexicon, and the rest
would come easy, such as the term ‘birdie’ meant one under par for the hole, a
term that had been coined there, and so came my second book “Birth of the
Birdie.”
And just as David Maurer, the
Kentucky linguist, went into the underworld of criminals to learn their slang
terms, and came out with the key to the Big Con confidence games –ala The
Sting, in order to understand what happened at Dealey Plaza you have to learn
how to read documents, translate codes, and identify aliases with the true name
of persons.
Now that many of the most
significant JFK assassination records are digitalized on line and can be
accessed with a computer connected to the internet, it’s a lot easier to become
an armchair detective instead of having to actually go to the National Archives
and Records Administration (NARA), become a research associate, and travel to
the Archives II in College Park, Maryland to review a cart of documents that
you had requested the day or week before.
The Archives II was funded in 1992
as part of the Congressionally mandated JFK Act, and is one of a number of
remote archives, including Presidential Libraries run by the NARA, under
Archivist of the United States (AOTUS) David Ferriero. The old, original
Archives building, in downtown Washington D.C. (Across the street from the Hard
Rock Café), has the theater where the first Assassination Records Review Board
(ARRB) hearings were held, and offices, it has a famous statute on the front
steps that reads: “The Past Is Prologue,” a Shakespeare quote. The JFK
Collection is housed at the Archives II, about fifteen miles north of
Washington near the University of Maryland.
The digitalized documents on line
are just the tip of the perverbial iceberg, as the JFK Collection at the
Archives II also includes the main evidence in the murder of President Kennedy,
including the rifle said to have been the murder weapon, the Zapruder Film, and
other key elements in the crime.
Besides the hard evidence, films,
videos, tape recordings and emails, there are what they call “textural”
records, or documents, of which there are over 5 million, most of which have
not been scanned and digitalized and put on line, as the most recently released
documents were.
Even the textural documents can be
broken down into categories – such as index cards, handwritten notes,
typewritten reports, memos, cables and transcripts of interviews.
While another set of rules apply to
those who actually visit the Archives II, this will be a primer for those who
want to review the JFK assassination records that are posted on line, beginning
with the NARA web site where they were first posted. The NARA, in ignoring the
JFK Act provision that requires the Archivist to provide the public with a
guide and index to the JFK Collection, has instead posted a completely useless
web site that has not been updated in years, but has been over-rided by three
private sites that are much more easily navigated.
Mary Ferrell, a Dallas legal
secretary, was one of the first generation of researchers to keep a good record
of everything that had to do with the assassination, and she began with index
cards on subjects and persons and a very useful chronology file, a collection
she sold to a software developer who had researcher Rex Bradford scan and post
the most significant records she had and what were released by the NARA.
The MaryFerrell.org web site has
been responsible for much of the best new work on the assassination to date.
While the Mary Ferrell site was a
lone pioneer, two others have entered the fray, including the good folks at the
Blackvault.com, where they copied all of the records from NARA and made a more
workable search engine.
Microsoft: https://blogs.technet.
Then the Microsoft research team, in
order to make a case study of a subject to test their new software application,
chose the newly released JFK records and pumped them all through their black box
machine and came out with some very interesting results, as one Microsoft
engineer put it: “We just ran all the content through, and right away you could
see that the CIA, the FBI and even Cuba were involved in all this.”
Now in dealing with textural JFK
Assassination documents the first thing you need to know is what they call the
“RIF” number – Record Identification Form – that begins with a number – three
digits – the first of which relates to the agency of origin – FBI, CIA, State,
etc.
For example: 157-10014-10049 is the
RIF Record Identification number, with 157 signifying the SSCIA - Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence Activities - AKA the Church Committee is the
originator, while 180-10143-10299 is a House Select Committee on Assassinations
(HSCA) record as the 180 indicates.
RIFs
180-xxxxx-xxxxx (HSCA)
: 35
124-xxxxx-xxxxx (FBI)
: 7
178-xxxxx-xxxxx
(RockComm) : 5
177-xxxxx-xxxxx
(LbjLib) : 3
157-xxxxx-xxxxx
(Church) : 1
179-xxxxx-xxxxx (???):
1
From the earlier July
release of 424 (not incl. 17 audio files):
104-xxxxx-xxxxx (CIA)
: 402
180-xxxxx-xxxxx (HSCA)
: 22
Still withheld in
full:
124-xxxxx-xxxxx (FBI)
: 1251
104-xxxxx-xxxxx (CIA)
769
179-xxxxx-xxxxx (???)
: 549
137-xxxxx-xxxxx (IRS)
: 178
180-xxxxx-xxxxx (HSCA)
: 107
119-xxxxx-xxxxx
(State) : 94
176-xxxxx-xxxxx (NARA)
: 45
181-xxxxx-xxxxx (also
NARA): 39
178-xxxxx-xxxxx
(RockComm): 26
157-xxxxx-xxxxx
(Church) : 25
177-xxxxx-xxxxx
(LbjLib) : 16
111-xxxxx-xxxxx (DIA):
14
198-xxxxx-xxxxx (Army)
: 6
202-xxxxx-xxxxx (JCS)
: 2
173-xxxxx-xxxxx (ONI):
2
Each RIF page – the first page of
every record – will tell you a lot – the agency of origin, the topic, subjects,
number of pages – some documents are hundreds of pages long, others just a one
page memo, but every record should have a RIF number that you can always refer
to, site as a source and easily return to.
Most of the search engines – Mary
Ferrell-Blackvault-Microsoft use name or subject traces, as well as the RIF
number, so you can type in a name – David Atlee Phillips, John Rosselli,
William Harvey, and come up with hundreds of documents you can brouse, or you
can review them according to the Subject file, or date.
As James Jesus Angleton told Thomas
Powers, one of the first things you do in beginning a Counter-Intelligence
investigation is to create a Chronology of relevant events so everything can be
more easily understood, and while Mary Ferrell had the best Chronology when she
was alive, she has been super seeded by Ira David Wood’s JFK Assassination
Chronology –
Besides the RIF numbers, name and
subject files and chronology, it is also necessary to learn the language and
techniques of what Allen Dulles called The Crafts of Intelligence.
First off there’s the acronyms –
abbreviations using the first letter of a title – as in POTUS – President of
the United States, and ACSI – Army Chief of Staff for Intelligence, CIA –
Central Intelligence Agency, FBI, etc.
Then there are very specific
operational terms – as an Agent is a very different person than an intelligence
Officer or an intelligence Asset – who can be a willing asset or unwitting
asset who does what you want without knowing the full program.
Most CIA Officers are what David
Maurer and the Big Con artists call “Inside Men,” who operate from a desk with
a telephone and give instructions and directions, and are usually suave and
sophisticated – such as Ted Shackley and Desmond Fitzgerald, while the “Outside
Men” operate in what they call “In the field,” - on the street, interacting
with their agents, operatives and assets – such as David Phillips and William
Harvey.
Official Officers and Agents work
out of an embassy under cover, while others operate apart from the embassy,
under commercial or business cover, usually using an alias and fake identity
that will withstand a background check.
When they communicate in memos,
cables or letters, they use a crypt code that is only known to them – such as
KUBARAK is the crypt code they used for the CIA Headquaters in Langley, Va.,
while JMWAVE was the code for the largest CIA base in the world at the old
South Campus at the University of Miami, Florida.
Peter Dale Scott, Bill Simpich, John
Newman, Rex Bradford and Malcolm Blunt have all contributed to the lists of
aliases, codes, crypts and ciphers that are used by those involved in the JFK
assassination story, so visiting the lists composed so far at MaryFerrell.org
will give you a good idea of what you are up against in trying to make sense of
some of the more obscure JFK assassination documents.
Mary Ferrell CIA Cryptonyms: https://www.maryferrell.org/php/cryptdb.php
Besides the official NARA JFK
Collection web site, and the three searchable data bases, there are other good
sources for JFK Assassination records including Baylor University library,
JFKFacts.org, JFK Lancer, Kennedys & Kings, Hood College, Sixth Floor
Oral History Project, and of course CAPA-US.org.
FOR MORE GO TO JFKCOUNTERCOUP2 - Rules for Researchers Part 2 - Advice and Techniques JFKCountercoup2: Rules for Researchers Part 2 - Advice and Techniques
RULES
FOR RESEARCHERS - Part 2
For
those who are serious about diving into the JFK assassination records, I have
some further advice.
DOUBLE
IDENTITIES
For
starters, as every researcher has learned over time, beware of the duel and
double identities - different individuals with the same name. This occurs again
and again, and should be recognized as soon as possible to avoid future
confusion.
I mean
there are two Bill Kellys – the Florida immigrant investigator who concentrated
on the Cubans, and Bill Kelly – the JFK assassination researcher from New
Jersey.
We even
found another John Judge – a rock musician who promoted a duel head guitar, and
John Judge the radical researcher from Washington D.C.
In
addition, there are a number of JFK assassination suspects with the same name –
including Jack Martin – the first suspect in the assassination – a Dallas
college student from Northern Louisiana who picketed the UN ambassador when he
visited Dallas, and Jack Martin (Scruggs) who was the first witness to
implicate David Ferrie and Guy Bannister as associates of Oswald in New
Orleans.
There
were two Maurice Bishops – the pseudo name of David Atlee Phillips in his
undercover operations involving Antonio Veciana, and the Maurice Bishop who was
the socialist leader of Grenada when the US invaded the Central American island
nation.
Then
there are multiple “Julio Fernandez” -
the former Cuban newspaper editor and defector who was investigated by the
Pennsylvania State Police, his son, a Penn State art student, and the Julio
Fernandez who served as a JMWAVE commando team leader whose maritime cover t
actions were financially supported by Clare Booth Luce. When the CIA was asked
for their file on Julio Fernandez, they came up with over a dozen individuals
with the same name, but neither the newspaper editor or the commando team
leader was included. And for good reason.
Others double identities are found in Donald Norton and Donald P. Norton. One is a guy who looks like Oswald and says he met him, and the other is a fisherman. Another Don Norton wrote a book on the history of defense industry company.
There's even another Bill Kelly - a Miami police investigator assigned to the Cuban Squad.
Others double identities are found in Donald Norton and Donald P. Norton. One is a guy who looks like Oswald and says he met him, and the other is a fisherman. Another Don Norton wrote a book on the history of defense industry company.
There's even another Bill Kelly - a Miami police investigator assigned to the Cuban Squad.
BASIC
ASSUMPTIONS
There
are a number of basic assumptions that we must make before beginning research.
1)
We
can assume that since the assassination was not the spontaneous act of a mad
man, it was a very well planned and crafted operation – a covert intelligence
operation.
2)
As
a covert intelligence operation, standard covert intelligence operational
techniques were utilized, techniques that are well known and easily identified.
3)
Just
as linguist David Maurer had to learn the unique slang used in the criminal
underworld before he could learn and understand the basic factors of the Big
Con confidence games, we must learn the unique lexicon of the intelligence
world. For instance there is a difference between Agents, Operatives and
Assets, and subcategories of each – such as Witting Assets and Unwitting Assets,
and five different types of Agents – Inside, Native, Living, Double and
Expendable.
4)
One
of the first basic standard operational procedures begins with giving a code
name to each operation – and the assassination of President Kennedy had a
covert operational code name that we will someday learn – some say it was
ZIPPER, but for now we will refer to it as the Dealey Plaza Operation – or DPO.
5)
Other
assumptions ?
OTHER
ASSUMPTIONS
Some of
the assumptions we make after an analysis of the basic evidence and facts of
the case inc
Include
a)
The
assassination of the President was not the work of one man alone, but a covert
intelligence operation that utilized standard covert intelligence operational
crafts and techniques that are well known and easily identified.
b)
If
the assassination was a covert intelligence operation it was not a “rogue”
operation or one committed by an independent or out of control agency or
network, but was “officially” sanctioned, and a coup de’etat, so those who
killed the President also took over the reigns of power and changed policy, so
that narrows down the suspects consiserably.
c)
If
the assassination was a covert action coup and standard covert operational coup
techniques were utilized, then according to Edward Lutwak, author of Coup
d’etat – A Practical Handbook, those who conducted the operation on the ground
in Dallas controlled the scenes of the crime – Dealey Plaza and the Texas
School Book Depository (TSBD) and it was planned and carried out to the minute,
if not seconds.
d)
If
the Practical Handbook for a coup was used, as it must have been, then those
overseeing the assassination operation controlled the communications, not only
the communications among those involved on the ground, but the major
communications to news outlets and the media.
e)
The
assassination was committed by an intelligence network that was affiliated with
CIA operations involved in Cuban operations – limiting the scope of research to
the Cuban arena.
f)
The
assassination was originally devised as a plan to kill Fidel Castro, and
redirected to JFK at Dealey Plaza,
g)
The
assassination plan as originally devised included a security cover story to
blame the assassination on Castro Cuban Communists, a part of the plan that was
rejected and can be shown not only to be false, but a covert black propaganda
disinformation psychological warfare program.
h)
Tracing
the origins of the CCC cover story will lead directly to those responsible for
the Dealey Plaza Operation and its sponsors;
RESEARCH
TECHNIQUES
There
are a number of research techniques that can be used to assist us in narrowing
down the information to what is needed and necessary.
WALT
WHITMAN’S LETTERS
Over a
hundred years after the death of America’s poet laureient Walt Whitman, when
every Whitman scholar believed we had every poem and article penned by Whitman
in the public domain, and there was nothing new under the sun, along comes a
Whitman scholar who came up with a new idea and discovered thousands of never
before known Whitman letters that were just sitting there among the shelves of
the National Archives.
Being
familiar with Whitman’s handwriting and signature, he thought that if he went
through the early Civil War records of the Department of Justice, where Whitman
worked as a secretary for a year, he would discover a few new official letters
that Whitman wrote in the course of his work there. And Alas! He didn’t find a
few, he found thousands of them! Which will take Whitman scholars years to wade
through and weight their significance.
This
story was told by the Archivist of the United States (AOTUS) David Ferriaro in
his AOTUS blog.
Ferriero
is also responsible for overseeing the JFK Act is carried out, and despite
being an advocate of transparency and open records, advised the President to
continue withholding JFK assassination records for years past the October 2017
release date set by Congress and the JFK Act.
But the
Whitman story is worth knowing as it shows how a little ingenuity can bring
major results.
THREE
TIME HITS
As Max
Holland’s historian wife has advised him, we should look for patterns, and I
have devised what I call Three Time Hits. Whenever a person or place or subject
comes up twice in unrelated areas, take notice and when it happens three times
– begin a file on it. As Ian Fleming of 007 fame said, one time is
happenstance, twice is coincidence, and three times is enemy action.
Collins
Radio was the first time I utilized the Three Time Hits technique, as I first
took notice of them in the pre-assassination November 1, 1963 front page story
and photo of the CIA raider ship REX, docked at Palm Beach, Florida near the
President’s family home. The Rex had delivered teams of commandos who had high
powered rifles with scope. According to the official record the Rex was owned
by Belcher Oil company of Miami and leased to the Collins Radio Corporation for
research purposes.
Then I
read that J.D. Tippit’s good friend Carl Mather worked for Collins Radio and
being there was his alibi at the time of Tippit’s murder. Then I learned that
the Air Force One radios were manufactured by Collins and their Cedar Rapids,
Iowa relay station – known as “Liberty” station, coordinated not only the radio
traffic for Air Force One and other Executive air planes, but also the
Strategic Air Command (SAC) bombers.
And now
I have a very thick file on Collins Radio and its role in strategic
communications.
After
Collins Radio, my Three Time Hits (TTH) technique came into play again as I
read about how Jack Ruby flew to Miami from Havana with a suitcase of cash that
he obtained from the casino owning Fox brothers, and deposited it for them in
the Pan Am – Pan American Bank of Miami, which he dutifully did.
Then I
read in the HSCA reports that Robert Ray M cKeown the pro-Castro gun runner who Castro visited
when he came to America, had also been visited by Jack Ruby, who was interested
in using his influence with Castro to get
Santo Traficante out of an Havana retention facility. As McKeown had
flew guns to Castro in the mountains before his revolution, he said he was paid
in cash wrapped in Pan Am Bank wrappers.
That’s
two ostensibly unrelated associations with the Pan Am Bank of Miami.
Then
there is the clincher.Anti-Castro Cuban terrorists Antonio Veciana told
Congressional investigator Gaeton Fonzi, that his spy master and case officer
“Maurice Bishop,” after recruiting him, had Veciana take psychological warfare
lessons and sign a security agreement in an office in the Pan Am Bank in Miami,
Florida.
I wasn’t
surprised when I obtained (through Malcolm Blunt) – Fonzi’s notes from his tape
recorded interview with former CIA gunsmith Mitch Werbell, who Fonzi recorded
in his notes, told him that the Pan Am Bank in Miami was a CIA asset and used
in the course of operations.
Unfortunately,
Fonzi’s tape recorded interview has been erased, or otherwise destroyed, and
many – and that’s probably most of the Church Committee recorded interviews are
missing.
Which brings us to Peter Dale Scott’s
“Negative-Template” thesis, which maintains that the most significant Deep
Political records are the ones that are missing or have been destroyed, a
thesis that we have found to be correct.
NEGATIVE
TEMPLATE
Peter
Dale Scott’s NEGATIVE-TEMPLATE – The Missing and Destroyed Records
As Peter
Dale Scott’s Deep Political thesis contemplates, the Deep Political state runs
on secrecy and the absences of official records, so of all the extant documents
and records, the ones that are destroyed or missing are the most significant.
And while we may not have them, we do have references to them, we know what
people who wrote them or read them say is in them, and in some cases, as with
the Tampa SS advance report, we can locate copies at remote locations. We also
have the names of those who wrote them, or the subject matter, so we can
surmise what is in them.
After my
conversation with Judge John Tunheim, at the National Press Club in Washington
DC last March (2017), I composed a list of records we knew at one time existed
but are now missing.
And Bill
Simpich has composed a list of records know to have been destroyed.
All of
these extensive lists give us a good idea of what pieces of the puzzle are
missing and allows us to try to fill them in with the proper information.
Join CAPA and become part of our
Research Team and share the information we uncover.
Bill Kelly – CAPA Research
Coordinator.
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