The 50th anniversary of the murder of President John F. Kennedy in Dealey Plaza is still two years off, but somebody is already trying to shut down the plaza for the entire week of November 22, 2013. I'm not sure who yet. It's either the Sixth Floor Museum or City Hall.
This follows a decades-old campaign by the city to close the assassination site to so-called "conspiracy theorists" — that would be anyone who espouses a view of the assassination other than the official version purveyed by the assassination museum (Oswald did it, not Dallas).
Why?
Who is it who thinks this is the way for Dallas to project an appealing image of itself? In the zeitgeist of Tahrir Square and Occupy Wall Street, does someone actually believe Dallas will make itself look better by jumping with both jackboots on freedom of expression at the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination here?
There's something missing. It's something somebody doesn't get. Is it about conspiracy theories? Where would America be without conspiracy theories?
Take one iconic chapter, the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. In the months leading up to the 50th anniversary on December 7, 1991, American and British publishing companies cranked out a river of conspiracy-theory books about the Japanese sinking of America's Pacific fleet.
For a half century American schoolchildren had been taught that Japan's surprise bombing attack was what drew the United States into war, so one company reissued a book for the anniversary saying that the official version was a lie. In A Time for War, author Robert Smithy Thompson argued that long before Pearl Harbor, America had thrown the first punch by covertly assisting China against Japan. Pearl Harbor, he said, was just Japan defending itself.
In Infamy: Pearl Harbor And its Aftermath, John Toland joined an entire list of authors arguing that the American military had cracked the Japanese secret codes and was reading all their mail long before Pearl Harbor. The accusation of these authors was that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt wanted the Japanese to sink his Pacific fleet and kill 2,402 Americans so he would have an excuse to go to war.
Now that's a conspiracy theory. Might as well write a book saying the Bible was written in 1952 by Lenny Bruce.
In the autumn 1991 issue of MHQ, a quarterly journal of military history, David Kahn, the leading American expert on the subject of Japanese codes and Pearl Harbor, said that all of these theories were (and the wording that follows is mine, not his) complete and unadulterated bullshit.
In his article, Kahn said the Japanese never sent out a message, coded or uncoded, that said, "Big attack on Pearl Harbor coming up December 7." The coded messages we did intercept were drops of obscure water in a vast river of intelligence — things that have special meaning only if you're looking back with the microscope of hindsight from a vantage point 50 years later, and you're trying to hawk a book.
And maybe that's where a lot of conspiracy theory comes from. People get their scales of significance all whomper-jawed. You forget and turn your telescope around backwards, and all of a sudden that guy at the next table about to spear a stewed carrot on his plate looks like a Croatian malefactor on the roof across the street about to squeeze off a heat-seeking missile in your direction.
But that's OK. This country was founded on the belief that we can take anybody's book standing up, even the most wrong of the wrong, and we'd much rather do that than give up our freedom of speech.
And yet Dallas continues to make itself an ugly exception to this rule. I have written before about the struggles of Robert Groden, a best-selling author and recognized expert on the famous Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination, whom the city clapped in cuffs and hauled off to jail for the sin of selling his books from a table at Dealey Plaza, even though such sales were explicitly allowed under city codes in force at the time.
Groden is now suing the city in federal court for violations of his basic civil rights. It was Groden's attorney, Bradley Kizzia, who informed me of the attempt to take over Dealey Plaza for the 50th.
This was after an odd little story in The Dallas Morning News on October 30 — one of those weird sort of out-of-the-blue, doesn't-quite-make-sense Morning News stories you have to have a magic decoder ring to understand — about how the assassination museum never used to have anything to do with anniversaries of Kennedy's murder in Dallas, but for the 50th they were going to take over the whole thing.
Why is that weird? You have to know the context. Right after the assassination, publishing companies cranked out a slew of blame-it-on-Dallas books, and some of the authors said even more pointedly that some of the blame should go to the Morning News for fomenting a right-wing screwball atmosphere. Like right-wing screwballs get that way from reading the paper. But anyway, that's what they said, so the paper has always had a thin skin about these matters.
willaim greer the driver blew his head open......the masons were behind his murder,it was an ancient rite being carried out by the scottish rite.........bill cooper exposed all this bullshit over 25 years ago......ya the cia may have helped it along,but the true masterminds are the sottish rite.
There you are, Paul. So happy to see you and read factual accounts of Groden. I couldn't have said it myself any better. You know the truth about him. I know even more as my first hand knowledge of actually witnessing some of his criminal acts. I however would probably go back to jail for my, " Freedom of speech" comments that would defame him and cost him thousands of dollars in lost illegal income that he doesn't report to the IRS and Pay taxes on.
Anybody that can call Robert Groden an "expert" on the Zapruder film is not worthy of reading. Groden, by every account is a charlatan who disrupts visitors with his nonsense in Dealey Plaza selling his books and DVD's out of the back of his car. He's been arrested several times including a fistfight with his girlfriend in Dealey Plaza. Groden and his professional identity were dismantled at the O. J. Simpson trial for the world to see. He has no education in the photo sciences, belongs to no professional organizations and sold pictures of the JFK autopsy to a tabloid magazine for $50,000. Quite a ringing endorsement by Mr. Schutze.
The Shadow Over DallasOne shadow that hangs over Dallas, Los Angeles and Memphis to this dayis their failure respectively 48 and 43 years ago to protectthreatened national leaders and figures with adequate security and thefailure of their law enforcement authorities, penetrated as they wereby military intelligence and FBI, and their press, similarlypenetrated, to properly investigate these cases, preserve and examinethe forensic and autopsy evidence, and to hold a trial or even ahearing sufficient to the name or to protect the innocent and punishthe guilty. This is the true shame of those cities, not the fact thata crime was committed in their boundaries that changed the nation.
Since 1964, one independent journalist from nearby Modlothian, Texaswho did investigate and seek the dark truths that surround theassassination of President Kennedy on November 22, 1963, held a Momentof Silence on the Grassy Knoll at Dealey Plaza. A field-appointedBrigadier General in WWII, who helped to liberate the Naziconcentration camps and hated lies and injustice, named Penn Jones,Jr. I had the honor to know him and his work to expose the truth(Forgive My Grief, and see his papers at Poague Library, BaylorUniversity in Waco), and to join him in standing in silence on theGrassy Knoll before he would expound on the bullets, the deadwitnesses and the lies in the case. For Penn, President Kennedyrepresented the last, best hope for world peace and social justice inthe White House and also saw the rising Military Industrial ComplexPresident Eisenhower warned against as the culprit in his murder.Almost 50 years later research, medical evidence, Comgressionalcommittees and the released files have borne out his suspicions andthe case made by D.A. Jim Garrison in New Orleans against the JointChiefs, military intelligence and the mechanics under the control ofshadowy agencies of government. Oswald was intentionally framed as apatsy to lay blame on Fidel Castro. The federal level of investigationwas worse than the local. Penn held his Moment of Silence annually toend the official silence and challenge the lie, lest we forget whatwas done to America and democracy that day.
As he fell I'll, he asked me to continue the tradition which I havedone all these decades. After the JFK film wakened a new generation wegot most of the files loose and the crowds at Dealey grew beyond oursmall band of truth tellers. The Sixth Floor Museum arose to preservethe official lies and the reputation of Dallas. The press and moviescontinue each year to try to defend and bolster the impossiblescenario and exonerate anyone but Oswald. But history and events sincehave not absolved the perpetrators only strengthened their grip.
Since the mid 90s I have directed the national Coalition on PoliticalAssassinations, a natwork of medical, forensic and ballistics experts,historians and academics, and serious researchers into these murders.We have presented the most recent and best evidence at yearlyconferences in Dallas (www.politicalassassinatins.com). I haveincluded a Moment of Silence on the Grassy Knoll in our events everyNovember 22 at 12:30 pm, the moment of the murder. We hold up bannersand, without sound amplification, speak truth to power. We do notintend to be silent until some justice is done to history and to thisassassination. We have secured a non-exclusive permit annually forthis event fro Dallas Parks & Recreation. We have been asking for apermit for 2013 for some years now, only to be told recently that wecannot have a permit because the city and the Sixth Floor Museum wantto have exclusive use of Dealey Plaza to prevent a "circus" which isbeing blamed on anyone suggesting there was a conspiracy to killPresident Kennedy, and to eclude such "disrespect" from the 50thanniversary events on the Grassy Knoll. I would suggest that keepingalive the memory of that act, it's repercussions, and the unsolvedmurder of the victim is the only real respect we can show. A SixthFloor Museum representative was quoted saying they might have a Momentof Silence instead. What a novel idea!
However, if the officials in Dallas limit the debate on this matter toone side in a public park on 2013, their moment of silence will onlyperpetuate the half century of official and press silence about thetruth in this assassination. And given their statements to date, theywant that moment to stretch out into eternity. There, the last whisperof hope for democracy dies. We consider this an issue of repression ofthe First Amendent right to freedom of speech, expression, dissent anddebate in a public space and a public forum. The JFK, MLK and RFKassassinations are open questions and unsolved crimes that raisedeeper questions about our freedom and our country that will mark ourown demise if we let them die.
You have had your forty years and your First Amendment Rights. Now you are acting like a spoiled child who isn't getting the attention you crave. You have had over forty years to explain and convince the public of your beliefs and you're still complaining. The reason you can't convince the public is none of your beliefs are true. You can't even use this forum for a step by step explanation of your beliefs simply because none of it matches the facts.
Yeh thats not all good old boy Edgar J sat on namely the almost certainty of a hit on JFK which was relayed to the FBI and ignored. If Hoover was not actually directly implicated in the conspiracy to kill JFK and the jury is still out on that one,then its a given he was guilty by virtue of culpable inaction which makes him an accessory before the fact.
to view a partial list of crimes committed by FBI agents over 300 pages long seehttp://www.rigorousintuition.c...
LBJ was totally in bed with HL Hunt who was such a hardcore reactionary that he could be described as a blending of Jesse Helms, Strom Thurmond, Bull Conner and Curtis LeMay. LBJ was protecting his oil tax breaks and interests. LBJ and Hunt were close, close, close. HL Hunt told Johnson to accept the VP slot at Los Angeles in 1960.
Buy the book LBJ: the Mastermind of JFK's Assassination by Phillip Nelson (2011). That book is cutting edge JFK research.
We might as well be Iran or China or North Korea if you think that way. The Sixth Floor Museum, the protectors of the murderers of John Kennedy, is behind all this manuevering to close off Dealey Plaza to the American People so they can spout their lone nutter propaganda.
Lying is not "dignity." You they want to shut down Dealey Plaza for perhaps 4 days or so, not just one hour for a ceremoney. Outrageous!
[Robert Morrow – researcher into the 1963 Coup d’Etat. I have 300+ books related to the JFK assassination. Google my essay “LBJ-CIA Assassination of JFK”]
If you want to get quickly “up to speed” on the JFK assassination, here is what to read:
1) LBJ: Mastermind of JFK’s Assassination by Phillip Nelson 2) JFK and the Unspeakable:Why He Died and Why it Matters by James Douglass3) Brothers: the Hidden History of the Kennedy Years by David Talbot 4) The Dark Side of Camelot by Seymour Hersh 5) Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty by Russ Baker. 6) Google the essay “LBJ-CIA Assassination of JFK” by Robert Morrow.7) Google “National Security State and the Assassination of JFK by Andrew Gavin Marshall.” 8) Google “Chip Tatum Pegasus.” 9) Google “Vincent Salandria False Mystery Speech.” Read everything Vincent Salandria ever wrote.10) Google "Unanswered Questions as Obama Annoints HW Bush" by Russ Baker11) Google "The Holy Grail of the JFK story" by Jefferson Morley12) Google "The CIA and the Media" by Carl Bernstein13) Google "CIA Instruction to Media Assets 4/1/67"13) Google "Reasoning about Assassinations" by James Fetzer14) Google “Murray Rothbard the JFK Flap”15) Google “Preserving the Legacy by Mat Wilson”16) Google “Bertrand Russell 16 Questions on the Assassination”17) Watch on You Tube the extremely important videos The Men Who Killed Kennedy, episodes 7, 8, and 9 which focus on the role of Lyndon Johnson. 18) Watch on You Tube Jesse Ventura’s show on the JFK assassination. 19) Watch the movie JFK director’s cut by Oliver Stone. 20) Watch on You Tube “Evidence of Revision.” – 8 hours of fantastic and rare footage relating to the JFK assassination.
Another key point: Lee Harvey Oswald was U.S. intelligence and he shot NO ONE on 11/2263. Re: Oswald's intelligence connections read 1) "Oswald and the CIA" by John Newman 2) "Spy Saga: Lee Harvey Oswald and US Intelligence" by Philip Melanson 3) "History Will Not Absolve Us" by Martin Schotz (Chapter V Oswald and U.S. Intelligence by Christopher Sharrett) 4) "Me and Lee" by Judyth Vary Baker (Oswald's mistress in New Orleans, summer 1963) 5) Google “Lee Harvey Oswald’s reading habits summer 1963”
Oh, Puhlese. Robert Groden and his buddies have been occupying Dealey Plaza for the last 48 years and now it's the city's turn. Big deal. This isn't about First Amendment Rights. It's about the City finally bringing a little good taste to a horrible event. Maybe the carnival hucksters will finally go away and some dignity can be achieved. And Jim, do a tiny bit of research. How in the world can you call Groden an expert when everything he says is completely backward.
we'll be there sir spreading the truth about who really killed JFK . I don't think the city of Dallas can afford another " black eye " fifty years later . The feds took the investigation , the body and the limo away when they should have all stayed in dallas and used as evidence asked anyone accused of the crime , yes they had other leads and the feds told them " you have your man "
The people Iike you have had forty eight years on the knoll every day, every weekend, every year. On the forty fifth anniversary, it was a zoo. Now it's time to let the people who are the actual caretakers have their chance.
Robert Groden is internationally recognized as an expert on the film and photography of the JFK assassination. In addition to that, because he was the first to show the Zapruder Film on national TV, he is a national hero. I think Robert Groden deserves a Presidential Medal of Freedom.
How can a person be an expert if they have everything backward? I'll give you an example. The scriptwriter to the movie "JFK" or Groden displayed the third shot hitting JFK from the Zapruder film. Next to it, was the third shot from the movie "JFK". The Zapruder film shows the bullet coming from the rear just as it happened. The phony picture from "JFK" shows it coming from the front to suit the CT's. If the shot really came from the front, there would have been no reason to falsify the "JFK" sequence. Groden is no expert. He doesn't comprehend what is happening when viewing the Zapruder film. In addition, when I was overheard commenting on the side by side pictures, they were removed from the display when I checked a month or so later.
Just a side note on the whole Pearl Harbor thing...While we may not have had deciphered coded messages to go on, it is very well documented that one Dusko Popov, a.k.a. "TRICYCLE", a Nazi agent who had been turned by British Intelligence into a double agent, repeatedly alerted J. Edgar Hoover in August of 1941 that the Japanese were planning to attack Pearl Harbor before the end of the year. Hoover sat on the information. This disgusting chapter of Hoover's history is spelled out in two remarkable books:"A Man Called Intrepid", by William Stevenson and "Spy, Counterspy" the autobiography of Dusko Popov.
also maybe a OCCUPY ASSASSINATION MOVEMENT to rally at Parkland, Love Field, and the Funeral Home that got stiffed for the coffin the secret service stole from them without paying...could put up some CIA type scareacrows, some miscellaneous unidentified bums from the railroad track area, and pass out little metal whistles made out of spend shell cartridge casings....real festive and like have some great garage bands belting out some Beattle's stuff....leaves the Museum Crowd barren just handing out leaflets and maybe prayer rug replicas...or russian flags or somesuch....ah, the opportunities here abound.
LBJ and the CIA killed JFK. Dallas, TX's leading citizens - Clint Murchison, Sr. and H.L. Hunt were at the epicenter of the JFK assassination. Then LBJ and Hoover covered it up.
I take it you would also be against a downtown gun show for the celebration, including samples available only for shipment to Mexico via Operation Fast and Furious Former Participants.
I would go for a local screen showing of "Some Like it Hot" and a parade of 1964 lincoln convertibles filled with blow up dolls of Marilyn Monroe, each towing a boat trailer with a sailboat and the last one with a faux replica of PT-109....then a downtown rocking chair "rock off" between all members of the Dallas County Commissioner's Court, the Dallas City Council, and the DISD Board of Trustees....it could be judged by a group of recently fired teachers and county employees. Jes dreamin...
You really believe that surpressing the free speech rights of conspiracy theorists will relieve Dallas of its horrible reputation as the city that allowed JFK to be assassinated (while running newspaper ads - "Wanted for Treason" about JFK the day he arrived), and then helped, through its corrupt police department, with the cover-up? Really? Dallas will never live this down (not even in one hundred years), but especially if they continue to try to surpress the truth from coming out! You only contribute to helping people to remember that Dallas and Texas was the bastion of extreme right winger elements that included the likes of Clint Murchison, Sid Richardson, LBJ, Cliff Carter, John Connally, Malcom Wallace, H. L. Hunt, the Minutemen, the Billy James Hargis Christian Crusade, the John Birch Society, the mafia and on and on. Furthermore, you leave the distinct impression that the modern equivalent of those seditious and treasonous forces are still in control of Texas and Dallas. So be it!
Google "LBJ-CIA Assassination of JFK" and you will see why Dallas is so touchy and defensive about the Kennedy murder. The leading citizens of Dallas and leading politician of Texas, Lyndon Johnson, had him murdered.
Agreed. LBJ, in fact commissioned 17 murders including JFK and LBJ's own sister by his on staff hit-man Malcolm Wallace.
....uh, David...don't think I would have included Lyndon Johnson in your list of "extreme right winger elements"....somehow, he never struck me as all that conservative oriented...
I appreciate your answer. This is a common misperception of LBJ. LBJ talked a good social responsiblity game with his pushing the civil rights act through congress after become president and his "great society plan", but he was intimately linked with those right-wing elements that I mentioned and he personally kept JFK's civil rights legislation from passing in the Senate, both while he was majority leader of the Senate and while he was Vice-President, so that he could claim that credit in history for himself after the assassination of JFK, which he knew of in advance and helped to cover up. In addition, he personally was a deeply racist man. He blackmailed his way onto the Democratic ticket in 1960 by threatening to disclose JFK's sexual affairs, as well as Kennedy's adverse medical conditions (Addison's disease, hypothyroidism,as well as a number of auto-immune conditions that required him to be on constant pain medications), using LBJ's pal, J. Edgar Hoover's secret blackmail files on JFK. For extensive documentation of these statements, please consult any or all of the following three books: "Blood, Money & Power - How LBJ Killed JFK" by Barr McClellan - Noted LBJ Authority and Personal (LBJ) Attorney (pub 2003), "The Texas Connection" by Craig I. Zirbel (pub 1991) or "LBJ - The Mastermind of JFK's Assassination" by Phillip F. Nelson (pub 2020 - updated 2011).
So what does this mean exactly? Are we to expect a large police presence on the 50th Anniversary to keep people with different views out of DP? I guess this is what the right-wing wants. They want a police state to enforce their beliefs on people. Anyone who disagrees with conservatives must be stomped on and beaten or assassinated. The host of Top Gear in the UK said striking workers should be shot in front of their families. What the hell is wrong with people?
If you believe the Warren Commission report was a victory for dignity I guess we can look forward to you sharing your scat and animal p0rn collection with us shortly.
I sorta thought the Warren Report was a total farce and staffed by a controlled group of people dedicated to hiding any real facts behind a bunch of tripe. Maybe I am sorta conflicted that I think a fraudulent government report brought much dignity along with it, any more than Al Lipscomb brought racial harmony and the end to political corruption to Dallas.
True. For example, Doubleday published the entire official W.C. Report in 1964 with a forward by Louis Nizer. He wrote on page v-a that "the parade route (to the Trade Mart) past the T.S.B.D. was used only because Market Hall was not available". But, that is illogical. Both the Trade Mart and Market Hall are and have always been next to each other and on ther same side of the freeway.
The institutions (newspaper, city) are thin skinned and resentful about it because it's true what their masters did that November day. It's who those people are and always have been and always will be and this town won't be free of it until their kids die off. The lackeys and minions who serve the masters and run their institutions don't want to face that reality so they continue to live in denial.
Well it seems to me (tin foil hat on tight) that if city hall is involved that it reinforces my view that the city council is hell bent on trying to clean up it’s image and reputation from being the city of hate.
I am reminded of all those consultant studies, funded by our tax dollars, that try to re brand Dallas by a new slogan when the city, by it’s actions, the city government constantly shows that it truly is the city of hate.
The city staff and council have a long track record of trying to close long time established businesses. They have a long track record of waste, incompetence and indifference to the vast majority of the citizens (with the exception of those who are their keepers) that they are elected to represent.
It seems that you can’t break wind without a permit or a tax fee to keep the city on their path of squandering. And don’t get me started on the bias of the Dallas Morning News. Yes skip the next tax funded consultant to find that new slogan or nick name for Dallas-you have one already- Dallas Hate City.
This location is one of the most often visited sites for 'tourists' passing thru Dallas. If we tell them they won't be able to go there, especially after coming from far away, what will they think? That Dallas is asahamed or is guilty, or perhaps that there really was a conspiracy. And that we're all a bunch of Rick Perries!
Find everything you're looking for in your city
Find the best happy hour deals in your city
Get today's exclusive deals at savings of anywhere from 50-90%
Check out the hottest list of places and things to do around your city
![A Dallas Firefighter Was Killed Battling Massive Northeast Dallas Condo Blaze [Updated]](http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/common/assets/700590.75x75.jpg)
