The Existentialist Cowboy: Oswald

Showing posts with label Oswald. Show all posts

Saturday, January 17, 2009

The Origins of American Decline in the Assassination of John F. Kennedy

by Len Hart, the Existentialist Cowboy

The Warren Commission's official 'magic bullet' theory was cooked up to cover up the undeniable fact that the shot that killed JFK came from the front, the infamous grassy knoll where witnesses were photographed rushing up the knoll toward a leafy cover just behind the picket fence.

Gerald Ford admitted to tampering with evidence while he was on the Warren Commission. In other words, Ford committed a federal crime the effect of which has kept the truth from the American people since 1963.

The initial draft of the report stated:

"A bullet had entered his back at a point slightly above the shoulder to the right of the spine."
Ford wanted it to read:

"A bullet had entered the back of his neck slightly to the right of the spine."
--Gerald Ford's Terrible Fiction

The murder of Lee Harvey Oswald by known mobster Jack Ruby was entirely too timely, too convenient. It necessitated the creation of the Warren Commission which, in fact, facilitated and promoted the government's official cover story.

"According to the Warren Report the missile hit JFK in the posterior neck, then without striking any hard object passed through the neck to exit at the front of his throat. It then entered Texas Governor John B. Connally's back at the right arm pit, sliding along his fifth rib, demolishing four inches of the rib before it exited his chest below the right nipple. The bullet then allegedly struck and shattered the radius of the right wrist on the dorsal side, then exited at the base of his palm and hit his left thigh just about the knee.

The Report then asserts that CE 399 traveled about three inches beneath the surface of the skin, hit the femur and deposited a lead fragment on the bone. Then, sometime later, with a spasm of reverse kinetic energy it spontaneously exited the hole in Connally's thigh and neatly tucked itself under the mattress of a stretcher parked in a hallway of the Parkland Memorial Hospital that the Report asserted was linked to the wounded governor. There it rested calmly under the mattress waiting for its rendezvous with history."
--Gerald McKnight, Researcher

The "chain of evidence" on Commission Exhibit 399 --known as the 'Magic Bullet' --had been broken. The government could not have convicted Oswald with a 'magic bullet'. Moreover, because the 'chain of evidence' had been broken, the 'magic bullet' would not have been admitted as evidence.

A trial of Oswald would have exposed the fraudulent nature of the Warren Commission --motive enough to order the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald who had maintained from the get go that he was a 'patsy'. Oswald, I am sure, would have had much more to say in his own defense had his case gone to trial. Oswald was the man who knew too much.

The death of Oswald was improbably convenient. It relieved the government of having to get a conviction which it most certainly could not have done with inadmissible evidence. Incredibly, however, we are expected to believe a simple-minded cover story that would have been thrown out of court by a competent and/or honest judge. We are expected to believe that a single bullet fired from the Mannlicher-Carcano was responsible for numerous wounds --a fatal one to JFK and serious wounds to Texas Governor John Connally. None of this would have gotten by a spirited, competent defense.

The Zapruder film would have been played back in court, proving to any intelligent jury that the 'magic bullet' was not only wrong and inadmissible, it was irrelevant. The fatal shot came from the front, striking JFK just above his right eye, exploding his skull and driving his head backward from the impact.

Backward and to the left.

If you doubt this, here is a link to a unique site: Zapruder Film Frame by Frame. Every frame of Zapruder is enlarged and accessible with a link. Zapruder can be examined, literally, frame by frame.

The murder of JFK may not have been the classic coup d'etat usually announced amid great chest beating and displays of arms and/or militia.

This coup d'etat was a covert takeover by the low profile beneficiaries inside the Military/Industrial complex and throughout the CIA. As subsequent events have proven since that date, Lincoln's vision of a 'government of the people, by the people and for the people' did, indeed, perish from this earth. If it was not the classic coup d'etat, we might have been better off if it had been. Our traitors are cowards who subvert us with secrecy, lies, and subterfuge. Some prefer the tyrant that can be seen to unseen 'spooks' who murder by stealth and proxy.

If Oswald had gone to trial, the 'magic bullet' might never have been debated --powerful motive to prevent such a trial. The 'magic bullet' theory is intended to deflect attention from the grassy knoll where JFKs killer fired a fatal shot to the front from behind the cover afforded him by a picket fence and a considerable foliage.

The attending staff at Parkland said that Kennedy's neck wound was an entry wound --not an exit wound; therefore JFK sustained at least two shots from the front. These are the truths that are highly inconvenient to the government and other proponents of the 'official' Oswald story. It is a 'story' that would have been consigned to the dust bin of history had Oswald lived and had the government been required to prove its absurd case against him.

Numerous witnesses described hearing a shot from that direction; others saw smoke.

What those witnesses saw was captured most dramatically by Abraham Zapruder. His film proves conclusively that the fatal shot [Frame 313] forces JFKs head backward and to the left. Secondly, it is clear that the limousine begins to slow from a forward speed of 9 MPH to 7.8 MPH at frame 310.

Frame 313 is undeniable and irrefutable. JFK was still alive when a powerful shot from the front exploded upon impact on the right side of the President's forehead, just above his right eye. As Dan Rather initially described the film: the head was knocked backward by the impact of a shot fired from the front . In Zapruder we witness the results of a gunshot wound from the front --not a whiplash from a limousine popping a wheelie.

The many official lies about JFKs murder have had the effect, in fact, of deflecting attention from real evidence that disproves the official narrative, real evidence that had it been followed up would most certainly have proven that Lee Harvey Oswald: 1) could not have fired the fatal shot; 2) was probably not even in the depository window at the time of the murder; 3) would have been ill-placed as a shooter even IF he had a part of the bigger conspiracy.

There are many reasons to discount every part of the official narrative, everything said by the government and the Warren Commission about the murder of JFK. There is only one reason people lie in cases like this: they do not wish you to know the truth. They do not wish you to suspect that a shooter in the grassy knoll would have had the best shot, the best chance to murder JFK. There is only one reason 'they' do not wish you to know or suspect this: the government itself was complicit with a grassy knoll shooter.

Otherwise, why is the government so threatened? Why are official conspiracy theorists so adamant, so intolerant, so insistent? How do idiots get so smart, so fast?

Having seen certified pictures of the so-called 'magic bullet', I find it hard to believe that the bullet had ever been fired, let alone slicing through flesh and smashing hard, dense bone as the government shills would have you believe. You can see pictures of the 'magic bullet' [CE 399, posted above; click for larger image] at the JFK LANCER. This is the very picture of pristine. It is highly doubtful that it had even been fired, let alone create multiple wounds and extensive bone damage. Secondly, Zapruder frame 230 proves that John Connally had not been hit by the same bullet that magic bullet theorists say struck JFK. On this point, the expert testimony of a pathologist may be seen in the second video in the playlist posted below.

The Warren Commission simply discounted anything that didn't fit officialdom. The magic bullet was concocted by Arlen Specter though he has no experience in forensics! My opinion is, at least, as good as his and most certainly less biased in favor of anything that might benefit the GOP, the MIC, or the CIA.

Specter may have hoped to deflect attention from the real source of the fatal bullet that struck JFK just above his right eye from the front. Specter may have hoped to paper over the holes. Specter's motives are relevant to the Warren Commission's credibility. If it was Specter's motive to cover up the truth by diversion, then he is guilty of obstruction of justice. Moreover, if the fatal shot came from the front the 'magic bullet' is just another establishment red herring at best, a federal crime at worst. It hinges upon Specter's motives.

The Magic Bullet was entered into the chain of evidence before it had been taken out of Connally's leg --evidence that the 'official magic bullet theory' was concocted in advance of the investigation. The 'state' was looking for anything that would shore up the cover. Real investigations are not conducted in this manner. But cover ups are! Indeed, even the FBI and the Secret Service stated in their separate reports that JFK and John Connally were struck by separate bullets.

A Warren Commission member expressed serious reservations about one of the panel's more controversial conclusions, the theory that a single shot wounded both President John F. Kennedy and Texas Gov. John Connally, a long-secret document has revealed. The "magic-bullet" theory was essential to the commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald was a lone assassin.

Marked "confidential," the released document was a memorandum sent by commission member John J. McCloy to the commission's chief counsel, J. Lee Rankin. It was dated June 24, 1964, seven months after Kennedy's assassination in Dallas, and conveyed McCloy's critique of a draft of the final Warren Commission report.

"I think too much effort is expended on attempting to prove that the first bullet, which hit the president, was also responsible for all of Connally's wounds," McCloy wrote. (Note: the commas are not in the original.) "The evidence against this is not fully stated." He added that a section of the report dealing with the possibility of shots being fired at Kennedy's motorcade from an overpass was "not well done." Elsewhere, McCloy questioned the commission's account that a bullet found on a stretcher at Dallas' Parkland Hospital - where Kennedy and Connally were treated after being shot - was the "magic bullet." He wrote: "The statement concerning the bullet which was found on the stretcher is not particularly persuasive because there is no indication that the `stretcher bullet' was in fact the bullet which caused the [Connally] wrist wound."

The "magic-bullet" theory's importance to the conclusion that Oswald alone killed Kennedy lay in the number and timing of the shots fired at the president's motorcade. The commission concluded there was time for Oswald to fire no more than three shots and that he did, in fact, fire three times. One was said to have missed the presidential limousine entirely. A second - the fatal bullet - was said to have struck Kennedy in the back of the head. That left just one more bullet, but it was known that Kennedy also had been struck in the lower part of the back of his neck and that Connally had suffered wounds to his back, right wrist and left thigh.

--JFK Lancer

As relevant as these conclusions are, it is the fraudulent manner in which the 'magic bullet is introduced that makes this a case of obstruction of justice, possibly high treason to which Arlen Specter was complicit.

According to JFK Lancer, on March 20, 1964 the W. Commission took testimony of Darrell Tomlinson who found the bullet on a gurney in Parkland, Hospital. Incredibly, Tomlinson, was never shown CE-399 or asked to identify it as the bullet he found that day. Having Tomlinson ID the bullet would have confirmed the bullet's bone fides.

But that did not happen.

Like 911, the official cover story is built upon a demonstrable lie. Like 911, the official story was and remains pure bullshit! Like 911, the official cover story has had, in fact, the effect of shielding culprits who committed murder and high treason! Like 911, the culprits are found throughout and in positions of power in what is still called the 'government' of the United States. It is a government that repeatedly betrays the citizens, the sovereign people.

How many more lies have been puked up by the Warren Commission in order to cover up the truth about the cold, blooded murder of JFK?

Every crime is a matter of motive, method and opportunity. In this case, those who had the most powerful motives had the most powerful methods at their disposal. Those who wanted JFK dead had methods equal to their designs. They had the awesome power of the state on their side and they would use it in an act of treason against the state, the person of JFK and against the interests of the people who had placed JFK in office. This is murder on the most obvious level but on another it is an act of high treason. That some of these traitors still live and occupy high office is most certainly at the root cause of this nation's demise.

It is not unreasonable to conclude that planning for the JFK murder began with his historic inaugural address. Subsequently, he promised to smash the CIA into a 'thousand pieces'; he threatened to expose 'secret societies' and 'cults' that he believe posed a threat to the republic; he promised to abolish the FED. The nation, having endured the seemingly endless Viet Nam quagmire, abominable abrogations of Civil Rights, a war waged by the CIA and the FBI against civil liberties, it is easy to forget how revolutionary were JFKs words.

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

--John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961

Likewise, the entrenched establishment of about one percent of our own population could not have been happy with JFKs commitment to human rights.

To those peoples in the huts and villages across the globe struggling to break the bonds of mass misery, we pledge our best efforts to help them help themselves, for whatever period is required—not because the Communists may be doing it, not because we seek their votes, but because it is right. If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich.

--JFK, Inaugural Address

In 1961, many powerful forces in and out of the US government would have felt threatened by JFKs commitment to the United Nations, a body still widely opposed and reviled by powerful forces inside the US.

To that world assembly of sovereign states, the United Nations, our last best hope in an age where the instruments of war have far outpaced the instruments of peace, we renew our pledge of support—to prevent it from becoming merely a forum for invective—to strengthen its shield of the new and the weak—and to enlarge the area in which its writ may run.
--JFK, Inaugural Address

And then JFK struck at the very source of an evil 'livlihood' --the Military/Industrial complex about which Dwight Eisenhower had but recently warned.

Let both sides seek to invoke the wonders of science instead of its terrors.
--JFK, Inaugural Address

The MIC is simply not interested in the 'freedom of man'. Like the Mafia, the MIC is in the death business and, under regimes of Reagan, Bush Sr and Bush Jr, the nation itself has become Murder, Inc.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

The MIC is not interested enough in the 'freedom of man' to bother reading the US Constitution. When Gen. Haydon was appointed to head up the CIA, it was obvious that he had never bothered to read the Constitution and was appallingly ignorant, lacking even a 7th grade knowledge of the Fourth Amendment. This was not surprising in the administration of one George W. Bush who had called the Constitution just a "Goddamned piece of paper!"

What has resulted from the cold-blooded murder of JFK, a murder that I believe was carried out largely by our own government? Certainly, the death of JFK seems to have ushered in the present era, dominated as it is by the right wing. For that reason, the faults of the Democratic party are not found in its opposition to the GOP but, rather, in its failure to oppose the GOP. Since 1980, the GOP simply ran rough shod for all but eight years.

The GOP --party to numerous treasons, lies and betrayals --confirm that the GOP is not a political party. The GOP is, rather, a criminal conspiracy, a syndicate, evincing symptoms of the very worst and evil cults. Comparisons to the Nazi party are not out of line; they are conservative. The GOP must bear the criminal responsibility for having subverted the US Constitution by fraud and force and, most recently and conspicuously aiding, abetting and facilitating the rise to power of George W. Bush whose legacy about whom it is charitable to state the obvious that he was this nation's very worst President ever.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

"When the government murders truth"

The significance of Jim Garrison is not that he solved a murder, but that he stated the greater truth about a murder than was witnessed by the world on November 22, 1963. It was not only John F. Kennedy who was murdered that day but American democracy itself. It was, in Garrison's words, a coup d'etat!

It is easier to prove who did not murder JFK than it is to prove who did, just as it is easier now to prove who didn't pull off 911. It is clear by now that Lee Harvey Oswald, like the debate about 'magic bullets', is almost irrelevant to the bigger issue: who fired the fatal shot? Who benefited? What was it about JFK that threatened the 'secret societies' that the young President had warned about? What was it about his Presidency that so disturbed a Military/Industrial complex so feared by Dwight Eisenhower?

Certainly, the debate about a 'magic bullet' is as irrelevant as are the post hoc convolutions it is hoped will paper over the holes in the "official theories". On March 6, 1975, Geraldo Rivera broadcast a bootlegged version of the famous Zapruder film. Admittedly, it has not forever shut up the dwindling number of those die hards who have a vested interest in promoting a pitifully inadequate theory not supported by fact, science or observation. Indeed, the Zapruder film depicts --unambiguously --a devastating, dramatic shot from the front, the grassy knoll specifically. This shot strikes the President in the head, explodes it, and drives it backward. We know that shots were fired from the rear! It is that single dramatic shot from the front that proves conspiracy.

The cold blooded murder of JFK, like 911 more recently, divided our nation. Both terrorist acts were papered over with absurd cover stories by an 'establishment' with a vested interest in the promotion of an absurd version of events. Just as George W. Bush has a vested interest in destroying physical evidence related to 911, the proponents of the Warren Commission report were equally compromised. Just as the Bush administration interfered with the 911 Commission, the CIA and the Military/Industrial Complex had much to hide back in 1963.

President Kennedy was killed by a small group coordinated by rogue but powerful members of the CIA, Military Intelligence, the FBI, and the Mafia. Primarily, this was a CIA murder against its own President. There were several reasons - Kennedy posed a major threat to the establishment - he sought peace with the Soviets, to bring about the end of the Cold War. He refused to provide air cover for the exiled Cubans in the Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961. He passed National Security Action Memos 55, 56, and 57, which basically ended the reign of the CIA - splintering it into a thousand pieces. The memos basically stated that all intelligence activities in peacetime would be transferred to the military. He fired Allen Dulles, head of the CIA, as well as Richard Bisell and General Charles Cabell - all powerful people. And finally, he set out to withdraw from Vietnam - ordering the first 1,000 troops home for Christmas
--What Really Happened

It was the American philosopher Georges Santayana who said: "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to relive it." There is no better argument for recalling Jim Garrison's brilliant indictment of this 'establishment' in Oliver Stone's 1991 film: JFK.

May it please the court. Gentlemen of the jury. I know you're very tired. You've been very patient. This final day has been a long one, so I'll speak only a few minutes. In his argument, Mr. Edmond posed one final issue which raises the question of what we do when the need for justice is confronted by power. So, let me talk to you about the question of whether or not there was government fraud in this case--a question Mr. Dymond seems to want us to answer. A government is a great deal like a human being. It's not necessarily all good, and it's not necessarily all bad. We live in a good country. I love it and you do too. Nevertheless, the fact remains that we have a government which is not perfect.

There have been indications since November the 22nd of 1963--and that was not the last indication--that there is excessive power in some parts of our government. It is plain that the people have not received all of the truth about some of the things which have happened, about some of the assassinations which have occurred--and more particularly about the assassination of John Kennedy.

Going back to when we were children, I think most of us--probably all of us here in the courtroom--once thought that justice came into being of its own accord, that virtue was its own reward, that good would triumph over evil--in short, that justice occurred automatically. Later, when we found that this wasn't quite so, most of us still felt hopefully that at least justice occurred frequently of its own accord.

Today, I think that almost all of us would have to agree that there is really no machinery--not on this Earth at least--which causes justice to occur automatically. Men have to make it occur. Individual human beings have to make it occur. Otherwise, it doesn't come into existence. This is not always easy. As a matter of fact, it's always hard, because justice presents a threat to power. In order to make justice come into being, you often have to fight power.

Mr. Dymond raised the question: Why don't we say it's all a fraud and charge the government with fraud, if this is the case? Let me be explicit, then, and make myself very clear on this point.

The government's handling of the investigation of John Kennedy's murder was a fraud. It was the greatest fraud in the history of our country. It probably was the greatest fraud ever perpetrated in the history of humankind. That doesn't mean that we have to accept the continued existence of the kind of government which allows this to happen. We can do something about it. We're forced either to leave this country or to accept the authoritarianism that has developed--the authoritarianism which tells us that in the year 2029 we can see the evidence about what happened to John Kennedy.

Government does not consist only of secret police and domestic espionage operations and generals and admirals--government consists of people. It also consists of juries. And cases of murder--whether of the poorest individual or the most distinguished citizen in the land--should be looked at openly in a court of law, where juries can pass on them and not be hidden, not be buried like the body of the victim beneath concrete for countless years.

You men in these recent weeks have heard witnesses that no one else in the world has heard. You've seen the Zapruder film. You've seen what happened to your President. I suggest to you that you know right now that, in that area at least, a fraud has been perpetrated.

That does not mean that our government is entirely bad; and I want to emphasize that. It does mean, however, that in recent years, through the development of excessive power because of the Cold War, forces have developed in our government over which there is no control and these forces have an authoritarian approach to justice--meaning, they will let you know what justice is.

Well, my reply to them is that we already know what justice is. It is the decision of the people passing on the evidence. It is the jury system. In this issue which is posed by the government's conduct in concealing the evidence in this case--in the issue of humanity as opposed to power--I have chosen humanity, and I will do it again without any hesitation. I hope every one of you will do the same. I do this because I love my country and because I want to communicate to the government that we will not accept unexplained assassinations with the casual information that if we live seventy-five years longer, we might be given more evidence.

In this particular case, massive power was brought to bear to prevent justice from ever coming into this courtroom. The power to make authoritive pronouncements, the power to manipulate the news media by the release of false information, the power to interfere with an honest inquiry and the power to provide an endless variety of experts to testify in behalf of power, repeatedly was demonstrated in this case.

The American people have yet to see the Zapruder film. Why? The American people have yet to see and hear from the real witnesses to the assassination. Why? Because, today in America too much emphasis is given to secrecy, with regard to the assassination of our President, and not enough emphasis is given to the question of justice and to the question of humanity.

These dignified deceptions will not suffice. We have had enough of power without truth. We don't have to accept power without truth or else leave the country. I don't accept either of these two alternatives. I don't intend to leave the country and I don't intend to accept power without truth.

I intend to fight for the truth. I suggest that not only is this not un-American, but it is the most American thing we can do--because if the truth does not endure, then our country will not endure.

In our country the worst of all crimes occurs when the government murders truth. If it can murder truth, it can murder freedom. If it can murder freedom, it can murder your own sons--if they should dare to fight for freedom-- and then it can announce that they were killed in an industrial accident, or shot by the "enemy" or God knows what.

In this case, finally, it has been possible to bring the truth about the assassination into a court of law--not before a commission composed of important and powerful and politically astute men, but before a jury of citizens.

Now, I suggest to you that yours is a hard duty, because in a sense what you're passing on is equivalent to a murder case. The difficult thing about passing on a murder case is that the victim is out of your sight and buried a long distance away, and all you can see is the defendant. It's very difficult to identify with someone you can't see, and sometimes it's hard not to identify to some extent with the defendant and his problems.

In that regard, every prosecutor who is at all humane is conscious of feeling sorry for the defendant in every case he prosecutes. But he is not free to forget the victim who lies buried out of sight. I suggest to you that, if you do your duty, you also are not free to forget the victim who is buried out of sight.

You know, Tennyson once said that, "authority forgets a dying king." This was never more true than in the murder of John Kennedy. The strange and deceptive conduct of the government after his murder began while his body was warm, and has continued for five years. You have seen in this courtroom indications of the interest of part of the government power structure in keeping the truth down, in keeping the grave closed.

We presented a number of eyewitnesses as well as an expert witness as well as the Zapruder film, to show that the fatal wound of the President came from the front. A plane landed from Washington and out stepped Dr. Finck for the defense, to counter the clear and apparent evidence of a shot from the front. I don't have to go into Dr. Finck's testimony in detail for you to show that it simply did not correspond with the facts. He admitted that he did not complete the autopsy because a general told him not to complete the autopsy.

In this conflict between power and justice--to put it that way--just where do you think Dr. Finck stands? A general, who was not a pathologist, told him not to complete the autopsy, so he didn't complete it. This is not the way I want my country to be. When our President is killed he deserves the kind of autopsy that the ordinary citizen gets every day in the State of Louisiana. And the people deserve the facts about it. We can't have government power suddenly interjecting itself and preventing the truth form coming to the people.

Yet in this case, before the sun rose the next morning, power had moved into the situation and the truth was being concealed. And now, five years later in this courtroom the power of the government in concealing the truth is continuing in the same way.

We presented eyewitnesses who told you of the shots coming from the grassy knoll. A plane landed from Washington, and out came ballistics expert Frazier for the defense. Mr. Frazier's explanation of the sound of the shots coming from the front, which was heard by eyewitness after eyewitness, was that Lee Oswald created a sonic boom in his firing. Not only did Oswald break all of the world's records for marksmanship, but he broke the sound barrier as well.

I suggest to you, that if any of you have shot on a firing range--and most of you probably have in the service--you were shooting rifles in which the bullet traveled faster than the speed of sound. I ask you to recall if you ever heard a sonic boom. If you remember when you were on the firing line, and they would say, "Ready on the left; ready on the right; ready on the firing line; commence firing," you heard the shots coming from the firing line--to the left of you and to the right of you. If you had heard, as a result of Frazier's fictional sonic boom, firing coming at you from the pits, you would have had a reaction which you would still remember.

Mr. Frazier's sonic boom simply doesn't exist. It's part of the fraud-- a part of the continuing government fraud.

The best way to make this country the kind of country it's supposed to be is to communicate to the government that no matter how powerful it may be, we do not accept these frauds. We do not accept these false announcements. We do not accept the concealment of evidence with regard to the murder of President Kennedy. Who is the most believable: a Richard Randolph Carr, seated here in a wheelchair and telling you what he saw and what he heard and how he was told to shut his mouth--or Mr. Frazier with his sonic booms? Do we really have to reject Mr. Newman and Mrs. Newman and Mr. Carr and Roger Craig and the testimony of all those honest witnesses--reject all this and accept the fraudulent Warren Commission, or else leave the country?

I suggest to you that there are other alternatives. One of them has been put in practice in the last month in the State of Louisiana--and that is to bring out the truth in a proceeding where attorneys can cross-examine, where the defendant can be confronted by testimony against him, where the rules of evidence are applied and where a jury of citizens can pass on it--and where there is no government secrecy. Above all, where you do not have evidence concealed for seventy-five years in the name of "national security."

All we have in this case are the facts--facts which show that the defendant participated in the conspiracy to kill the President and that the President was subsequently killed in an ambush.

The reply of the defense has been the same as the early reply of the government in the Warren Commission. It has been authority, authority, authority. The President's seal outside of each volume of the Warren Commission Report--made necessary because there is nothing inside these volumes, only men of high position and prestige sitting on a Board, and announcing the results to you, but not telling you what the evidence is, because the evidence has to be hidden for seventy-five years.

You heard in this courtroom in recent weeks, eyewitness after eyewitness after eyewitness and, above all, you saw one eyewitness which was indifferent to power--the Zapruder film. The lens of the camera is totally indifferent to power and it tells what happened as it saw it happen--and that is one of the reasons 200 million Americans have not seen the Zapruder film. They should have seen it many times. They should know exactly what happened. They all should know what you know now. Why hasn't all of this come into being if there hasn't been government fraud? Of course there has been fraud by the government.

But I'm telling you now that I think we can do something about it. I think that there are still enough Americans left in this country to make it continue to be America. I think that we can still fight authoritarianism--the government's insistence on secrecy, government force used in counterattacks against an honest inquiry--and when we do that, we're not being un-American, we're being American. It isn't easy. You're sticking your neck out in a rather permanent way, but it has to be done because truth does not come into being automatically. Individual men, like the members of my staff here, have to work and fight to make it happen--and individual men like you have to make justice come into being because otherwise is doesn't happen.

What I'm trying to tell you is that there are forces in America today, unfortunately, which are not in favor of the truth coming out about John Kennedy's assassination. As long as our government continues to be like this, as long as such forces can get away with such actions, then this is no longer the country in which we were born.

The murder of John Kennedy was probably the most terrible moment in the history of our country. Yet, circumstances have placed you in the position where not only have you seen the hidden evidence but you are actually going to have the opportunity to bring justice into the picture for the first time.

Now, you are here sitting in judgment on Clay Shaw. Yet you, as men, represent more than jurors in an ordinary case because of the victim in this case. You represent, in a sense, the hope of humanity against government power. You represent humanity, which yet may triumph over excessive government power-- if you will cause it to be so, in the course of doing your duty in this case.

I suggest that you ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.

What can you do for your country? You can cause justice to happen for the first time in this matter. You can help make our country better by showing that this is still a government of the people. And if you do that, as long as you live, nothing will ever be more important.
--Jim Garrison's closing summation