Before I get to the main topic today, I want to give a shout out to Debra Conway. She keeps things humming at JFK Lancer, whose research, meetings, and online assistance is a big help for researchers. Check out their website.
The name of this website, www.CIAdidNOTkillJFK.com, hopefully speaks for itself. The US government did not kill JFK. The name of the website is a deliberate provocation aimed at the thundering herd of accusers who see the CIA in every person, every mystery, and behind every bush. Why is the CIA linked to the JFK assassination?
President Kennedy was killed in Dallas, under the operational control of the local autorities. This much is, I hope, of no dispute. Keeping this in mind, the first and most intense focus should be on Dallas. The Dallas cops are the most proximate suspects in the assassination.
There is no link between the CIA and any Dallas cop, nor any other local authority. We do not consider Earle Cabell's brother being in the CIA as evidence that the CIA controls Dallas or that the CIA killed Kennedy. Absent a chain of command or other documented interface between the CIA and assassination ground staff in Dallas, the CIA nevertheless stands accused of killing their boss - unheard of in US history.
There is simply no evidence of CIA complicity.
Although I do not agree with voices who argue Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK, the reality is that they more often represent sanity, the rules of evidence, and the honest intellectual integrity we want attached to any criminal investigation. Gerald Posner, Professor John McAdams, Vincent Bugliosi, President Gerald Ford, and our friend David von Pein are all opposed to the thesis of this website, but these are honest men with genuine beliefs - and they rigorously require evidence while rejecting assumption.
The CIA is irrationally linked to the JFK assassination for several reasons:
The CIA makes mistakes. These sometimes become big public fiascos. Big accomplishments usually remain secret, but the mistakes become "evidence" of a CIA conspiracy.
In JFK assassination mythology, the CIA and JFK are passionate antagonists. This is false. JFK increased CIA funding and was a big advocate for pet CIA projects like regime change in Cuba and covert action in souteast Asia. A Bay of Pigs II Cuban invasion was planned by JFK before he was killed.
In the Cold War, almost every male had a military connection because of the draft; and anyone with a military connection becomes a conspiracy suspect to many JFK "researchers." Furthermore, America's business, government, and academic elite contributed to the CIA's efforts on a regular, but non-operational basis. Virtually any high profile businessman or well traveled Amierican might have a friend, family member, or other indirect conjuction with the CIA.
The CIA in the Cold War operated a Domestic Contact Service. Tens of thousands of travelling businessmen and others with unique knowledge gave minor intelligence morsals to the CIA, with no compensation and with no subordination to CIA managers.
The KGB-sponsored Italian newspaper Paese Sera falsely accused the CIA of complicity in attempts to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle.
The KGB-sponsored Italian newspaper Paese Sera falsely accused New Orleans businessmen Clay Shaw of being a CIA agent.
The KGB -sponsored Italian newspaper Paese Sera falsely accused Centro Mondiale Commerciale, a trade group, of CIA parentage.
Becuse of KGB disinformation efforts, reprinted in mainstream media outlets, Jim Garrison falsely said Clay Shaw was a CIA agent. Clay Shaw came back from an international trip in te 1950s and gave a report on what he saw to the CIA - yet this is used to "prove" Clay Shaw is a CIA operative and helped kill Kennedy.
Those who grew up with James Bond attach unreasonable and sometimes supernatural abilities to the CIA.
Taken together, the above set of prejudices, assumptions, fake news, and KGB propaganda combine to form certainty of CIA guilt in the conspiracy-minded. Let me repeat: There is no evidence of CIA invovlement in the JFK assassination.
Now I'll ask my website partner Paul Trejo about the CIA.
Paul, does this CIA mania help or hurt the true murderers? What was the feeling of General Walker and other icons of the Radical Right towards the CIA? Given that Jim Garrison uncovered an undeniable connection to the assassination in New Orleans, why did he pursue Clay Shaw and why did he name the CIA as a conspirator?