What Paul Landis and other members of the Secret Service did in Ft. Worth the night before the assassination - They partied.

          Several members of JFK’s White House Secret Service detail upon arrival at Ft Worth, Texas on November 21, 1963 which was near midnight abandoned JFK at the Hotel Texas for the night, leaving the guarding of the President to locally recruited fireman while they went out to drink.  They drank alcoholic beverages at two places, at the Ft. Worth Press Club and at The Cellar.  William Manchester writes that nine agents of the White House detail “were out on the town. They started with beer and mixed drnks at the Fort Worth Press Club with Malcolm Kilduff.”  Manchester notes that one Secret Service agent was out until 5:00 a.m.! But, he does not identify him. Manchester writes that this unnamed agent was “one of the most agile members of the detail.” 

Manchester does not identify this agent, but Vince Palamara does. Guess who it is? It’s Paul Landis. ( Survivor’s Guilt, Chapter 6, page 16, which cites Col George J. McNally, A Million Miles of Presidents p.204 ) 

Manchester also writes that three agents of the “12 to 8:00 a.m. shift - who were offically on duty, assigned to guard the President’s bedroom door ,” were part of this drinking party.  

Vince Palamara writes in Survivor’s Guilt, “The owner of the Cellar, Pat Kirkwood, said: “About 3:30 in the morning, these Secret Service men were sitting around giggling about how the firemen were guarding the president over at the Hotel Texas...those guys were bombed. They were drinking pure Everclear [alcohol.] 

Everclear is 190 proof.  That's almost 100% pure alcohol.  

It is currently illegal to buy it in 17 states. 

This is what was in the Salty Dick drink.

This is how the Warren Commission dealt with this: 

Testimony of Secret Service Chief James J Rowley begins in WCH 5 p. 449. The relevant section detailing the agents who drank alcohol on November 22, 1963 shortly after midnight in Ft. Worth begins on p. 451.

The Chairman - The President's Commission met at 9 a.m., on June 18, 1964, at 200 Maryland Avenue NE., Washington, D.C.

    Present were Chief Justice Earl Warren, Chairman; Senator John Sherman Cooper, Representative Hale Boggs, Representative Gerald R. Ford, and Allen W. Dulles, members.

    Also present were J. Lee Rankin, general counsel; and Samuel A. Stern, assistant counsel.

    James J. Rowley

    TESTIMONY OF JAMES J. ROWLEY

Mr. Rankin - Did you learn in connection with the trip when the assassination occurred that certain of the Secret Service agents had been in the press club and what is called the Cellar, at Fort Worth, the night before?

Mr. Rowley - Well, that came to my attention through a broadcast that Mr. Pearson made, that the agents were inebriated the night before at the Fort Worth Press Club. I immediately dispatched Inspector McCann to Fort Worth to investigate the report, and to interview the agents.

Mr. Rankin - What did you learn?

Mr. Rowley - I learned that there were nine agents involved at the Press Club. And I might say this--the agents on duty throughout that day had no opportunity to eat. When they arrived at Fort Worth, they were informed that there was a buffet to be served at the Fort Worth Club. This is what I ascertained in personal interviews. Upon going over there, they leaned there was no buffet, and some of them stayed for a drink. Three, I think, had one scotch, and others had two or three beers. They were in and out--from the time they arrived, I would say roughly around 12:30, until the place closed at 2 o'clock.

    Now, after that some of them went to the Cellar. This is a place that does not serve alcoholic beverages. They went there primarily, I think, out of curiosity, because this was some kind of a beatnik place where someone gets up and recites, or plays the guitar.

Mr. Rankin - Did you learn whether or not there were any violations of the regulations of the Secret Service by these men?

Mr. Rowley - Yes; there was a violation. At that time there was a section in our manual in effect that said that during----

Mr. Rankin - Will you give us first the number?

Mr. Rowley - Section 10.

Mr. Rankin - Is that chapter 1, page 7?

Mr. Rowley - Chapter 1, page 7; yes, sir.

Mr. Rankin - Now, will you tell the Commission about what the regulation was?

Mr. Rowley - "The use of liquor. Employees are strictly enjoined to refrain from the use of intoxicating liquor during the hours they are officially employed at their post of duty or when they may reasonably expect that they may be called upon to perform an official duty."

    The one that applies here--"However, all members of the White House detail and special agents cooperating with them on presidential and similar protective assignments are considered to be subject to call for official duty at any time while in travel status. Therefore, the use of intoxicating liquor of any kind, including beer and wine, by members of the White House detail and special agents cooperating with them or by special agents on similar assignments, while they are in a travel status, is prohibited."

Mr. Rankin - Can you tell the Commission how many men were involved in these trips to the Press Club and the Cellar, where these things were done?

Mr. Rowley - There were 9 men involved at the Press Club, and there were 10 men involved at the Cellar.

Mr. Rankin - Now, how many men, of those 10 men, were in the Presidential motorcade on the day of the assassination?

Mr. Rowley - Four--four men were in the followup car.

The Chairman - Who were they? 

Mr. Rankin - Do you know their names?

Mr. Rowley - Yes; Landis, Hill, Ready, and Bennett. (emphasis added)

p. 452

Mr. Rankin - Now, what positions did the four men that you referred to that were involved in the press club and the Cellar matter occupy on the day of the assassination?

Mr. Rowley - Well, Mr. Ready occupied the right front, Mr. Landis to his rear----

Mr. Rankin - What do you mean by right front?

Mr. Rowley - Right front running board position of the followup car. It was his responsibility or duty to jump off in crowds and to take the position at the right rear of the President's car.Mr. Landis, if necessary, to jump off if the occasion demanded and take the right front of the President's car. Mr. Hill was on the left front running board of the followup car, and his responsibility was at the rear of the President's car. His position was assigned there because he was in charge of the First Lady's detail, and she was seated on the left side.

    And Mr. McIntyre was to his rear on the left running board. So his assignment would have been up to the left front of the President's car. Mr. Bennett was in the rear seat of the followup car.

So to clarify the four Secret Service agents on the running board were:

(On the Right side - Mr. Ready and behind him Mr. Landis

  On the Left side - Mr. Hill and behind him Mr. McIntyre)

THREE OF THESE FOUR WERE DRINKING 

Page 453 Chief Rowley tells the Warren Commission members the responsibilities of these four Secret Service agents riding on the running board of the follow up car immediately behind the presidential limousine when he is interpted by a question from Mr. Rankin:

(The word “his” refers to Mr. Ready.) 

Mr. Rowley - Well, Mr. Ready occupied the right front, Mr. Landis to his rear----

Mr. Rankin - What do you mean by right front?

Mr. Rowley - Right front running board position of the followup car. It was his responsibility or duty to jump off in crowds and to take the position at the right rear of the President's car.

    Mr. Landis, if necessary, to jump off if the occasion demanded and take the right front of the President's car.

    Mr. Hill was on the left front running board of the followup car, and his responsibility was at the rear of the President's car. His position was assigned there because he was in charge of the First Lady's detail, and she was seated on the left side.

    And Mr. McIntyre was to his rear on the left running board. So his assignment would have been up to the left front of the President's car. Mr. Bennett was in the rear seat of the followup car.

Were they disciplined at all?  No.  Any punishment at all? None.

Mr. Rankin - Have you done anything to discipline these men for violation of the regulations of the Secret Service?

Mr. Rowley - Well, I did consider what type of punishment would be provided. Then I also considered the fact that these men in no way had--their conduct had no bearing on the assassination. And, therefore, I thought that in the light of history, to place a stigma on them by punishing them at that time, from which inevitably the public would conclude that they were responsible for the assassination of the President--I didn't think this was fair, and that they did not deserve that, with their family and children.

    (At this point, Representative Ford entered the hearing room.)

[One is left to wondering if Mr. Ford did this quietly.]  

According to Secret Service regulations they should have been fired. 

Rankin asks about this:

Mr. Rankin - Chief Rowley, how do you construe subparagraph (c) of your regulation 10 regarding the use of alcoholic liquors?

The Chairman - Will you read it for the record?

Mr. Rankin - Will you kindly read it?

Mr. Rowley - "Violation or slight disregard of the above paragraphs excessive or improper use of intoxicating liquor at anytime will be cause for removal from the service. In interpreting the words excessive and improper, slight evidence tending to indicate unusual or questionable conduct will be considered proof that the use of liquor has been improper or excessive. Association with others who drink to excess will be considered as an indication of using more than a moderate amount of liquor. The excuse that liquor was used for medicinal purposes will not be accepted."

Mr. Rankin - How do you construe and apply that?

Mr. Rowley  Well, in this instance, it was wrong.

Mr. Rankin - Now, were these men under this regulation considered to be on travel status, so that they should not be using intoxicating liquor?

Mr. Rowley - Yes, sir.

Mr. Rankin - And there is no question about that in your mind?

Mr. Rowley - No, sir.

Mr. Rankin - Has anything been done to reprimand and cause them to realize that this is a violation of your regulations?

Mr. Rowley -They were interviewed by the inspector at the time. The seriousness of the matter was impressed upon them. And I think they recognize the seriousness of their acts.

    The men we recruit are men that are college graduates and mature, and screen them very carefully, particularly before we assign them to the White House detail. They know and we know that they are in a fishbowl 24 hours day, and that, therefore, their conduct is always subject to scrutiny, and so forth, and that they are responsible individuals. Their records have that they have been performing in a high degree. They have worked end hours of overtime. They are dedicated. And if they were not, they would not be on the detail.

    They realize the seriousness of the violation, and I went over it with my special agent in charge. He understands it. And I am quite sure that they all. understand it at this time.

Mr. Rankin - I would like to have you examine Commission Exhibit No. 1018, Chief Rowley and see if that is the regulation of the Secret Service that you have been referring to.

Mr. Rowley - Yes; that is what I have been reading here, sir.

Mr. Rankin - Mr. Chief Justice, I would like to offer as a part of the record the regulation, Commission Exhibit No. 1018.

The Chairman - It may be admitted.

    (The document was marked for identification as Commission Exhibit No. 1018, and received in evidence.) 

At the Fort Worth Press Club, which is in The Blackstone Hotel:

Rufus Youngblood - 2 beers

Andrew Berger - 2 beers

David B. Grant - a scotch and soda, left at 1:45 a.m.

Clint Hill arrived between 1:15 a.m. and 1:30 a.m. had a scotch and soda.  

Richard E Johnson -  “two beers.” 

Paul Landis -  arrived at 1:15 a.m. a Scoth and soda.  

Donald J. Lawton - arrived at 12:30 (earliest recorded arrival) 3 beers

Earnest E Olsson, Jr. - “directed to” the Ft. Worth Press Club by White House and Local press. - one and one half mixed drink. 

John D. Ready - 2 cans of beer, left between 1:15 and 1:30 

Also at the Ft. Worth Press Club were an unknown number of White House and local press including:

Ft. Worth Press Club President Cal Sutton - CE 1020 p. 696, his own report at 18H699 - “a person who was not introduced to me and stated that he was with the White House party and wondered if I could cash a check for him for $189.40.” Apparently, this was to pay for some or all of the drinks for those at the Ft. Worth Press Club.  Sutton went to the Hotel Texas, they gave him the money for the check.

James W. Mangan - CE1020 p. 696

Phil J. Record, part-time police reporter - CE 1020 p. 697

Barbara Faye Richardson - a reporter with the Ft. Worth Morning Star Telegram.  

Bob Scheiffer   

At The Cellar - which was at 10th and Main and located underneath a liquor store

Rufus Youngblood - his own report. 18H 682.  Accordng to Youngblood, Agent Donald Lawton phone his room at about 12:10 a.m. and informed him that the press and the agents were invited to the Fort Worth Press Club which was three blocks from the Hotel Texas.  Youngblood and Lawton joined other agents at a table who were already there. Youngblood does not state if he went to the Fort Worth Press Club b y car or if he walked.  Youngblood said he had “two beers.”  He left the Fort Worth Press Club with two other agents that he does not identify. He and these two agents leave at about 1:30 a.m. They then go to The Cellar.  Youngblood says he had “two grapefruit drinks.” Youngblood, alone, leaves The Cellar at 3:00 a.m. 

Andrew Berger - “two grape fruit drinks.” Leaves at 2:15 a.m.

Paul A. Burns - arrives at 3:15 a.m., claims to to have had any drinks, yet he knows that “coffee,” at The Cellar was 60 cents per cup. His own report 18H684.    

David B Grant - arrived around 2 a.m., stayed for 45 minutes, claims not to have had anything to drink while there. 

Clint Hill - arrived about 1:50 a.m. Reveals that the “grape fruit drink” had another name, “Salty Dick.” Left at 2:45 a.m.    

Paul Landis - 2 Salty Dick drinks. 

Donald J Lawton - 2 Salty Dick drinks, left at 3 a.m.

Gerald W. O’Rourke - “directed by the officers of the Fort Worth Police Department,” to The Cellar.  Claims he did not drink anything while there due to “high prices.” States he was only there for about 15 minutes. 

John  D. Ready - 2 and  a half Salty Dicks.  

Also present an unknown number of press and Ft. Worth police.  - source O’Rourke. 

Phil J. Record and Bob Scheiffer arrive after 4:00 a.m. 

Barbara Faye Richardson places Malcolm Kilduff at The Cellar

People are allowed to bring their own liquor to The Cellar which does not have a license to sell alcoholic drinks. So, the idea that no alcohol was served or could be consumed there is ludicrous, as ludicrous as the notion that they were there to drink grape fruit juice and hear "beatnik poetry."  

Secret Service Revisionism - The Unquestioning Free Ride These Idiots Are Getting is Disgusting

This article is full of lies.  The lies are so bold they are breath taking in their audacity.  Only a moronic media would fall for this total bullshit.  Unfortunately, that is the only type of media we have.  My commentary will appear in yellow.

Cleveland museum security guard was JFK secret service agent who witnessed Kennedy assassination

CLEVELAND - His eyes are quiet as is his voice as he speaks matter-of-factly of the bullets that whizzed by him, striking President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on the day an assassin's bullets killed the nation's chief executive.  

Paul Landis has replayed the story in his mind tens of thousands of times. He was with the President, as part of the Secret Service detail that trotted with the slow-moving limousine in which President Kennedy rode. [Trotted? What is this? This makes it sound like they were running alongside the limousine.]

Landis, who now works as a security guard at the Western Reserve Historical Society, a museum dedicated to the history of Northeast Ohio, speaks without a hesitation in his voice as he tells the story of the assassination of an American president.

"I heard the gunshot," Landis said. "It came over my right shoulder." He was trotting next to the right rear of the follow-up car behind the president's Lincoln Continental limousine. Then quickly, there came a second shot. [Again with the trotting. He was standing on a running board on the Secret Service follow up car.] 

Landis said he and the several other secret service agents immediately looked toward the direction of the rifleshot as each man positioned himself to protect Kennedy, who was riding in the backseat of a convertible with the top down. [3 MAJOR Lies here. Lie #1 -The Secret Service agents didn't "immediately" do a damn thing. They gave an immediate display of inertia, bodies at rest tend to stay at rest.  And these bodies needed rest considering how they were under the influence of alcohol from drinking the night before.  They didn't get into Ft. Worth until near, at, or just after midnight on the 21st.  Some drank for hours and did not bother to sleep at all. The proof of that is in the 26 volumes.  Lie #2 - "Each man positioned himself to protect Kennedy..." BULLSHIT! Every known  film and photograph shows little or no reaction at all by any agent except Clint Hill, probably the only one sober enough to run.  The agent closest to JFK was ordered not to run to JFK, not to leave the SS car.  Lie #3 - It wasn't "a convertible."  It was a very well known presidential limousine.  

 This is the Altgens photo. JFK and Connally have both been hit by the time this photo was taken and you can clearly see that none of the Secret Service agents have moved, none of them did a damn thing, none are off the running board, not even Clint HIll.  He does move, but he hasn 't yet.  

"And when my eyes came back to the president again, it was a third shot and that was the one that hit him in the head," Landis said.

Nov. 22, 1963, had been cloudy earlier in the day, but by the time President and Mrs. Kennedy had seated themselves in their limousine, the sun had appeared. The President wanted the hardtop of the convertible removed so as to enable the crowds that had gathered along the Dallas parade route to better see him.

Kennedy was in Dallas to shore up Democrat support. [This is a lie, but it takes way to long to explain why. This is the Connally-Johnson story of why JFK went to Texas.  It's an example of the victors write the history.  It's total bullshit ] In the motorcade with him were Vice President Lyndon Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird. The Johnsons were Texans. Noting the crowd that had welcomed the President, Mrs. Johnson had mentioned its size, telling Kennedy how much he was admire by her fellow Texans. [Okay, this moron, Leon Bibb has got the Johnsons confused with the Connallys because he wants to talk about how Nellie Connally allegedly said to JFK, "You can't say Texas doesn't love you," as the car turned and just before the shots rang out. So, he substitutes the Johnsons, tells us they're from Texas, heh, no shit Sherlock, and then gets the verb tense wrong, it should be "admired." He can't be bothered to do basic, basic research, nor to even proofread his own writing. Schmuck!]  

Also in the motorcade was Texas Gov. John Connally, who was also wounded by the gunman, who fired from the sixth floor of the Texas Book Depository building. [And then this line is in here which just emphasizes how much he got wrong in the preceding paragraph.] 

Landis said once the president was shot, there was bedlam. Those who lined the motorcade route dived to the ground, and Secret Service agents and police pulled their weapons, looking frantically for who was behind the gunshots. 

The President grimaced, grabbing his neck, then slumped.  Mrs. Kennedy, sitting next to her husband, climbed out her seat and crawled over the trunk of the car to retrieve a piece of his skull that had been shot away.  Moving pictures from that day in Dallas show Mrs. Kennedy moving toward the trunk while Secret Service agent Clint Hill ran toward the presidential car.  [ Sort of, but not quite. JFK does not grab his neck.  His arms are up, elbows are bent, and his fore arms are towards his neck. His hands are clenched like fists and are actually in front of his neck. JFK is reacting to being hit in the throat from the front. The gunman who fired this shot is in front of the car.  I believe JFK is then hit in his back from a gunman firing behind him which pushes his body forward. I believe these two shots occur very close together.]     

"We got off the running boards (of the trailing car) and moved up to take a position by his car," Landis said. Photographs and films show his movements as Landis described them.  [TOTAL BULLSHIT!!!! There is no "We."  There was only Clint Hill.  NO OTHER SECRET SERVICE AGENT IN THE FOLLOW UP CAR GOT OFF THE RUNNING BOARDS IN DEALEY PLAZA.  Landis, or this idiot Leon Bibb is a god damn liar.  There is no photograph or film that corroborates this story.  In fact, all known photographs and film disprove this farcical lie.]  

"We got off the running boards (of the trailing car) and moved up to take a position by his car," Landis said. Photographs and films show his movements as Landis described them."  - OH, REALLY?

JFK's face is partially obscured by the rear view mirrow near the top of the windshield.  Jackie's white glove is on JFK's left forearm. The car behind the Secret Service follow up car is a convertible with LBJ in it and behind that car is another Secret Service follow up car.  LBJ's SS agents have responded to the sound of gunfire and have a door of their car open. The Altgen photo is rarely seen in its totality to prevent a comparison between the non-reaction of JFK's SS agents with the rapid response of LBJ's SS agents.    

For more than 30 years, Landis, whose full head of white hair is combed neatly, much as it was during his service for the President, has lived in a Cleveland suburb, electing to say very little about his position as a member of what has become known as the Kennedy Detail. He said over the years, once people realize where he was the day the President was killed, conversations immediately turn to the assassination. He service began began during the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. 

[Well, thank heaven an assassination didn't mess up a neatly combed head of hair!] 

Few people in Cleveland have known of Landis' former position in the Kennedy White House Secret Service detail.   Few people knew the quiet man guarding the museum's objects and artifacts of history actually guarded the President of the United States on a fateful day in history. [And failed miserably at it!]

On the day of the interview, he was comfortable with talking of all aspects of the assassination. Remembering the scene at Dallas' Dealey Plaza, where to make a tight turn, the presidential limousine driver had to slow the big car to about 11 miles an hour. It was at that time, the shots sliced through the air. 

Landis said within seconds after the gunshots, [Actually after JFK's head exploded] the limousine driver floored the accelerator of the big car, speeding to the nearest medical facility, Parkland Hospital. During the drive, Kennedy's wounded head was cradled in his wife's lap. At the hospital, Mrs. Kennedy had to be coaxed from the vehicle as she sat almost silently, staring into space.  [Oh for God's sake! What an ass! I think she was crying, hysterically, and justifiably so.  Her husband was just shot and killed, his head exploded right in front of her face covering her with pieces of skull, brain, blood, scalp, and hair, you heartless bastard.]  

Landis, who at the White House was usually assigned to guard Mrs. Kennedy and the two children, Caroline and John Jr., sat in a hospital hallway with the grieving First Lady, while doctors worked to keep the president alive.

"She just sat staring into space," Landis said, his eyes clear and focused as he remembered the scene. He told the story as if he were watching a film of that crime unroll in his brain. 

He recalled the blood and tissue from her husband's wounds were evident over the First Lady's dress as trails of blood ran down her legs. It was the same dress she wore back to Washington hours later, electing to not change clothes. 

"I want America to see," she would say, hours after

Later after the President's body was removed from Dallas for the flight back to Washington,  D.C. It was the day America changed. It was the day the nation, itself, was wounded.

Landis said with the death of President Kennedy, while other authorities were in search of the gunman, Secret Service agents on the Kennedy Detail were immediately shifted to protecting the new president, Lyndon Johnson.  He said there was no time to grieve because no one knew the identity of those responsible for shooting the president.

It could have been a conspiracy to kill Vice President Johnson, too. It could have been a foreign country behind the assassination. In the early hours of the crime that shook America and much of the rest of the world, no one knew how deep was the crime or who might be involved.

When asked if there was psychological counseling for any of the Kennedy Detail, Landis answered in a soft voice.  "No, that wasn't even thought of and heard of," he said, adding that he and other agents were in psychological pain.

The next year, 1964, Landis left the Secret Service, attributing his change to the assassination itself.   

However, in 2010, fellow former agent Gerald Blaine penned a book on the Secret Service agents who were assigned to protect President Kennedy and his family. It was that book, "The Kennedy Detail," which prompted the White House agents to gather and share their stories with each other for the first time. They found their gathering therapeutic, where each man recounted how the assassination had impacted his life.

"Up until then, I never said much about the Secret Service or of working on the presidential detail in 1963," said Landis, as he recounted that time in his life. However, it was also Blaine's book that provided a therapy for Landis and his former colleagues. "That's the best thing that happened to me since the assassination."

The book also spawned a documentary, "The Kennedy Detail," produced by the Discovery Channel. In the documentary, the Secret Service members who were with President Kennedy when an assassin's bullets took his life are shown speaking with each other, sharing their stories, and finding support from their own group.

Landis said he was no longer haunted by the events of that day, which many sociologists said robbed America of its innocence. Landis, dressed in a blue sweater and checkered blue and white shirt, sat easily in one of the rooms of the museum. With his legs crossed, he spoke easily of the Kennedy Detail and of what he saw and heard that November day in Dallas.

Strangely, in one of the corners of the museum, which also houses a collection of vintage automobiles, is a Lincoln Continental car eerily reminiscent of the one the President was riding in when bullets struck him and wounded Gov. Connally.

In part of the interview with Landis, he stopped at the car and looked at it as he has no doubt done thousands of times in his security walk through the museum.

Of the man whom the U.S. government said killed Kennedy, Landis would say only that he believed Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman. He said he was aware of conspiracy theories, but dismisses them. 

Oswald, arrested later by Dallas police on the day of the assassination, was, hours later, [Uh, no, not "hours later," idiot, on Sunday, the 24th] murdered by a Dallas bar owner, Jack Ruby.  Ruby, armed with a pistol, had walked into the Dallas police station and fired a bullet into Oswald as police paraded Oswald from one area to another so that news photographers could get pictures.

The murder of Oswald was broadcast on live television as the networks cameras were focused on the man who denied killing Kennedy, saying only he was "a patsy" for the assassination.

For Landis, memories of the assassination are never far away. Forty-eight years later, he said they surface at times.  The day marked a turning point in his life and his career. The day marked a turning point in the life of the United States when the President of the United States was gunned down in front of a crowd of thousands of people as they applauded his visit to Dallas.

At the museum,  Landis daily walks the quiet hallways where history is exhibited on its walls. However, Paul Landis is walking history, having been close to the President of the United States when bullets streaked through the sunlit air of Dallas, finding a gunman's mark .

It is a story which still rivets the attention of  those old enough to remember that  day in 1963 when a gunman killed President John F. Kennedy. It also holds the attention of millions more who have since followed the story, which still has the power to give birth to books, documentaries, movies, studies and conspiracy theories.  In many ways, the assassination of President Kennedy wounded the entire country, including Paul Landis and his fellow Secret Service agents whose job it was to protect the life of the most powerful man in the world, the President of the United States.

Jack White

Our friend Jack White had a tripple bypass today.  The surgery went well and Jack is recovering. I'm sure I speak for many in wishing him well and a speedy recovery.  You can follow the updates on the John Simkin education forum.  Please do not send him emails.  He does not want his computer clogged with well wishes when he gets back to work on the JFK case.  Thank you.  

Why Do I Bang My Head Against the Wall? Because It Feels So Good When I Stop

In Declassification - Classification News:

From our friends at Secrecy News:

SECRECY NEWS
from the FAS Project on Government Secrecy
Volume 2011, Issue No. 47
May 18, 2011

Secrecy News Blog:  http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/


**     GOVERNMENT INSISTS ON RIGHT TO CENSOR BOOK
**     TRANSFORMING CLASSIFICATION, OR NOT


GOVERNMENT INSISTS ON RIGHT TO CENSOR BOOK

Government attorneys this week asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by author Anthony Shaffer who claimed that his freedom to publish a memoir of his military service in Afghanistan had been violated.  The government said that Mr. Shaffer's book, "Operation Dark Heart," which appeared last September in censored form, contained properly classified information which the author has no right to publish.

What makes the case doubly strange is that uncensored review copies of the book are in circulation, along with the redacted version that has become a best seller.  As a result, the case provides a unique opportunity for the public to assess the quality of official classification practices in real time by comparing the two (pdf).

The government has "unlawfully imposed a prior restraint upon the plaintiff by obstructing and infringing on his right to publish unclassified information," author Shaffer stated in his December 14, 2010 complaint (pdf) against the Department of Defense and the CIA.

Not so, said the Justice Department in its new motion to dismiss (pdf), dated May 16.  The book contains classified material and "Plaintiff has no First Amendment right to publish classified information."

This week the government also told Mr. Shaffer's attorney, Mark S. Zaid, that several previously censored words or sentences in the book could now be disclosed.  "While classified eight months ago, [they] no longer remain classified."  So, for example, the Justice Department said that this sentence was properly classified last September but is now unclassified and may be made public:

"Dawn was an awkward time of day when night-vision goggles were not effective, and it was hard to distinguish anything more than gray and purple shapes."

A listing of other newly declassified words and sentences in the book was provided by the Justice Department on May 16.

A side-by-side presentation of several censored and uncensored pages from Mr. Shaffer's book, including some passages that have since been declassified and some that have not, may be found here (pdf).

See also "Behind the Censorship of Operation Dark Heart," Secrecy News, September 29, 2010.


TRANSFORMING CLASSIFICATION, OR NOT

The Public Interest Declassification Board, a White House advisory body, was asked by President Obama to develop recommendations for a "fundamental transformation" of the national security classification system.  The Board developed several proposals of its own and solicited others from interested members of the public.  All of those, including one from the Federation of American Scientists, have now been posted online for public comment.

The Board will hold a public meeting on May 26 at the National Archives to discuss the proposals.

While well-intentioned, the process suffers from several limitations.  First, the President did not specify what manner of "transformation" he had in mind.  This is problematic because the path selected for transformation naturally depends on the desired goal.  Second, the Board has no particular influence or leverage that it can exert to advance its ultimate recommendations.  Even at the White House, most relevant national security personnel seem to be unaware of or uninterested in the Board's deliberations.  Finally, there is no internal incentive to drive transformation and no visible leadership to compel it.

In truth, the classification system is undergoing transformation at every moment, but mostly in undesirable ways.  Thus, during President Obama's first full year in office, the number of "original classification decisions," or new secrets, grew by 22.6 percent, according to the latest annual report (pdf) from the Information Security Oversight Office.

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