[lbo-talk] Bertrand Russell on JFK

Joseph Wanzala jwanzala at hotmail.com
Wed Nov 26 10:21:07 PST 2003


Chip Berlet posed the question: "Now then, who was it that first promoted a full-blown theory of who killed Kennedy and where did it appear?", (a question that I am sure as as disputed as any aspect of the Kennedy assasination) and then gave the following non-answer:-

">And just to cut to the chase, since so many people are tired of this,
>the answer is that the people on the "left" who blamed the CIA (such as
>Mark Lane) often ended up in bed with the people on the right ....."

He then admits to having dabbled in a little 'conspiracism' himself, from time to time, and boasts that he is more of a conspiracist than I could ever hope to be given his extensive writing and research on the subject:-

">And for the record, I researched a chapter in an assassination book in
>the 1970s, The Assassination Please Almanac. ..So I will argue that I have
>done more substantive research and more actually published research on
>political assassinations than you have."


>From: "Chip Berlet" <cberlet at igc.org>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>
>Subject: RE: [lbo-talk] Bertrand Russell on JFK
>Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 12:29:57 -0500
>
>Hi,
>
>So, Joe, your answer is "No" since the quote is just another complaint
>about how the "official version" is flawed. It is not a full-blown
>theory of who killed Kennedy. Thanks for being so clear and honest.
>
>Now then, who was it that first promoted a full-blown theory of who
>killed Kennedy and where did it appear?
>
>And just to cut to the chase, since so many people are tired of this,
>the answer is that the people on the "left" who blamed the CIA (such as
>Mark Lane) often ended up in bed with the people on the right who blamed
>the CIA, and they slipped off the sheets into the tarpit of anti-Jewish
>conspiracy theories, which were a subtext of the McCarthy allegations
>about the CIA, the State Department, and Big Business "elites." And
>these, in turn, are echoes of the basic set of anti-elite conspiracy
>theories rooted in the attack on the enlightenment and the anti-clerical
>disestablishment views of the Illuminati and Freemasons in the
>1790s--which in turn were converted into the hoax document The Protocols
>of the Learned Elders of Zion in the early 1900s.
>
>This is why I say these anti-elite conspiracy theories are objectively
>right-wing junk.
>
>And for the record, I researched a chapter in an assassination book in
>the 1970s, The Assassination Please Almanac. My task was to retrace the
>Warren Commission research at the Library of Congress and show how it
>was seriously flawed both on methodological and analytical grounds when
>it claimed that most political assassinations in the U.S. had not been
>tied to a political struggle and were carried out by lone gunman. They
>were only able to do this be not seeing the political basis of
>assassinations during Reconstruction and Redemption after the Civil War.
>So I will argue that I have done more substantive research and more
>actually published research on political assassinations than you have.
>
>I have always welcomed and called for the full release of government
>documents concerning all the major political assassinations in the
>1960s. I even hosted Phil Ochs and A.J. Weberman in my apartment while
>they attended the national Yippie conference on "Who stole Kennedy's
>brain?" This included the memorable Kennedy Brain Drain demonstration at
>the National Archives. A.J. stayed at my apartment in Washington, D.C.
>for many weeks while researching and writing his (lurid, exotic,
>unbelievable) book on the Kennedy assassination (we are still friends
>despite my critique of his book).
>
>All of this is easy to establish because it is all in print in various
>articles and book chapter I have written. So I have to say either you
>are a lousy researcher, or you just like to demonize, insult, and
>misrepresent the facts about people who disagree with you.
>
>Confusionist? Bah! Humbug!
>
>
>Chip Berlet
>Senior Analyst
>Political Research Associates
>http://www.publiceye.org
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Joseph Wanzala [mailto:jwanzala at hotmail.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2003 10:55 AM
> > To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> > Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Bertrand Russell on JFK
> >
> >
> >
> > 16 Questions on the Assassination
> >
> > By Bertrand Russell
> >
> > http://karws.gso.uri.edu/JFK/The_critics/Russell/Sixteen_quest
> > ions_Russell.html
> > The Minority of One, 6 September 1964, pp. 6-8.
> >
> > The official version of the assassination of President
> > Kennedy has been so riddled with contradictions that it is
> > been abandoned and rewritten no less than three times.
> > Blatant fabrications have received very widespread coverage
> > by the mass media, but denials of these same lies have gone
> > unpublished. Photographs, evidence and affidavits have been
> > doctored out of recognition. Some of the most important
> > aspects of the case against Lee Harvey Oswald have been
> > completely blacked out. Meanwhile, the F.B.I., the police and
> > the Secret Service have tried to silence key witnesses or
> > instruct them what evidence to give. Others involved have
> > disappeared or died in extraordinary circumstances.....
> >
> > ....In Britain, I invited people eminent in the intellectual
> > life of the country to join a "Who Killed Kennedy Committee,"
> > which at the moment of writing consists of the following
> > people: Mr. John Arden, playwright; Mrs. Carolyn Wedgwood
> > Benn, from Cincinnati, wife of Anthony Wedgwood Benn, M.P.;
> > Lord Boyd-Orr, former director-general of the U.N. Food and
> > Agricultural Organization and a Nobel Peace Prize winner; Mr.
> > John Calder, publisher; Professor William Empsom, Professor
> > of English Literature at Sheffield University; Mr. Victor
> > Golancz, publisher; Mr. Michael Foot, Member of Parliament;
> > Mr. Kingsley Martin, former editor of the New Statesman; Sir
> > Compton Mackenzie, writer; Mr. J.B. Priestley, playwright and
> > author; Sir Herbert Read, art critic; Mr. Tony Richardson,
> > film director; Dr. Mervyn Stockwood, Bishop of Southwark;
> > Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper, Regius Professor of Modern
> > History at Oxford University; Mr. Kenneth Tynan, Literary
> > Manager of the National Theatre; and myself.
> > We view the problem with the utmost seriousness. U.S.
> > Embassies have long ago reported to Washington world-wide
> > disbelief in the official charges against Oswald, but this
> > has scarcely been reflected by the American press. No U.S.
> > television program or mass circulation newspaper has
> > challenged the permanent basis of all the allegations-that
> > Oswald was the assassin, and that he acted alone. It is a
> > task which is left to the American people.
> >
> > _________________________________________________________________
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