One of the benefits of the Warren Commission is that its obfuscations created fertile ground for endless speculation about the murder of John Kennedy. While we believe that we have a solid understanding the major plot elements, we have yet to examine the role of the Secret Service (SS) in the murder of the president it was committed to protect.
As guilty as the Secret Service was in the murder of John Kennedy, we take care to note that it operated under the aegis of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). One of the clearest points of connection between the two agencies was the issuance of identification. Dallas deputy sherrif Roger Craig stopped two of the trigger men behind the fence of the grassy knoll as potential suspects. When they pulled SS badges, he let them go.
The Warren Commission discovered that the SS did not issue its own badges and identification. Instead the CIA’s Technical Services Division lead by Sidney Gottlieb – who was the father of the MKULTRA brainwashing program – issued the fake credentials to the triggermen standing behind the fence.
Two men leaving the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) escaped under the same prevarication – i.e. they flashed SS badges to the detaining officer.
We are doubtful that the triggermen were SS agents, thus our only point in this matter is to show that the CIA used SS paraphernalia to cloak the assassins. However, the SS was most assuredly and knowingly involved in the murder of the president so most likely coooperated in the matter of identification.
Mark Lane reports the hatred which most of the SS presidential detail shared for the president. He quotes from Abraham Bolden’s autobiography their stated position that they would not do anything to protect the president from danger. Bolden’s story is fascinating in its own right and deserving of special attention.
Key facts to consider in the SS’s commission of murder are the following. All of the expensively trained team of presidential agents were transferred out of the department in the 60 days prior to the assassination. While transfers may have been in order, such a wholesale depletion of trained men was not.
The net effect of this evisceration was a complement of team members who were not as qualified as the former team, making the president more vulnerable than necessary in a highly risky environment - particularly when one considers the assassination attempt in Chicago earlier in the month.
The secret service team remaining who were assigned for duty on the 22d were drinking the night before in direct violation of service regulations which explicitly state that there is no excuse for such behavior. In addition to showing contempt for the president, this activity significantly compromised their effectiveness.
The agents in the car behind the president did not even pretend to take action when gun fire opened on the president. They were trained to recognize gun fire but they told the Warren Commission that it was a firecracker or motorcycle backfire – laughable excuses which the Commisssion did not question.
Just to make sure that the president was as exposed as possible, flanking cars were not assigned to the presidential limousine as is customary. More significantly, the SS detail was very sparse – much more so than protocol and the occasion demanded. The coup de grace was the removal of the bubble on the limousine which was ordered by the SS.
The two agents in the front car were the most heinous of all. Agent William R. Greer was the driver while Roy H. Kellerman – agent in charge of the White House detail for Dallas - was the front passenger. He was one of the emergency substitutes for Gerald A. Behn who made last minute vacation plans leaving the far less qualified Kellerman in charge.
Under normal circumstances, one could argue that Greer was not assassin since he didn’t fire a weapon. However, under the circumstances, he is equal to a triggerman since he was required to momentarily stop the limousine in order for the triggermen to hit their target.
By all accounts, Greer stopped or nearly stopped - in complete and total defiance of his training, after the first shot to the back until the shot to the skull killed the president. Nor did Greer take any evasive action - again defying SS standards. After that shot, Greer sped up headed for Parkland Memorial Hospital where the president was pronounced dead.
Gerald Blaine, with Lisa McCubbin, wrote The Kennedy Detail which attempts to exonerate the role of the Secret Service prior to and during the murder. Blaine was in Arlington, Virginia at the time of the assassination. Unfortunately Blaine is truth challenged – a challenge which Mark Lane overcomes nicely in Last Word. The book pages make nice kitty litter box lining.
Just as the Roman Praetorian guard could make and break emperors, so too the Secret Service controlled who would be president - with CIA nudging of course.
Reference
Last Word, Mark Lane
Copyright 2010-12 Tony Bonn. All rights reserved.
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