Hoover's FBI: The Inside Story by Hoover's Trusted Lieutenant (1995)
Cartha Dekle DeLoach (July 20, 1920 – March 13, 2013), known as Deke DeLoach, was deputy associate director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) of the United States.[1] During his post, DeLoach was the third most senior official in the FBI after J. Edgar Hoover and Clyde Tolson.[1]
Early life
DeLoach was born July 20, 1920, in Claxton, Georgia, the only child of Cartha Calhoun DeLoach.[1][2] His father, a merchant, died when DeLoach was ten years old.[1] He attended Gordon Military College, South Georgia College and Stetson University.[2]
FBI service
In his book, “The Secrets of the FBI” national security journalist Ronald Kessler reported an incident in which a highly placed congressional staffer believed that DeLoach attempted blackmail using derogatory information from the agency's files.:[3]
Roy L. Elson, administrative assistant to U.S. Sen. Carl T. Hayden, experienced [FBI blackmail] first-hand. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover wanted an additional appropriation for the new FBI building on Pennsylvania Avenue. Elson had reservations about the request, but Cartha D. “Deke” DeLoach, one of the FBI’s top officials, met with him and “hinted” that he had “information that was unflattering and detrimental to my marital situation and that the senator might be disturbed,” Elson told me for my book.
“I was certainly vulnerable that way,” Elson said. “The implication was there was information about my sex life. There was no doubt in my mind what he was talking about.”
Elson suggested that they both tell Hayden, who headed the Senate Appropriations Committee, about his affair.
“Bring the photos if you have them,” Elson told DeLoach.
“At that point,” Elson recalled, “He started backing off … He said, ‘I’m only joking. Bullshit,' ” Elson said. “I interpreted it as attempted blackmail.”
References
Weber, Bruce (March 15, 2013). "Cartha D. DeLoach, No. 3 in the F.B.I., Is Dead at 92". The New York Times. Retrieved August 16, 2015.
Simmons, Dorothy (1999). A History of Evans County, Georgia. The Evans County Historical Society.
Kessler, Ronald (December 28, 2020). "Time to Rename the J. Edgar Hoover Building". washingtontimes.com. The Washington Times. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
External links
Booknotes interview with DeLoach on Hoover's FBI: The Inside Story by Hoover's Trusted Lieutenant, August 20, 1995.
Remembering ‘Deke’ DeLoach, FBI
FBI: Obituary
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Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War (1997)
Operation Gold (also known as Operation Stopwatch by the British) was a joint operation conducted by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the British MI6 Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) in the 1950s to tap into landline communication of the Soviet Army headquarters in Berlin using a tunnel into the Soviet-occupied zone. This was a much more complex variation of the earlier Operation Silver project in Vienna.
The plan was activated in 1954 because of fears that the Soviets might be launching a nuclear attack at any time, having already detonated a hydrogen bomb in August 1953 as part of the Soviet atomic bomb project. Construction of the tunnel began in September 1954 and was completed in eight months. The Americans wanted to hear any warlike intentions being discussed by their military and were able to listen to telephone conversations for nearly a year, eventually recording roughly 90,000 communications.[1][2] The Soviet authorities were informed about Operation Gold from the very beginning by their mole George Blake but decided not to "discover" the tunnel until April 21, 1956, in order to protect Blake from exposure.[3]
Some details of the project are still classified, and whatever authoritative information could be found was scant until recently. This was primarily because the then-Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), Allen Dulles, had ordered "as little as possible" to be "reduced to writing" when the project was authorized. In 2019, additional specifics became available.[4]
Background
After the Red Army followed the Soviet diplomatic department and transferred its most secure communications from radio to telephone landlines, the post-World War II Western Allies lost a major Cold War source of information. Operation Gold, was hence, at least the third tunnel built to aid intelligence in the Cold War period after the end of World War II. From 1948 onwards, under Operation Silver, the British SIS had undertaken a number of such operations in then still occupied-Vienna, the information from which enabled the restoration of Austrian sovereignty in 1955. [citation needed] The KGB later commissioned the Red Army to construct a tunnel to tap into a cable that served the major US Army garrison in Berlin.
Operational agreement
In early 1951, the CIA undertook an assessment process for replacing lost Soviet radio communications intelligence. Revealing their plans to the British, the SIS, having read the report, which included the idea of tapping Soviet telephone lines, revealed the existence of Operation Silver in Vienna.[5]
On the reassignment of CIA agent Bill Harvey to Berlin to explore available options, Reinhard Gehlen, the head of the Bundesnachrichtendienst, alerted the CIA to the location of a crucial telephone junction, less than 2 meters (6 ft. 7 in.) underground, where three cables came together close to the border of the American sector of West Berlin.[5] Operation Gold was planned jointly by the SIS and the CIA. Initial planning meetings were held at No. 2 Carlton Gardens, London, from which the West German government was excluded due to the "highly infiltrated nature" of their service. The resulting agreement was that the US would supply most of the financing and construct the tunnel (as the closest access point was in their sector), while the British would use their expertise from Operation Silver to tap the cables and provide the required electronic communications equipment.
One of those who attended the early meetings was George Blake, a mole in the British intelligence apparatus. Blake apparently alerted the KGB immediately, as two of Gehlen's agents were caught trying to get a potential tapping wire across a Berlin canal. The KGB decided to let Operation Gold proceed since, in order to attack the tunnel, the Soviets would have to compromise Blake, and they found it preferable to sacrifice some information rather than their valuable agent. According to the author of a 2019 book about the operation, the Soviets "valued Blake so much that they feared his exposure more than a breach of their secrets."[6]
The KGB did not inform anyone in Germany, including the East Germans or the Soviet users of the cables, about the taps. According to a CIA report, "there were no known attempts to feed disinformation to the CIA." Although the British SIS suspected the opposite, the CIA report states that "the Soviet military continued to use the cables for communications of intelligence value."[7]
Construction
In December 1953, the operation was placed under the direction of William King Harvey, a former U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) official who transferred to the CIA. Captain Williamson of the United States Army Corps of Engineers was placed in charge of construction.
The first project was the construction of a "warehouse", which acted as a disguise for a US Army ELINT station. The warehouse, in the Neukölln/Rudow district of the US sector of Berlin, had an unconventionally deep basement at 7 metres (23 ft) to serve as the staging area for the tunnel.[8] Digging the initial vertical shaft for the tunnel began on September 2, 1954,[9] and was completed on February 25, the following year.
The covert construction of the 450-meter (1,480 ft.) tunnel under the world's most heavily patrolled border to intersect a series of cables less than 47 centimeters (19 in.) below a busy street was an exceptional engineering challenge. Using the shield method of construction, which pushed forward on hydraulic rams, the resultant space was lined with sand and 1,700 cast-iron lining plates. A wooden railway track acted as a guide for the rubber-wheeled construction vehicles, which by the end of construction had removed 3,000 tons (3,000 long tons and 3,300 short tons) of material. This included a number of evacuations, including when the diggers broke through into an undocumented pre-World War II cesspool and flooded the tunnel. Throughout all stages of construction and in operational use, the entire tunnel was rigged with explosives, designed to ensure its complete destruction. Once complete, the tunnel ran into the Altglienicke area of Treptow borough, where British Army Captain Peter Lunn—a former alpine skier, who was actually the head of the SIS in Berlin—personally undertook the tapping of the three cables. The British also installed most of the electronic handling equipment in the tunnel, which was manufactured and badged as British made.
The final cost of the completed tunnel was over US$6.5M, or equivalent to the final procurement cost of two Lockheed U-2 spy planes.
Operations
Wiretap/recording equipment consisting of British-made products
The tunnel ran 1,476 feet and was six feet in diameter and operated for 11 months and 11 days[10] according to a 2019 book by Washington Post journalist Steve Vogel, who reviewed all of the available documents and interviewed 40 of the project's participants. Betrayal in Berlin: The True Story of the Cold War's Most Audacious Espionage Operation includes a "virtually month-by-month account of the tunnel's excavation and operation", according to one review. As well, after that book was published, the CIA released a less redacted version of their documents about the tunnel.[11]
Inside, the British and the Americans listened and recorded the messages flowing to and from Soviet military headquarters in Zossen, near Berlin: conversations between Moscow and the Soviet embassy in East Berlin and conversations between East German and Soviet officials.
The West was unable to break Soviet encryption at this time. Instead they took advantage of valuable intelligence gained "from unguarded telephone conversations over official channels." "Sixty-seven thousand hours of Russian and German conversations, were sent to London for transcription by a special section staffed by 317 Russian emigres and German linguists. Teleprinter signals, many of them multiplexed, were also collected on magnetic tape and forwarded to Frank Rowlett's Staff D for processing."[12]
To protect Blake, the KGB was forced to keep the flow of information as normal as possible with the result that the tunnel was a bonanza of intelligence collection for the US and Britain in a world that had yet to witness the U-2 or satellite imagery.
According to Stephen Budiansky, "The KGB's own high-level communications went on a separate system of overhead lines that could not be tapped without its being obvious, and, concerned above all with protecting Blake as a valuable source inside SIS and unwilling to share its secrets with rival agencies, the KGB had simply left both the GRU and the Stasi in the dark about the tunnel's existence."[12]
Discovery by the Soviets
The tapped telephone wires are presented to the press.
When Blake received a transfer in 1955, the Soviets were free to "discover" the tunnel. On 21 April 1956, months after the tunnel went into operation, Soviet and East German soldiers broke into the eastern end of the tunnel. One source indicates that the wiretap had been in service for roughly 18 months.[13] The Soviets announced the discovery to the press and called it a "breach of the norms of international law" and "a gangster act". Newspapers around the world ran photographs of the underground partition of the tunnel directly under the inter-German frontier. The wall had a sign in German and Russian reading "Entry is Forbidden by the Commanding General."[14]
By 24 April 1956, the remains of the tunnel were being toured extensively by the Soviet and East German authorities
In the planning phase, the CIA and SIS had estimated that the Soviets would cover up any discovery of the tunnel, through embarrassment and any potential repercussions. However, most world media portrayed the tunnel project as a brilliant piece of engineering. The CIA may have gained more than the Soviets did from the "discovery" of the tunnel.[15] In part, this was because the tunnel was discovered during Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev's state visit to the United Kingdom, and specifically the day before a state banquet with HM Queen Elizabeth II at Windsor Castle. It is suspected that the Soviets and the British agreed to mute media coverage of British participation in the project even though the equipment shown in most photographs was British-built and clearly labelled as such.[16]
Only in 1961, when Blake was arrested, tried and convicted, did Western officials realize that the tunnel had been compromised long before construction had begun. Although DCI Allen Dulles has publicly celebrated the success of Operation Gold in providing order of battle and other information about Soviet and East Bloc activities behind the Iron Curtain, a declassified NSA history implied that NSA may have thought less of the value of the tunnel collection than did the CIA.[17]
In 1996 the Berlin city government contracted a local construction company to excavate approximately 83 meters (270 ft) from the former American Berlin sector of the tunnel to make way for a new housing development. In 1997 a 12-meter (40 ft) section was excavated under the guidance of William Durie from what had been the Soviet Berlin sector. This section of tunnel is displayed at the Allied Museum. The museum's claim that this section was retrieved from the American sector is false.[18] The CIA museum received outer tunnel shell elements in 1999 and the International Spy Museum in Washington thereafter.[citation needed]
In fiction
Operation Gold forms the background to the novels The Innocent by Ian McEwan, Voices Under Berlin: The Tale of a Monterey Mary by T.H.E. Hill and to the film The Innocent by John Schlesinger.
Notes
Vogel, Steve (20 September 2020). "Dwight Eisenhower Built up American Intelligence at a Crucial Moment". History News Network. Retrieved 26 February 2021.
"Betrayal in Berlin Reviewed by Gary Keeley" (PDF). CIA. 15 June 2020. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 16, 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
"In 'The Spy and the Traitor,' a tale of Cold War espionage that's both thrilling and true". Washington Post. 8 November 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
"Betrayal in Berlin: The True Story of the Cold War's Most Audacious Espionage Operation". Washington Independent Review. 18 November 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
Battleground Berlin, p. 208
"Cold War Double Spy George Blake Dies At 98". NPR. 28 December 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
"A Look Back ... The Berlin Tunnel: Exposed". CIA. 26 June 2009. Archived from the original on July 15, 2009. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
Caryn E. Neumann, Berlin Tunnel, Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security, retrieved 29 August 2009
Battleground Berlin, p. 220
"Betrayal in Berlin Reviewed by Gary Keeley" (PDF). CIA. 15 June 2020. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 16, 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
"Betrayal in Berlin: The True Story of the Cold War's Most Audacious Espionage Operation". Washington Independent Review. 18 November 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2020.
Budiansky, Stephen (2016). Code Warriors. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 194–199. ISBN 978-0385352666.
"BMarch Book Review- 'Betrayal in Berlin' by Steve Vogel". KPCW. 10 March 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2020. "The Americans and the British were able to listen into the Russian conversations for 18 months"
Spies Beneath Berlin, p. 112
Martin, David C. (1980). Wilderness of Mirrors. Harper & Row. pp. 87–88.
Spies Beneath Berlin, p. 12
Operation REGAL: The Berlin Tunnel. National Security Agency (NSA Historical Monograph). 1988. pp. 22–24.
William Durie, The United States Garrison Berlin, 1945–1994, Mission Accomplished, 2014 ISBN 978-1-63068-540-9 (English).
References
Durie, William (2012). The British Garrison Berlin 1945 - 1994: nowhere to go ... a pictorial historiography of the British Military occupation / presence in Berlin. Berlin: Vergangenheitsverlag (de). ISBN 978-3-86408-068-5. OCLC 978161722.
David Stafford, Spies Beneath Berlin – the Extraordinary Story of Operation Stopwatch/Gold, the CIA's Spy Tunnel Under the Russian Sector of Cold War Berlin, Overlook Press, 2002. ISBN 1-58567-361-7
David E. Murphy, Sergei A. Kondrashev, George Bailey. Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War, Yale University Press, 1999. ISBN 0-300-07233-3
CIA Clandestine Services History Paper (CSHP) number 150, "The Berlin Tunnel Operation", 1968
Rory MacLean, Berlin: Imagine a City / Berlin: Portrait of a City Through the Centuries, Weidenfeld & Nicolson / Picador 2014. ISBN 978-1-250-07490-4
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Operation Gold.
A Preview on the Berlin Tunnel Exhibit in the AlliiertenMuseum at the Wayback Machine (archived September 28, 2007)
Turning a Cold War Scheme into Reality – Engineering the Berlin Tunnel, www.cia.gov
The Berlin Tunnel, article at The Cold War Museum
The International Spy Museum, located in Washington, DC at 700 L'Enfant Plaza, SW, exhibits a segment of the Berlin tunnel.
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This Is Not the History that We Were Taught in High School (1998)
Zinn wrote one of the earliest books calling for the U.S. withdrawal from its war in Vietnam. Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal was published by Beacon Press in 1967 based on his articles in Commonweal, The Nation, and Ramparts. In the opinion of Noam Chomsky, The Logic of Withdrawal was Zinn's most important book:
"He was the first person to say—loudly, publicly, very persuasively—that this simply has to stop; we should get out, period, no conditions; we have no right to be there; it's an act of aggression; pull out. It was so surprising at the time that there wasn't even a review of the book. In fact, he asked me if I would review it in Ramparts just so that people would know about the book."[54]
Zinn's diplomatic visit to Hanoi with Reverend Daniel Berrigan, during the Tet Offensive in January 1968, resulted in the return of three American airmen, the first American POWs released by the North Vietnamese since the U.S. bombing of that nation had begun. The event was widely reported in the news media and discussed in a variety of books including Who Spoke Up? American Protest Against the War in Vietnam 1963–1975 by Nancy Zaroulis and Gerald Sullivan.[55] Zinn and the Berrigan brothers, Dan and Philip, remained friends and allies over the years.
Also in January 1968, he signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the war.[56]
In December 1969, radical historians tried unsuccessfully to persuade the American Historical Association to pass an anti-Vietnam War resolution. "A debacle unfolded as Harvard historian (and AHA president in 1968) John Fairbank literally wrestled the microphone from Zinn's hands."[57]
Daniel Ellsberg, a former RAND consultant who had secretly copied The Pentagon Papers, which described the history of the United States' military involvement in Southeast Asia, gave a copy to Howard and Roslyn Zinn.[58] Along with Noam Chomsky, Zinn edited and annotated the copy of The Pentagon Papers that Senator Mike Gravel read into the Congressional Record and that was subsequently published by Beacon Press.
Announced on August 17[59] and published on October 10, 1971, this four-volume, relatively expensive set[59] became the "Senator Gravel Edition", which studies from Cornell University and the Annenberg Center for Communication have labeled as the most complete edition of the Pentagon Papers to be published.[60][61] The "Gravel Edition" was edited and annotated by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, and included an additional volume of analytical articles on the origins and progress of the war, also edited by Chomsky and Zinn.[61]
Zinn testified as an expert witness at Ellsberg's criminal trial for theft, conspiracy, and espionage in connection with the publication of the Pentagon Papers by The New York Times. Defense attorneys asked Zinn to explain to the jury the history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam from World War II through 1963. Zinn discussed that history for several hours, and later reflected on his time before the jury.
I explained there was nothing in the papers of military significance that could be used to harm the defense of the United States, that the information in them was simply embarrassing to our government because what was revealed, in the government's own interoffice memos, was how it had lied to the American public. ... The secrets disclosed in the Pentagon Papers might embarrass politicians, might hurt the profits of corporations wanting tin, rubber, oil, in far-off places. But this was not the same as hurting the nation, the people.[62]
Most of the jurors later said that they voted for acquittal. However, the federal judge who presided over the case dismissed it on grounds it had been tainted by the Nixon administration's burglary of the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist.
Zinn's testimony on the motivation for government secrecy was confirmed in 1989 by Erwin Griswold, who as U.S. solicitor general during the Nixon administration sued The New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case in 1971 to stop publication.[63] Griswold persuaded three Supreme Court justices to vote to stop The New York Times from continuing to publish the Pentagon Papers, an order known as "prior restraint" that has been held to be illegal under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The papers were simultaneously published in The Washington Post, effectively nullifying the effect of the prior restraint order. In 1989, Griswold admitted there had been no national security damage resulting from publication.[63] In a column in The Washington Post, Griswold wrote: "It quickly becomes apparent to any person who has considerable experience with classified material that there is massive over-classification and that the principal concern of the classifiers is not with national security, but with governmental embarrassment of one sort or another."
Zinn supported the G.I. anti-war movement during the U.S. war in Vietnam. In the 2001 film Unfinished Symphony: Democracy and Dissent, Zinn provides a historical context for the 1971 anti-war march by Vietnam Veterans against the War. The marchers traveled from Bunker Hill near Boston to Lexington, Massachusetts, "which retraced Paul Revere's ride of 1775 and ended in the massive arrest of 410 veterans and civilians by the Lexington police." The film depicts "scenes from the 1971 Winter Soldier hearings,[64] during which former G.I.s testified about "atrocities" they either participated in or said they had witnessed committed by U.S. forces in Vietnam.[65] Zinn also took part in the 1971 May Day protests (with among others Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg).[66][67]
In later years, Zinn was an adviser to the Disarm Education Fund.[68]
Iraq
Howard Zinn speaking at Marlboro College February 2004
Zinn opposed the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq and wrote several books about it. In an interview with The Brooklyn Rail he said,
We certainly should not be initiating a war, as it's not a clear and present danger to the United States, or in fact, to anyone around it. If it were, then the states around Iraq would be calling for a war on it. The Arab states around Iraq are opposed to the war, and if anyone's in danger from Iraq, they are. At the same time, the U.S. is violating the U.N. charter by initiating a war on Iraq. Bush made a big deal about the number of resolutions Iraq has violated—and it's true, Iraq has not abided by the resolutions of the Security Council. But it's not the first nation to violate Security Council resolutions. Israel has violated Security Council resolutions every year since 1967. Now, however, the U.S. is violating a fundamental principle of the U.N. Charter, which is that nations can't initiate a war—they can only do so after being attacked. And Iraq has not attacked us.[69]
He asserted that the U.S. would end Gulf War II when resistance within the military increased in the same way resistance within the military contributed to ending the U.S. war in Vietnam. Zinn compared the demand by a growing number of contemporary U.S. military families to end the war in Iraq to parallel demands "in the Confederacy in the Civil War, when the wives of soldiers rioted because their husbands were dying and the plantation owners were profiting from the sale of cotton, refusing to grow grains for civilians to eat."[70]
Zinn believed that U.S. President George W. Bush and followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, who was personally responsible for beheadings and numerous attacks designed to cause civil war in Iraq, should be considered moral equivalents.[71]
Jean-Christophe Agnew, Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University, told the Yale Daily News in May 2007 that Zinn's historical work is "highly influential and widely used".[72] He observed that it is not unusual for prominent professors such as Zinn to weigh in on current events, citing a resolution opposing the war in Iraq that was recently ratified by the American Historical Association.[73] Agnew added: "In these moments of crisis, when the country is split—so historians are split."[74]
Socialism
Zinn described himself as "something of an anarchist, something of a socialist. Maybe a democratic socialist."[4][5] He suggested looking at socialism in its full historical context as a popular, positive idea that got a bad name from its association with Soviet Communism. In Madison, Wisconsin, in 2009, Zinn said:
Let's talk about socialism. I think it's very important to bring back the idea of socialism into the national discussion to where it was at the turn of the [last] century before the Soviet Union gave it a bad name. Socialism had a good name in this country. Socialism had Eugene Debs. It had Clarence Darrow. It had Mother Jones. It had Emma Goldman. It had several million people reading socialist newspapers around the country. Socialism basically said, hey, let's have a kinder, gentler society. Let's share things. Let's have an economic system that produces things not because they're profitable for some corporation, but produces things that people need. People should not be retreating from the word socialism because you have to go beyond capitalism.[75]
FBI files
Occupy Oakland, November 12, 2011, Howard Zinn quotation
On July 30, 2010, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request resulted in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) releasing a file with 423 pages of information on Howard Zinn's life and activities. During the height of McCarthyism in 1949, the FBI first opened a domestic security investigation on Zinn (FBI File # 100-360217), based on Zinn's activities in what the agency considered to be communist front groups, such as the American Labor Party,[76] and informant reports that Zinn was an active member of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA).[77] Zinn denied ever being a member and said that he had participated in the activities of various organizations which might be considered Communist fronts, but that his participation was motivated by his belief that in this country people had the right to believe, think, and act according to their own ideals.[77] According to journalist Chris Hedges, Zinn "steadfastly refused to cooperate in the anti-communist witchhunts in the 1950s."[78]
Later in the 1960s, as a result of Zinn's campaigning against the Vietnam War and his communication with Martin Luther King Jr., the FBI designated him a high security risk to the country by adding him to the Security Index, a list of American citizens who could be summarily arrested if a state of emergency were to be declared.[77][79] The FBI memos also show that they were concerned with Zinn's repeated criticism of the FBI for failing to protect black people against white mob violence. Zinn's daughter said she was not surprised by the files: "He always knew they had a file on him".[77]
Personal life and death
Zinn at Pathfinder Bookstore, Los Angeles, August 2000
Zinn married Roslyn Shechter in 1944. They remained married until her death in 2008. They had a daughter, Myla, and a son, Jeff. Myla is the wife of mindfulness instructor Jon Kabat-Zinn.[80]
Zinn was swimming in a hotel pool when he died of an apparent heart attack[81] in Santa Monica, California, on January 27, 2010, at the age of 87. He had been scheduled to speak at Crossroads School and Santa Monica Museum of Art for an event titled "A Collection of Ideas... the People Speak."[82]
In one of his last interviews,[83] Zinn stated that he would like to be remembered "for introducing a different way of thinking about the world, about war, about human rights, about equality," and
for getting more people to realize that the power which rests so far in the hands of people with wealth and guns, that the power ultimately rests in people themselves and that they can use it. At certain points in history, they have used it. Black people in the South used it. People in the women's movement used it. People in the anti-war movement used it. People in other countries who have overthrown tyrannies have used it.
He said he wanted to be known as "somebody who gave people a feeling of hope and power that they didn't have before."[84]
Notable recognition
2008 Howard Zinn was selected as a special senior advisor to Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, the president of the United Nations General Assembly 63rd session.
Established by a former Boston University student of Zinn's and two nonprofit organizations (Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change) while he was alive, the Zinn Education Project is Howard Zinn's legacy to middle- and high-school teachers and their students.[30] The project offers classroom teachers free lessons based on A People's History of the United States and like-minded history texts.
Awards
"I can't think of anyone who had such a powerful and benign influence. His historical work changed the way millions of people saw the past. The happy thing about Howard was that in the last years he could gain satisfaction that his contributions were so impressive and recognized."[6]
— Noam Chomsky
In 1991 the Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Social Justice in Pittsburgh awarded Zinn the Thomas Merton Award for his activism and work on national and international issues that transform our world.[85] For his leadership in the Peace Movement, Zinn received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award in 1996.[86] In 1998 he received the Eugene V. Debs Award,[87] the Firecracker Alternative Book Award in the Politics category for The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy,[88] and the Lannan Literary Award for nonfiction.[89] The following year he won the Upton Sinclair Award, which honors those whose work illustrates an abiding commitment to social justice and equality.[90]
In 2003, Zinn was awarded the Prix des Amis du Monde diplomatique for the French version of his seminal work, Une histoire populaire des Etats-Unis.[91]
On October 5, 2006, Zinn received the Haven's Center Award for Lifetime Contribution to Critical Scholarship in Madison, Wisconsin.[92]
Reception
In July 2013, the Associated Press revealed that Mitch Daniels, when he was the sitting Republican Governor of Indiana, asked for assurance from his education advisors that Zinn's works were not taught in K–12 public schools in the state.[93] The AP had gained access to Daniels' emails under a Freedom of Information Act request. Daniels also wanted a "cleanup" of K–12 professional development courses to eliminate "propaganda and highlight (if there is any) the more useful offerings."[94] In one of the emails, Daniels expressed contempt for Zinn upon his death:[95]
This terrible anti-American academic has finally passed away...The obits and commentaries mentioned his book, A People's History of the United States, is the 'textbook of choice in high schools and colleges around the country.' It is a truly execrable, anti-factual piece of disinformation that misstates American history on every page. Can someone assure me that it is not in use anywhere in Indiana? If it is, how do we get rid of it before more young people are force-fed a totally false version of our history?
At the time the emails were released, Daniels was serving as the president of Purdue University. In response, 90 Purdue professors issued an open letter expressing their concern.[96][97][98][99] Because of Daniels' attempt to remove Zinn's book, the former governor was accused of censorship, to which Daniels responded by saying that his views were misrepresented, and that if Zinn were alive and a member of the Purdue faculty, he would defend his free speech rights and right to publish. But he said that would not give Zinn an "entitlement to have that work foisted on school children in public schools."[100]
Stanford education professor Sam Wineburg has criticized Zinn's research. Wineburg acknowledged that A People's History of the United States was an important contribution for overlooked alternative perspectives, but criticised the book's coverage of the mid-thirties to the Cold War. According to reviewer David Plotnikoff from Stanford, Wineburg shows that "A People's History perpetrates the same errors of historical practice as the tomes it aimed to correct", for "Zinn's desire to cast a light on what he saw as historic injustice was a crusade built on secondary sources of questionable provenance, omission of exculpatory evidence, leading questions and shaky connections between evidence and conclusions".[101][102]
Daniel J. Flynn, an author and columnist at the conservative The American Spectator, wrote that Zinn's history was biased.[103] Michael Kazin, professor at Georgetown University and co-editor of the leftist magazine Dissent,, praised Zinn's A People's History of the United States for its dramatic condemnation of the exploitation of the masses by an elite few, and for its lavish use of quotes from social rebels and revolutionaries, though he describes it as somewhat simplified.[104] Kazin has also provided criticism saying "A People's History is bad history, albeit gilded with virtuous intentions. Zinn reduces the past to a Manichean fable."[105]
Mary Grabar, a resident fellow at the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, accused Zinn of plagiarizing a polemic by novelist and anti-Vietnam War activist Hans Koning in The People's History, and editing Koning's narrative to remove what Grabar said was the "devout Catholic Columbus’s concern for the natives".[106][107]
In early 2017, lawmaker Kim Hendren attempted to ban books written by Zinn from Arkansas public schools.[108][109]
Bibliography
Author
LaGuardia in Congress (1959; based on his 1958 Ph.D. dissertation Fiorello LaGuardia in Congress) OCLC 642325734.
The Southern Mystique (1962) OCLC 423360.
SNCC: The New Abolitionists (1964) OCLC 466264063.
New Deal Thought (editor) (1965) OCLC 422649795.
Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal (1967) OCLC 411235.
Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies on Law and Order (1968, re-issued 2002) ISBN 978-0-89608-675-3.
The Politics of History (1970) (2nd edition 1990) ISBN 978-0-252-06122-6.
The Pentagon Papers Senator Gravel Edition. Vol. Five. Critical Essays. Boston. Beacon Press, 1972. 341p. plus 72p. of Index to Vol. I–IV of the Papers, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, editors. ISBN 978-0-8070-0522-4.
Justice in Everyday Life: The Way It Really Works (Editor) (1974) ISBN 978-0-688-00284-8.
Justice? Eyewitness Accounts (1977) ISBN 978-0-8070-4479-7.
— (2009). A People's History of the United States: 1492-present. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060528423. LCCN 2002032895. OCLC 699879349. OL 3563811M. Retrieved 8 July 2022 – via Internet Archive.
See also A People's History of the United States
Klein, Maxine; Sargent, Lydia; — (1986). Playbook. South End Press. ISBN 978-0896083097. LCCN 86006754. OCLC 13116400. OL 2713846M.
Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1991) ISBN 978-0-06-092108-8.[110]
A People's History of the United States: The Civil War to the Present Kathy Emery and Ellen Reeves, Howard Zinn (2003 teaching edition) Vol. I: ISBN 978-1-56584-724-8. Vol II: ISBN 978-1-56584-725-5.
Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian (1993) ISBN 978-1-56751-013-3.
You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times (autobiography)(1994) ISBN 978-0-8070-7127-4
A People's History of the United States: The Wall Charts by Howard Zinn and George Kirschner (1995) ISBN 978-1-56584-171-0.
Hiroshima: Breaking the Silence (pamphlet, 1995) ISBN 978-1-884519-14-7.
The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy (1997) ISBN 978-1-888363-54-8; 2nd edition (2009) ISBN 978-1-58322-870-8.
The Cold War & the University: Toward an Intellectual History of the Postwar Years (Noam Chomsky (Editor) Authors: Ira Katznelson, R. C. Lewontin, David Montgomery, Laura Nader, Richard Ohmann,[111] Ray Siever, Immanuel Wallerstein, Howard Zinn (1997) ISBN 978-1-56584-005-8.
Marx in Soho: A Play on History (1999) ISBN 978-0-89608-593-0.
The Future of History: Interviews With David Barsamian (1999) ISBN 978-1-56751-157-4.
Howard Zinn on War (2000) ISBN 978-1-58322-049-8.
Howard Zinn on History (2000) ISBN 978-1-58322-048-1.
La Otra Historia De Los Estados Unidos (2000) ISBN 978-1-58322-054-2.
Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of Labor's Last Century (Dana Frank, Robin Kelley, and Howard Zinn) (2002) ISBN 978-0-8070-5013-2.
Terrorism and War (2002) ISBN 978-1-58322-493-9. (interviews, Anthony Arnove (Ed.))
The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace Editor (2002) ISBN 978-0-8070-1407-3.
Emma: A Play in Two Acts About Emma Goldman, American Anarchist (2002) ISBN 978-0-89608-664-7.
Artists in Times of War (2003) ISBN 978-1-58322-602-5.
The 20th century: A People's History (2003) ISBN 978-0-06-053034-1.
A People's History of the United States: Teaching Edition Abridged (2003 updated) ISBN 978-1-56584-826-9.
Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice (2003) ISBN 978-0-06-055767-6.
Iraq Under Siege, The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War, co-author (2003)
Howard Zinn On Democratic Education Donaldo Macedo, Editor (2004) ISBN 978-1-59451-054-0.
The People Speak: American Voices, Some Famous, Some Little Known (2004) ISBN 978-0-06-057826-8.
Voices of a People's History of the United States (with Anthony Arnove, 2004) ISBN 978-1-58322-647-6; 2nd edition (2009) ISBN 978-1-58322-916-3.
A People's History of the Civil War: Struggles for the Meaning of Freedom by David Williams, Howard Zinn (Series Editor) (2005) ISBN 978-1-59558-018-4.
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress (2006) ISBN 978-0-87286-475-7.
Original Zinn: Conversations on History and Politics (2006) Howard Zinn and David Barsamian.
A People's History of American Empire (2008) by Howard Zinn, Mike Konopacki and Paul Buhle. ISBN 978-0-8050-8744-4.
A Young People's History of the United States, adapted from the original text by Rebecca Stefoff; illustrated and updated through 2006, with new introduction and afterword by Howard Zinn; two volumes, Seven Stories Press, New York, 2007.
Vol. 1: Columbus to the Spanish–American War. ISBN 978-1-58322-759-6.
Vol. 2: Class Struggle to the War on Terror. ISBN 978-1-58322-760-2.
One-volume edition (2009) ISBN 978-1-58322-869-2.
The Bomb (City Lights Publishers, 2010) ISBN 978-0-87286-509-9.
The Historic Unfulfilled Promise (City Lights Publishers, 2012) ISBN 978-0-87286-555-6.
Howard Zinn Speaks: Collected Speeches 1963-2009 (Haymarket Books, 2012) ISBN 978-1-60846-259-9.
Truth Has a Power of Its Own: Conversations About A People's History by Howard Zinn and Ray Suarez (The New Press, 2019) ISBN 978-1-62097-517-6.
Contributor
Ars Americana Ars Politica: Partisan Expression in Contemporary American Literature and Culture. by Peter Swirski (2010) ISBN 978-0-7735-3766-8.
Admirable Radical: Staughton Lynd and Cold War Dissent, 1945–1970 (2010), Kent State University Press by Carl Mirra ISBN 978-1-60635-051-5.
A Gigantic Mistake by Mickey Z (2004) ISBN 978-1-930997-97-4.
A People's History of the Supreme Court by Peter H. Irons (2000) ISBN 978-0-14-029201-5.
A Political Dynasty In North Idaho, 1933–1967 by Randall Doyle (2004) ISBN 978-0-7618-2843-3.
American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions Under the Espionage and Sedition Acts by Stephen M. Kohn (1994) ISBN 978-0-275-94415-5.
American Power and the New Mandarins by Noam Chomsky (2002) ISBN 978-1-56584-775-0.
Broken Promises Of America: At Home And Abroad, Past And Present: An Encyclopedia For Our Times by (Douglas F. Dowd (2004) ISBN 978-1-56751-313-4.
Deserter From Death: Dispatches From Western Europe 1950–2000 by Daniel Singer (2005) ISBN 978-1-56025-642-7.
Ecocide of Native America: Environmental Destruction of Indian Lands and Peoples by Donald Grinde, Bruce Johansen (1994) ISBN 978-0-940666-52-8.
Eugene V. Debs Reader: Socialism and the Class Struggle by William A. Pelz (2000) ISBN 978-0-9704669-0-7.
From a Native Son: Selected Essays in Indigenism, 1985–1995 by Ward Churchill (1996) ISBN 978-0-89608-553-4.
Green Parrots: A War Surgeon's Diary by Gino Strada (2005) ISBN 978-88-8158-420-8.
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear And The Selling Of American Empire by Sut Jhally editor, Jeremy Earp editor (2004) ISBN 978-1-56656-581-3.
If You're Not a Terrorist...Then Stop Asking Questions! by Micah Ian Wright (2004) ISBN 978-1-58322-626-1.
Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal by Anthony Arnove (2006) ISBN 978-1-59558-079-5.
Impeach the President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney Dennis Loo (Editor), Peter Phillips (Editor), Seven Stories Press: 2006 ISBN 978-1-58322-743-5.
Life of an Anarchist: The Alexander Berkman Reader by Alexander Berkman Gene Fellner, editor (2004) ISBN 978-1-58322-662-9.
Long Shadows: Veterans' Paths to Peace by David Giffey editor (2006) ISBN 978-1-891859-64-9.
Masters of War: Latin America and United States Aggression from the Cuban Revolution Through the Clinton Years by Clara Nieto, Chris Brandt (trans) (2003) ISBN 978-1-58322-545-5.
Peace Signs: The Anti-War Movement Illustrated by James Mann, editor (2004) ISBN 978-3-283-00487-3.
Prayer for the Morning Headlines: On the Sanctity of Life and Death by Daniel Berrigan (poetry) and Adrianna Amari (photography) (2007) ISBN 978-1-934074-16-9.
Silencing Political Dissent: How Post-9-11 Anti-terrorism Measures Threaten Our Civil Liberties by Nancy Chang, Center for Constitutional Rights (2002) ISBN 978-1-58322-494-6.
Soldiers In Revolt: GI Resistance During The Vietnam War by David Cortright (2005) ISBN 978-1-931859-27-1.
Sold to the Highest Bidder: The Presidency from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush by Daniel M. Friedenberg (2002) ISBN 978-1-57392-923-3.
The Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman Intro by Norman Mailer, Afterword by HZ (2000) ISBN 978-1-56858-197-2.
The Case for Socialism by Alan Maass (2004) ISBN 978-1-931859-09-7.
The Forging of the American Empire: From the Revolution to Vietnam, a History of U.S. Imperialism by Sidney Lens (2003) ISBN 978-0-7453-2101-1.
The Higher Law: Thoreau on Civil Disobedience and Reform by Henry David Thoreau, Wendell Glick, editor (2004) ISBN 978-0-691-11876-5.
The Iron Heel by Jack London (1971) ISBN 978-0-14-303971-6.
The Sixties Experience: Hard Lessons about Modern America by Edward P. Morgan (1992) ISBN 978-1-56639-014-9.
You Back the Attack, We'll Bomb Who We Want by Micah Ian Wright (2003) ISBN 978-1-58322-584-4.
A People's History of the American Revolution by Ray Raphael (2002) ISBN 978-0-06-000440-8. Howard Zinn Foreword for New Press People's History Series.
Recordings
A People's History of the United States (1999)
Artists in the Time of War (2002)
Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, and the Revolutionary Struggle (2000)
Stories Hollywood Never Tells (2000)
You Can't Blow Up A Social Relationship, CD including Zinn lectures and performances by rock band Resident Genius (Thick Records, 2005)[112]
Theatre
Emma (1976)
Daughter of Venus (1985)
Marx in Soho (1999)
See also
List of peace activists
References
"HowardZinn.org". HowardZinn.org. Retrieved March 13, 2022.
Zinn, Howard (1994). You can't be neutral on a moving train : a personal history of our times. Boston. ISBN 9780807071274. OCLC 50704670.
Powell, Michael (January 28, 2010). "Howard Zinn, Historian, Is Dead at 87". The New York Times. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
Glavin, Paul; Morse, Chuck (Spring 2003). "War is the Health of the State: An Interview with Howard Zinn". Perspectives on Anarchist Theory. 7 (1). Archived from the original on February 1, 2010.
Howard Zinn on Democratic Socialism on YouTube
Italie, Hillel (January 27, 2010). "Howard Zinn Dead, Author Of 'People's History Of The United States' Died At 87". The Huffington Post. Archived from the original on March 3, 2016.
"Howard Zinn". danjianbaowang.com. Archived from the original on October 19, 2017. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
"Biography". HowardZinn.org. Retrieved March 3, 2016.
"Howard Zinn:-Chronicling Lives from Spelman College to Boston U." EducationUpdate.com. April 2004. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
Duberman, Martin (2013). Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left. New Press. pp. 9–10. ISBN 9781595589347. Retrieved April 3, 2020 – via Google Books.
"Howard Zinn Describes Work in the Navy Yards". HowardZinn.org. December 8, 2008. Retrieved March 3, 2016.
Zinn, Howard (1990). The Politics of History (2nd ed.). University of Illinois Press. pp. 258–274. ISBN 978-0-252-01673-8.
"The Bomb" (PDF). Citylights.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
Zinn, Howard (1990). Declarations of Independence. New York: HarperPerennial. ISBN 978-0-06-092108-8.
"La Libération de Royan avril 1945". C-royan.com. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
"The Reception of the Presence of the U.S. Army in Pilsen in 1945 in Local Periodicals" (PDF). Dspace5.zcu.cz. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
Zinn, Howard (1990). The Politics of History (2nd ed.). University of Illinois Press. p. 260. ISBN 978-0-252-01673-8.
Zinn, Howard (January 2006). "Interview with Zinn". Progressive.org. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
Zinn, Howard. Hiroshima: Breaking the Silence. Archived from the original on July 25, 2008. Retrieved January 30, 2008 – via polymer.bu.edu.
Zinn, Howard (December 2001). "A Just Cause, Not a Just War". The Progressive. Archived from the original on October 7, 2012. Retrieved March 5, 2012 – via Commondreams.org.
Powell, Michael (January 28, 2010). "Howard Zinn, Historian, Is Dead at 87". The New York Times. Retrieved February 26, 2024.
Zinn, Howard (November 5, 2008). "What next for struggle in the Obama era?". SocialistWorker.org. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
Zinn, Howard (March 1, 2005). "Changing minds, one at a time". The Progressive. Retrieved April 15, 2020.
Duberman, Martin (2012). Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left. New Press. ISBN 9781595588401.
Cogswell, David (2009). Zinn for Beginners. For Beginners LLC. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-934389-40-9.
Activist, historian Howard Zinn dies at 87 by Ros Krasny at Reuters January 28, 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-09.
Duberman (2012). Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left. The New Press. p. 199. ISBN 978-1-59558-840-1.
"National Book Awards 1981 - National Book Foundation". Nationalbook.org.
"Backlist to the Future" by Rachel Donadio, July 30, 2006.
"About the Zinn Education Project". Zinn Education Project. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
"People's history moves small screen". Bu.edu. November 4, 2009. Archived from the original on January 17, 2010. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
"The People Speak". Howardzinn.org. Archived from the original on February 16, 2017. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
"The People Speak – Extended Edition: Contents". Zinn Education Project.
Dreier, Peter (June 26, 2012). The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame. PublicAffairs. p. 326. ISBN 9781568586816. "Howard Zinn participated in the Civil Rights Movement and lobbied with historian August Meier."
Lewis, David Levering (September 2003). "In Memoriam: August A. Meier". American Historical Association.
Polsgrove, Carol (2001). Divided Minds: Intellectuals and the Civil Rights Movement. pp. 115, 196.
"In Memory: Howard Zinn and the Civil Rights Movement". Carol Polsgrove on Writers' Lives. Archived from the original on July 1, 2010.
Polsgrove. Divided Minds. p. 238. Archived from the original on July 10, 2017. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
Duberman (2012). Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left. The New Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-59558-840-1.
Duberman (2012). Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left. The New Press. pp. 99–100. ISBN 978-1-59558-840-1.
Duberman (2012). Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left. The New Press. pp. 101–102. ISBN 978-1-59558-840-1.
Walker, Alice (January 31, 2010). "Saying goodbye to my friend Howard Zinn". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on March 24, 2010. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
Edelman, Marian Wright (2000). "Spelman College: A Safe Haven for a Young Black Woman". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (27 (Spring, 2000)): 118–123. doi:10.2307/2679028. JSTOR 2679028.
Zinn, Howard (1991). Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology. Perennial. pp. 175–176. ISBN 978-0060921088.
Zinn, Howard (December 22, 2009). "Finishing School for Pickets". thenation.com. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
"Interview with Zinn". globetrotter.berkeley.edu. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
"My Name Is Freedom Albany, Georgia". zmag.org. Archived from the original on February 19, 1999.
"Media Filter article on Zinn". mediafilter.org. Archived from the original on March 2, 2012. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
"Reporting Civil Rights, Part one: American Journalism 1941–1963". The Library of America. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
Birnbaum, Robert (January 10, 2001). "Howard Zinn Interview". Identity Theory. Retrieved November 20, 2021.
"Against Discouragement: Spelman College Commencement Address, May 2005 By Howard Zinn". Archived from the original on December 8, 2005.
Brittain, Victoria (January 28, 2010). "Howard Zinn's Lesson To Us All". The Guardian. London.
"Tomgram: Graduation Day with Howard Zinn". Tomdispatch.com. May 24, 2005. Retrieved November 20, 2021. full text of "Against Discouragement."
"Howard Zinn (1922–2010): A Tribute to the Legendary Historian with Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein and Anthony Arnove". Democracy Now!. January 28, 2010.
Who Spoke Up? American Protest Against the War in Vietnam 1963–1975. Horizon Book Promotions. 1989. ISBN 978-0-385-17547-0.
"Writers and Editors War Tax Protest". New York Post. January 30, 1968.
Mirra], Carl (February 1, 2010). "Forty Years On: Looking Back at the 1969 Annual Meeting". Perspectives on History. American Historical Association.
Ellsberg autobiography, Zinn autobiography.
"Church Plans 4-Book Version of Pentagon Study". The New York Times. August 18, 1971. Archived from the original (fee required) on December 14, 2013. Retrieved December 30, 2007.
Kahn, George McT. (June 1975). "The Pentagon Papers: A Critical Evaluation". American Political Science Review. 69 (2): 675–684. doi:10.2307/1959096. JSTOR 1959096. S2CID 144419085.
"Resources". Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers. Annenberg Center for Communication at University of Southern California. Archived from the original on January 11, 2008. Retrieved December 30, 2007.
Zinn, Howard (2010). You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times. Beacon Press. p. 161. ISBN 978-0-8070-9549-2.
Blanton, Tom (May 21, 2006). "The lie behind the secrets". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved July 28, 2013.
Winter Soldier Investigation. 1971.
"Cineaste" (PDF). pp. 91, 96. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 22, 2011. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
Ellsberg, Daniel (January 28, 2010). "A Memory of Howard". Truthdig. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
"How 1971's Mayday actions rattled Nixon and helped keep Vietnam from becoming a forever war". April 29, 2021. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
"Disarm Staff". DISARM Education Fund. Archived from the original on June 15, 2010. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
Hamm, Theodore (Autumn 2002). "Howard Zinn in Conversation with Theodore Hamm". The Brooklyn Rail.
"Tomdispatch Interview: Howard Zinn, The Outer Limits of Empire". TomDispatch.com. September 8, 2005. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
Prager, Dennis. "What the left thinks: Howard Zinn, Part II". DennisPrager.com. Retrieved March 20, 2018. "DP: So do you feel that, by and large, the Zarqawi-world and the Bush-world are moral equivalents? HZ: I do."
"Zinn calls for activism". Yale Daily News. May 3, 2007. Archived from the original on October 16, 2007. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
"American Historical Association Blog: Iraq War Resolution is Ratified by AHA Members". blog.historians.org. March 12, 2007. Archived from the original on January 16, 2011. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
Yu, Lea. "Historian Howard Zinn Calls for Activism". CommonDreams.org. Archived from the original on December 16, 2008. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
Zirin, Dave (January 28, 2010). "Howard Zinn: The Historian Who Made History". The Huffington Post. Retrieved November 21, 2021.
Merrefield, Clark (July 30, 2010). "The Daily Beast". "Zinn, who died in January and was best known for his influential A People's History of the United States, was studying at New York University on the GI Bill when J. Edgar Hoover's FBI opened its first files on him. He was working as vice chairman for the Brooklyn branch of the American Labor Party and living at 926 Lafayette Avenue in what is an area now considered the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn."
Matthew Rothschild (July 31, 2010). "The FBI's File on Howard Zinn". The Progressive.
Hedges, Chris (August 1, 2010). "Why the Feds Fear Thinkers Like Howard Zinn". Truthdig. Retrieved January 30, 2014.
"FBI Records: The Vault — Howard Zinn". vault.fbi.gov. Retrieved August 4, 2013.
Feeney, Mark; Marquard, Brian (January 28, 2010), "Historian-activist Zinn dies", Boston.com, retrieved December 28, 2016
Powell, Michael (January 28, 2010). "Howard Zinn, Historian, Is Dead at 87". The New York Times. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
Lopez, Robert J. (January 28, 2010). "Zinn dies at 87; author of best-selling People's History of the United States: Activist collapsed in Santa Monica, where he was scheduled to deliver a lecture". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
"Howard Zinn | Historian | Big Think". Archived from the original on February 1, 2010. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
"Howard Zinn: How I Want to Be Remembered". Commondreams.org. January 29, 2010. Archived from the original on September 22, 2013. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
"Past thomas merton awardees". Retrieved December 4, 2018.
"57th recipient of the INT'L COURAGE OF CONSCIENCE AWARD - Howard Zinn". Peaceabbey.org. May 2, 2015. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
"Eugene V Debs Foundation Member Awards". Archived from the original on May 5, 2008. Retrieved April 2, 2009.. Retrieved 2010-03-09.
"The Zinn Reader". Sevenstories.com. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
"Lannan Foundation – Howard Zinn". Lannan.org.
"Awards - Howard Zinn". Howardzinn.org. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
"Prix des Amis du Monde diplomatique 2003 – Les Amis du Monde diplomatique". Amis.monde-diplomatique.fr. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
"Zinn to receive Havens Center award (October 4, 2006)". News.wisc.edu. October 4, 2006.
Strauss, Valerie (July 17, 2013). "E-mails reveal censorship efforts by Mitch Daniels as Indiana governor". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
LoBianco, Tom (September 15, 2013). "Mitch Daniels Sought To Censor Public Universities, Professors" (PDF). The Huffington Post. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Ohlheiser, Abby (July 16, 2013). "Former Governor, Now Purdue President, Wanted Howard Zinn Banned in Schools". Atlantic Wire. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Cohen, Robert; Sonia Murrow (August 5, 2013). "Who's Afraid of Radical History?". The Nation. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Franck, Mathew (July 23, 2013). "Mitch Daniels Can Count". First Things. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
LoBianco, Tom (July 22, 2013). "Purdue profs 'troubled' by Mitch Daniels' Zinn comments". News-sentinel.com. Archived from the original on August 3, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
"Censoring Howard Zinn: Former Indiana Gov. Tried to Remove 'A People's History' from State Schools". Democracy Now. July 22, 2013. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Mikaelian, Allen (September 1, 2013). "The Mitch Daniels Controversy". Perspectives on History: The Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
Plotnikoff, David (December 20, 2012). "Zinn's influential history textbook has problems, says Stanford education expert". Stanford University News. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Wineburg, Sam. "Undue Certainty" (PDF). American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Flynn, Daniel J. (June 9, 2003). "Howard Zinn's Biased History". History News Network. George Mason University. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Kazin, Michael (Fall 2019). "Can Conservatives Write Good U.S. History?". Dissent Magazine. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
Kazin, Michael (February 9, 2010). "Howard Zinn's Disappointing History of the United States". History News Network. George Washington University. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Grabar, Mary (July 13, 2020). "Scholar disputes source of criticism of Columbus (Commentary)". Retrieved October 17, 2022.
Grabar 2020b.
"House Bill 1834- For An Act To Be Entitled An Act to Prohibit a Public School District or Open-Enrollment Public Charter School from Including in Its Curriculum or Course Materials for a Program of Study Books or Any Other Material Authored by or Concerning Howard Zinn; and for Other Purposes" (PDF). arkleg.state.ar.us. Arkansas State Legislature. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
"Bill introduced to ban Howard Zinn books from Arkansas public schools". March 2, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Zinn, Howard (1990),"Declarations of independence: cross-examining American ideology", HarperCollins.
"Politics of Knowledge: Richard Ohmann". UPNE. January 21, 2010. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
"Howard Zinn, Resident Genius - You Can't Blow Up A Social Relationship". Discogs.com. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
Further reading
Duberman, Martin. Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left. (The New Press, 2012), {{ISBN|.
Ellis, Deb and Mueller, Denis. Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train. (film 2004)
FRF's Judith Mizrachy interviews Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller, directors of the film Howard Zinn: You can't be neutral on a moving train at the Wayback Machine (archived May 7, 2006). Retrieved 2010-03-09.
Grabar, Mary (2020b). Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America. Regnery Publishing. ISBN 9781684511525.
Greenberg, David. "Agit-Prof: Howard Zinn's influential mutilations of American history", The New Republic March 19, 2013
Joyce, Davis D. Howard Zinn: A Radical American Vision. (Prometheus Books, 2003).
Lynd, Staughton. Doing History from the Bottom Up; On E.P. Thompson, Howard Zinn, and Rebuilding the Labor Movement from Below. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2014.
Interviews
2001 Interview with Howard Zinn about A People's History of the United States, religion, and movies
Interview with Guernica: a magazine of arts and politics.
The Tavis Smiley Show: "Howard Zinn and the Omissions of U.S. History", November 27, 2003, National Public Radio.
An Interview with Howard Zinn on Anarchism: Rebels Against Tyranny by AK Press
"War is the Health of the State: An Interview with Howard Zinn", By Paul Glavin & Chuck Morse, Perspectives on Anarchist Theory, Vol. 7, No. 1, Spring 2003
"A Great Faith in Human Beings." In Klin, Richard and Lily Prince (photos), Something to Say: Thoughts on Art and Politics in America. (Leapfrog Press, 2011)
Obituaries
Helene Atwan, director of Beacon Press on "The Loss of Howard Zinn" January 29, 2010.
Howard Zinn, Historian, is Dead at 87, By Michael Powell, The New York Times, January 28, 2010
Obituary[usurped] in the Oxonian Review
Videos
The Legacy of Howard Zinn – video by Big Think
Howard Zinn on why there are no just wars: "Holy Wars" – video by Democracy Now!
Empire or Humanity?: What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me about the American Empire on YouTube; by Howard Zinn; Narrated by Viggo Mortensen
Howard Zinn's talk to teachers at the 2008 National Conference for the Social Studies (NCSS) hosted by the Zinn Education Project
Zinn Speaking About his Book ~ A Power Governments Cannot Suppress – one-hour speech by C-SPAN
Howard Zinn on Marxism, Anarchism, and the Paris Commune on YouTube interviewed by Sasha Lilley, November 5, 2009
"Howard Zinn (1922–2010): A Tribute to the Legendary Historian with Noam Chomsky, Alice Walker, Naomi Klein and Anthony Arnove", Democracy Now!, January 28, 2010
American Feud: A History of Conservatives and Liberals documentary featuring interviews with Howard Zinn and others
Zinn on Class in America – Interview series on The Real News (TRNN) (6 videos) – April 2009
Interview with Howard Zinn Media Education Foundation (MEF) – July 2005
The Power of Story: The People Speak on YouTube at The 2020 Sundance Film Festival
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FBI and KGB Cold War Operations (2008)
As early as the 1920s, the Soviet Union, through its GRU, OGPU, NKVD, and KGB intelligence agencies, used Russian and foreign-born nationals (resident spies), as well as Communists of American origin, to perform espionage activities in the United States, forming various spy rings.[1][2][3] Particularly during the 1940s, some of these espionage networks had contact with various U.S. government agencies. These Soviet espionage networks illegally transmitted confidential information to Moscow, such as information on the development of the atomic bomb (see atomic spies).[1][2][3] Soviet spies also participated in propaganda and disinformation operations, known as active measures, and attempted to sabotage diplomatic relationships between the U.S. and its allies.[4][5]
First efforts
During the 1920s Soviet intelligence focused on military and industrial espionage in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States, specifically in the aircraft and munitions industries, in order to industrialize and compete with Western powers, as well as strengthening the Soviet armed forces.[6] The United States opened diplomatic ties to the Soviet Union in 1933, normalizing relations, but also opening the door to a number of spies which initially focused on technological espionage.[7] One early Soviet spy was Jones Orin York who was recruited by the KGB's predecessors in 1935.[8] The Soviets' Amtorg Trading Corporation established in 1924 would become a nexus of espionage.[8]
Historian Harvey Klehr describes that the American businessman Armand Hammer "met Lenin in 1921 and, in return for a concession to manufacture pencils, agreed to launder Soviet money to benefit communist parties in Europe and America."[9] Historian Edward Jay Epstein noted that "Hammer received extraordinary treatment from Moscow in many ways. He was permitted by the Soviet Government to take millions of dollars worth of czarist art out of the country when he returned to the United States in 1932."[10] According to journalist Alan Farnham, "Over the decades Hammer continued traveling to Russia, hobnobbing with its leaders to the point that both the CIA and the FBI suspected him of being a full-fledged agent."[11]
Browder and Golos networks
Earl Browder, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA), served as an agent recruiter himself on behalf of Soviet intelligence.[12][13] Browder later stated that "by the mid-thirties, the Party was not putting its principal emphasis on recruiting members." Left unstated was his intent to use party members for espionage work, where suitable. Browder advocated the use of a United Front involving other members of the left, both to strengthen advocacy of pro-Soviet policy and to enlarge the pool of potential recruits for espionage work. The illegal residency of NKVD in the US was established in 1934 by the former Berlin resident Boris Bazarov.[14] In 1935, NKVD agent Iskhak Akhmerov entered the US with false identity papers to assist Bazarov in the collection of useful intelligence, and operated without interruption until 1939, when he left the US. Akhmerov's wife, an American who worked for Soviet intelligence, was Helen Lowry (Elza Akhmerova), the niece of CPUSA General Secretary Earl Browder. Recent information from Soviet archives has revealed that Browder's younger sister Marguerite worked until 1938 as an NKVD operative in Europe. She discontinued this work only when Browder himself requested her release from duty, fearful that her work would compromise his position as General Secretary.[1]
In the 1930s, the chief Soviet espionage organization operating in the U.S. became the GRU. J. Peters headed the secret apparatus that supplied internal government documents from the Ware group to the GRU. Browder assisted Peters in building a network of operatives in the administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. This group included Alger Hiss, John Abt, and Lee Pressman (Pressman admitted participation in the group, but denied it was involved in espionage). Courier for the group at the time was Whittaker Chambers. Browder oversaw the efforts of Jacob Golos and his girlfriend, Elizabeth Bentley, whose network of agents and sources included two key figures at the Department of Treasury, Nathan Gregory Silvermaster and Harry Dexter White.
One early Soviet spy ring was headed by Jacob Golos. Jake Golos (birth name Jacob Golosenko, Tasin, Rasin or Raisen) was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary and Soviet secret police (NKVD) operative in the USSR. He was also a longtime senior official of the CPUSA involved in covert work and cooperation with Soviet intelligence agencies. He took over an existing network of agents and intelligence sources from Earl Browder. Golos' controller was the head of the NKVD's American desk, Gaik Ovakimian, also known as "The Puppetmaster", who would later serve a key role in the assassination of Leon Trotsky.[15] Golos was the "main pillar" of the NKVD intelligence network. He had worked with Soviet intelligence from the mid-1930s, and probably earlier. He was not merely a CPUSA official assisting the NKVD (an agent or "probationer" in Soviet intelligence parlance) but held official rank in the NKVD, and claimed to be an oldtime Chekist.
Golos established a company called World Tourists with money from Earl Browder, the General Secretary. The firm, which posed as a travel agency, was used to facilitate international travel to and from the United States by Soviet agents and CPUSA members. World Tourists was also involved in manufacturing fake passports, as Browder used such a false passport on covert trips to the Soviet Union in 1936.[2] At World Tourist, Golos frequently met Bernard Schuster, an NKVD agent (code name ECHO and DICK) and Communist Party functionary who carried out background investigations for Golos as part of the vetting process of agent candidates.[16] In March 1940, Golos pleaded guilty to being an unregistered foreign agent, paid a $500 fine (equivalent to $11,000 today), and served probation in lieu of a four-month prison sentence.
Soviet intelligence did not like Golos' refusal to allow Soviet contact with his sources (a measure implemented by Golos to protect himself and to ensure his continued retention by the NKVD). The NKVD suspected Golos of Trotskyism and tried to lure him to Moscow, where he could be arrested, but the US government got to him first. But even then, he did not reveal his agent network. After Browder went to prison in 1940, Golos took over running Browder's agents. In 1941, Golos set up a commercial forwarding enterprise, called the US Shipping and Service Corporation, with Elizabeth Bentley, his lover, as one of its officers.[1][2]
Sometime in November 1943, Golos met in New York City with key figures of the Perlo group, a group working in several government departments and agencies in Washington, D.C. The group was already in the service of Browder. Later that same month, after a series of heart attacks over the previous two years, Golos died in bed in Bentley's arms. Bentley then took over his operations (thus the reference in the decrypts to him as a "former" colleague).[citation needed]
Secret apparatus
By the end of 1936 at least four mid-level State Department officials were delivering information to Soviet intelligence: Alger Hiss, assistant to Assistant Secretary of State Francis Sayre; Julian Wadleigh, economist in the Trade Agreements Section; Laurence Duggan, Latin American division; and Noel Field, West European division. Whittaker Chambers later testified that the plans for a tank design with a revolutionary new suspension invented by J. Walter Christie (then being tested in the U.S.A.) were procured and put into production in the Soviet Union as the Mark BT, later developed into the famous Soviet T-34 tank.[17][18][19]
In 1993, experts from the Library of Congress traveled to Moscow to copy previously secret archives of Communist Party USA (CPUSA) records, sent to the Soviet Union for safekeeping by party organizers. The records provide an irrefutable record of Soviet intelligence and cooperation provided by those in the radical left in the United States from the 1920s through the 1940s. Some documents revealed that the CPUSA was actively involved in secretly recruiting party members from African-American groups and rural farm workers. The records contained further evidence that Soviet sympathizers had indeed infiltrated the State Department, beginning in the 1930s. Included were letters from two U.S. ambassadors in Europe to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and a senior State Department official. Thanks to an official in the State department sympathetic to the Party, the confidential correspondence, concerning political and economic matters in Europe, ended up in the hands of Soviet intelligence.[20]
In the late 1930s and 1940, Soviet intelligence had multiple staging areas for plots to murder exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky, then living in Mexico City. Josef Grigulevich, an NKVD agent who had direct orders from Stalin to kill Trotsky, had a safe house in Zook's Drugstore in Santa Fe, New Mexico.[21][22] The Soviets had two plans to assassinate Trotsky, one involving the Mexican Stalinist David Siqueiros, and the other the Spanish Ramón Mercader. One account of the first, failed raid on Trotsky's home states that Grigulevich tricked Robert Sheldon Harte, an American Communist who was Trotsky's bodyguard, into opening the gate. The Soviets failed to kill Trotsky during this attempt, but betrayed Harte, and they killed him for being a witness. Siqueiros then escaped to Chile with the help of Pablo Neruda.[21] Grigulevich likely then crossed the border north and took refuge at Zook's Pharmacy. The second later attempt by Mercader was successful and Trotsky was murdered in Mexico.[21]
Soble spy ring
Jacob Albam and the Sobles (Jack and Myra) were indicted on espionage charges by the FBI in 1957; all three were later convicted and served prison terms. Alleged members of their spy ring, the Zlatovskis, remained in Paris, France, where the laws did not allow their extradition to the United States for espionage. Robert Soblen was sentenced to life in prison for his espionage work at Sandia National Laboratories, but jumped bail and escaped to Israel. After being expelled from that country, he later committed suicide in Great Britain while awaiting extradition back to the United States.[1][23]
Boris Morros, formerly a Soviet spy, became an FBI counterspy and reported on the Soble spy ring.[24]
Wartime espionage
During the Second World War, Soviet espionage agents obtained classified reports on electronic advances in radio-beacon artillery fuzes by Emerson Radio, including a complete proximity fuze (reportedly the same fuze design that was later installed on Soviet anti-aircraft missiles to shoot down Francis Gary Powers's U-2 in 1960).[25] Thousands of documents from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) were photocopied or stolen, including a complete set of design and production drawings for Lockheed Aircraft's new P-80 Shooting Star fighter jet.[26]
According to Soviet agent Pavel Sudoplatov, five spy rings for the Soviet Union were targeting the United States during World War II: one was based in Amtorg in New York City, another spy ring was based in the Soviet Embassy in the United States at Washington, D.C., another was based in the Soviet Consulate General in San Francisco, another was based out of Mexico City and ran by Vasilevsky, and the fifth was the Akhmerov led ring which targeted United States Communist Party members for the Kremlin's needs.[27]
Atomic bomb secrets
Joseph Stalin directed Soviet intelligence officers to collect information in four main areas. Pavel Fitin, the 34-year-old chief of the KGB First Directorate, was directed to seek American intelligence concerning Hitler's plans for the war in Russia; secret war aims of London and Washington, particularly with regard to planning for Operation Overlord, the second front in Europe; any indications the Western Allies might be willing to make a separate peace with Hitler; and American scientific and technological progress, particularly in the development of an atomic weapon.[8] Pavel Sudoplatov claimed to have led the efforts to obtain information about the Manhattan Project[28] in an alleged "Department S" but this has been questioned because Sudoplatov placed false accusations on Oppenheimer and others.[29]
A well-known Soviet case was of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the first US citizens convicted and executed for espionage during peacetime. The married couple lived in New York City and were accused of spying for the Soviet Union and sending information regarding radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and sending nuclear weapon designs. Following the Moynihan Commission, the declassification of the Venona project in 1995 revealed more information about the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg case, and confirmed that a widespread Soviet spy network did exist during the Cold War. However, many agents were never prosecuted or publicly implicated, for instance Theodore Hall, because much Venona evidence was withheld until 1995.[30]
During this time, George Koval who infiltrated the Manhattan Project as a member of the GRU, also passed stolen atomic secrets to the Soviet Union.[31] Harry Gold and Klaus Fuchs were also Soviet spies.[21] Harry Gold was a courier for other Soviet spies such as Klaus Fuchs.[32]
Silvermaster spy ring
The United States Treasury Department was successfully penetrated by nearly a dozen Soviet agents or information sources, including Harold Glasser and his superior, Harry Dexter White, assistant secretary of the treasury and the second most influential official in the department.[1][2] In late May 1941, Vitali Pavlov, a 25-year-old NKVD officer, approached White and attempted to secure his assistance to influence U.S. policy towards Japan. Pavlov's memoirs, after decades of being in the KGB, alleged that White agreed to assist Soviet intelligence in any way he could. Whittaker Chambers states White's principal function was aiding the infiltration and placement of Soviet operatives within the government, and protecting sources.[33] When security concerns arose around Nathan Gregory Silvermaster, White protected him in his sensitive position at the Board of Economic Warfare. White likewise was a purveyor of information and resources to assist Soviet aims, and agreed to press for the release of German occupation currency plates to the Soviet Union. The Soviets later used the plates to print unrestricted sums of money to exchange for U.S. and Allied hard goods.[34]
In August 1945, Elizabeth Bentley, fearful of assassination by the Soviet MGB, turned herself in to the government. She implicated many agents and sources in the Golos and Silvermaster spy networks, and was the first to accuse Harry Dexter White of acting on behalf of Soviet interests in releasing occupation plates to Moscow, later confirmed by Soviet archives and former KGB officers.[13][34] U.S. counterintelligence archives in the Venona project contain "damning evidence" against White—showing evidence for his inappropriate contacts with Soviet agents.[35]
In a twist of history, Harry Dexter White would participate in the Bretton Woods Conference, which created the American-led, post-war financial and economic order.[36] Although White was sympathetic to the Soviet Union, he was still capitalist in his economic thinking, and there was only so much he could do to benefit the Soviet Union at a conference for liberal internationalism, an idea the Soviets opposed.[35] Ultimately, the main result was that President Truman would nominate a European to Managing Director of the IMF instead of Harry Dexter White.[36] Dr. James C. Van Hook, joint historian of the Department of State and the Central Intelligence Agency., says "It is difficult to understand how White's detractors could characterize Bretton Woods, a fundamental institution of liberal capitalism, as inherently pro-Soviet."[35][33]
Aftermath
President Harry S. Truman's Executive Order 9835 of 22 March 1947 tightened protections against subversive infiltration of the US Government, defining disloyalty as membership on a list of subversive organizations maintained by the Attorney General. Truman, however, was opposed to the McCarran Internal Security Act of 1950, calling it a "Mockery of the Bill of Rights" and a "long step towards totalitarianism".[37]
Cold War espionage
See also: Cold War espionage
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Replica of The Thing, which contained a Soviet bugging device, on display at the NSA's National Cryptologic Museum
Soviet espionage operations continued during the Cold War. The Venona project, declassified in 1995 by the Moynihan Commission, contained extensive evidence of the activities of Soviet spy networks in America.[38]
On August 4, 1945, several weeks before the end of World War II, a delegation from the Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union presented a bugged carving to Ambassador Harriman, later known as The Thing, as a "gesture of friendship" to the Soviet Union's war ally. The device, embedded in a carved wooden plaque of the Great Seal of the United States, was used by the Soviet government to spy on the United States. It hung in the ambassador's Moscow residential study for seven years, until it was exposed in 1952 during the tenure of Ambassador George F. Kennan.[39]
The Mitrokhin Archive showed that the Soviets did not just perform espionage in terms of gathering intelligence, but also used its intelligence agencies for "active measures" a form of political warfare involving forgeries and disinformation.[40]
Communist Party USA
During the Second World War, the Communist Party USA was a center of Soviet espionage in the United States. After the war, this continued. Espionage historian John Earl Haynes states that the CPUSA was essentially a Soviet "fifth column", though "dried up as a base for Soviet espionage once the administration got serious about internal security".[41]
The Communist Party USA received a substantial subsidy from the USSR from 1959 until 1989. Because the CPUSA consistently maintained a pro-Moscow line, many members left over time dissatisfied with events of Soviet repression, such as in Hungary in 1956 and in Czechoslovakia in 1968. The Soviet funding ended in 1989 when Gus Hall condemned the initiatives taken by Mikhail Gorbachev.[42]
In 1952, Jack and Morris Childs—both American-born ex-Soviet spies—became FBI double agents, and informed on the CPUSA for the rest of the Cold War, monitoring the Soviet funding and communications with Moscow.[43][44]
Spy motivations and Soviet recruitment techniques
According to longtime CIA officer Frederick Wettering, many turncoats to the Soviets were not ideologically communist, such as Aldrich Ames and John Walker who "did it strictly for the money." Wettering summarized the motivations as "MIRE -- money, ideology, revenge and ego."[45]
According to Russian investigative writer, Andrei Soldatov:[46]
In Soviet times, intelligence and counterintelligence branches of the KGB were closely interconnected. In addition to its espionage abroad, the KGB was always busy collecting “intelligence from the territory,” a euphemism for recruiting foreign nationals in the Soviet Union, with an eye to subsequently running them as agents in their home countries. Regional departments of the KGB were tasked with recruiting foreigners traveling throughout the country.
Former KGB defector Jack Barsky stated, "Many a right-wing radical had unknowingly given information to the Soviets (under a 'false flag'), thinking they were working with a Western ally, such as Israel, when in fact their contact was a KGB operative."[47]
Cambridge Five
Notable cases of Cold War Soviet espionage included Kim Philby, a Soviet double agent and British intelligence liaison to American intelligence, who was revealed to be a member of the "Cambridge Five" spy ring in 1963.[38] The other four members of the "Cambridge Five" spy ring included Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, and John Cairncross, although Michael Straight was also involved with the Soviet spy ring and there were possibly other alleged members.[48] The Cambridge Spy Ring focused on serving the Soviet Union in the Cold War by infiltrating British intelligence and providing secret information to the Soviet top leaders, and causing mistrust in British intelligence in the United States.[48]
Kim Philby, along with Bill Weisband, would end up betraying the existence of the Venona project to the Soviets, between 1945 and 1948.[38][49]
Active measures
Active measures (Russian: активные мероприятия, romanized: aktivnye meropriyatiya) are a form of political warfare that was conducted by the Soviet Union. These ranged from simple propaganda and forgery of documents, to assassination, terrorist acts and planned sabotage operations.[4] In the US the KGB's main active measures were disinformation and the spread of conspiracy theories.[40][4]
Retired KGB Major General Oleg Kalugin, former Head of Foreign Counter Intelligence for the KGB (1973–1979), described active measures as "the heart and soul of Soviet intelligence":[5]
"Not intelligence collection, but subversion: active measures to weaken the West, to drive wedges in the Western community alliances of all sorts, particularly NATO, to sow discord among allies, to weaken the United States in the eyes of the people of Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America, and thus to prepare ground in case the war really occurs. To make America more vulnerable to the anger and distrust of other peoples."[50]
The doctrine of active measures was taught in the Andropov Institute of the KGB situated at Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) headquarters in Yasenevo District of Moscow. The head of the "active measures department" was Yuri Modin, former controller of the Cambridge Five spy ring.[51][40]
One example of active measures by the KGB was Operation "Denver" (also nicknamed Operation INFEKTION), a propaganda campaign which fabricated and spread the idea HIV/AIDS was invented by the US as a biological weapon from Fort Detrick, Maryland.[40][52] As part of the disinformation campaign the KGB, through affiliated Soviet press and Soviet bloc intelligence agencies, disseminated publications that claimed to be independent investigative work, such as the "Segal report" by Jakob Segal.[5][52] Part of the goal was to shift attention away from the Soviets' own biological weapons program. In 1992, SVR head Yevgeny Primakov admitted that the KGB had instigated and perpetuated the myth of a manmade AIDS.[5] The conspiracy theories fed into AIDS denialism and may have led to preventable deaths across the United States, and South Africa.[5][52] According to the U.S. State Department, the Soviet Union used the campaign to undermine the United States' credibility, foster anti-Americanism, isolate America abroad, and create tensions between host countries and the U.S. over the presence of American military bases.[53] A cycle of misinformation and disinformation revolved between Kremlin-based and U.S.-based conspiracy theorists (such as Lyndon LaRouche).[54]
A series of Soviet active measures focused on exacerbating racial divisions in the United States. According to intelligence historian Christopher Andrew, "Martin Luther King was probably the only prominent American to be the target of active measures by both the FBI and the KGB." The FBI surveilled King and also tried to publicize adultery accusations against him, while posing as a former supporter. Meanwhile, the KGB tried but failed to influence MLK, Jr. through the CPUSA. Finding King not radical enough, the KGB sought to discredit him by portraying him as a supposed "Uncle Tom". After King's assassination, the KGB spread conspiracy theories about the government being involved in his murder.[55][56] Following this, Yuri Andropov approved the forgery of anti-black pamphlets claiming to be from the Jewish Defense League. A more extensive sabotage plot was planned as "Operation PANDORA" but never implemented.[55] The KGB later penned racist letters to appear as a Ku Klux Klan campaign against Olympic athletes from African and Asian countries to scare them from participating, ahead of the Soviets' 1984 Summer Olympics boycott.[55][56]
According to Yuri Bezmenov, a defector from the Soviet KGB, psychological warfare activities accounted for 85% of all KGB efforts (the other 15% being direct espionage and intelligence gathering). Bezmenov put the process into the four stages "destabilize, demoralize, crisis, normalization" where an enemy country would be undermined over several decades, and pointed out that once the Soviet Union took control of a country, such as Czechoslovakia, they disposed of actual revolution and radicalism.[57]
Spy ring discoveries
Major spy discoveries occurred in the 1980s despite the looming end of the Cold War. The press dubbed 1985 the "Year of the Spy" due to the discovery of multiple spies and spy rings,[58] many of them passing information to the Soviet Union, such as John Anthony Walker and Ronald Pelton.[58][59] The New York Times reported in 1987 that the Walker spy ring was "described as the most damaging Soviet spy ring in history."[60] During his time as a Soviet spy (1967-1985), Walker stole and sold codes that assisted the Soviets in deciphering encrypted Navy messages, which allowed them to monitor American naval assets. The Walker spy ring also compromised information about weapons, sensor data, and related naval tactics.[61] Other 1980s spies included Aldrich Ames, a KGB mole. Investigation of Ames' activities led to the 1995 CIA disinformation controversy revealing that false reports were fed to the United States through Soviet double agents.[59][62]
See also
American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation
Amerasia
Bella Dodd
Chinese espionage in the United States
David Karr
Farewell Dossier
George Trofimoff
Gouzenko Affair
Hollow Nickel Case
Lev Vasilevsky
List of Americans in the Venona papers
List of Eastern Bloc agents in the United States
Nuclear espionage
Russian espionage in the United States
Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
Russian involvement in regime change
Russian Soviet Government Bureau
The Americans (2013 TV series)
The Thing (listening device)
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Moynihan, Daniel Patrick (1998). Secrecy: The American Experience. Yale University Press. pp. 15-16. ISBN 978-0-300-08079-7.
George F. Kennan, Memoirs, 1950–1963, Volume II (Little, Brown & Co., 1972), pp. 155, 156
Walton, Calder (2016-12-23). ""Active measures": a history of Russian interference in US elections". Prospect Magazine. Retrieved 2021-04-05.
Haynes, John Earl (February 2000). "Exchange with Arthur Herman and Venona book talk". JohnEarlHaynes.org. Retrieved 2021-11-09.
"The curious survival of the US Communist Party". BBC News. 2014-04-30. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
Klehr, Harvey (2017-07-03). "Opinion | American Reds, Soviet Stooges". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
Babcock, Charles R. (1981-09-17). "Soviet Secrets Fed to FBI for More Than 25 Years". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2021-11-10.
"U.S. Spy History Is Older Than the Nation Itself". ABC News. Retrieved 2021-11-07.
Soldatov, Andrei (2021-08-29). "Inside Vladimir Putin's Shadowy Army of Global Spies". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 2021-11-07.
Barsky, Jack (2017). Deep undercover : my secret life and tangled allegiances as a KGB spy in America. Carol Stream, IL. ISBN 978-1-4964-1686-5. OCLC 979545331.
Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (2004-01-05). "Michael Straight, Who Wrote of Connection to Spy Ring, Is Dead at 87". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2021-06-12.
West, Nigel (2002-03-01). "'Venona': the British dimension". Intelligence and National Security. 17 (1): 117–134. doi:10.1080/02684520412331306440. ISSN 0268-4527. S2CID 145696471.
Interview of Oleg Kalugin on CNN Archived June 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
Mitrokhin, Vasili; Andrew, Christopher (2000). The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West. Penguin. ISBN 0-14-028487-7. (en.wikipedia) (google books)
"Lessons From Operation "Denver," the KGB's Massive AIDS Disinformation Campaign". The MIT Press Reader. 2020-05-26. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
Soviet Influence Activities: A Report on Active Measures and Propaganda, 1986-87 (PDF) (Report). U.S. Department of State. August 1987.
Selvage, Douglas (2019-10-01). "Operation "Denver": The East German Ministry of State Security and the KGB's AIDS Disinformation Campaign, 1985–1986 (Part 1)". Journal of Cold War Studies. 21 (4): 71–123. doi:10.1162/jcws_a_00907. ISSN 1520-3972.
Andrew, Christopher (2001). The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB. Basic Books. ISBN 0-465-00312-5.
"Russians Targeted U.S. Racial Divisions Long Before 2016 And Black Lives Matter". NPR.org. Retrieved 2021-07-10.
Bezmenov, Yuri (1983). Psychological Warfare Subversion & Control of Western Society. Los Angeles. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 2020-07-08 – via YouTube.
"Year of the Spy (1985)". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
"Recent U.S. Spy Cases | CNN". CNN. Archived from the original on December 10, 2008. Retrieved February 25, 2017. "1985 -- Walker family"
Shenon, Philip (January 4, 1987). "In short: nonfiction". The New York Times. Retrieved November 16, 2007.
Mears, Bill; Berlinger, Joshua (2014-08-29). "Convicted Cold War spy John Walker dies in federal prison". CNN. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
"CIA Heavily Infiltrated in Russia, Report Finds : Espionage: Operations in '80s severely compromised, Ames study shows. Senior officials were often kept in dark". Los Angeles Times. 1995-10-31. Retrieved 2021-05-26.
Further reading
Sudoplatov, Pavel (1 April 1994). Special Tasks. Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0316773522.
Chambers, Whittaker (1952). Witness. Random House. ISBN 0-89526-571-0.
John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev, Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009)
John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America, Yale University Press
Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America--the Stalin Era (New York: Random House, 1999)
External links
Soviet Technospies from the Dean Peter Krogh Foreign Affairs Digital Archives
For new evidence on Soviet espionage in the United States, see former KGB officer Alexander Vassiliev's Notebooks From the Cold War International History Project (CWIHP)
V.I. Lenin, Terms of Admission into Communist International, (July 1920) First published 1921, The Second Congress of the Communist International, Verbatum Report, Communist International, Petrograd
Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive. CI Reader: American Revolution into the New MillenniumA Counterintelligence Reader Volume 3, Chapter 1: Cold War Counterintelligence. PDF file. office of the Director of Central Intelligence. Retrieved June 21, 2005.
Proyect, Louis. Harvey Klehr's "The Secret World of American Communism". Published online May 25, 2002. Retrieved June 21, 2005.
Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., Venona: Soviet Espionage and the American Response, 1939-1957, (Washington, D.C.: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996)*Vassiliev, Alexander (2003), Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks, retrieved 2012-04-21
The Hanford Site, Historic docs, Section 8 - Site Security
Discouraged, Disillusioned and Duped, Eyewitness account of the era
Razvedka, Intelligence Information and the Process of Decision Making: Turning Points of the Early Period of the Cold War (1944–1953) Archived March 20, 2006, at the Wayback Machine (In Russian).
Interview with Ralph De Toladano
History of Russian foreign intelligence in North America (Russian) Archived 2007-07-10 at the Wayback Machine, Official site of Foreign Intelligence Service (Russia)
Film: The KGB Connections: An Investigation Into Soviet Operations in North America, 1982, Public domain: Video on YouTube.
Whittaker Chambers | Witness in the Alger Hiss Case, Anti-Communist, ex-Communist, Spy, Editor, Journalist, Intellectual, Writer, Translator, Poet
Murphy, William T. (2021-01-02). "First Decade of Soviet Espionage in America: 1924 to 1933". International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence. 34 (1): 45–69. doi:10.1080/08850607.2020.1781442. S2CID 225440603.
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In the US
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Elsewhere /
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1950s
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1960s
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May 68 Prague Spring USS Pueblo incident 1968 Polish political crisis Communist insurgency in Malaysia Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia 17 July Revolution 1968 Peruvian coup d'état
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1970s
Détente Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Black September Alcora Exercise Corrective Movement (Syria) Western Sahara conflict Cambodian Civil War Communist insurgency in Thailand 1970 Polish protests Koza riot Realpolitik Ping-pong diplomacy 1971 JVP insurrection Corrective Revolution (Egypt) 1971 Turkish military memorandum 1971 Sudanese coup d'état Four Power Agreement on Berlin Bangladesh Liberation War 1972 visit by Richard Nixon to China North Yemen-South Yemen Border conflict of 1972 Yemenite War of 1972 Munich massacre 1972–1975 Bangladesh insurgency Eritrean Civil Wars 1973 Uruguayan coup d'état 1973 Afghan coup d'état 1973 Chilean coup d'état Yom Kippur War 1973 oil crisis Carnation Revolution Spanish transition to democracy Metapolitefsi Strategic Arms Limitation Talks Second Iraqi–Kurdish War Turkish invasion of Cyprus Angolan Civil War Cambodian genocide June 1976 protests Mozambican Civil War Oromo conflict Ogaden War 1978 Somali coup attempt Western Sahara War Ethiopian Civil War Lebanese Civil War Sino-Albanian split Third Indochina War Cambodian–Vietnamese War Cambodian conflict Operation Condor Dirty War (Argentina) 1976 Argentine coup d'état Egyptian–Libyan War German Autumn Korean Air Lines Flight 902 Nicaraguan Revolution Uganda–Tanzania War NDF Rebellion Chadian–Libyan War Yemenite War of 1979 Grand Mosque seizure Iranian Revolution Saur Revolution Sino-Vietnamese War New Jewel Movement 1979 Herat uprising Seven Days to the River Rhine Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union
1980s
Salvadoran Civil War Soviet–Afghan War 1980 and 1984 Summer Olympics boycotts Gera Demands Peruvian Revolution Gdańsk Agreement
Solidarity Eritrean Civil Wars 1980 Turkish coup d'état Ugandan Bush War Gulf of Sidra incident Martial law in Poland Casamance conflict Falklands War 1982 Ethiopian–Somali Border War Ndogboyosoi War United States invasion of Grenada Able Archer 83 Star Wars 1985 Geneva Summit Iran–Iraq War Somali Rebellion Reykjavík Summit 1986 Black Sea incident South Yemen civil war Toyota War 1987 Lieyu massacre Operation INFEKTION 1987–1989 JVP insurrection Lord's Resistance Army insurgency 1988 Black Sea bumping incident 8888 Uprising Solidarity (Soviet reaction) Contras Central American crisis Operation RYAN Korean Air Lines Flight 007 People Power Revolution Glasnost Perestroika Bougainville conflict First Nagorno-Karabakh War Afghan Civil War United States invasion of Panama 1988 Polish strikes Polish Round Table Agreement 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre Revolutions of 1989 Fall of the Berlin Wall Fall of the inner German border Velvet Revolution Romanian Revolution Peaceful Revolution
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See also
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Category List of conflicts Timeline
Categories:
Cold War history of the United StatesEspionage by periodHistory of the government of the United StatesRussian intelligence operationsSoviet Union–United States relationsCold War history of the Soviet UnionEspionage in the United States
181
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The Dark Side of Humanity: Those Who Make Cruelty Possible (1991)
Alfredo Ignacio Astiz (born 8 November 1951) is a convicted war criminal and former Argentine military commander, intelligence officer, and naval commando who served in the Argentine Navy during the military dictatorship of Jorge Rafael Videla during the Proceso de Reorganización Nacional (1976–1983). He was known as El Ángel Rubio de la Muerte (the "Blond Angel of Death"), and had a reputation as a torturer. He was discharged from the military in 1998 after defending his actions in a press interview.
He was a member of GT 3.3.2 (Task Group 3.3.2) based in the Naval Mechanics School (ESMA) in Buenos Aires during the Dirty War of 1976–1983. The school was adapted as a secret detention and torture center for political prisoners. As many as 5,000 political prisoners were interrogated, tortured and murdered in the ESMA during those years. GT 3.3.2 was involved in some of the 8,961 deaths and other crimes documented by a national commission after the restoration of democratic government in Argentina in 1983.
Astiz, a specialist in the infiltration of human rights organizations, was implicated in the December 1977 kidnapping of twelve human rights activists, including Azucena Villaflor and two other founders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, and two French nationals, Léonie Duquet and Alice Domon, who were Catholic nuns. None of the twelve were seen alive again outside detention and all were believed killed, rumored to be among the bodies washed up on beaches south of Buenos Aires in late 1977.[citation needed]
At the beginning of the 1982 Falklands War, Astiz surrendered with his team to British forces. Sweden and France wanted to question him about "disappearances" of their nationals at his hands but, considering issues of the Geneva Conventions, the United Kingdom had him questioned by a British policeman. Astiz refused to answer any questions. The UK did not think it had grounds to hold or prosecute him, as he was suspected of crimes committed in Argentina that were not then defined as against international law, and repatriated him. In 1986 and 1987, Argentina passed the Pardon Laws, providing a kind of amnesty to military and security officers for crimes committed during the Dirty War. In 1990, a French court convicted Astiz in absentia for the kidnapping of Duquet and Domon, and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
After the Argentine Supreme Court's 2005 ruling that the Pardon Laws (Ley de Obediencia Debida and Ley de Punto Final) were unconstitutional, the government re-opened prosecution of war crimes cases. That year Astiz was detained on charges of kidnapping and torture. A mass grave with several unidentified bodies was found in July 2005 in a cemetery about 400 kilometers south of Buenos Aires; forensic DNA testing identified Duquet, Villaflor, and two other founding Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo. The prosecution of charges against Astiz included murder. Together with numerous other defendants associated with ESMA, Astiz was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in Argentina for crimes against humanity on 26 October 2011.[1]
Naval career
Under Lieutenant Commander Jorge Eduardo Acosta, the GT 3.3.2 (Task Force 3.3.2) was based in the Naval Mechanics School (ESMA) in Buenos Aires during the Dirty War. About 5,000 political prisoners were interrogated, tortured, and murdered in the ESMA, or elsewhere by its personnel, during those years. GT332 was involved in some of the 8,961 deaths and other crimes documented by the National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (CONADEP) after the restoration of democratic government in Argentina in 1983.
Intelligence officer
During the Dirty War, Astiz specialized as an intelligence officer with GT 3.3.2 in infiltrating human rights groups in Argentina, particularly those active in Buenos Aires. He used the false name of "Gustavo Niño." He stayed with a group long enough to identify key members and then organized their abductions by his military forces.[2] Prisoners were taken to the secret detention camp at ESMA and interrogated under torture for information about other members and activities. Most detainees were murdered by the military or death squads.
Astiz was believed to have kidnapped and tortured hundreds of people during 1976 and 1977. Among these were several nationals of other countries, whose cases received international attention as their governments tried to find them and to prosecute suspects. In 1976 and 1977, Astiz' team kidnapped and "disappeared" three Italian nationals: Angela Maria Aieta in 1976, and Giovanni Pegoraro and his pregnant daughter Susana Pegoraro in 1977. Susana was believed to have given birth in prison before her death, and it was suspected her child was given illegally for adoption by a military family.[3]
On 27 January 1977 Dagmar Hagelin, a 17-year-old girl holding Swedish citizenship through her father Ragnar Hagelin, was shot and wounded by Astiz while attempting to escape capture. From the early 1980s, Ragnar Hagelin battled tirelessly to bring Astiz to justice. His wife and Dagmar's mother was an Argentine citizen named Buccicardi. Dagmar Hagelin was never found. In 2000 the Argentine government paid compensation to Ragnar Hagelin and his wife for their loss.[3]
It was reported at the time that Astiz mistook Dagmar Hagelin for a Montonero activist to whom she bore some physical resemblance, and who was a mutual acquaintance of fellow-activist Norma Susana Burgos. Witnesses testified to having seen Hagelin later at the ESMA secret detention and torture center, and alleged that Astiz was in charge of her interrogation. She was never again seen alive.
According to the Argentine Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, tasked with following up Swedish complaints at the time of Hagelin's shooting and abduction, Lieutenant Commander Jorge Eduardo Acosta, commander of GT3.3.2, said that
"setting her [Hagelin] free is out of the question. We must not give in to public opinion. We must appear strong."
His resistance was believed to be related to the severity of the injuries she suffered in the shooting. Hagelin was said to be paralyzed and to have lost cognitive abilities. Inés Carazzo, a detainee enslaved and regularly raped by Captain Antonio Pernias,[citation needed] another GT332 officer, claims that Acosta ordered that Hagelin be put to death in a "death flight".[citation needed] Hagelin joined the ranks of the "disappeared" some time in 1977.
There is no direct evidence that Astiz had any part in Hagelin's treatment after shooting and kidnapping Hagelin. There is no evidence of who killed her.[citation needed]
Astiz was convicted of murdering Dagmar Hagelin, and committing other crimes, to a second lifetime sentence in 2017 after a five year trial, together with his former boss Jorge Acosta. Dagmar's father, Ragnar Hagelin, had passed away the year before the conviction.[4]
In December 1977 Astiz organized the kidnapping of about a dozen people associated with the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, including the founders Azucena Villaflor de Vicenti and two others. The non-violent group of mothers organized to learn the fates of their missing children and protested against the thousands of "disappeared." He also kidnapped two French nationals who were Catholic nuns, Léonie Duquet and Alice Domon. They had previously been caretakers for Jorge Videla's disabled son Alejandro. None were seen alive again after having been tortured at ESMA and "transferred" to be killed.
Astiz was witnessed torturing the nuns at ESMA by beating them, immersing them in water and applying electrified cattle prods to their breasts, genitals and mouths. A staged photograph intended to portray their support of the Montoneros, a Peronist leftist group, was leaked to the press. Despite repeated efforts by France to trace the nuns, the Argentine government denied all knowledge of them.
In late December 1977, unidentified bodies began washing up on beaches hundreds of kilometers south of Buenos Aires after heavy storms. Autopsies revealed they had died on impact, apparently having been thrown out of aircraft over the ocean, intended never to be discovered. In March 1978 Agence France-Presse reported that the bodies were believed to be the two nuns and several members of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, but this was not confirmed by the government. These and other bodies washed ashore were buried in mass graves at General Lavalle Cemetery, about 400 kilometers south of Buenos Aires.
In July 2005 several bodies of unidentified women were found in a mass grave in General Lavalle Cemetery. Forensic DNA testing by the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team identified the remains of Duquet, Azucena Villaflor de Vicenti, and two other founders of the Mothers of the Plaza in August 2005.[5] Domon's remains have not been found.
Falklands War
Astiz commanded a special team of fifteen Tactical Divers Group frogmen, dubbed los lagartos (the lizards), which carried out the first act of aggression in what developed into the Falklands War. On 19 March 1982 they landed on South Georgia, under the guise of workers of the Argentine scrap metal dealer Constantino Davidoff. Officially they were to scrap three derelict whaling stations at Leith Harbour which had been purchased by their employer in 1979. They dressed up in uniform and raised the Argentine flag in full view of a British Antarctic Survey party.[citation needed]
The next day, 20 March, the local head of the British Antarctic Survey handed Astiz a note transcribed from a radio message from the Governor of the Falklands. The communication ordered Astiz to take down the flag of Argentina and leave. Astiz took down the flag but did not leave. Later that day, HMS Endurance, the Royal Navy's ice patrol ship, was dispatched from Stanley on the Falklands to Grytviken, the main British Antarctic Survey base on South Georgia, with 22 Royal Marines with orders to evict him. They arrived on 23 March, a week before a number of Argentine Marines landed near Grytviken on 2 April. More Argentine marines arrived over the following days, and there was an armed clash at Grytviken. After damaging an Argentine frigate and shooting down an Aerospatiale Puma helicopter, inflicting casualties in both cases, the Royal Marines surrendered to superior force. The Royal Marines were repatriated to the United Kingdom and later took part in the recapture of the Falkland Islands.
The British Government reacted by sending in more forces to South Georgia, the Argentine garrison surrendering on 23 April 1982. Astiz insisted on signing a surrender document for himself and his small band although they were covered by the surrender of his commanding officer. As a result, Astiz was mistakenly publicized as the commander of the garrison on South Georgia.[citation needed]
Astiz rigged the island football pitch with explosives, and planned to detonate them killing the British officers receiving his surrender. At the last minute the wires leading to the explosives were spotted and the surrender venue was changed to aboard HMS Plymouth, where Astiz freely admitted plotting to kill the British delegation, having also booby trapped nearby buildings. “The white flag obviously meant nothing to him” said British naval Captain Nick Barker who took Astiz’s surrender.
Prisoners of war
Soon after the British recapture of South Georgia, Nicanor Costa Méndez, the Argentine Foreign Minister, said that Argentina was technically in a state of war with the UK. At about the same time an Argentine prisoner (Félix Artuso) was shot dead by a Royal Marine who mistakenly thought he was trying to scuttle a captured submarine. The United Kingdom Government informed Argentina through Brazilian diplomats that a board of inquiry would be convened under the provisions of the 1949 Geneva Conventions to review the death. The next day the United Kingdom claimed the Argentine prisoners were not prisoners of war because they were captured before Argentina had declared hostilities. Six days later they changed their mind. In a 1983 article,[6] Meyer states that the United Kingdom's Government changed its position because it had already implied the Argentine detainees were prisoners of war by applying provisions of the Geneva Conventions.
About three weeks after the Argentine prisoners were captured, the United Kingdom announced that it would repatriate all 151 soldiers and 39 civilians, five of whom were not Argentine citizens, that it held in detention on South Georgia. Because of the publicity related to the surrender of Astiz, he came to the attention of the Swedish and French governments, which has been seeking justice for their citizens from Argentina, their embassies in London informing the Government of the United Kingdom that Astiz was accused of criminal acts against their nationals. As the Argentine prisoners were being shipped to Ascension Island to be handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and flown home, the Swedish Government asked the British Government to question Astiz. The French Government also made a request that Astiz be held while they sought legal pursuance for the "disappearances" of the nuns. Both countries stated that they had eyewitnesses for the "disappearances." The United Kingdom's Government's initial response was that concerned parties should talk to the I.C.R.C., as it would be taking custody of the prisoners. The I.C.R.C. refused the countries' requests to talk to Astiz if it took custody of him. Both nations in response stepped up diplomatic pressure on the United Kingdom not to transfer Astiz to the I.C.R.C. The United Kingdom decided to send home the 189 other detainees "as an act of compassion." Astiz was to be held until "the end of the belligerency", initially on Ascension Island.
CPO2 and parachuters insignia displayed in the Imperial War Museum, London; one on the left is a Chief Petty Officer, or SubOfficial 2ndo
Repatriation
Two weeks later, under pressure from public opinion at home and by the French and Swedish governments, the United Kingdom decided to buy time by transporting Astiz by ship from Ascension Island to the United Kingdom. While Astiz was in transit, it announced he would be made available for interview by representatives of the French and Swedish Governments. Soon after, the Argentine government made veiled threats against the welfare of three British journalists they had under arrest as spies at that time in Argentina, and linked their release to that of Astiz. Astiz was questioned twice in June 1982 by a Detective Chief Superintendent of the Sussex Constabulary. Both times, Astiz remained silent. The United Kingdom gave a detailed report of the fruitless interviews to the Swedish and French Governments. Astiz was repatriated back to Argentina on 10 June 1982, just before the start of the battle for Port Stanley and the Argentine surrender on the Falkland Islands on 14 June 1982.
The United Kingdom Government had chosen to read the Third Geneva Convention of 1949, relating to the treatment of prisoners of war, as protecting Astiz from criminal prosecution in its jurisdiction and from extradition from it. Meyer argues that this was an incorrect reading but was justified at the time by four points. Astiz was in protective custody because of special circumstances, i.e. surrendering during war. The Geneva Conventions exhort custodial powers to leniency. Astiz was accused of crimes—kidnapping, wounding and torture—which were illegal in Argentina, and he could, in theory, be prosecuted there. Meyer argues that nothing in the Geneva Conventions expressly prohibited the prosecution or extradition of Astiz. However, the extradition treaties between Argentina and the UK, and Sweden and France, referred only to crimes committed within the territory of the requesting state and crimes against international law, while Astiz was accused of crimes committed in Argentina against their nationals which were not, at the time, crimes under international law. Consequently, he could not be handed over to another country. Criminal prosecution of Astiz within the UK was also not possible because he was not accused of any crimes against British subjects, their possessions or the British State.
Meyer argues that victims of Astiz, or their representatives, might have been successful in securing damages from him if they had brought a civil action while he was in the UK. As with criminal prosecution, nothing in the Geneva Conventions of 1949 remove the civil liability of prisoners of war for actions committed prior to capture. A British court has jurisdiction over a foreign tort whenever the defendant is in the UK, if the alleged act would have been actionable as a tort if committed in Britain, and it was an offence under the laws of the foreign country. Torture and kidnap by government officials is actionable as a tort if committed in England. Proving that it was an offence under the laws of Argentina would have been more difficult.
English courts assume that the authorised actions of officials of a foreign government within its sovereign territory are not actionable within their jurisdiction unless those actions are outside the scope of the powers of the government. Since torture is expressly forbidden in the Argentine constitution, Astiz could have been prosecuted for acting outside his powers as an agent of the Argentine government in torturing Domon and Duquet. Although there were witnesses prepared to testify that they had seen Astiz torture Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet, no prosecution of Astiz was made on these grounds at the time.
British government documents kept secret until released in 2012 under the thirty year rule revealed that Astiz was considered a major problem as a prisoner, that Astiz's custody on board ship was a breach of Article 22 of the Third Geneva Convention, (which states that prisoners must be held on land[7]) and that there had been discrimination between Astiz and his men. There were also concerns for the safety of British prisoners held by Argentina. Within a few days of being taken prisoner he had assaulted a guard and later fashioned a "primitive dagger" from a bed spring. The Secretary of State for Defence, John Nott, felt that the only course of action was to "get him off our hands as soon as possible".[8]
Legal actions
On 16 March 1990 Astiz was convicted and sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment by a French Assize Court for his role in the torture and disappearance of the two French nuns, Alice Domon and Léonie Duquet. French law allows trials, in absentia if necessary, of foreigners accused of breaking French laws in other jurisdictions if the crimes are committed against French nationals.[9]
For years, Astiz was protected by the Pardon Laws in 1986 and 1987 (the Ley de Punto Final and Ley de Obediencia Debida, respectively) which had shielded military and security officers from prosecution. He has several times been physically attacked by civilians; a well-known assault took place in Bariloche in the mid-1990s. In 1998 he told the Argentine magazine Trespuntos in an interview that he was "the best-trained man in Argentina to kill journalists and politicians". He also reportedly said "I'm not sorry for anything",[3] and defended the actions of the military dictatorship. He was discharged from the military for his comments.
Astiz was arrested by Argentine police in July 2001.[3] The Pardon Laws did not cover child abduction. Italy was seeking extradition of Astiz for the kidnapping and torture of three Italian nationals in 1976 and 1977, and for the abduction of a baby daughter born to one of them: Angela Maria Aieta in 1976, and the kidnapping of Giovanni Pegoraro and his pregnant daughter Susana Pegoraro in 1977. It is believed that Susana gave birth in prison before her death, and Astiz arranged for her baby to be given for illegal adoption to an Argentine military family. Argentine newspapers reported at the time of Astiz's arrest that the alleged daughter was living in the port city of Mar del Plata.[3] Astiz was not extradited.
In 2005 the Argentine Supreme Court declared unconstitutional the amnesty laws introduced during the transition to democracy (Ley de Punto Final, 1986 and Ley de Obediencia Debida, 1987). Since the identification of Duquet's body, France has been seeking extradition of Astiz on charges of murdering Duquet.[10]
After this ruling, the government re-opened prosecution of war crimes committed during the military dictatorship. In 2005, Astiz was detained on charges of kidnapping and torture, centered on the 12 victims of December 1977. Astiz and 17 other defendants associated with the operations at ESMA were "charged with various cases of kidnapping, torture, and murder relating to 86 victims".[11] Following a 22-month trial,[11] on 27 October 2011, Alfredo Astiz was convicted by an Argentinian court and sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity committed during the Dirty War.[1]
Of the other defendants, 11 were also sentenced to life in prison, four received sentences ranging from 18 to 25 years, and two were acquitted.[11] Since the Kirchner government started prosecuting cases again, Astiz is one of 259 people who by late 2011 had been convicted of human rights abuses committed during the dictatorship.[11]
Charges of French intelligence participation
Along with Luis María Mendía, former chief of naval operations in 1976–77, Astiz testified in January 2007 before Argentine judges that a French intelligence agent, Bertrand de Perseval, had participated in the abduction of the two French nuns. Perseval, who lives today in Thailand, denied any links with the abduction. He has acknowledged being a former member of the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), an underground group which fought to subvert the French government of Charles de Gaulle, and having escaped to Argentina after the March 1962 Evian Accords, which ended the 1954–62 Algerian War.
It has long been alleged that France arranged to have its intelligence agents train their Argentine (and other Latin American) counterparts in the counter-insurgency techniques they used in the Algerian War, which included interrogation under torture. Referring to Marie Monique Robin's 2003 film documentary titled The Death Squads – the French School (Les escadrons de la mort – l'école française), which claims this, Mendía asked the Argentine Court to summon to court the former French president Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the former French prime minister Pierre Messmer, the former French ambassador to Buenos Aires Françoise de la Gosse, and all those in office in the French embassy in Buenos Aires between 1976 and 1983.[12] Besides this "French connection", Mendía has also blamed the former president Isabel Perón and the former ministers Carlos Ruckauf and Antonio Cafiero, who had signed anti-subversion decrees before Videla's 1976 coup d'état. According to the ESMA survivor Graciela Daleo, this is another tactic to absolve the perpetrators of culpability, as did the 1987 Obediencia Debida Act, by trying to shift it to the predecessors of the military government, and the French. Daleo points out that claiming to be obeying Isabel Perón's anti-subversion decrees is grotesque, as those who murdered in the name of the decrees were the ones who had deposed her.[13]
Personal life
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This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2016)
Family
Born on November 8, 1951, into a traditional Argentine family of Mar del Plata origin, upper-middle class and Spanish Basque descent, his parents were Bernardo Astiz, a vice admiral of the Argentine Navy, and María Elena Vázquez, a housewife from whom Alfredo inherited his blonde phenotype and blue eyes. From his father he inherited his military vocation and from both parents the Argentine nationalist formation that accompanies him to this day as a prisoner, serving a life sentence that has lasted a quarter of a century, the same time he served as a naval officer.[14]
Health
Astiz was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2004.[15][16] In October 2013 the Supreme Court ratified decisions of lower courts denying him the right to treatment in a military hospital, under a Defence Ministry resolution banning use of the facilities by personnel who had criminal convictions. Astiz said that the Ministry was trying to kill him and severely harm his health by denying him access to Pedro Mallo Naval Hospital, the only medical facility able to supply the care he needed.[17]
References
Notes
"Argentina 'Angel of Death' Alfredo Astiz convicted". BBC News. 27 October 2011.
"Argentina military junta members top officers and ministers", Yendor]
"Argentine 'dirty war' officer arrested", BBC, 2 July 2001, accessed 13 June 2013
Göteborgs-Posten: Astiz döms för mordet på Hagelin, 29 November 2017
"Argentina: identifican desaparecida", BBC, 29 August 2005 (in Spanish)
Meyer, "Liability of Prisoners of War for Offences Committed Prior to Capture: the Astiz Affair", International Comparative Law Quarterly, Vol. 1983, pp. 949–80.
UN, GENEVA CONVENTION RELATIVE TO THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS OF WAR OF 12 AUGUST 1949, 12August 1949
The Independent newspaper, Fearsome dog of Falklands war is revealed, 30 December 2012
French Penal Code, L113-7
Agence France-Presse, "Léonie Duquet, missionária francesa, vítima do anjo louro da morte" (Leonie Duquet, French missionary, victim of the 'Blond Angel of Death'")], Ultimo Noticias, 29 August 2005,(in Portuguese), accessed 10 June 2013
Sam Ferguson, "Argentina's 'Blond angel of death' convicted for role in dirty war", Christian Science Monitor, 27 October 2011, accessed 12 June 2013
Disparitions: un ancien agent français mis en cause Archived 8 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine, Le Figaro, 6 February 2007 (in French)
“Impartí órdenes que fueron cumplidas”, Página/12, 2 February 2007 (in Spanish)
Clarín (29 November 2017). "Megacausa ESMA: perpetua para Alfredo Astiz y Jorge "Tigre" Acosta por crímenes de lesa humanidad". Retrieved 30 November 2017.
Preso pero con cuidados especiales, Página/12, 14 October 2006 (in Spanish)
El ángel verdugo Archived 2 October 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Perfil, 16 August 2009 (in Spanish)
Tiempo Argentino:Rechazan pedido del represor Alfredo Astiz, 22 October 2013 Archived 12 December 2013 at archive.today (in Spanish)
Bibliography
[icon]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2016)
Further reading
Uki Goñi. 1996. El Infiltrado: La Verdadera Historia de Alfredo Astiz. Buenos Aires: Editorial Sudamericana. ISBN 950-07-1197-4.
Horacio Verbitsky. 1996. The Flight: Confessions of an Argentine Dirty Warrior. New York: New Press. ISBN 1-56584-009-7.
Meyer, "Liability of Prisoners of War for Offences committed prior to Capture: the Astiz Affair", International Comparative Law Quarterly, Vol. 1983, pp. 949–980.
Rosenberg, Tina. "The Good Sailor," Children of Cain: Violence and the Violent in Latin America. Penguin Books: New York, 1991.
External links
"Argentina's 'Angel of Death' Is Arrested", Uki Goñi, The Guardian, 3 July 2001
"Las Visitas Desaparecidas", Uki Goñi, Página/12, 5 September 2005 (Spanish)
"Arrest of Alfredo Astiz", BBC
"Facing trial in Argentina to escape French justice", BBC
French victims of Alfredo Astiz, Mendes-France website, 15 March 2006 (video in french)
Authority control databases Edit this at Wikidata
International
VIAFWorldCat
National
FranceBnF dataGermanyUnited States
Categories:
1951 birthsLiving peopleArgentine anti-communistsArgentine military personnel of the Falklands WarArgentine Navy personnelArgentine people convicted of murderArgentine prisoners of warArgentine prisoners sentenced to life imprisonmentArgentine people convicted of crimes against humanityFalklands War in South GeorgiaOperatives of the Dirty WarPeople convicted in absentiaPeople convicted of murder by FrancePrisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by FranceTorture in Argentina
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Inside the FBI: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency (1993)
Ronald Borek Kessler (born Ronald Borek; December 31, 1943) is an American journalist and author of 21 non-fiction books about the White House, U.S. Secret Service, FBI, and CIA.
Early life and education
Kessler was born in The Bronx, New York City, the son of microbiologist Ernest Borek and concert pianist Minuetta Kessler, and grew up in Belmont, Massachusetts.[1] After his parents divorced and his mother remarried, he adopted his step-father's last name. He attended Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, from 1962 to 1964, where he was a student reporter for the campus newspaper The Scarlet and exposed racial housing discrimination in a report that prompted state anti-discrimination regulations.[1]
Career
Kessler began his career in 1964 as a reporter with the Worcester Telegram, followed by three years as an investigative reporter and editorial writer with the Boston Herald. A series he wrote while there was instrumental in the installation of a better plaque commemorating the location of Boston's Pre-Revolutionary-War Liberty Tree.[citation needed] During these years, his reporting won awards from the American Political Science Association (public affairs reporting award, 1965), United Press International (1967) and the Associated Press (Sevellon Brown Memorial award, 1967).[citation needed] In 1968, he joined The Wall Street Journal as an investigative reporter in the New York bureau.[2][3]
From 1970 to 1985, Kessler was an investigative reporter for The Washington Post. In 1972, he won a George Polk Memorial award for Community Service because of two series of articles he wrote—one on conflicts of interest and mismanagement at Washington area non-profit hospitals, and a second series exposing kickbacks among lawyers, title insurance companies, realtors, and lenders in connection with real estate settlements, inflating the cost of buying homes.[4][5] That series resulted in congressional passage in 1974 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), which outlaws kickbacks for referral of settlement services in connection with real estate closings.[6] Kessler was named a Washingtonian of the Year for 1972 by Washingtonian magazine.[7] In 1979, Kessler won a second Polk Award for National Reporting for a series of articles exposing corruption in the General Services Administration; he won even though his editor, Ben Bradlee, had not submitted his stories for consideration.[5][8] Kessler's Washington Post stories reporting that Lena Ferguson had been denied membership in the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) because she is black led to her acceptance by the DAR, appointment to head the DAR Scholarship Committee, and widespread changes in the organization's policies to increase membership by blacks.[9]
In 2006, Kessler became chief Washington correspondent for conservative cable news company Newsmax, where he became a leading promoter of Donald Trump.[10] He left his position at Newsmax in 2012 citing "editorial changes",[10] but has continued to write articles for the site.
In 2014, Franklin Pierce University awarded Kessler the Marlin Fitzwater Medallion for excellence as a prolific author, journalist, and communicator.[11]
Author
Kessler has authored 21 nonfiction books on intelligence and current affairs. Seven of these, Inside the White House (1995), The Season: Inside Palm Beach and America's Richest Society (1999), A Matter of Character (2004), Laura Bush (2006), In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect (2009), The Secrets of the FBI (2011), and The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents (2014) have reached The New York Times Best Seller list for hardcover non-fiction.[12][13]
Kessler's 1993 book, The FBI: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency, led to the dismissal by President Clinton of William S. Sessions as FBI director over his abuses. According to The Washington Post, "A Justice Department official ... noted that the original charges against Sessions came not from FBI agents but from a journalist, Ronald Kessler [who uncovered the abuses while writing a book about the FBI, leading to Sessions' dismissal by President Clinton] ..."[14] The New York Times said Kessler's FBI book "did indeed trigger bureau and Justice Department investigations into alleged travel and expense abuses [by FBI Director William Sessions, leading to his departure] ..., but also noted that the hastily published book included a claim it called "Sensational but unexplained, the assertion borders on the irresponsible."[15]
Kessler's 1996 book The Sins of the Father about Joseph P. Kennedy received negative reviews. The Washington Post called it "relentlessly uncharitable", a "sour and mean-spirited book", noting that "the author frequently resorts to speculation, guesswork and innuendo. This has the effect of making many of his attacks seem underhanded."[16] New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani called it a "meanspirited, speculation-filled biography ... a determinedly poisonous portrait of the man."[17]
Despite reaching the New York times bestseller list, Kessler's 1999 book The Season: Inside Palm Beach and America's Richest Society received "tepid, if not stinging, reviews" and received criticism from some Palm Beach locals that it did not portray their town accurately.[18]
In his 2002 book The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI, Kessler presented the first credible evidence that Bob Woodward's and Carl Bernstein's Watergate source dubbed Deep Throat was FBI official W. Mark Felt. The book said that Woodward paid a secret visit to Felt in California and had his limousine park ten blocks away from Felt's home and walked to it so as not to attract attention.[19] The New York Times said the book offers an "understanding of the institution's history, as well as an account of what it is like to be on the inside ... Kessler investigates the relationship between FBI directors and sitting presidents and also includes exclusive interviews with Robert Mueller, who led the FBI in the period immediately after 9/11."[20] Jon Stewart of The Daily Show said Kessler's 2007 book The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack is a "very interesting look inside the FBI and CIA, which I think is unprecedented."[21] The Washington Times said of the book, "Ronald Kessler is a veteran Washington-based investigative journalist on national security. His unparalleled access to top players in America's counterterrorism campaign allowed him a rare glimpse into their tradecraft, making The Terrorist Watch a riveting account."[22]
Kessler's 2009 book, In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect, was described by USA Today as a "fascinating exposé ... high-energy read ... amusing, saucy, often disturbing anecdotes about the VIPs the Secret Service has protected and still protects ... [accounts come] directly from current and retired agents (most identified by name, to Kessler's credit) ... Balancing the sordid tales are the kinder stories of presidential humanity ..."[23] Newsweek said of the book, "Kessler's such a skilled storyteller, you almost forget this is dead-serious nonfiction ... The behind-the-scenes anecdotes are delightful, but Kessler has a bigger point to make, one concerning why the under-appreciated Secret Service deserves better leadership."[24] However, the Washington Post review called its revelations "boring and familiar", noting "What is truly dangerous is the kind of National Enquirer-style gossip in Kessler's book" as "the author simply milked the agents for the juiciest gossip he could get and mixed it with a rambling list of their complaints."[25]
Kessler's 2011 book The Secrets of the FBI presents revelations about the Russian spy swap, Marilyn Monroe's death, Vince Foster's suicide, the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound, and J. Edgar Hoover's sexual orientation. It tells how the FBI caught spy Robert Hanssen in its midst and how secret teams of FBI agents break into homes, offices, and embassies to plant bugging devices without getting caught and shot as burglars.[26][27][28] However, The Washington Post review said "There are tidbits here that probably do qualify as 'secrets'. But there's a lot of padding too: ... None of this is to say that Secrets of the FBI is not a gossipy, easy-to-gobble book; it is. In places it almost reads like 'The FBI for Dummies'."[29]
Kessler's 2014 book The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents debuted at No. 4 on the hardcover nonfiction New York Times Best Seller list.[30] In the book Kessler reports that Vice President Joe Biden enjoys skinny dipping, which offends female agents, and that being assigned to his detail is considered to be the second worst protective assignment in the Secret Service after Hillary Clinton's detail.[31] The book also reveals that the Secret Service covered up the fact that President Ronald Reagan's White House staff overruled the Secret Service to let unscreened spectators get close to Reagan as he left the Washington Hilton, allowing John W. Hinckley, Jr. to shoot the president.[32] However, Marc Ambinder's review in The Week called the book's details "salacious" and "cringe-worthy", noting a "surprising number of weird inaccuracies" that led him to believe "Kessler seems to have listened to his sources, written their words down, and then simply printed as fact their allegations or observations without checking on them."[33]
Kessler's 2018 book was The Trump White House: Changing the Rules of the Game. The Washington Post's review, by Hugh Hewitt, called the book "trustworthy, and, in an unusual twist these days, it's favorable to the president. ... Kessler also got Trump to sit down for an interview on New Year's Eve at Mar-a-Lago, a conversation that shows the president confident and comfortable in his role. ... Kessler conveys Trump's world in coherent, readable fashion, and provides the players' assessments of one another."[34]
Articles
Kessler has written The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, The Washington Times, and Politico opinion pieces, including "Surveillance: An American Success Story" on Politico, "Reform the Secret Service" in The Washington Post, and "The Real Joe McCarthy," which attacked efforts by some conservative writers to vindicate the late Senator Joseph McCarthy, and in The Wall Street Journal.[35][36][37] Kessler's op-ed "Time to Rename the J. Edgar Hoover Building" detailed Hoover's "massive abuses and violations of Americans' rights" as FBI director for nearly 50 years.[38]
In a Time magazine opinion piece, Kessler wrote "The Secret Service Thinks We Are Fools" after the White House intrusion based on his book The First Family Detail.[39]
On January 4, 2010, Kessler wrote a Newsmax article revealing that the Secret Service allowed a third uninvited guest to attend President Obama's state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh besides party crashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi on November 24, 2009. The Washington Post said, "Kessler reported that the agency discovered the third crasher after examining surveillance video of arriving guests and found one tuxedoed man who did not match any name on the guest list."[40]
In an article for Newsmax, on March 16, 2008, Kessler incorrectly reported that Senator Barack Obama attended a service at Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ on July 22, 2007, during which Jeremiah Wright gave a sermon that blamed world suffering on "white arrogance". The Obama campaign denied that Obama had attended the church on the day that sermon was delivered and other reporters discovered that Obama was in fact in transit to Miami, Florida on that day.[41] Shortly after the controversy broke, Kessler confirmed to Talking Points Memo that he attempted to remove information documenting it from his English Wikipedia biography.[42]
In "A Roadmap to Trump's Washington," Kessler described the carrot-and-stick approach Trump used to get his Mar-a-Lago estate approved as a club by Palm Beach Town Council members and predicted he would operate in the same manner as president to win over support for his agenda.[43] In "The Anatomy of a Trump Decision," Kessler depicted how Trump makes decisions by focusing on his decision to turn his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach into a private club.[44]
Criticism
Kessler's writings have been criticized in publications such as The Washington Post and The Week for overt partisanship and a lack of journalistic rigor.
Every book ever written has mistakes. But experts are supposed to get the main things right, and reporters generally follow through when someone tells them something. Too often, Kessler seems to have listened to his sources, written their words down, and then simply printed as fact their allegations or observations without checking on them.
— Marc Ambinder, The Week, August 6, 2014
In a note to The Week, Kessler disputed charges of inaccuracy, including uncertainty over whether then-Vice President Joe Biden had spent a million dollars of taxpayer funds to take personal trips on Air Force Two back and forth between Washington and his home in Wilmington. The publication agreed to update Ambinder's article, saying that "... author Ronald Kessler provided The Week with documentation from the Air Force about Vice President Biden's travel" and linked to the Air Force's letter responding to Kessler's Freedom of Information Act request with the official record of Biden's flights back and forth between Washington and Wilmington with their cost as listed in Kessler's book The First Family Detail.[45]
Noting Kessler's extraordinary access to the then Secret Service Director, Mark Sullivan, during the writing of In The President's Secret Service, James Bamford wrote in a review in The Washington Post that:[46]
... in light of an odd decision by the current director, Mark Sullivan, the motto should be changed to "Have You Heard This One?" During the Bush administration, hoping for some good, ego-enhancing publicity, Sullivan broke with his agency's long-standing policy of absolute silence and allowed Ronald Kessler to get an earful. The chief Washington correspondent for Newsmax.com, which bills itself as "the #1 conservative news agency online," Kessler had written very positive books about CIA Director George Tenet, first lady Laura Bush and President George W. Bush, and Sullivan was probably hoping for the same treatment. Hearing that Sullivan had given Kessler his blessing, scores of current and former agents -- Kessler claims more than 100 -- agreed to talk to him. But rather than use that wealth of information to write a serious book examining the inner workings of the long-veiled agency or the new challenges of protecting the first black president, the author simply milked the agents for the juiciest gossip he could get and mixed it with a rambling list of their complaints.
— James Bamford, The Washington Post, August 23, 2009
A September 30, 2014 Politico piece by Kessler on Secret Service blunders, including allowing a knife-wielding intruder to race into the White House and failing to detect gun shots at the White House until four days later,[47] was criticized by Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo for allegedly implying that because he had not taken steps to correct the problems within the agency by replacing the director, President Obama would be at fault if the Secret Service's security breakdowns led to his own assassination.[48] A subsequent editor's note called that a misinterpretation. The reference in question said, "Agents tell me that it's a miracle an assassination has not already occurred. Sadly, given Obama's colossal lack of management judgment, that calamity may be the only catalyst that will reform the Secret Service."
According to the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on CIA torture and the report itself as reported in The New York Times, Kessler's book, The CIA at War, "included inaccurate claims about the effectiveness of CIA interrogations" provided by the CIA to Kessler and New York Times reporter Douglas Jehl, such as the claim that the arrests of terrorist suspects were based on information from interrogations of other terrorists under torture. The report said this rationale was used to justify the use of torture.[49][50] In a comment to The New York Times, Kessler said he corroborated what he was told with the FBI, and he called the Senate report discredited because it was written only by Democratic lawmakers and did not include interviews with many of the main players.[50][51] Subsequently, John Brennan, President Obama's appointee as CIA director, said that while no one knows whether the information could have been obtained otherwise, "[o]ur review indicates that interrogations of detainees on whom EITs [enhanced interrogation techniques] were used did produce intelligence that helped thwart attack plans, capture terrorists, and save lives."[52]
Personal life
Kessler is married and has two children.[2][53] He met Donald Trump while writing his book about Palm Beach and has since said he considers him a personal friend, leading others to call him Trumps "No. 1 Cheerleader".[54]
Books
Title Year ISBN Publisher Subject matter Interviews, presentations, and reviews Comments
The Life Insurance Game: How the Industry Has Amassed Over $600 Billion at the Expense of the American Public 1985 ISBN 9780030705076 Henry Holt & Co. Life insurance
The Richest Man in the World: The Story of Adnan Khashoggi 1986 ISBN 9780446513395 Warner Books Adnan Khashoggi
Spy vs. Spy: Stalking Soviet Spies in America 1988 ISBN 9780684189451 Charles Scribner's Sons Soviet espionage in the United States
Moscow Station: How the KGB Penetrated the American Embassy 1989 ISBN 9780684189819 Charles Scribner's Sons Embassy of the United States, Moscow Interview with Kessler on Moscow Station, February 23, 1989, C-SPAN
The Spy in the Russian Club: How Glenn Souther Stole America's Nuclear War Plans and Escaped to Moscow 1990 ISBN 9780684191164 Charles Scribner's Sons Glenn Souther
Escape from the CIA: How the CIA Won and Lost the Most Important Spy Ever to Defect to the U.S. 1991 ISBN 9780671726645 Pocket Books Vitaly Yurchenko
Inside the CIA: Revealing the Secrets of the World's Most Powerful Spy Agency 1992 ISBN 9780671734572 Pocket Books Central Intelligence Agency
The FBI: Inside the World's Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency 1993 ISBN 9780671786571 Pocket Books Federal Bureau of Investigation Booknotes interview with Kessler on Inside the FBI, September 12, 1993, C-SPAN
Inside the White House: The Hidden Lives of the Modern Presidents and the Secrets of the World's Most Powerful Institution 1995 ISBN 9780671879204 Pocket Books United States Secret Service
The Sins of the Father: Joseph P. Kennedy and the Dynasty He Founded 1996 ISBN 9780446518840 Warner Books Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., Kennedy family
Inside Congress: The Shocking Scandals, Corruption, and Abuse of Power Behind the Scenes on Capitol Hill 1997 ISBN 9780671003852 Pocket Books United States Congress Washington Journal interview with Kessler on Inside Congress, May 26, 1997, C-SPAN
The Season: Inside Palm Beach and America's Richest Society 1999 ISBN 9780060193911 HarperCollins Palm Beach, Florida Presentation by Kessler on The Season: Inside Palm Beach, October 10, 1999, C-SPAN
The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI 2002 ISBN 9780312304027 St. Martin's Press Federal Bureau of Investigation Presentation by Kessler on The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI, June 5, 2002, C-SPAN
The CIA at War: Inside the Secret Campaign Against Terror 2003 ISBN 9780312319328 St. Martin's Press Central Intelligence Agency, George Tenet
A Matter of Character: Inside the White House of George W. Bush 2004 ISBN 9781595230003 Sentinel George W. Bush, Presidency of George W. Bush Presentation by Kessler on A Matter of Character, August 11, 2004, C-SPAN
Laura Bush: An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady 2006 ISBN 9780385516211 Doubleday Laura Bush Presentation by Kessler on Laura Bush: An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady, April 19, 2006, C-SPAN
The Terrorist Watch: Inside the Desperate Race to Stop the Next Attack 2007 ISBN 9780307382139 Crown Publishing War on Terror Presentation by Kessler on The Terrorist Watch, November 19, 2007, C-SPAN
The Daily Show interview with Kessler on The Terrorist Watch, March 12, 2008
In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect 2009 ISBN 9780307461353 Crown Publishing United States Secret Service The Daily Show interview with Kessler on In the President's Secret Service, August 2, 2009
Washington Journal interview with Kessler on In the President's Secret Service, August 22, 2009, C-SPAN
The Secrets of the FBI 2011 ISBN 9780307719690 Crown Publishing Federal Bureau of Investigation
The First Family Detail: Secret Service Agents Reveal the Hidden Lives of the Presidents 2014 ISBN 9780804139212 Crown Publishing United States Secret Service Presentation by Kessler on The First Family Detail, October 8, 2014, C-SPAN
The Trump White House: Changing the Rules of the Game 2018 ISBN 9780525575719 Crown Publishing Presidency of Donald Trump Washington Journal interview with Kessler on The Trump White House, April 10, 2018, C-SPAN
After Words interview with Kessler on The Trump White House, April 27, 2018, C-SPAN
Presentation by Kessler on The Trump White House, April 6, 2019, C-SPAN
References
Grove, Lloyd (April 10, 2018). "From Washington Post Reporter to Trump Cheerleader". The Daily Beast. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
"Ronald Kessler". Marquis Who's Who in America, 2007. Marquis Who's Who Inc. 2006. ISBN 0-8379-7006-7.
"Ronald Kessler Bio". Archived from the original on March 30, 2016. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
"Scandal Series Wins Prize". Oakland Tribune. February 1, 1973. Retrieved March 22, 2008.
McBee, Susanna (February 12, 1979). "Reporter Is Cited For GSA Articles". The Washington Post.
Hearing before the House of Representatives Committee on Small Business. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1994. ISBN 9780160441707. Retrieved November 7, 2016.
"Past Washingtonians of the Year". Washingtonian. January 29, 2008. Archived from the original on March 24, 2008. Retrieved March 26, 2008.
Hershey, Edward. "A History of Journalistic Integrity, Superb Reporting and Protecting the Public: The George Polk Awards in Journalism". Long Island University. Archived from the original on March 28, 2010. Retrieved March 22, 2008.
The Washington Post, March 12, 1984, page A1; April 18, 1984, page C1; April 5, 1984, page C3; March 27, 1985, page A22.
Gertz, Matt (July 31, 2014). "Discredited Author Ronald Kessler Has Next Anti-Clinton Gossip Book". Media Matters for America. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
"Fry Lecture Series Brings Ronald Kessler to Franklin Pierce University" (Press release). February 24, 2014. Archived from the original on March 7, 2014. Retrieved March 7, 2014.
Sirott, Bob; Murciano, Marianne (September 25, 2014). "Author Ronald Kessler offers inside scoop on the Secret Service". WGN Radio 720. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
USA Today, May 7. 2009, page 5D
The Washington Post, June 19, 1993, page A1; The Washington Post, July 20, 1993, page A1.
MacKenzie, John (September 12, 1993). "How the G-Men Measure Up Now". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 3, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
Birmingham, Stephen (March 25, 1996). "A Kennedy Scorned". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
Kakutani, Michiko (November 29, 2012). "Just Wait Till Your Father Gets Home". The New York Times. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
Offman, Craig (December 2, 1999). "Palm Beach exposi sells out, enrages socialites". Salon. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
The Washington Times, June 2, 2005, page A11; New York Post, June 3, 2005, page 14; The Washington Post, December 20, 2008, page A1.
de León, Conceptión (May 11, 2017). "3 Revelatory Books About the FBI". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 12, 2017. Retrieved May 12, 2017.
"Ronald Kessler" Archived April 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine The Daily Show, March 12, 2008, retrieved April 24, 2009.
The Washington Times, December 18, 2007, page A15
USA Today, August 18, 2009, final edition, page 3D
"In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect". Newsweek. August 4, 2010. Archived from the original on August 11, 2010. Retrieved August 5, 2010.
Bamford, James (August 23, 2009). "James Bamford Reviews Ronald Kessler's 'In the President's Secret Service'". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
"Home Visits And Other Secrets Of The FBI". NPR. Archived from the original on October 9, 2017. Retrieved October 8, 2017.
"The Secrets of the FBI by Ronald Kessler" (Press release). Crown Publishing Group. August 1, 2011. Archived from the original on August 27, 2011. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
"FBI secret ops help prevent new 9/11: Author". CBS News. August 2, 2011. Archived from the original on September 4, 2011. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
Burrough, Bryan (August 25, 2011). "Ronald Kessler's "The Secrets of the FBI"". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
"The New York Times Best Seller list". The New York Times. August 16, 2014. Archived from the original on December 5, 2013. Retrieved August 16, 2014.
Payne, Sebastian. "Joe Biden, just a regular guy who goes skinny dipping". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 1, 2015. Retrieved August 2, 2014.
"Ronald Kessler Newbook". Archived from the original on June 24, 2015. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
Ambinder, Marc (January 12, 2015). "The weird inaccuracies in Ronald Kessler's new book on the Secret Service". The Week. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
Kessler, Ronald (April 6, 2018). "A First Year Assessment of Trump's Triumphs". Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 12, 2018. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
Kessler, Ronald (August 23, 2013). "Surveillance: An American Success Story". Politico. Opinion. Archived from the original on August 26, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
Kessler, Ronald (April 22, 2008). "The Real Joe McCarthy". The Wall Street Journal. Opinion. Archived from the original on April 17, 2017. Retrieved April 16, 2017.
Kessler, Ronald (March 15, 2015). "Reform the Secret Service". The Washington Post. Opinion. Archived from the original on March 17, 2015. Retrieved March 18, 2015.
Kessler, Ronald (December 28, 2020). "Time to Rename the J. Edgar Hoover Building". Archived from the original on December 28, 2020. Retrieved December 29, 2020.
Kessler, Ronald (September 23, 2014). "The Secret Service Thinks we Are Fools". Time. Opinion. Archived from the original on September 25, 2014. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
Roberts, Roxanne; Argetsinger, Amy (January 4, 2010). "Secret Services confirms report of 'third crasher' at White House state dinner". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 9, 2012. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
"Schedule Puts Obama in Miami During July '07 Wright Sermon". Fox News. March 17, 2008. Archived from the original on March 18, 2008. Retrieved November 5, 2011.
Sargent, Greg (March 17, 2008). "Newsmax's Kessler Scrubs Reference To His Obama Factual Blunder From His Wiki Page". Talking Points Memo. Retrieved March 18, 2008.
Kessler, Ronald (April 3, 2017). "A Roadmap to Trump's Washington". The Washington Times. Archived from the original on April 4, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
Kessler, Ronald (April 26, 2017). "The Anatomy of a Trump Decision". The Washington Times. Archived from the original on April 28, 2017. Retrieved April 27, 2017.
"The Weird Inaccuracies In Ronald Kesslers New Book On The Secret Service". The Week. Archived from the original on August 30, 2014. Retrieved August 31, 2014.
"James Bamford Reviews Ronald Kessler's 'In the President's Secret Service'". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on December 14, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
"Obamas Life Is At Risk". Politico Magazine. Archived from the original on October 1, 2014. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
"Really Politico". Talking Points Memo. Archived from the original on October 1, 2014. Retrieved October 1, 2014.
The Senate Committee's Report on the CIA's Use of Torture Archived February 12, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, The New York Times December 9, 2014
Ashkenas, Jeremy; Fairfield, Hannah; Keller, Josh; Volpe, Paul (December 9, 2014). "7 Key Points From the C.I.A. Torture Report". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 13, 2014. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
Cohen, Noam; Somaiya, Ravi (December 10, 2014). "Report Says C.I.A. Used Media Leaks to Advantage". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 30, 2017. Retrieved September 11, 2017.
"CIA Pushes Back on Assertion That It Overstated Intelligence From Detention Program". ABC News. Archived from the original on October 21, 2020. Retrieved June 28, 2020.
DC Style, March/April 2006, page 150
Grove, Lloyd (July 12, 2017). "What Makes Ronald Kessler Donald Trump's No. 1 Cheerleader?". The Daily Beast. Retrieved December 6, 2023.
External links
Media related to Ronald Kessler at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related to Ronald Kessler at Wikiquote
Official website
Appearances on C-SPAN
Book TV's In Depth interview with Kessler, April 5, 2015
Categories:
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Debate on CIA Covert Action: John Stockwell vs. William Colby (1984)
John R. Stockwell (born 1937) is a former CIA officer who became a critic of United States government policies after serving seven tours of duty over thirteen years. Having managed American involvement in the Angolan Civil War as Chief of the Angola Task Force during its 1975 covert operations, he resigned and wrote In Search of Enemies.
Early years
Born in Angleton, Texas, Stockwell's Presbyterian father moved the family to the Belgian Congo when he was posted there to provide engineering assistance.[1] Stockwell attended school in Lubondai before studying in the Plan II Honors program at the University of Texas.
CIA career
After serving three years in the United States Marine Corps Stockwell joined the CIA in 1964. He served as a case officer through three wars: the Congo Crisis, the Vietnam War, and the Angolan War of Independence.[citation needed] Stockwell spent six years in Africa, Chief of Base in the Katanga during the Bob Denard invasion in 1968, then Chief of Station in Bujumbura, Burundi in 1970, before being transferred to Vietnam to oversee intelligence operations in the Tay Ninh province and was awarded the CIA Intelligence Medal of Merit for keeping his post open until the last days of the fall of Saigon in 1975.[1]
In December 1976, he resigned from the CIA, citing deep concerns for the methods and results of CIA paramilitary operations in Third World countries and testified before Congressional committees. Two years later, he wrote the exposé In Search of Enemies, about that experience and its broader implications. He claimed that the CIA was counterproductive to national security, and that its "secret wars" provided no benefit for the United States. The CIA, he stated, had singled out the MPLA to be an enemy in Angola despite the fact that the MPLA wanted relations with the United States and had not committed a single act of aggression against the United States. In 1978 he appeared on the popular American television program 60 Minutes, claiming that CIA Director William Colby and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger had systematically lied to Congress about the CIA's operations.
Writing career
Stockwell was one of the first professionals to leave the CIA to go public by writing a bestselling book, In Search of Enemies. The CIA retaliated by suing him in the 4th District Court in Washington, D.C.. Part of the suit intended to eliminate the possibility of selling the story for the purpose of making the movie and requested all future publications be submitted to the CIA for review. Unable to afford the travel necessary to contest the case, Stockwell filed for bankruptcy in Austin, Texas. After the litigation was processed through the bankruptcy, the CIA eventually dropped the suit.
A brief story in the book is about a CIA officer having Patrice Lumumba's body in the trunk of his car one night in then Elizabethville, Congo. Stockwell mentions in a footnote to the story that at the time he did not know that the CIA is documented as having repeatedly tried to arrange for Lumumba's assassination.[2][3]
His concerns were that, although many of his colleagues in the CIA were men and women of the highest integrity, the organization was counterproductive of United States' national security and harming a lot of people in its "secret wars" overseas.
Red Sunset was Stockwell's next book and was published in 1982 by William Morrow Publishing Co., Inc. in hardback, then in paperback by Signet a year later. In it he discusses his prediction of a peaceful end to the Cold War. Stockwell presented these ideas in fiction form in order to get it published.
In 1991, Stockwell published a compilation of transcriptions of many of his lectures called The Praetorian Guard.[4][5]
See also
Philip Agee, author, former CIA case officer in Mexico and Ecuador
Robert Baer, author, former CIA case officer in Middle East
Peer de Silva, author, former CIA Chief of Station in East Asia
Richard Helms, author, former Director of CIA
Victor Marchetti, author, special assistant to Helms
Ray McGovern, former CIA senior analyst and national security adviser
Ralph McGehee, author, former CIA case officer
Peter Wright, author, principal scientific officer for MI5
Books
The Praetorian Guard: The US Role in the New World Order. Boston: South End Press (1991). ISBN 0896083950.
Red Sunset. New York: William Morrow & Co. (1982).
In Search of Enemies: A CIA Story. New York: W. W. Norton & Co. (1978). ISBN 0393009262.
Filmography
The C.I.A. Case Officer: John "Bob" Stockwell. Institute for Policy Studies (1978).
The Secret World of the C.I.A: The Testimony of John Stockwell. Cambridge, Mass.: Insight Video (1988). OCLC 18296714.
William Egan Colby (January 4, 1920 – May 6, 1996) was an American intelligence officer who served as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from September 1973 to January 1976.
During World War II, Colby served with the Office of Strategic Services. After the war, he joined the newly created Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Before and during the Vietnam War, Colby served as chief of station in Saigon, chief of the CIA's Far East Division, and head of the Civil Operations and Rural Development effort and oversaw the Phoenix Program. After the war, Colby became Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) and during his tenure, under intense pressure from the Congress and the media, adopted a policy of relative openness about U.S. intelligence activities to the Senate Church Committee and the House Pike Committee. Colby served as DCI under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford until January 30, 1976 and was succeeded at the CIA by George H. W. Bush.
Early life and family
William Egan Colby was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1920. His father, Elbridge Colby, who came from a New England family with a history of military and public service, was a professor of English, an author, and a military officer who served in the U.S. Army and in university positions in Tianjin, China; Georgia; Vermont; and Washington, D.C. Though a career officer, Elbridge Colby's professional pursuits focused less on strictly military activities and more on intellectual and scholarly contributions to military and literary subjects. Elbridge's father, Charles Colby, had been a professor of chemistry at Columbia University but had died prematurely and left his family largely without money.
William's mother, Margaret Egan, was from an Irish family in St. Paul active in business and Democratic politics. With his Army father, William Colby had a peripatetic upbringing before attending public high school in Burlington, Vermont. He then attended Princeton University and graduated with an A.B. in politics in 1940 after completing a 196-page long senior thesis, "Surrender – French Policy toward the Spanish Civil War," in which he sharply criticized France for failing to support for Second Spanish Republic in the civil war.[1] He then studied at Columbia Law School the following year. Colby recounted that he took from his parents a desire to serve and a commitment to liberal politics, Catholicism, and independence, exemplified by his father's career-damaging protest in The Nation magazine regarding the lenient treatment of a white Georgian who had murdered a black U.S. soldier who was also based at Fort Benning.[2][3]
Colby was for his entire life a staunch Roman Catholic.[4] He was often referred to as "the warrior–priest." The Catholic Church played a "central role" in his family's life, with Colby's two daughters receiving their First Communion at St. Peter's Basilica.[5]
He married Barbara Heinzen (1920–2015) in 1945 and they had five children. His daughter, Christine, was presented as a debutante to high society in 1978 at the International Debutante Ball at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City.[6] In 1984, he divorced Barbara and married the Democratic diplomat Sally Shelton-Colby.
Career
Office of Strategic Services
Major William Colby (front left) & the Norwegian Special Operations Group parading in Trondheim on the 17th of May 1945.
Following his first year at Columbia, in 1941 Colby volunteered for active duty with the United States Army and served with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) as a "Jedburgh," or special operator, who was trained to work with resistance forces in occupied Europe to harass German and other Axis forces. During World War II, he parachuted behind enemy lines twice and earned the Silver Star as well as commendations from Norway, France, and Great Britain. In his first mission he deployed to France as a Jedburgh commanding Team BRUCE, in mid-August 1944, and operated with the Maquis until he joined up with Allied forces later that fall. In April 1945, he led the NORSO Group Operasjon Rype into Norway on a sabotage mission to destroy railway lines in an effort to hinder German forces in Norway from reinforcing the final defense of Germany.[7]
After the war, Colby graduated from Columbia Law School and then briefly practiced law in William J. Donovan's New York firm, Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine. Bored by the practice of law and inspired by his liberal beliefs, he moved to Washington to work for the National Labor Relations Board.
Central Intelligence Agency
Post-war Europe
Director of Central Intelligence William Colby discusses the situation in Vietnam with Vice President Nelson Rockefeller and Deputy Assistant For National Security Affairs Brent Scowcroft during a break in a meeting of the National Security Council, 04/24/1975
William Colby, Director of Central Intelligence, briefs President Gerald Ford and his senior advisors on the deteriorating situation in Vietnam, April 28, 1975. (clockwise, left to right) Colby; Robert S. Ingersoll, Deputy Secretary of State; Henry Kissinger; President Ford; James R. Schlesinger, Defense Secretary; William Clements, Deputy Secretary of Defense; Vice President Rockefeller; and General George S. Brown, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
William Colby, outgoing Director of Central Intelligence, with President Ford and incoming DCI George Bush, 1975.
Then, an OSS friend offered him a job at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and he accepted. Colby spent the next 12 years in the field, first in Stockholm, Sweden. There, he helped set up the stay-behind networks of Operation Gladio, a covert paramilitary organization organized by the CIA to make any Soviet occupation more difficult, as he later described in his memoirs.[8]
Colby then spent much of the 1950s based in Rome under the cover as a State Department officer,[7] where he led the Agency's covert political operations campaign to support anti-communist parties in their electoral contests against left wing Soviet–associated parties. The Christian Democrats and allied parties won several key elections in the 1950s, preventing a takeover by the Communist Party. Colby was a vocal advocate within the CIA and the United States government for engaging the non-Communist left wing parties in order to create broader non-Communist coalitions capable of governing fractious Italy. That position first brought him into conflict with James J. Angleton.
Southeast Asia
In 1959 Colby became the CIA's deputy chief and then chief of station in Saigon, South Vietnam, where he served until 1962. Tasked by CIA with supporting the government of South Vietnamese President Ngô Đình Diệm, Colby established a relationship with Diem's family and with Ngô Đình Nhu, the president's brother, with whom Colby became close.[7] While in Vietnam, Colby focused intensively on building up Vietnamese capabilities to combat the Viet Cong insurgency in the countryside. He argued that "the key to the war in Vietnam was the war in the villages."[9] In 1962, he returned to Washington to become the deputy and then chief of CIA's Far East Division, succeeding Desmond Fitzgerald, who had been tapped to lead the Agency's efforts against Fidel Castro's Cuba. During those years, Colby was deeply involved in Washington's policies in East Asia, particularly with respect to Vietnam, as well as Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and China. He was deeply critical of the decision to abandon support for Diem, and he believed that played a material part in the weakening of the South Vietnamese position in the following years.[10]
In 1968, while Colby was preparing to take up the post of chief of the Soviet Bloc Division of the Agency, U.S. President Lyndon Johnson instead sent Colby back to Vietnam as deputy to Robert Komer, who had been charged with streamlining the civilian side of the American and South Vietnamese efforts against the Communists. Shortly after arriving Colby succeeded Komer as head of the U.S./South Vietnamese rural pacification effort named CORDS. Part of the effort was the controversial Phoenix Program, an initiative designed to identify and attack the "Viet Cong Infrastructure." There is considerable debate about the merits of the program, which was subject to allegations that it relied on or was complicit in assassination and torture. Colby, however, consistently insisted that such tactics were not authorized by or permitted in the program.
More broadly, along with Ambassador Ellsworth Bunker and Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) commander General Creighton Abrams, Colby was part of a leadership group that worked to apply a new approach to the war designed to focus more on pacification (winning hearts and minds) and securing the countryside, as opposed to the "search and destroy" approach that had characterized General William Westmoreland's tenure as MACV commander.[11] Some, including Colby later in life, argue that approach succeeded in reducing the Communist insurgency in South Vietnam, but that South Vietnam, without air and ground support by the United States after the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, was ultimately overwhelmed by a conventional North Vietnamese assault in 1975.[10] The CORDS model and its approach influenced U.S. strategy and thinking on counterinsurgency in the 2000s in Iraq and Afghanistan.[12]
CIA HQ: Director
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Colby returned to Washington in July 1971 and became executive director of CIA. After long-time DCI Richard Helms was dismissed by President Nixon in 1973, James Schlesinger assumed the helm at the Agency. A strong believer in reform of the CIA and the intelligence community more broadly, Schlesinger had written a 1971 Bureau of the Budget report outlining his views on the subject. Colby, who had had a somewhat unorthodox career in the CIA focused on political action and counterinsurgency, agreed with Schlesinger's reformist approach. Schlesinger appointed him head of the clandestine branch in early 1973. When Nixon reshuffled his agency heads and made Schlesinger secretary of defense, Colby emerged as a natural candidate for DCI, apparently on the basis of the recommendation that he was a professional who would not make waves. Colby was known as a media-friendly CIA director.[5] His tenure as DCI, which lasted two-and-a-half tumultuous years, was overshadowed by the Church and Pike congressional investigations into alleged US intelligence malfeasance over the preceding 25 years, including 1975, the so-called Year of Intelligence.
Colby's time as DCI was also eventful on the world stage. Shortly after he assumed leadership, the Yom Kippur War broke out, an event that surprised the American intelligence agencies but also those of Israeli. The intelligence surprise reportedly affected Colby's credibility with the Nixon administration. Colby participated in the National Security Council meetings that responded to apparent Soviet intentions to intervene in the war by raising the alert level of U.S. forces to DEFCON 3 and defusing the crisis. In 1975, after many years of involvement, South Vietnam fell to Communist forces in April 1975, a particularly difficult blow for Colby, who had dedicated so much of his life and career to the American effort there. Events in the arms-control field, Angola, Australia,[13] the Middle East, and elsewhere also demanded attention.
Colby also focused on internal reforms within the CIA and the intelligence community. He attempted to modernize what he believed to be some out-of-date structures and practices by disbanding the Board of National Estimates and replacing it with the National Intelligence Council.[14] In a speech from 1973 addressed to NSA employees, he emphasized the role of free speech in the U.S. and the moral role of CIA as a defender, not a preventer, of civil rights, an attempt to rebut the then emerging revelations of CIA and NSA domestic spying. He also mentioned a number of reforms intended to limit excessive classification of governmental information.[15]
President Gerald Ford, advised by Henry Kissinger and others concerned by Colby's controversial openness to Congress and distance from the White House, replaced Colby late in 1975 with George H. W. Bush during the so-called Halloween Massacre in which Secretary of Defense Schlesinger was also replaced (by Donald Rumsfeld). Colby was offered the position of United States Permanent Representative to NATO but turned it down.
Later career
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In 1977 Colby founded a D.C. law firm, Colby, Miller & Hanes, with Marshall Miller, David Hanes, and associated lawyers, and worked on public policy issues. In consonance with his long-held liberal views, Colby became a supporter of the nuclear freeze and of reductions in military spending. He practiced law and advised various bodies on intelligence matters.
During that period, he also wrote two books, both of which were memoirs of his professional life, combined with discussions of history and policy. One was titled Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA; the other, on Vietnam and his long involvement with American policy there, was called Lost Victory. In the latter book, Colby argued that the U.S.–South Vietnamese counterinsurgency campaign in Vietnam had succeeded by the early 1970s and that South Vietnam could have survived if the U.S. had continued to provide support after the Paris Accords. The topic remains open and controversial, but some recent scholarship, including by Lewis "Bob" Sorley, supports Colby's arguments.
Colby also lent his expertise and knowledge, along with Oleg Kalugin, to the Activision game Spycraft: The Great Game, which was released shortly before his death. Both Colby and Kalugin played themselves in the game.
Colby was a member of the National Coalition to Ban Handguns. His name appears on a note to Senator John Heinz dated July 5, 1989, as a "National Sponsor."
At the time of the Senate hearings to confirm his appointment, Colby was relentlessly grilled about The Family Jewels, a secret 693-page report ordered by Schlesinger, directed by Colby, and compiled by CIA's own Inspector General's Office. It dealt with what Colby calls "some mistakes," specifically CIA abuses ranging from assassination plans to dosing people with mind-control drugs to domestic spying.
Death
On April 27, 1996, Colby set out from his weekend home in Rock Point, Maryland, on a solo canoe trip.[16] His canoe was found the following day on a sandbar in the Wicomico River, a tributary of the Potomac, about 0.25 miles (0.40 km) from his home.[17] On May 6, Colby's body was found in a marshy riverbank lying face down not far from where his canoe was found.[16][18] After an autopsy, Maryland's Chief Medical Examiner John E. Smialek ruled his death to be accidental.[18] Smialek's report said that Colby was predisposed to having a heart attack or stroke from "severe calcified atherosclerosis" and that Colby likely "suffered a complication of this atherosclerosis which precipitated him into the cold water in a debilitated state and he succumbed to the effects of hypothermia and drowned."[19][20]
External videos
video icon William Colby Memorial Service, National Cathedral, May 14, 1996, C-SPAN
Colby's death triggered conspiracy theories that his death had been caused by foul play.[21][22]
In his 2011 documentary The Man Nobody Knew, Colby's son Carl suggested that his father suffered from guilt over his failings as a father to one of his daughters and so committed suicide.[21][22] Carl's step-mother and siblings, as well as Colby's biographer Randall Woods, criticized Carl's portrayal of Colby and rejected the allegation that the former CIA director killed himself and said that it was inconsistent with his character.[21][22]
Legacy
Colby was the subject of a biography, Lost Crusader, by John Prados, published in 2003. His son, Carl Colby, released a documentary on his father's professional and personal life, The Man Nobody Knew, in 2011.[7][23] In May 2013, Randall B. Woods, Distinguished Professor of History at the J. William Fulbright School at the University of Arkansas, published his biography of Colby, titled Shadow Warrior: William Egan Colby and the CIA.[24] Norwich University hosts an annual writers symposium named in his honor.[25]
His grandson, Elbridge A. Colby, served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Planning from 2017 to 2018 and is a co-founder of the Marathon Institute.[26]
Quotes
"We disbanded our intelligence [after both world wars] and then found we needed it. Let's not go through that again. Redirect it, reduce the amount of money spent, but let's not destroy it. Because you don't know 10 years out what you're going to face."[27]
"The more we know about each other the safer we all are." — Colby to Leonid Brezhnev[citation needed]
On walking alone unfollowed through Red Square in 1989 during the end of the Cold War: "That was my victory parade."[28]
References
Colby, William Egan (1940). Surrender – French Policy toward the Spanish Civil War (AB thesis). Princeton University.
"Justice in Georgia". The Nation. 123 (3184): 32–33. July 14, 1926.
Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA. 1978. pp. 26–28.
"Obituary: William Colby". The Daily Telegraph. May 7, 1996. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved September 7, 2007. Archived on personal website.
Elliott, John (November 11, 2011) Finding William Colby, The American Conservative
"Christine M. Colby to Marry". New York Times. November 16, 1986. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
Carl Colby (director) (September 2011). The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby (Motion picture). New York City: Act 4 Entertainment. Retrieved September 18, 2011.
Colby, William; Peter Forbath (1978). Honourable Men: My Life in the CIA (extract concerning Gladio stay-behind operations in Scandinavia). London: Hutchinson. ISBN 0-09-134820-X. OCLC 16424505.
"Interview with William Egan Colby, 1981." Archived December 21, 2010, at the Wayback Machine July 16, 1981. WGBH Media Library & Archives. Retrieved November 9, 2010.
William E. Colby & James McCargar (1989). Lost Victory: A Firsthand Account of America's Sixteen-Year Involvement in Vietnam. Contemporary Books. ISBN 9780809245093.
"For histories on the CIA's role in Vietnam and on the pacification effort more broadly, see foia.cia.gov". Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved August 21, 2015.
General David Petraeus, Lieutenant General James F. Amos, and Lieutenant Colonel John A. Nagl (2008). The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual. pp. 73–75.
Pilger, John, A Secret Country, Vintage Books, London, 1992, ISBN 9780099152316, pp. 185, 210–211, 219, 235.
For further information on Colby's leadership of the Intelligence Community, see cia.gov
William H. Colby (1973). "Security in an Open Society" (PDF). NSA. Archived from the original on September 18, 2013.
Weiner, Tim (May 7, 1996). "William E. Colby, 76, Head of C.I.A. in a Time of Upheaval". New York Times. Archived from the original on April 15, 2020. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
"Search for ex-spymaster continues". Rome News-Tribune. Vol. 153, no. 103. Rome, Georgia. AP. April 30, 1996. p. 1. Retrieved April 20, 2015.
"Autopsy: Colby collapsed before falling out of canoe". Sun-Journal. Vol. 104. Lewiston, Maine. AP. May 11, 1996. p. 5A. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
Colby, Jonathan E.; Colby, Elbridge A. (December 2, 2011). "A film by the son of CIA spymaster William Colby has divided the Colby clan". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
"Post Mortem Examination Report, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, State of Maryland, Report on Death of William E. Colby" (PDF). Huffington Post. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
Wilkie, Christina (December 5, 2011). "Former CIA Director's Death Raises Questions, Divides Family". The Huffington Post. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
Shapira, Ian (November 19, 2011). "A film by the son of CIA spymaster William Colby has divided the Colby clan". The Washington Post. Retrieved August 20, 2015.
"The Man Nobody Knew". Retrieved September 18, 2011.
Thomas, Evan (May 5, 2013). "The Gray Man". New York Times.
The William E. Colby Military Writers Symposium Accessed August 29, 2013
cite web|url= https://www.themarathoninitiative.org/elbridge-colby/%7Ctitle=[permanent dead link] Elbridge Colby|author= |access-date=June 24, 2022
"A Spymaster Assessment". Newsweek. CXVIII (23): 56. December 2, 1991.
Randall Woods (2013). Shadow Warrior: William Egan Colby and the CIA. p. 493.
Bibliography
Memoirs
Colby, William; Peter Forbath (1978). Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-0-671-22875-0.
Colby, William; James McCargar (1989). Lost Victory: A Firsthand Account of America's Sixteen-Year Involvement in Vietnam. Chicago: Contemporary Books. ISBN 0-8092-4509-4. OCLC 20014837.
Speeches
Colby, William (1975). Intelligence and the press: Address to the Associated Press annual meeting by William E. Colby on Monday, 7 April 1975. CIA.
Colby, William (1975). Foreign intelligence for America: Address to the Commonwealth Club of California by William E. Colby on Wednesday, 7 May 1975 in San Francisco, California. CIA (1975).
Colby, William (1975). Director of Central Intelligence press conference: CIA Headquarters auditorium, 19 November 1975. CIA.
Colby, William (1986). The increased role of modern intelligence: A public speech on February 21, 1986 in Taipei. AWI lectures. Asia and World Institute.
Sources
Biographies
Colby, Carl (2011). Colby: A Secret Life of a CIA Spymaster. Annapolis, Md: Naval Institute. ISBN 9781591141228. OCLC 751577970.
Ford, Harold P. (1993). William E. Colby as Director of Central Intelligence, 1973–1976. Washington, D.C.: Central Intelligence Agency. Declassified official CIA history of Colby's tenure, available at nsarchive.gwu.edu
Prados, John (2009). William Colby and the CIA: The Secret Wars of a Controversial Spymaster. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas. ISBN 9780700616909. OCLC 320185462.
Waller, Douglas C. (2015). Disciples: The World War II Spy Story of the Four OSS Men Who Later Led the CIA: Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, William Colby, William Casey. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781451693720. OCLC 911179767.
Woods, Randall B. (2013). Shadow Warrior: William Egan Colby and the CIA. Basic Books. ISBN 9780465021949. OCLC 812081249.
Other sources
"William Colby: Retrospect". Central Intelligence Agency. May 8, 2007. Archived from the original on June 13, 2007. Retrieved September 7, 2007. Evaluation of his tenure by CIA historian/official.
Sorley, Lewis (1999). A Better War: The Unexamined Victories and Final Tragedy of America's Last Years in Vietnam. Harcourt. ISBN 0-15-100266-5.
Garthoff, Douglas (2005). Directors of Central Intelligence as Leaders of the U.S. Intelligence Community, 1946–2005. Central Intelligence Agency. ISBN 1-929667-14-0.
"Randall B. Woods: William E. Colby and the CIA". April 29, 2011. Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved September 18, 2011. Talk on Colby's legacy by University of Arkansas Cold War historian Randall Woods.
Fallaci, Oriana (1977). Interview With History. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0-395-25223-7. Interview with William Colby
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Colby.
William E. Colby Papers at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University
Appearances on C-SPAN
Oral History Interviews with William Colby, from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library Archived 2001-11-26 at the Library of Congress Web Archives
Coroner's Report on William E. Colby's Death
OSS Operation RYPE / NORSO
National Coalition to Ban Handguns Letter to Sen. John Heinz Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
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Questioning Teachers and Institutional Authority: Interpretation of History (1997)
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922 – January 27, 2010)[1] was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist intellectual and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College,[2] and a political science professor at Boston University. Zinn wrote more than 20 books, including his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United States in 1980. In 2007, he published a version of it for younger readers, A Young People's History of the United States.[3]
Zinn described himself as "something of an anarchist, something of a socialist. Maybe a democratic socialist."[4][5] He wrote extensively about the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement and labor history of the United States. His memoir, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train (Beacon Press, 1994), was also the title of a 2004 documentary about Zinn's life and work. Zinn died of a heart attack in 2010, at the age of 87.[6]
Early life
Zinn was born to a Jewish immigrant family in Brooklyn, New York City, on August 24, 1922. His father, Eddie Zinn, born in Austria-Hungary, immigrated to the US with his brother Samuel before the outbreak of World War I. His mother, Jenny (Rabinowitz) Zinn,[7] emigrated from the Eastern Siberian city of Irkutsk. His parents first became acquainted as workers at the same factory.[8] During the Great Depression, his father worked as a ditch digger and window cleaner, and for a brief time, his parents ran a neighborhood candy store, barely earning a living. For many years, Zinn's father was in the waiters' union and worked as a waiter for weddings and bar mitzvahs.[8]
Both parents were factory workers with limited education when they met and married, and there were no books or magazines in the series of apartments where they raised their children. Zinn's parents introduced him to literature by sending 10 cents plus a coupon to the New York Post for each of the 20 volumes of Charles Dickens' collected works.[8] As a young man, Zinn made the acquaintance of several young Communists from his Brooklyn neighborhood. They invited him to a political rally being held in Times Square. Despite it being a peaceful rally, mounted police charged the marchers. Zinn was hit and knocked unconscious. This would have a profound effect on his political and social outlook.[8]
Howard Zinn studied creative writing at Thomas Jefferson High School in a special program established by principal and poet Elias Lieberman.[9]
Zinn initially opposed entry into World War II, influenced by his friends, by the results of the Nye Committee, and by his ongoing reading. However, these feelings shifted as he learned more about fascism and its rise in Europe. The book Sawdust Caesar had a particularly large impact through its depiction of Mussolini. After graduating from high school in 1940, Zinn took the Civil Service exam and became an apprentice shipfitter in the New York Navy Yard at the age of 18.[10]
Concerns about low wages and hazardous working conditions compelled Zinn and several other apprentices to form the Apprentice Association. At the time, apprentices were excluded from trade unions and thus had little bargaining power, to which the Apprentice Association was their answer.[8] The head organizers of the association, which included Zinn himself, would meet once a week outside of work to discuss strategy and read books that at the time were considered radical. Zinn was the Activities Director for the group. His time in this group would tremendously influence his political views and created for him an appreciation for unions.[11]
World War II
Eager to fight fascism, Zinn joined the United States Army Air Corps during World War II and became an officer. He was assigned as a bombardier in the 490th Bombardment Group,[12] bombing targets in Berlin, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary.[13] As bombardier, Zinn dropped napalm bombs in April 1945 on Royan, a seaside resort in western France.[14] The anti-war stance Zinn developed later was informed, in part, by his experiences.[15]
On a post-doctoral research mission nine years later, Zinn visited the resort near Bordeaux where he interviewed residents, reviewed municipal documents, and read wartime newspaper clippings at the local library. In 1966, Zinn returned to Royan after which he gave his fullest account of that research in his book, The Politics of History. On the ground, Zinn learned that the aerial bombing attacks in which he participated had killed more than a thousand French civilians as well as some German soldiers hiding near Royan to await the war's end, events that are described "in all accounts" he found as "une tragique erreur" that leveled a small but ancient city and "its population that was, at least officially, friend, not foe." In The Politics of History, Zinn described how the bombing was ordered—three weeks before the war in Europe ended—by military officials who were, in part, motivated more by the desire for their own career advancement than in legitimate military objectives. He quotes the official history of the US Army Air Forces' brief reference to the Eighth Air Force attack on Royan and also, in the same chapter, to the bombing of Plzeň in what was then Czechoslovakia. The official history stated that the Skoda works in Pilsen "received 500 well-placed tons", and that "because of a warning sent out ahead of time the workers were able to escape, except for five persons. "The Americans received a rapturous welcome when they liberated the city.[16]
Zinn wrote:
I recalled flying on that mission, too, as deputy lead bombardier, and that we did not aim specifically at the 'Skoda works' (which I would have noted, because it was the one target in Czechoslovakia I had read about) but dropped our bombs, without much precision, on the city of Pilsen. Two Czech citizens who lived in Pilsen at the time told me, recently, that several hundred people were killed in that raid (that is, Czechs)—not five.[17]
Zinn said his experience as a wartime bombardier, combined with his research into the reasons for, and effects of the bombing of Royan and Pilsen, sensitized him to the ethical dilemmas faced by GIs during wartime.[18] Zinn questioned the justifications for military operations that inflicted massive civilian casualties during the Allied bombing of cities such as Dresden, Royan, Tokyo, and Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II, Hanoi during the War in Vietnam, and Baghdad during the war in Iraq and the civilian casualties during bombings in Afghanistan during the war there. In his pamphlet, Hiroshima: Breaking the Silence[19] written in 1995, he laid out the case against targeting civilians with aerial bombing.
Six years later, he wrote:
Recall that in the midst of the Gulf War, the US military bombed an air raid shelter, killing 400 to 500 men, women, and children who were huddled to escape bombs. The claim was that it was a military target, housing a communications center, but reporters going through the ruins immediately afterward said there was no sign of anything like that. I suggest that the history of bombing—and no one has bombed more than this nation—is a history of endless atrocities, all calmly explained by deceptive and deadly language like "accident", "military target", and "collateral damage".[20]
Education
After World War II, Zinn attended New York University on the GI Bill, graduating with a BA in 1951. At Columbia University, he earned an MA (1952) and a PhD in history with a minor in political science (1958). His master's thesis examined the Colorado coal strikes of 1914.[9] His doctoral dissertation Fiorello LaGuardia in Congress was a study of Fiorello La Guardia's congressional career, and it depicted "the conscience of the twenties" as LaGuardia fought for public power, the right to strike, and the redistribution of wealth by taxation. "His specific legislative program," Zinn wrote, "was an astonishingly accurate preview of the New Deal." It was published by the Cornell University Press for the American Historical Association. Fiorello LaGuardia in Congress was nominated for the American Historical Association's Beveridge Prize as the best English-language book on American history.[21]
His professors at Columbia included Harry Carman, Henry Steele Commager, and David Donald.[9] But it was Columbia historian Richard Hofstadter's The American Political Tradition that made the most lasting impression. Zinn regularly included it in his lists of recommended readings, and, after Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, Zinn wrote, "If Richard Hofstadter were adding to his book The American Political Tradition, in which he found both 'conservative' and 'liberal' Presidents, both Democrats and Republicans, maintaining for dear life the two critical characteristics of the American system, nationalism and capitalism, Obama would fit the pattern."[22]
In 1960–61, Zinn was a post-doctoral fellow in East Asian Studies at Harvard University.
Career
Academic career
"We were not born critical of existing society. There was a moment in our lives (or a month, or a year) when certain facts appeared before us, startled us, and then caused us to question beliefs that were strongly fixed in our consciousness – embedded there by years of family prejudices, orthodox schooling, imbibing of newspapers, radio, and television. This would seem to lead to a simple conclusion: that we all have an enormous responsibility to bring to the attention of others information they do not have, which has the potential of causing them to rethink long-held ideas."[23]
— Howard Zinn, 2005
Zinn was professor of history at Spelman College in Atlanta from 1956 to 1963, and visiting professor at both the University of Paris and University of Bologna. At the end of the academic year in 1963, Zinn was fired from Spelman for insubordination.[24] His dismissal came from Albert Manley, the first African-American president of that college, who felt Zinn was radicalizing Spelman students.[25]
In 1964, he accepted a position at Boston University (BU), after writing two books and participating in the Civil Rights Movement in the South. His classes in civil liberties were among the most popular at the university with as many as 400 students subscribing each semester to the non-required class. A professor of political science, he taught at BU for 24 years and retired in 1988 at age 66.
"He had a deep sense of fairness and justice for the underdog. But he always kept his sense of humor. He was a happy warrior," said Caryl Rivers, journalism professor at BU. Rivers and Zinn were among a group of faculty members who in 1979 defended the right of the school's clerical workers to strike and were threatened with dismissal after refusing to cross a picket line.[26]
Zinn came to believe that the point of view expressed in traditional history books was often limited. Biographer Martin Duberman noted that when he was asked directly if he was a Marxist, Zinn replied, "Yes, I'm something of a Marxist." He especially was influenced by the liberating vision of the young Marx in overcoming alienation, and disliked what he perceived to be Marx's later dogmatism. In later life he moved more toward anarchism.[27]
He wrote a history text, A People's History of the United States, to provide other perspectives on American history. The book depicts the struggles of Native Americans against European and U.S. conquest and expansion, slaves against slavery, unionists and other workers against capitalists, women against patriarchy, and African-Americans for civil rights. The book was a finalist for the National Book Award in 1981.[28]
External videos
video icon Presentation by Zinn on A People's History of the United States, July 24, 1995, C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Zinn on A People's History of the United States, November 10, 1998, C-SPAN
video icon Presentation by Zinn on A People's History of the United States, October 16, 1999, C-SPAN
video icon Booknotes interview with Zinn on A People's History of the United States, March 12, 2000, C-SPAN
In the years since the first publication of A People's History in 1980, it has been used as an alternative to standard textbooks in many college history courses, and it is one of the most widely known examples of critical pedagogy. The New York Times Book Review stated in 2006 that the book "routinely sells more than 100,000 copies a year."[29]
In 2004, Zinn published Voices of a People's History of the United States with Anthony Arnove. Voices is a sourcebook of speeches, articles, essays, poetry and song lyrics by the people themselves whose stories are told in A People's History.
In 2008, the Zinn Education Project was launched to support educators using A People's History of the United States as a source for middle and high school history. The project was started when William Holtzman, a former student of Zinn who wanted to bring Zinn's lessons to students around the country, provided the financial backing to allow two other organizations, Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change to coordinate the project. The project hosts a website with hundreds of free downloadable lesson plans to complement A People's History of the United States.[30]
The People Speak, released in 2010, is a documentary movie based on A People's History of the United States and inspired by the lives of ordinary people who fought back against oppressive conditions over the course of the history of the United States. The film, narrated by Zinn, includes performances by Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Eddie Vedder, Viggo Mortensen, Josh Brolin, Danny Glover, Marisa Tomei, Don Cheadle, and Sandra Oh.[31][32][33]
Civil rights movement
From 1956 through 1963, Zinn chaired the Department of History and Social Sciences at Spelman College. He participated in the Civil Rights Movement and lobbied with historian August Meier[34] "to end the practice of the Southern Historical Association of holding meetings at segregated hotels."[35]
While at Spelman, Zinn served as an adviser to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and wrote about sit-ins and other actions by SNCC for The Nation and Harper's.[36][37] In 1964, Beacon Press published his book SNCC: The New Abolitionists.[38]
In 1964 Zinn, with the SNCC, began developing an educational program so that the 200 volunteer SNCC civil rights workers in the South, many of whom were college dropouts, could continue with their civil rights work and at the same time be involved in an educational system. Up until then many of the volunteers had been dropping out of school so they could continue their work with SNCC. Other volunteers had not spent much time in college. The program had been endorsed by the SNCC in December 1963 and was envisioned by Zinn as having a curriculum that ranged from novels to books about "major currents" in 20th-century world history, such as fascism, communism, and anti-colonial movements. This occurred while Zinn was in Boston.[39]
Zinn also attended an assortment of SNCC meetings in 1964, traveling back and forth from Boston. One of those trips was to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in January 1964 to participate in a SNCC voter registration drive. The local newspaper, the Hattiesburg American, described the SNCC volunteers in town for the voter registration drive as "outside agitators" and told local blacks "to ignore whatever goes on, and interfere in no way..." At a mass meeting held during the visit to Hattiesburg, Zinn and another SNCC representative, Ella Baker, emphasized the risks that went along with their efforts, a subject probably in their minds since a well-known civil rights activist, Medgar Evers, had been murdered getting out of his car in the driveway of his home in Jackson, Mississippi, only six months earlier. Evers had been the state field secretary for the NAACP.[39]
Zinn was also involved in what became known as Freedom Summer in Mississippi in the summer of 1964. Freedom Summer involved bringing 1,000 college students to Mississippi to work for the summer in various roles as civil rights activists. Part of the program involved organizing "Freedom Schools". Zinn's involvement included helping to develop the curriculum for the Freedom Schools. He was also concerned that bringing 1,000 college students to Mississippi to work as civil rights activists could lead to violence and killings. As a consequence, Zinn recommended approaching Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett and President Lyndon Johnson to request protection for the young civil rights volunteers. Protection was not forthcoming. Planning for the summer went forward under the umbrella of the SNCC, the Congress of Racial Equality ("CORE") and the Council of Federated Organizations ("COFO").[40]
On June 20, 1964, just as civil rights activists were beginning to arrive in Mississippi, CORE activists James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were en route to investigate the burning of Mount Zion Methodist Church in Neshoba County when two carloads of KKK members led by deputy sheriff Cecil Price abducted and murdered them.[40] Two months later, after their bodies were located, Zinn and other representatives of the SNCC attended a memorial service for the three at the ruins of Mount Zion Methodist Church.[41]
Zinn collaborated with historian Staughton Lynd mentoring student activists, among them Alice Walker,[42] who would later write The Color Purple, and Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Children's Defense Fund. Edelman identified Zinn as a major influence in her life and, in the same journal article, tells of his accompanying students to a sit-in at the segregated white section of the Georgia state legislature.[43] Zinn also co-wrote a column in The Boston Globe with fellow activist Eric Mann, "Left Field Stands".[44]
Although Zinn was a tenured professor, he was dismissed in June 1963 after siding with students in the struggle against segregation. As Zinn described[45] in The Nation, though Spelman administrators prided themselves for turning out refined "young ladies", its students were likely to be found on the picket line, or in jail for participating in the greater effort to break down segregation in public places in Atlanta. Zinn's years at Spelman are recounted in his autobiography You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times. His seven years at Spelman College, Zinn said, "are probably the most interesting, exciting, most educational years for me. I learned more from my students than my students learned from me."[46]
While living in Georgia, Zinn wrote that he observed 30 violations of the First and Fourteenth amendments to the United States Constitution in Albany, Georgia, including the rights to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and equal protection under the law. In an article on the civil rights movement in Albany, Zinn described the people who participated in the Freedom Rides to end segregation, and the reluctance of President John F. Kennedy to enforce the law.[47] Zinn said that the Justice Department under Robert F. Kennedy and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, headed by J. Edgar Hoover, did little or nothing to stop the segregationists from brutalizing civil rights workers.[48]
Zinn wrote about the struggle for civil rights, as both participant and historian.[49] His second book, The Southern Mystique,[50] was published in 1964, the same year as his SNCC: The New Abolitionists in which he describes how the sit-ins against segregation were initiated by students and, in that sense, were independent of the efforts of the older, more established civil rights organizations.
In 2005, forty-one years after he was sacked from Spelman, Zinn returned to the college, where he was given an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters. He delivered the commencement address,[51][52] titled "Against Discouragement", and said that "the lesson of that history is that you must not despair, that if you are right, and you persist, things will change. The government may try to deceive the people, and the newspapers and television may do the same, but the truth has a way of coming out. The truth has a power greater than a hundred lies."[53]
Anti-war efforts
Vietnam
Zinn wrote one of the earliest books calling for the U.S. withdrawal from its war in Vietnam. Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal was published by Beacon Press in 1967 based on his articles in Commonweal, The Nation, and Ramparts. In the opinion of Noam Chomsky, The Logic of Withdrawal was Zinn's most important book:
"He was the first person to say—loudly, publicly, very persuasively—that this simply has to stop; we should get out, period, no conditions; we have no right to be there; it's an act of aggression; pull out. It was so surprising at the time that there wasn't even a review of the book. In fact, he asked me if I would review it in Ramparts just so that people would know about the book."[54]
Zinn's diplomatic visit to Hanoi with Reverend Daniel Berrigan, during the Tet Offensive in January 1968, resulted in the return of three American airmen, the first American POWs released by the North Vietnamese since the U.S. bombing of that nation had begun. The event was widely reported in the news media and discussed in a variety of books including Who Spoke Up? American Protest Against the War in Vietnam 1963–1975 by Nancy Zaroulis and Gerald Sullivan.[55] Zinn and the Berrigan brothers, Dan and Philip, remained friends and allies over the years.
Also in January 1968, he signed the "Writers and Editors War Tax Protest" pledge, vowing to refuse tax payments in protest against the war.[56]
In December 1969, radical historians tried unsuccessfully to persuade the American Historical Association to pass an anti-Vietnam War resolution. "A debacle unfolded as Harvard historian (and AHA president in 1968) John Fairbank literally wrestled the microphone from Zinn's hands."[57]
Daniel Ellsberg, a former RAND consultant who had secretly copied The Pentagon Papers, which described the history of the United States' military involvement in Southeast Asia, gave a copy to Howard and Roslyn Zinn.[58] Along with Noam Chomsky, Zinn edited and annotated the copy of The Pentagon Papers that Senator Mike Gravel read into the Congressional Record and that was subsequently published by Beacon Press.
Announced on August 17[59] and published on October 10, 1971, this four-volume, relatively expensive set[59] became the "Senator Gravel Edition", which studies from Cornell University and the Annenberg Center for Communication have labeled as the most complete edition of the Pentagon Papers to be published.[60][61] The "Gravel Edition" was edited and annotated by Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, and included an additional volume of analytical articles on the origins and progress of the war, also edited by Chomsky and Zinn.[61]
Zinn testified as an expert witness at Ellsberg's criminal trial for theft, conspiracy, and espionage in connection with the publication of the Pentagon Papers by The New York Times. Defense attorneys asked Zinn to explain to the jury the history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam from World War II through 1963. Zinn discussed that history for several hours, and later reflected on his time before the jury.
I explained there was nothing in the papers of military significance that could be used to harm the defense of the United States, that the information in them was simply embarrassing to our government because what was revealed, in the government's own interoffice memos, was how it had lied to the American public. ... The secrets disclosed in the Pentagon Papers might embarrass politicians, might hurt the profits of corporations wanting tin, rubber, oil, in far-off places. But this was not the same as hurting the nation, the people.[62]
Most of the jurors later said that they voted for acquittal. However, the federal judge who presided over the case dismissed it on grounds it had been tainted by the Nixon administration's burglary of the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist.
Zinn's testimony on the motivation for government secrecy was confirmed in 1989 by Erwin Griswold, who as U.S. solicitor general during the Nixon administration sued The New York Times in the Pentagon Papers case in 1971 to stop publication.[63] Griswold persuaded three Supreme Court justices to vote to stop The New York Times from continuing to publish the Pentagon Papers, an order known as "prior restraint" that has been held to be illegal under the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The papers were simultaneously published in The Washington Post, effectively nullifying the effect of the prior restraint order. In 1989, Griswold admitted there had been no national security damage resulting from publication.[63] In a column in The Washington Post, Griswold wrote: "It quickly becomes apparent to any person who has considerable experience with classified material that there is massive over-classification and that the principal concern of the classifiers is not with national security, but with governmental embarrassment of one sort or another."
Zinn supported the G.I. anti-war movement during the U.S. war in Vietnam. In the 2001 film Unfinished Symphony: Democracy and Dissent, Zinn provides a historical context for the 1971 anti-war march by Vietnam Veterans against the War. The marchers traveled from Bunker Hill near Boston to Lexington, Massachusetts, "which retraced Paul Revere's ride of 1775 and ended in the massive arrest of 410 veterans and civilians by the Lexington police." The film depicts "scenes from the 1971 Winter Soldier hearings,[64] during which former G.I.s testified about "atrocities" they either participated in or said they had witnessed committed by U.S. forces in Vietnam.[65] Zinn also took part in the 1971 May Day protests (with among others Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg).[66][67]
In later years, Zinn was an adviser to the Disarm Education Fund.[68]
Iraq
Howard Zinn speaking at Marlboro College February 2004
Zinn opposed the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq and wrote several books about it. In an interview with The Brooklyn Rail he said,
We certainly should not be initiating a war, as it's not a clear and present danger to the United States, or in fact, to anyone around it. If it were, then the states around Iraq would be calling for a war on it. The Arab states around Iraq are opposed to the war, and if anyone's in danger from Iraq, they are. At the same time, the U.S. is violating the U.N. charter by initiating a war on Iraq. Bush made a big deal about the number of resolutions Iraq has violated—and it's true, Iraq has not abided by the resolutions of the Security Council. But it's not the first nation to violate Security Council resolutions. Israel has violated Security Council resolutions every year since 1967. Now, however, the U.S. is violating a fundamental principle of the U.N. Charter, which is that nations can't initiate a war—they can only do so after being attacked. And Iraq has not attacked us.[69]
He asserted that the U.S. would end Gulf War II when resistance within the military increased in the same way resistance within the military contributed to ending the U.S. war in Vietnam. Zinn compared the demand by a growing number of contemporary U.S. military families to end the war in Iraq to parallel demands "in the Confederacy in the Civil War, when the wives of soldiers rioted because their husbands were dying and the plantation owners were profiting from the sale of cotton, refusing to grow grains for civilians to eat."[70]
Zinn believed that U.S. President George W. Bush and followers of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, who was personally responsible for beheadings and numerous attacks designed to cause civil war in Iraq, should be considered moral equivalents.[71]
Jean-Christophe Agnew, Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University, told the Yale Daily News in May 2007 that Zinn's historical work is "highly influential and widely used".[72] He observed that it is not unusual for prominent professors such as Zinn to weigh in on current events, citing a resolution opposing the war in Iraq that was recently ratified by the American Historical Association.[73] Agnew added: "In these moments of crisis, when the country is split—so historians are split."[74]
Socialism
Zinn described himself as "something of an anarchist, something of a socialist. Maybe a democratic socialist."[4][5] He suggested looking at socialism in its full historical context as a popular, positive idea that got a bad name from its association with Soviet Communism. In Madison, Wisconsin, in 2009, Zinn said:
Let's talk about socialism. I think it's very important to bring back the idea of socialism into the national discussion to where it was at the turn of the [last] century before the Soviet Union gave it a bad name. Socialism had a good name in this country. Socialism had Eugene Debs. It had Clarence Darrow. It had Mother Jones. It had Emma Goldman. It had several million people reading socialist newspapers around the country. Socialism basically said, hey, let's have a kinder, gentler society. Let's share things. Let's have an economic system that produces things not because they're profitable for some corporation, but produces things that people need. People should not be retreating from the word socialism because you have to go beyond capitalism.[75]
FBI files
Occupy Oakland, November 12, 2011, Howard Zinn quotation
On July 30, 2010, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request resulted in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) releasing a file with 423 pages of information on Howard Zinn's life and activities. During the height of McCarthyism in 1949, the FBI first opened a domestic security investigation on Zinn (FBI File # 100-360217), based on Zinn's activities in what the agency considered to be communist front groups, such as the American Labor Party,[76] and informant reports that Zinn was an active member of the Communist Party of the United States (CPUSA).[77] Zinn denied ever being a member and said that he had participated in the activities of various organizations which might be considered Communist fronts, but that his participation was motivated by his belief that in this country people had the right to believe, think, and act according to their own ideals.[77] According to journalist Chris Hedges, Zinn "steadfastly refused to cooperate in the anti-communist witchhunts in the 1950s."[78]
Later in the 1960s, as a result of Zinn's campaigning against the Vietnam War and his communication with Martin Luther King Jr., the FBI designated him a high security risk to the country by adding him to the Security Index, a list of American citizens who could be summarily arrested if a state of emergency were to be declared.[77][79] The FBI memos also show that they were concerned with Zinn's repeated criticism of the FBI for failing to protect black people against white mob violence. Zinn's daughter said she was not surprised by the files: "He always knew they had a file on him".[77]
Personal life and death
Zinn at Pathfinder Bookstore, Los Angeles, August 2000
Zinn married Roslyn Shechter in 1944. They remained married until her death in 2008. They had a daughter, Myla, and a son, Jeff. Myla is the wife of mindfulness instructor Jon Kabat-Zinn.[80]
Zinn was swimming in a hotel pool when he died of an apparent heart attack[81] in Santa Monica, California, on January 27, 2010, at the age of 87. He had been scheduled to speak at Crossroads School and Santa Monica Museum of Art for an event titled "A Collection of Ideas... the People Speak."[82]
In one of his last interviews,[83] Zinn stated that he would like to be remembered "for introducing a different way of thinking about the world, about war, about human rights, about equality," and
for getting more people to realize that the power which rests so far in the hands of people with wealth and guns, that the power ultimately rests in people themselves and that they can use it. At certain points in history, they have used it. Black people in the South used it. People in the women's movement used it. People in the anti-war movement used it. People in other countries who have overthrown tyrannies have used it.
He said he wanted to be known as "somebody who gave people a feeling of hope and power that they didn't have before."[84]
Notable recognition
2008 Howard Zinn was selected as a special senior advisor to Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, the president of the United Nations General Assembly 63rd session.
Established by a former Boston University student of Zinn's and two nonprofit organizations (Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change) while he was alive, the Zinn Education Project is Howard Zinn's legacy to middle- and high-school teachers and their students.[30] The project offers classroom teachers free lessons based on A People's History of the United States and like-minded history texts.
Awards
"I can't think of anyone who had such a powerful and benign influence. His historical work changed the way millions of people saw the past. The happy thing about Howard was that in the last years he could gain satisfaction that his contributions were so impressive and recognized."[6]
— Noam Chomsky
In 1991 the Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Social Justice in Pittsburgh awarded Zinn the Thomas Merton Award for his activism and work on national and international issues that transform our world.[85] For his leadership in the Peace Movement, Zinn received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award in 1996.[86] In 1998 he received the Eugene V. Debs Award,[87] the Firecracker Alternative Book Award in the Politics category for The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy,[88] and the Lannan Literary Award for nonfiction.[89] The following year he won the Upton Sinclair Award, which honors those whose work illustrates an abiding commitment to social justice and equality.[90]
In 2003, Zinn was awarded the Prix des Amis du Monde diplomatique for the French version of his seminal work, Une histoire populaire des Etats-Unis.[91]
On October 5, 2006, Zinn received the Haven's Center Award for Lifetime Contribution to Critical Scholarship in Madison, Wisconsin.[92]
Reception
In July 2013, the Associated Press revealed that Mitch Daniels, when he was the sitting Republican Governor of Indiana, asked for assurance from his education advisors that Zinn's works were not taught in K–12 public schools in the state.[93] The AP had gained access to Daniels' emails under a Freedom of Information Act request. Daniels also wanted a "cleanup" of K–12 professional development courses to eliminate "propaganda and highlight (if there is any) the more useful offerings."[94] In one of the emails, Daniels expressed contempt for Zinn upon his death:[95]
This terrible anti-American academic has finally passed away...The obits and commentaries mentioned his book, A People's History of the United States, is the 'textbook of choice in high schools and colleges around the country.' It is a truly execrable, anti-factual piece of disinformation that misstates American history on every page. Can someone assure me that it is not in use anywhere in Indiana? If it is, how do we get rid of it before more young people are force-fed a totally false version of our history?
At the time the emails were released, Daniels was serving as the president of Purdue University. In response, 90 Purdue professors issued an open letter expressing their concern.[96][97][98][99] Because of Daniels' attempt to remove Zinn's book, the former governor was accused of censorship, to which Daniels responded by saying that his views were misrepresented, and that if Zinn were alive and a member of the Purdue faculty, he would defend his free speech rights and right to publish. But he said that would not give Zinn an "entitlement to have that work foisted on school children in public schools."[100]
Stanford education professor Sam Wineburg has criticized Zinn's research. Wineburg acknowledged that A People's History of the United States was an important contribution for overlooked alternative perspectives, but criticised the book's coverage of the mid-thirties to the Cold War. According to reviewer David Plotnikoff from Stanford, Wineburg shows that "A People's History perpetrates the same errors of historical practice as the tomes it aimed to correct", for "Zinn's desire to cast a light on what he saw as historic injustice was a crusade built on secondary sources of questionable provenance, omission of exculpatory evidence, leading questions and shaky connections between evidence and conclusions".[101][102]
Daniel J. Flynn, an author and columnist at the conservative The American Spectator, wrote that Zinn's history was biased.[103] Michael Kazin, professor at Georgetown University and co-editor of the leftist magazine Dissent,, praised Zinn's A People's History of the United States for its dramatic condemnation of the exploitation of the masses by an elite few, and for its lavish use of quotes from social rebels and revolutionaries, though he describes it as somewhat simplified.[104] Kazin has also provided criticism saying "A People's History is bad history, albeit gilded with virtuous intentions. Zinn reduces the past to a Manichean fable."[105]
Mary Grabar, a resident fellow at the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, accused Zinn of plagiarizing a polemic by novelist and anti-Vietnam War activist Hans Koning in The People's History, and editing Koning's narrative to remove what Grabar said was the "devout Catholic Columbus’s concern for the natives".[106][107]
In early 2017, lawmaker Kim Hendren attempted to ban books written by Zinn from Arkansas public schools.[108][109]
Bibliography
Author
LaGuardia in Congress (1959; based on his 1958 Ph.D. dissertation Fiorello LaGuardia in Congress) OCLC 642325734.
The Southern Mystique (1962) OCLC 423360.
SNCC: The New Abolitionists (1964) OCLC 466264063.
New Deal Thought (editor) (1965) OCLC 422649795.
Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal (1967) OCLC 411235.
Disobedience and Democracy: Nine Fallacies on Law and Order (1968, re-issued 2002) ISBN 978-0-89608-675-3.
The Politics of History (1970) (2nd edition 1990) ISBN 978-0-252-06122-6.
The Pentagon Papers Senator Gravel Edition. Vol. Five. Critical Essays. Boston. Beacon Press, 1972. 341p. plus 72p. of Index to Vol. I–IV of the Papers, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, editors. ISBN 978-0-8070-0522-4.
Justice in Everyday Life: The Way It Really Works (Editor) (1974) ISBN 978-0-688-00284-8.
Justice? Eyewitness Accounts (1977) ISBN 978-0-8070-4479-7.
— (2009). A People's History of the United States: 1492-present. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0060528423. LCCN 2002032895. OCLC 699879349. OL 3563811M. Retrieved 8 July 2022 – via Internet Archive.
See also A People's History of the United States
Klein, Maxine; Sargent, Lydia; — (1986). Playbook. South End Press. ISBN 978-0896083097. LCCN 86006754. OCLC 13116400. OL 2713846M.
Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1991) ISBN 978-0-06-092108-8.[110]
A People's History of the United States: The Civil War to the Present Kathy Emery and Ellen Reeves, Howard Zinn (2003 teaching edition) Vol. I: ISBN 978-1-56584-724-8. Vol II: ISBN 978-1-56584-725-5.
Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian (1993) ISBN 978-1-56751-013-3.
You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times (autobiography)(1994) ISBN 978-0-8070-7127-4
A People's History of the United States: The Wall Charts by Howard Zinn and George Kirschner (1995) ISBN 978-1-56584-171-0.
Hiroshima: Breaking the Silence (pamphlet, 1995) ISBN 978-1-884519-14-7.
The Zinn Reader: Writings on Disobedience and Democracy (1997) ISBN 978-1-888363-54-8; 2nd edition (2009) ISBN 978-1-58322-870-8.
The Cold War & the University: Toward an Intellectual History of the Postwar Years (Noam Chomsky (Editor) Authors: Ira Katznelson, R. C. Lewontin, David Montgomery, Laura Nader, Richard Ohmann,[111] Ray Siever, Immanuel Wallerstein, Howard Zinn (1997) ISBN 978-1-56584-005-8.
Marx in Soho: A Play on History (1999) ISBN 978-0-89608-593-0.
The Future of History: Interviews With David Barsamian (1999) ISBN 978-1-56751-157-4.
Howard Zinn on War (2000) ISBN 978-1-58322-049-8.
Howard Zinn on History (2000) ISBN 978-1-58322-048-1.
La Otra Historia De Los Estados Unidos (2000) ISBN 978-1-58322-054-2.
Three Strikes: Miners, Musicians, Salesgirls, and the Fighting Spirit of Labor's Last Century (Dana Frank, Robin Kelley, and Howard Zinn) (2002) ISBN 978-0-8070-5013-2.
Terrorism and War (2002) ISBN 978-1-58322-493-9. (interviews, Anthony Arnove (Ed.))
The Power of Nonviolence: Writings by Advocates of Peace Editor (2002) ISBN 978-0-8070-1407-3.
Emma: A Play in Two Acts About Emma Goldman, American Anarchist (2002) ISBN 978-0-89608-664-7.
Artists in Times of War (2003) ISBN 978-1-58322-602-5.
The 20th century: A People's History (2003) ISBN 978-0-06-053034-1.
A People's History of the United States: Teaching Edition Abridged (2003 updated) ISBN 978-1-56584-826-9.
Passionate Declarations: Essays on War and Justice (2003) ISBN 978-0-06-055767-6.
Iraq Under Siege, The Deadly Impact of Sanctions and War, co-author (2003)
Howard Zinn On Democratic Education Donaldo Macedo, Editor (2004) ISBN 978-1-59451-054-0.
The People Speak: American Voices, Some Famous, Some Little Known (2004) ISBN 978-0-06-057826-8.
Voices of a People's History of the United States (with Anthony Arnove, 2004) ISBN 978-1-58322-647-6; 2nd edition (2009) ISBN 978-1-58322-916-3.
A People's History of the Civil War: Struggles for the Meaning of Freedom by David Williams, Howard Zinn (Series Editor) (2005) ISBN 978-1-59558-018-4.
A Power Governments Cannot Suppress (2006) ISBN 978-0-87286-475-7.
Original Zinn: Conversations on History and Politics (2006) Howard Zinn and David Barsamian.
A People's History of American Empire (2008) by Howard Zinn, Mike Konopacki and Paul Buhle. ISBN 978-0-8050-8744-4.
A Young People's History of the United States, adapted from the original text by Rebecca Stefoff; illustrated and updated through 2006, with new introduction and afterword by Howard Zinn; two volumes, Seven Stories Press, New York, 2007.
Vol. 1: Columbus to the Spanish–American War. ISBN 978-1-58322-759-6.
Vol. 2: Class Struggle to the War on Terror. ISBN 978-1-58322-760-2.
One-volume edition (2009) ISBN 978-1-58322-869-2.
The Bomb (City Lights Publishers, 2010) ISBN 978-0-87286-509-9.
The Historic Unfulfilled Promise (City Lights Publishers, 2012) ISBN 978-0-87286-555-6.
Howard Zinn Speaks: Collected Speeches 1963-2009 (Haymarket Books, 2012) ISBN 978-1-60846-259-9.
Truth Has a Power of Its Own: Conversations About A People's History by Howard Zinn and Ray Suarez (The New Press, 2019) ISBN 978-1-62097-517-6.
Contributor
Ars Americana Ars Politica: Partisan Expression in Contemporary American Literature and Culture. by Peter Swirski (2010) ISBN 978-0-7735-3766-8.
Admirable Radical: Staughton Lynd and Cold War Dissent, 1945–1970 (2010), Kent State University Press by Carl Mirra ISBN 978-1-60635-051-5.
A Gigantic Mistake by Mickey Z (2004) ISBN 978-1-930997-97-4.
A People's History of the Supreme Court by Peter H. Irons (2000) ISBN 978-0-14-029201-5.
A Political Dynasty In North Idaho, 1933–1967 by Randall Doyle (2004) ISBN 978-0-7618-2843-3.
American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions Under the Espionage and Sedition Acts by Stephen M. Kohn (1994) ISBN 978-0-275-94415-5.
American Power and the New Mandarins by Noam Chomsky (2002) ISBN 978-1-56584-775-0.
Broken Promises Of America: At Home And Abroad, Past And Present: An Encyclopedia For Our Times by (Douglas F. Dowd (2004) ISBN 978-1-56751-313-4.
Deserter From Death: Dispatches From Western Europe 1950–2000 by Daniel Singer (2005) ISBN 978-1-56025-642-7.
Ecocide of Native America: Environmental Destruction of Indian Lands and Peoples by Donald Grinde, Bruce Johansen (1994) ISBN 978-0-940666-52-8.
Eugene V. Debs Reader: Socialism and the Class Struggle by William A. Pelz (2000) ISBN 978-0-9704669-0-7.
From a Native Son: Selected Essays in Indigenism, 1985–1995 by Ward Churchill (1996) ISBN 978-0-89608-553-4.
Green Parrots: A War Surgeon's Diary by Gino Strada (2005) ISBN 978-88-8158-420-8.
Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear And The Selling Of American Empire by Sut Jhally editor, Jeremy Earp editor (2004) ISBN 978-1-56656-581-3.
If You're Not a Terrorist...Then Stop Asking Questions! by Micah Ian Wright (2004) ISBN 978-1-58322-626-1.
Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal by Anthony Arnove (2006) ISBN 978-1-59558-079-5.
Impeach the President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney Dennis Loo (Editor), Peter Phillips (Editor), Seven Stories Press: 2006 ISBN 978-1-58322-743-5.
Life of an Anarchist: The Alexander Berkman Reader by Alexander Berkman Gene Fellner, editor (2004) ISBN 978-1-58322-662-9.
Long Shadows: Veterans' Paths to Peace by David Giffey editor (2006) ISBN 978-1-891859-64-9.
Masters of War: Latin America and United States Aggression from the Cuban Revolution Through the Clinton Years by Clara Nieto, Chris Brandt (trans) (2003) ISBN 978-1-58322-545-5.
Peace Signs: The Anti-War Movement Illustrated by James Mann, editor (2004) ISBN 978-3-283-00487-3.
Prayer for the Morning Headlines: On the Sanctity of Life and Death by Daniel Berrigan (poetry) and Adrianna Amari (photography) (2007) ISBN 978-1-934074-16-9.
Silencing Political Dissent: How Post-9-11 Anti-terrorism Measures Threaten Our Civil Liberties by Nancy Chang, Center for Constitutional Rights (2002) ISBN 978-1-58322-494-6.
Soldiers In Revolt: GI Resistance During The Vietnam War by David Cortright (2005) ISBN 978-1-931859-27-1.
Sold to the Highest Bidder: The Presidency from Dwight D. Eisenhower to George W. Bush by Daniel M. Friedenberg (2002) ISBN 978-1-57392-923-3.
The Autobiography of Abbie Hoffman Intro by Norman Mailer, Afterword by HZ (2000) ISBN 978-1-56858-197-2.
The Case for Socialism by Alan Maass (2004) ISBN 978-1-931859-09-7.
The Forging of the American Empire: From the Revolution to Vietnam, a History of U.S. Imperialism by Sidney Lens (2003) ISBN 978-0-7453-2101-1.
The Higher Law: Thoreau on Civil Disobedience and Reform by Henry David Thoreau, Wendell Glick, editor (2004) ISBN 978-0-691-11876-5.
The Iron Heel by Jack London (1971) ISBN 978-0-14-303971-6.
The Sixties Experience: Hard Lessons about Modern America by Edward P. Morgan (1992) ISBN 978-1-56639-014-9.
You Back the Attack, We'll Bomb Who We Want by Micah Ian Wright (2003) ISBN 978-1-58322-584-4.
A People's History of the American Revolution by Ray Raphael (2002) ISBN 978-0-06-000440-8. Howard Zinn Foreword for New Press People's History Series.
Recordings
A People's History of the United States (1999)
Artists in the Time of War (2002)
Heroes & Martyrs: Emma Goldman, Sacco & Vanzetti, and the Revolutionary Struggle (2000)
Stories Hollywood Never Tells (2000)
You Can't Blow Up A Social Relationship, CD including Zinn lectures and performances by rock band Resident Genius (Thick Records, 2005)[112]
Theatre
Emma (1976)
Daughter of Venus (1985)
Marx in Soho (1999)
See also
List of peace activists
References
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Howard Zinn on Democratic Socialism on YouTube
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"Backlist to the Future" by Rachel Donadio, July 30, 2006.
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Dreier, Peter (June 26, 2012). The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame. PublicAffairs. p. 326. ISBN 9781568586816. "Howard Zinn participated in the Civil Rights Movement and lobbied with historian August Meier."
Lewis, David Levering (September 2003). "In Memoriam: August A. Meier". American Historical Association.
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Duberman (2012). Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left. The New Press. pp. 101–102. ISBN 978-1-59558-840-1.
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Edelman, Marian Wright (2000). "Spelman College: A Safe Haven for a Young Black Woman". The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (27 (Spring, 2000)): 118–123. doi:10.2307/2679028. JSTOR 2679028.
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Lopez, Robert J. (January 28, 2010). "Zinn dies at 87; author of best-selling People's History of the United States: Activist collapsed in Santa Monica, where he was scheduled to deliver a lecture". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 9, 2010.
"Howard Zinn | Historian | Big Think". Archived from the original on February 1, 2010. Retrieved January 30, 2010.
"Howard Zinn: How I Want to Be Remembered". Commondreams.org. January 29, 2010. Archived from the original on September 22, 2013. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
"Past thomas merton awardees". Retrieved December 4, 2018.
"57th recipient of the INT'L COURAGE OF CONSCIENCE AWARD - Howard Zinn". Peaceabbey.org. May 2, 2015. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
"Eugene V Debs Foundation Member Awards". Archived from the original on May 5, 2008. Retrieved April 2, 2009.. Retrieved 2010-03-09.
"The Zinn Reader". Sevenstories.com. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
"Lannan Foundation – Howard Zinn". Lannan.org.
"Awards - Howard Zinn". Howardzinn.org. Retrieved December 4, 2018.
"Prix des Amis du Monde diplomatique 2003 – Les Amis du Monde diplomatique". Amis.monde-diplomatique.fr. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
"Zinn to receive Havens Center award (October 4, 2006)". News.wisc.edu. October 4, 2006.
Strauss, Valerie (July 17, 2013). "E-mails reveal censorship efforts by Mitch Daniels as Indiana governor". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 7, 2021.
LoBianco, Tom (September 15, 2013). "Mitch Daniels Sought To Censor Public Universities, Professors" (PDF). The Huffington Post. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Ohlheiser, Abby (July 16, 2013). "Former Governor, Now Purdue President, Wanted Howard Zinn Banned in Schools". Atlantic Wire. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Cohen, Robert; Sonia Murrow (August 5, 2013). "Who's Afraid of Radical History?". The Nation. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Franck, Mathew (July 23, 2013). "Mitch Daniels Can Count". First Things. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
LoBianco, Tom (July 22, 2013). "Purdue profs 'troubled' by Mitch Daniels' Zinn comments". News-sentinel.com. Archived from the original on August 3, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
"Censoring Howard Zinn: Former Indiana Gov. Tried to Remove 'A People's History' from State Schools". Democracy Now. July 22, 2013. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Mikaelian, Allen (September 1, 2013). "The Mitch Daniels Controversy". Perspectives on History: The Newsmagazine of the American Historical Association. Retrieved August 13, 2020.
Plotnikoff, David (December 20, 2012). "Zinn's influential history textbook has problems, says Stanford education expert". Stanford University News. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Wineburg, Sam. "Undue Certainty" (PDF). American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Flynn, Daniel J. (June 9, 2003). "Howard Zinn's Biased History". History News Network. George Mason University. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Kazin, Michael (Fall 2019). "Can Conservatives Write Good U.S. History?". Dissent Magazine. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
Kazin, Michael (February 9, 2010). "Howard Zinn's Disappointing History of the United States". History News Network. George Washington University. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Grabar, Mary (July 13, 2020). "Scholar disputes source of criticism of Columbus (Commentary)". Retrieved October 17, 2022.
Grabar 2020b.
"House Bill 1834- For An Act To Be Entitled An Act to Prohibit a Public School District or Open-Enrollment Public Charter School from Including in Its Curriculum or Course Materials for a Program of Study Books or Any Other Material Authored by or Concerning Howard Zinn; and for Other Purposes" (PDF). arkleg.state.ar.us. Arkansas State Legislature. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 9, 2022. Retrieved March 3, 2017.
"Bill introduced to ban Howard Zinn books from Arkansas public schools". March 2, 2017. Retrieved August 23, 2017.
Zinn, Howard (1990),"Declarations of independence: cross-examining American ideology", HarperCollins.
"Politics of Knowledge: Richard Ohmann". UPNE. January 21, 2010. Retrieved January 28, 2010.
"Howard Zinn, Resident Genius - You Can't Blow Up A Social Relationship". Discogs.com. Retrieved April 7, 2020.
Further reading
Duberman, Martin. Howard Zinn: A Life on the Left. (The New Press, 2012), {{ISBN|.
Ellis, Deb and Mueller, Denis. Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train. (film 2004)
FRF's Judith Mizrachy interviews Deb Ellis and Denis Mueller, directors of the film Howard Zinn: You can't be neutral on a moving train at the Wayback Machine (archived May 7, 2006). Retrieved 2010-03-09.
Grabar, Mary (2020b). Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation against America. Regnery Publishing. ISBN 9781684511525.
Greenberg, David. "Agit-Prof: Howard Zinn's influential mutilations of American history", The New Republic March 19, 2013
Joyce, Davis D. Howard Zinn: A Radical American Vision. (Prometheus Books, 2003).
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The Secret Plot to Blow Up Russia (2007)
Alexander Valterovich Litvinenko[a] (30 August 1962[2] or 4 December 1962[3] – 23 November 2006) was a British-naturalised Russian defector and former officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) who specialised in tackling organised crime.[1][4] A prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he advised British intelligence and coined the term "mafia state".[5]
In November 1998, Litvinenko and several other FSB officers publicly accused their superiors of ordering the assassination of the Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky. Litvinenko was arrested the following March on charges of exceeding the authority of his position. He was acquitted in November 1999 but re-arrested before the charges were again dismissed in 2000. He fled with his family to London and was granted asylum in the United Kingdom, where he worked as a journalist, writer and consultant for the British intelligence services.
During his time in Boston, Lincolnshire, Litvinenko wrote two books, Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within and Lubyanka Criminal Group, in which he accused the Russian secret services of staging the Russian apartment bombings in 1999 and other acts of terrorism in an effort to bring Vladimir Putin to power. He also accused Putin of ordering the assassination of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006.
On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill and was hospitalised after poisoning with polonium-210; he died from the poisoning on 23 November.[6] The events leading up to this are well documented, despite spawning numerous theories relating to his poisoning and death. A British murder investigation identified Andrey Lugovoy, a former member of Russia's Federal Protective Service (FSO), as the main suspect. Dmitry Kovtun was later named as a second suspect.[7] The United Kingdom demanded that Lugovoy be extradited; Russia denied the extradition as the Russian constitution prohibits the extradition of Russian citizens, leading to a straining of relations between Russia and the United Kingdom.[8]
After Litvinenko's death, his wife Marina, aided by biologist Alexander Goldfarb, pursued a vigorous campaign through the Litvinenko Justice Foundation. In October 2011, she won the right for an inquest into her husband's death to be conducted by a coroner in London; the inquest was repeatedly set back by issues relating to examinable evidence.[9] A public inquiry began on 27 January 2015,[10] and concluded in January 2016 that Litvinenko's murder was carried out by the two suspects and that they were "probably" acting under the direction of the FSB and with the approval of Putin and then FSB director Nikolai Patrushev.[11][12] In the 2021 case Carter v Russia, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Russia was responsible for his death and ordered the country to pay 100,000 euros in damages.[13][14][15][16][17]
Early life and career
Alexander Litvinenko was born in the Russian city of Voronezh in 1962.[18] After he graduated from a Nalchik secondary school in 1980, he was drafted into the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs as a Private. After a year of service, he matriculated in the Kirov Higher Command School in Vladikavkaz. In 1981, Litvinenko married Nataliya, an accountant, with whom he had a son, Alexander, and a daughter, Sonia. This marriage ended in divorce in 1994 and in the same year Litvinenko married Marina, a ballroom dancer and fitness instructor, with whom he had a son, Anatoly.[19]
After graduation in 1985, Litvinenko became a platoon commander in the Dzerzhinsky Division of the Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs. He was assigned to the 4th Company of 4th Regiment, where among his duties was the protection of valuable cargo while in transit.[2][20][21] In 1986, he became an informant when he was recruited by the MVD's KGB counterintelligence section and in 1988, he was officially transferred to the Third Chief Directorate of the KGB, Military Counter Intelligence.[20] Later that year, after studying for a year at the Novosibirsk Military Counter Intelligence School, he became an operational officer and served in KGB military counterintelligence until 1991.[20][22]
Career in Russian security services
In 1991, Litvinenko was promoted to the Central Staff of the Federal Counterintelligence Service, specialising in counter-terrorist activities and infiltration of organised crime. He was awarded the title of "MUR veteran" for operations conducted with the Moscow criminal investigation department, the MUR.[23] Litvinenko also saw active military service in many of the so-called "hot spots" of the former USSR and Russia.[24] During the First Chechen War, Litvinenko planted several FSB agents in Chechnya. Although he was often called a "Russian spy" by western press, throughout his career he was not an 'intelligence agent' and did not deal with secrets beyond information on operations against organised criminal groups.[20][25]
Litvinenko met Boris Berezovsky in 1994 when he took part in investigations into an assassination attempt on the oligarch. He later was responsible for the oligarch's security.[20] Litvinenko's employment under Berezovsky and other security services created a conflict of interest, but such practice is usually tolerated by the Russian state.[20]
In 1997, Litvinenko was promoted to the FSB Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups, with the title of senior operational officer and deputy head of the Seventh Section.[26][27]
Conflict with FSB leadership
During his work in the FSB, Litvinenko discovered numerous connections between top leadership of Russian law enforcement agencies and Russian mafia groups, such as the Solntsevo gang. He wrote a memorandum about this issue for Boris Yeltsin. Berezovsky arranged a meeting for him with FSB director Mikhail Barsukov and deputy director of Internal affairs Ovchinnikov to discuss the corruption problems;[28] however, this had no effect. Litvinenko gradually realized that the entire system was corrupt from the top to the bottom. He explained: "If your partner [cheated] you, or a creditor did not pay, or a supplier did not deliver— where did you turn to complain? [...] When force became a commodity, there was always demand for it. "Roofs" (krysha) appeared— people who sheltered and protected your business. First it was provided by the mob, then by police, and soon even our own guys realized what was what, and then the rivalry began among gangsters, cops, and the Agency for market share. As the police and the FSB became more competitive, they squeezed the gangs out of the market. However, in many cases competition gave way to cooperation, and the services became gangsters themselves."[28]
On 25 July 1998, Berezovsky introduced Litvinenko to Vladimir Putin. He said: "Go see Putin. Make yourself known. See what a great guy we have installed, with your help."[29] On the same day, Putin replaced Nikolay Kovalyov as the Director of the Federal Security Service, with help from Berezovsky.[29] Litvinenko reported to Putin on corruption in the FSB, but Putin was unimpressed.[29] Litvinenko said to his wife after the meeting: "I could see in his eyes that he hated me."[29] Litvinenko said that he was doing an investigation of Uzbek drug barons who received protection from the FSB, and Putin tried to stall the investigation to save his reputation.[30]
On 13 November 1998, Berezovsky wrote an open letter to Putin in Kommersant. He accused four senior officers of the Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups of ordering his assassination: Major-General Yevgeny Khokholkov, N. Stepanov, A. Kamyshnikov, and N. Yenin.[31]
Four days later, on 17 November, Litvinenko and four other officers appeared together in a press conference at the Russian news agency Interfax. All officers worked for both FSB in the Directorate of Analysis and Suppression of Criminal Groups.[20] They repeated the allegation made by Berezovsky.[20][32] The officers also said they were ordered to kill Mikhail Trepashkin who was also present at the press conference, and to kidnap a brother of the businessman Umar Dzhabrailov.[32] In 2007, Sergey Dorenko provided the Associated Press and The Wall Street Journal with a complete copy of an interview he conducted in April 1998 for ORT, a television station, with Litvinenko and his fellow employees. The interview, of which only excerpts were broadcast in 1998, shows the FSB officers, who were disguised in masks or dark glasses, claim that their bosses had ordered them to kill, kidnap or frame prominent Russian politicians and businesspeople.
After holding the press conference, Litvinenko was dismissed from the FSB.[citation needed] Later, in an interview with Yelena Tregubova, Putin said that he personally ordered the dismissal of Litvinenko, stating, "I fired Litvinenko and disbanded his unit ...because FSB officers should not stage press conferences. This is not their job. And they should not make internal scandals public."[33] Litvinenko also believed that Putin was behind his arrest. He said, "Putin had the power to decide whether to pass my file to the prosecutors or not. He always hated me. And there was a bonus for him: by throwing me to the wolves he distanced himself from Boris [Berezovsky] in the eyes of FSB's generals."[34]
Flight from Russia and asylum in the United Kingdom
In October 2000, in violation of an order not to leave Moscow, Litvinenko and his family travelled to Turkey, possibly via Ukraine.[35] While in Turkey, Litvinenko applied for asylum at the United States Embassy in Ankara, but his application was denied.[35] With the help of Alexander Goldfarb, Litvinenko bought air tickets for the Istanbul–London–Moscow flight,[36] and asked for political asylum at Heathrow Airport during the transit stop on 1 November 2000.[37] Political asylum was granted on 14 May 2001,[38] not because of his knowledge on intelligence matters, according to Litvinenko, but rather on humanitarian grounds.[20] While in London he became a journalist for Chechenpress and an author. He also joined Berezovsky in campaigning against Putin's government.[39] In October 2006, he became a naturalised British citizen with residence in Whitehaven.[40]
In 2002, Litvinenko was convicted in absentia in Russia and given a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence for charges of corruption.[41][42] According to Litvinenko's widow, Marina Litvinenko, her husband cooperated with the British security services, working as a consultant and helping the agencies to combat Russian organised crime in Europe.[5] During the public inquiry started in January 2015, it was confirmed that Litvinenko was recruited by MI6 to provide "useful information about senior Kremlin figures and their links with Russian organised crime", primarily related to Russian mafia activities in Spain.[43]
Shortly before his death, Litvinenko tipped off Spanish authorities on several organised crime bosses with links to Spain. During a meeting in May 2006, he allegedly provided security officials with information on the locations, roles, and activities of several "Russian" mafia figures with ties to Spain, including Zahkar Kalashov, Vitaly Izguilov and Tariel Oniani.[44]
Litvinenko allegedly converted to Islam in Britain and was rumoured to have told his father he had converted to Islam on his death bed. Litvinenko said his father commented about it: "It doesn't matter. At least you're not a communist."[45] Akhmed Zakayev, who was present during the conversation, later arranged for an Imam to recite appropriate Koranic verses in the hospital room at Litvinenkos request the day before his death.[46] Litvinenko also wished to be buried in Chechnya, since he was ashamed of Russia's actions there.[47]
This account has been strongly denied by close family and friends.[48] Visitors to Litvinenko's death bed included Boris Berezovsky and Litvinenko's father, Walter, who flew in from Moscow.
Mikhail Trepashkin said that in 2002 he had warned Litvinenko that an FSB unit was assigned to assassinate him.[49] In spite of this, Litvinenko often travelled overseas with no security arrangements, and freely mingled with the Russian community in the United Kingdom, and often received journalists at his home.[20]
Allegations
Litvinenko published a number of allegations about the Russian government, most of which are related to conducting or sponsoring domestic and foreign terrorism.
Support of terrorism worldwide by the KGB and FSB
Litvinenko stated that "all the bloodiest terrorists of the world" were connected to FSB-KGB, including Carlos "The Jackal" Ramírez, Yasser Arafat, Saddam Hussein, Abdullah Öcalan, Wadie Haddad of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, George Hawi who led the Communist Party of Lebanon, Ezekias Papaioannou from Cyprus, Sean Garland from Ireland, and many others. He said that all of them were trained, funded, and provided with weapons, explosives and counterfeit documents to carry out terrorist attacks worldwide and that each act of terrorism made by these people was carried out according to the task and under the rigid control of the KGB of the USSR.[50] Litvinenko said that "the center of global terrorism is not in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan or the Chechen Republic. The terrorism infection creeps away worldwide from the cabinets of the Lubyanka Square and the Kremlin".[51][52]
When asked in an interview who he thought the originator of the 2005 bombings in London was, Litvinenko responded saying,[50] "You know, I have spoken about it earlier and I shall say now, that I know only one organization, which has made terrorism the main tool of solving of political problems. It is the Russian special services."[53]
Litvinenko also commented on a new law that "Russia has the right to carry out preemptive strikes on militant bases abroad" and explained that these "preemptive strikes may involve anything except nuclear weapons." Litvinenko said, "You know who they mean when they say 'terrorist bases abroad'? They mean us, Zakayev and Boris and me."[33] He also said that "It was considered in our service that poison is an easier weapon than a pistol." He referred to a secret laboratory in Moscow that still continues development of deadly poisons, according to him.[54]
Armenian parliament shooting
Main article: 1999 Armenian parliament shooting
Litvinenko accused the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General-Staff of the Russian armed forces of having organised the 1999 Armenian parliament shooting that killed the Prime Minister of Armenia, Vazgen Sargsyan, and seven members of parliament, ostensibly to derail the peace process which would have resolved the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but he offered no evidence to support the accusation.[20][55][56] The Russian embassy in Armenia denied any such involvement, and described Litvinenko's accusation as an attempt to harm relations between Armenia and Russia by people against the democratic reforms in Russia.[57]
Russian apartment bombings
Main article: Russian apartment bombings
Litvinenko wrote two books, Lubyanka Criminal Group and Blowing Up Russia: Terror from Within (in co-authorship with historian Yuri Felshtinsky), where he accused the Russian secret services of staging the Russian apartment bombings and other terrorism acts in an effort to bring Vladimir Putin to power.[58]
Moscow theatre hostage crisis
Main article: Moscow theater hostage crisis
In a 2003 interview with the Australian SBS TV network, and aired on Dateline, Litvinenko claimed that two of the Chechen terrorists involved in the 2002 Moscow theatre siege – whom he named "Abdul the Bloody" and "Abu Bakar" – were working for the FSB, and that the agency manipulated the rebels into staging the attack.[59] Litvinenko said, "[W]hen they tried to find [Abdul the Bloody and Abu Bakar] among the dead terrorists, they weren't there. The FSB got its agents out. So the FSB agents among Chechens organized the whole thing on FSB orders, and those agents were released." This echoed similar claims made by Mikhail Trepashkin.[60] The leading role of an FSB agent, Khanpasha Terkibaev ("Abu Bakar"), was also described by Anna Politkovskaya, Ivan Rybkin and Alexander Khinshtein.[61][62][63][64] In the beginning of April 2003, Litvinenko gave "the Terkibaev file" to Sergei Yushenkov when he visited London, who in turn passed it to Anna Politkovskaya.[33] A few days later Yushenkov was assassinated. Terkibaev was later killed in Chechnya. According to Ivan Rybkin, a speaker of the Russian State Duma, "The authorities failed to keep [the FSB agent] Terkibaev out of public view, and that is why he was killed. I know how angry people were, because they knew Terkibaev had authorization from presidential administration."[65]
Beslan school siege
Main article: Beslan school siege
In September 2004, Alexander Litvinenko suggested that the Russian secret services must have been aware of the plot beforehand and probably had organised the attack themselves in order to toughen laws on terrorism and expand the powers of law enforcement agencies. His conclusion was based on the fact that several Beslan hostage takers had been released from FSB custody just before the attack in Beslan. He said that they would have been freed only if they were of use to the FSB, and that even in the case that they were freed without being turned into FSB assets, they would be under strict surveillance that would not have allowed them to carry out the Beslan attack unnoticed.[66]
Ella Kesayeva, co-chair of the group Voice of Beslan, supported Litvinenko's argument in a November 2008 article in Novaya Gazeta, noting the large number of hostage takers who were in government custody not long before attacking the school, and coming to the same conclusion.[67]
Alleged Russia–al-Qaeda connection
In a July 2005 interview with the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita, Litvinenko alleged that Ayman al-Zawahiri, a prominent leader of al-Qaeda, was trained for half a year by the FSB in Dagestan in 1997.[50][68][69][70] Litvinenko said that after this training, al-Zawahiri "was transferred to Afghanistan, where he had never been before and where, following the recommendation of his Lubyanka chiefs, he at once ... penetrated the milieu of Osama bin Laden and soon became his assistant in Al Qaeda."[71][70] Konstantin Preobrazhenskiy, a former KGB officer and writer, supported this claim and said that Litvinenko "was responsible for securing the secrecy of Al-Zawahiri's arrival in Russia; he was trained by FSB instructors in Dagestan, Northern Caucasus, in 1996–1997."[72] He said: "At that time, Litvinenko was the Head of the Subdivision for Internationally Wanted Terrorists of the First Department of the Operative-Inquiry Directorate of the FSB Anti-Terrorist Department. He was ordered to undertake the delicate mission of securing Al-Zawahiri from unintentional disclosure by the Russian police. Though Al-Zawahiri had been brought to Russia by the FSB using a false passport, it was still possible for the police to learn about his arrival and report to Moscow for verification. Such a process could disclose Al-Zawahiri as an FSB collaborator. In order to prevent this, Litvinenko visited a group of highly placed police officers to notify them in advance."[73] According to Sergei Ignatchenko, an FSB spokesman, al-Zawahiri was arrested by Russian authorities in Dagestan in December 1996 and released in May 1997.[74][75]
Assassination of Anna Politkovskaya
Main article: Anna Politkovskaya assassination
Two weeks before his poisoning, Alexander Litvinenko accused Vladimir Putin of ordering the assassination of the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and stated that a former presidential candidate, Irina Hakamada, warned Politkovskaya about threats to her life coming from the Russian president. Litvinenko advised Politkovskaya to escape from Russia immediately. Hakamada denied her involvement in passing any specific threats, and said that she warned Politkovskaya only in general terms more than a year earlier.[76] It remains unclear if Litvinenko referred to an earlier statement made by Boris Berezovsky, who claimed that Boris Nemtsov, a former Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, received word from Hakamada that Putin threatened her and like-minded colleagues in person. According to Berezovsky, Putin stated that Hakamada and her colleagues "will take in the head immediately, literally, not figuratively" if they "open the mouth" about the Russian apartment bombings.[77]
Allegations concerning Romano Prodi
Main article: Mitrokhin Commission
According to Litvinenko, the FSB deputy chief General Anatoly Trofimov said to him: "Don't go to Italy, there are many KGB agents among the politicians. Romano Prodi is our man there."[78][79] Prodi was the Italian centre-left leader, and a former Prime Minister of Italy and former president of the European Commission. The conversation with Trofimov took place in 2000, after the Prodi–KGB scandal broke out in October 1999 due to information about Prodi provided by Vasili Mitrokhin.[80]
In April 2006, a British member of the European Parliament for London, Gerard Batten of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), demanded an inquiry into the allegations.[78][79] On 26 April 2006, Batten repeated his call for a parliamentary inquiry, revealing that "former senior members of the KGB are willing to testify in such an investigation, under the right conditions." He added: "It is not acceptable that this situation is unresolved, given the importance of Russia's relations with the European Union."[81] On 22 January 2007, the BBC and ITV News released documents and video footage from February 2006, in which Litvinenko repeated his statements about Prodi.[82][83]
Prodi denied the allegations. Litvinenko said that "Trofimov did not exactly say that Prodi was a KGB agent, because the KGB avoids using that word."[84] The Mitrokhin Commission, which was established in 2002 and closed in 2006 with a majority and a minority report, without reaching shared conclusions, and without any concrete evidence given to support the original allegations of KGB ties to Italian politicians contained in the Mitrokhin Archive. Led by the centre-right coalition majority, it was criticized as politically motivated, as it was focused mainly on allegations against opposition figures.[85] In November 2006, the new Italian Parliament with a centre-left coalition majority instituted a commission to investigate the Mitrokhin Commission for allegations that it was manipulated for political purposes.[86] In December 2006, colonel ex-KGB agent Oleg Gordievsky, whom Mario Scaramella claimed as his source, confirmed the accusations made against Scaramella regarding the production of false material relating to Prodi and other Italian politicians,[87] and underlined their lack of reliability.[88]
Connections between FSB and mafia
In his book Gang from Lubyanka, Litvinenko alleged that Vladimir Putin during his time at the FSB was personally involved in protecting the drug trafficking from Afghanistan organised by Abdul Rashid Dostum.[89] In December 2003, Russian authorities confiscated over 4,000 copies of the book.[90] Shortly before his death, Alexander Litvinenko alleged that Vladimir Putin had cultivated a "good relationship" with Semion Mogilevich (head of the Russia mafia) since 1993 or 1994.[91]
Alleged paedophilia of Vladimir Putin
In a July 2006 article published on Zakayev's Chechenpress website, Litvinenko claimed that Putin is a paedophile and that the KGB knew about it since Putin's graduation from the Red Banner Institute. Litvinenko asserted that the FSB had possessed video footage which documented sex between Putin and minor boys and that Putin destroyed it while FSB director.[92] Litvinenko also claimed that Anatoly Trofimov and Artyom Borovik knew of the alleged paedophilia.[93] An article in the New York Times described the allegation as "without evidence".[94]
Litvinenko made the allegation after Putin kissed a boy on his stomach while stopping to chat with some tourists during a walk in the Kremlin grounds on 28 June 2006. The incident was recalled in a webcast organised by the BBC and Yandex, in which over 11,000 people asked Putin to explain the act, to which he responded, "He seemed very independent and serious... I wanted to cuddle him like a kitten and it came out in this gesture. He seemed so nice. ... There is nothing behind it."[95]
Vladimir Bukovsky, a close friend of Litvinenko, said he was angry when he published the article, as he had strongly urged him against it. Bukovsky noted that despite his ferocious hostility toward the Kremlin, Litvinenko still had the mind-set of a security officer and "could not understand the difference between truth and operational information."[94]
Prophet Muhammad "cartoons" controversy
According to Litvinenko, the 2005 controversy over the publication in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten of editorial cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad was orchestrated by the FSB to punish Denmark for its refusal to extradite Chechen separatists.[96]
Poisoning and death
Main article: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko
A bald Litvinenko at University College Hospital
On 1 November 2006, Litvinenko suddenly fell ill. On 3 November, he was admitted to Barnet General Hospital in London.[97] He was then moved to University College Hospital for intensive care. His illness was later attributed to poisoning with radionuclide polonium-210 after the Health Protection Agency found significant amounts of the rare and highly toxic element in his body.[98]
Litvinenko met with two former agents early on the day he fell ill – Dmitry Kovtun and Andrey Lugovoy, in the Pine Bar of the Millennium Hotel where high polonium contamination was found.[99][98] Though both denied any wrongdoing, a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable revealed that Kovtun had left polonium traces in the house and car he had used in Hamburg.[citation needed] Before his meeting with Kovtun and Lugovoy, Litvinenko had lunch at Itsu, a sushi restaurant on Piccadilly in London with Italian acquaintance Mario Scaramella.[100][101] Scaramella claimed to have information on the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya, a journalist who had been shot dead in the elevator of her Moscow apartment building three weeks prior.[102]
On his deathbed, Litvinenko claimed that Putin had directly ordered his assassination.[99] After his death, Marina Litvinenko, his widow, accused Moscow of orchestrating the murder. Though she believes the order did not come from Putin himself, she does believe it was done at the behest of the authorities, and announced that she would refuse to provide evidence to any Russian investigation out of fear that it would be misused or misrepresented.[103] In a court hearing in London in 2015, a Scotland Yard lawyer concluded that "the evidence suggests that the only credible explanation is in one way or another the Russian state is involved in Litvinenko's murder".[104]
Death and final statement
Before his death, Litvinenko said: "You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world, Mr. Putin, will reverberate in your ears for the rest of your life."[105] On 22 November 2006, Litvinenko's medical team at University College Hospital reported Litvinenko had suffered a "major setback" due to either heart failure or an overnight heart attack. He died on 23 November. The following day, Putin publicly stated: "Mr Litvinenko is, unfortunately, not Lazarus".[105]
Scotland Yard stated that inquiries into the circumstances of how Litvinenko became ill would continue.[106]
On 24 November 2006, a statement was released posthumously, in which Litvinenko named Putin as the man behind his poisoning.[107] Litvinenko's friend Alex Goldfarb, who was also the chairman of Boris Berezovsky's Civil Liberties Fund, claimed Litvinenko had dictated it to him three days earlier. Andrei Nekrasov said his friend Litvinenko and Litvinenko's lawyer had composed the statement in Russian on 21 November and translated it to English.[108]
Litvinenko's grave at Highgate Cemetery in 2007
Goldfarb later stated that Litvinenko, on his deathbed, had instructed him to write a note "in good English" in which Putin was to be accused of his poisoning. Goldfarb also stated that he read the note to Litvinenko in English and Russian and Litvinenko agreed "with every word of it" and signed it.[107]
Litvinenko's grave in 2017
His autopsy took place on 1 December at the Royal London Hospital's institute of pathology. It was attended by three physicians, including one chosen by the family and one from the Foreign Office.[109] Litvinenko was buried at Highgate Cemetery (West side) in north London on 7 December.[110] The police treated his death as a murder, although the London coroner's inquest was yet to be completed.[111][112]
In an interview with the BBC broadcast on 16 December 2006, Yuri Shvets said that Litvinenko had created a 'due diligence' report investigating the activities of an unnamed senior Kremlin official on behalf of a British company looking to invest "dozens of millions of dollars" in a project in Russia, and that the dossier contained damaging information about the senior Kremlin official. He said he was interviewed about his allegations by Scotland Yard detectives investigating Litvinenko's murder.[113] British media reported that the poisoning and consequent death of Litvinenko was not widely covered in the Russian news media.[114]
Funeral
On 7 December 2006, Litvinenko was buried within a lead-lined casket at Highgate Cemetery with Christian, Jewish and Muslim rites, including a Christian and Muslim prayer being said by an imam and Orthodox priest in line with Litvinenko's wishes of a non-denominational service at the grave.[48][115] The funeral ceremony was followed by a private memorial at which the ensemble Tonus Peregrinus sang sacred music by Russian composers Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninov, Victor Kalinnikov, and three works by British composer Antony Pitts.[116][117][118]
Investigations into death
Main article: Poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko § Investigation
UK criminal investigation
On 20 January 2007, British police announced that they had "identified the man they believe poisoned Alexander Litvinenko. The suspected killer was captured on cameras at Heathrow as he flew into Britain to carry out the murder."[119] The man in question was introduced to Litvinenko as "Vladislav".[120]
As of 26 January 2007, British officials said police had solved the murder of Litvinenko. They discovered "a 'hot' teapot at London's Millennium Hotel with an off-the-charts reading for polonium-210, the radioactive material used in the killing." In addition, a senior official said investigators had concluded the murder of Litvinenko was "a 'state-sponsored' assassination orchestrated by Russian security services." The police want to charge former Russian spy Andrei Lugovoy, who met Litvinenko on 1 November 2006, the day officials believe the lethal dose of polonium-210 was administered.[121]
On the same day, The Guardian reported that the British government was preparing an extradition request asking that Andrei Lugovoy be returned to the UK to stand trial for Litvinenko's murder.[122] On 22 May 2007, the Crown Prosecution Service called for the extradition of Russian citizen Andrei Lugovoy to the UK on charges of murder.[123] Lugovoy dismissed the claims against him as "politically motivated" and said he did not kill Litvinenko.[124]
A British police investigation resulted in several suspects for the murder, but in May 2007, the British Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, announced that his government would seek to extradite Andrei Lugovoy, the chief suspect in the case, from Russia.[125] On 28 May 2007, the British Foreign Office officially submitted a request to the Government of Russia for the extradition of Lugovoy to face criminal charges in the UK.[126]
On 2 October 2011, The Sunday Times published an article wherein the chief prosecutor who investigated the murder of Litvinenko, Lord Macdonald of River Glaven, publicly spoke of his suspicion that the murder was a "state directed execution" carried out by Russia. Until that time, British public officials had stopped short of directly accusing Russia of involvement in the poisoning. "It had all the hallmarks of a state directed execution, committed on the streets of London by a foreign government," Macdonald added.[127]
In January 2015, it was reported in the British media that the National Security Agency had intercepted communications between Russian government agents in Moscow and those who carried out what was called a "state execution" in London: the recorded conversations allegedly proved that the Russian government was involved in Litvinenko's murder, and suggested that the motive was Litvinenko's revelations about Vladimir Putin's links with the criminal underworld.[128] On 21 January 2016, the Home Office published The Litvinenko Inquiry: Report into Litvinenko's death.[129]
Russian criminal investigation
Many publications in Russian media suggested that the death of Alexander Litvinenko was connected to Boris Berezovsky.[130][131] Former FSB chief Nikolay Kovalyov, for whom Litvinenko worked, said that the incident "looks like the hand of Boris Berezovsky. I am sure that no kind of intelligence services participated."[132] This involvement of Berezovsky was alleged by numerous Russian television shows. Kremlin supporters saw it as a conspiracy to smear the Russian government's reputation by engineering a spectacular murder of a Russian dissident abroad.[133]
After Litvinenko's death, traces of polonium-210 were found in an office belonging to Berezovsky.[134] This was unsurprising: Litvinenko had visited Berezovsky's office as well as many other places in the hours after his poisoning.[135] The British Health Protection Agency made extensive efforts to ensure that locations Litvinenko visited and anyone who had contact with Litvinenko after his poisoning were not at risk.[136]
Russian authorities were unable to question Berezovsky. The Foreign Ministry complained that Britain was obstructing its attempt to send prosecutors to London to interview more than 100 people, including Berezovsky.[137]
On 5 July 2007, the British ambassador to Russia, Anne Pringle, claimed that London had submitted sufficient evidence to extradite Lugovoy to Britain.[138]
Judicial inquiries
Logo of the inquiry
Inquest in London
On 13 October 2011, Dr. Andrew Reid, the Coroner of St. Pancras, announced that he would hold an inquest into Litvinenko's death, which would include the examination of all existing theories of the murder, including possible complicity of the Russian government.[139] The inquest, held by Sir Robert Owen, a High Court judge acting as the coroner, originally scheduled to start on 1 May 2013, was subject to a series of pre-hearings: firstly, the coroner agreed that a group representing Russian state prosecutors could be accepted as a party to the inquest process; secondly, the British Government submitted a Public Interest Immunity (PII) certificate. Under Public Interest Immunity (PII) claims, the information at the disposal of the British government relating to Russian state involvement, as well as how much British intelligence services could have done to prevent the death, would be excluded from the inquest.[140]
On 12 July 2013, Sir Robert, who had previously agreed to exclude certain material from the inquest on the grounds its disclosure could be damaging to national security, announced that the British Government refused the request he had made earlier in June to replace the inquest with a public inquiry, which would have powers to consider secret evidence.[9][141] After the hearing, Alex Goldfarb said: "There's some sort of collusion behind the scenes with Her Majesty's government and the Kremlin to obstruct justice"; Elena Tsirlina, Mrs Litvinenko's solicitor, concurred with him.[9][141]
On 22 July 2014, the British Home Secretary Theresa May, who had previously ruled out an inquiry on the grounds it might damage the country's relations with Moscow,[10] announced a public inquiry into Litvinenko's death. The inquiry was chaired by Sir Robert Owen who was the Coroner in the inquest into Litvinenko's death; its remit stipulated that "the inquiry will not address the question of whether the UK authorities could or should have taken steps which would have prevented the death".[142][143] The inquiry started on 27 January 2015.[10] New evidence emerged at first hearings held at the end of January 2015.[43] The last day of hearings was on 31 July 2015.[144]
The report stated that the FSB operation to kill Litvinenko was probably approved by Nikolai Patrushev (left) and Vladimir Putin
The inquiry report was released on 21 January 2016. The report found that Litvinenko was killed by two Russian agents, Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun and that there was a "strong probability" they were acting on behalf of the Russian FSB secret service.[145] Paragraph 10.6 of the report stated: "The FSB operation to kill Mr Litvinenko was probably approved by Mr Patrushev and also by President Putin."[146]
The Report outlined five possible motives for the murder: a belief Litvinenko had betrayed the FSB through public disclosures about its work; a belief that he was working for British intelligence; because he was a prominent associate of leading opponents of Mr Putin and his regime, including Mr Boris Berezovsky and Akhmed Zakayev; because his claims about the FSB were "areas of particular sensitivity to the Putin administration", including a plot to murder dissident Boris Berezovsky; and because there was "undoubtedly a personal dimension to the antagonism" between Litvinenko and Putin, culminating in his allegation that Putin was a paedophile.[105]
On the release of the report, British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned Putin for presiding over "state sponsored murder". British Labour MP Ian Austin said: "Putin is an unreconstructed KGB thug and gangster who murders his opponents in Russia and, as we know, on the streets of London – and nothing announced today is going to make the blindest bit of difference." The Kremlin dismissed the Inquiry as "a joke" and "whitewash".[105]
The same day, British Home Secretary Theresa May announced that assets belonging to both Lugovoi and Kovtun would be immediately frozen and that the Metropolitan Police were seeking their extradition.[147] The Russian Ambassador was also summoned by the British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and demands were made that Russia cooperate with the investigation into Mr Litvinenko's murder with Foreign Office minister David Liddington asserting that Russia had demonstrated "a flagrant disregard for UK law, international law and standards of conduct, and the safety of UK citizens"[148][149][150] However, the government's response to the inquiry's results has been described by The Economist as consisting of "tough talk and little action".[151][152]
Carter v Russia
In May 2007 Marina Litvinenko (also known as Maria Anna Carter)[153] registered a complaint against the Russian Federation in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, accusing the Russian state of violating her husband's right to life, and failing to conduct a full investigation.[154] On 21 September 2021, a chamber of the court found Russia responsible for Litvinenko's death and ordered the country to pay 100,000 euros in damages.[13] Russia can still appeal the decision to the Grand Chamber. The ECHR also found beyond reasonable doubt that Andrey Lugovoy and Dmitry Kovtun killed Litvinenko. Commenting on the case, law professor Marko Milanovic thought it was unlikely that Russian government would pay the damages.[155]
In popular culture
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Rebellion: the Litvinenko Case is a documentary about Litvinenko's activities and death.
The Litvinenko Project is a live-performance devised by 2Magpies Theatre (Nottingham, UK) exploring the possibilities which lead to Litvinenko's poisoning[156]
A Very Expensive Poison: The Definitive Story of the Murder of Litvinenko and Russia's War with the West is a nonfiction book by Luke Harding published in 2016 by Guardian Faber Publishing.[157]
An episode of BuzzFeed Unsolved about his death aired in August 2018.
A Very Expensive Poison is a play by Lucy Prebble based on the book by Luke Harding, that had its world premiere at The Old Vic Theatre in London in 2019.[158][159]
An opera The Life and Death of Alexander Litvinenko by Anthony Bolton, with libretto by Kit Hesketh-Harvey, had its world premiere on 15 July 2021 at Grange Park Opera.[160][161]
Patriots is a play by Peter Morgan that premiered at the Almeida Theatre in London in 2022, starring Jamael Westman as Alexander Litvinenko.[162][163][164]
A 2022 4-part limited TV series, Litvinenko (written by George Kay, writer of Lupin and Criminal, and directed by Jim Field Smith) was created with the permission and involvement of Marina Litvinenko. The script was based on extensive research and interviews. David Tennant played Alexander and Margarita Levieva played Marina.[165]
See also
Natalya Estemirova
Sergei Magnitsky
Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova
Poisoning of Alexei Navalny
Assassination of Boris Nemtsov
Badri Patarkatsishvili
Assassination of Anna Politkovskaya
Yuri Shchekochikhin
Poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal
Roman Tsepov
Sergei Yushenkov
List of journalists killed in Russia
References
Russian: Александр Вальтерович Литвиненко, IPA: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr ˈvaltɨrəvʲɪtɕ lʲɪtvʲɪˈnʲɛnkə]
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"Tonus Peregrinus - artist - Hyperion Records". Hyperion Records. 2015. Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 28 September 2015.
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LBJ & J. Edgar Hoover on Murdered Civil Rights Workers (1964)
The murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, also known as the Freedom Summer murders, the Mississippi civil rights workers' murders, or the Mississippi Burning murders, were the abduction and murder of three activists in Philadelphia, Mississippi, in June 1964, during the Civil Rights Movement. The victims were James Chaney from Meridian, Mississippi, and Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner from New York City. All three were associated with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) and its member organization, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). They had been working with the Freedom Summer campaign by attempting to register African Americans in Mississippi to vote. Since 1890 and through the turn of the century, Southern states had systematically disenfranchised most black voters by discrimination in voter registration and voting.
Chaney was African American, and Goodman and Schwerner were both Jewish. The three men had traveled roughly 38 miles (61 km) north from Meridian, to the community of Longdale, to talk with congregation members at a black church that had been burned; the church had been a center of community organization. The trio was arrested following a traffic stop for speeding, escorted to the local jail, and held for a number of hours.[1] As the three left town in their car, they were followed by law enforcement and others. Before leaving Neshoba County, their car was pulled over again. The three were abducted, driven to another location, and shot at close range. The bodies were buried in an earthen dam.[1]
The disappearance of the three men was initially investigated as a missing persons case. The civil-rights workers' burnt-out car was found parked near a swamp three days after their disappearance.[2][3] An extensive search of the area was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), local and state authorities, and 400 U.S. Navy sailors.[4] Their bodies were not discovered until seven weeks later, when the team received a tip. During the investigation it emerged that members of the local White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Neshoba County Sheriff's Office, and the Philadelphia, Mississippi Police Department were involved in the incident.[1]
The murder of the activists sparked national outrage and an extensive federal investigation, filed as Mississippi Burning (MIBURN), which later became the title of a 1988 film loosely based on the events. In 1967, after the state government refused to prosecute, the United States federal government charged 18 individuals with civil rights violations. Seven were convicted and another pleaded guilty, and received relatively minor sentences for their actions. Outrage over the activists' murder helped gain passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Forty-one years after the murders took place, one perpetrator, Edgar Ray Killen, was charged by the state of Mississippi for his part in the crimes. In 2005 he was convicted of three counts of manslaughter and was given a 60-year sentence.[5] On June 20, 2016, federal and state authorities officially closed the case. Killen died in prison in January 2018.
Background
Michael Schwerner
In the early 1960s, the state of Mississippi, as well as other local and state governments in the American South, defied federal direction regarding racial integration.[6][7] Recent Supreme Court rulings had upset the Mississippi establishment, and white Mississippian society responded with open hostility. White supremacists used tactics such as bombings, murders, vandalism, and intimidation in order to discourage black Mississippians and their supporters from the Northern and Western states. In 1961, Freedom Riders, who challenged the segregation of interstate buses and related facilities, were attacked on their route. In September 1962, the University of Mississippi riots had occurred in order to prevent James Meredith from enrolling at the school.
The White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, a Ku Klux Klan splinter group based in Mississippi, was founded and led by Samuel Bowers of Laurel. As the summer of 1964 approached, white Mississippians prepared for what they perceived was an invasion from the north and west. College students had been recruited in order to aid local activists who were conducting grassroots community organizing, voter registration education and drives in the state. Media reports exaggerated the number of youths expected.[8] One Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) representative is quoted as saying that nearly 30,000 individuals would visit Mississippi during the summer.[8] Such reports had a "jarring impact" on white Mississippians and many responded by joining the White Knights.[8]
In 1890, Mississippi had passed a new constitution, supported by additional laws, which effectively excluded most black Mississippians from registering or voting. This status quo had long been enforced by economic boycotts and violence. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) wanted to address this problem by setting up Freedom Schools and starting voting registration drives in the state. Freedom schools were established in order to educate, encourage, and register the disenfranchised black citizens.[9] CORE members James Chaney, from Mississippi, and Michael Schwerner, from New York City, intended to set up a Freedom School for black people in Neshoba County to try to prepare them to pass the comprehension and literacy tests required by the state.
Missing persons poster created by the FBI in 1964, shows the photographs of Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner.
Registering others to vote
On Memorial Day, May 25, 1964, Schwerner and Chaney spoke to the congregation at Mount Zion Methodist Church in Longdale, Mississippi about setting up a Freedom School.[10] Schwerner implored the congregation to register to vote, saying, “you have been slaves too long, we can help you help yourselves”.[10] The White Knights learned of Schwerner’s voting drive in Neshoba County and soon developed a plot to hinder and ultimately destroy their work. They wanted to lure CORE workers into Neshoba County, so they assaulted congregants and torched the church, burning it to the ground.
On June 21, 1964, Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner met at the Meridian COFO headquarters before traveling to Longdale to investigate the burning of Mount Zion Church. Schwerner told COFO Meridian to search for them if they were not back by 4 p.m.; he said, “if we're not back by then, start trying to locate us.”[9]
Arrest
After visiting Longdale, the three civil rights workers decided not to take Road 491 to return to Meridian.[9] The narrow country road was unpaved; abandoned buildings littered the roadside. They decided to head west on Highway 16 to Philadelphia, the seat of Neshoba County, then take southbound Highway 19 to Meridian, figuring it would be the faster route. The time was approaching 3 p.m., and they were to be in Meridian by 4 p.m.
The CORE station wagon had barely passed the Philadelphia city limits when one of its tires went flat, and Deputy Sheriff Cecil Ray Price turned on his dashboard-mounted red light and followed them.[9] The trio stopped near the Beacon and Main Street fork. With a long radio antenna mounted to his patrol car, Price called for Officers Harry Jackson Wiggs and Earl Robert Poe of the Mississippi Highway Patrol.[9] Chaney was arrested for driving 65 mph in a 35 mph zone; Goodman and Schwerner were held for investigation. They were taken to the Neshoba County jail on Myrtle Street, a block from the courthouse.
In the Meridian office, workers became alarmed when the 4 p.m. deadline passed without word from the three activists. By 4:45 p.m., they notified the COFO Jackson office that the trio had not returned from Neshoba County.[9] The CORE workers called area authorities but did not learn anything; the contacted offices said they had not seen the three civil rights workers.[9]
The conspiracy
Parties to the conspiracy; Top row: Lawrence A. Rainey, Bernard L. Akin, Other "Otha" N. Burkes, Olen L. Burrage, Edgar Ray Killen. Bottom row: Frank J. Herndon, James T. Harris, Oliver R. Warner, Herman Tucker and Samuel H. Bowers[citation needed]
Nine men, including Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence A. Rainey, were later identified as parties to the conspiracy to murder Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner.[11] Rainey denied he was ever a part of the conspiracy, but he was accused of ignoring the racially motivated offenses committed in Neshoba County. At the time of the murders, the 41-year-old Rainey insisted he was visiting his sick wife in a Meridian hospital and was later with family watching Bonanza.[12] As events unfolded, Rainey became emboldened with his newly found popularity in the Philadelphia community. Known for his tobacco chewing habit, Rainey was photographed and quoted in Life magazine: "Hey, let's have some Red Man", as other members of the conspiracy laughed while waiting for an arraignment to start.[13]
Fifty-year-old Bernard Akin had a mobile home business which he operated out of Meridian; he was a member of the White Knights.[11] Seventy-one-year-old Other N. Burkes, who usually went by the nickname of Otha, was a 25-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police. At the time of the December 1964 arraignment, Burkes was awaiting an indictment for a different civil rights case. Olen L. Burrage, who was 34 at the time, owned a trucking company. Burrage was developing a cattle farm which he called the Old Jolly Farm, where the three civil rights workers were found buried. Burrage, a former U.S. Marine who was honorably discharged, was quoted as saying: "I got a dam big enough to hold a hundred of them."[14] Several weeks after the murders, Burrage told the FBI: "I want people to know I'm sorry it happened."[15] Edgar Ray Killen, a 39-year-old Baptist preacher and sawmill owner, was convicted decades later of orchestrating the murders.
Frank J. Herndon, 46, operated a Meridian drive-in restaurant called the Longhorn;[11] he was the Exalted Grand Cyclops of the Meridian White Knights. James T. Harris, also known as Pete, was a White Knights investigator. The 30-year-old Harris was keeping tabs on the three civil rights workers' every move. Oliver R. Warner, 54, known as Pops, was a Meridian grocery owner and member of the White Knights. Herman Tucker lived in Hope, Mississippi, a few miles from the Neshoba County Fair grounds. Tucker, 36, was not a member of the White Knights; he was a building contractor who worked for Burrage. The White Knights gave Tucker the assignment of getting rid of the CORE station wagon driven by the workers. White Knights Imperial Wizard Samuel H. Bowers, who served with the U.S. Navy during World War II, was not apprehended on December 4, 1964, but he was implicated the following year. Bowers, then 39, was credited with saying: "This is a war between the Klan and the FBI. And in a war, there have to be some who suffer."[16]
On Sunday, June 7, 1964, nearly 300 White Knights met near Raleigh, Mississippi.[17] Bowers addressed the White Knights about what he described as a "nigger-communist invasion of Mississippi" that he expected to take place in a few weeks, in what CORE had announced as Freedom Summer.[17] The men listened as Bowers said: "This summer the enemy will launch his final push for victory in Mississippi", and, "there must be a secondary group of our members, standing back from the main area of conflict, armed and ready to move. It must be an extremely swift, extremely violent, hit-and-run group."[17]
Although federal authorities believed many others took part in the Neshoba County lynching, only ten men were charged with the physical murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.[18] One of these was Deputy Sheriff Price, 26, who played a crucial role in implementing the conspiracy. Before his friend Rainey was elected sheriff in 1963, Price worked as a salesman, fireman, and bouncer.[18] Price, who had no prior experience in local law enforcement, was the only person who witnessed the entire event. He arrested the three men, released them the night of the murders, and chased them down state Highway 19 toward Meridian, eventually re-capturing them at the intersection near House, Mississippi. Price and the other nine men escorted them north along Highway 19 to Rock Cut Road, where they forced a stop and murdered the three civil rights workers.
Killen went to Meridian earlier that Sunday to organize and recruit men for the job to be carried out in Neshoba County.[19] Before the men left for Philadelphia, Travis M. Barnette, 36, went to his Meridian home to take care of a sick family member. Barnette owned a Meridian garage and was a member of the White Knights. Alton W. Roberts, 26, was a dishonorably discharged U.S. Marine who worked as a salesman in Meridian. Roberts, standing 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) and weighing 270 lb (120 kg), was physically formidable and renowned for his short temper. According to witnesses, Roberts shot both Goodman and Schwerner at point blank range, then shot Chaney in the head after another accomplice, James Jordan, shot him in the abdomen. Roberts asked, "Are you that nigger lover?" to Schwerner, and shot him after the latter responded, "Sir, I know just how you feel."[20] Jimmy K. Arledge, 27, and Jimmy Snowden, 31, were both Meridian commercial drivers. Arledge, a high school drop-out, and Snowden, a U.S. Army veteran, were present during the murders.
Jerry M. Sharpe, Billy W. Posey, and Jimmy L. Townsend were all from Philadelphia. Sharpe, 21, ran a pulp wood supply house. Posey, 28, a Williamsville automobile mechanic, owned a 1958 red and white Chevrolet; the car was considered fast and was chosen over Sharpe's. The youngest was Townsend, 17; he left high school in 1964 to work at Posey's Phillips 66 garage. Horace D. Barnette, 25, was Travis' younger half-brother; he had a 1957 two-toned blue Ford Fairlane sedan.[18] Horace's car is the one the group took after Posey's car broke down. Officials say that James Jordan, 38, killed Chaney. He confessed his crimes to the federal authorities in exchange for a plea deal.
Murders
After Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner's release from the Neshoba County jail shortly after 10 p.m. on June 21,[21] they were followed almost immediately by Deputy Sheriff Price in his 1957 white Chevrolet sedan patrol car.[22] Soon afterward, the civil rights workers left the city limits located along Hospital Road and headed south on Highway 19. The workers arrived at Pilgrim's store, where they might have been inclined to stop and use the telephone, but the presence of a Mississippi Highway Patrol car, manned by Officers Wiggs and Poe, most likely dissuaded them. They continued south toward Meridian.
Ford Station Wagon location near the Bogue Chitto River near Highway 21 (32°52′54.15″N 88°56′16.87″W)
The lynch mob members, who were in Barnette's and Posey's cars, were drinking while arguing who would kill the three young men. Eventually, Burkes drove up to Barnette's car and told the group: "They're going on 19 toward Meridian. Follow them!" After a quick rendezvous with Philadelphia Police officer Richard Willis, Price began pursuing the three civil rights workers in his police car.
Posey's Chevrolet carried Roberts, Sharpe, and Townsend. The Chevy apparently had carburetor problems, and was forced to the side of the highway. Sharpe and Townsend were ordered to stay with Posey's car and service it. Roberts transferred to Barnette's car, joining Arledge, Jordan, Posey, and Snowden.[23]
Price eventually caught the CORE station wagon heading west toward Union, on Road 492. Soon he stopped them and escorted the three civil rights workers north on Highway 19, back in the direction of Philadelphia. The caravan turned west on County Road 515 (also known as Rock Cut Road), and stopped at the secluded intersection of County Road 515 and County Road 284 (32°39′40.45″N 89°2′4.13″W). The three men were subsequently shot by Jordan and Roberts.
Disposing of the evidence
The station wagon on an abandoned logging road along Highway 21
After the victims had been shot, they were quickly loaded into their station wagon and transported to Burrage's Old Jolly Farm, located along Highway 21, a few miles southwest of Philadelphia where an earthen dam for a farm pond was under construction.[24] Tucker was already at the dam waiting for the lynch mob's arrival. Earlier in the day, Burrage, Posey, and Tucker had met at either Posey's gas station or Burrage's garage to discuss these burial details, and Tucker most likely was the one who covered up the bodies using a bulldozer that he owned. An autopsy of Goodman, showing fragments of red clay in his lungs and grasped in his fists, suggests he was probably buried alive alongside the already dead Chaney and Schwerner.[25]
After all three were buried, Price told the group:
Well, boys, you've done a good job. You've struck a blow for the white man. Mississippi can be proud of you. You've let those agitating outsiders know where this state stands. Go home now and forget it. But before you go, I'm looking each one of you in the eye and telling you this: The first man who talks is dead! If anybody who knows anything about this ever opens his mouth to any outsider about it, then the rest of us are going to kill him just as dead as we killed those three sonofbitches [sic] tonight. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? The man who talks is dead, dead, dead![26]
Eventually, Tucker was tasked with disposing of the CORE station wagon in Alabama. For reasons unknown, the station wagon was left near a river in northeast Neshoba County along Highway 21. It was soon set ablaze and abandoned.[citation needed]
Investigation and public attention
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the 1964 Civil Rights Act as Martin Luther King Jr. and others look on, July 2, 1964.
Protest outside the 1964 Democratic National Convention; some hold signs with portraits of slain civil rights workers, August 24, 1964.
Sheriff Lawrence A. Rainey being escorted by two FBI agents to the federal courthouse in Meridian, Mississippi; October 1964
Unconvinced by the assurances of the Memphis-based agents, Sullivan elected to wait in Memphis ... for the start of the "invasion" of northern students ... Sullivan's instinctive decision to stick around Memphis proved correct. Early Monday morning, June 22, he was informed of the disappearance ... he was ordered to Meridian. The town would be his home for the next nine months.
— Cagin & Dray, We Are Not Afraid, 1988[27]
After reluctance from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to get directly involved, President Lyndon Johnson convinced him by threatening to send ex-CIA director Allen Dulles in his stead.[28] Hoover initially ordered the FBI Office in Meridian, run by John Proctor, to begin a preliminary search after the three men were reported missing. That evening, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy escalated the search and ordered 150 federal agents to be sent from New Orleans.[29] Two local Native Americans found the smoldering car that evening; by the next morning, that information had been communicated to Proctor. Joseph Sullivan of the FBI immediately went to the scene.[30] By the next day, the federal government had arranged for hundreds of sailors from the nearby Naval Air Station Meridian to search the swamps of Bogue Chitto.
During the investigation, searchers including Navy divers and FBI agents discovered the bodies of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore in the area (the first was found by a fisherman). They were college students who had disappeared in May 1964. Federal searchers also discovered 14-year-old Herbert Oarsby, and the bodies of five other deceased African Americans who were never identified.[31]
The disappearance of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner captured national attention. By the end of the first week, all major news networks were covering their disappearances. President Lyndon Johnson met with the parents of Goodman and Schwerner in the Oval Office. Walter Cronkite's broadcast of the CBS Evening News on June 25, 1964, called the disappearances "the focus of the whole country's concern".[32] The FBI eventually offered a $25,000 reward (equivalent to $246,000 in 2023), which led to the breakthrough in the case. Meanwhile, Mississippi officials resented the outside attention. Sheriff Rainey said, "They're just hiding and trying to cause a lot of bad publicity for this part of the state." Mississippi Governor Paul B. Johnson Jr. dismissed concerns, saying the young men "could be in Cuba".[33]
The bodies of the CORE activists were found only after an informant (discussed in FBI reports only as "Mr. X") passed along a tip to federal authorities.[34] They were discovered on August 4, 1964, 44 days after their murder, underneath an earthen dam on Burrage's farm. Schwerner and Goodman had each been shot once in the heart; Chaney, a black man, had been severely beaten, castrated and shot three times. The identity of "Mr. X" was revealed publicly forty years after the original events, and revealed to be Maynard King, a Mississippi Highway Patrol officer close to the head of the FBI investigation. King died in 1966.[35][36]
In the summer of 1964, according to Linda Schiro and other sources, FBI field agents in Mississippi recruited the mafia captain Gregory Scarpa to help them find the missing civil rights workers.[37] The FBI was convinced the three men had been murdered, but could not find their bodies. The agents thought that Scarpa, using illegal interrogation techniques not available to agents, might succeed at gaining this information from suspects. Once Scarpa arrived in Mississippi, local agents allegedly provided him with a gun and money to pay for information. Scarpa and an agent allegedly pistol-whipped and kidnapped Lawrence Byrd, a TV salesman and secret Klansman, from his store in Laurel and took him to Camp Shelby, a local Army base. At Shelby, Scarpa severely beat Byrd and stuck a gun barrel down his throat. Byrd finally revealed to Scarpa the location of the three men's bodies.[38][39] The FBI has never officially confirmed the Scarpa story. Though not necessarily contradicting the claim of Scarpa's involvement in the matter, investigative journalist Jerry Mitchell and Illinois high school teacher Barry Bradford claimed that Mississippi highway patrolman Maynard King provided the grave locations to FBI agent Joseph Sullivan after obtaining the information from an anonymous third party. In January 1966, Scarpa allegedly helped the FBI a second time in Mississippi on the murder case of Vernon Dahmer, killed in a fire set by the Klan. After this second trip, Scarpa and the FBI had a sharp disagreement about his reward for these services. The FBI then dropped Scarpa as a confidential informant.[40]
I blame the people in Washington DC and on down in the state of Mississippi just as much as I blame those who pulled the trigger. ... I'm tired of that! Another thing that makes me even tireder though, that is the fact that we as people here in the state and the country are allowing it to continue to happen. ... Your work is just beginning. If you go back home and sit down and take what these white men in Mississippi are doing to us. ... if you take it and don't do something about it. ... then God damn your souls![31][41]
This and the Selma to Montgomery marches of 1965 contributed to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which Johnson signed on August 6 of that year.
Malcolm X used the delayed resolution of the case in his argument that the federal government was not protecting black lives, and African Americans would have to defend themselves: "And the FBI head, Hoover, admits that they know who did it, they've known ever since it happened, and they've done nothing about it. Civil rights bill down the drain."[42][43]
By late November 1964 the FBI accused 21 Mississippi men of engineering a conspiracy to injure, oppress, threaten, and intimidate Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner. Most of the suspects were apprehended by the FBI on December 4, 1964.[44] The FBI detained the following individuals: B. Akin, E. Akin, Arledge, T. Barnette, Burkes, Burrage, Bowers, Harris, Herndon, Killen, Posey, Price, Rainey, Roberts, Sharpe, Snowden, Townsend, Tucker, and Warner. Two individuals who were not interviewed and photographed, H. Barnette and James Jordan, would later confess their roles during the murder.[45]
Because Mississippi officials refused to prosecute the killers for murder, a state crime, the federal government, led by prosecutor John Doar, charged 18 individuals under 18 U.S.C. §242 and §371 with conspiring to deprive the three activists of their civil rights (by murder). They indicted Sheriff Rainey, Deputy Sheriff Price and 16 other men. A U. S. Commissioner dismissed the charges six days later, declaring that the confession on which the arrests were based was hearsay. One month later, government attorneys secured indictments against the conspirators from a federal grand jury in Jackson. On February 24, 1965, however, Federal Judge William Harold Cox, an ardent segregationist, threw out the indictments against all conspirators other than Rainey and Price on the ground that the other seventeen were not acting "under color of state law." In March 1966, the United States Supreme Court overruled Cox and reinstated the indictments. Defense attorneys then made the argument that the original indictments were flawed because the pool of jurors from which the grand jury was drawn contained insufficient numbers of minorities. Rather than attempt to refute the charge, the government summoned a new grand jury and, on February 28, 1967, won reindictments.[46]
1967 federal trial
Main article: United States v. Price
Trial in the case of United States v. Cecil Price, et al., began on October 7, 1967, in the Meridian courtroom of Judge William Harold Cox. A jury of seven white men and five white women was selected. Defense attorneys exercised peremptory challenges against all seventeen potential black jurors. A white man, who admitted under questioning by Robert Hauberg, the U.S. Attorney for Mississippi, that he had been a member of the KKK "a couple of years ago," was challenged for cause, but Cox denied the challenge.
The trial was marked by frequent crises. Star prosecution witness James Jordan cracked under the pressure of anonymous death threats made against him and had to be hospitalized at one point. The jury deadlocked on its decision and Judge Cox employed the "Allen charge" to bring them to resolution. Seven defendants, mostly from Lauderdale County, were convicted. The convictions in the case represented the first ever convictions in Mississippi for the killing of a civil rights worker.[46]
Those found guilty on October 20, 1967, were Cecil Price, Klan Imperial Wizard Samuel Bowers, Alton Wayne Roberts, Jimmy Snowden, Billy Wayne Posey, Horace Barnette, and Jimmy Arledge. Sentences ranged from three to ten years. After exhausting their appeals, the seven began serving their sentences in March 1970. None served more than six years. Sheriff Rainey was among those acquitted. Two of the defendants, E.G. Barnett, a candidate for sheriff, and Edgar Ray Killen, a local minister, had been strongly implicated in the murders by witnesses, but the jury came to a deadlock on their charges and the Federal prosecutor decided not to retry them.[29] On May 7, 2000, the jury revealed that in the case of Killen, they deadlocked after a lone juror stated she "could never convict a preacher".[47]
Further research and 2005 murder trial
State history marker at the murder location
"To many it will always be June 21, 1964, in Philadelphia."
— Cagin & Dray, We Are Not Afraid, 1988[48]
For much of the next four decades, no legal action was taken regarding the murders. In 1989, on the 25th anniversary of the murders, the U.S. Congress passed a non-binding resolution honoring the three men; Senator Trent Lott and the rest of the Mississippi delegation refused to vote for it.[49]
The journalist Jerry Mitchell, an award-winning investigative reporter for Jackson's The Clarion-Ledger, wrote extensively about the case for six years. In the late 20th century, Mitchell had earned fame by his investigations that helped secure convictions in several other high-profile Civil Rights Era murder cases, including the murders of Medgar Evers and Vernon Dahmer, and the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham.
In the case of the civil rights workers, Mitchell was aided in developing new evidence, finding new witnesses, and pressuring the state to take action by Barry Bradford,[50] a high school teacher at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Illinois, and three of his students, Allison Nichols, Sarah Siegel, and Brittany Saltiel. Bradford later achieved recognition for helping Mitchell clear the name of Clyde Kennard.[51]
Together the student-teacher team produced a documentary for the National History Day contest. It presented important new evidence and compelling reasons to reopen the case. Bradford also obtained an interview with Edgar Ray Killen, which helped convince the state to investigate. Partially by using evidence developed by Bradford, Mitchell was able to determine the identity of "Mr. X", the mystery informer who had helped the FBI discover the bodies and end the conspiracy of the Klan in 1964.[52]
Mitchell's investigation and the high school students' work in creating Congressional pressure, national media attention and Bradford's taped conversation with Killen prompted action.[53] In 2004, on the 40th anniversary of the murders, a multi-ethnic group of citizens in Philadelphia, Mississippi, issued a call for justice. More than 1,500 people, including civil rights leaders and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, joined them to support having the case re-opened.[54][55]
On January 6, 2005, a Neshoba County grand jury indicted Edgar Ray Killen on three counts of murder. When the Mississippi Attorney General prosecuted the case, it was the first time the state had taken action against the perpetrators of the murders. Rita Bender, Michael Schwerner's widow, testified in the trial.[56] On June 21, 2005, a jury convicted Killen on three counts of manslaughter; he was described as the man who planned and directed the killing of the civil rights workers.[57] Killen, then 80 years old, was sentenced to three consecutive terms of 20 years in prison. His appeal, in which he claimed that no jury of his peers would have convicted him in 1964 based on the evidence presented, was rejected by the Supreme Court of Mississippi in 2007.[58]
On June 20, 2016, Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood and Vanita Gupta, top prosecutor for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department, said the investigation had ended but would be taken up again if new information was received.[59]
Legacy and honors
Individual
Memorial at the site of the Longdale, Mississippi church burning
See:
James Chaney
Andrew Goodman
Michael Schwerner
United States Congress
The murders contributed to congressional passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other federal and state civil rights legislation.[60][61][62][63]
National
Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner were posthumously awarded the 2014 Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
Ohio
Miami University's now-defunct Western Program included historical lectures about Freedom Summer and the events of the massacre.[citation needed]
There is a memorial on the Western campus of Miami University. It includes dozen of headlines about the murder, and plaques honoring and detailing the victims' life and work.
Additionally, Miami's board of trustees voted unanimously in 2019 to name the lounges of three residence halls on the Western campus after Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.[64]
Michigan
At Cedar Springs High School in Cedar Springs, Michigan, an outdoor memorial theatre is dedicated to the Freedom Summer alums. The day of Goodman's murder is acknowledged each year on campus, and the clock tower of the campus library is dedicated to Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner.[citation needed]
Mississippi
State of Mississippi roadside marker denoting the location where the 1964 murders of American civil rights workers Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner took place
A stone memorial at the Mt. Nebo Baptist Church commemorates the three civil rights activists.[65]
Several Mississippi State Historical Markers have been erected relating to this incident:
Freedom Summer Murders (1989), near Mount Zion United Methodist Church in Neshoba County[66][67]
Goodman, Cheney, and Schwerner Murder Site (2008, later vandalized and rededicated in 2013), at the intersection of MS 19 and County Road 515[67]
Old Neshoba County Jail (2012), at the site where the trio were held, on the north side of East Myrtle Street, between Byrd and Center Avenues[67]
New York
The Chaney-Goodman-Schwerner Clock Tower of Queens College's Rosenthal Library was built in 1988 and dedicated in 1989.[68] There is a photograph of the plaque Archived April 17, 2021, at the Wayback Machine on the Queens College website.
New York City named "Freedom Place", a four-block stretch in Manhattan's Upper West Side, in honor of Chaney, Goodman, and Shwerner.[when?] A plaque on 70th Street and Freedom Place (Riverside Drive) briefly tells their story.[69][70] The plaque was re-located in 1999 to the garden of Hostelling International New York. Mrs. Goodman wanted the plaque to be in a place visited by young people.[citation needed]
A stained glass window depicting the three was placed in Sage Chapel at Cornell University in 1991. Schwerner was a Cornell graduate, as were Goodman's parents.[71]
In June 2014, Schwerner's hometown, Pelham, New York, kicked off a year-long, town-wide commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner's deaths:[72]
On June 22, 2014, the Pelham Picture House held a free screening of the film Freedom Summer ahead of the film's June 24 premiere on American Experience on PBS. The screening was followed by a discussion and Q&A session with an expert panel.[73]
In November, close to Election Day and Schwerner's birthday, the Schwerner-Chaney-Goodman Memorial Commemoration Committee and the Pelham School District will host a multiple activities, such as a keynote speech by Nicholas Lemann (Dean Emeritus and Henry R. Luce professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City).[72]
Also in autumn 2014, The Picture House Evening Film Club for students in grades 9 through 12 will show a film they are creating, on the theme "What price freedom", inspired by Schwerner's commitment and sacrifice.[72]
In culture
This article may contain irrelevant references to popular culture. Please help Wikipedia to improve this article by removing the content or adding citations to reliable and independent sources. (August 2024)
Numerous works portray or refer to the stories of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, the aftermath of their murders and subsequent trial, and other related events of that summer.
Film
In the 27-minute documentary short, Summer in Mississippi (1964 Canada, 1965 U.S.), written and directed by Beryl Fox
The two-part CBS made-for-television movie, Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan (1975), co-starring Wayne Rogers and Ned Beatty, is based on Don Whitehead's book (Attack on Terror: The F.B.I. Against the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi). Actor Hilly Hicks portrayed "Charles Gilmore", a fictionalized representation of James Chaney, actor Andrew Parks portrayed "Steven Bronson", a fictionalized representation of Andrew Goodman, and actor Peter Strauss portrayed "Ben Jacobs", a fictionalized representation of Schwerner. The sympathetic portrayal of FBI agents in Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan (1974) and Mississippi Burning (1988) angered civil rights activists, who believed that the Bureau received too much credit for solving the case and too little condemnation for its previous lack of action in regards to civil rights abuses.[citation needed]
The feature film Mississippi Burning (1988), starring Willem Dafoe and Gene Hackman, is loosely based on the murders and the ensuing FBI investigation. Goodman is portrayed in the film by actor Rick Zieff and is simply identified as "Passenger". Schwerner, simply identified in the credits as "Goatee", is portrayed in the film by Geoffrey Nauffts.
The television movie Murder in Mississippi (1990) examines the events leading up to the deaths of the activists. In this film, Blair Underwood portrays Chaney; Josh Charles portrays Goodman; and Tom Hulce portrays Schwerner. Royce D. Applegate portrays a character named "Deputy Winter", who is an obvious stand in for Cecil Price.
The documentary Neshoba (2008) details the murders, the investigation, and the 2005 trial of Edgar Ray Killen. The film features statements by many surviving relatives of the victims, other residents of Neshoba county, and other people connected to the civil rights movement, as well as footage from the 2005 trial.[74]
The TV movie, All the Way (HBO, 2016) about the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidency depicted through the 1964 Civil Rights agenda, evokes the implication of the Johnson administration in the investigation around these murders.
Art
Norman Rockwell depicted the murders in his painting, Murder in Mississippi (1965), to illustrate Charles Morgan's investigative article in Look, titled Southern Justice (June 29, 1965). The article was part of a series on civil rights.[75][76]
Literature
The economists Samuel Bowles and Herbert Gintis dedicated their book A Cooperative Species (2011) to Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner.
In Stephen King's The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah (2005), the protagonist Susannah Dean (Odetta) reminisces about her time in Mississippi as a civil rights activist, when she met Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner in Oxford Town. She thinks about making love to James Chaney and singing the song, "Man of Constant Sorrow".
George Oppen dedicated his poem, "The Book of Job and a Draft of a Poem to Praise the Paths of the Living" (1973), to Schwerner.
Alice Walker's novel Meridian (1976) portrays issues of the civil rights era.
Donald E. Westlake dedicated his novel Put a Lid on It (2002) to Schwerner.
Don Whitehead's nonfiction book, Attack on Terror: The F.B.I. Against the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi (1970), details the events a week before the assassinations and concludes with the Federal trial of the conspirators. The book was adapted as a two-part television movie in 1975.
Howard Cruse's graphic novel Stuck Rubber Baby (1995) deals with issues of the civil rights era. After a stare down with a policeman, the protagonist recalls the murders of Chaney, Goodman and Schwerner and reflects on the "price that can get exacted when you look bigotry too squarely in the eye" (p. 201).
David J Dennis Jr's (in collaboration with David J Dennis Sr) non-fiction book The Movement Made Us (2022) describes the events unfolding in chapter XIII Vote
Theatre
April 2024 the play Three Mothers had its world premiere at Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany NY. The play, written by Ajene D. Washington, offers a potential glimpse into the conversations that the mothers of the men who were murdered might have had. Its inspiration is based on the photograph of the women leaving the final funeral of their boys.
Music
Concert drama
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Steven Stucky's evening-long concert drama, August 4, 1964, was based on the events of that date: the discovery of the bodies of the three civil rights workers and the reported attack on two American warships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Commissioned to commemorate the centennial of the birth of Lyndon B. Johnson, it premiered to excellent reviews.[77]
Songs
Music researcher Dr. Justin Brummer, founding editor of the Vietnam War Song Project and the Post-War American Political Songs Project, has identified 17+ songs related to the murders of Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner.
Richard Fariña's song, "Michael, Andrew and James", performed with Mimi Fariña, was included in their first Vanguard album, Celebrations for a Grey Day (1965).
Tom Paxton included the tribute song, "Goodman, Schwerner, and Chaney" on his Ain't That News (1965) album.
Pete Seeger and Frances Taylor wrote the song, "Those Three are On My Mind", about the murders, to commemorate the three workers.[78]
Phil Ochs wrote his song, "Here's to the State of Mississippi", about these events and other violations of civil rights that took place in that state.
Although it was written a year before the murders, Simon & Garfunkel's song, "He Was My Brother" from Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. (1964), has become associated with Andrew Goodman, who attended Queens College near the end of Simon's years at the school. Simon may have known Goodman only slightly, but they shared many friends.[citation needed]
The band Flobots' song, "Same Thing", asks to bring back Chaney.
The Vietnam War Song Project has identified the song "Eve of Tomorrow" by Tony Mammarella, an answer to Barry McGuire's Eve of Destruction, which contains the line: "Why did the three kids come from the north, they didn't have to join in the fight, but they marched down to Mississippi and they died for what they knew was right"
The Vietnam War Song Project also notes that the Phil Ochs song "Days of Decision" contains the line: "From the three bodies buried in the Mississippi mud".
Television
The FBI Files discussed this case in its final episode of season 1, entitled "The True Story of Mississippi Burning". It aired February 23, 1999.
The story was a backdrop in at least two first season episodes of the television series American Dreams (2002): "Down the Shore" and "High Hopes".
In the Law & Order episode "Chosen", defense lawyer Randy Dworkin (played by Peter Jacobson) prefaces a speech against affirmative action with the phrase, "Janeane Garofalo herself can storm into my office and tear down the framed photos of Goodman, Chaney, and Schwerner, that I keep on the wall over my desk ..."[79] In a Season 3 episode the case is also referenced.
The murder was among the 10 events that were shown on the History Channel's 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America miniseries in April 2006.
In Mad Men: "Public Relations" (season 4, episode 1), Don Draper's date Bethany mentions knowing Andrew Goodman, stating "The world is so dark right now" and "Is that what it takes to make things change?" These statements are the first indication of what year season 4 takes place in.[citation needed]
Referenced as backdrop news reports in American Dreams season 1, episodes 21, "Fear Itself", and 24, "High Hopes".
All the Way, a 2016 HBO film, briefly portrays the kidnapping and murders, and portrays the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in their aftermath.
Audio
Season 3 of the CBC podcast, Someone Knows Something, revolves around the discovery in July 1964 of the bodies of Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore, African-American men who had been murdered two months earlier by the Klan, while the FBI was searching for the bodies of the three missing civil rights workers.[80]
See also
Portals:
1960s
Civil rights movement
flag Mississippi
African Americans in Mississippi
Civil Rights Memorial
Mass racial violence in the United States
Racism in the United States
Timeline of the civil rights movement
Notes
60 years in prison
References
"General Article: Murder in Mississippi". American Experience. PBS. Retrieved November 14, 2016.
""Mississippi Burning" murders". CBS News. June 19, 2014. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
Bayless, Les (May 25, 1996). "Three who gave their lives: Remembering the martyrs of Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964". People's Weekly World. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
"We're Stymied, Rights Search Leaders Admit". The Desert Sun. No. 283. UPI. July 1, 1964. Retrieved December 1, 2016.
"Former Klansman found guilty of manslaughter". CNN. June 22, 2005. Retrieved December 2, 2016.
"State of Siege: Mississippi Whites and the Civil Rights Movement – American RadioWorks". Americanradioworks.publicradio.org. Retrieved October 14, 2017.
"New York Times Chronology (September 1962) - John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum". Archived from the original on December 5, 2012. Retrieved October 13, 2012.
Whitehead, Don (September 1970). "Murder in Mississippi". Reader's Digest: 196.
Cagin, Seth; Dray, Philip (1988). "June 21, 1964". We Are Not Afraid. Bantam Books. p. [page needed].
Cagin, Seth; Dray, Philip (1988). "June 21, 1964". We Are Not Afraid. Bantam Books. p. 2.
Cagin, Seth; Dray, Philip (1988). We Are Not Afraid. Bantam Books.[page needed]
Cagin, Seth; Dray, Philip (1988). "Rock Cut Road". We Are Not Afraid. Bantam Books. p. 282.
Cagin, Seth; Dray, Philip (1988). "The Forty-Four Days". We Are Not Afraid. Bantam Books. pp. 377–378.
Cagin, Seth; Dray, Philip (1988). "Rock Cut Road". We Are Not Afraid. Bantam Books. p. 283.
Martin, Douglas (March 19, 2013). "Olen Burrage Dies at 82; Linked to Killings in 1964". The New York Times.
Whitehead, Don (1970). Attack on Terror: The FBI Against the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi. Funk & Wagnalls. p. 233. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
Whitehead, Don (September 1970). "Murder in Mississippi". Reader's Digest: 194.
Cagin, Seth; Dray, Philip (1988). We Are Not Afraid. Bantam Books.[page needed]
Cagin, Seth; Dray, Philip (1988). "Rock Cut Road". We Are Not Afraid. Bantam Books. p. 278.
Kotz, Nick (2005). Judgment Days: Lyndon Baines Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Laws that Changed America. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 187. ISBN 978-0-618-08825-6. Retrieved June 19, 2018.
"Klansman who Orchestrated Mississippi Burning Killings Dies in Prison". The Clarion Ledger. January 12, 2018. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
Cagin, Seth; Dray, Philip (1988). "Rock Cut Road". We Are Not Afraid. Bantam Books. pp. 285–286.
"'Mississippi Burning' Defendant Dead at 82". Akron Beacon Journal. March 17, 2013. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
"Missing Trio Found". The Delta Democrat-Times. August 5, 1964. Retrieved July 30, 2021.
"A Mississippi Freedom Summer Pilgrimage: An Atrocity We Must Never Forget". The Huffington Post. July 25, 2014. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
Ball, Howard (2004). "COFO's Mississippi 'Freedom Summer' Project". Murder in Mississippi. University Press of Kansas. p. 62.
Cagin, Seth; Dray, Philip (1988). "A Problem of Law Enforcement". We Are Not Afraid. Bantam Books. p. 329.
Farber, David (1994). The Age of Great Dreams: America in the 1960s. New York: Hill and Wang. p. 94.
"Neshoba Murders Case – A Chronology". Arkansas Delta Truth and Justice Center. Retrieved September 11, 2011.
Linder, Douglas O. "The Mississippi Burning Trial". Retrieved September 19, 2011.
Lynching of Chaney, Schwerner & Goodman ~ Civil Rights Movement Archive
Ball, Howard (2004). "COFO's Mississippi 'Freedom Summer' Project". Murder in Mississippi. University Press of Kansas. p. 64.
"Civil Rights: Grim Discovery in Mississippi". Time. June 22, 2005. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
Whitehead, Don (September 1970). "Murder in Mississippi". Reader's Digest: 214.
"Who Is Mr X In The Mississippi Burning Case?". Speaking For A Change. September 2, 2014. Retrieved December 14, 2015.
Moorer, Mickel (2019). Documents identifying whistle-blower. By Jerry Mitchell, December 2, 2007, The Clarion-Ledger, Jackson MS. FriesenPress. ISBN 978-1525554926.
"Mob moll says Mafiosi helped FBI". Yahoo!. October 29, 2007. Archived from the original on November 1, 2007.
Danne, Fredric. "The G-man and the Hit Man" New Yorker Magazine, December 16, 1996.
"Mob Solved 'Mississippi Burning' Murders?" ABC News
"GREG SCARPA SNR. Part Two". Mafia-International.com. Archived from the original on May 14, 2013. Retrieved October 3, 2011.
"The Eulogy – American Experience – PBS". Pbs.org. Retrieved October 14, 2017.
"Malcolm X in Oxford, Archive on 4 – BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved October 14, 2017.
Saladin Ambar, Malcolm X at Oxford Union: Racial Politics in a Global Era (Oxford University Press, 2014), p. 178
Nevin, David (December 1964). "Day of Accusation in Mississippi". Life. pp. 36–37.
Linder, Douglas O. (2012). "Mississippi Burning Trial: A Chronology". University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
Linder, Douglas O. "The Mississippi Burning Trial (United States vs. Price et al.): A Trial Account". law2.umkc.edu. Retrieved October 14, 2017.
Mitchell, Jerry (February 4, 2014). "Congressional honor sought for Freedom Summer martyrs". USA Today. Retrieved February 11, 2014 – via The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger.
Cagin, Seth; Philip Dray (1988). "Raise America Up". We Are Not Afraid. Bantam Books. p. 454.
Ladd, Donna (May 29, 2007). "Dredging Up the Past: Why Mississippians Must Tell Our Own Stories". Jackson Free Press. Retrieved October 15, 2011.
Bradford, Barry (September 2, 2012). "The Mississippi Burning Case Reopened – Today Show". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 13, 2021. Retrieved October 14, 2017.
"Home Page – Public & Motivational Speaker Barry Bradford". Speaking For A Change. Archived from the original on April 7, 2013. Retrieved October 14, 2017.
Mitchell, Jerry (December 2, 2007). "Documents Identify Whistle-blower", The Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, MS).
"How Mississippi Burning Was Reopened". MississippiBurning.org. Archived from the original on September 24, 2008. Retrieved September 21, 2011.
Broder, David S. (January 16, 2005). "Mississippi Healing". The Washington Post.
"Statement Asking for Justice in the June 21, 1964, Murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner" Archived February 16, 2019, at the Wayback Machine,The Neshoba Democrat. June 24, 2004. Retrieved July 7, 2011.
Dewan, Shaila (June 17, 2005). "Widow Recalls Ghosts of '64 at Rights Trial". The New York Times. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
Dewan, Shaila (June 22, 2005). "Ex-Klansman Guilty of Manslaughter in 1964 Deaths". The New York Times. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
"Mississippi: Convictions Upheld". The New York Times. Associated Press. April 13, 2007. Retrieved February 19, 2024.
Amy, Jeff (June 20, 2016). "Prosecutor: 'Mississippi Burning' Civil Rights Case Closed". Associated Press. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
Hayes, Sister Jan (October 29, 2020). "Fighting Voter Suppression: Living the Legacy of Mississippi Burning 56 Years Later". Sisters of Mercy. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
"Mississippi Burning". Federal Bureau of Investigation. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
"The Presidential Recordings: Lyndon B. Johnson". Texas Monthly. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
Kornbluth, Jesse (July 23, 1989). "The Struggle Continues". The New York Times. Archived from the original on February 24, 2010. Retrieved June 20, 2024.
"Miami names rooms for slain Freedom Summer activists". Retrieved May 18, 2021.
"Roots of Struggle" (PDF). Neshoba Justice. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
File:Mt. Zion Methodist Churchstate history marker in Neshoba County (alternate view).JPG
"Neshoba County". Mississippi Historical Markers. Retrieved December 16, 2015.
"Dedication of the Library Clock Tower IN MEMORY OF JAMES CHANEY, ANDREW GOODMAN & MICHAEL SCHWERNER." Program of dedication ceremony for Queens College clock tower, May 10, 1989, Queens College Department of Special Collections and Archives (New York, NY).
Kingson Bloom, Jennifer (October 30, 1994). "NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: UPPER WEST SIDE; Residents Shrinking as Freedom Place Is Slowly Sinking". The New York Times.
"The story behind a little-known West Side street". Ephemeral New York. April 24, 2009.
"Chimes concert to honor Schwerner, Chaney, Goodman". Cornell Chronicle. June 16, 2014.
Cole, Amy (June 20, 2014). "Free Screening of Freedom Summer at The Picture House". ArtsWestchester. Westchester Arts Council.
"Screening of "Freedom Summer" At The Picture House on June 22". The Pelhams-PLUS. June 11, 2014. Archived from the original on April 17, 2021. Retrieved July 13, 2014.
Harvey, Dennis (November 4, 2008). "Neshoba". Variety. Retrieved September 30, 2011.
"Norman Rockwell: Murder in Mississippi (June 14 – August 31, 2014; The Donna and Jim Barksdale Galleries for Changing Exhibitions)". Mississippi Museum of Art. Archived from the original on July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
Esaak, Shelley. "Murder in Mississippi (Southern Justice), 1965". About.com. Archived from the original on March 15, 2012. Retrieved July 7, 2011.
Oestreich, James R. (September 20, 2008). "All the Way Through Fateful Day for L.B.J." The New York Times. Retrieved March 27, 2010.
Seeger, Pete. "Those Three Are on My Mind". Pete Seeger Appreciation Page. Archived from the original on October 15, 2009. Retrieved July 25, 2009.
"Law & Order: 'Chosen'". TV.com. Archived from the original on May 31, 2009.
"Someone Knows Something". CBC. Retrieved November 15, 2017.
Further reading
Mississippi Burning, by Joel Norst. New American Library, 1988. ISBN 978-0-451-16049-2
The "Mississippi Burning" Civil Rights Murder Conspiracy Trial: A Headline Court Case, by Harvey Fireside. Enslow Publishers. 2002. ISBN 978-0-7660-1762-7
The Mississippi Burning Trial: A Primary Source Account, by Bill Scheppler. The Rosen Publishing Group. 2003. ISBN 978-0-8239-3972-5
Three Lives for Mississippi, by William Bradford Huie. University Press of Mississippi, 1965. ISBN 978-1-57806-247-8
"Untold Story of the Mississippi Murders", by William Bradford Huie, Saturday Evening Post September 5, 1964, No. 30, pp 11–15
We Are Not Afraid, by Seth Cagin and Philip Dray. Bantam Books. 1988. ISBN 0-553-35252-0
Witness in Philadelphia, by Florence Mars. Louisiana State University Press. 1977. ISBN 978-0-8071-0265-7
External links
"The Mississippi Burning Trial" by Douglas O. Linder, University of Missouri–Kansas City
"After Over Four Decades, Justice Still Eludes Family" – video report by Democracy Now!
FBI file on the case
vte
Lynching in the United States
List of lynching victims in the United States
Before 1900
Francis McIntosh (1836) Elijah Parish Lovejoy (1837) Josefa Segovia (1851) Pancho Daniel (1858) Joshua Boyd (1863) Henry Plummer (1864) Bill Sketoe (1864) Clubfoot George (1864) Steve Long, Ace and Con Moyer (1868) Wyatt Outlaw (1870) John W. Stephens (1870) Alexander Boyd (1870) Jim Williams (1871) David Jones (1872) Jo Reed (1875) Arthur St. Clair (1877) Michael Green (1878) Joseph Standing (1879) Big Nose George Parrott (1881) Charles Thurber (1882) John Wesley Heath (1884) Eliza Woods (1886) Samuel "Mingo Jack" Johnson (1886) Amos Miller (1888) Joseph Vermillion (1889) George Meadows (1889) Ellen Watson (1889) Brown Washington (1890) Jim Taylor (1891) Dick Lundy (1891) Joe Coe (1891) Robert Lewis (1892) Ephraim Grizzard (1892) Samuel J. Bush (1893) John Peterson (1893) Alfred Blount (1893) Henry Smith (1893) Richard Puryear (1894) Stephen Williams (1894) Amos Hicks (1894) Jacob Henson (1896) William Andrews (1897) Joseph H. McCoy (1897) John Anderson (1898) John Henry James (1898) F. W. Stewart (1898) Sam Hose (1899) Benjamin Thomas (1899)
1900–1940
Fred Rochelle (1901) Ballie Crutchfield (1901) George Ward (1901) Walker Davis (1903) J. D. Mayfield (1903) George White (1903) David Wyatt (1903) Marie Thompson (1904) Paul Reed and Will Cato (1904) Bunk Richardson (1906) Ed Johnson (1906) Slab Pitts (1906) William Burns (1907) Earnest Williams (1907) Jim Miller (1909) James Hodges (1909) Matthew Chase (1909) "Mose" Creole (1909) "Pie" Hill (1909) William "Froggie" James and Henry Salzner (1909) Grant Richardson (1910) King Johnson (1911) Name unknown (TX) (1911) Laura and L. D. Nelson (1911) Will Porter (1911) Zachariah Walker (1911) Mary Jackson (1912) Rob Edwards (1912) George Saunders (1912) Robert Perry (1913) ? Anderson (1913) Charles Fisher (1914) John Evans (1914) Leo Frank (1915) Name unknown (MS) (1915) Jesse Washington (1916) Anthony Crawford (1916) Jeff Brown (1916) Paulo Boleta (1916) Frank Little (1917) Charles Jones (1917) Ell Persons (1917) Robert Prager (1918) Mary Turner and her unborn baby (1918) Hazel "Hayes" Turner (1918) George Taylor (1918) Jim McIlherron (1918) Olli Kinkkonen (1918) Wallace Baynes (1919) Will Brown (1919) Wesley Everest (1919) John Hartfield (1919) Jay Lynch (1919) Berry Washington (1919) Willie Baird (1920) Roy Belton (1920) Dick Rowland (attempted) (1921) Henry Lowry (1921) James Harvey and Joe Jordan (1922) Joe Pullen (1923) Samuel Smith (1924) L. Q. Ivy (1925) Raymond Byrd (1926) James Clark (1926) Fred N. Selak (1926) Tom Payne (1927) John Carter (1927) Dan Anderson (1927) Will Sherod (1927) Bernice Raspberry (1927) Owen Flemming (1927) Joseph Upchurch (1927) Joe Smith (1927) Albert Williams (1927) Thomas Bradshaw (1927) Winston Pounds (1927) Thomas Williams (1927) Henry Choate (1927) Leonard Woods (1927) J. C. Collins (1928) George Hughes (1930) James Cameron (1930) Lynching of Raymond Gunn (1931) Matthew Williams (1931) Shedrick Thompson (1932) George Armwood (1933) Cordie Cheek (1933) Claude Neal (1934) Austin Callaway (1940) Elbert Williams (1940)
After 1940
Felix Hall (1941) Johannes Kunze (1943) Robert "Bobbie" Hall (1943) Willie James Howard (1944) Recy Taylor (1944) John Cecil Jones (1946) Willie Earle (1947) Lamar Smith (1955) George W. Lee (1955) Emmett Till (1955) Judge Edward Aaron (1957) Willie Edwards (1957) Mack Charles Parker (1959) Louis Allen (1964) Lemuel Penn (1964) Frank Morris (1964) James Reeb (1965) Vernon Dahmer (1966) Wharlest Jackson (1967) Carol Jenkins (1968) Henry Marrow (1970) Marian Pyszko (1975) Betty Gardner (1978) Arthur McDuffie (1979) Michael Donald (1981) Yusef Hawkins (1989) James Byrd Jr. (1998) James Craig Anderson (2011) Ahmaud Arbery (2020)
Multiple victims
Death of Joseph Smith (Joseph Smith, Hyrum Smith) (1844) Marais des Cygnes, KS, massacre (1858) Great Hanging at Gainesville, TX (1862) New York City draft riots (1863) Detroit race riot (1863) ? Lachenais and four others (1863) Fort Pillow, TN, massacre (1864) Plummer Gang (1864) Memphis massacre (1866) Gallatin County, KY, race riot (1866) New Orleans massacre of 1866 Reno Brothers Gang (1868) Camilla, GA, massacre (1868) Steve Long and two half-brothers (1868) Pulaski, TN, riot (1868) Samuel Bierfield and Lawrence Bowman (1868) Opelousas, LA, massacre (1868) Bear River City riot (1868) Chinese massacre of 1871 Meridian, MS, race riot (1871) Colfax, LA, massacre (1873) Election riot of 1874 (AL) Juan, Antonio, and Marcelo Moya (1874) Benjamin and Mollie French (1876) Ellenton, SC, riot (1876) Hamburg, SC, massacre (1876) Thibodeax, LA, massacre (1878) Mart and Tom Horrell (1878) Nevlin Porter and Johnson Spencer (1879) Elijah Frost, Abijah Gibson, Tom McCracken (1879) T.J. House, James West, John Dorsey (1880) New Orleans 1891 lynchings (1891) Ruggles Brothers (CA) (1892) Thomas Moss, Henry Stewart, Calvin McDowell (TN) (1892) Porter and Spencer (MS) (1897) Phoenix, SC, election riot (1898) Wilmington, NC, insurrection (1898) Julia and Frazier Baker (1898) Pana, IL, riot (1899) Watkinsville lynching (1905) 1906 Atlanta race massacre Kemper County, MS (1906) Walker family (1908) Springfield race riot of 1908 Slocum, TX, massacre (1910) Laura and L.D. Nelson (1911) Harris County, GA, lynchings (1912) Newberry, FL, lynchings (1916) East St. Louis, IL, riots (1917) Lynching rampage in Brooks County, GA (1918) Jenkins County, GA, riot (1919) Longview, TX, race riot (1919) Elaine, AR, race riot (1919) Omaha race riot of 1919 Knoxville riot of 1919 Red Summer (1919) Duluth, MN, lynchings (1920) Ocoee, FL, massacre (1920) Tulsa race massacre (1921) Perry, FL, race riot (1922) Rosewood, FL, massacre (1923) Jim and Mark Fox (1927) Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith (1930) Tate County, MS (1932) Thomas Harold Thurmond and John M. Holmes (1933) Roosevelt Townes and Robert McDaniels (1937) Beaumont, TX, Race Riot (1943) O'Day Short, wife, and two children (1945) Moore's Ford, GA, lynchings (1946) Harry and Harriette Moore (1952) Anniston, AL (1961) Freedom Summer Murders (James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner) (1964) Henry Hezekiah Dee and Charles Eddie Moore (1964)
General
Lynching Indiana White Caps Jim Crow laws Ku Klux Klan Nadir of American race relations Red Shirts Jews
Anti-lynching movement
American anti-lynching activists American Crusade Against Lynching Jessie Daniel Ames Martin C. Ansorge Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching Flossie Bailey William O'Connell Bradley Ella Barksdale Brown Father Divine "Flag Salute" N.A.A.C.P. National Conference on Lynching Paul Robeson "Strange Fruit" Ida B. Wells
Legislation
Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill Costigan-Wagner Bill Justice for Victims of Lynching Act Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act Emmett Till Antilynching Act
Defenders of lynching
Theodore G. Bilbo Cole L. Blease Julian S. Carr Sidney Johnston Catts Thomas Dixon Jr. Rebecca Latimer Felton John Temple Graves John Trotwood Moore John T. Morgan James Rolph Goodloe Sutton Benjamin Tillman James K. Vardaman Thomas E. Watson
Memory
America's Black Holocaust Museum Civil Rights Memorial The Legacy Museum National Memorial for Peace and Justice National Museum of African American History and Culture Southern Poverty Law Center
Related articles
James Allen (collector) "And you are lynching Negroes" Attack on John Shillady Battle of Liberty Place The Birth of a Nation The Clansman Deaths in police custody Fury (1936 film) Hang 'Em High Lynching postcard Mississippi Burning Mississippi Cold Case Murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson (1965) The Ox-Bow Incident Parade (musical) Reconstruction era Red Summer Scottsboro Boys Silent Parade Stone Mountain Summer in Mississippi Sundown town (list) They Won't Forget "The United States of Lyncherdom" (Twain) United States v. Shipp Vendetta (1999 film) Wilmington insurrection of 1898
Categories
Lynching in the United States Lynching deaths in the United States
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Civil rights movement (1954–1968)
Events
(timeline)
Prior to 1954
Journey of Reconciliation Executive Order 9981 Murders of Harry and Harriette Moore Sweatt v. Painter (1950) McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents (1950) Baton Rouge bus boycott
1954–1959
Brown v. Board of Education
Bolling v. Sharpe Briggs v. Elliott Davis v. Prince Edward County Gebhart v. Belton Sarah Keys v. Carolina Coach Company Emmett Till Montgomery bus boycott
Browder v. Gayle Tallahassee bus boycott Mansfield school desegregation 1957 Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom
"Give Us the Ballot" Royal Ice Cream sit-in Little Rock Nine
Cooper v. Aaron Civil Rights Act of 1957 Ministers' Manifesto Katz Drug Store sit-in Kissing Case Biloxi wade-ins
1960–1963
New Year's Day March Sit-in movement Greensboro sit-ins Nashville sit-ins Sibley Commission Atlanta sit-ins Savannah Protest
394
views
The Unknown Stories of American History (1995)
A People's History of the United States is a 1980 nonfiction book (updated in 2003) by American historian and political scientist Howard Zinn. In the book, Zinn presented what he considered to be a different side of history from the more traditional "fundamental nationalist glorification of country".[1] Zinn portrays a side of American history that can largely be seen as the exploitation and manipulation of the majority by rigged systems that hugely favor a small aggregate of elite rulers from across the orthodox political parties.
A People's History has been assigned as reading in many high schools and colleges across the United States.[2] It has also resulted in a change in the focus of historical work, which now includes stories that previously were ignored.[1] The book was a runner-up in 1980 for the National Book Award. It frequently has been revised, with the most recent edition covering events through 2002. In 2003, Zinn was awarded the Prix des Amis du Monde Diplomatique for the French version of this book Une histoire populaire des États-Unis.[3] More than two million copies have been sold.
In a 1998 interview, Zinn said he had set "quiet revolution" as his goal for writing A People's History. "Not a revolution in the classical sense of a seizure of power, but rather from people beginning to take power from within the institutions. In the workplace, the workers would take power to control the conditions of their lives."[4] In 2004, Zinn edited a primary source companion volume with Anthony Arnove, entitled Voices of a People's History of the United States.
A People's History of the United States has been criticized by various pundits and fellow historians. Critics, including professor Chris Beneke and Randall J. Stephens,[5] assert blatant omissions of important historical episodes, uncritical reliance on biased sources, and failure to examine opposing views.[6][7] Conversely, others have defended Zinn and the accuracy and intellectual integrity of his work.[8][9][10]
In a letter responding to a 2007 critical review of his A Young People's History of the United States (a release of the title for younger readers) in The New York Times Book Review, Zinn wrote:
My history ... describes the inspiring struggle of those who have fought slavery and racism (Frederick Douglass, William Lloyd Garrison, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses), of the labor organizers who have led strikes for the rights of working people (Big Bill Haywood, Mother Jones, César Chávez), of the socialists and others who have protested war and militarism (Eugene V. Debs, Helen Keller, the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, Cindy Sheehan). My hero is not Theodore Roosevelt, who loved war and congratulated a general after a massacre of Filipino villagers at the turn of the century, but Mark Twain, who denounced the massacre and satirized imperialism.[11][12] I want young people to understand that ours is a beautiful country, but it has been taken over by men who have no respect for human rights or constitutional liberties. Our people are basically decent and caring, and our highest ideals are expressed in the Declaration of Independence, which says that all of us have an equal right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The history of our country, I point out in my book, is a striving, against corporate robber barons and war makers, to make those ideals a reality—and all of us, of whatever age, can find immense satisfaction in becoming part of that.[13]
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The United States, Terrorism & Oklahoma City Federal Building Bombing (2000)
The Oklahoma City bombing was a domestic terrorist truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, on April 19, 1995, the second anniversary of the end to the Waco siege. At the time, the bombing was considered the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history; however, the Tulsa race massacre in 1921, also in Oklahoma, is now estimated to have claimed more lives.
Perpetrated by anti-government extremists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the bombing occurred at 9:02 a.m. and killed 168 people, injured 680, and destroyed more than one-third of the building, which had to be demolished. The blast destroyed or damaged 324 other buildings and caused an estimated $652 million worth of damage.[1][2][3] Local, state, federal, and worldwide agencies engaged in extensive rescue efforts in the wake of the bombing. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) activated 11 of its Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces, consisting of 665 rescue workers.[4][5]
Within 90 minutes of the explosion, McVeigh was stopped by Oklahoma Highway Patrolman Charlie Hanger for driving without a license plate and arrested for illegal weapons possession.[6][7] Forensic evidence quickly linked McVeigh and Nichols to the attack; Nichols was arrested,[8] and within days, both were charged. Michael and Lori Fortier were later identified as accomplices. McVeigh, a veteran of the Gulf War and a sympathizer with the U.S. militia movement, had detonated a Ryder rental truck full of explosives he parked in front of the building. Nichols had assisted with the bomb's preparation. Motivated by his dislike for the U.S. federal government and its handling of Ruby Ridge in 1992 and the Waco siege in 1993, McVeigh timed his attack to coincide with the second anniversary of the fire that ended the siege in Waco.[9][10] Though not confirmed to be a direct connection to the bombing, white supremacist Richard Snell previously expressed a desire to blow up the Murrah Federal Building 12 years before the bombing took place.[11][12]
The official FBI investigation, known as "OKBOMB", involved 28,000 interviews, 3,200 kg of evidence, and nearly one billion pieces of information.[13] When the FBI raided McVeigh's home, they found a telephone number that led them to a farm where McVeigh had purchased supplies for the bombing.[14][15][16] The bombers were tried and convicted in 1997. McVeigh was executed by lethal injection on June 11, 2001, at the U.S. federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana. Nichols was sentenced to life in prison in 2004. In response to the bombing, the U.S. Congress passed the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, which limited access to habeas corpus in the United States, among other provisions.[17] It also passed legislation to increase the protection around federal buildings to deter future terrorist attacks.
Events
PlanningMotive
An aerial view from a helicopter of the Mount Carmel Center building. Large columns of smoke are arising from the left side of the building from a fire. One side of the building shows extensive damage. The building is surrounded by dirt paths.
McVeigh and Nichols cited the federal government's actions against the Branch Davidian compound in the 1993 Waco siege (shown above) as a reason why they perpetrated the Oklahoma City bombing.
The chief conspirators, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, met in 1988 at Fort Benning during basic training for the U.S. Army.[18] McVeigh met Michael Fortier as his Army roommate.[19] The three shared interests in survivalism.[20][21] McVeigh and Nichols were radicalized by white supremacist and antigovernment propaganda.[22][23] They expressed anger at the federal government's handling of the 1992 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) standoff with Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge, as well as the Waco siege, a 51-day standoff in 1993 between the FBI and Branch Davidian members that began with a botched Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) attempt to execute a search warrant. There was a firefight and ultimately a siege of the compound, resulting in the burning and shooting deaths of David Koresh and 75 others.[24] In March 1993, McVeigh visited the Waco site during the standoff, and again after the siege ended.[25] He later decided to bomb a federal building as a response to the raids and to protest what he believed to be U.S. government efforts to restrict rights of private citizens, particularly those under the Second Amendment.[10][26][27][28][29] McVeigh believed that federal agents were acting like soldiers, thus making an attack on a federal building an attack on their command centers.[30]
Target selection
Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building as it appeared before its destruction
McVeigh later said that, instead of attacking a building, he had contemplated assassinating Attorney General Janet Reno; FBI sniper Lon Horiuchi, who had become infamous among extremists because of his participation in the Ruby Ridge and Waco sieges; and others. McVeigh claimed he sometimes regretted not carrying out an assassination campaign.[27][31] He initially intended to destroy only a federal building, but he later decided that his message would be more powerful if many people were killed in the bombing.[32] McVeigh's criterion for attack sites was that the target should house at least two of these three federal law enforcement agencies: the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). He regarded the presence of additional law enforcement agencies, such as the Secret Service or the U.S. Marshals Service, as a bonus.[33]
A resident of Kingman, Arizona, McVeigh considered targets in Missouri, Arizona, Texas, and Arkansas.[33] He said in his authorized biography that he wanted to minimize non-governmental casualties, so he ruled out Simmons Tower, a 40-story building in Little Rock, Arkansas, because a florist's shop occupied space on the ground floor.[34] In December 1994, McVeigh and Fortier visited Oklahoma City to inspect what would become the target of their campaign: the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.[26]
The nine-story building, built in 1977, was named for a federal judge and housed 14 federal agencies, including the DEA, ATF, Social Security Administration, and recruiting offices for the Army and Marine Corps.[35]
McVeigh chose the Murrah building because he expected its glass front to shatter under the impact of the blast. He also believed that its adjacent large, open parking lot across the street might absorb and dissipate some of the force, and protect the occupants of nearby non-federal buildings.[34] In addition, McVeigh believed that the open space around the building would provide better photo opportunities for propaganda purposes.[34] He planned the attack for April 19, 1995, to coincide with not only the second anniversary of the Waco siege but also the 220th anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord during the American Revolution.[36] Rumors have also alleged that the bombing was also connected to the planned execution of Richard Snell, an Arkansas white supremacist who was a member of the Covenant, the Sword, and the Arm of the Lord (CSA) and who was set to be executed the day the bombing took place.[37] Prior to his execution, Snell "predicted" that a bombing would take place that day.[37] Though his execution was not confirmed to be a motive for the bombing, Fort Smith–based federal prosecutor Steven Snyder told the FBI in May 1995 that Snell wanted to blow up the Oklahoma City building as revenge for the IRS raiding his home.[38][11][12]
Gathering materials
A detailed map of Herington, Kansas, the general location where McVeigh and Nichols stored the ammonium nitrate fertilizer used for the construction of the bomb. The actual location of the storage unit was located along US Highway 77, adjacent to a Pizza Hut.
McVeigh and Nichols purchased or stole the materials they needed to manufacture the bomb and stored them in rented sheds. In August 1994, McVeigh obtained nine binary-explosive Kinestiks from gun collector Roger E. Moore, and with Nichols ignited the devices outside Nichols's home in Herington, Kansas.[39][40] On September 30, 1994, Nichols bought forty 50-pound (23 kg) bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer from Mid-Kansas Coop in McPherson, Kansas, enough to fertilize 12.5 acres (5.1 hectares) of farmland at a rate of 160 pounds (73 kg) of nitrogen per acre (.4 ha), an amount commonly used for corn. Nichols bought an additional 50-pound (23 kg) bag on October 18, 1994.[26] McVeigh approached Fortier and asked him to assist with the bombing project, but he refused.[41][42]
McVeigh and Nichols robbed Moore in his home of $60,000 worth of guns, gold, silver, and jewels, transporting the property in the victim's van.[41] McVeigh wrote Moore a letter in which he claimed that government agents had committed the robbery.[43] Items stolen from Moore were later found in Nichols's home and in a storage shed he had rented.[44][45]
In October 1994, McVeigh showed Michael and his wife Lori Fortier a diagram he had drawn of the bomb he wanted to build.[46] McVeigh planned to construct a bomb containing more than 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer mixed with about 1,200 pounds (540 kg) of liquid nitromethane and 350 pounds (160 kg) of Tovex. Including the weight of the sixteen 55-gallon drums in which the explosive mixture was to be packed, the bomb would have a combined weight of about 7,000 pounds (3,200 kg).[47] McVeigh originally intended to use hydrazine rocket fuel, but it proved too expensive.[41]
McVeigh and his accomplices then attempted to purchase 55-U.S.-gallon (46 imp gal; 210 L) drums of nitromethane at various NHRA Drag Racing Series events during the season. His first attempt was at the Sears Craftsman Nationals, held at Heartland Motorsports Park in Pauline, Kansas. World Wide Racing Fuels representative Steve LeSueur, one of three dealers of nitromethane, was at his unit when he noted a "young man in fatigues" wanted to purchase nitromethane and hydrazine. Another fuel salesman, Glynn Tipton, of VP Racing Fuels, testified on May 1, 1997, about McVeigh's attempts to purchase both nitromethane and hydrazine. After the event, Tipton informed Wade Gray of Texas Allied Chemical, a chemical agent for VP Racing Fuels, who informed Tipton of the explosiveness of a nitromethane and hydrazine mixture. McVeigh, using an assumed name, then called Tipton's office. Suspicious of his behavior, Tipton refused to sell McVeigh the fuel.[48]
The next round of the NHRA championship tour was the Chief Auto Parts Nationals at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas, where McVeigh posed as a motorcycle racer and attempted to purchase nitromethane on the pretext that he and some fellow bikers needed it for racing. However, there were no nitromethane-powered motorcycles at the meeting, and he did not have an NHRA competition license. LeSueur again refused to sell McVeigh the fuel because he was suspicious of McVeigh's actions and attitudes, but VP Racing Fuels representative Tim Chambers sold McVeigh three barrels.[49] Chambers questioned the purchase of three barrels, when typically no more than five gallons would be purchased by a Top Fuel Harley rider, and the class was not even raced that weekend.
McVeigh rented a storage space in which he stockpiled seven crates of 18-inch-long (46 cm) Tovex "sausages", 80 spools of shock tube, and 500 electric blasting caps, which he and Nichols had stolen from a Martin Marietta Aggregates quarry in Marion, Kansas. He decided not to steal any of the 40,000 pounds (18,000 kg) of ANFO (ammonium nitrate/fuel oil) he found at the scene, as he did not believe it was powerful enough (he did obtain 17 bags of ANFO from another source for use in the bomb). McVeigh made a prototype bomb that was detonated in the desert to avoid detection.[50]
Think about the people as if they were storm troopers in Star Wars. They may be individually innocent, but they are guilty because they work for the Evil Empire.
—McVeigh reflecting on the deaths of victims in the bombing[51]
Later, speaking about the military mindset with which he went about the preparations, he said, "You learn how to handle killing in the military. I face the consequences, but you learn to accept it." He compared his actions to the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, rather than the attack on Pearl Harbor, reasoning it was necessary to prevent more lives from being lost.[51]
A detailed map of Junction City, Kansas (city limits in dark yellow), the general location where McVeigh purchased the Ryder truck used for the bomb. Grandview Plaza, the former location of the Dreamland Motel where McVeigh stayed in, is just to the east of Junction City along Interstate 70 (pink).
On April 14, 1995, McVeigh paid for a motel room at the Dreamland Motel in Junction City, Kansas.[52] The next day, he rented a 1993 Ford F-700 truck from Ryder under the name Robert D. Kling, an alias he adopted because he knew an Army soldier named Kling with whom he shared physical characteristics, and because it reminded him of the Klingon warriors of Star Trek.[53][54] On April 16, 1995, he and Nichols drove to Oklahoma City, where he parked a getaway car, a yellow 1977 Mercury Marquis, several blocks from the Murrah Federal Building.[55] The nearby Regency Towers Apartments' lobby security camera recorded images of Nichols's blue 1984 GMC pickup truck on April 16.[56] After removing the car's license plate, he left a note covering the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) plate that read, "Not abandoned. Please do not tow. Will move by April 23. (Needs battery & cable)."[26][57] Both men then returned to Kansas.
Building the bomb
Geary County, Kansas (in red), where Geary Lake is located. This is where McVeigh and Nichols constructed the bomb.
On April 17–18, 1995, McVeigh and Nichols removed the bomb supplies from their storage unit in Herington, Kansas, where Nichols lived, and loaded them into the Ryder rental truck.[58] They then drove to Geary Lake State Park, where they nailed boards onto the floor of the truck to hold the 13 barrels in place and mixed the chemicals using plastic buckets and a bathroom scale.[59] Each filled barrel weighed nearly 500 pounds (230 kg).[60] McVeigh added more explosives to the driver's side of the cargo bay so he could ignite at close range with his Glock 21 pistol in case the primary fuses failed.[61] During McVeigh's trial, Lori Fortier stated that McVeigh claimed to have arranged the barrels in order to form a shaped charge.[46] This was achieved by tamping (placing material against explosives opposite the target of the explosion) the aluminum side panel of the truck with bags of ammonium nitrate fertilizer to direct the blast laterally towards the building.[62] Specifically, McVeigh arranged the barrels in the shape of a backwards "J"; he later said that for pure destructive power, he would have put the barrels on the side of the cargo bay closest to the Murrah Building; however, such an unevenly distributed 7,000-pound (3,200 kg) load might have broken an axle, flipped the truck over, or at least caused it to lean to one side, which could have drawn attention.[60] All or most of the barrels of ANNM (ammonium nitrate–nitromethane mixture) contained metal cylinders of acetylene intended to increase the fireball and the brisance of the explosion.[63]
McVeigh then added a dual-fuse ignition system accessible from the truck's front cab. He drilled two holes in the cab of the truck under the seat, while two more holes were drilled in the body of the truck. One green cannon fuse was run through each hole into the cab. These time-delayed fuses led from the cab through plastic fish-tank tubing conduit to two sets of non-electric blasting caps which would ignite around 350 pounds (160 kg) of the high-grade explosives that McVeigh stole from a rock quarry.[60] The tubing was painted yellow to blend in with the truck's livery, and duct-taped in place to the wall to make it harder to disable by yanking from the outside.[60] The fuses were set up to initiate, through shock tubes, the 350 pounds (160 kg) of Tovex Blastrite Gel sausages, which would in turn set off the configuration of barrels. Of the 13 filled barrels, nine contained ammonium nitrate and nitromethane, and four contained a mixture of the fertilizer and about 4 U.S. gallons (3.3 imp gal; 15 L) of diesel fuel.[60] Additional materials and tools used for manufacturing the bomb were left in the truck to be destroyed in the blast.[60] After finishing the truck bomb, the two men separated; Nichols returned home to Herington and McVeigh traveled with the truck to Junction City. The bomb cost about $5,000 (equivalent to about $11,000 in 2023) to make.[64]
Bombing
Map showing the layout of downtown Oklahoma City near the bombed building. The map uses simple shapes to identify some notable nearby buildings and roads. A large circle covers half the map, illustrating the extent of damage from the bomb. A red path shows the path McVeigh took to get to the building with the Ryder truck, and a blue line shows his escape on foot.
McVeigh's movement in the Ryder truck (red dashed line) and escape on foot (blue dashed line) on the day of the bombing
McVeigh's original plan had been to detonate the bomb at 11:00 a.m., but at dawn on April 19, 1995, he decided instead to destroy the building at 9:00 a.m.[65] As he drove toward the Murrah Federal Building in the Ryder truck, McVeigh carried with him an envelope containing pages from The Turner Diaries—a fictional account of white supremacists who ignite a revolution by blowing up the FBI headquarters at 9:15 one morning using a truck bomb.[26] McVeigh wore a printed T-shirt with Sic semper tyrannis ("Thus always to tyrants")—what according to legend Brutus said as he assassinated Julius Caesar and is also claimed to have been shouted by John Wilkes Booth immediately after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln—and "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants" (from Thomas Jefferson).[36] He also carried an envelope full of revolutionary materials that included a bumper sticker with the slogan, falsely attributed[66] to Thomas Jefferson, "When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny." Underneath, McVeigh had written, "Maybe now, there will be liberty!" with a hand-copied quote by John Locke asserting that a man has a right to kill someone who takes away his liberty.[26][67]
McVeigh entered Oklahoma City at 8:50 a.m.[68] At 8:57 a.m., the Regency Towers Apartments' lobby security camera that had recorded Nichols's pickup truck three days earlier recorded the Ryder truck heading towards the Murrah Federal Building.[69] At the same moment, McVeigh lit the five-minute fuse. Three minutes later, still a block away, he lit the two-minute fuse. He parked the Ryder truck in a drop-off zone situated under the building's day-care center, exited, and locked the truck. As he headed to his getaway vehicle, he dropped the keys to the truck a few blocks away.[70]
An overhead view shows the Alfred P. Murrah building, half of it destroyed from the bomb's blast. Near the building are various rescue vehicles and cranes. Some damage is visible to nearby buildings.
An aerial view, looking from the north, of the destruction
At 9:02 a.m. (14:02 UTC), the Ryder truck, containing over 4,800 pounds (2,200 kg)[71] of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, nitromethane, and diesel fuel mixture, detonated in front of the north side of the nine-story Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.[46] In total, 168 people were killed and hundreds more injured. One-third of the building was destroyed by the explosion,[72] which created a 30-foot-wide (9.1 m), 8-foot-deep (2.4 m) crater on NW 5th Street next to the building.[73] The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a four-block radius, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings.[1][2] The broken glass alone accounted for five percent of the death total and 69 percent of the injuries outside the Murrah Federal Building.[2] The blast destroyed or burned 86 cars around the site.[1][74] The destruction of the buildings left several hundred people homeless and shut down a number of offices in downtown Oklahoma City.[75] The explosion was estimated to have caused at least $652 million worth of damage.[76]
The effects of the blast were equivalent to over 5,000 pounds (2,300 kg) of TNT,[62][77] and could be heard and felt up to 55 miles (89 km) away.[75] Seismometers at the Omniplex Science Museum in Oklahoma City, 4.3 miles (6.9 km) away, and in Norman, Oklahoma, 16.1 miles (25.9 km) away, recorded the blast as measuring approximately 3.0 on the Richter magnitude scale.[78]
The collapse of the northern half of the building took roughly seven seconds. As the truck exploded, it first destroyed the column next to it, designated as G20, and shattered the entire glass facade of the building. The shockwave of the explosion forced the lower floors upwards, before the fourth and fifth floors collapsed onto the third floor, which housed a transfer beam that ran the length of the building and was being supported by four pillars below, as well as supporting the pillars that hold the upper floors. The added weight meant that the third floor gave way along with the transfer beam, which in turn caused the collapse of the building.[79]
Arrests
Initially, the FBI had three hypotheses about responsibility for the bombing: international terrorists, possibly the same group that had carried out the World Trade Center bombing; a drug cartel, carrying out an act of vengeance against DEA agents in the building's DEA office; and anti-government radicals attempting to start a rebellion against the federal government.[80]
An FBI sketch is shown on the left of the image on the suspected bomber looking forward, and on the right, an image of McVeigh looking at the camera. Two brown bars are visible on the top and bottom of the comparison image.
FBI sketch (left) and McVeigh (right).
McVeigh was arrested within 90 minutes of the explosion,[81] as he was traveling north on Interstate 35 near Perry in Noble County, Oklahoma. Oklahoma State Trooper Charlie Hanger stopped McVeigh for driving his yellow 1977 Mercury Marquis without a license plate, and arrested him for having a concealed weapon.[6][82] For his home address, McVeigh falsely claimed he resided at Terry Nichols's brother James's house in Michigan.[83] After booking McVeigh into jail, Trooper Hanger searched his patrol car and found a business card which had been concealed by McVeigh after being handcuffed.[84] Written on the back of the card, which was from a Wisconsin military surplus store, were the words "TNT at $5 a stick. Need more."[85] The card was later used as evidence during McVeigh's trial.[85]
While investigating the VIN on an axle of the truck used in the explosion and the remnants of the license plate, federal agents were able to link the truck to a specific Ryder rental agency in Junction City, Kansas. Using a sketch created with the assistance of Eldon Elliot, owner of the agency, the agents were able to implicate McVeigh in the bombing.[14][26][86] McVeigh was also identified by Lea McGown of the Dreamland Motel, who remembered him parking a large yellow Ryder truck in the lot; McVeigh had signed in under his real name at the motel, using an address that matched the one on his forged license and the charge sheet at the Perry Police Station.[7][26] Before signing his real name at the motel, McVeigh had used false names for his transactions. However, McGown noted, "People are so used to signing their own name that when they go to sign a phony name, they almost always go to write, and then look up for a moment as if to remember the new name they want to use. That's what [McVeigh] did, and when he looked up I started talking to him, and it threw him."[26]
McVeigh is located at the center of the image in a dark hallway wearing an orange jumpsuit and looking to the side. Around him are several FBI agents and police officers.
McVeigh about to exit the Perry, Oklahoma, courthouse on April 21, 1995
After an April 21, 1995, court hearing on the gun charges, but before McVeigh's release, federal agents took him into custody as they continued their investigation into the bombing.[26] Rather than talk to investigators about the bombing, McVeigh demanded an attorney. Having been tipped off by the arrival of police and helicopters that a bombing suspect was inside, a restless crowd began to gather outside the jail. While McVeigh's requests for a bulletproof vest or transport by helicopter were denied,[87] authorities did use a helicopter to transport him from Perry to Oklahoma City.[88]
Federal agents obtained a warrant to search the house of McVeigh's father, Bill, after which they broke down the door and wired the house and telephone with listening devices.[89] FBI investigators used the resulting information gained, along with the fake address McVeigh had been using, to begin their search for the Nichols brothers, Terry and James.[83] On April 21, 1995, Terry Nichols learned that he was being hunted, and turned himself in.[8] Investigators discovered incriminating evidence at his home: ammonium nitrate and blasting caps, the electric drill used to drill out the locks at the quarry, books on bomb-making, a copy of Hunter (a 1989 novel by William Luther Pierce, the founder and chairman of the National Alliance, a white nationalist group) and a hand-drawn map of downtown Oklahoma City, on which the Murrah Building and the spot where McVeigh's getaway car was hidden were marked.[90][91] After a nine-hour interrogation, Terry Nichols was formally held in federal custody until his trial.[92] On April 25, 1995, James Nichols was also arrested, but he was released after 32 days due to lack of evidence.[93] McVeigh's sister Jennifer was accused of illegally mailing ammunition to McVeigh,[94] but she was granted immunity in exchange for testifying against him.[95]
A Jordanian-American man traveling from his home in Oklahoma City to visit family in Jordan on April 19, 1995, was detained and questioned by the FBI at the airport. Several Arab-American groups criticized the FBI for racial profiling, and the subsequent media coverage for publicizing the man's name.[96][97] Attorney General Reno denied claims that the federal government relied on racial profiling, while FBI director Louis J. Freeh told a press conference that the man was never a suspect, and was instead treated as a "witness" to the Oklahoma City bombing, who assisted the government's investigation.[98]
Casualties
Diagram of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building with different color triangles on each floor. Some floors have more triangles than others, as well as different color ones. The title of the image is located on top, while a legend explaining the meaning of the different color triangles is on the bottom right.
Floor-by-floor diagram detailing the location of the victims in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.
An estimated 646 people were inside the building when the bomb exploded.[99] By the end of the day, 14 adults and six children were confirmed dead, and over 100 injured.[100] The toll eventually reached 168 confirmed dead, not including an unmatched left leg that could have belonged to an unidentified 169th victim.[101][102] Most of the deaths resulted from the collapse of the building, rather than the bomb blast itself.[103] Those killed included 163 who were in the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, one person in the Athenian Building, one woman in a parking lot across the street, a man and woman in the Oklahoma Water Resources building and a rescue worker struck on the head by debris.[104]
The victims ranged in age from three months to 73 years and included three pregnant women.[105][104] Of the dead, 108 worked for the Federal government: Drug Enforcement Administration (5); Secret Service (6); Department of Housing and Urban Development (35); Department of Agriculture (7); Customs Office (2); Department of Transportation/Federal Highway Administration (11); General Services Administration (2); and the Social Security Administration (40).[106] Eight of the federal government victims were federal law enforcement agents. Of those law enforcement agents, four were members of the U.S. Secret Service; two were members of the U.S. Customs Service; one was a member of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and one was a member of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Six of the victims were U.S. military personnel; two were members of the U.S. Army; two were members of the U.S. Air Force, and two were members of the U.S. Marine Corps.[104][107] The victims also included 19 children, of whom 15 were in the America's Kids Day Care Center.[108] The bodies of the 168 victims were identified at a temporary morgue set up at the scene.[109] A team of 24 identified the victims using full-body X-rays, dental examinations, fingerprinting, blood tests, and DNA testing.[106][110][111] More than 680 people were injured. The majority of the injuries were abrasions, severe burns, and bone fractures.[112]
McVeigh later acknowledged the casualties, saying, "I didn't define the rules of engagement in this conflict. The rules, if not written down, are defined by the aggressor. It was brutal, no holds barred. Women and kids were killed at Waco and Ruby Ridge. You put back in [the government's] faces exactly what they're giving out." He later stated, "I wanted the government to hurt like the people of Waco and Ruby Ridge had."[113]
Response and relief
Rescue efforts
Several Air Force members and firefighters are clearing debris from the damaged building. Several yellow buckets are visible, which are being used to hold the debris. The destruction of the bombing is visible behind the rescuers.
U.S. Air Force personnel and firefighters removing rubble in the rescue attempt
At 9:03 a.m., the first of over 1,800 911 calls related to the bombing were received by Emergency Medical Services Authority (EMSA).[114] By that time, EMSA ambulances, police, and firefighters had heard the blast and were already headed to the scene.[115] Nearby civilians, who had also witnessed or heard the blast, arrived to assist the victims and emergency workers.[72] Within 23 minutes of the bombing, the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) was set up, consisting of representatives from the state departments of public safety, human services, military, health, and education. Assisting the SEOC were agencies including the National Weather Service, the Air Force, the Civil Air Patrol, and the American Red Cross.[4] Immediate assistance also came from 465 members of the Oklahoma National Guard, who arrived within the hour to provide security, and from members of the Department of Civil Emergency Management.[115] Terrance Yeakey and Jim Ramsey, from the Oklahoma City Police Department, were among the first officers to arrive at the site.[116][117][118]
The EMS command post was set up almost immediately following the attack and oversaw triage, treatment, transportation, and decontamination. A simple plan/objective was established: treatment and transportation of the injured was to be done as quickly as possible, supplies and personnel to handle a large number of patients was needed immediately, the dead needed to be moved to a temporary morgue until they could be transferred to the coroner's office, and measures for a long-term medical operation needed to be established.[119] The triage center was set up near the Murrah Building and all the wounded were directed there. Two hundred and ten patients were transported from the primary triage center to nearby hospitals within the first couple of hours following the bombing.[119]
Within the first hour, 50 people were rescued from the Murrah Federal Building.[120] Victims were sent to every hospital in the area. The day of the bombing, 153 people were treated at St. Anthony Hospital, eight blocks from the blast, over 70 people were treated at Presbyterian Hospital, 41 people were treated at University Hospital, and 18 people were treated at Children's Hospital.[121] Temporary silences were observed at the blast site so that sensitive listening devices capable of detecting human heartbeats could be used to locate survivors. In some cases, limbs had to be amputated without anesthetics (avoided because of the potential to induce shock) in order to free those trapped under rubble.[122] The scene had to be periodically evacuated as the police received tips claiming that other bombs had been planted in the building.[87]
At 10:28 a.m., rescuers found what they believed to be a second bomb. Some rescue workers refused to leave until police ordered the mandatory evacuation of a four-block area around the site.[114][123] The device was determined to be a three-foot (.9-m) long TOW missile used in the training of federal agents and bomb-sniffing dogs;[1][124] although actually inert, it had been marked "live" in order to mislead arms traffickers in a planned law enforcement sting.[124] On examination the missile was determined to be inert, and relief efforts resumed 45 minutes later.[124][125] The last survivor, a 15-year-old girl found under the base of the collapsed building, was rescued at around 7 p.m.[126]
In the days following the blast, over 12,000 people participated in relief and rescue operations. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) activated 11 of its Urban Search and Rescue Task Forces, bringing in 665 rescue workers.[4][5] One nurse was killed in the rescue attempt after she was hit on the head by debris, and 26 other rescuers were hospitalized because of various injuries.[127] Twenty-four K-9 units and out-of-state dogs were brought in to search for survivors and bodies in the building debris.[1][128][129] In an effort to recover additional bodies, 100 to 350 short tons (91 to 318 t) of rubble were removed from the site each day from April 24 to 29.[130]
The Alfred P. Murrah building is being demolished, and the image shows the building in mid-collapse. A Ryder truck is visible at the bottom left, and the Regency Towers building can be seen in the background at the far right. The demolition has created large clouds of dust that take up a portion of the image.
The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building being demolished on May 23, 1995, over a month after the incident. The bomb used in the attack was housed in a Ryder truck similar to the one visible in the lower left of the photograph.
Rescue and recovery efforts were concluded at 12:05 a.m. on May 5, by which time the bodies of all but three of the victims had been recovered.[72] For safety reasons, the building was initially slated to be demolished shortly afterward. McVeigh's attorney, Stephen Jones, filed a motion to delay the demolition until the defense team could examine the site in preparation for the trial.[131] At 7:02 a.m. on May 23, more than a month after the bombing, the Murrah Federal building was demolished.[72][132] The EMS Command Center remained active and was staffed 24 hours a day until the demolition.[119] The final three bodies to be recovered were those of two credit union employees and a customer.[133] For several days after the building's demolition, trucks hauled away 800 short tons (730 t) of debris a day from the site. Some of the debris was used as evidence in the conspirators' trials, incorporated into memorials, donated to local schools, or sold to raise funds for relief efforts.[134]
Humanitarian aid
The national humanitarian response was immediate, and in some cases even overwhelming. Large numbers of items such as wheelbarrows, bottled water, helmet lights, knee pads, rain gear, and even football helmets were donated.[4][80] The sheer quantity of such donations caused logistical and inventory control problems until drop-off centers were set up to accept and sort the goods.[72] The Oklahoma Restaurant Association, which was holding a trade show in the city, assisted rescue workers by providing 15,000 to 20,000 meals over ten days.[135]
The Salvation Army served over 100,000 meals and provided over 100,000 ponchos, gloves, hard hats, and knee pads to rescue workers.[136] Local residents and those from further afield responded to the requests for blood donations.[137][138] Of the over 9,000 units of blood donated, 131 were used; the rest were stored in blood banks.[139]
Federal and state government aid
A document showing Bill Clinton's message to victims. Some of the typed text has been scribbled out and replaced with hand-written text.
Bill Clinton's notes for address to the Oklahoma City bombing victims on April 23, 1995
At 9:45 a.m., Governor Frank Keating declared a state of emergency and ordered all non-essential workers in the Oklahoma City area to be released from their duties for their safety.[72] President Bill Clinton learned about the bombing at around 9:30 a.m. while he was meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller at the White House.[100][140] Before addressing the nation, President Clinton considered grounding all planes in the Oklahoma City area to prevent the bombers from escaping by air, but decided against it.[141] At 4:00 p.m., President Clinton declared a federal emergency in Oklahoma City[115] and spoke to the nation:[100]
The bombing in Oklahoma City was an attack on innocent children and defenseless citizens. It was an act of cowardice and it was evil. The United States will not tolerate it, and I will not allow the people of this country to be intimidated by evil cowards.
He ordered that flags for all federal buildings be flown at half-staff for 30 days in remembrance of the victims.[142] Four days later, on April 23, 1995, Clinton spoke from Oklahoma City.[143]
No major federal financial assistance was made available to the survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing, but the Murrah Fund set up in the wake of the bombing attracted over $300,000 in federal grants.[4] Over $40 million was donated to the city to aid disaster relief and to compensate the victims. Funds were initially distributed to families who needed it to get back on their feet, and the rest was held in trust for longer-term medical and psychological needs. By 2005, $18 million of the donations remained, some of which was earmarked to provide a college education for each of the 219 children who lost one or both parents in the bombing.[144] A committee chaired by Daniel Kurtenbach of Goodwill Industries provided financial assistance to the survivors.[145]
International reaction
International reactions to the bombing varied. President Clinton received many messages of sympathy, including those from Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, Yasser Arafat of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and P. V. Narasimha Rao of India.[146] Iran condemned the bombing as an attack on innocent people, but also blamed the U.S. government's policies for inciting it.[citation needed] Other condolences came from Russia, Canada, Australia, the United Nations, and the European Union, among other nations and organizations.[146][147]
Several countries offered to assist in both the rescue efforts and the investigation. France offered to send a special rescue unit,[146] and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin offered to send agents with anti-terrorist expertise to help in the investigation.[147] President Clinton declined Israel's offer, believing that accepting it would increase anti-Muslim sentiments and endanger Muslim-Americans.[141]
Children affected
A firefighter is holding a dying toddler in his arms, and he is looking down at her. The toddler has blood on her head, arms, and legs, and is wearing white socks.
Charles Porter's photograph of firefighter Chris Fields holding the dying infant Baylee Almon won the Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography in 1996.[148]
In the wake of the bombing, the national media focused on the fact that 19 of the victims had been babies and children, many in the day-care center. At the time of the bombing, there were 100 day-care centers in the United States in 7,900 federal buildings.[141] McVeigh later stated that he was unaware of the day-care center when choosing the building as a target, and if he had known "... it might have given me pause to switch targets. That's a large amount of collateral damage."[149] The FBI stated that McVeigh scouted the interior of the building in December 1994 and likely knew of the day-care center before the bombing.[26][149] This was corroborated by Nichols, who said that he and McVeigh did know about the daycare center in the building, and that they did not care.[150][151] In April 2010, Joseph Hartzler, the prosecutor at McVeigh's trial, questioned how McVeigh could have decided to pass over a prior target building because of a florist shop but at the Murrah building, not "... notice that there's a child day-care center there, that there was a credit union there and a Social Security office?"[152]
Schools across the country were dismissed early and ordered closed. A photograph of firefighter Chris Fields emerging from the rubble with infant Baylee Almon, who later died in a nearby hospital, was reprinted worldwide and became a symbol of the attack. The photo, taken by bank employee Charles H. Porter IV, won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography and appeared on newspapers and magazines for months following the attack.[153][154] Aren Almon Kok, mother of Baylee Almon, said of the photo, "It was very hard to go to stores because they are in the check out aisle. It was always there. It was devastating. Everybody had seen my daughter dead. And that's all she became to them. She was a symbol. She was the girl in the fireman's arms. But she was a real person that got left behind."[155]
The images and media reports of children dying terrorized many children who, as demonstrated by later research, showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.[156] Children became a primary focus of concern in the mental health response to the bombing and many bomb-related services were delivered to the community, young and old alike. These services were delivered to public schools of Oklahoma and reached approximately 40,000 students. One of the first organized mental health activities in Oklahoma City was a clinical study of middle and high school students conducted seven weeks after the bombing. The study focused on middle and high school students who had no connection or relationship to the victims of the bombing. This study showed that these students, although deeply moved by the event and showing a sense of vulnerability on the matter, had no difficulty with the demands of school or home life, as contrasted to those who were connected to the bombing and its victims, who had post-traumatic stress disorder.[157]
Children were also affected through the loss of parents in the bombing. Many children lost one or both parents in the blast, with a reported seven children losing their only remaining parent. Children of the disaster have been raised by single parents, foster parents, and other family members. Adjusting to the loss has made these children suffer psychologically and emotionally. One orphan who was interviewed (of the at least ten orphaned children) reported sleepless nights and an obsession with death.[158]
President Clinton stated that after seeing images of babies being pulled from the wreckage, he was "beyond angry" and wanted to "put [his] fist through the television".[159] Clinton and his wife Hillary requested that aides talk to child care specialists about how to communicate with children regarding the bombing. President Clinton said to the nation three days after the bombing, "I don't want our children to believe something terrible about life and the future and grownups in general because of this awful thing ... most adults are good people who want to protect our children in their childhood and we are going to get through this".[160] On April 22, 1995, the Clintons spoke in the White House with over 40 federal agency employees and their children, and in a live nationwide television and radio broadcast, addressed their concerns.[161][162]
Media coverage
Hundreds of news trucks and members of the press arrived at the site to cover the story. The press immediately noticed that the bombing took place on the second anniversary of the Waco incident.[100]
Many initial news stories hypothesized the attack had been undertaken by Islamic terrorists, such as those who had masterminded the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.[163][164][165] Some media reported that investigators wanted to question men of Middle Eastern appearance.[166] Hamzi Moghrabi, chairman of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, blamed the media for harassment of Muslims and Arabs that took place after the bombing.[167]
As the rescue effort wound down, the media interest shifted to the investigation, arrests, and trials of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, and on the search for an additional suspect named "John Doe Number Two." Several witnesses claimed to have seen a second suspect, who did not resemble Nichols, with McVeigh.[168][169]
Those who expressed sympathy for McVeigh typically described his deed as an act of war, as in the case of Gore Vidal's essay The Meaning of Timothy McVeigh.[170][171]
Trials and sentencing of the conspirators
A woman, at the left of the image, is reading a black spray paint message written on a brick wall. The message reads "Team 5 4–19–95 We Search For the truth We Seek Justice. The Courts Require it. The Victims Cry for it. And God Demands it!"
Rescue Team 5 remembers the victims who died in the bombing.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) led the official investigation, known as OKBOMB,[172] with Weldon L. Kennedy acting as special agent in charge.[173] Kennedy oversaw 900 federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel, including 300 FBI agents, 200 officers from the Oklahoma City Police Department, 125 members of the Oklahoma National Guard, and 55 officers from the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety.[174] The crime task force was deemed the largest since the investigation into the assassination of John F. Kennedy.[174] OKBOMB was the largest criminal case in America's history, with FBI agents conducting 28,000 interviews, amassing 3.5 short tons (3.2 t) of evidence, and collecting nearly one billion pieces of information.[14][16][175] Federal judge Richard Paul Matsch ordered that the venue for the trial be moved from Oklahoma City to Denver, Colorado, ruling that the defendants would be unable to receive a fair trial in Oklahoma.[176] The investigation led to the separate trials and convictions of McVeigh, Nichols and Fortier.
Timothy McVeigh
Main article: Timothy McVeigh
Opening statements in McVeigh's trial began on April 24, 1997. The United States was represented by a team of prosecutors led by Joseph Hartzler. In his opening statement Hartzler outlined McVeigh's motivations, and the evidence against him. McVeigh, he said, had developed a hatred of the government during his time in the army, after reading The Turner Diaries. His beliefs were supported by what he saw as the militia's ideological opposition to increases in taxes and the passage of the Brady Bill, and were further reinforced by the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents.[9] The prosecution called 137 witnesses, including Michael Fortier and his wife Lori, and McVeigh's sister, Jennifer McVeigh, all of whom testified to confirm McVeigh's hatred of the government and his desire to take militant action against it.[177] Both Fortiers testified that McVeigh had told them of his plans to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Michael Fortier revealed that McVeigh had chosen the date, and Lori Fortier testified that she had created the false identification card McVeigh used to rent the Ryder truck.[178]
McVeigh was represented by a team of six principal attorneys, led by Stephen Jones.[179] According to law professor Douglas O. Linder, McVeigh wanted Jones to present a "necessity defense"—which would argue that he was in "imminent danger" from the government (that his bombing was intended to prevent future crimes by the government, such as the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents).[178] McVeigh argued that "imminent" does not mean "immediate": "If a comet is hurtling toward the earth, and it's out past the orbit of Pluto, it's not an immediate threat to Earth, but it is an imminent threat."[180] Despite McVeigh's wishes, Jones attempted to discredit the prosecution's case in an attempt to instill reasonable doubt. Jones also believed that McVeigh was part of a larger conspiracy, and sought to present him as "the designated patsy",[178] but McVeigh disagreed with Jones arguing that rationale for his defense. After a hearing, Judge Matsch independently ruled the evidence concerning a larger conspiracy to be too insubstantial to be admissible.[178] In addition to arguing that the bombing could not have been carried out by two men alone, Jones also attempted to create reasonable doubt by arguing that no one had seen McVeigh near the scene of the crime, and that the investigation into the bombing had lasted only two weeks.[178] Jones presented 25 witnesses, including Frederic Whitehurst, over a one-week period. Although Whitehurst described the FBI's sloppy investigation of the bombing site and its handling of other key evidence, he was unable to point to any direct evidence that he knew to be contaminated.[178]
A key point of contention in the case was the unmatched left leg found after the bombing. Although it was initially believed to be from a male, it was later determined to belong to Lakesha Levy, a female member of the Air Force who was killed in the bombing.[181] Levy's coffin had to be re-opened so that her leg could replace another unmatched leg that had previously been buried with her remains. The unmatched leg had been embalmed, which prevented authorities from being able to extract DNA to determine its owner.[101] Jones argued that the leg could have belonged to another bomber, possibly John Doe No. 2.[101] The prosecution disputed the claim, saying that the leg could have belonged to any one of eight victims who had been buried without a left leg.[102]
Numerous damaging leaks, which appeared to originate from conversations between McVeigh and his defense attorneys, emerged. They included a confession said to have been inadvertently included on a computer disk that was given to the press, which McVeigh believed seriously compromised his chances of getting a fair trial.[178] A gag order was imposed during the trial, prohibiting attorneys on either side from commenting to the press on the evidence, proceedings, or opinions regarding the trial proceedings. The defense was allowed to enter into evidence six pages of a 517-page Justice Department report criticizing the FBI crime laboratory and David Williams, one of the agency's explosives experts, for reaching unscientific and biased conclusions. The report claimed that Williams had worked backward in the investigation rather than basing his determinations on forensic evidence.[182]
The jury deliberated for 23 hours. On June 2, 1997, McVeigh was found guilty on 11 counts of murder and conspiracy.[183][184] Although the defense argued for a reduced sentence of life imprisonment, McVeigh was sentenced to death.[185] In May 2001, the Justice Department announced that the FBI had mistakenly failed to provide over 3,000 documents to McVeigh's defense counsel.[186] The Justice Department also announced that the execution would be postponed for one month for the defense to review the documents. On June 6, federal judge Richard Paul Matsch ruled the documents would not prove McVeigh innocent and ordered the execution to proceed.[187] McVeigh invited conductor David Woodard to perform pre-requiem Mass music on the eve of his execution; while reproachful of McVeigh's capital wrongdoing, Woodard consented.[188]: 240–241 After President George W. Bush approved the execution (McVeigh was a federal inmate and federal law dictates that the president must approve the execution of federal prisoners), he was executed by lethal injection at the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute in Terre Haute, Indiana, on June 11, 2001.[189][190][191] The execution was transmitted on closed-circuit television so that the relatives of the victims could witness his death.[192] McVeigh's execution was the first federal execution in 38 years.[193]
Terry Nichols
Main article: Terry Nichols
Nichols stood trial twice. He was first tried by the federal government in 1997, and found guilty of conspiring to build a weapon of mass destruction and of eight counts of involuntary manslaughter of federal officers.[194] After he was sentenced on June 4, 1998, to life without parole, the State of Oklahoma in 2000 sought a death-penalty conviction on 161 counts of first-degree murder (160 non-federal-agent victims and one fetus).[195] On May 26, 2004, the jury found him guilty on all charges, but deadlocked on the issue of sentencing him to death. Presiding Judge Steven W. Taylor then determined the sentence of 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.[196] In March 2005, FBI investigators, acting on a tip from Gregory Scarpa Jr., searched a buried crawl space in Nichols's former house, and found additional explosives missed in the preliminary search after Nichols was arrested.[197]
Michael and Lori Fortier
Michael and Lori Fortier were considered accomplices for their foreknowledge of the planning of the bombing. In addition to Michael Fortier's assisting McVeigh in scouting the federal building, Lori Fortier had helped McVeigh laminate the fake driver's license that was later used to rent the Ryder truck.[46] Michael Fortier agreed to testify against McVeigh and Nichols in exchange for a reduced sentence and immunity for his wife.[198] He was sentenced on May 27, 1998, to 12 years in prison, and fined $75,000 for failing to warn authorities about the attack.[199] On January 20, 2006, Fortier was released from prison, transferred into the Witness Protection Program, and given a new identity.[200]
Others
No "John Doe #2" was ever identified, nothing conclusive was ever reported regarding the owner of the unmatched leg, and the government never openly investigated anyone else in conjunction with the bombing. Although the defense teams in both McVeigh's and Nichols's trials suggested that others were involved, Judge Steven W. Taylor found no credible, relevant, or legally admissible evidence of anyone other than McVeigh and Nichols having directly participated in the bombing.[178] When McVeigh was asked if there were other conspirators in the bombing, he replied: "You can't handle the truth! Because the truth is, I blew up the Murrah Building, and isn't it kind of scary that one man could wreak this kind of hell?"[201] On the morning of McVeigh's execution a letter was released in which he had written "For those die-hard conspiracy theorists who will refuse to believe this, I turn the tables and say: Show me where I needed anyone else. Financing? Logistics? Specialized tech skills? Brainpower? Strategy? ... Show me where I needed a dark, mysterious 'Mr. X'!"[202]
Aftermath
Within 48 hours of the attack, and with the assistance of the General Services Administration (GSA), the targeted federal offices were able to resume operations in other parts of the city.[203] According to Mark Potok, director of Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, his organization tracked another 60 domestic smaller-scale terrorism plots from 1995 to 2005.[204][205] Several of the plots were uncovered and prevented while others caused various infrastructure damage, deaths, or other destruction. Potok revealed that in 1996 there were approximately 858 domestic militias and other antigovernment groups but the number had dropped to 152 by 2004.[206] Shortly after the bombing, the FBI hired an additional 500 agents to investigate potential domestic terrorist attacks.[207] A 2005 Federal Bureau of Investigations report said the bombing "brought the threat of right-wing terrorism to the forefront of American law enforcement attention."[208]
Legislation
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In the wake of the bombing, the U.S. government enacted several pieces of legislation including the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996.[17] In response to the trials of the conspirators being moved out-of-state, the Victim Allocution Clarification Act of 1997 was signed on March 20, 1997, by President Clinton to allow the victims of the bombing (and the victims of any other future acts of violence) the right to observe trials and to offer impact testimony in sentencing hearings. In response to passing the legislation, Clinton stated that "when someone is a victim, he or she should be at the center of the criminal justice process, not on the outside looking in."[209]
In the years since the bombing, scientists, security experts, and the ATF have called on Congress to develop legislation that would require customers to produce identification when purchasing ammonium nitrate fertilizer, and for sellers to maintain records of its sale. Critics argue that farmers lawfully use large quantities of the fertilizer,[210] and as of 2009, only Nevada and South Carolina require identification from purchasers.[210] In June 1995, Congress enacted legislation requiring chemical taggants to be incorporated into dynamite and other explosives so that a bomb could be traced to its manufacturer.[211] In 2008, Honeywell announced that it had developed a nitrogen-based fertilizer that would not detonate when mixed with fuel oil. The company got assistance from the Department of Homeland Security to develop the fertilizer (Sulf-N 26) for commercial use.[212] It uses ammonium sulfate to make the fertilizer less explosive.[213]
Oklahoma school curriculum
In the decade following the bombing, there was criticism of Oklahoma public schools for not requiring the bombing to be covered in the curriculum of mandatory Oklahoma history classes. Oklahoma History is a one-semester course required by state law for graduation from high school; however, the bombing was only covered for one to two pages at most in textbooks. The state's PASS standards (Priority Academic Student Skills) did not require that a student learn about the bombing, and focused more on other subjects such as corruption and the Dust Bowl.[214] On April 6, 2010, House Bill 2750 was signed by Governor Brad Henry, requiring the bombing to be entered into the school curriculum for Oklahoma, U.S. and world history classes.[215][216][217]
On the signing, Governor Henry said, "Although the events of April 19, 1995, may be etched in our minds and in the minds of Oklahomans who remember that day, we have a generation of Oklahomans that has little to no memory of the events of that day ... We owe it to the victims, the survivors and all of the people touched by this tragic event to remember April 19, 1995, and understand what it meant and still means to this state and this nation."[217]
Building security and construction
Two images are stitched together showing the site of where the building stood prior to its demolition. A crowd of people are visible in front of the chain link fence blocking entrance to the site. Large piles of dirt can be seen on the site as well as damage to nearby buildings.
The site of the building after it was demolished, three months after the bombing
In the weeks following the bombing, the federal government ordered that all federal buildings in all major cities be surrounded with prefabricated Jersey barriers to prevent similar attacks.[218] As part of a longer-term plan for United States federal building security, most of those temporary barriers have since been replaced with permanent and more aesthetically considerate security barriers, which are driven deep into the ground for sturdiness.[219][220] All new federal buildings must now be constructed with truck-resistant barriers and with deep setbacks from surrounding streets to minimize their vulnerability to truck bombs.[221][222][223] FBI buildings, for instance, must be set back 100 feet (30 m) from traffic.[224] The total cost of improving security in federal buildings across the country in response to the bombing reached over $600 million.[225]
The Murrah Federal Building had been considered so safe that it only employed one security guard.[226] In June 1995, the DOJ issued Vulnerability Assessment of Federal Facilities, also known as The Marshals Report, the findings of which resulted in a thorough evaluation of security at all federal buildings and a system for classifying risks at over 1,300 federal facilities owned or leased by the federal government. Federal sites were divided into five security levels ranging from Level 1 (minimum security needs) to Level 5 (maximum).[227] The Alfred P. Murrah Building was deemed a Level 4 building.[228] Among the 52 security improvements were physical barriers, closed-circuit television monitoring, site planning and access, hardening of building exteriors to increase blast resistance, glazing systems to reduce flying glass shards and fatalities, and structural engineering design to prevent progressive collapse.[229][230]
The attack led to engineering improvements allowing buildings to better withstand tremendous forces, improvements which were incorporated into the design of Oklahoma City's new federal building. The National Geographic Channel documentary series Seconds From Disaster suggested that the Murrah Federal Building would probably have survived the blast had it been built according to California's earthquake design codes.[231]
Drag racing
The National Hot Rod Association has tightened its regulations for nitromethane.[232] Under the current rule book, nitromethane is limited to 400 pounds (180 kg), or 42 US gallons (160 L) in a barrel, instead of the normal 55 US gallons (210 L). The NHRA requires competitors to submit a Top Screen Questionnaire to the Department of Homeland Security. In addition, competitors are not allowed to own nitromethane; after all NHRA events, unused nitromethane must be returned to fuel supplier Sunoco.[citation needed]
Impact according to McVeigh
McVeigh believed that the bomb attack had a positive impact on government policy. In evidence he cited the peaceful resolution of the Montana Freemen standoff in 1996, the government's $3.1 million settlement with Randy Weaver and his surviving children four months after the bombing, and April 2000 statements by Bill Clinton regretting his decision to storm the Branch Davidian compound. McVeigh stated, "Once you bloody the bully's nose, and he knows he's going to be punched again, he's not coming back around."[233]
Evacuation issues
Several agencies, including the Federal Highway Administration and the City of Oklahoma City, have evaluated the emergency response actions to the bombing and have proposed plans for a better response in addition to addressing issues that hindered a smooth rescue effort.[234] Because of the crowded streets and the number of response agencies sent to the location, communication between government branches and rescue workers was muddled. Groups were unaware of the operations others were conducting, thus creating strife and delays in the search and rescue process. The City of Oklahoma City, in their After Action Report,[235] declared that better communication and single bases for agencies would better the aid of those in disastrous situations.
After the September 11 attacks in 2001, with consideration of other events, including the Oklahoma City bombing, the Federal Highway Administration proposed that major metropolitan areas create evacuation routes for civilians. These highlighted routes would allow paths for emergency crews and government agencies to enter disaster areas more qu
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JFK Assassination: How the Warren Commission Failed the Nation and Why (2012)
Jack Leon Ruby (born Jacob Leon Rubenstein; c.[1][2] March 25, 1911 – January 3, 1967) was an American nightclub owner who killed Lee Harvey Oswald on November 24, 1963, two days after Oswald was accused of assassinating President John F. Kennedy. Ruby shot and mortally wounded Oswald on live television in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters and was immediately arrested.
In a trial, Ruby was found guilty and sentenced to death. Ruby's conviction and death sentence were overturned on appeal, and he was granted a new trial, but he became ill, was diagnosed with cancer, and died of a pulmonary embolism on January 3, 1967.
In 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Ruby acted alone in killing Oswald and that Ruby shot Oswald on impulse and in retaliation for the Kennedy assassination. The commission's findings would be challenged by various critics who hypothesize that Ruby was part of a conspiracy surrounding the Kennedy assassination.
Early life and career
Ruby was born Jacob Leon Rubenstein[4] on or around March 25, 1911,[2] in the Maxwell Street area of Chicago, the son of Joseph Rubenstein and Fannie Turek Rutkowski (or Rokowsky), both Polish-born Orthodox Jews. Ruby was the fifth of his parents' 10 surviving children. While he was growing up, his parents were often violent towards each other and frequently separated; Ruby's mother was eventually committed to a mental hospital.[5]
His troubled childhood and adolescence were marked by juvenile delinquency with time being spent in foster homes. At age 11 in 1922, he was arrested for truancy. Ruby eventually skipped school so often that he had to spend time at the Institute for Juvenile Research. Still a young man, he sold horse-racing tip sheets and various novelties, then acted as a business agent for a local refuse collectors union that later became part of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT).[6]: 332
From his early childhood, Ruby was nicknamed "Sparky" by those who knew him.[7] His sister, Eva Grant, said that he acquired the nickname because he resembled a slow-moving horse named "Spark Plug" or "Sparky" in the contemporary comic strip Barney Google. ("Spark Plug" debuted as a character in the strip in 1922, when Ruby was 11.)[7] Other accounts say that the name was given because of his quick temper.[7] Grant stated that Ruby did not like the nickname and was quick to fight anyone who called him that.[7]
In the 1940s, Ruby frequented race tracks in Illinois and California. He was drafted in 1943 and served in the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II, working as an aircraft mechanic at U.S. bases until 1946. He had an honorable record and was promoted to Private First Class. Upon discharge, in 1946, Ruby returned to Chicago.[5]
In 1947, Ruby moved to Dallas, purportedly because of the failure of merchandise deals in Chicago and to help operate his sister's nightclub.[7] Soon afterward he and his brothers shortened their surnames from Rubenstein to Ruby. The stated reason for the name change was that the name "Rubenstein" was too long and that he was "well known" as Jack Ruby.[8] Ruby later went on to manage various nightclubs, strip clubs, and dance halls in Dallas. He developed close ties to many Dallas police officers who frequented his nightclubs, where he provided them with free liquor, prostitutes, and other favors.[9]
Ruby never married and had no children.[10] At the time of the assassination, Ruby was living with George Senator, who referred to Ruby as "my boyfriend" during the Warren Commission hearing, although he denied the two were homosexual lovers. Warren Commission lawyer, Burt Griffin, later told author Gerald Posner: "I'm not sure if Senator was honest with us about his relationship with Ruby. People did not advertise their homosexuality in 1963".[11]
Illegal activities
Some critics have said that Ruby was involved in illegal activity[12][6][13] such as gambling, narcotics, and prostitution.[14] An FBI report in 1956 stated that informant Eileen Curry had moved to Dallas with her boyfriend James Breen after jumping bail on narcotics charges. Breen told her that he had made connections with a large narcotics setup operating between Texas, Mexico, and the East, and that "James got the okay to operate through Ruby of Dallas."[15] Dallas County Sheriff Steve Guthrie told the FBI that he believed that Ruby "operated some prostitution activities and other vices out of his club" in Dallas.[13] Dallas disc jockey Kenneth Dowe testified that Ruby was known around the station for "procuring women for different people who came to town".[16]
Character
According to people interviewed by law enforcement and the Warren Commission, Ruby was desperate to attract attention to himself and his club. He knew a great number of people in Dallas, but had only a few friends. Because his business ventures were unsuccessful, he was heavily in debt.[11]
The commission received reports of Ruby's penchant for violence. He had a volatile temper, and he often resorted to violence with employees who had upset him. He acted as the bouncer of his own club and beat his customers on at least 25 occasions. The fights would often end with Ruby throwing his victims down the club's stairs.[11] In one fight with a man, the man bit Ruby's left index finger so badly that the doctors had it amputated.[17]
Stories of Ruby's eccentric and unstable behavior describe him as sometimes taking his shirt or other clothes off in social gatherings, and either hitting his chest like a gorilla or rolling around on the floor. During conversations, he could change the topic suddenly in mid-sentence. He sometimes welcomed a guest to his club, but on other nights he would forbid the same guest from entering. He was described by those who knew him as "a kook", "totally unpredictable", "a psycho", and "suffering from some form of disturbance".[11]
During the 1970s, prominent psychiatrist Irene Jakab, who was known for her use of art therapy in diagnosing and treating patients with mental illness, analyzed artwork that had been created by Ruby while he was in jail. While assessing one of Ruby's drawings, which had been included as part of art exhibits at the World Congress of Psychiatry meeting in Waikiki and the University of Hawaii in late August and early September 1977, she claimed that his work conveyed "repressed aggression and secretiveness," adding:[18]
Notice how he really constricts himself so as not to reveal himself. He hides behind all those geometrical lines and pointed edges. You can feel his controlled aggression.
John F. Kennedy assassination
Main article: Assassination of John F. Kennedy
November 21
The Warren Commission attempted to reconstruct Ruby's movements from November 21, 1963, through November 24.[19]: 333 The Commission reported that he was attending to his duties as the proprietor of the Carousel Club located at 1312 1/2 Commerce St. in downtown Dallas and the Vegas Club in the city's Oak Lawn district from the afternoon of November 21 to the early hours of November 22.[19]: 333 A number of Dallas police officers were meeting in the office of Assistant District Attorney Ben Ellis when Ruby entered and passed out business cards advertising a gig by Jada, a stripper at the Carousel. According to Lt. W. F. Dyson, Ruby introduced himself to Ellis and added: "You probably don't know me now, but you will."
November 22: assassination of Kennedy
According to the Warren Commission, on November 22, Ruby was in the second-floor advertising offices of the Dallas Morning News, five blocks away from the Texas School Book Depository, placing weekly advertisements for his nightclubs, when he learned of the assassination around 12:45 p.m.[19]: 334–335 According to witnesses, Ruby was visibly shaken. Ruby then made phone calls to his assistant at the Carousel Club and to his sister.[19]: 334 The Commission stated that an employee of the Dallas Morning News estimated that Ruby left the newspaper's offices at 1:30 p.m., but indicated that other testimony suggested that he had left earlier.[19]: 334–335 According to the Warren Commission, Ruby arrived back at the Carousel Club shortly before 1:45 p.m. to notify employees that the club would be closed that evening.[19]: 336–337
John Newnam, an employee at the newspaper's advertisement department, testified that Ruby became upset over an anti-Kennedy ad published in the Morning News that was signed by "The American Fact-Finding Committee, Bernard Weissman, Chairman." Ruby was sensitive to antisemitism and was distressed that an ad attacking the President was signed by a person with a "Jewish name." Early the next morning, Ruby noticed a political billboard featuring the text "IMPEACH EARL WARREN" in block letters. Ruby's sister Eva testified that Ruby had told her that he believed that the anti-Kennedy ad and the anti-Warren sign were connected and were a plot by a "gentile" to blame the assassination on the Jews.[11]
Ruby was seen in the halls of the Dallas Police Headquarters on several occasions after Oswald's arrest for the murder of Dallas policeman J. D. Tippit. He was present at an arranged press conference with Oswald. A reporter asked Oswald, "Did you kill the President?" and Oswald answered, "No, I have not been charged with that. In fact, nobody has said that to me yet. The first thing I heard about it was when the newspaper reporters in the hall asked me that question."[20] Another reporter told Oswald that he had been charged with killing the president and Oswald reacted with a look of astonishment.[21] Newsreel footage from WFAA-TV (Dallas) and NBC shows that Ruby impersonated a newspaper reporter during a press conference held by District Attorney Henry Wade at Dallas Police Headquarters that night.[6]: 349 Wade briefed reporters that Oswald was a member of the anti-Castro Free Cuba Committee. Ruby was one of several people there who spoke up to correct Wade, saying, "Henry, that's the Fair Play for Cuba Committee", a pro-Castro organization.[22][23][6]: 349–350 Ruby later told the FBI that he had his .38 Colt Cobra revolver in his right pocket during the press conference.[24][25][6]: 3501
November 24: killing of Oswald
Murder of Lee Harvey Oswald
Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph taken by Robert H. Jackson of Ruby shooting Oswald, who is flanked by Dallas police Detectives Jim Leavelle (left, tan suit) and L. C. Graves (right, black hat, face covered by Ruby)
Location Dallas, Texas
Date November 24, 1963; 60 years ago
11:21 a.m. (CST)
Target Lee Harvey Oswald
Attack type
Murder by shooting
Weapon .38 caliber Colt Cobra revolver
Deaths 1 (Lee Harvey Oswald)
Perpetrator Jack Ruby
Verdict Guilty
Convictions Murder with malice
Sentence Death (overturned)
On November 24, Ruby drove into town with his pet dachshund Sheba to send an emergency money order to one of his employees at the Western Union on Main Street. The time stamp was 11:17 a.m. for the transaction. Ruby then walked half a block to the Dallas police headquarters, where he made his way into the basement.
At 11:21 a.m. CST, Oswald was being escorted by Dallas police Detectives Jim Leavelle and L. C. Graves through the police basement to an armored car that was to take Oswald to the nearby county jail. All of a sudden Ruby emerged from a crowd of reporters with his revolver[26] aimed at Oswald's abdomen and shot him at point blank range, mortally wounding him.[27] Oswald screamed "Oh!" in pain and his hands clutched at his stomach as he moaned while slumping to the floor.[28][29] Police detective Billy Combest, who knew Ruby, exclaimed, "Jack, you son of a bitch!"[30][31]
The armored car had rolled down the ramp at the moment Ruby emerged and slightly hit Ruby's leg almost immediately after he fired, causing him to almost lose balance as he was immediately subdued by police while Oswald was carried back into the basement level jail office. Combest asked Oswald, "Do you have anything you want to tell us now?" Oswald shook his head.[32]: 184–185
Drifting in and out of consciousness, Oswald was placed in an ambulance and was driven to Parkland Memorial Hospital, the same hospital where President Kennedy had died just two days earlier. Leavelle and Graves along with Frederick Bieberdorf, a medical student on duty, rode in the ambulance. Bieberdorf said that several blocks before reaching the hospital, Oswald started thrashing about, resisting Beiberdorf's efforts of heart massage and attempting to free an oxygen mask over his mouth.[33]
At Parkland, Oswald was treated by the same surgeons who had tried to save Kennedy; they subsequently determined Ruby's bullet had entered Oswald's left side in the front part of the abdomen and caused extensive damage to his spleen, stomach, aorta, vena cava, kidney, liver, diaphragm, and eleventh rib before coming to rest on his right side.[34] Oswald died at 1:07 pm.[4]
Reaction
A network television pool camera was broadcasting live to cover Oswald's transfer; millions of people watching on NBC saw the shooting as it happened and in a matter of minutes it was on other networks.[35] Several photographs were taken of the event, capturing the moments when Ruby pulled the trigger. In 1964, Robert H. Jackson of the Dallas Times Herald was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Photography for his image, titled Jack Ruby Shoots Lee Harvey Oswald.[36]
Great indignation was directed towards Ruby's murder of Oswald. Many felt that the killing had robbed the nation of essential information and left key questions unanswered. Former Vice President Richard Nixon said, "(Oswald was) also entitled to a trial ... two wrongs don't make a right."[37] Oswald's murder compounded suspicions that the Kennedy assassination was part of a larger plot.[38]
Not all were shocked, however. The crowd outside the headquarters burst into applause when they heard that Oswald had been shot.[39] In Dallas and elsewhere in the nation, Oswald was hated in death, and Ruby was viewed as a hero by some citizens. During his time in jail, he received many letters from the public, often praising him for his actions.
Prosecution
See also: Rubenstein v. State
Ruby after his arrest
After his arrest, Ruby said that he had been distraught over President Kennedy's death, had wanted to help the city of Dallas "redeem" itself in the eyes of the public, and that he was "saving Mrs. Kennedy the discomfiture of coming back to trial."[40]: 198–200 He also claimed that he shot Oswald on the spur of the moment when the opportunity presented itself, without considering any reason for doing so.[40]: 199 Ruby said that he was an admirer of President Kennedy and the Kennedy family, that he cried when he heard that the President was shot, "in mourning" after, "cried a great deal" Saturday afternoon, and was depressed that night.
The grief over the assassination, Ruby stated, finally "reached the point of insanity," suddenly compelling him to shoot when Oswald walked in front of him in the basement that Sunday morning.[41] At the time of the shooting, Ruby said that he was taking phenmetrazine (Preludin), a central nervous system stimulant.[40]: 198–199 Ruby also said that he entered the police basement by coming down the Main Street ramp. Later, Ruby expressed remorse to his brother Earl, saying he never wanted Oswald to die.
Ruby asked Dallas attorney Tom Howard to represent him. Howard accepted and asked Ruby if he could think of anything that might damage his defense. Ruby responded that there would be a problem if a man by the name of "Davis" should come up. Ruby told his attorney that he "had been involved with Davis, who was a gunrunner entangled in anti-Castro efforts."[42][43]
Ruby's brother Earl replaced Howard with prominent San Francisco defense attorney Melvin Belli, who agreed to represent him pro bono. Lawyer Joe H. Tonahill also signed on to assist with Ruby's defense. At his bond hearing in January 1964, while talking to reporters, Ruby tearfully said, regarding the assassination of Kennedy, that he could not understand "how a great man like that could be lost."[44]
Ruby testified that he thought he said, "You killed my President, you rat!" as he shot Oswald. Officer McMillon testified he heard Ruby say, "You rat son of a bitch, you shot the president". This was disputed by television footage showing McMillon looking in the opposite direction from the shooting.[45] Dallas police sergeant Patrick Dean testified that when Ruby was arrested, Ruby said he thought about killing Oswald two nights earlier, to show the world that "Jews have guts."[46] Detective Don Archer said Ruby had told him he intended to shoot Oswald three times, and McMillon corroborated this.[47] On March 14, 1964, Ruby was convicted of murder with malice and was sentenced to death.
Ruby's conviction was overturned by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on the grounds that "an oral confession of premeditation made while in police custody" should have been ruled inadmissible, because it violated a Texas criminal statute.[48] The court also ruled that the venue should have been changed to a Texas county other than the one in which the high-profile crime had been committed.[48]
During the six months following the Kennedy assassination, Ruby repeatedly asked to speak to the members of the Warren Commission. The commission initially showed no interest, but Ruby's sister Eileen wrote letters to the commission and her letters became public. The Commission finally agreed to talk to Ruby. In June 1964, Chief Justice Earl Warren, Representative (and future President) Gerald R. Ford of Michigan, and other commission members went to Dallas to see Ruby.
Ruby asked Warren several times to take him to Washington D.C., saying that "my life is in danger here" and that he wanted an opportunity to make additional statements. He added that the people from whom he felt himself to be in danger were the John Birch Society of Dallas, including Edwin Walker, who he claimed were trying to falsely implicate him as being involved in a conspiracy to assassinate the President.[40]: 194–196 He added: "I want to tell the truth, and I can't tell it here."[40]: 194
Warren told Ruby that he would be unable to comply with his request because many legal barriers would need to be overcome, and public interest in the situation would be too heavy. Warren also told Ruby that the commission would have no way of protecting him since it had no police powers. Ruby said that he wanted to convince President Lyndon Johnson that he was not part of any conspiracy to kill Kennedy.[40]: 209–212
Eventually, the appellate court agreed with Ruby's lawyers that he should be granted a new trial. On October 5, 1966, the court ruled that his motion for a change of venue before the original trial court should have been granted. Ruby's conviction and death sentence were overturned. Arrangements were underway for a new trial to be held in February, 1967[49] in Wichita Falls, Texas, but Ruby was admitted to Parkland Hospital on December 9, 1966, suffering from pneumonia, where he was diagnosed with cancer in his liver, lungs, and brain.
His condition rapidly deteriorated. An armed guard was placed outside his room, but family and friends were allowed to visit. On December 16, Earl Ruby, accompanied by one of his brother's lawyers, smuggled a tape recorder hidden in a briefcase into Jack's room to record an interview about his murder of Oswald. Ruby maintained that he entered the basement by coming down the ramp, had killed Oswald out of grief over the assassination, and denied knowing Oswald prior.[50] According to an unnamed Associated Press source, Ruby made a final statement from his hospital bed on December 19 that he had acted alone.[51] "There is nothing to hide," Ruby said, "there was no one else."[52]
Death
See also: Earl Rose (coroner) § Jack Ruby
Headstone at Ruby's grave in Westlawn Cemetery. The Hebrew text is an abbreviation of tehei nishmato tserurah bitsror hachaim, "may his soul be bound with the bond of life."
Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism on January 3, 1967, at Parkland Hospital, the same hospital as his victim Oswald, whose victim Kennedy also died there.[53] He was buried beside his parents in the Westlawn Cemetery in Norridge, Illinois.[54][55][56]
Official investigations
Warren Commission
The Warren Commission found no evidence linking Ruby's killing of Oswald with any broader conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy.[19] The report provided a detailed biography of Ruby's life and activities to help ascertain whether he was involved in a conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy.[57] The Commission also tackled widespread rumors that Ruby and Oswald knew each other and that Oswald was seen at the Carousel Club.
Television footage that showed Oswald glance briefly in Ruby's direction as he emerged to shoot him, indicating to some observers a look of recognition, compounded such suspicion. Careful analysis of the footage indicate Oswald was looking at reporter Ike Pappas who had held his microphone out towards Oswald and asked, "Do you have anything to say in your defense?"[58] They concluded that various witnesses lacked credibility and that there was no solid evidence linking the two men.[59][60] The Commission indicated that there was not a "significant link between Ruby and organized crime"[61] and said he acted independently in killing Oswald.[62][19]: 373–374
Warren Commission investigator David Belin said that postal inspector Harry Holmes arrived unannounced at the Dallas police station on the morning that Ruby shot Oswald and, upon invitation by the investigators, had questioned Oswald, thus delaying his transfer by half an hour.[63] Belin noted that, had Ruby been part of a conspiracy, he would have been downtown 30 minutes earlier, when Oswald had been scheduled to be transferred.[63] The commission accepted Ruby's claim that he entered the police basement via the Main Street ramp.[64] Author Norman Mailer and others have questioned why Ruby would have left his beloved dog in his car if his killing of Oswald had been planned.[65]
Some of Ruby's friends, relatives (notably his brother Earl and sister Eva) and associates, supported the official conclusion that Ruby acted alone, maintaining that he was upset over President Kennedy's death, even crying on occasions and closing his clubs for three days as a mark of respect.[66][67][68] They also refuted conspiracy theorists' claims, saying that Ruby's connection with gangsters was minimal at most and that he was not the sort of person who would be entrusted to be part of a conspiracy.[68][69]
Dallas reporter Tony Zoppi, who knew Ruby well, claimed that one "would have to be crazy" to entrust Ruby with anything as important as a high-level plot to kill Kennedy since he "couldn't keep a secret for five minutes ... Jack was one of the most talkative guys you would ever meet. He'd be the worst fellow in the world to be part of a conspiracy, because he just plain talked too much."[68]: 361, 399 He and others described Ruby as the sort who enjoyed being at "the center of attention", trying to make friends with people and being more of a nuisance.[68]
Some writers, including former Los Angeles District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi, dismiss Ruby's connections to organized crime as being highly minimal: "It is very noteworthy that without exception, not one of these conspiracy theorists knew or had ever met Jack Ruby. Without our even resorting to his family and roommate, all of whom think the suggestion of Ruby being connected to the mob is ridiculous, those who knew him, unanimously and without exception, think the notion of his being connected to the Mafia, and then killing Oswald for them, is nothing short of laughable."[70]
Bill Alexander, who prosecuted Ruby for Oswald's murder, equally rejected any suggestions that Ruby was involved with organized crime, claiming that conspiracy theorists based it on the claim that "A knew B, and Ruby knew B back in 1950, so he must have known A, and that must be the link to the conspiracy."[68]
Ruby's brother Earl denied allegations that Jack was involved in racketeering at Chicago nightclubs, and author Gerald Posner suggested in his book Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK, that witnesses may have confused Ruby with Harry Rubenstein, a convicted Chicago felon.[68] Entertainment reporter Tony Zoppi was also dismissive of mob ties and described Ruby as a "born loser".[68]
Other investigations and dissenting theories
Main article: John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories
Ruby's motive
White House correspondent Seth Kantor was a passenger in Kennedy's motorcade. He testified that he had visited Parkland Hospital after Kennedy was shot, and that he felt a tug on his coat as he entered the hospital at about 1:30 p.m. He turned around to see Jack Ruby, who called him by his first name and shook his hand.[71]: 78–82 [42]: 41 He said that he had become acquainted with Ruby while he was a reporter for the Dallas Times Herald newspaper.[71]: 72 [42]: vi According to Kantor, Ruby asked him if he thought that it would be a good idea for him to close his nightclubs for the next three nights because of the tragedy, and Kantor responded without thinking that doing so would be a good idea.[42]: 41 [72][71]: 80
Ruby denied that he had been at Parkland Hospital and the Warren Commission dismissed Kantor's testimony, saying that the encounter at Parkland Hospital would have to have taken place in a span of a few minutes before and after 1:30 pm, as evidenced by telephone company records of calls made by both people. The commission also pointed to contradictory witness testimony and to the lack of video confirmation of Ruby at the scene.[19]: 335–337 The Commission concluded that "Kantor probably did not see Ruby at Parkland Hospital" and "may have been mistaken about both the time and the place that he saw Ruby."[19]: 335–337
In 1979, the House Select Committee on Assassinations re-examined Kantor's testimony and stated, "the Warren Commission concluded that Kantor was mistaken" about his Parkland encounter with Ruby, but "the Committee determined he probably was not."[73]: 158 [6]: 458–459 Kantor wrote in Who Was Jack Ruby?:
The mob was Ruby's "friend." And Ruby could well have been paying off an IOU the day he was used to kill Lee Harvey Oswald. Remember: "I have been used for a purpose," the way Ruby expressed it to Chief Justice Warren in their June 7, 1964 session. It would not have been hard for the mob to maneuver Ruby through the ranks of a few negotiable police.[42]: 18
The House Select Committee on Assassinations wrote in its 1979 Final Report:
Ruby's shooting of Oswald was not a spontaneous act, in that it involved at least some premeditation. Similarly, the committee believed it was less likely that Ruby entered the police basement without assistance, even though the assistance may have been provided with no knowledge of Ruby's intentions.... The committee was troubled by the apparently unlocked doors along the stairway route and the removal of security guards from the area of the garage nearest the stairway shortly before the shooting.... There is also evidence that the Dallas Police Department withheld relevant information from the Warren Commission concerning Ruby's entry to the scene of the Oswald transfer.[73]: 157–158
The HSCA suggested Ruby might have entered the basement via a stairway accessible from an alleyway next to the Dallas Municipal Building.[74]
Lieutenant Billy Grammer, a dispatcher for the Dallas Police Department, said that he received an anonymous phone call at 3 a.m. on November 24 from a man who told him that he knew of the plan to move Oswald from the basement and warned that, unless the plans were changed, "we are going to kill him." After Oswald was shot, Grammer claimed to have recognized Ruby as the caller. Grammer believed that Ruby's shooting of Oswald was "a planned event."[75][76]
In his Warren Commission testimony, Detective Don Archer claimed that, after his arrest, Ruby looked him straight in the eye and said, "Well, I intended to shoot him three times." Kantor wrote that Ruby's response to Archer did not suggest a spontaneous reaction, and that he implied having prior intention.[42]: 192
Ruby's explanation for killing Oswald would be exposed "as a fabricated legal ploy", according to the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Ruby wrote a note to attorney Joseph Tonahill: "Joe, you should know this. My first lawyer Tom Howard told me to say that I shot Oswald so that Caroline and Mrs. Kennedy wouldn't have to come to Dallas to testify. OK?"[73]: 158 [77][6]: 353 [41]
G. Robert Blakey, who was chief counsel for the House Select Committee on Assassinations from 1977 to 1979, said: "The most plausible explanation for the murder of Oswald by Jack Ruby was that Ruby had stalked him on behalf of organized crime, trying to reach him on at least three occasions in the forty-eight hours before he silenced him forever."[78]
Russell Moore, an acquaintance of Ruby, testified to the Commission that Ruby expressed no bitterness towards Oswald and called him "a good looking guy," comparing him to the actor Paul Newman.[79][80] Announcer Glen Duncan also said Ruby described Oswald as a "fairly nice looking kid" comparing him to Newman.[81]
David Scheim noted in his book Contract on America that while some said that Ruby was upset over the weekend of the assassination, others said that he was not. TV newsman Vic Robertson Jr. saw Ruby at police headquarters on Friday night and said that he "appeared to be anything but under stress or strain. He seemed happy, jovial, was joking and laughing."[82][41] Duncan also said that Ruby "was not grieving" and seemed "happy that evidence was piling up against Oswald."[41]
Scheim also suggests that Ruby made a "candid confession" when giving testimony to the Warren Commission.[41] During his testimony, Ruby teared up when talking about a Saturday morning eulogy for Kennedy, but after composing himself, inexplicably said, "I must be a great actor, I tell you that."[40]: 198–199 [41] Ruby also remarked that "they didn't ask me another question: 'If I loved the President so much, why wasn't I at the parade?'" (referring to the presidential motorcade) and "it's strange that perhaps I didn't vote for President Kennedy, or didn't vote at all, that I should build up such a great affection for him."[83]: 564–565 [41] Ruby's club stripper Jada, during an interview with ABC's Paul Good, said that "I believe [Ruby] disliked Bobby Kennedy".[41]
Schiem also noted some who knew Ruby who stated that the patriotic statements which Ruby professed were quite out of character. Ruby's gambling business partner Harry Hall said "Ruby was the type who was interested in any way to make money," and he also said that he "could not conceive of Ruby doing anything out of patriotism."[84][41] Jack Kelly had known Ruby since 1943, and he "scoffed at the idea of a patriotic motive..." and felt that Ruby would have killed Oswald "for publicity [or] for money".[41] Ruby's friend Paul Jones also said that he doubted that Ruby "would have become emotionally upset and killed Oswald on the spur of the moment. He felt Ruby would have done it for money."[41]
Ruby's lawyers, led by Sam Houston Clinton, appealed to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals after his 1964 conviction, the highest criminal court in Texas. Ruby's lawyers argued that he could not have received a fair trial in Dallas because of the excessive publicity surrounding the case. In an interview with reporters in March 1965, Ruby stated: "Everything pertaining to what's happening has never come to the surface. The world will never know the true facts of what occurred, my motive. The people who had so much to gain, and had such an ulterior motive for putting me in the position I'm in, will never let the true facts come above board to the world." A reporter asked, "Are these people in very high positions, Jack?", and he responded, "Yes."[85]
Kantor speculated in 1978 that the "Davis" that Ruby mentioned to Tom Howard may have been Thomas Eli Davis III, a CIA-connected mercenary.[6]: 226, 359–361 [86]
Dallas Deputy Sheriff Al Maddox claimed: "Ruby told me, he said, 'Well, they injected me for a cold.' He said it was cancer cells. That's what he told me, Ruby did. I said you don't believe that bullshit. He said, 'I damn sure do!' One day when I started to leave, Ruby shook hands with me and I could feel a piece of paper in his palm." It was a note in which Ruby claimed that he was part of a conspiracy, and that his role was to silence Oswald.[87] Not long before Ruby died, according to an article in the London Sunday Times, he told psychiatrist Werner Teuter that the assassination was "an act of overthrowing the government" and that he knew "who had President Kennedy killed". He added: "I am doomed. I do not want to die. But I am not insane. I was framed to kill Oswald."[87][88][6]: 341
On March 11, 1959, FBI agent Charles W. Flynn of the Dallas Office approached Ruby to become a federal informant due to his job as a night club operator, since he "might have knowledge of the criminal element in Dallas".[89] Ruby was willing to become an informant and was contacted by the FBI eight times between March 11, 1959, and October 2, 1959, but he provided no information to the Bureau; he was not paid, and contact ceased.[90][91][further explanation needed]
Scheim theorised that Mafia leaders Carlos Marcello and Santo Trafficante Jr. and organized labor leader Jimmy Hoffa ordered the assassination of Kennedy. Scheim cited in particular a 25-fold increase in the number of out-of-state telephone calls from Jack Ruby to associates of these crime bosses in the months before the assassination.[92] According to author Vincent Bugliosi, both the Warren Commission and the House Select Committee on Assassinations determined that all of these calls were related to Ruby seeking help from the American Guild of Variety Artists in a matter concerning two of his competitors.[93] The House Select Committee on Assassinations report stated that "most of Ruby's phone calls during late 1963 were related to his labor troubles. In the light of the identity of some of the individuals with whom Ruby spoke, however, the possibility of other matters being discussed could not be dismissed."[94]
Bill Bonanno, son of New York Mafia boss Joseph Bonanno, stated in Bound By Honor that he realized that certain Mafia families were involved in the JFK assassination when Ruby killed Oswald, since Bonanno was aware that Ruby was an associate of Chicago mobster Sam Giancana.[95]
Associations with organized crime and gunrunning allegations
Some conspiracy theorists have suggested Ruby had links to organized crime.[96][97] The House Select Committee on Assassinations undertook a similar investigation of Ruby in 1979, 15 years after the written report, and said that he "had a significant number of associations and direct and indirect contacts with underworld figures" and "the Dallas criminal element," but that he was not a member of organized crime.[98]
Ruby was said to have been acquainted with the Mafia. The HSCA said that Ruby had known Chicago mobster Sam Giancana and Joseph Campisi since 1947 and had been seen with them on many occasions.[99][6]: 346 After an investigation of Joe Campisi, the HSCA found:
While Campisi's technical characterization in federal law enforcement records as an organized crime member has ranged from definite to suspected to negative, it is clear that he was an associate or friend of many Dallas-based organized crime members, particularly Joseph Civello, during the time he was the head of the Dallas organization. There was no indication that Campisi had engaged in any specific organized crime-related activities.[100]
G. Robert Blakey, the chief counsel for the HSCA, called Campisi "the No. 2 man in the mob in Dallas." He wrote in a 1993 article for The Washington Post: "It is difficult to dispute the underworld pedigree of Jack Ruby, though the Warren Commission did it in 1964.[101] Similarly, a PBS Frontline investigation into the connections between Ruby and Dallas organized crime figures reported the following:
In 1963, Sam and Joe Campisi were leading figures in the Dallas underworld. Jack knew the Campisis and had been seen with them on many occasions. The Campisis were lieutenants of Carlos Marcello, the Mafia boss who had reportedly talked of killing the President.[102]
On the night before Kennedy was assassinated, Ruby and Ralph Paul had dinner together at the Egyptian Lounge run by Joe and Sam Campisi.[103] After Ruby was jailed for killing Oswald, Joe Campisi "regularly visited" him.[103]
Howard P. Willens was the third-highest official in the Department of Justice[104] and assistant counsel to J. Lee Rankin. He helped organize the Warren Commission. Willens also outlined the commission's investigative priorities[105] and terminated an investigation of Ruby's Cuban related activities.[106] An FBI report states that Willens' father had been Tony Accardo's next-door neighbor going back to 1958.[107] In 1946, Tony Accardo allegedly asked Jack Ruby to go to Texas with Mafia associates Pat Manno and Romie Nappi to make sure that Dallas County Sheriff Steve Gutherie would acquiesce to the Mafia's expansion into Dallas.[108]
Ruby went to see a man named Lewis McWillie in Cuba four years before the assassination. McWillie had previously run illegal gambling establishments in Texas, and Ruby considered him one of his closest friends.[40]: 201 McWillie was supervising gambling activities at Havana's Tropicana Club when Ruby visited him in August 1959. Ruby told the Warren Commission that his August trip to Cuba was merely a social visit at the invitation of McWillie.[40]: 201 The HSCA later concluded that Ruby "most likely was serving as a courier for gambling interests".[73]: 152 [109][6]: 337 The committee also found circumstantial but not conclusive evidence that "Ruby met with Santo Trafficante Jr. in Cuba sometime in 1959."[73]: 152–153 [6]: 338
James E. Beaird, who claimed to be a poker-playing friend of Ruby, told The Dallas Morning News and the FBI that Ruby smuggled guns and ammunition from Galveston Bay, Texas to Fidel Castro's guerrillas in Cuba in the late 1950s. Beaird said that Ruby "was in it for the money. It wouldn't matter which side, just the one that would pay him the most." Beaird said that the guns were stored in a two-story house near the waterfront, and that he saw Ruby and his associates load "many boxes of new guns, including automatic rifles and handguns" on a 50-foot military-surplus boat. He claimed that "each time that the boat left with guns and ammunition, Jack Ruby was on the boat."[110][111][6]: 335
References
Birth records were not officially kept in Chicago prior to 1915, and among school records, driver's licenses, and arrest records, there were six different dates, ranging from March to June 1911.
The Warren Commission found that various dates were given in the records for Ruby's birth; the one most used by Ruby himself was March 25, 1911 (though his grave marker says, April 25) (The Warren Report: Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, 1964). His tombstone at Westlawn Cemetery, Chicago, IL, has April 25, 1911, as his birthdate.
"Jack Ruby sentenced to death for murdering Lee Harvey Oswald". Archived from the original on December 23, 2021. Retrieved December 23, 2021.
Bagdikian, Ben H. (December 14, 1963). Blair, Clay Jr. (ed.). "The Assassin". The Saturday Evening Post (44): 26.
Capshaw, Ron (December 3, 2018). "Inside Jack Ruby's Jewish Paranoia". Tablet. Archived from the original on December 4, 2018. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
Summers, Anthony (1998). Not in Your Lifetime. New York: Marlowe & Company. ISBN 1-56924-739-0.
"Appendix 16: A Biography of Jack Ruby". Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1964. p. 786. Archived from the original on April 8, 2020. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
Bugliosi, Vincent (2007). Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. New York: W.W. Norton & Co. ISBN 9780393045253.
Ruby's Friendships with Police Officers Archived June 26, 2022, at the Wayback Machine, House Select Committee on Assassinations – Appendix to Hearings, Volume 9, 5, pp. 127–30.
Wrone, David R. "Ruby, Jack L. (1911–1967), assassin". American Council of Learned Societies. Archived from the original on February 17, 2013. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
Posner, Gerald (2013). Case Closed : Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK. Open Road Media. ISBN 9781480412309.
Fontaine, Ray La; Fontaine, Mary La (August 7, 1994). "The Fourth Tramp". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
"FBI Report" (PDF). history-matters.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved October 5, 2018.
"The Secret Life of Jack Ruby" (PDF). New Times. January 23, 1978. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 27, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2017.
"FBI interview" (PDF). history-matters.com. Archived (PDF) from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved October 5, 2018.
McAdams, John. "Testimony of Kenneth Lawry Dowe". The Kennedy Assassination. Archived from the original on November 18, 2023. Retrieved November 17, 2023.
"Nation: For the Defense". Time. January 31, 1964. ISSN 0040-781X. Archived from the original on November 20, 2023. Retrieved November 20, 2023.
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"Oswald's Ghost". www.pbs.org. Archived from the original on May 10, 2018. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
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"The Gun That Killed Lee Harvey Oswald: .38 Colt". HistoricalFirearms.info. Archived from the original on July 6, 2018. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
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"Witness ascribes malice to Ruby; Quotes Him as Saying He Hopes Oswald Would Die". The New York Times. March 5, 1964. Archived from the original on November 20, 2023. Retrieved November 20, 2023 – via NYTimes.com.
"Trials: Another Day in Dallas". Time. March 13, 1964. ISSN 0040-781X. Archived from the original on May 15, 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
"President's Assassin Shot To Death In Jail Corridor By A Dallas Citizen; Grieving Throngs View Kennedy Bier". The New York Times. November 26, 1963. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 21, 2018. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
"Warren Commission Hearings, Volume XX". History Matters Archive. p. 429. Archived from the original on July 1, 2022. Retrieved April 19, 2020.
"Testimony of Billy Combest". Warren Commission Hearings. 12. Archived from the original on August 14, 2021. Retrieved August 14, 2021.
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"Autopsy Shows Oswald Healthy; Little of History of Slayer Is Revealed". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. AP. November 30, 1963. p. f. Archived from the original on July 15, 2021. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
Bergreen, Laurence (1980). Look Now, Pay Later: The Rise of Network Broadcasting. New York: Doubleday and Company. ISBN 978-0-451-61966-2.
Fischer, Heinz-D; Fischer, Erika J. (2003). "Prizes for Pictorial Journalism Areas". The Pulitzer Prize Archive: A History and Anthology of Award-Winning Materials in Journalism, Letters and Arts. Vol. 17 Complete Historical Handbook of the Pulitzer Prize System 1917–2000. Munich: De Gruyter. p. 206. ISBN 978-3-11-093912-5.
November 24, 1963 – Richard M. Nixon interviewed following President John F. Kennedy's Assassination on YouTube
Knight, Peter (2007). The Kennedy Assassination. University Press of Mississippi. p. 75. ISBN 978-1-934110-32-4. Retrieved September 4, 2013.
Posner 1993, p. 399
"Testimony of Jack Ruby". Warren Commission Hearings. 5. Archived from the original on July 20, 2020. Retrieved August 19, 2011 – via aarclibrary.org.
Scheim, David (1988). Contract on America. Shapolsky Publishers. ISBN 978-0-933503-30-4.
Kantor, Seth (1978). Who Was Jack Ruby?. New York: Everest House Publishers. ISBN 0-89696-004-8.
"Possible Associations Between Jack Ruby and Organized Crime". Appendix to Hearings. 9 (5). House Select Committee on Assassinations: 183. Archived from the original on November 5, 2018. Retrieved August 24, 2011 – via aarclibrary.org.
"Ruby Disclaims Knowing Oswald; Tells of Trip to Cuba—Drops Request for Bond". The New York Times. January 22, 1964. Archived from the original on April 30, 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2023 – via NYTimes.com.
"Ruby Jury Gets Case After a Long Delay". The New York Times. March 14, 1964. Archived from the original on November 15, 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2023 – via NYTimes.com.
"Jury Hears Ruby Pondered Killing; He Thought of It Two Days Earlier, Sergeant Testifies". The New York Times. March 7, 1964. Archived from the original on November 15, 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2023 – via NYTimes.com.
"Police say Ruby planned 3 shots; 2 Detectives testifty to his words after slaying". The New York Times. March 6, 1964. Archived from the original on November 20, 2023. Retrieved November 20, 2023 – via NYTimes.com.
Rubenstein v. State, 407 S.W.2d 793, 795 (Tex. Crim. App. 1966).
Waldron, Martin (December 10, 1966). "Ruby Seriously Ill In Dallas Hospital". The New York Times. p. 1. Archived from the original on August 4, 2022. Retrieved August 4, 2022.
Interview with Jack Ruby (December 16, 1966) Archived November 15, 2023, at the Wayback Machine, Youtube.com
"Ruby Asks World to Take His Word". The New York Times. Associated Press. December 20, 1966. p. 36.
"A Last Wish". Time. December 30, 1966. Archived from the original on January 20, 2008.
"Phil Burleson, 61, Jack Ruby's Lawyer". The New York Times. June 1, 1995. Archived from the original on September 15, 2017. Retrieved September 19, 2015.
"Ruby Buried in Chicago Cemetery A longside Graves of His Parents". The New York Times. November 7, 1967. p. 15. Archived from the original on April 30, 2023. Retrieved April 20, 2019.
"Ruby Called 'Avenger' at Rites in Chicago". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. January 7, 1967. p. 4.
"Ruby Services Limited to Family, Few Friends". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. January 5, 1967. p. 20.
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"Oswald in lens, Ruby at his shoulder as Texas cameraman filmed history". Reuters. November 20, 2023. Archived from the original on November 20, 2023. Retrieved November 20, 2023 – via www.reuters.com.
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"Chapter 6: Investigation of Possible Conspiracy". Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1964. pp. 697, 699. Archived from the original on April 8, 2020. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Appendix 16 1964, p. 801.
Pomfret, John D. (September 28, 1964). "Commission Says Ruby Acted Alone in Slaying". The New York Times. p. 17.
Munns, Roger (December 15, 1991). "Warren panel's counsel: Stone's 'JFK' film a 'big lie'". The Bulletin. Bend, Oregon. AP. p. A12. Archived from the original on February 11, 2021. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
"Chapter 5: Detention and Death of Oswald". Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1964. pp. 219–222. Archived from the original on April 8, 2020. Retrieved December 11, 2016.
Mailer, Norman (1995). Oswald's Tale: An American Mystery. Random House. ISBN 9780679425359.
"Ruby's Brother Upset Over Film". Chicago Tribune. April 4, 1992. Archived from the original on November 15, 2023. Retrieved November 17, 2023.
"Sister Declares She Is Certain Ruby Was Insane". The New York Times. February 16, 1964. Archived from the original on November 15, 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2023 – via NYTimes.com.
Posner, Gerald (1993). Case Closed. Warner Books.
"The Jew who killed JFK's killer". blogs.timesofisrael.com. Archived from the original on November 15, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2021.
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"I.C.". Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1979. pp. 156–157. Archived from the original on April 3, 2020. Retrieved September 1, 2017.
Douglass, James W. (2008). JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and why it Matters, Volume 2. Orbis Books. p. 368. ISBN 9781608330690., citing Grammer interview from Central Independent Television's The Men Who Killed Kennedy; Grammer comments extract here Archived April 9, 2019, at the Wayback Machine
Fulsom, Don (March 27, 2009). "Did Jack Ruby Know Lee Harvey Oswald?". Crime Magazine. Archived from the original on November 17, 2017.
"A Note from Jack Ruby". Newsweek. March 27, 1967.
Goldfarb, Ronald (1995). Perfect Villains, Imperfect Heroes: Robert F. Kennedy's War Against Organized Crime. Virginia: Capital Books. p. 281. ISBN 978-1-931868-06-8.
Testimony of Russell Lee Moore (Knight) Archived August 5, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 15, p. 257.
"Book on Kennedy assassination offers interesting facts". CBS News. Archived from the original on April 5, 2019. Retrieved August 5, 2017. "When he first observed Oswald at Dallas police headquarters the day after JFK's assassination, Ruby thought Oswald a handsome individual who resembled the actor Paul Newman."
Testimony of William Glenn Duncan, Jr. Archived November 20, 2023, at the Wayback Machine, Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 15, p. 484.
RobertsonV Ex 2– Copy of an FBI report of an interview with Victor F. Robertson, dated June 9, 1964. Archived August 11, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 21, p. 312.
"Testimony of Jack Ruby". Warren Commission Hearings. 14. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved October 3, 2015.
CE 1753 – Secret Service report dated December 4, 1963, of interview of Harry Hall at Terminal Island Federal Archived January 4, 2019, at the Wayback Machine, Warren Commission Hearings, vol. 23, p. 363.
Green, David B. (January 3, 2013). "[Unknown title]". Haaretz.
Douglass, James (2008). JFK and the Unspeakable. New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 357–358. ISBN 978-1-4391-9388-4.
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"[Unknown title]". The Sunday Times. August 25, 1974.
Kihss, Peter (May 13, 1976). "Oswald Not in 1963 Million-Name Secret Service File". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 26, 2021. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
"FBI Oversight Hearings to the Subcommittee on Civil Rights" (PDF). brennancenter.org/. Archived (PDF) from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
Cartwright, Gary (November 1975). "Who was Jack Ruby?". Texas Monthly. Archived from the original on February 9, 2023. Retrieved February 8, 2023.
Scheim, David E. (1988). Contract on America: The Mafia Murder of President John F. Kennedy. Shapolsky Publishers. p. 269. ISBN 978-0-933503-30-4. "Telephone records showed the striking, 25-fold increase in his out-of-state calls, peaking in early November and then plummeting during his final weeks of activity in Dallas."
Bugliosi, Reclaiming History, p. 1103
Labor Difficulties with the American Guild of Variety Artists, Early 1960s Archived May 28, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, House Select Committee on Assassinations – Appendix to Hearings, vol. 9, 5E, p. 201.
Bonanno, Bill (1999). Bound by Honor: A Mafioso's Story. New York: St Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-20388-7.
"Assassination Archive and Research Center". Assassination Archives. Archived from the original on July 14, 2018. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
"Twenty-Four Years | Who Was Lee Harvey Oswald? | Frontline | PBS". www.pbs.org. Archived from the original on September 29, 2017. Retrieved May 10, 2022.
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HSCA Appendix to Hearings, vol. 9, p. 336, par. 917, Joseph Campisi Archived July 14, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. Ancestry.com, Social Security Death Index [database on-line], Provo, Utah: The Generations Network, Inc., 2007. Ancestry.com, Texas Death Index, 1903–2000 [database on-line], Provo, UT: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.
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Blakey, G. Robert (November 7, 1993). "Murdered By The Mob?". Washington Post. Archived from the original on August 18, 2020. Retrieved April 18, 2021.
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McAdams, John C. "Testimony Of Howard P. Willens". Mcadams.posc.mu.edu. The John F. Kennedy Assassination Information Center. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
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Assassination Archives and Research Center (1993). "FBI Warren Commission Liaison File (62-109090)". Maryferrell.org. Mary Ferrell Foundation. Archived from the original on April 5, 2013. Retrieved April 17, 2012.
"The Lost Boys". AmericanMafia.com. April 1, 2002. Archived from the original on April 18, 2012. Retrieved June 18, 2012.
Possible Associations Between Jack Ruby and Organized Crime Archived March 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, House Select Committee on Assassinations – Appendix to Hearings, Volume 9, 5, p. 177.
Golz, Earl (August 18, 1978). "Jack Ruby's Gunrunning to Castro Claimed". The Dallas Morning News.
FBI document 602-982-243, June 10, 1976.
Public Domain This article incorporates public domain material from Warren Commission Report, Appendix 16: A Biography of Jack Ruby. National Archives and Records Administration.
Further reading
Report of the Warren Commission on the assassination of President Kennedy. St. Martin's Griffin. 1992. ISBN 978-0-312-08257-4.
Bugliosi, Vincent (2007). Reclaiming History: The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy. W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-04525-3.
Fonzi, Gaeton (1993). The Last Investigation. Thunder's Mouth Press. ISBN 978-1-56025-052-4.
Kantor, Seth (1978). Who Was Jack Ruby?. Everest House. ISBN 978-0-89696-004-6.
Manchester, William (1996). The Death of a President: November November 20–25. BBS Publishing Corporation. ISBN 978-0-88365-956-4.
McKnight, Gerald D. (2005). Breach of Trust: How the Warren Commission Failed the Nation and Why. University Press of Kansas. ISBN 978-0-7006-1390-8.
Newman, John (1995). Oswald and the CIA. Carroll & Graf Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7867-0131-5.
Rappleye, Charles; Ed Becker (1991). All American Mafioso. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-26676-5.
Summers, Anthony (1998). Not in Your Lifetime: The Definitive Book on the JFK Assassination. Marlowe & Company. ISBN 978-1-56924-739-6.
Almog, Oz, Kosher Nostra Archived August 19, 2017, at the Wayback Machine Jüdische Gangster in Amerika, 1890–1980 ; Jüdischen Museum der Stadt Wien ; 2003, Text Oz Almog, Erich Metz, ISBN 3-901398-33-3
External links
The Warren Commission Report, Appendix XVI: A Biography of Jack Ruby Archived November 8, 2017, at the Wayback Machine
Jack Ruby – Mobster, Intelligence Agent, or Small-time Hustler?
An article on Ruby's family background and childhood[dead link]
Testimony of Earl Ruby Archived November 15, 2019, at the Wayback Machine
In Defense of Jack Ruby Archived March 23, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
Jack Ruby: Dallas' Original J.R. Archived February 26, 2021, at the Wayback Machine
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Fascism: The Threat Within - Investigating the Federal Emergency Management Act
Secret history of the CIA: https://thememoryhole.substack.com/
This video delves into the unsettling potential for the United States to transform into a fascist state through the Federal Emergency Management Act. The narrative is shrouded in secrecy, but chilling details have surfaced: the suspension of Constitutional rights, the arrest of political dissenters without habeas corpus, and the ominous preparation of concentration camps across the nation capable of detaining millions of people. What's particularly alarming is the lack of requirement for approval from Congress or any level of government, granting local military or police authorities the power to declare martial law independently.
The video features an interview with investigator and author Chip Berlet, along with insights from various experts such as MIT's Noam Chomsky, University of Texas history professor Tom Philpott, former CIA officer John Stockwell, and congressmen Henry Gonzalez and Ron Paul. It runs for 58 minutes and 39 seconds, with a segment featuring John Stockwell recorded between February and March of 1985. The discussion intertwines historical contexts and contemporary perspectives, exploring the subject of planned public persecutions both past and present.
390
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2
comments
Spy Handler: Memoir of a KGB Officer (2005)
Victor Ivanovich Cherkashin (Russian: Ви́ктор Ива́нович Черка́шин) (born 22 February 1932) is a former Soviet foreign counter-intelligence officer of the PGU KGB SSSR. He was the case officer for both Aldrich Ames, a CIA counter-intelligence officer, and Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent.
Career
Cherkashin joined the KGB in 1952 and retired in 1991. He was the case officer for both Aldrich Ames, a CIA counter-intelligence officer, and Robert Hanssen, an FBI agent, when they spied for the Soviet Union. Cherkashin served for many years in the KGB's First Chief Directorate, the department dedicated to foreign counter-intelligence. His career included tours in Lebanon, India, Australia, West Germany and Washington, DC.
Cherkashin was awarded the Order of Lenin in August 1986 for recruiting Aldrich Ames.[1][2]
In 2004 he presented the book Spy Handler at the Spy Museum in Washington, DC.[citation needed]
Personal life
Cherkashin was the son of a NKVD officer. He received a diploma of a railway engineer from the Moscow State Institute of Railway Engineering.[3]
Cherkashin married KGB cipher clerk Elena, with whom he has two children; Alyosha and Alyona. After his retirement from the KGB he established his own private security company in Moscow, where he now lives with Elena.
Victor and his wife Elena made an appearance on Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations on the Travel channel.[4] He discussed a little about life as a spy and handler but also showed him helping Anthony pick wild mushrooms and then having his wife cook them and share stories while snacking. The show took place at his dacha, country house in a community with other retired KGB officers.
References
Risen, James (29 December 1997). "How KGB Kept Ames' Role Secret". Los Angeles Times. "In 1986--undoubtedly for handling Ames, although the reason was never given--Cherkashin received the Order of Lenin"
Risen, James (22 February 2001). "A SEARCH FOR ANSWERS: THE SPYMASTER; Spy Handler Bedeviled U.S. In Earlier Case". The New York Times. "Mr. Cherkashin was awarded the Order of Lenin for his work in Washington, and returned to Moscow in 1987"
Victor Cherkashin and Gregory Feifer, (2004), Spy Handler: Memoir of a KGB Officer - The True Story of the Man Who Recruited Robert Hanssen and Aldrich Ames.
Bourdain, Anthony (26 July 2008). "Politics and the Dinner Table". Travel Channel. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
Bibliography
Cherkashin, Victor. (2004). Spy Handler: Memoir of a KGB Officer. The True Story of The Man Who Recruited Robert Hanssen & Aldrich Ames Basic. ISBN 0-465-00968-9.
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The Man Who Killed Kennedy (2013)
Roger Jason Stone[a] (born Roger Joseph Stone Jr.; August 27, 1952) is an American libertarian conservative political consultant and lobbyist.[3] He is most remembered for the Robert Mueller special counsel investigation, and his involvement with[4] and connections to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election as a political consultant for the campaign of 45th U.S. president Donald Trump.[5]
Since the 1970s, Stone has worked on the campaigns of Republican politicians, including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Jack Kemp, Bob Dole,[6] George W. Bush,[7] and Donald Trump. In addition to frequently serving as a campaign adviser, Stone was a political lobbyist. In 1980, he co-founded a Washington, D.C.–based lobbying firm with Paul Manafort and Charles R. Black Jr.[8][9][10] The firm recruited Peter G. Kelly and was renamed Black, Manafort, Stone and Kelly (BMSK) in 1984.[11]: 124 During the 1980s, BMSK became a top lobbying firm by leveraging its White House connections to attract high-paying clients, including U.S. corporations and trade associations, as well as foreign governments. By 1990, it was one of the leading lobbyists for American companies and foreign organizations.[11]: 125 His personal style of achieving his clients' goals have been described as "a renowned infighter", "a seasoned practitioner of hard-edged politics",[12] "a Republican strategist",[13] and "a political fixer".[14] Stone has referred to himself as "an agent provocateur".[15] He has described his own political modus operandi as "Attack, attack, attack – never defend" and "Admit nothing, deny everything, and launch a counterattack."[16]
Stone first suggested Trump run for president in early 1998 while he was Trump's casino business lobbyist in Washington.[17] Stone officially left the Trump campaign on August 8, 2015. In 2018, two associates of Stone alleged that Stone claimed to have had contact with Julian Assange during the 2016 presidential campaign. In response, Assange told The Washington Post that he had not met with Stone in the spring of 2016 and WikiLeaks said it had had no contact with Stone. Stone said he could recall only one occasion on which he mentioned meeting with Assange, and said that mention was made as a joke.[18][19] Court documents released in 2020 showed Stone and Assange exchanged messages in June 2017.[20] Nearly three dozen search warrants were unsealed in April 2020 which revealed contacts between Stone and Assange in 2017, and that Stone orchestrated hundreds of fake Facebook accounts and bloggers to run a political influence scheme on social media.[21][22][23]
On January 25, 2019, Stone was arrested at his Fort Lauderdale, Florida, home in connection with Robert Mueller's Special Counsel investigation and charged in an indictment with witness tampering, obstructing an official proceeding, and five counts of making false statements.[24][25] In November 2019, a jury convicted him on all seven felony counts.[26][27][28] He was sentenced to 40 months in prison.[29][30] On July 10, 2020, days before Stone was scheduled to report to prison, Trump commuted his sentence.[26] On August 17, 2020, he dropped the appeal of his convictions.[31] Trump pardoned Stone on December 23, 2020.[26][32]
Early life and political work
Stone was born on August 27, 1952,[16] in Norwalk, Connecticut,[33] to Gloria Rose (Corbo) and Roger J. Stone.[34] He grew up in the community of Vista, part of the town of Lewisboro, New York, on the Connecticut border. His mother was the president of Meadow Pond Elementary School PTA, a Cub Scout den mother, and occasionally a small-town reporter;[35] his father "Chubby" (also Roger J. Stone) was a well driller[36] and sometime chief of the Vista volunteer Fire Department. He has described his family as middle-class, blue-collar Catholics.[33] His ancestry includes Hungarian and Italian.[37][38]
Stone said that as an elementary school student during the 1960 presidential election, he broke into politics to further John F. Kennedy's presidential campaign: "I remember going through the cafeteria line and telling every kid that Nixon was in favor of school on Saturdays ... It was my first political trick."[36]
When he was a junior and vice president of student government at John Jay High School in northern Westchester County, New York,[39] he manipulated the ouster of the student government president and succeeded him. Stone recalled how he ran for election as president for his senior year: "I built alliances and put all my serious challengers on my ticket. Then I recruited the most unpopular guy in the school to run against me. You think that's mean? No, it's smart."[40]
Given a copy of Barry Goldwater's The Conscience of a Conservative, Stone became drawn to conservatism as a child and a volunteer in Goldwater's 1964 campaign. In 2007, Stone indicated he was a staunch conservative but with libertarian leanings.[36]
As a student at George Washington University in 1972, Stone invited Jeb Stuart Magruder to speak at a Young Republicans Club meeting, then asked Magruder for a job with Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President.[41] Magruder agreed and Stone then left college to work for the committee.[16]
Career
1970s: Nixon campaign, Watergate and Reagan 1976
Stone's political career began in earnest on the 1972 Nixon campaign, with activities such as contributing money to a possible rival of Nixon in the name of the Young Socialist Alliance and then slipping the receipt to the Manchester Union-Leader. Eventually Magruder and Herbert Porter hired Stone to spy on rival presidential campaigns during the 1972 Democratic Party presidential primaries. Stone subsequently hired Michael McMinoway to infiltrate campaigns of candidates such as Edmund Muskie and Hubert Humphrey.[42] He also hired a spy in the Humphrey campaign who became Humphrey's driver. According to Stone, during the day he was officially a scheduler in the Nixon campaign, but "By night, I'm trafficking in the black arts. Nixon's people were obsessed with intelligence."[6] Stone maintains he never did anything illegal during the Watergate scandal.[16] The Richard Nixon Foundation later clarified that Stone had been a 20-year-old junior scheduler on the campaign, and that to characterize Stone as one of Nixon's aides or advisers was a "gross misstatement".[43]
After Nixon won the 1972 presidential election, Stone worked for the administration in the Office of Economic Opportunity.[44] After Nixon resigned, Stone went to work for Bob Dole, but was later fired after columnist Jack Anderson publicly identified Stone as a Nixon "dirty trickster".[45]
In 1975, Stone helped found the National Conservative Political Action Committee, a New Right organization that helped to pioneer independent expenditure political advertising.[46]
In the 1976 Republican Party presidential primaries, he worked in Ronald Reagan's campaign for U.S. President.[16] In 1977, at age 24, Stone won the presidency of the Young Republicans in a campaign managed by his friend Paul Manafort; they had compiled a dossier on each of the 800 delegates that gathered, which they called "whip books".[47]
Stone met Donald Trump in 1979, introduced by Trump attorney and mentor Roy Cohn. Stone was the New York regional political director seeking to raise money for the 1980 Reagan campaign, of which Trump joined the finance committee. Stone said Trump directed him to visit his father, Fred Trump, who gave him $200,000 for the Reagan campaign. Stone recalled in 2017 that he and Donald Trump "hit it off immediately."[48][49]
1980s: Reagan 1980, lobbying, Bush 1988
Stone with Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush in 1982
Roger Stone and his first wife Ann Stone with Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan in 1984
Stone greeting President Reagan in 1985
Stone went on to serve as chief strategist for Thomas Kean's campaign for Governor of New Jersey in 1981 and for his reelection campaign in 1985.[16]
Stone, the "keeper of the Nixon flame",[50] was an adviser to the former President in his post-presidential years, serving as "Nixon's man in Washington".[51] Stone was a protégé of former Connecticut Governor John Davis Lodge, who introduced the young Stone to former Vice President Nixon in 1967.[52] After Stone was indicted in 2019, the Nixon Foundation released a statement diminishing Stone's ties to Nixon.[53][54][55] John Sears recruited Stone to work in Ronald Reagan's 1980 presidential campaign, coordinating the Northeast. Stone said that Roy Cohn helped him arrange for independent candidate John B. Anderson to get the nomination of the Liberal Party of New York, a move that would help split the opposition to Reagan in the state. Stone said Cohn gave him a suitcase that Stone avoided opening and that, as instructed by Cohn, he dropped off at the office of a lawyer influential in Liberal Party circles. Reagan carried the state with 46% of the vote. Speaking after the statute of limitations for bribery had expired, Stone later said, "I paid his law firm. Legal fees. I don't know what he did for the money, but whatever it was, the Liberal party reached its right conclusion out of a matter of principle."[6]
In 1980, after their key roles in the Reagan campaign, Stone and Manafort decided to go into business together, with partner Charlie Black, creating a political consulting and lobbying firm to cash in on their relationships within the new administration. Black, Manafort & Stone (BMS), became one of Washington D.C.'s first mega-lobbying firms[56][57] and was described as instrumental to the success of Ronald Reagan's 1984 campaign. Republican political strategist Lee Atwater joined the firm in 1985, after serving in the #2 position on Reagan-Bush 1984.
Because of BMS's willingness to represent brutal third-world dictators like Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire and Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, the firm was branded "The Torturers' Lobby". BMS also represented a host of high-powered corporate clients, including Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, The Tobacco Institute and, starting in the early 1980s, Donald Trump.[58][59][60]
In 1987 and 1988, Stone served as senior adviser to Jack Kemp's presidential campaign, which was managed by consulting partner Charlie Black.[61] In that same election, his other partners worked for George H. W. Bush (Lee Atwater as campaign manager, and Paul Manafort as director of operations in the fall campaign).[62]
In April 1992, Time alleged that Stone was involved with the controversial Willie Horton advertisements to aid George H. W. Bush's 1988 presidential campaign, which were targeted against Democratic opponent Michael Dukakis.[63] Stone has said that he urged Lee Atwater not to include Horton in the ad.[16] Stone denied making or distributing the advertisement, and said it was Atwater's doing.[16]
In the 1990s, Stone and Manafort sold their business. Although their careers went in different directions, their relationship remained close.[citation needed] Stone married his first wife Anne Elizabeth Wesche in 1974. Using the name Ann E.W. Stone, she founded the group Republicans for Choice in 1989. They divorced in 1990.[64]
1990s: Early work with Donald Trump, Dole 1996
In 1995, Stone was the president of Republican Senator Arlen Specter's campaign for the 1996 Republican Party presidential primaries.[65] Specter withdrew early in the campaign season with less than 2% support.
Stone was for many years a lobbyist for Donald Trump on behalf of his casino business[17] and also was involved in opposing expanded casino gambling in New York State, a position that brought him into conflict with Governor George Pataki.[66]
Stone resigned from a post as a consultant to the 1996 presidential campaign for Senator Bob Dole after The National Enquirer reported that Stone had placed ads and pictures on websites and swingers' publications seeking sexual partners for himself and Nydia Bertran Stone, his second wife. Stone initially denied the report.[36][40] On the Good Morning America program he falsely stated, "An exhaustive investigation now indicates that a domestic employee, who I discharged for substance abuse on the second time that we learned that he had a drug problem, is the perpetrator who had access to my home, access to my computer, access to my password, access to my postage meter, access to my post-office box key."[36] In a 2008 interview with The New Yorker, Stone admitted that the ads were authentic.[16]
2000s: Florida recount, Killian memos, conflict with Eliot Spitzer
In the 2000 presidential election, Stone served as the campaign manager for Donald Trump's aborted campaign for President in the 2000 Reform Party presidential primaries.[16] Investigative journalist Wayne Barrett accused Stone of persuading Trump to publicly consider a run for the Reform nomination to sideline Pat Buchanan and sabotage the Reform Party in an attempt to lower their vote total to benefit George W. Bush's campaign.[67]
Later that year, according to Stone and the film Recount, Stone was recruited by James Baker to assist with public relations during the Florida recount.
In the 2002 New York gubernatorial election, Stone was associated with the campaign of businessman Thomas Golisano for governor of New York State.[66]
During the 2004 presidential campaign, Stone was an advisor (apparently unpaid) to Al Sharpton, a candidate in the Democratic primaries.[68] Defending Stone's involvement, Sharpton said, "I've been talking to Roger Stone for a long time. That doesn't mean that he's calling the shots for me. Don't forget that Bill Clinton was doing more than talking to Dick Morris."[69] Critics suggested that Stone was only working with Sharpton as a way to undermine the Democratic Party's chances of winning the election. Sharpton denies that Stone had any influence over his campaign.[70]
In that election a blogger accused Stone of responsibility for the Kerry–Specter campaign materials which were circulated in Pennsylvania.[71] Such signs were considered controversial because they were seen as an effort to get Democrats who supported Kerry to vote for then Republican Senator Arlen Specter in heavily Democratic Philadelphia.[citation needed]
During the 2004 general election, Stone was accused by then-DNC Chairman Terry McAuliffe of forging the Killian memos that led CBS News to report that President Bush had not fulfilled his service obligations while enlisted in the Texas Air National Guard. McAuliffe cited a report in the New York Post in his accusations. For his part, Stone denied having forged the documents.[16][72]
In 2007, Stone, a top adviser at the time to Joseph Bruno (the Majority Leader of the New York State Senate), was forced to resign by Bruno after allegations that Stone had threatened Bernard Spitzer, the then-83-year-old father of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Eliot Spitzer.[73][74] On August 6, 2007, an expletive-laced message was left on the elder Spitzer's answering machine threatening to prosecute the elderly man if he did not implicate his son in wrongdoing. Bernard Spitzer hired a private detective agency that traced the call to the phone of Roger Stone's wife. Roger Stone denied leaving the message, despite the fact that his voice was recognized, claiming he was at a movie that was later shown not to have been screened that night. Stone was accused on an episode of Hardball with Chris Matthews on August 22, 2007, of being the voice on an expletive-laden voicemail threatening Bernard Spitzer, father of Eliot, with subpoenas.[75][76] Donald Trump is quoted as saying of the incident, "They caught Roger red-handed, lying. What he did was ridiculous and stupid."[16]
Stone consistently denied the reports. Thereafter, however, he resigned from his position as a consultant to the New York State Senate Republican Campaign Committee at Bruno's request.[74]
In January 2008, Stone founded Citizens United Not Timid, an anti-Hillary Clinton 527 group with an intentionally obscene acronym.[77]
Stone is featured in Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story, documentary on Lee Atwater made in 2008. He also was featured in Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer, the 2010 documentary of the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal.
Former Trump aide Sam Nunberg considers Stone his mentor during this time, and "surrogate father".[78]
2010–2014: Libertarian Party involvement and other political activity
In February 2010, Stone became campaign manager for Kristin Davis, a madam linked with the Eliot Spitzer prostitution scandal, in her bid for the Libertarian Party nomination for governor of New York in the 2010 election. Stone said that the campaign "is not a hoax, a prank or a publicity stunt. I want to get her a half-million votes."[79] However, he later was spotted at a campaign rally for Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino,[80] of whom Stone has spoken favorably.[81] Stone admittedly had been providing support and advice to both campaigns on the grounds that the two campaigns had different goals: Davis was seeking to gain permanent ballot access for her party, and Paladino was in the race to win (and was Stone's preferred candidate). As such, Stone did not believe he had a conflict of interest in supporting both candidates.[82] While working for the Davis campaign, Warren Redlich, the Libertarian nominee for Governor, alleged that Stone collaborated with a group entitled "People for a Safer New York" to send a flyer labeling Redlich a "sexual predator" and "sick, twisted pervert" on the basis of a blog post Redlich had made in 2008.[83] Redlich later sued Stone in a New York court for defamation over the flyers, and sought $20 million in damages. However, the jury in the case returned a verdict in favor of Stone in December 2017, finding that Redlich failed to prove Stone was involved with the flyers.[84]
Stone volunteered as an unpaid adviser to comedian Steve Berke ("a libertarian member of his so-called After Party") in his 2011 campaign for mayor of Miami Beach, Florida in 2012.[85] Berke lost the race to incumbent Mayor Matti Herrera Bower.[86]
In February 2012, Stone said that he had changed his party affiliation from the Republican Party to the Libertarian Party. Stone predicted a "Libertarian moment" in 2016 and the end of the Republican party.[87]
In June 2012, Stone said that he was running a super PAC in support of former New Mexico governor and Libertarian presidential candidate Gary Johnson, whom he had met at a Reason magazine Christmas party two years earlier.[88] Stone told The Huffington Post that Johnson had a real role to play, although "I have no allusions [sic] of him winning."[88]
Stone with a fan in 2014
Stone considered running as a Libertarian candidate for governor of Florida in 2014, but in May 2013, he said in a statement that he would not run, and that he wanted to devote himself to campaigning in support of the 2014 Florida Amendment 2 referendum legalizing medical cannabis.[89]
2015–2021: Donald Trump campaign and media commentary
Stone served as an adviser to the 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump.[90] Stone left the campaign on August 8, 2015, amid controversy, with Stone claiming he quit and Trump claiming that Stone was fired.[91] Despite this, Stone still supported Trump.[92][93] A few days later, Stone wrote an op-ed called "The man who just resigned from Donald Trump's campaign explains how Trump can still win" for Business Insider.[94]
Despite calling Stone a "stone-cold loser" in a 2008 interview[16] and accusing him of seeking too much publicity in a statement shortly after Stone left the campaign,[91] Donald Trump praised him during an appearance in December 2015 on Alex Jones' radio show that was orchestrated by Stone. "Roger's a good guy," Trump said. "He's been so loyal and so wonderful."[95] Stone remained an informal adviser to and media surrogate for Trump throughout the campaign.[96][97]
Stone had considered entering the 2016 United States Senate election in Florida to challenge white nationalist Augustus Invictus for the Libertarian nomination.[98] He ultimately did not enter the race.
During the course of the 2016 campaign, Stone was banned from appearing on CNN and MSNBC after making a series of offensive Twitter posts disparaging television personalities.[99] Stone specifically referred to the CNN commentator Ana Navarro as an "entitled diva bitch" and imagined her "killing herself", and called another CNN personality Roland Martin a "stupid negro" and a "fat negro".[100][101] Erik Wemple, media writer for The Washington Post, described Stone's tweets as "nasty" and "bigoted".[100] In February 2016, CNN said that it would no longer invite Stone to appear on its network, and MSNBC followed suit, confirming in April 2016, that Stone had also been banned from that network.[101] In a June 2016 appearance on On Point, Stone told Tom Ashbrook: "I would have to admit that calling Roland Martin a 'fat negro' was a two-martini tweet, and I regret that. As for my criticism of Ana Navarro not being qualified ... I don't understand why she's there, given her lack of qualifications."[99]
In March 2016, an article in the tabloid magazine National Enquirer stated that Ted Cruz, Trump's Republican primary rival, had extramarital affairs with five women. The article quoted Stone as saying, "These stories have been swirling about Cruz for some time. I believe where there is smoke there is fire."[102] Cruz denied the allegations (calling it "garbage" and a "tabloid smear") and accused the Trump campaign, and Stone specifically, of planting the story as part of an orchestrated smear campaign against him.[102] Cruz stated, "It is a story that quoted one source on the record, Roger Stone, Donald Trump's chief political adviser. And I would note that Mr. Stone is a man who has 50 years of dirty tricks behind him. He's a man for whom a term was coined for copulating with a rodent."[102][103] In April 2016, Cruz again criticized Stone, saying on The Sean Hannity Show of Stone: "He is pulling the strings on Donald Trump. He planned the Trump campaign, and he is Trump's henchman and dirty trickster. And this pattern, Donald keeps associating himself with people who encourage violence."[104] Stone responded by comparing Cruz to Richard Nixon and accusing him of being a liar.[105]
In April 2016, Stone formed a pro-Trump activist group, Stop the Steal, and threatened "Days of Rage" if Republican party leaders tried to deny the nomination to Trump at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.[106][96] The Washington Post reported that Stone "is organizing [Trump] supporters as a force of intimidation", noting that Stone "has ... threatened to publicly disclose the hotel room numbers of delegates who work against Trump".[96] Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said that Stone's threat to publicize the hotel room numbers of delegates was "just totally over the line".[107]
After Trump had been criticized at the Democratic National Convention for his comments on Muslims by Khizr Khan, a Pakistani American whose son received a posthumous Bronze Star Medal and Purple Heart in Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004, Stone made headlines defending Trump's criticism by accusing Khan of sympathizing with the enemy.[108]
The 2017 Netflix documentary film Get Me Roger Stone focuses on Stone's life and career.
Stone called Saudi Arabia "an enemy" and criticized Trump's visit to Riyadh in May 2017.[109] He suggested that the Saudi government or members of the Saudi royal family directly supported or financed the September 11 attacks, tweeting that "Instead of meeting with the Saudis @realDonaldTrump should be demanding they pay for the attack on America on 9/11 which they financed."[110]
During the campaign, Stone frequently promoted conspiracy theories, including the false claim that Clinton aide Huma Abedin was connected to the Muslim Brotherhood.[111] In December 2018, as part of a defamation settlement, Stone agreed to retract a false claim he had made during the campaign: that Guo Wengui had donated to Hillary Clinton.[112]
On September 10, 2020, Stone told InfoWars' Alex Jones that, if Trump appeared to lose the 2020 United States presidential election, he should consider declaring martial law via the Insurrection Act and confiscate ballots, particularly in Nevada, where they were "completely corrupted" and so "should be seized by federal marshals."[113][114] Further, Stone advised that the president invoke federal law to arrest the leading businessmen Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg as well as the politicians Bill and Hillary Clinton for "illegal activity" and shut down the opinion website The Daily Beast, arresting its staff for "seditious" activities; "this is war," announced Stone.[115][114][116]
As numerous false and unsubstantiated allegations of voting fraud spread after the 2020 presidential election, Stone asserted he had "learned of absolute incontrovertible evidence of North Korean boats delivering ballots through a harbor in Maine." Matthew Dunlap, the Maine secretary of state, said the "vague rumor has absolutely no validity."[117] In an 2020 interview with Tucker Carlson Tonight Stone also called Trump "the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln."[118]
Stone has repeatedly indicated he would back Trump if he decided to run for a second non-consecutive term in the 2024 United States presidential election, and criticized Ron DeSantis for "disloyalty" amid rumors that he would run his presidential campaign.[119]
Stone supported Russia during its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, claiming that Vladimir Putin was "acting defensively" in order to halt a purported U.S.-funded biological weapons program, which, in fact, did not exist.[120][121]
2022: Ontario, Canada political organizing
On April 25, 2022, the Ontario Party announced that Stone had joined their campaign team as a Senior Strategic Advisor for the 2022 Ontario general election.[122] According to the media release issued by the Ontario Party, Stone had previously joined party leader Derek Sloan to address the party's candidate convention and criticized Ontario Premier Doug Ford's approach to conservatism.[122]
2024
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Stone responded to a tweet by former Republican congressional candidate Mike Crispi with "SeeYouNextTuesday", an apparent reference to Casey DeSantis using slang phrasing to spell out “cunt”.[123]
Proud Boys ties
Main article: Proud Boys § Connection with Roger Stone
In early 2018, ahead of an appearance at the annual Republican Dorchester Conference in Salem, Oregon, Stone sought out the Proud Boys, a radical right group known for street violence, to act as his "security" for the event; photos posted online showed Stone drinking with several Proud Boys.[124][125][126] After his arraignment at the Miami federal courthouse in January 2019, they joined him on its steps holding signs that read, "Roger Stone is innocent," and promoting right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his InfoWars website. Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes said Stone was "one of the three approved media figures allowed to speak" about the group. When Stone was asked by a local reporter about the Proud Boys' claim that he had been initiated as a member of the group, he responded by calling the reporter a member of the Communist Party.[126] He is particularly close to the group's former leader, Enrique Tarrio, who has commercially monetized his position.[126] At a televised Trump rally in Miami, Florida, on February 18, 2019, Tarrio was seated directly behind President Trump wearing a "Roger Stone did nothing wrong" tee shirt.[127]
The Washington Post reported in February 2021 that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was investigating any role Stone might have had in influencing the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers in their participation in the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol.[128]
Relations with Israel before the 2016 United States elections
According to The Times of Israel, Roger Stone "was in contact with one or more apparently well-connected Israelis at the height of the 2016 US presidential campaign, one of whom warned Stone that Trump was "going to be defeated unless we intervene" and promised "we have critical intell[sic]." The exchange between Stone and this Jerusalem-based contact "appears in FBI documents made public".[129][22]
Connections with WikiLeaks and Russian espionage before the 2016 United States elections
Further information: Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections and Mueller special counsel investigation
Roger Stone indictment for one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, five counts of false statements, and one count of witness tampering
Stone making the V sign after his arrest and indictment, on January 25, 2019
During the 2016 campaign, Stone was accused by Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign chairman John Podesta of having prior knowledge of the publishing by WikiLeaks of Podesta's private emails obtained by Russian hackers.[130] Stone tweeted before the leak, "It will soon [sic] the Podesta's time in the barrel". Five days before the leak, Stone tweeted, "Wednesday Hillary Clinton is done. #Wikileaks."[131] Stone has denied having any advance knowledge of the Podesta email hack or any connection to Russian intelligence, stating that his earlier tweet was referring to reports of the Podesta Group's own ties to Russia.[132][133] In his opening statement before the United States House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on September 26, 2017, Stone reiterated this claim: "Note that my tweet of August 21, 2016, makes no mention, whatsoever, of Mr. Podesta's email, but does accurately predict that the Podesta brothers' business activities in Russia ... would come under public scrutiny."[134]
Stone said he had established a back-channel with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to obtain information on Hillary Clinton and said this intermediary was the source for his advance knowledge about the release of Podesta's e-mails by WikiLeaks.[135][130][134] Stone ultimately named Randy Credico, who had interviewed both Assange and Stone for a radio show, as his intermediary with Assange.[136] A January 2019 indictment claimed Stone communicated with additional contacts knowledgeable about WikiLeaks plans.[137][138]
In February 2017, The New York Times reported that as part of its investigation into the Trump campaign, the FBI was looking into any contacts Stone may have had with Russian operatives.[139] The following month The Washington Times reported that Stone had direct-messaged alleged DNC hacker Guccifer 2.0 on Twitter. Stone acknowledged contacts with the mysterious persona and made public excerpts of the messages. Stone said the messages were just innocent praise of the hacking.[140] U.S. intelligence agencies believe Guccifer 2.0 to be a persona created by Russian intelligence to obscure its role in the DNC hack.[141] The Guccifer 2.0 persona was ultimately linked with an IP address associated with the Russian military GRU intelligence agency in Moscow when a user with a Moscow IP address logged into one of the Guccifer social media accounts without using a VPN.[142]
In March 2017, the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Stone to preserve all documents related to any Russian contacts.[143] The Committee Vice Chair, Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), called on Stone to testify before the committee, saying he "hit the trifecta" of shady dealings with Russia: "He had been in contact with WikiLeaks. He knew about [John] Podesta being 'in the barrel,' and he acknowledged recently, he had contact with a Russian agent."[131] Stone denied any wrongdoing in an interview on Real Time with Bill Maher on March 31, 2017, and said he was willing to testify before the committee.[131] The Committee's final report of August 2020 found that Stone had access to WikiLeaks and that Trump had spoken to Stone and other associates about it multiple times. Immediately after the Access Hollywood tape was released in October 2016, Stone directed his associate Jerome Corsi to tell Julian Assange to "drop the Podesta emails immediately", which WikiLeaks did minutes later. However, the drop had been announced three days previously, and the Mueller investigation was only able to establish Corsi talked to Ted Malloch, who was not an Assange associate.[144][145] The Committee also found that WikiLeaks "very likely knew it was assisting a Russian intelligence influence effort". In written responses to the Mueller investigation, Trump had stated he did not recall such discussions with Stone.[146][147][148]
On September 26, 2017, Stone testified before the House Intelligence Committee behind closed doors. He also provided a statement to the Committee and the press. The Washington Post annotated Stone's statement by noting his affiliations with InfoWars, Breitbart, and Jerome Corsi, a promulgator of Barack Obama citizenship conspiracy theories. Stone also made personal attacks on Democratic committee members Adam Schiff, Eric Swalwell and Dennis Heck.[149]
On October 28, 2017, following a news report by CNN that indictments would be announced within a few days, Stone's Twitter account was suspended by Twitter for what it called "targeted abuse" of various CNN personnel in a series of derogatory, threatening and obscenity-filled tweets.[150]
On December 1, 2017, Stone texted Randy Credico, a prosecution witness: "If you testify you're a fool. Because of tromp (sic), I could never get away with a certain (sic) my Fifth Amendment rights but you can. I guarantee you you (sic) are the one who gets indicted for perjury if you're stupid enough to testify." According to his indictment, page 20, on April 9, 2018, Stone emailed these threats to the witness, including a comment regarding his security dog that he would: "...take that dog away from you," "You are a rat. A stoolie. You backstab your friends-run your mouth my lawyers are dying Rip you to shreds." "I am so ready. Let's get it on. Prepare to die cock sucker." In a May 21, 2018, email, Stone wrote: "You are so full of shit. You got nothing. Keep running your mouth and I'll file a bar complaint against your friend."[151][152][153][154][155]
In a December 2017 interview with the Florida television station WBBH-TV, following the sentencing of Michael Cohen, Stone said that Cohen shouldn't have lied under oath, and Cohen was a "rat" because he turned on the president, something that Stone said he would never do.[156]
On March 13, 2018, two sources close to Stone, former Trump aide Sam Nunberg and a person speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Washington Post that Stone had claimed to have made contact with Julian Assange and that the two had a telephone conversation discussing emails related to the Clinton campaign which had been leaked to WikiLeaks.[18] According to Nunberg, Special Counsel Robert Mueller had asked him to recount Stone's description of the telephone call with Assange.[18] Stone said Nunberg had called him and asked about his plans for the weekend and Stone had replied he was travelling to London to visit Assange as "a throwaway line to get [Nunberg] off the phone.[18] The other source, who spoke on anonymity, stated that the conversation occurred before it was publicly known that hackers had obtained the emails of Podesta and of the Democratic National Committee, documents that WikiLeaks released in July and October 2016.[18] Stone said in 2018 that he did not contact Assange in 2016 and did not know in advance about the leaked emails.[157]
In May 2018, Stone's social media consultant, Jason Sullivan, was issued grand jury subpoenas from the Special Counsel investigation.[158][159]
On July 3, 2018, U.S. District Judge Ellen Huvelle dismissed a lawsuit brought by political activist group Protect Democracy, alleging that Trump's campaign and Stone conspired with Russia and WikiLeaks to publish hacked Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 presidential election race. The judge found that the suit was brought in the wrong jurisdiction.[160][161] The next week, Stone was identified by two government officials as the anonymous person mentioned in the indictment released by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that charged twelve Russian military intelligence officials with conspiring to interfere in the 2016 elections, as somebody the Russian hackers operating the online persona Guccifer 2.0 communicated with, and who the indictment alleged was in regular contact with senior members of the presidential campaign.[162]
Charges
Arrest and indictment
On January 25, 2019, in a pre-dawn raid by 29 FBI agents acting on both an arrest warrant and a search warrant[163] at his Fort Lauderdale, Florida, home, Stone was arrested on seven criminal charges of an indictment in the Mueller investigation: one count of obstructing an official proceeding, five counts of false statements, and one count of witness tampering.[24][164][165] The same day, a federal magistrate judge released Stone on a US$250,000 signature bond and declared that he was not a flight risk.[166][167] Stone said he would fight the charges, which he called politically motivated, and would refuse to "bear false witness" against Trump.[168] He called Robert Mueller a "rogue prosecutor".[169] In the charging document, prosecutors alleged that after the first WikiLeaks release of hacked DNC emails in July 2016, a senior Trump campaign official was directed to contact Stone about any additional releases and determine what other damaging information WikiLeaks had regarding the Clinton campaign. Stone thereafter told the Trump campaign about potential future releases of damaging material by WikiLeaks, the indictment alleged. The indictment also alleged that Stone had discussed WikiLeaks releases with multiple senior Trump campaign officials.[170][171]
On February 18, 2019, Stone posted on Instagram a photo of the federal judge overseeing his case, Amy Berman Jackson, with what resembled rifle scope crosshairs next to her head.[172] Later that day, Stone filed an apology with the court. Jackson then imposed a full gag order[173] on Stone, citing her belief that Stone would "pose a danger" to others without the order.[174]
Trial and conviction
Stone's trial began on November 6, 2019, at the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.[175] Randy Credico testified that Stone urged and threatened him to prevent him testifying to Congress.[176] Stone had testified to Congress that Credico was his WikiLeaks go-between, but prosecutors said this was a lie in order to protect Jerome Corsi. During the November 12 testimony, former Trump campaign deputy chairman Rick Gates testified that Stone told campaign associates in April 2016 of WikiLeaks' plans to release documents, far earlier than previously known. Gates also testified that Trump had spoken with Stone about the forthcoming releases.[177] After a week-long trial and two days of deliberations, the jury convicted Stone on all counts – obstruction, making false statements, and witness tampering – on November 15, 2019.[178][179][180] After the trial, one of the jurors emphasized that the jury did not convict Stone based on his political beliefs.[181] On November 25, a decision denying a defense motion for acquittal was released. The judge wrote that the testimony of Steven Bannon and Rick Gates was sufficient to conclude that Stone lied to Congress.[182]
Sentencing
Intervention by Trump and Justice Department officials
On February 10, 2020, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia requested that Stone be sentenced to seven to nine years in prison for his crimes after securing convictions on all seven charges.[183] Around midnight, Trump characterized the sentencing recommendation as "horrible and very unfair situation" in tweeted, "Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!"[184] The next morning a senior Justice Department official said the department would recommend a lighter sentence, adding that the decision had been made before Trump commented.[185][186] That afternoon the Department of Justice filed a revised sentencing memorandum, saying the initial recommendation could be "considered excessive and unwarranted under the circumstances." All four of the Assistant U.S. Attorneys who were prosecuting the case – Jonathan Kravis, Aaron Zelinsky, Adam Jed and Michael Marando – withdrew from the case, and Kravis resigned from the U.S. Attorney's Office altogether.[187] Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to the Department of Justice Inspector General requesting a probe into the reduced sentencing recommendation, over fears of potential improper political interference in the process.[188] Trump later said he had not asked the Justice Department to recommend a lighter sentence, but also asserted he had an "absolute right" to intervene.[189][190][191] The next day he praised U.S. Attorney General William Barr for "taking charge" of the case and thanked Justice Department officials for recommending a lesser sentence than was proposed by the prosecutors who tried the case.[192]
The politicization of Stone's sentencing by Trump and senior Trump administration officials at the Justice Department caused controversy and prompted allegations of political interference;[193][194] the Justice Department's unusual decision to overrule the prosecutors on the case, as well as Stone's close association with Donald Trump, led to the affair being described as a crisis in the rule of law in the U.S.[192] More than 2,000 former employees of the Department of Justice signed an open letter calling on Barr to resign, and the Federal Judges Association convened an emergency meeting on the matter.[195] In testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Zelinsky, one of the prosecutors who withdrew from the case after the Justice Department intervened to recommend a lighter sentence for Stone, said that the "highest levels" of Justice Department had been "exerting significant pressure" on prosecutors "to cut Stone a break" and "water down and in some cases outright distort" Stone's conduct.[196] Zelinsky testified that "What I heard – repeatedly – was that Roger Stone was being treated differently from any other defendant because of his relationship to the president."[196] Zelinsky also testified that acting U.S. Attorney Timothy Shea made the request for a lighter sentence for Stone after coming under "heavy pressure from the highest levels of the Department of Justice" and out of fear of Trump.[196] Zelinsky testified that in his career as a prosecutor, United States v. Roger Stone was the sole occasion in which he witnessed "political influence play any role in prosecutorial decision making,"[197] and that he opted to resign from the case and his temporary appointment in the U.S. Attorney's Office in D.C. "rather than be associated with the Department of Justice's actions at sentencing.[196] Former Attorney General Eric Holder tweeted, "do not underestimate the danger of this situation: the political appointees in the DOJ are involving themselves in an inappropriate way in cases involving political allies of the President"; former director of the Office of Government Ethics Walter Shaub tweeted, "a corrupt authoritarian and his henchmen are wielding the Justice Department as a shield for friends and a sword for political rivals. It is impossible to overstate the danger."[198] Channing D. Phillips, who previously served as U.S. Attorney for D.C., said that the events were "deeply troubling" and that the withdrawal of all four line prosecutors suggested "undue meddling by higher ups at DOJ or elsewhere."[199] CNN reported that other prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. had discussed resigning over the matter.[200] The New York Times reported that federal prosecutors around the nation – already leery of taking cases that might catch Trump's attention – had become increasingly concerned after the Stone developments.[201] In late June, Attorney General Barr agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee at an oversight hearing on July 28, 2020,[192][194] which would be Barr's first congressional testimony since his confirmation in early 2019.[194] Barr agreed to appear before the committee one day after Chairman Jerry Nadler said he would issue a subpoena to compel Barr's testimony if he did not appear voluntarily.[194]
On February 11, 2020 – the same day the four Stone prosecutors withdrew from the case after the Justice Department intervened in the sentencing recommendation – Trump withdrew the nomination of Jessie K. Liu, former U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, to become an Under Secretary of the Treasury, two days before her scheduled confirmation hearing. As U.S. attorney, Liu had overseen some ancillary cases referred by the Mueller investigation including the Stone prosecution, as well as a politically charged case involving former FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe, until attorney general Barr replaced her with his close advisor Shea in January 2020.[199] CNN reported the next day that Liu's nomination was withdrawn because she was perceived to be insufficiently involved in the Stone and McCabe cases.[202]
Post-trial motions and sentencing
On February 12, Judge Amy Berman Jackson denied Stone's motion for a new trial. Stone had asserted that a juror was biased against him.[203] Stone again requested a new trial on February 14, after the jury foreperson of his trial publicly voiced support for the four prosecutors who withdrew from the Stone case. All jurors in the Stone trial had been vetted for potential bias by Judge Jackson, the defense team, and prosecutors.[204]
On February 20, 2020, Judge Jackson sentenced Stone to 40 months in federal prison and a $20,000 (~$23,199 in 2023) fine for his crimes, but allowed him to delay the start of his sentence pending resolution of Stone's post-trial motions.[205] Jackson stated in the sentencing hearing, "The truth still exists. The truth still matters [in spite of] Roger Stone's insistence that it doesn't [pose] a threat to our most fundamental institutions, to the very foundation of our democracy."[205] Jackson also rejected Trump's attacks on the investigators and prosecutors, saying, "There was nothing unfair, phony, or disgraceful about the investigation or the prosecution."[205] Jackson said "Roger Stone will not be sentenced for who his friends are, or who his enemies are."[205]
On February 23, 2020, Judge Jackson rejected a request by Stone's lawyers that she be removed from the case.[206]
On April 16, Judge Jackson denied Stone's motion for a new trial and ordered Stone to federal prison within 2 weeks.[207] On April 30, ABC News reported that they had learned through sources that the Federal Bureau of Prisons planned to delay Stone's surrender date by at least 30 days due to concerns relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.[208] On May 28, Stone was ordered by Judge Jackson to report to prison by June 30.[209] On June 24, Stone filed a motion to delay his transfer to prison, alleging potential health concerns connected to the COVID-19 pandemic.[210] On June 27, Judge Jackson rescheduled Stone's surrender date as July 14,[211][212][213] but also ordered him to immediately begin serving time in home confinement before reporting to prison.[214]
Commutation and pardon
December 2020 pardon granted by Donald Trump
After Stone's conviction, Trump repeatedly indicated that he was considering a pardon for Stone.[195] Trump also repeatedly attacked the prosecutors, judge, and jury in Stone's trial,[195] and contended, without evidence, that the foreperson of the jury (which unanimously convicted Stone), was dishonest in the jury questionnaire,[215] however she had previously made anti-Trump social media posts and had retweeted a social media post about Roger Stone's initial arrest shortly after it happened (before the trial).[216] Another juror stated that had she not been there, they would have returned the same verdict but faster, insisting that the jury forewoman was impartial and focused on process.[215] Stone publicly lobbied for clemency, stressing his loyalty to the president, saying: "He knows I was under enormous pressure to turn on him. It would have eased my situation considerably. But I didn't."[26] Within Trump's circle, Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson, Trump aide Larry Kudlow, and Republican congressman Matt Gaetz urged Trump to grant clemency to Stone,[26] as did Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.[217] Carlson reportedly visited the White House and met with Jared Kushner to demand clemency for Stone.[218][219]
Other Trump advisors, including chief of staff Mark Meadows, son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, and White House Counsel Pat A. Cipollone were concerned about granting clemency to Stone,[26] viewing a grant of clemency as a political liability for Trump.[26][217]
On July 10, 2020, Trump commuted Stone's sentence by entirely removing his jail time a few days before he was to report to prison.[26][195] Trump personally called Stone to inform him that his sentence was being commuted.[26] In a lengthy statement containing an array of grievances, Trump attacked the prosecutors as "overzealous" and said, "Roger Stone has already suffered greatly. He was treated very unfairly, as were many others in this case. Roger Stone is now a free man!"[26] The Trump White House statement contained multiple statements and claims regarding Stone's prosecution and the Mueller investigation.[220][221] The commutation was announced late on a Friday evening, a common time for the release of prospectively damaging news.[26] Stone's commutation followed a number of occasions in which Trump granted executive clemency to his supporters or political allies,[26][217] or following personal appeals or campaigns in conservative media,[195] as in the cases of Rod Blagojevich, Michael Milken, Joe Arpaio, Dinesh D'Souza, and Clint Lorance, as well as Bernard Kerik.[26] Trump's grant of clemency to Stone,[222] however, marked "the first figure directly connected to the president's campaign to benefit from his clemency power."[26] On July 15, 2020, counsel for two constitutional law professors sought leave of Judge Jackson to file an amicus brief addressing whether the commutation "may not be constitutionally valid".[223] Judge Jackson denied their motion on July 30, saying that the matter was no longer in her court, so she lacked jurisdiction.[224]
In rare public comments, prosecutor Robert Mueller forcefully rebutted Trump's claims in an op-ed in The Washington Post.[225] Democrats condemned Trump's commutation of Stone's sentence, viewing it as abuse of the rule of law[26] that distorted the U.S. justice system to protect Trump's friends and undermine Trump's rivals.[195] Representatives Jerrold Nadler and Carolyn B. Maloney, who chair two House committees, said that "No other president has exercised the clemency power for such a patently personal and self-serving purpose" and said that they would investigate whether Stone's commutation was a reward for protecting Trump.[26] Most Republican elected officials remained silent on Trump's commutation of Stone.[217] Exceptions were Republican Senators Mitt Romney, who termed the commutation "unprecedented, historic corruption," and Pat Toomey, who called the commutation a "mistake" due in part to the severity of the crimes of which Stone was convicted.[226][26][227]
On December 23, 2020, President Trump issued a full pardon to Stone.[228]
2020 United States presidential election and January 6 United States Capitol attack
Main article: January 6 United States Capitol attack
On November 5, 2020, two days after the presidential election, Stone dictated a message saying that "any legislative body" that has "overwhelming evidence of fraud" can choose their own electors to cast Electoral College votes.[229]
A video released to the public in August 2023 showed that Stone had been pushing to overturn the states' election results two days before the election was called for Joe Biden. According to the New Republic, this contradicted Donald Trump's defense that he and his allies genuinely believed they had won the race.[230]
On December 12, at a Washington, DC rally, Stone urged followers to "fight until the bitter end".[231] He appeared at the "Stop the Steal" rally on January 5, at Freedom Plaza, telling the crowd that the president's enemies sought "nothing less than the heist of the 2020 election and we say, No way!" And "… we will win this fight or America will step off into a thousand years of darkness. We dare not fail. I will be with you tomorrow shoulder to shoulder."[232][233]
The Washington Post reported that video footage showed Stone meeting with the Oath Keepers, a militia group indicted for seditious conspiracy for their role in the storming of the Capitol, on the day of the attack. In the weeks afterwards he pressured the Trump administration for a pardon of all Members of Congress who supported overturning the 2020 election, including Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Jim Jordan, and Matt Gaetz.[234]
On November 22, 2021, the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack subpoenaed Stone and Alex Jones for testimony and documents by December 17 and 6, respectively.[235] Stone agreed to appear before the committee, but invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to answer the committee's questions during a 51 minute period.[236][237] Stone also sued to prevent a subpoena of his AT&T cell phone metadata by the committee.[238] The committee also revealed ties between Stone and the Proud Boys extremist group.[239]
On December 23, 2021, Stone urged a judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed against him by eight Capitol Police officers, alleging that he is responsible for inciting a crowd of former President Donald Trump's supporters to riot on January 6, 2021.[240] Video evidence later surfaced of him telling Trump supporters on November 2, 2020, that they had "the right to violence."[241]
In January 2024, further controversy arose from a tape being released in which Stone discusses assassinating Democratic politicians Eric Swalwell and Jerry Nadler.[242] Stone denied the recording as a "poorly fabricated AI-generated fraud", while it was reported that the US Capitol Police were investigating the matter after the audio's release.[243]
Federal civil tax evasion suit
In April 2021, the Justice Department filed a civil suit against Stone and his wife to recover about $2 million (~$2.22 million in 2023) in alleged unpaid federal taxes, asserting they had used a commercial entity to shield their income and fund their personal expenses.[244][245] In 2022, Stone agreed to pay more than $2 million in taxes as part of a settlement.[246]
Books and other writings
Since 2010, Stone has been an occasional contributor to the conservative website The Daily Caller.[247][248] Stone also writes for his own fashion blog, Stone on Style.[248]
Stone has written five books, all published by Skyhorse Publishing of New York City.[249] His books have been described as "hatchet jobs" by the Miami Herald[250] and Tampa Bay Times.[251]
The Man Who Killed Kennedy: The Case Against LBJ (with Mike Colapietro contributing) (Skyhorse Publishing, 2013): Stone contends that Lyndon B. Johnson was behind a conspiracy to kill John F. Kennedy and was complicit in at least six other murders.[252] In a review for The Washington Times, Hugh Aynesworth wrote: "The title pretty much explains the book's theory. If a reader doesn't let facts get in the way, it could be an interesting adventure."[253] Aynesworth, who covered the assassination for the Dallas Morning News, said that the book "is totally full of all kinds of crap".[250]
Nixon's Secrets: The Rise, Fall and Untold Truth about the President, Watergate, and the Pardon (Skyhorse Publishing, 2014): Stone discusses Richard Nixon and his career. About two-thirds of the book "is a conventional biography that is by no means a whitewash of Nixon. Stone writes that the President took campaign money from the mob, had a long-running affair with a Hong Kong woman who may have been a Chinese spy, and even once unwittingly smuggled three pounds (1.4 kg) of marijuana into the United States when carrying the suitcase of jazz great Louis Armstrong." The remaining one-third of the book is an unconventional account of the Watergate scandal.[250] Stone portrays Nixon as a "confused victim" and claims that John Dean orchestrated the break-in (which he depicts as ordinary politics of the time[254]) to cover up involvement in a prostitution ring. This account is rejected by experts, such as Watergate researchers Anthony Summers and Max Holland. Holland said of Stone: "He's out of his ever-lovin' mind."[250] Dean said in 2014 that Stone's book and his defense of Nixon are "typical of the alternative universe out there" and "pure bullshit".[255]
The Clintons' War on Women (with Robert Morrow of Austin, Texas) (Skyhorse Publishing, 2015): This book, according to Politico, is a "sensational" work that contains "explosive, but highly dubious, revelations about both Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton", with a focus on Bill Clinton sexual misconduct allegations, and a claim that Webster Hubbell is the biological father of Chelsea Clinton. This book was promoted by Trump, who posted a Twitter message containing the book's Amazon.com page.[256] David Corn, writing in Mother Jones, writes that the book is "apparently designed to smear the Clintons – by depicting Bill as a serial rapist, Hillary as an enabler, and both members of the power couple as a diabolical duo bent on destroying anyone who stands in their way" and said that the book was part of a wider "extreme anti-Clinton project" by Stone.[249]
Jeb! and the Bush Crime Family: The Inside Story of an American Dynasty (with Saint John Hunt) (Skyhorse Publishing, 2016): The book focuses on Jeb Bush and the Bush family.[251]
The Making of the President 2016: How Donald Trump Orchestrated a Revolution (Skyhorse Publishing, 2017): Susan J. McWilliams, Professor of Politics at Pomona College, wrote in her review of the book that "[a]side from some minor revelations about how long Trump planned what would later appear to be spontaneous decisions – he trademarked the slogan "Make America Great Again" in 2013 – there's very little Trump, doing very little orchestrating, in these pages" and that "[t]here are many provocative political musings here, but they get lost in Stone's avaricious appetite for self-promotion and grudge-holding."[257]
Stone's Rules: How to Win at Politics, Business, and Style (Skyhorse Publishing, 2018)
The Myth of Russian Collusion: The Inside Story of How Donald Trump REALLY Won (Skyhorse Publishing, 2019) (paperback edition of Stone's 2016 book The Making of the President 2016 with an added "Introduction 2019")[258]
Personal style and habits
Stone's personal style has been described as flamboyant.[68][259] In a 2007 Weekly Standard profile written by Matt Labash, Stone was described as a "lord of mischief" and the "boastful black prince of Republican sleaze".[6][260] Labash wrote that Stone "often sets his pronouncements off with the utterance 'Stone's Rules,' signifying to listeners that one of his shot-glass commandments is coming down, a pithy dictate uttered with the unbending certitude one usually associates with the Book of Deuteronomy." Examples of Stone's Rules include "Politics with me isn't theater. It's performance art, sometimes for its own sake."[6]
Stone does not wear socks – a fact that Nancy Reagan brought to her husband's attention during his 1980 presidential campaign.[261] Labash described him as "a dandy by disposition who boasts of having not bought off-the-rack since he was 17", who has "taught reporters how to achieve perfect double-dimples underneath their tie knots".[260] Washington journalist Victor Gold has noted Stone's reputation as one of the "smartest dressers" in Washington.[262] Stone's longtime tailor is Alan Flusser. Stone dislikes single-vent jackets (describing them as the sign of a "heathen"), saying he owns 100 silver-colored neckties and has 100 suits in storage.[6] Fashion stories have been written about him in GQ and Penthouse.[6] Stone has written of his dislike for jeans and ascots and has praised seersucker three-piece suits, as well as Madras jackets in the summertime and velvet blazers in the winter.[248][252]
In 1999, Stone credited his facial appearance to "decades of following a regimen of Chinese herbs, breathing therapies, tai chi and acupuncture."[40] Stone wears a diamond pinky ring in the shape of a horseshoe and in 2007 he had Richard Nixon's face tattooed on his back.[6] He has said: "I like English tailoring, I like Italian shoes. I like French wine. I like vodka martinis with an olive, please. I like to keep physically fit."[263] Stone's office in Florida has been described as a "Hall of Nixonia" with framed pictures, posters, bongs,[264] and letters associated with Nixon.[6]
See also
Criminal charges brought in the Mueller special counsel investigation
Links between Trump associates and Russian officials and spies
List of people granted executive clemency by Donald Trump
Timeline of Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections
Notes
Name as rendered in the 2019 federal indictment.[1] As The Washington Post put it: "He was born Roger Joseph Stone Jr. in Norwalk, Conn., on Aug. 27, 1952... Birth and college records list his name that way, but at some point Stone adopted 'Jason' as his middle name".[2]
References
"U.S. v. Roger Jason Stone Jr: The full indictment". United States Department of Justice. February 1, 2019. Archived from the original on April 20, 2019. Retrieved February 1, 2019 – via The Washington Post.
Mansfield, Stephanie (June 16, 1986). "The Rise and Gall of Roger Stone". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 13, 2021. Retrieved December 11, 2019.
Warner, Margaret (February 29, 1996). "Money and the Presidency". NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. Public Broadcasting Service. Archived from the original on June 17, 1997. Retrieved November 17, 2019.
"Roger Stone Found Guilty of Obstruction, False Statements, and Witness Tampering". United States Department of Justice. November 15, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2023.
"No hoax: Why the Russia investigation remains one of Trump's biggest scandals". NBC News. July 13, 2020. Retrieved October 2, 2023.
"Roger Stone: Trump ally convicted of lying to Congress". BBC News. November 15, 2019. Retrieved October 2, 2023.
Paschal, Olivia; Carlisle, Madeleine (November 15, 2019). "A Brief History of Roger Stone". The Atlan
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JFK's Secret Service Agents Break Their Silence on the Assassination (2010)
Clinton J. Hill (born January 4, 1932) is a former U.S. Secret Service agent who served under five United States presidents, from Dwight D. Eisenhower to Gerald Ford. Hill is best known for his act of bravery while in the presidential motorcade on November 22, 1963, when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.[1] During the assassination, Hill ran from the Secret Service followup car, behind the presidential limousine, leaped onto the back of it and shielded Jacqueline Kennedy and the stricken president with his body as the car raced to Parkland Memorial Hospital. His act is documented in film footage by Abraham Zapruder. Since the death of Nellie Connally in 2006, Hill is the last surviving person who was in the presidential limousine that day.
Early life and education
Hill was born in Larimore, North Dakota, to a Norwegian mother, Alma Pettersen. His birth parents homesteaded near Roseglen. "At 17 days old his Mother, (separated from his Father), had him baptized and she then placed him in the North Dakota Children's Home in Fargo. After 3 months"[2] he was adopted by another Norwegian family, Chris and Jennie Hill of Fargo. Originally named Haugen, the family later changed its name to the English version of the name; Haugen means "the hill" in Norwegian.[3][4]
Hill's new family took him to Washburn, where he eventually graduated from Washburn High School.[4] He attended Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota,[4] where he played football, basketball, and baseball, studied history, and graduated in 1954. Shortly after graduating from college he was drafted into the US Army and sent to Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, for basic training. After basic training he was assigned to the United States Army Intelligence Center in Dundalk, Maryland, where he was trained as a Counterintelligence (CI) Special Agent and served with Region IX, 113th Counterintelligence Corps Field Office in Denver, until 1957.[5]
After his military service, Hill joined the Secret Service and was assigned to the Denver office. In 1958, Hill served on the detail for President Dwight D. Eisenhower.[6] After John F. Kennedy was elected president of the United States, Hill was assigned to protect the First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy.
Assassination of President Kennedy
President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas, during a motorcade through the city, en route to a luncheon at the Dallas Trade Mart. The president and Mrs. Kennedy were riding in an open limousine containing three rows of seats. The Kennedys were in the rear seat of the car, the governor of Texas, John Connally, and his wife, Nellie Connally, were in the middle row, Secret Service agent William Greer was driving and the Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Roy Kellerman, was also in the front row.
Clint Hill jumping on the presidential limousine, as captured in the Zapruder film
Hill was riding on the left front running board of the Secret Service car immediately behind the presidential limousine. After the second shot, Hill began running to overtake the moving car in front of him, but the third shot had hit Kennedy in the head by the time that he arrived at the limousine. He climbed from the rear bumper, crawling over the trunk to the back seat where the president and First Lady were located. Immediately after the fatal shot, Mrs. Kennedy climbed out of the back seat toward the trunk. Hill pushed her back into the car and covered her and the fatally wounded president with his body.
Hill, along with Secret Service agents Kellerman, Greer, and Rufus Youngblood, provided testimony to the Warren Commission in Washington, D.C., on March 9, 1964.[7]
Hill grabbed a small handrail on the left rear of the trunk, normally used by bodyguards to stabilize themselves while standing on small platforms on the rear bumper. According to the Warren Commission's findings, there were no bodyguards stationed on the bumper that day because:
...the President had frequently stated that he did not want agents to ride on these steps during a motorcade except when necessary. He had repeated this wish only a few days before, during his visit to Tampa, Florida.[8]
The notion that the president's instructions in Tampa jeopardized his security in Dallas has since been denied by Hill and other agents. Regardless of the Warren Commission's findings, photos taken of the motorcade along earlier segments of the route show Hill riding on the step at the back of the car.
As an alternative explanation, fellow agent Gerald Blaine cites the location of the shooting:
We were going into a freeway, and that's where you take the speeds up to 60 and 70 miles an hour. So we would not have had any agents there anyway.[9]
Hill grabbed the handrail less than two seconds after the fatal shot to the President. The driver then accelerated, causing the car to slip away from Hill, who was in the midst of trying to leap onto it. He succeeded in regaining his footing and jumped onto the back of the quickly accelerating vehicle.
Hill on the presidential limousine moments after Kennedy's assassination
As he got on, Mrs. Kennedy, apparently in shock, was crawling onto the flat rear trunk of the moving limousine. Hill later told the Warren Commission that he thought Mrs. Kennedy was reaching for a piece of the president's skull that had been blown off. He crawled to her and guided her back into her seat. Once back in the car, Hill placed his body above the president and Mrs. Kennedy. Meanwhile, in the folding jump seats directly in front of them, Mrs. Connally had pulled her wounded husband, Governor John Connally, to a prone position on her lap.
Agent Kellerman, in the front seat of the car, gave orders over the car's two-way radio to the lead vehicle in the procession "to the nearest hospital, quick!" Hill was shouting as loudly as he could: "To the hospital, to the hospital!" En route to the hospital, Hill flashed a "thumbs-down" signal and shook his head from side to side at the agents in the follow-up car, signaling the graveness of the president's condition.
The limousine then rapidly exited Dealey Plaza and sped to Parkland Memorial Hospital, only minutes away, followed by other vehicles in the motorcade. Hill maintained his position shielding the couple with his body, and was looking down at the president. He later testified:
The right rear portion of his head was missing. It was lying in the rear seat of the car. His brain was exposed. There was blood and bits of brain all over the entire rear portion of the car. Mrs. Kennedy was completely covered with blood. There was so much blood you could not tell if there had been any other wound or not, except for the one large gaping wound in the right rear portion of the head.[7]
As the hospital staff attended to Kennedy and Connally, Hill received a telephone call from Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the president's brother. Hill declined to tell Kennedy over the phone that his brother was dead, saying in a 2013 interview: "I explained to him that both the president and the governor had been shot and that we were in the emergency room at Parkland Hospital. So then he said, ‘Well, how bad is it?’ Well, I didn't want to tell him his brother was dead. I didn't think it was my place. So I said, ‘It's as bad as it can get.’”[10]
Although the Secret Service was shocked at its failure to protect the life of President Kennedy, virtually everyone agreed that Clint Hill's rapid and brave actions had been without blemish. He was honored at a ceremony in Washington just days after the funeral of John F. Kennedy. Mrs. Kennedy, despite being in deep mourning, made an appearance at the event to thank him in person.
After the assassination
Hill remained assigned to Mrs. Kennedy and the children until after the 1964 presidential election. He then was assigned to President Lyndon B. Johnson at the White House. In 1967, when Johnson was still in office, Hill became the Special Agent in Charge (SAIC) of presidential protection. When Richard Nixon came into office, Hill moved over to SAIC of protection of Vice President Spiro Agnew. Finally, Hill was assigned to headquarters as the assistant director of the Secret Service for all protection. He retired in 1975.[11]
Hill has expressed his belief in the official conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone and has refuted conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination.[12] In a 1975 interview with Mike Wallace, Hill tearfully surmised that if he had reached the vehicle a second earlier, he would have been able to take the third shot to his own body, and felt a great deal of regret for not having been able to reach there in time.[11]
Hill wrote the foreword to Gerald Blaine and Lisa McCubbin's 2010 narrative, The Kennedy Detail.[13]
Clint Hill at the LBJ Presidential Library in 2017
In a BBC Today interview, broadcast in December 2010, Hill recalled the assassination and his first visit to Dallas in 1990 since the events of 1963, during which he surveyed the scene of the shooting. Asked whether he thought that the President's life might have been saved if things had been done differently, Hill replied that "He [Lee Harvey Oswald] had all the advantages that day. We had none. And it was a very easy job to accomplish because of the way everything was laid out."[14]
Hill was interviewed by Brian Lamb on C-SPAN's talk show Q&A in May 2012.[15]
In April 2012, the book Mrs. Kennedy and Me was published, in which Hill looked back at his career and described his working relationship with Jacqueline Kennedy.[16] The same year, Hill was inducted into the Scandinavian-American Hall of Fame, a signature event of the North Dakota-based organization Norsk Høstfest.[17]
In 2012, Hill was reported to have lived in Alexandria, Virginia, for "many years."[4][15]
In November 2013, to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the assassination, Hill's book Five Days in November was published, giving his view of the events.[18]
In 2016, Hill released Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford, which summarized his entire Secret Service career.[19]
On October 5, 2018, Hill received the Theodore Roosevelt Rough Rider Award from Doug Burgum, the Governor of North Dakota. The award is North Dakota's award for residents and former residents of North Dakota.[20]
Personal life
Hill was married to his wife Gwen at the time of Kennedy's assassination. The couple had two sons.[15] In his 2012 interview with Brian Lamb, Hill suggested that he had been divorced or separated from her for many years.[15][21] As of 2013, Hill lived near San Francisco.[22] Since 2016, Hill has been in a relationship with his co-author, Lisa McCubbin[23] and they were married in December 2021.[24]
References
Hill, Clint (2017). "Clint Hill". Retrieved June 12, 2017.
National Law Enforcement Museum, Washington D.C. Oral History, 10/23/2018
– Hun var i sjokk og sa «Jeg har hjernen hans i hendene» - TV 2 Nyhetene
Ogden, Eloise (September 25, 2012). "A witness to history: Former Secret Service agent talks about N.D. & Jacqueline Kennedy". Minot Daily News. Minot, North Dakota. Retrieved September 26, 2012.
Hill, Clint (2016). Five Presidents. Gallery Books. pp. 8–9. ISBN 9781476794143.
‘Mrs. Kennedy’: A relationship of respect, protection, love. USA Today, April 2, 2012. Retrieved April 19, 2013.
"Testimony Of Clinton J. Hill, Special Agent, Secret Service". Hearings Before the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Volume II. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. 1964. pp. 61, 132–144.
Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy. p. 45.
"JFK's Secret Service agents reflect on loss of a president". www.cnn.com. Retrieved 2023-03-13.
Pelley, Scott (November 22, 2013). "Jackie wouldn't let go of JFK, first agent to reach president says". CBS News. Retrieved October 7, 2016.
King, Larry (March 22, 2006). "Larry King Interviews Mike Wallace". CNN.
Waterson, Jim (2023-11-14). "'Conspiracies are just theories … not fact': the Secret Service agent haunted by JFK's shooting". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
Dobbin, Muriel (November 19, 2010). "BOOK REVIEW: 'The Kennedy Detail'". The Washington Times. Washington, D.C. Retrieved May 26, 2013.
"JFK assassination 'was easily done'". BBC. December 1, 2010. Retrieved January 7, 2012.
Q & A - Clint Hill. C-SPAN, May 27, 2012. Retrieved November 28, 2014.
"Book review: 'Mrs. Kennedy and Me'". The Washington Times. April 6, 2012. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
"SAHF Inductees". hostfest.com. Norsk Høstfest.
"Clint Hill on 'Five Days in November'". The Washington Post. November 25, 2013. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
"Adventures of a Secret Service agent who served five presidents". The Washington Post. May 5, 2016. Retrieved May 8, 2016.
'Former Secret Service Agent Clint Hill to receive Rough Rider Award. Bismarck News. Keith Darney, October 5, 2018
"HILL: Well my wife and I are not together and haven't been for sometime."
Walters, Joanna (November 20, 2013). "Secret Service agent still wonders if one second would have saved JFK". Al Jazeera America. New York City. Retrieved December 22, 2014.
"A Conversation with Secret Service Agent Clint Hill". 21 October 2016.
"Clint Hill on Instagram: "I am pleased to announce that Lisa McCubbin and I were married on December 4, 2021. It was a moving, intimate gathering of family and close friends at our home in Belvedere, California. @lisamccubbin @helenaandlaurent"".
Bibliography
Hill, Clint; McCubbin, Lisa (2012). Mrs. Kennedy and Me. S&S/Gallery. ISBN 978-1-4516-4844-7.
Hill, Clint; McCubbin, Lisa (2013). Five Days in November. S&S/Gallery.
Hill, Clint; McCubbin, Lisa (2016). Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford. S&S/Gallery. ISBN 978-1476794136.
External links
Appearances on C-SPAN
Q&A interview with Clint Hill and Gerald Blaine, C-SPAN, November 28, 2010.
Clint Hill interviewed by Mike Wallace in 1975, from 60 Minutes Rewind, January 11, 2011. Archived February 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
Television interview with Clint Hill Archived 2016-12-06 at the Wayback Machine, from The Today Show, April 5, 2012.
Clint Hill interviewed by Tom Putnam, Director of the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, April 2018.
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Watergate Hearings Day 37: Richard Kleindienst and Henry E. Petersen (1973-08-07)
The dark side of history: https://thememoryhole.substack.com/
Richard Gordon Kleindienst (August 5, 1923 – February 3, 2000) was an American lawyer, politician, and U.S. Attorney General during the early stages of Watergate political scandal.
Early life and career
Kleindienst was born August 5, 1923, in Winslow, Arizona, the son of Gladys (Love) and Alfred R. Kleindienst.[1] He attended the University of Arizona before serving in the United States Army Air Forces from 1943 to 1946. Following his military service, he attended Harvard College and Harvard Law School, graduating from the latter in 1950.[2]
From 1953 to 1954, he served in the Arizona House of Representatives; he followed that with some 15 years of private legal practice.[3] He concurrently was Arizona Republican Party chairman from 1956 to 1960 and 1961 to 1963, and in the 1964 Arizona gubernatorial election, the Republican candidate for Governor of Arizona, losing the general election to Sam Goddard, 53–47%.
Role in Goldwater Campaign
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This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (January 2022)
On January 3, 1964, Barry Goldwater asked his friend Kleindienst to serve as Director of Operations in his presidential campaign. Goldwater stipulated that he would only respond to the "draft Goldwater" movement if the campaign were led by three Republicans close to him: Kleindienst, Denison Kitchel as Campaign Manager, and Dean Burch as Assistant Campaign Manager.[4]
Kleindienst had never worked on a national campaign. Political experts told Goldwater that F. Clifton White, an experienced GOP operative, would be a better choice. Goldwater rejected this change, but did agree to Kleindienst and White sharing the role.
Nixon administration
Kleindienst in a group photo of Nixon's cabinet on June 16, 1972, fourth from the right in the back row.
After Richard Nixon won the 1968 presidential election, John N. Mitchell agreed to serve as United States Attorney General on the condition that Kleindienst serve as Deputy Attorney General.[5] Kleindienst suspended his private practice in 1969 to accept the post of Deputy Attorney General offered him by President Nixon. This gave him responsibilities relating to the government's suit against the International Telephone & Telegraph Corporation. Nixon and his aide John Ehrlichman told him to drop the case, which created an impression that they were violating their ethical obligations in favor of ITT, and that, as an attorney himself, Kleindienst was now obligated to report these ethical lapses to the state bars in the jurisdictions involved. But in his official role as Deputy Attorney General, he also repeatedly told Congress that no one had interfered with his department's handling of the case, failing to mention either Nixon or Ehrlichman.[6][7]
On February 15, 1972, Attorney General Mitchell resigned effective March 1 in order to work on the Nixon re-election campaign, with President Nixon nominating Kleindienst to serve as his successor.[8] After having served as Acting Attorney General for a little under three and a half months, his appointment was approved by the Senate on June 12 after an attempt to block the nomination by Ted Kennedy on the grounds of his involvement with ITT failed.[9]
Unknown to Kleindienst, leaders of the Committee to Re-Elect the President (CRP) had tasked Gordon Liddy with arranging various covert operations, one of which was to be a burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex in Washington, DC. Before dawn on Saturday, June 17, 1973, five days after Kleindienst was sworn in,[10] James McCord and four other burglars operating on Liddy's instructions were arrested at the Watergate complex. Later in the morning Kleindienst was officially notified of the arrests. Liddy, after a phone consultation about the arrests with CRP Deputy Director Jeb Magruder (who had managed CRP up until March of that year, and had the most direct organizational authority over Liddy's activities), personally approached Kleindienst the same day at the Burning Tree Club golf club in Bethesda, Maryland. Liddy told him that the break-in had originated within CRP, and that Kleindienst should arrange the release of the burglars, to reduce the risk of exposure of CRP's involvement. But Kleindienst refused and ordered that the Watergate burglary investigation proceed like any other case.
Kleindienst ultimately resigned in the midst of the Watergate scandal nearly a year later, on April 30, 1973. This was the same day that John Dean was fired and H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman resigned.[11] In 1974, he pleaded guilty to contempt of Congress for his failing to testify fully to the Senate in a pre-Watergate investigation, involving alleged favoritism shown to ITT during his testimony as part of his Senate confirmation hearings.[12][13] Kleindienst was one of very few people in modern U.S. history to be convicted of contempt of Congress; G. Gordon Liddy, another figure in the Watergate scandal, also was convicted in the 1970s.[13]
In April 1982, the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously suspended Kleindienst from the practice of law for 1 year due to his unethical conduct, accepting a disciplinary recommendation from the state bar association. The suspension was due to statements he made to a bar investigator probing Kleindienst's representation in a 1976 insurance company fraud case.[14] In October 1982, the U.S. Supreme Court, on a unanimous vote, disbarred Kleindienst, blocking him from practicing before the highest court.[15]
Later life
In 1981, Kleindienst was charged with perjury regarding how much he knew about a white-collar criminal he represented; he was subsequently acquitted.[16]
He died at the age of 76, of lung cancer, on February 3, 2000.[16]
Bibliography
Kleindienst, Richard (1985). Justice: The Memoirs of Attorney General Richard Kleindienst. Ottawa, Illinois: Jameson Books. ISBN 0-915463-15-6.
For Kleindienst's role in Watergate, see Leon Jaworski, The Right and the Power, and Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, All the President's Men[ISBN missing].
References
Keene, Ann T. (January 2001). "Kleindienst, Richard G." Oxford University Press – via American Council of Learned Societies.
"Richard G. Kleindienst (1972–1973)". Miller Center. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
"Attorney General: Richard Gordon Kleindienst | AG | Department of Justice". www.justice.gov. 23 October 2014. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
Perlstein, Rick (2001). Before the storm : Barry Goldwater and the unmaking of the American consensus (1st ed.). New York: Hill and Wang. ISBN 9780809028580.
Graff, Garrett M. (2022). Watergate: A New History (1 ed.). New York: Avid Reader Press. p. 42. ISBN 978-1-9821-3916-2. OCLC 1260107112.
"Context of '1969: ITT Negotiates with Nixon Aides to Avoid Antitrust Lawsuit'". www.historycommons.org. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
[1] | May 17, 1974 | Kleindienst Admits Misdemeanor Guilt | Anthony Ripley | [2]
"Richard Gordon Kleindienst – Arizona Obituary Directory". obits.arizonagravestones.org. Retrieved 2017-08-29.
New York Times (9 June 1972). "Senate Backs Kleindienst In Attorney General Post". The New York Times. Retrieved 23 July 2018.
Richard G. Kleindienst, Figure in Watergate Era, Dies at 76, New York Times, by David Stout, Feb. 4, 2000
Laurence Stern and Haynes Johnson, Washington Post Staff Writers (May 1, 1973). "3 Top Nixon Aides, Kleindienst Out; President Accepts Full Responsibility; Richardson Will Conduct New Probe". washingtonpost.com.
Jackson, Robert L. (4 February 2000). "Richard Kleindienst, Attorney General in Nixon Cabinet, Dies". Los Angeles Times.
Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein, House hopes to defy history in criminal contempt case against Bannon, Politico (October 19, 2021).
Around the Nation; Kleindienst Law Practice Suspended for a Year, United Press International (April 24, 1982).
Tigh court disbars Kleindienst, United Press International (October 4, 1982).
"Kleindienst, Richard G. (05 August 1923–03 February 2000)". American National Biography. January 2001.
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Henry E. Petersen (January 1, 1921 – May 29, 1991)[1] was an attorney and United States federal government official. He served as Assistant U.S. Attorney General during the Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford administrations. He also engaged in ethically questionable communications with Nixon and his staff, providing inside information about the Watergate investigation prior to the appointment of the Special Prosecutor.[2]
Personal
Petersen was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1921 and grew up in the Washington, D.C. area. Petersen served in the United States Marine Corps in the South Pacific during World War II.[1] After returning, Petersen studied at Georgetown University and received his law degree from the Catholic University of America.[1]
Peterson"s wife was Jean and kids were Julie, Jaqueline, and others
Petersen died of emphysema in Sunderland, Maryland in 1991 at age 70.[3]
Involvement in the Watergate scandal
In his capacity as the Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice, Petersen oversaw the conduct of the Watergate investigation by federal prosecutors in the U.S Attorneys Office in Washington D.C. When Wright Patman announced that the House Banking Committee would be investigating Watergate, White House Counsel John Dean persuaded Petersen to ask the members of the House Banking Committee not to issue subpoenas for individuals involved in the Watergate scandal (including Dean himself) because it might jeopardise potential criminal trials. On October 2, 1972, at the behest of Dean, Petersen sent a letter to the members of the Committee asking that they not issue subpoenas, and the following day the Committee voted not to hold hearings on Watergate.[4]
Particularly critical of Petersen in House Banking Committee meetings was Rep. Henry S. Reuss (D-Wis.).[5] Early in 1973, tipped off by a Wall Street Journal reporter that Petersen was rumored to be meeting daily with the president, Reuss's legislative assistant James H. Rathlesberger obtained Petersen's confirmation[clarification needed] in a telephone interview that same day. Petersen claimed it was not inappropriate because he was only sharing one category of evidence he deemed non-problematic. Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark that afternoon informed Rathlesberger in another telephone interview "that is absolutely wrong. I would never do that." But Reuss, a Harvard-trained lawyer and former prosecutor, told Rathlesberger by phone late that afternoon from Wisconsin: "I disagree with Ramsey" and that he saw nothing wrong and chose not to make a press statement.[6][better source needed]
Sometime in late October 1972, Petersen informed Dean that Mark Felt was leaking information to the press. Felt would later come to be described in Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's bestselling book All the President's Men as "Deep Throat," whose identity would remain a mystery until 2005. Petersen did not divulge who told him this, however he explained that it was an attorney who was employed by one of the newspaper publications that Felt was leaking to. Dean reported this information back to the White House. When Chief of Staff H.R Haldeman reported the information to President Nixon, Haldeman advised Nixon not to fire Felt as "He knows everything that's to be known in the FBI."[7] Author Max Holland speculates that it was Roswell Gilpatric who told Petersen that it was Felt who was leaking to Time magazine.[8]
In April 1973, John Dean decided to cooperate with federal prosecutors in the Watergate investigation. Dean came to an agreement with lead prosecutor Earl Silbert that he would not report the information Dean gave back to Petersen (Silbert's superior) as he knew Petersen would inform the White House. When Dean informed Silbert that Nixon's two closest advisors, H.R Haldeman and John Ehrlichman were involved in an obstruction of justice, Silbert felt he had to inform Petersen of the situation. On April 15, 1973, Attorney General Richard Kleindienst and Petersen informed Nixon that Dean was cooperating and that the Justice Department was building a criminal case against Haldeman and Ehrlichman. Haldeman and Ehrlichman resigned fifteen days later while Dean was fired.[9]
On April 17, 1973, Petersen told President Nixon that the Justice Department was investigating the break-in at Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist office by the White House Plumbers. Nixon ordered Petersen not to investigate the issue because "that was a national security matter." Petersen relayed this order back to Earl Silbert. Several days later however, Petersen and Kleindienst persuaded Nixon that the Justice Department needed to disclose the matter to the court in Daniel Ellsberg's criminal case.[10]
Throughout April 1973, Nixon would use Petersen to extract important grand jury information about the Watergate case before divulging that information to subjects of the investigation. For example, on April 16, 1973, Petersen informed Nixon that Fred LaRue, a figure in the Watergate cover-up was cooperating with the grand jury. Nixon subsequently instructed Haldeman to inform Herb Kalmbach, another figure in the cover-up that LaRue was "talking freely."[11] The conversations with Petersen would later be cited in the Articles of Impeachment against Richard Nixon, accusing the President of "disseminating information received from officers of the Department of Justice of the United States to subjects of investigations conducted by lawfully authorized investigative officers and employees of the United States, for the purpose of aiding and assisting such subjects in their attempts to avoid criminal liability."[12]
Due to his role in the Watergate scandal, Petersen testified before the Senate Watergate Committee on August 7, 1973.[13]
References
Fowler, Glenn (June 1991). "Henry E. Petersen Is Dead at 70; Investigated Watergate Break-In". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 January 2016.
"What the Watergate 'Road Map' Reveals About Improper Contact Between the White House and the Justice Department". Lawfare. 19 November 2018.
"Henry E. Petersen, 70, a career Justice Department ..." tribunedigital-baltimoresun. June 1991.
93rd Congress of the United States (1974). Final Report of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. Washington D.C: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 74.
Reuss, Henry S. (1999). When Government Was Good. The University of Wisconsin Press. pp. 105–106. ISBN 0-299-16190-0.
James H. Rathlesberger, Legislative Assistant to Rep. Henry S. Reuss, 1973-75.
Dean, John (2014). The Nixon Defense. New York: Viking. pp. 172–173.
Dean. The Nixon Defense. p. 679.
SSC Final Report. p. 91.
93rd Congress (1974). Hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities. Washington D.C: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 3631.
93rd Congress of the United States (1974). House Judiciary Committee Hearings: Statement of Information. Washington D.C: US Government Printing Office. pp. 78–79.
"Watergate Articles Of Impeachment". watergate.info. Retrieved 2020-10-30.
93rd Congress. SSC Hearings. p. 3611.
External links
"Gerald R. Ford: Letter Accepting the Resignation of Henry E. Petersen as Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2016-05-17.
Higgins, George V. (November 1, 1974). "The Friends of Richard Nixon". The Atlantic.
Henry Petersen Watergate Testimony
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United States Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division
1972–1974 Succeeded by
Dick Thornburgh
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Oklahoma City Bombing: What the Investigation Missed - and Why It Still Matters (2012)
Terry Lynn Nichols (born April 1, 1955) is an American domestic terrorist who was convicted for conspiring with Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing plot.[2] Prior to his incarceration, he held a variety of short-term jobs, working as a farmer, grain elevator manager, real estate salesman, and ranch hand.[5] He met Timothy McVeigh during a brief stint in the U.S. Army, which ended in 1989 when he requested a hardship discharge after less than one year of service.[5] In 1994 and 1995, he conspired with McVeigh in the planning and preparation of the truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on April 19, 1995. The bombing killed 168 people.[6]
In a federal trial in 1997, Nichols was convicted of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter for killing federal law enforcement personnel.[7][8] He was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole after the jury deadlocked on the death penalty.[6] He was also tried in Oklahoma on state charges of murder in connection with the bombing. In 2004, he was convicted of 161 counts of first degree murder, including one count of fetal homicide, first-degree arson, and conspiracy.[6][9] As in the federal trial, the state jury deadlocked on imposing the death penalty.[6][10] In the longest prison sentence ever given to an individual, he was sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole,[2][6] and is incarcerated at ADX Florence, a super maximum security prison near Florence, Colorado. He shared a cell block that is commonly referred to as "Bomber's Row" with Ramzi Yousef and Eric Rudolph,[11][12] as well as Ted Kaczynski until his transfer in 2021.[13]
Early years
Nichols was born in Lapeer, Michigan. He was raised on a farm,[14] the third of four children of Joyce and Robert Nichols.[4][15] Growing up, he helped his parents on the farm,[5] learning to operate and maintain the equipment.[16] According to the Denver Post, he also cared for injured birds and animals.[16]
Adulthood
Nichols attended Lapeer High School where he took elective classes in crafts and business law.[4] Throughout school, friends characterized him as shy.[5][16] While in high school he played junior varsity football, wrestled, and was a member of the ski club.[16][17] His brother James, who self-published a 400-page book about the bombing,[18] has stated that Terry was book smart and good at artwork.[14][clarification needed] He graduated from high school in 1973 with a 3.6 grade point average,[4][14] with ambitions of becoming a physician.[5]
Nichols enrolled at Central Michigan University. He completed one term of 13 credit hours with B grade average. He had Cs in biology, chemistry and trigonometry, a B in literature and an A in archery.[5][14] In 1974, after another brother, Leslie, was badly burned in a fuel tank explosion on the farm, he offered to give him skin for grafts.[19] He tried farming with his brother James for a while, but they did not get along; he felt his brother was too bossy.[5] Later he moved to Colorado and obtained a license to sell real estate in 1976.[20] Soon after he closed on his first big sale, his mother told him she needed his help on the farm, so he returned to Michigan.[16][20]
In 1980, Nichols met real estate agent Lana Walsh, a twice-divorced mother of two who was five years his senior.[5][21] They married and had a son in 1982. During the marriage, Nichols engaged in a succession of part-time and short-term jobs: carpentry work, managing a grain elevator, and selling life insurance and real estate.[4][14][21] According to Lana, she was the one with a career; Nichols was a house husband,[5] who spent most of his time at home with the children cooking and gardening.[5][6]
Nichols had never liked farm life, and in 1988, at the age of 33, he tried to escape it by enlisting in the United States Army.[22] He was sent to Fort Benning next to Columbus, Georgia for basic training. As the oldest man in his platoon, he had difficulty with the physical aspect of the training,[23] and was sometimes called "grandpa" by the other men. However, he was soon made the platoon guide because of his age.[5] Timothy McVeigh was in his platoon, and they quickly became close friends. They had a common background: both men grew up in white rural areas. Both had tried college for a while and had parents who were divorced.[24] They shared political views[4] and interests in gun collecting and the survivalist movement.[5] The two were later stationed together at Fort Riley in Junction City, Kansas,[5] where they met and became friends with their future accomplice, Michael Fortier.[25]
Nichols's wife filed for divorce soon after he joined the Army. Due to a conflict over childcare,[6] he requested and was given a hardship discharge in May 1989 to return home to take care of his son, who was seven years old at the time.[5] As he departed, he told a fellow soldier that he would be starting his own military organization soon, and would have an unlimited supply of weapons.[25]
In 1990, Nichols, 35, married 17-year-old Marife Torres from the Philippines, whom he met through a mail-order bride agency.[4][6] When she arrived in Michigan several months later, she was pregnant with another man's child.[4][5] The child died at age two when he suffocated after getting tangled up with a plastic bag from a banana box that was left overnight in his bedroom.[16] Marife initially suspected foul play from either Nichols or McVeigh, but there were no bruises or signs of trauma to the child. The death was ruled accidental.[5] Nichols and Marife had two more children during their marriage.[4][16] Nichols and Torres frequently visited the Philippines, where she was attending a local college working on a degree in physical therapy. He sometimes traveled to the Philippines alone, while she remained in Kansas.
Nichols left a cryptic note and a package of documents with his ex-wife, Lana (Walsh) Padilla, prior to one of his many visits to the Philippines. Upon returning from the visit to learn that she had prematurely opened a letter instructing her what to do in the event of his death, he made a series of telephone calls to a Cebu City boarding house.[26] Nichols and Torres divorced after his arrest. Marife returned to the Philippines with the children.[27]
Anti-government views
Nichols' anti-government views developed and grew over the years.[6] Nichols spent most of his adult life in the Lapeer and Sanilac County areas of Michigan where mistrust and resentment of the federal government was common, especially after bank foreclosures of many farms during the 1980s.[28] Neighbors said he attended meetings of anti-government groups, experimented with explosives and got more radical as time went on.[16]
Nichols began to adhere to sovereign citizen ideology.[29] In February 1992, he attempted to renounce his US citizenship by writing to the local county clerk in Michigan, stating that the political system was corrupt, and declaring himself a "non resident alien".[4][5] Several months later, he appeared in court and tried to avoid responsibility for some of his credit card bills (he owed approximately $40,000 altogether), refusing to come before the bench, and shouting at the judge that the government had no jurisdiction over him.[5][17] On October 19, 1992, he signed another document renouncing his US citizenship.[16] In May 1993, Nichols appeared before a county judge regarding an $8,421 unpaid credit card debt.[16] He also renounced his driver’s license.[17]
McVeigh and Nichols grew closer after McVeigh's discharge from the Army.[4] In December 1991, Nichols invited McVeigh to join him in Michigan and help him out selling military surplus at gun shows.[30] For the next three years, McVeigh stayed with Nichols off and on.[31] On April 19, 1993, Nichols was watching TV with McVeigh at the Nichols' farmhouse in Michigan during the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. When the compound went up in flames, McVeigh and Nichols were enraged and began to plot revenge on the federal government.[32] In the fall of 1993, Nichols and McVeigh, who were living at the farm,[5] became business partners, selling weapons and military surplus at gun shows.[4] For a while, they lived an itinerant life, following the gun shows from town to town.[17]
Nichols then went to Las Vegas to try working in construction but failed. Next, he went to central Kansas and was hired in March 1994 as a ranch hand in Marion, Kansas.[16] In March 1994, he sent a letter to the clerk of Marion County, Kansas, saying he was not subject to the laws of the U.S. government and asked his employer not to withhold any federal taxes from his check.[17] His employer said Nichols was hard-working but had unusual political views.[5] In the fall of 1994, Nichols quit his job, telling his employer he was going into business with McVeigh.[5]
The bombing
Main article: Oklahoma City bombing
The bombing site on April 21, 1995
On September 22, 1994, Nichols and McVeigh rented a storage shed and began gathering supplies for the truck bomb.[17][32] In late September or early October, Nichols and McVeigh stole dynamite and blasting caps from a nearby quarry.[17][32] Nichols began purchasing large quantities of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and storing it in three rental storage units.[32] Nichols also robbed an Arkansas gun dealer who had befriended him and McVeigh at various gun shows.[32]
In February 1995 Nichols bought a small house in Herington, Kansas, with a cash down payment. In March 1995, he bought diesel fuel. On April 14, Nichols gave McVeigh some cash, according to McVeigh.[32] On April 16, Easter Sunday, Nichols and McVeigh drove to Oklahoma City to drop off the getaway car.[32] On April 18, the day before the bombing, Nichols helped McVeigh prepare the truck bomb at a lake near Herington.[5] McVeigh remarked about Nichols's and Fortier's partial withdrawal from the plot, saying they "were men who liked to talk tough, but in the end their bitches and kids ruled."[32] Nichols was at home in Kansas with his family when the bomb went off.[4]
On April 21, Nichols learned he was wanted for questioning, turned himself in,[4] and consented to a search of his home.[5] The search turned up blasting caps, detonating cords, ground ammonium nitrate, barrels made of plastic similar to fragments found at the bombing site, 33 firearms, anti-government warfare literature,[5] a receipt for ammonium nitrate fertilizer with McVeigh's fingerprints on it,[17] a telephone credit card that McVeigh had used when he was shopping for bomb-making equipment, and a hand-drawn map of downtown Oklahoma City.[32] Nichols was held as a material witness to the bombing until he was charged on May 10.[5]
Investigators also combed the Decker, Michigan, farm of James Nichols where Terry Nichols and McVeigh had stayed intermittently in the months preceding the bombing. James was held in custody on charges that he made small bombs on the farm but was released without charges on May 24, with the judge saying there was no evidence he was a danger to others.[33]
Prosecutions
Federal case
Florence ADMAX USP, the supermax security prison where Nichols resides
McVeigh was tried before Nichols and sentenced to death.[6] Former army soldier and friend of Nichols, Michael Fortier, testified against both McVeigh and Nichols. Fortier had entered into a federal plea agreement for reduced charges in return for his agreement to testify. He was charged with failing to notify authorities in advance of the crime and sentenced to 12 years in prison.[34] Fortier testified that Nichols and McVeigh had expressed anti-government feelings and conspired to blow up the Murrah federal building. He said he helped McVeigh survey the building before the attack. He also testified that Nichols had robbed an Arkansas gun dealer to finance the cost of the bombing. Fortier provided "solid bricks of evidence" for the cases against McVeigh and Nichols, according to the prosecutor.[34]
Nichols' wife Marife testified as a defense witness, but her story may have helped the prosecution's case.[35] She said her husband had been living a double life prior to the bombing, using aliases, renting storage lockers and lying that he had broken off his relationship with McVeigh. She also testified that Nichols traveled to Oklahoma City three days before the bombing, supporting the prosecution's contention that Nichols helped McVeigh station a getaway car near the Murrah building. Marife also failed to give Nichols an alibi for April 18, 1995, the day the prosecution said Nichols helped McVeigh assemble the truck bomb.[35]
Nichols was represented by criminal defense attorney Michael Tigar.[36] The trial lasted nine weeks with the prosecution calling 100 witnesses tying Nichols to McVeigh and the bombing plot. The prosecution argued that Nichols helped McVeigh purchase and steal bomb ingredients, park the getaway car near the Murrah building and assemble the bomb. The defense attempted to cast doubt on the case against Nichols by calling witnesses who said they saw other men with McVeigh before the bombing and by claiming the government had manipulated the evidence against Nichols.[37]
The jury deliberated for 41 hours over a period of six days, acquitting Nichols on December 24, 1997, of actually detonating the bomb, but convicting him of conspiring with McVeigh to use a weapon of mass destruction, a capital offense.[38] They acquitted Nichols on the charges of first degree (premeditated) murder, but convicted him on the lesser charge of involuntary (unintentional) manslaughter in the deaths of the federal law enforcement officers.[38]
In assessing why Nichols was not convicted of first degree murder, The Washington Post noted:
There was no evidence that Nichols had rented the Ryder truck used to carry the bomb to Oklahoma City, and there was no one who could positively identify him as the purchaser of the two tons of ammonium nitrate, the major component in the bomb. Most problematic for the government was the compelling fact that Nichols was at home in Kansas when McVeigh detonated the truck.[38]
Another theory is that some members of the jury believed Nichols' attorneys' arguments that he had withdrawn from the conspiracy before the bombing.[32] His apparent remorse as shown by his crying several times during the testimony could also have swayed the jury.[32]
After the penalty hearing concluded, the jury deliberated for 13 hours over two days on whether to give Nichols a death sentence, but deadlocked.[10] U.S. District Court Judge Richard P. Matsch then had the option of giving Nichols a sentence of life imprisonment or a lesser term. On June 4, 1998, he sentenced Nichols to life in prison without parole on the conspiracy conviction, calling Nichols "an enemy of the Constitution" who had conspired to destroy everything the Constitution protects.[39] Nichols also received a concurrent 48-year sentence for his eight involuntary manslaughter convictions, six for each victim.[40] Nichols showed no emotion.[7] He was sent to the Federal Supermax Prison in Florence, Colorado.[41] On February 26, 1999, a federal appeals court affirmed Nichols' conviction and sentence.[4]
Oklahoma state case
After the federal jury deadlocked on the death penalty, which resulted in a life sentence, citizens of Oklahoma petitioned to empanel a state court grand jury to investigate the bombing. State representative Charles Key led a citizens group that circulated the petitions. It was hoped that evidence implicating other conspirators would be uncovered. A grand jury heard testimony for 18 months about allegations of other accomplices[42] but returned only the indictments against Nichols in March 1999. Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane denied the state prosecution was conducted solely for the purpose of having Nichols executed, saying it was important Nichols be convicted of killing all the victims. "This case has always been about 161 men, women and children and an unborn baby having the same rights to their day in court as eight federal law enforcement officers," Lane said.[43]
Nichols was brought from the prison in Colorado to Oklahoma in January 2000 to face the state trial on 160 capital counts of first-degree murder and one count each of fetal homicide, first-degree arson, and conspiracy.[9] The prosecutor's goal was to get the death penalty.[9][10]
During the two-month trial, the prosecution presented a "mountain of circumstantial evidence", calling 151 witnesses.[9] Their star witness was Fortier, who said Nichols was intimately involved in the conspiracy and had helped obtain bomb ingredients including fertilizer that was mixed with high octane fuel.[9] Fortier also testified that McVeigh and Nichols stole cord and blasting caps from a rock quarry, and that Nichols robbed a gun collector to obtain money for the plot.[9] Nichols' lawyers said he was the "fall guy" and that others had conspired with McVeigh. They wanted to introduce evidence that a group of white supremacists had been McVeigh's accomplices. However, the judge did not allow them to do so, saying that the defense had not shown that any of these people committed acts in furtherance of the conspiracy. In their concluding argument, the defense said, "People who are still unknown assisted Timothy McVeigh."[9] On May 26, 2004, the six-man, six-woman jury took five hours to reach guilty verdicts on all charges.[9] When the verdict was read, Nichols showed no emotion, staring straight ahead.[9]
The penalty phase of the trial started on June 1, 2004. The same jury that determined Nichols's guilt would also determine whether he would be put to death.[9] During the five-day hearing, 87 witnesses were called including victims and family members of Nichols.[10] Nichols's relatives testified that he was a loving family man.[19] During the closing arguments, the prosecutor argued for the death penalty, stating that 168 people had died so that Nichols and McVeigh "could make a political statement".[10] The defense argued that Nichols had been controlled by a "dominant, manipulative" McVeigh and urged jurors not to be persuaded by the "flood of tears" of the victims who testified.[10] The defense also said that Nichols had "sincerely" converted to Christianity.[44] After 19½ hours of deliberation over a three-day period, the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on the death penalty.[10] With the death penalty no longer an option, Nichols spoke publicly for the first time in the proceedings, making a lengthy statement laced with religious references to Judge Steven W. Taylor. Nichols also apologized for the murders and offered to write to survivors to "assist in their healing process".[44] Judge Taylor called Nichols a terrorist and said "No American citizen has ever brought this kind of devastation; you are in U.S. history the No. 1 mass murderer -- in all of U.S. history" and sentenced Nichols to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.[2] Nichols was returned to the federal prison in Colorado.
Darlene Welch, whose niece was killed in the explosion, said she "didn't appreciate being preached to" by Nichols and that she regretted that "he won't stand before God sooner."[44]
Post-conviction
Additional explosives
Acting on a tip from reputed mobster Greg Scarpa Jr. (son of mobster Greg Scarpa Sr.), a fellow inmate of Nichols,[45][46] the FBI searched the crawl space of Nichols's former home in Kansas, 10 years after the bombing. They found explosives in boxes, wrapped in plastic, buried under a foot of rock. The tipster had indicated that the explosives were buried before the attack.[47]
Allegations by Nichols
McVeigh, Nichols, and Fortier were the only defendants indicted in the bombing. Nichols denied his involvement in the plot until 2004. Nichols's mother claimed that her son had Asperger syndrome, was manipulated by McVeigh and didn't know what the bomb was for.[48] In a May 2005 letter that he wrote to a relative of two of the victims, Nichols claimed that an Arkansas gun dealer also conspired in the 1995 bombing plot by donating some of the explosives that were used.[49] In a 2006 letter requesting that a judge give his son a light sentence for assault with a deadly weapon, battery of a police officer, and possession of a stolen vehicle, Nichols admitted his participation in the Oklahoma City bombing but said that McVeigh had forced and intimidated him into cooperating.[50]
In a 2007 affidavit,[51] Nichols claimed that in 1992 McVeigh claimed to have been recruited for undercover missions while serving in the military.[52] Nichols also said that in 1995 McVeigh told him that FBI official Larry Potts, who had supervised the Ruby Ridge and Waco operations, had directed McVeigh to blow up a government building.[52] Nichols claimed that he and McVeigh had learned how to make the bomb from individuals they met while attending gun shows.[52] In the same affidavit, Nichols admitted that he and McVeigh stole eight cases of the gel type explosive Tovex from a Marion, Kansas quarry, some of which was later used in the Oklahoma City truck bomb.[52] Nichols, who had been employed in Marion County as a ranch hand, was familiar with numerous quarries, there. He admitted that he had helped McVeigh mix the bomb ingredients in the truck the day before the attack, but he denied that he knew the exact target of the bomb.[52] Nichols wanted to testify in more detail in a videotaped deposition,[53][54] but a federal appeals court ruled against it in 2009.[55]
See also
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References
Time Daily (December 23, 1997). "Charges Against Terry Nichols". Time. Archived from the original on October 27, 2010. Retrieved April 13, 2010.
"Terry Nichols gets life without parole: State murder counts tacked on to earlier life sentence". NBC News. Associated Press. August 9, 2004. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
"Amended Information, The State of Oklahoma vs. Terry Lynn Nichols" (PDF). Find Law. March 1, 2001. Retrieved April 12, 2010.
"Key Players: The Accused: Terry Nichols". Fox News. June 11, 2001. Archived from the original on April 14, 2008. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
Rimer, Sara (May 28, 1995). "The Second Suspect -- A special report.; With Extremism and Explosives, A Drifting Life Found a Purpose". New York Times. Retrieved April 11, 2010.
"Terry Nichols Biography (1955-)". Biography.com. Archived from the original on December 7, 2008. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
Kenworthy, Tom (June 5, 1998). "Nichols Gets Life Term for Oklahoma Bombing Role". Washington Post. Retrieved February 26, 2009.
"Nichols Guilty of Conspiracy and Involuntary Manslaughter". NPR. December 23, 1997. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
"Terry Nichols guilty on 161 murder counts in state trial". Crime & Courts. NBC News. Associated Press. May 26, 2004. Retrieved April 12, 2010.
"Jury deadlocks, sparing Nichols from death penalty". CNN. June 11, 2004. Retrieved February 26, 2009.
Vollers, Maryanne (November 5, 2006). "Inside Bomber Row". Time. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
"Terror on Trial: Life in Supermax's 'Bombers Row' - CNN.com". www.cnn.com. Retrieved June 26, 2021.
Anderson, James; Brown, Matthew (December 23, 2021). "'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski transferred to prison medical facility in North Carolina". USA TODAY. Associated Press. Retrieved June 27, 2022.
Shore, Sandy (September 21, 1997). "Nichols Called Drifter, Devoted Dad". Washington Post. Associated Press. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
Pankratz, Howard (August 30, 1997). "Nichols' family speaks out". The Denver Post. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
"What brought Nichols to the dock?". The Denver Post. September 21, 1997. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
Jackson, David; Linnet Myers; Flynn McRoberts (May 11, 1995). "Portrait of a Federal Foe: Authorities Stitch Together Evidence Of Bombing Suspect Terry Nichols' Life That Shows A Failed Farmer And Soldier Who Was Left With Little Except His Hatred For The Government". The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original (fee required) on January 31, 2013. Retrieved February 28, 2009.
Nichols, J. D., Freedom's End: Conspiracy in Oklahoma (Decker, MI: Freedom's End, 1997).
Talley, Tim (June 8, 2004). "Nichols' siblings testify in penalty phase". The San Diego Union-Tribune. Associated Press. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
Denver Post Staff and Wire Reports. "Two Images of Nichols Emerged". The Denver Post. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
"Letter to Judge Joseph Bonaventure from Terry Nichols". Las Vegas Review-Journal. April 2, 2009. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
Stickney, Brandon M. (1996). All-American Monster: The Unauthorized Biography of Timothy McVeigh. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. p. 92. ISBN 978-1-57392-088-9.
Stickney, p. 95.
Stickney, pp. 93-94.
Stickney, p. 101.
"WashingtonPost.com: Oklahoma City Bombing Trial Report". washingtonpost.com. Retrieved May 27, 2018.
Conner, Chance; George Lane (June 29, 1997). "Nichols' wife tells of FBI interrogation". Denver Post. Retrieved April 13, 2010.
Stickney, p. 91.
"Sovereign Citizens A Growing Domestic Threat to Law Enforcement". Domestic Terrorism. Federal Bureau of Investigation. September 1, 2011. Archived from the original on December 10, 2011. Retrieved May 3, 2015.
Stickney, p. 129.
Stickney, p. 144.
Linder, Douglas O. (2006). "The Oklahoma City Bombing & The Trial of Timothy McVeigh". Famous Trials Oklahoma City Bombing Trial. University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law website. Archived from the original on February 23, 2011. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
Stickney, p. 234.
Romano, Lois (May 28, 1998). "Fortier Gets 12 Years in Bombing Case". Washington Post. Retrieved April 15, 2010.
Romano, Lois (December 12, 1997). "Nichols Defense Rests Its Case After Jury Hears More From Wife". Washington Post. p. A02. Retrieved April 15, 2010.
Toobin, Jeffery (September 30, 1996). "THE MAN WITH TIMOTHY MCVEIGH". The New Yorker. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
Romano, Lois; Tom Kenworthy (January 8, 1998). "Nichols Spared Death Penalty". Washington Post. p. A01. Retrieved April 15, 2010.
Romano, Lois; Kenworthy, Tom (December 24, 1997). "Nichols Guilty of Conspiracy, Manslaughter". The Washington Post. p. A01. Retrieved September 21, 2017.
"Timeline: Oklahoma bombing". BBC News. May 11, 2001. Retrieved June 3, 2018.
"WashingtonPost.com: Oklahoma City Bombing Trial Report". www.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
"Inmate finder". Federal Bureau of Prisons. Archived from the original on June 29, 2011. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
A writer who mailed copies of his book advancing conspiracy theories to members of a grand jury investigating the possibility of a larger conspiracy or government coverup was charged with jury tampering in 1999. "Accused of Interference in Bombing, Writer Surrenders". Los Angeles Times. Associated Press. January 20, 1999. Archived from the original on October 23, 2012. Retrieved April 13, 2010.
"Deadlock: Terry Nichols saved from death by indecisive jury". Kentucky New Era. Associated Press. June 8, 2004. Retrieved April 13, 2010.
Bell, Rachel. "Saved by religion". Timothy McVeigh & Terry Nichols: Oklahoma Bombing. TruTv. Archived from the original on July 24, 2009. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
"New OKBOMB Documents Show Threats To Nichols' Family After FBI Reopened Investigation in 2005". Archived from the original on April 5, 2011.
"FBI at first dismissed tip on Nichols explosives". Crime & courts. NBC News. Associated Press. April 14, 2005. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
"FBI: Explosives Found in Nichols' Old Home". News archive. Fox News. Associated Press. April 2, 2005. Archived from the original on July 18, 2008. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
"Mom: Nichols reveals role in bombing - US news - Security - NBC News". msnbc.com. July 3, 2005.
Serrano, Richard (May 4, 2005). "Oklahoma City Bomber Nichols Says 3rd Man Took Part In Bombing Plot". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
Puit, Glenn (May 18, 2006). "Bomber's Letter: 'Clearly Josh is a victim', Oklahoma City bomber sought leniency for son". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Archived from the original on January 26, 2010. Retrieved April 12, 2010.
The 2007 statement by Nichols was filed in a wrongful death suit by the brother of a man who died in 1995 while in federal custody. The suit alleged that Kenneth Trentadue was killed while being interrogated by FBI agents in connection with the Oklahoma City bombing, although his death had officially been ruled a suicide. Jesse Trentadue, the plaintiff, wanted to conduct a videotaped deposition of Nichols and one other prisoner to support his contentions that the FBI had killed his brother and was withholding documents related to his brother's death. He was ultimately unable to obtain a court order allowing this.
Fattah, Geoffrey (February 22, 2007). "Nichols says bombing was FBI op". Deseret News. Retrieved April 13, 2010.
"Salt Lake Attorney Can Question Terry Nichols on Videotape". KSL.com. Associated Press. September 22, 2007. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
Berger, J.M. (September 21, 2007). "Terry Nichols Will Testify On OKC Bombing". INTELWIRE Terrorism Blog. Archived from the original on January 22, 2013. Retrieved April 10, 2010.
Manson, Pamela (July 2, 2009). "Appeals court overturns order allowing deposition of Terry Nichols". Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on July 4, 2009. Retrieved July 5, 2009.
Further reading
Jones, Stephen. Peter Israel. Others Unknown: The Oklahoma City Bombing Conspiracy. New York: PublicAffairs, 2001. ISBN 978-1-58648-098-1.
Michel, Lou; Dan Herbeck (2001). American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & The Oklahoma City Bombing. New York: ReganBooks. ISBN 0-06-039407-2.
Toobin, Jeffrey (2023). Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 9781668013571.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Oklahoma City bombing.
Oklahoma Bombing Chronology, Washington Post, 1998
Bombing & Legal Timeline, CBS News, April 2005
Nichols Accuses 3rd In OKC Plot, May 4, 2005
Inside Bomber Row, November 5, 2006
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Medical Experiments on Veterans (2008)
From 1948 to 1975, the U.S. Army Chemical Corps conducted classified human subject research at the Edgewood Arsenal facility in Maryland. The purpose was to evaluate the impact of low-dose chemical warfare agents on military personnel and to test protective clothing, pharmaceuticals, and vaccines. A small portion of these studies were directed at psychochemical warfare and grouped under the prosaic title of the "Medical Research Volunteer Program" (1956–1975). The MRVP was also driven by intelligence requirements and the need for new and more effective interrogation techniques.
Overall, about 7,000 soldiers took part in these experiments that involved exposures to more than 250 different chemicals, according to the Department of Defense (DoD). Some of the volunteers exhibited symptoms at the time of exposure to these agents but long-term follow-up was not planned as part of the DoD studies.[1] The experiments were abruptly terminated by the Army in late 1975 amidst an atmosphere of scandal and recrimination as lawmakers accused researchers of questionable ethics. Many official government reports and civilian lawsuits followed in the wake of the controversy.
The chemical agents tested on volunteers included chemical warfare agents and other related agents:[1]
Anticholinesterase nerve agents (VX, sarin) and common organophosphorus (OP) and carbamate pesticides
Mustard agents
Nerve agent antidotes including atropine and scopolamine
Nerve agent reactivators, e.g. the common OP antidote 2-PAM chloride
Psychoactive agents including LSD, PCP, cannabinoids, and BZ
Irritants and riot control agents
Alcohol and caffeine
History
Background and rationale
After World War II, U.S. military researchers obtained formulas for the three nerve gases developed by the Nazis—tabun, soman, and sarin—and conducted studies on them at the US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Center. These studies included a secret human subjects component at least as early as 1948, when "psychological reactions" were documented in Edgewood technicians. Initially, such studies focused solely on the lethality of the gases and its treatment and prevention. A classified report entitled "Psychochemical Warfare: A New Concept of War" was produced in 1949 by Luther Wilson Greene, Technical Director of the Chemical and Radiological Laboratories at Edgewood. Greene called for a search for novel psychoactive compounds that would create the same debilitating mental side effects as those produced by nerve gases, but without their lethal effect. In his words,
Throughout recorded history, wars have been characterized by death, human misery, and the destruction of property; each major conflict being more catastrophic than the one preceding it ... I am convinced that it is possible, by means of the techniques of psychochemical warfare, to conquer an enemy without the wholesale killing of his people or the mass destruction of his property.[2]
In the late 1940s and early '50s, the U.S. Army worked with Harvard anesthesiologist Henry K. Beecher at its interrogation center at Camp King in Germany on the use of psychoactive compounds (mescaline, LSD), including human subject experiments and the debriefing of former Nazi physicians and scientists who had worked along similar lines before the end of the war.[3] In the 1950s, some officials in the U.S. Department of Defense publicly asserted that many "forms of chemical and allied warfare as more 'humane' than existing weapons. For example, certain types of 'psychochemicals' would make it possible to paralyze temporarily entire population centers without damage to homes and other structures."[4] Soviet advances in the same field were cited as a special incentive giving impetus to research efforts in this area, according to testimony by Maj. Gen. Marshall Stubbs, the Army's chief chemical officer.
General William M. Creasy, former chief chemical officer, U.S. Army, testified to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1959 that "provided sufficient emphasis is put behind it, I think the future lies in the psychochemicals."[5] This was alarming enough to a Harvard psychiatrist, E. James Lieberman, that he published an article entitled "Psychochemicals as Weapons" in The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1962. Lieberman, while acknowledging that "most of the military data" on the research ongoing at the Army Chemical Center was "secret and unpublished", asserted that "There are moral imponderables, such as whether insanity, temporary or permanent, is a more 'humane' military threat than the usual afflictions of war."[6]
The experiments
The Edgewood Arsenal human experiments took place from approximately 1948 to 1975 at the Medical Research Laboratories—which is now known as the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense (USAMRICD)—at the Edgewood Area, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland. The experiments involved at least 254 chemical substances, but focused mainly on midspectrum incapacitants, such as LSD, THC derivatives, benzodiazepines, and BZ. Around 7,000 US military personnel and 1,000 civilians were test subjects over almost three decades.[7][8][9] A concrete result of these experiments was that BZ was weaponized, although never deployed.[10]
According to a DOD FAQ, the Edgewood Arsenal experiments involved the following "rough breakout of volunteer hours against various experimental categories":[11]
Experimental category Percentage of volunteer hours
Incapacitating compounds 29.9%
Lethal compounds 14.5%
Riot control compounds 14.2%
Protective equipment and clothing 13.2%
Development evaluation and test procedures 12.5%
Effects of drugs and environmental stress on human physiological mechanisms 6.4%
Human factors tests (ability to follow instructions) 2.1%
Other (visual studies, sleep deprivation, etc.) 7.2%
An "Independent Study Course" for continuing medical education produced by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, Health Effects from Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Weapons (October 2003),[12] presents the following summary of the Edgewood Arsenal experiments:
Renewed interest led to renewed human testing by the Department of Defense (DoD), although ultimately on a much smaller scale. Thus, between 1950 and 1975, about 6,720 soldiers took part in experiments involving exposures to 254 different chemicals, conducted at U.S. Army Laboratories at Edgewood Arsenal, MD (NRC 1982, NRC 1984, NAS 1993). Congressional hearings into these experiments in 1974 and 1975 resulted in disclosures, notification of subjects as to the nature of their chemical exposures, and ultimately to compensation for a few families of subjects who had died during the experiments (NAS 1993).
These experiments were conducted primarily to learn how various agents would affect humans (NRC 1982). Other agencies including the CIA and the Special Operations Division of the Department of the Army were also reportedly involved in these studies (NAS 1993). Only a small number of all the experiments done during this period involved mustard agents or Lewisite. Records indicate that between 1955 and 1965, of the 6,720 soldiers tested, only 147 human subjects underwent exposure to mustard agent at Edgewood (NRC 1982).
According to the 1984 NRC review, human experiments at DoD's Edgewood Arsenal involved about 1,500 subjects who were experimentally exposed to irritant and blister agents including:
lachrymatory agents, e.g., CN;
riot control agents, e.g., CS;
chloropicrin (PS);
diphenylaminochlorarsine (DM, Adamsite);
other ocular and respiratory irritants; and
mustard agents.
For example, from 1958 to 1973 at least 1,366 human subjects underwent experimental exposure specifically with the riot-control agent CS at Edgewood Arsenal (NRC 1984). Of those involved in the experiments:
1,073 subjects were exposed to aerosolized CS;
180 subjects were exposed dermally;
82 subjects had both skin applications and aerosol exposures; and finally
31 subjects experienced ocular exposure via direct CS application to their eyes.
Most of these experiments involved tests of protective equipment and of subjects' ability to perform military tasks during exposure.
Similarly, cholinesterase reactivators antidotes such as 2-PAM were tested on about 750 subjects. These agents are still used today as antidotes to organophosphorus nerve agent poisoning, including accidental poisoning by organophosphorus pesticides. About 260 subjects were experimentally exposed to various psychochemicals including phencyclidine (PCP), and 10 related synthetic analogs of the active ingredient of cannabis (NRC 1984). The NRC report also mentions human experiments involving exposure of 741 soldiers to LSD (NRC 1984). Finally, from 1962 to 1972, a total of 123 irritant chemicals were tested on only two subjects each exposed using a wind tunnel (NRC 1984). These irritant chemicals were selected for human testing following preliminary animal studies.
The "Independent Study Course" cites mainly a three-volume study by the Institute of Medicine (1982–1985) for its data and conclusions, Possible Long-Term Health Effects of Short-Term Exposure to Chemical Agents.[13] Some additional information in the section cited from the Course was based on a 1993 IOM study, Veterans at Risk: Health Effects of Mustard Gas and Lewisite.[14]
A significant omission from the Course summary above is the number of subjects on which BZ and related compounds were tested. According to the memoirs of James Ketchum, who also cites the IOM study for the data, "24 belladonnoid glycolates and related compounds" were "given to 1,800 subjects". The IOM study also concluded that "available data suggest that long-term toxic effects and/or delayed sequellae are unlikely" for this type of compound.[15]
In the mid-1970s, in the wake of many health claims made regarding exposure to the agents, the U.S. Congress began investigations of possible abuse in experiments and of inadequate informed consent given to the soldiers and civilians involved.
Scandal and termination
In September 1975, the Medical Research Volunteer Program was discontinued and all resident volunteers were removed from the Edgewood installation. The founder and director of the program, Van Murray Sim, was called before Congress and chastised by outraged lawmakers, who questioned the absence of follow-up care for the human volunteers. An Army investigation subsequently found no evidence of serious injuries or deaths associated with the MRVP, but deplored both the recruiting process and the informed consent approach, which they characterized as "suggest[ing] possible coercion".
Aftermath
Government reports
1982-85 IOM report
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) published a three-volume report on the Edgewood research in 1982–1985, Possible Long-Term Health Effects of Short-Term Exposure to Chemical Agents.[16]
The three volumes were:
Vol. 1, "Anticholinesterases and Anticholinergics" (1982).
Vol. 2, "Cholinesterase Reactivators, Psychochemicals and Irritants and Vesicants" (1984)
Vol. 3, "Final Report: Current Health Status of Test Subjects" (1985)
The National Academy of Sciences, which oversees the IOM, sent a questionnaire to all of the former volunteers that could be located, approximately 60% of the total. The lack of a detailed record hampered the investigation. The study could not rule out long-term health effects related to exposure to the nerve agents. It concluded that "Whether the subjects at Edgewood incurred these changes [depression, cognitive deficits, tendency to suicide] and to what extent they might now show these effects are not known". With regard specifically to BZ and related compounds, the IOM study concluded that "available data suggest that long-term toxic effects and/or delayed sequellae are unlikely".
2004 GAO report
A Government Accounting Office report of May 2004, Chemical and Biological Defense: DOD Needs to Continue to Collect and Provide Information on Tests and Potentially Exposed Personnel (pp. 1, 24), stated:
[In 1993 and 1994] we [...] reported that the Army Chemical Corps conducted a classified medical research program for developing incapacitating agents. This program involved testing nerve agents, nerve agent antidotes, psycho chemicals, and irritants. The chemicals were given to volunteer service members at Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland; Dugway Proving Ground, Utah; and Forts Benning, Bragg, and McClellan. In total, Army documents identified 7,120 Army and Air Force personnel who participated in these tests. Further, GAO concluded that precise information on the scope and the magnitude of tests involving human subjects was not available, and the exact number of human subjects might never be known.[17]
Safety debates
The official position of the Department of Defense, based on the three-volume set of studies by the Institute of Medicine mentioned above, is that they "did not detect any significant long-term health effects on the Edgewood Arsenal volunteers".[9] The safety record of the Edgewood Arsenal experiments was also defended in the memoirs of psychiatrist and retired colonel James Ketchum, a key scientist:[18]
Over a period of 20 years, more than 7,000 volunteers spent an estimated total of 14,000 months at Edgewood Arsenal. To my knowledge, not one of them died or suffered a serious illness or permanent injury. That adds up to 1,167 man-years of survival. Statistically, at least one out of a thousand young soldiers chosen at random might be expected to expire during any one-year period. By this logic, Edgewood was possibly the safest military place in the world to spend two months.
As late as 2014 incomplete information due to the failure to declassify and release relevant classified documents prevented IOM from conducting adequate medical studies related to similar former US biowarfare programs.
The committee's understanding is that additional, and potentially relevant, material on SHAD tests exists and remains classified. The IOM committee requested declassification of 21 additional elements from at least nine documents from DoD in August 2012. In January 2014, an additional request was made for release of multiple films made of Project SHAD tests. None of the requested materials were cleared for public release as of this writing (2016).[19]
Even a book critical of the program, written by Lynn C. Klotz and Edward J. Sylvester, acknowledges that:
Unlike the CIA program, research subjects [at Edgewood] all signed informed consent forms, both a general one and another related to any experiment they were to participate in. Experiments were carried out with safety of subjects a principal focus. [...] At Edgewood, even at the highest doses it often took an hour or more for incapacitating effects to show, and the end-effects usually did not include full incapacitation, let alone unconsciousness. After all, the Edgewood experimenters were focused on disabling soldiers in combat, where there would be tactical value simply in disabling the enemy.[8]
Lawsuits
[icon]
This section needs expansion with: older lawsuits. You can help by adding to it. (October 2013)
The U.S. Army believed that legal liability could be avoided by concealing the experiments. However once the experiments were uncovered, the US Senate also concluded questionable legality of the experiments and strongly condemned them.
In the Army's tests, as with those of the CIA, individual rights were ... subordinated to national security considerations; informed consent and follow-up examinations of subjects were neglected in efforts to maintain the secrecy of the tests. Finally, the command and control problems which were apparent in the CIA's programs are paralleled by a lack of clear authorization and supervision in the Army's programs.(S. Rep., at 411.[5])[20]
In the 1990s, the law firm Morrison & Foerster agreed to take on a class-action lawsuit against the government related to the Edgewood volunteers. The plaintiffs collectively referred to themselves as the "Test Vets".
In 2009 a lawsuit was filed by veterans rights organizations Vietnam Veterans of America, and Swords to Plowshares, and eight Edgewood veterans or their families against CIA, the U.S. Army, and other agencies. The complaint asked the court to determine that defendants' actions were illegal and that the defendants have a duty to notify all victims and to provide them with health care. In the suit, Vietnam Veterans of America, et al. v. Central Intelligence Agency, et al. Case No. CV-09-0037-CW, U.S.D.C. (N.D. Cal. 2009), the plaintiffs did not seek monetary damages. Instead, they sought only declaratory and injunctive relief and redress for what they claimed was several decades of neglect and the U.S. government's use of them as human guinea pigs in chemical and biological agent testing experiments.
The plaintiffs cited:
The use of troops to test nerve gas, psychochemicals, and thousands of other toxic chemical or biological substances.
A failure to secure informed consent and other widespread failures to follow the precepts of U.S. and international law regarding the use of human subjects, including the 1953 Wilson Directive and the Nuremberg Code.
A refusal to satisfy their legal and moral obligations to locate the victims of experiments or to provide health care or compensation to them
A deliberate destruction of evidence and files documenting their illegal actions, actions which were punctuated by fraud, deception, and a callous disregard for the value of human life.
On July 24, 2013, United States District Court Judge Claudia Wilken issued an order granting in part and denying in part plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and granting in part and denying in part defendants' motion for summary judgment. The court resolved all of the remaining claims in the case and vacated trial. The court granted the plaintiffs partial summary judgment concerning the notice claim: summarily adjudicating in plaintiffs' favor, finding that "the Army has an ongoing duty to warn" and ordering "the Army, through the DVA or otherwise, to provide test subjects with newly acquired information that may affect their well-being that it has learned since its original notification, now and in the future as it becomes available". The court granted the defendants' motion for summary judgment with respect to the other claims.[21]
On appeal in Vietnam Veterans of America v. Central Intelligence Agency, a panel majority held in July 2015 that Army Regulation 70-25 (AR 70-25) created an independent duty to provide ongoing medical care to veterans who participated in U.S. chemical and biological testing programs. The prior finding held that the Army has an ongoing duty to seek out and provide "notice" to former test participants of any new information that could potentially affect their health.[22]
List of notable EA (Edgewood Arsenal) numbered chemicals
This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (February 2015)
EA 1152 - Diisopropyl fluorophosphate (DFP)
EA 1205 - Tabun (GA)
EA 1208 - Sarin (GB)
EA 1210 - Soman (GD)
EA 1212 - Cyclosarin (GF)
EA 1285 - Tetraethyl pyrophosphate (TEPP)
EA 1298 - Methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA), an analogue and active metabolite of MDMA
EA 1508 - VG
EA 1517 - VE
EA 1653 - LSD in tartrate form[23]
EA 1664 - Edemo (VM)
EA 1701 - VX
EA 1729 - LSD in free base form
EA 1779 - CS gas
EA 2092 - Benactyzine
EA 2148-A - Phencyclidine (PCP)[24]
EA 2233 - A dimethylheptylpyran variant
Eight individual isomers numbered EA-2233-1 through EA-2233-8
EA 2277 - BZ ("Substance 78" to Soviets)
EA 3148 - A "V-series" nerve agent, Cyclopentyl S-2-diethylaminoethyl methylphosphonothiolate ("Substance 100A" to Soviets)
EA 3167 - A BZ variant
EA 3443 - A BZ variant
EA 3528 - LSD in maleate form
EA 3580 - A BZ variant
EA 3834 - A BZ variant
EA-4929 - An enantiomer of the drug Dexetimide, also known as benzetimide
EA 4942 - Etonitazene in free base form
EA 5365 - GV
EA 5823 - Sarin (GB) as a binary agent from mixing OPA (isopropyl alcohol+isopropyl amine) + DF
See also
THC-O-acetate
CB military symbol
United States chemical weapons program
Edgewood Chemical Biological Center
Human experimentation in the United States
Swords to Plowshares
United States v. Stanley
References
General sources
Two autobiographical books from psychiatrists conducting human experiments at Edgewood have been self-published:
Men and Poisons: The Edgewood Volunteers and the Army Chemical Warfare Research Program (2005), Xlibris Corporation, 140pp, was written by Malcolm Baker Bowers Jr, who went on to become a prof of psychiatry at Yale.[25] Bowers' book is a "fictionalized" account with names changed.[citation needed]
Chemical Warfare Secrets Almost Forgotten, A Personal Story of Medical Testing of Army Volunteers with Incapacitating Chemical Agents During the Cold War (1955–1975) (2006, 2nd edition 2007), foreword by Alexander Shulgin, ChemBook, Inc., 360 pp, was written by Ketchum who was a key player after 1960 and went on to become a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The Vanderbilt University Television News Archive has two videos about the experiments, both from a July 1975 NBC Evening News segment.[26]
NBC newsman John Chancellor reported on how Norman Augustine, then-acting Secretary of Army, ordered a probe of Army use of LSD in soldier and civilian experiments.
Correspondent Tom Pettit reported on Major General Lloyd Fellenz, from Edgewood Arsenal, who explained how the experiments there were about searching for humane weapons, adding that the use of LSD was unacceptable.
Journalist Linda Hunt, citing records from the U.S. National Archives, revealed that eight German scientists worked at Edgewood, under Project Paperclip.[27] Hunt used this finding to assert that in this collaboration, US and former Nazi scientists "used Nazi science as a basis for Dachau-like experiments on over 7,000 U.S. soldiers".[28]
A The Washington Post article, dated July 23, 1975, by Bill Richards ("6,940 Took Drugs") reported that a top civilian drug researcher for the Army said a total of 6,940 servicemen had been involved in Army chemical and drug experiments, and that, furthermore, the tests were proceeding at Edgewood Arsenal as of the date of the article.
Two TV documentaries, with different content but confusingly similar titles were broadcast:
Bad Trip to Edgewood (1993) on ITV Yorkshire[29][30]
Bad Trip to Edgewood (1994) on A&E Investigative Reports.[31][32]
In 2012, the Edgewood/Aberdeen experiments were featured on CNN and in The New Yorker magazine.[21][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]
Citations
"Edgewood / Aberdeen Experiments". VA Public Health Military Exposures. United States Department of Veterans Affairs. April 1, 2013. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
Greene, L. Wilson, "Psychochemical Warfare: A New Concept of War", U. S. Army Chemical Center, Edgewood Arsenal, Maryland; August 1949.
George A. Mashour (2009), "Altered States: LSD and the Anesthesia Laboratory of Henry Knowles Beecher" Archived 2015-03-19 at the Wayback Machine, CSA Bulletin, Winter issue, pp 68-74.
"US Plans Study of Gas Warfare" Archived 2020-01-26 at the Wayback Machine [New York Times News Service], Sunday, 9 August 1959, The Milwaukee Journal, Part I, pg 2.
"Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Warfare Agents", Hearings before the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U.S. House of Representatives, June 1959 (No. 22).
Lieberman, E. James (1962), "Psychochemicals as Weapons"; Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (January issue).
Malcolm Dando; Martin Furmanski (2006). "Midspectrum Incapacitant Programs". In Mark Wheelis; Lajos Rózsa (eds.). Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons since 1945. Harvard University Press. pp. 245–246. ISBN 978-0-674-04513-2.
Lynn C. Klotz; Edward J. Sylvester (2009). Breeding Bio Insecurity: How U.S. Biodefense Is Exporting Fear, Globalizing Risk, and Making Us All Less Secure. University of Chicago Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-226-44407-9.
"Edgewood Arsenal Chemical Agent Exposure Studies 1955–1975". United States Department of Defense, Force Health Protection & Readiness, Medical Countermeasures website. Archived from the original on 2013-07-24. Retrieved 2013-06-19.
Researchers tested pot, LSD on Army volunteers Richard Willing, USA Today, 4/6/2007
Edgewood Arsenal Chemical Agent Exposure Studies FAQs. What types of tests were conducted at Edgewood? Archived 2015-06-21 at the Wayback Machine September 08, 2008
"Health Effects from Chemical, Biological, and Radiological Weapons", U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (October 2003), page 6.
Possible Long-Term Health Effects of Short-Term Exposure to Chemical Agents, Commission on Life Sciences. The National Academies Press. In three volumes:
Vol. 1, "Anticholinesterases and Anticholinergics" (1982).
Vol. 2, "Cholinesterase Reactivators, Psychochemicals and Irritants and Vesicants (1984)
Vol. 3, "Final Report: Current Health Status of Test Subjects" (1985)
Veterans at Risk: Health Effects of Mustard Gas and Lewisite, National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine, National Academy Press, Washington, D.C., 1993, 427 pp.
James S. Ketchum (2006). Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten, A Personal Story of Medical Testing of Army Volunteers with Incapacitating Chemical Agents During the Cold War (1955–1975). Santa Rosa, CA: ChemBooks Inc. p. 137. ISBN 978-1-4243-0080-8.
Possible Long-Term Health Effects of Short-Term Exposure to Chemical Agents, Commission on Life Sciences. The National Academies Press. In three volumes:
Vol. 1, "Anticholinesterases and Anticholinergics" (1982).
Vol. 2, "Cholinesterase Reactivators, Psychochemicals and Irritants and Vesicants (1984)
Vol. 3, "Final Report: Current Health Status of Test Subjects" (1985)
Chemical and Biological Defense, Government Accounting Office, May 2004, p. 24.
Lynn C. Klotz; Edward J. Sylvester (2009). Breeding Bio Insecurity: How U.S. Biodefense Is Exporting Fear, Globalizing Risk, and Making Us All Less Secure. University of Chicago Press. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-226-44407-9. citing James S. Ketchum (2006). Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten, A Personal Story of Medical Testing of Army Volunteers with Incapacitating Chemical Agents During the Cold War (1955–1975). Santa Rosa, CA: ChemBooks Inc. p. 128. ISBN 978-1-4243-0080-8.
Health Outcomes Among Veterans of Project SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense) (2016) National Academies Press
"United States v. Stanley, 483 US 669 - Supreme Court 1987".
"Vietnam Veterans of America, et al. v. Central Intelligence Agency, et al. Case No. CV-09-0037-CW, U.S.D.C. (N.D. Cal. 2009)". Edgewood Test Vets. Morrison & Foerster. August 7, 2013. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
"Vietnam Veterans of America v. Central Intelligence Agency". findlaw.com. June 30, 2015. Retrieved May 20, 2016.
CHEMICAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT LABS EDGEWOOD ARSENAL MD (July 1, 1964). "THE HUMAN ASSESSMENT OF EA 1729 AND EA 3528 BY THE INHALATION ROUTE". dtic.mil. Defense Technical Information Center. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
Johnson, Kelli (February 29, 2016). "Assessment of Potential Long Term Health Effects on Army Human Test Subjects of Relevant Biological and Chemical Agents, Drugs, Medications and Substances". dtic.mil. Defense Technical Information Center. Retrieved December 19, 2017.
Khatchadourian, Raffi (10 December 2012). "Operation Delirium". The New Yorker – via www.newyorker.com.
"July 17, 1975 NBC Evening News segment", Vanderbilt University, July 17, 1975.
Secret Agenda: the United States Government, Nazi Scientists and Project Paperclip St. Martin's Press, 1991; ABC PrimeTime Live, Operation Paperclip, 1991, and hearings before the House Judiciary Committee, 1991.
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. September 1992. p. 43.
"King's Collections : Archive Catalogues : Military Archives". www.kcl.ac.uk.
Yorkshire, I. T. V. "A Bad Trip to Edgewood #1" – via Internet Archive.
"Bad Trip to Edgewood". 2 September 1994 – via www.imdb.com.
Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives. "Bad Trip To Edgewood (1993)" – via Internet Archive.
Khatchadourian, Raffi (December 26, 2012). "Primary Sources: Operation Delirium". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
Khatchadourian, Raffi (December 17, 2012). "Operation Delirium: Decades after a risky Cold War experiment, a scientist lives with secrets". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
Khatchadourian, Raffi (December 16, 2012). "High Anxiety: LSD in the Cold War". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
Khatchadourian, Raffi (December 12, 2012). "War of the Mind". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
Khatchadourian, Raffi (December 11, 2012). "Manufacturing Madness". The New Yorker. Retrieved October 1, 2013.
"Secret Army volunteer's widow blames VA for spouse's death" (CNN; 3/3/12)
"Vets feel abandoned after secret drug experiments" (CNN; 3/1/12)
External links
Edgewood Test Vets: Vietnam Veterans of America, et al. v. Central Intelligence Agency, et al. Case No. CV-09-0037-CW, U.S.D.C. (N.D. Cal. 2009), Morrison & Foerster LLP, August 7, 2013
Hunt, Secret Agenda: The U.S. Government, Nazi Scientists and Project Paperclip 1945-1991.[permanent dead link]
Secrets of Edgewood, The New Yorker, December 26, 2012
Edgewood/Aberdeen Experiments, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
David S. Martin, Vets feel abandoned after secret drug experiments, CNN, March 1, 2012
Tom Bowman, Former sergeant seeks compensation for LSD testing at Edgewood Arsenal Archived 2015-04-06 at the Wayback Machine, July 11, 1991, The Baltimore Sun
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JFK Assassination Conspiracy: The Government’s Conduct in the Investigation (2013)
The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, or the JFK Records Act, is a public law passed by the United States Congress, effective October 26, 1992.[1] It directed the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) to establish a collection of records to be known as the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection. It stated that the collection shall consist of copies of all U.S. government records relating to the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and that they are to be housed in the NARA Archives II building in College Park, Maryland. The collection also included any materials created or made available for use by, obtained by, or otherwise came into the possession of any state or local law enforcement office that provided support or assistance or performed work in connection with a federal inquiry into the assassination.
Background
The final report of the act's Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) partially credited the conclusions in Oliver Stone's 1991 film JFK with the passage of the act.[2] The ARRB stated that the film "popularized a version of President Kennedy's assassination that featured U.S. government agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the military as conspirators."[3]
Requirements and process
The act requires that each assassination record be publicly disclosed in full and be made available in the collection no later than the date that is 25 years after the October 26, 1992 date of enactment (which was October 26, 2017), unless the President of the United States certifies that: (1) continued postponement is made necessary by an identifiable harm to the military defense, intelligence operations, law enforcement, or conduct of foreign relations; and (2) the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
The definition of "assassination record" was left broad by the act and determined in practice by the ARRB; a final definition was published in the Federal Register on June 28, 1995.[4] The basic definition was:
An assassination record includes, but is not limited to, all records, public and private, regardless of how labeled or identified, that document, describe, report on, analyze, or interpret activities, persons, or events reasonably related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and investigations of or inquiries into the assassination.
This was supplemented with coverage of all government records relating to investigations of the assassination (including those specified in Section 3(2) of the act), as well as supplementary records required to clarify meanings of other documents (such as code names used).[4]
The ARRB determined that agencies could not object to disclosure "solely on grounds of non-relevance," stating that the ARRB is responsible for making decisions that determine relevance.[4]
Assassination Records Review Board
The act established, as an independent agency, the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB), to consider and render decisions when a U.S. government office sought to postpone the disclosure of assassination records. The board met for four years, from October 1, 1994 to September 30, 1998. When the act was passed in 1992, 98 percent of all Warren Commission documents had been released to the public. By the time the board disbanded, all Warren Commission documents, except income tax returns, had been released to the public, with only minor redactions.[5]
The ARRB collected evidence starting in 1992, then produced its final report in 1998.[4] The ARRB was not enacted to determine why or by whom the murder was committed but to collect and preserve the evidence for public scrutiny. After the enactment of the federal law that created the ARRB, the board collected a large number of documents and took testimony of those who had relevant information of the events.[6] The Committee finished its work in 1998 and in its final report, the ARRB outlined the problems that government secrecy created regarding the murder of President Kennedy.[7]
Some of the information was gathered by way of testimony from witnesses that had eyewitness knowledge of the events. For example, the board interviewed the physicians who treated the president's massive head wound at Parkland Hospital in Dallas.[8] This was a highly trained team of emergency care physicians, some of whom testified in secret before the Warren Commission. These transcripts have now also been made public.[9] Other information consists of a large number of documents from the FBI and CIA that were required to cooperate with the turnover of relevant records held secret by these agencies.
A staff report for the Assassinations Records Review Board contended that brain photographs in the Kennedy records are not of Kennedy's brain and show much less damage than Kennedy sustained. J. Thornton Boswell, who, along with James Humes did a secondary examination of Kennedy's brain, refuted these allegations.[10] The board also found that, conflicting with the photographic images showing no such defect, a number of witnesses, including at both the Autopsy and Parkland hospital, saw a large wound in the back of the president's head.[11] The board and board member Jeremy Gunn have also stressed the problems with witness testimony, asking people to weigh all of the evidence, with due concern for human error, rather than take single statements as "proof" for one theory or another.[12][13]
Status
By ARRB law (of 1998), all existing assassination-related documents were to be made public by October 2017.[14] Prior to October 2017, over 35,000 documents were still not fully available (partially redacted) to the public, and among them, 3,603 were at that time unseen by the public.[15][16]
In 2013, the ARRB's former chairman John R. Tunheim and former deputy director Thomas Samoluk wrote in the Boston Globe that after the ARRB had declassified 5 million documents, "There is a body of documents that the CIA is still protecting, which should be released. Relying on inaccurate representations made by the CIA in the mid-1990s, the Review Board decided that records related to a deceased CIA agent named George Joannides were not relevant to the assassination. Subsequent work by researchers, using other records that were released by the board, demonstrates that these records should be made public." Tunheim and Samoluk pointed out that the CIA had not told the Warren Commission that George Joannides was the CIA lead for the Agency's links with the anti-Castro group Oswald had a public fight with in mid-1963; nor had they told the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), of which Joannides was the CIA's liaison.[17] Tunheim said in a separate interview that "It really was an example of treachery ... If [the CIA] fooled us on that, they may have fooled us on other things."[18]
2017 releases
On July 24, 2017, the National Archives began to release the remaining documents previously withheld.[19]
The first release included 441 FBI and CIA records which had previously been withheld in full. These records had never previously been made available to the public. Another 3,369 records were also released which had previously been withheld in part, meaning that they had previously been made public, but parts of the records had been kept back for reasons of security or privacy.[19] Records in the first release included 17 audio files of interviews of Yuri Nosenko, a KGB officer who claimed to have been the officer in charge of the KGB file on Lee Harvey Oswald during Oswald's stay in the Soviet Union. Nosenko defected to the U.S. in January 1964 and was extensively debriefed over a period of several years.[19]
On October 21, 2017, US President Donald Trump stated on his Twitter account that he would allow release of the remaining documents. He tweeted:[20] "Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened." His statement left open the possibility that some documents could still be withheld under the JFK Records Act if their release would harm military operations, law enforcement or foreign relations.[21][22]
On October 26, Trump signed a memo ordering release of all records collected under section 5 of the JFK Records Act. He gave agencies wishing to appeal release of all information in these records until April 26, 2018, to do so.[23][24][25]
On the same day, the NARA released another 2,891 records. Most of the records in this second release were previously withheld in part.[26]
On November 3, the NARA released another 676 documents. Most of these were previously withheld in full.[27] According to the Mary Ferrell Foundation, which holds a large database of records on the assassination, the majority of the records in this third release were from the CIA.[28] These files still contain a number of redactions, which remain subject to further review under President Trump's order.
On November 9, the NARA released another 13,213 records. Most of these were previously withheld in part.[29] According to the Mary Ferrell Foundation, the records in this fourth release were from the CIA and NSA.[28] Some of these records were redacted in part. These redactions remain subject to further review under President Trump's order.
On November 17, the NARA released another 10,744 records, including 144 previously withheld in full and 10,600 previously withheld in part. All of the records in this fifth release were from the FBI.[30] Some of these records were redacted in part. These redactions remain subject to further review under President Trump's order.
On December 15, the NARA released another 3,539 previously withheld documents, leaving a total of 86 still classified in full.[31]
Later releases
On April 26, 2018, the NARA released another 19,045 documents in accordance with President Trump's order.[32] These releases include FBI, CIA, and other agency documents (both formerly withheld in part and formerly withheld in full) identified by the Assassination Records Review Board as assassination records.[33] While no more documents required to be released under section 5 remain withheld in full,[32] some still remain withheld in part.[32]
In 2021, President Joe Biden postponed the release of remaining records, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the reason.[34] Future releases of documents were scheduled for December 15, 2021, and December 15, 2022. Agencies that object to releasing records before then will have to provide unclassified information detailing why the information is withheld, and a date when the information might be declassified.[35] The initial response to the 2021 release was that it provided little new information.[36]
On December 15, 2022, NARA released an additional 13,173 documents as ordered by President Biden.[37][38]
In June 2023, it was reported that NARA had completed the review of the documents with 99% of all documents having been made public.[39]
See also
Henry Graff, Member of the ARRB
Kermit L. Hall, Member of the ARRB
John R. Tunheim, Chairman of the ARRB
David Marwell, Executive Director of the ARRB
QKENCHANT, a CIA project, first disclosed because of JFK Records Act
References
Peters, Gerhard; Woolley, John T. "George Bush: "Statement on Signing the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992," October 26, 1992". The American Presidency Project. University of California – Santa Barbara. Archived from the original on September 1, 2018. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
Assassination Records Review Board (September 30, 1998). "Executive Summary". Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board (PDF). Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. p. xxiii. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
Assassination Records Review Board (September 30, 1998). "Chapter 1: The Problem of Secrecy and the JFK Act". Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board (PDF). Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. p. 6. Retrieved June 10, 2015.
Assassination Records Review Board (September 30, 1998). Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board (PDF). Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office. Retrieved March 7, 2012.
ARRB Final Report, p. 2. Redacted text includes the names of living intelligence sources, intelligence gathering methods still used today and not commonly known, and purely private matters. The Kennedy autopsy photographs and X-rays were never part of the Warren Commission records and were deeded separately to the National Archives by the Kennedy family in 1966 under restricted conditions. The JFK Records Act specifically excluded those records.
"Assassination Records Review Board Testimony". Jfkassassination.net. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
"Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board, Chapter 1". Archived from the original on April 9, 2015. Retrieved June 27, 2015.
"Parkland Doctors ARRB Testimony". Jfkassassination.net. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
"Testimony Of Dr. Robert Nelson Mcclelland". Jfkassassination.net. Archived from the original on November 20, 2008. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
"Washingtonpost.com: JFK Assassination Report". washingtonpost.com.
"Oliver Stone: JFK conspiracy deniers are in denial". USA TODAY.
"JFK Assassination: Kennedy's Head Wound". mcadams.posc.mu.edu.
"Clarifying the Federal Record on the Zapruder Film and the Medical and Ballistics Evidence". Federation of American Scientists.
"Chapter 5 The Standards for Review: Review Board "Common Law"". Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board. September 1998. Retrieved October 16, 2008.
"A Call to Action". 2017JFK.org. 2015.
"Why the last of the JFK files could embarrass the CIA". Politico. May 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
John R. Tunheim and Thomas E. Samoluk, Boston Globe, 21 November 2013, Assassination questions remain: With much revealed, CIA still holds back
Bryan Bender, The Boston Globe, 25 November 2013, Troves of files on JFK assassination remain secret
(24 July 2017) National Archives Begins Online Release of JFK Assassination Records. National Archives
@realDonaldTrump (October 21, 2017). "Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
"JFK assassination: Trump to allow release of classified documents". CBS News. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
Shear, Michael D. (October 21, 2017). "Trump Says He Will Release Final Set of Documents on Kennedy Assassination". The New York Times. Retrieved October 23, 2017.
Yuhas, Alan (October 27, 2017). "Government releases classified JFK assassination documents – as it happened". Theguardian.com. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
Shapira, Ian; Hendrix, Steve; Leonnig, Carol D. (October 27, 2017). "Trump delays release of some JFK assassination documents, bowing to national security concerns". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on November 14, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
"Trump allows release of most but not all remaining Kennedy assassination files". Nbcnews.com. October 27, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
"National Archives Releases JFK Assassination Records" (Press release). National Archives and Records Administration. October 26, 2017. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
"Never Before Released JFK Assassination Records Opened to the Public" (Press release). National Archives and Records Administration. November 3, 2017. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
"2017/2018 Document Releases". Mary Ferrell Foundation. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
"Latest Group of JFK Assassination Records Available to the Public" (Press release). National Archives and Records Administration. November 9, 2017. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
"New Group of JFK Assassination Records Available to the Public" (Press release). National Archives and Records Administration. November 17, 2017. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
"New Group of JFK Assassination Records Available to the Public" (Press release). National Archives and Records Administration. December 15, 2017. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
"New Group of JFK Assassination Documents Available to the Public" (Press release). National Archives and Records Administration. April 26, 2018. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
"JFK Assassination Records – 2018 Additional Documents Release". National Archives and Records Administration. February 8, 2016. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
Bender, Bryan (October 24, 2021). "What Biden is keeping secret in the JFK files". Politico. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
"Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on the Temporary Certification Regarding Disclosure of Information in Certain Records Related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy". The White House. October 23, 2021. Retrieved October 25, 2021.
Lillis, Katie Bo (December 15, 2021). "JFK researchers underwhelmed by latest release of assassination documents". CNN. Retrieved December 16, 2021.
"National Archives releases 13,173 more JFK assassination files". CBS News. December 15, 2022.
"JFK Assassination Records - 2022 Additional Documents Release". National Archives. December 15, 2022.
Fossum, Sam (July 1, 2023). "National Archives concludes review of JFK assassination documents with 99% made public | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved December 1, 2023.
External links
Congress.gov at the Library of Congress: JFK Records Act ~ Senate Bill 3006 Archived January 22, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
"President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Extension Act of 1994 – P.L. 103-345" (PDF). 108 Stat. 3128 ~ H.R. 4569. U.S. Government Printing Office. October 6, 1994.
"H.R. 4569 ~ President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Extension Act of 1994". P.L. 103-345 ~ 108 Stat. 3128. Congress.gov. June 13, 1994.
"President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection". JFK Assassination Records. U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. August 15, 2016.
"President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection". GovInfo Features. U.S. Government Publishing Office.
Final Report of the Assassination Records Review Board, September 1998
Medical Testimony Before the Assassination Records Review Board
Additional Medical Interviews Before the Assassination Records Review Board
Master Set of Medical Exhibits Before the Assassination Records Review Board
CIA Personnel Testimony Before the Assassination Records Review Board
Washington D. C. 10-11-94 Persons Testimony Before the Assassination Records Review Board
Dallas, Texas 11-18-94 Persons Testimony Before the Assassination Records Review Board
Boston, Massachusetts 3-24-95 Persons Testimony Before the Assassination Records Review Board
New Orleans, Louisiana 6-28-95 Persons Testimony Before the Assassination Records Review Board
Los Angeles, California 9-17-96 Persons Testimony Before the Assassination Records Review Board
Washington D. C. 4-2-97 Persons Testimony Before the Assassination Records Review Board
Staff Memos of the Assassination Records Review Board
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CIA Archives: Cutout Devices - Espionage (1953)
The dark side of history: https://thememoryhole.substack.com/
In espionage parlance, a cutout is a mutually trusted intermediary, method or channel of communication that facilitates the exchange of information between agents. Cutouts usually know only the source and destination of the information to be transmitted, not the identities of any other persons involved in the espionage process (need to know basis). Thus, a captured cutout cannot be used to identify members of an espionage cell. The cutout also isolates the source from the destination, so neither necessarily knows the other.
Outside espionage
Some computer protocols, like Tor, use the equivalent of cutout nodes in their communications networks. The use of multiple layers of encryption usually stops nodes on such networks from knowing the ultimate sender or receiver of the data.
In computer networking, darknets have some cutout functionality. Darknets are distinct from other distributed peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, as sharing is anonymous, i.e., IP addresses are not publicly shared and nodes often forward traffic to other nodes. Thus, with a darknet, users can communicate with little fear of governmental or corporate interference.[1] Darknets are thus often associated with dissident political communications as well as various illegal activities.
A dead drop or dead letter box is a method of espionage tradecraft used to pass items or information between two individuals (e.g., a case officer and an agent, or two agents) using a secret location. By avoiding direct meetings, individuals can maintain operational security. This method stands in contrast to the live drop, so-called because two persons meet to exchange items or information.
Spies and their handlers have been known to perform dead drops using various techniques to hide items (such as money, secrets or instructions) and to signal that the drop has been made. Although the signal and location by necessity must be agreed upon in advance, the signal may or may not be located close to the dead drop itself. The operatives may not necessarily know one another or ever meet.[1][2]
Considerations
The location and nature of the dead drop must enable retrieval of the hidden item without the operatives being spotted by a member of the public, the police, or other security forces—therefore, common everyday items and behavior are used to avoid arousing suspicion. Any hidden location could serve, although often a cut-out device is used, such as a loose brick in a wall, a (cut-out) library book, or a hole in a tree.
Dead drop spike
A dead drop spike is a concealment device similar to a microcache. It has been used since the late 1960s to hide money, maps, documents, microfilm, and other items. The spike is water- and mildew-proof and can be pushed into the ground or placed in a shallow stream to be retrieved at a later time.
Signaling devices can include a chalk mark on a wall, a piece of chewing gum on a lamppost, or a newspaper left on a park bench. Alternatively, the signal can be made from inside the agent's own home, by, for example, hanging a distinctively-colored towel from a balcony, or placing a potted plant on a window sill where it is visible to anyone on the street.
Drawbacks
While the dead drop method is useful in preventing the instantaneous capture of either an operative/handler pair or an entire espionage network, it is not without disadvantages. If one of the operatives is compromised, they may reveal the location and signal for that specific dead drop. Counterintelligence can then use the dead drop as a double agent for a variety of purposes, such as to feed misinformation to the enemy or to identify other operatives using it or ultimately to booby trap it.[3] There is also the risk that a third party may find the material deposited.
Modern techniques
See also: Short-range agent communications
On January 23, 2006, the Russian FSB accused Britain of using wireless dead drops concealed inside hollowed-out rocks ("spy rock") to collect espionage information from agents in Russia. According to the Russian authorities, the agent delivering information would approach the rock and transmit data wirelessly into it from a hand-held device, and later, his British handlers would pick up the stored data by similar means.[4]
SecureDrop, initially called DeadDrop, is a software suite for teams that allows them to create a digital dead drop location to receive tips from whistleblowers through the Internet. The team members and whistleblowers never communicate directly and never know each other's identity, therefore allowing whistleblowers to dead-drop information despite the mass surveillance and privacy violations which had become commonplace in the beginning of the twenty-first century.
See also
Espionage
Foldering
PirateBox
USB dead drop
References
Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton, with Henry R. Schlesinger, Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to al-Qaeda, New York, Dutton, 2008. ISBN 0-525-94980-1. Pp. 43-44, 63, and 74-76.
Jack Barth, International Spy Museum Handbook of Practical Spying, Washington DC, National Geographic, 2004. ISBN 978-0-7922-6795-9. Pp. 119-125.
Wettering, Frederick L. (2001-07-01). "The Internet and the Spy Business". International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence. 14 (3): 342–365. doi:10.1080/08850600152386846. ISSN 0885-0607. S2CID 153870872.
Nick Paton Walsh, The Guardian (23 January 2006). "Moscow names British 'spies' in NGO row". TheGuardian.com. Archived from the original on 29 August 2013. Retrieved 8 April 2012.
Bibliography
"Russians accuse 4 Britons of spying".International Herald Tribune. January 24, 2006. News report on Russian discovery of British "wireless dead drop".
"Old spying lives on in new ways". BBC. 23 January 2006.
Madrid suspects tied to e-mail ruse. International Herald Tribune. April 28, 2006.
Military secrets missing on Ministry of Defence computer files
Robert Burnson, "Accused Chinese spy pleads guilty in U.S. 'dead-drop' sting", Bloomberg, 25 novembre 2019[1].
Robert Wallace and H. Keith Melton, with Henry R. Schlesinger, Spycraft: The Secret History of the CIA's Spytechs, from Communism to al-Qaeda, New York, Dutton, 2008. ISBN 0-525-94980-1.
316
views
The CIA's Final Showdown with the KGB (2003)
Tennent Harrington Bagley (November 11, 1925 – February 20, 2014) was a high-level CIA counterintelligence officer who worked against the KGB during the Cold War. He is best known for having been the case officer and principal interrogator of controversial KGB defector Yuri Nosenko who claimed a couple of months after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that the KGB had nothing to do with the accused assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, during the two-and-one-half years Oswald lived in the USSR.
Bagley initially believed Nosenko was a true defector after meeting with him five times in Geneva, Switzerland, in May and June 1962, but, while reading the file of an earlier defector at CIA headquarters about a week later, he became convinced that Nosenko had been dispatched to the CIA to discredit what that earlier defector, Anatoliy Golitsyn, was telling the agency.[1][2][3][4]
Early life and education
Bagley was born November 11, 1925, in Annapolis, Maryland to a prominent United States Navy family.[5] His parents were then-Commander David W. Bagley and his wife, Marie Louise (Harrington) Bagley. He had two siblings, David H. Bagley and Worth H. Bagley, both of whom were older than him and destined to become Admirals. Tennent was given the nickname "Pete" by his mother when he was young, and it stuck with him for the rest of his life. Bagley joined the United States Marine Corps in 1942 when he was seventeen and studying at the University of Southern California. He went through the V-12 Navy College Training Program, and during WW II served as a lieutenant in a Marine detachment on an aircraft carrier. After the war, he earned a PhD in political science from the University of Geneva-affiliated Graduate Institute of International Studies.[6] Bagley joined the CIA in 1950, and his first posting was to the CIA station in Vienna, Austria.[7]
Career
While posted in Vienna, Austria, Bagley helped the CIA recruit GRU Colonel Pyotr Semyonovich Popov, and he helped operations chief William J. Hood exfiltrate KGB Major Peter Deriabin to the U.S.[8][9] In his 1982 book about the Popov case, Mole: The True Story of the First Russian Intelligence Officer Recruited by the CIA, Hood protected the identities of himself, agent-handler George Kisevalter, and Bagley by changing their names to "Peter Todd," "Gregory Domnin" and "Amos Booth," respectively.[10] After Vienna, Bagley was posted to the American Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, from where he ran a CIA program that specialized in recruiting Soviet intelligence officers, diplomats and functionaries in Europe.[11]
In his 1978 sworn testimony given to the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), Bagley said he became Chief of CIA's Soviet Russia Division's Counterintelligence section in 1962, and later became Deputy Chief (DC) of the Soviet Bloc Division. In 1967, when it was time for him to be transferred to a post in Europe, he chose to be sent to Brussels, Belgium. He was Chief of Station in Brussels until he chose early retirement in 1972.
Bagley's Analysis of the KGB-CIA War
Based mainly on his own analyses and those of his subordinates in the Soviet Russia / Soviet Bloc Division and on KGB defectors Peter Deriabin and Anatoliy Golitsyn, Bagley became convinced by the time he retired from the Agency that the CIA and the FBI had been seriously penetrated by Soviet intelligence. For example, he was convinced that two never-uncovered “moles” in the CIA had betrayed two of its most important spies, Pyotr Semyonovich Popov and Oleg Penkovsky, that two UN-based Soviet intelligence officers who had volunteered to spy for the FBI (Aleksei Kulak Fedora (KGB agent) and Dmitri Polyakov), were Kremlin agents, and that KGB defector Yuri Nosenko had been sent to the CIA in Geneva in 1962 to discredit what a recent defector, KGB Major Anatoliy Golitsyn, was telling it about possible penetrations of the CIA, the FBI and the intelligence services of our NATO allies.[12][13] He also believed that KGB Colonel Igor Kochnov had been dispatched to the U.S. in 1966 to boost the flagging "bona fides" of Nosenko by claiming he'd been sent to the U.S. to try to kidnap or kill both Nosenko and Golitsyn and to arrange for the eventual kidnapping of a much earlier defector, Nicholas Shadrin, in Vienna in 1975.[14] Around 1994, Bagley learned from former KGB General Sergey Kondrashev that Polyakov (who was executed by the KGB in 1986) had truly started spying for the CIA in 1965, and that the KGB had recruited a U.S. Army code clerk, codenamed JACK, in 1949.
The Popov Case
GRU officer Pyotr Semyonovich Popov was recruited by the CIA in 1953 in Vienna. After spying for the agency for seven years in Austria and East Germany, he was publicly arrested in Moscow on October 16, 1959, and executed in 1960.[15] In his 2007 Yale University Press book, Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries and Deadly Games, Bagley said Popov's treason was probably revealed to the KGB in early 1957 by Popov's former CIA "dead drop" arranger in Moscow and future Hoover Institution scholar, Edward Ellis Smith. Bagley says Smith apparently met with high-level KGB officer Vladislav Kovshuk in Washington, D.C., movie houses after Smith was fired by the Agency (John M. Newman claims Smith was not fired, and that another KGB "mole" in the Office of Security, James W. McCord Jr., arranged for him to be "cleared" of spying for the KGB and to be secretly retained by the CIA).[16][17]
In his 2014 PDF, Ghosts of the Spy Wars, Bagley speculated that an even higher, never-uncovered "mole" in the CIA must have been involved in the betraying of Popov. Bagley wrote that the KGB, in the interest of protecting Smith and the never-uncovered "mole," allowed Popov to continue spying for the CIA until late 1958, at which time (after Oleg Penkovsky had been "trapped like a bear in its den") he was recalled to Moscow on a ruse, secretly arrested, "played back" against the CIA for a year, publicly arrested in October 1959, and executed in 1960.[13] [18]
The Golienewski Case
In 1960, a Polish intelligence major by the name of Michael Goleniewski tried to warn J. Edgar Hoover about some possible KGB penetrations of U.S. Intelligence by having the American Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, forward to Hoover a sealed letter he had written. In an explanatory letter to the embassy, Golienewski, writing in German, called himself Heckenschütze (Sniper). Golienewski had decided to try to get the letter to Hoover rather than to the CIA because he believed the Agency had been penetrated by at least one unknown-to-him KGB "mole" who might be able to uncover him.[19]
The U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland, Henry J. Taylor, opened and read the letter, and decided not to forward it to Hoover, but to turn it over to CIA station chief Bagley who was working "under cover" at the embassy as Second Secretary. Bagley notified CIA headquarters about "Sniper," and then, pretending to be an FBI agent, started corresponding with him in German. About a year later, Bagley was instrumental in recruiting, debriefing, and exfiltrating Golienewski to the U.S.
Due to something Golienewski had written in his correspondence with Bagley, several years later Bagley himself came under suspicion of being a KGB "mole" by CIA counterintelligence analyst Clare Edward Petty. Petty eventually discontinued his investigation of Bagley and switched his attention to his own boss, CIA's chief of counterintelligence, James Angleton.[20]
The Nosenko Case
Yuri Nosenko was a putative KGB defector who "walked in" to the CIA in Geneva in late May, 1962, and in a one-on-one meeting with Bagley in a "safe house" two days later, offered to sell some KGB secrets for $250. Two days after that, Russia-born CIA officer George Kisevalter flew in from the U.S. to help Bagley interview Nosenko during four more meetings.[21]
According to Bagley (who immediately became Nosenko's primary CIA case officer), one of the things Nosenko told Kisevalter and himself during the second meeting was that a very important CIA spy who was executed in 1960, GRU Colonel Pyotr Semyonovich Popov, had been uncovered by KGB surveillance in Moscow when an American diplomat by the name of George Winters was spotted mailing a letter to him.[22] Nosenko also told Bagley and Kisevalter that the KGB had developed special chemicals which allowed it to track people and letters.[23]
Nosenko and the "Zepp" Incident
Nosenko volunteered to Bagley and Kisevalter that the KGB had developed such high-quality listening devices that an electronic "bug" built into an ashtray or a vase had been able to record very clearly a conversation in a Moscow restaurant allegedly between an American Assistant Naval Attaché (Leo J. Dulacki) and an Indonesian military attaché by the name of "Zepp"—a name Bagley didn't know, but had the presence of mind to have Nosenko spell out for him. This incident became critically important later when it was learned that Oleg Penkovsky's Moscow handler, Greville Wynne, had told his British de-briefer after he was released from a Soviet prison that, while incarcerated, the KGB had asked him who "Zepp" was. Bagley learned that when Wynne's KGB interrogator played the Penkovsky-Wynne conversation back to him to "jog his memory," Penkovsky realized that they had been recorded while talking about a London bargirl whose nickname was "Zeph" (short for "Stephanie"), just two weeks after Penkovsky had been recruited by the CIA and MI6 in London. This signified to Bagley that the KGB had become aware of Penkovsky's treason almost immediately, and that the reason it had waited sixteen months to arrest him was because it needed to create a surveillance-based entrapment scenario that wouldn't lead to the uncovering of the highly placed, easy-to-identify mole who had betrayed him.[24]
More Nosenko
About a week after the fifth and final meeting with Nosenko, Bagley flew to CIA headquarters and, at the suggestion of Counterintelligence Chief James Angleton, read the thick file on Anatoliy Golitsyn, a KGB major who had defected to the U.S. from Helsinki, Finland, six months earlier. In so doing, Bagley became convinced that Nosenko was a false-defector who had been sent to the CIA to discredit what Golitsyn was telling it.[25]
Although Bagley, James Angleton, Bagley's boss David E. Murphy, Richard Helms and others in the CIA were skeptical of Nosenko's "bona fides," he was permitted to physically defect to the U.S. when he re-contacted Bagley and Kisevalter in Geneva in early February, 1964, and told them that he had been Lee Harvey Oswald's KGB case officer during the two-and-one-half years Oswald lived in the USSR. Nosenko told Bagley and Kisevalter that he urgently needed to physically defect to the U.S. because he had just received a telegram from KGB headquarters in Moscow ordering him to return there immediately (NSA looked into this issue a later and determined that such a telegram had never been sent.)
Bagley, not letting on that he believed Nosenko to be a false defector, took him on a two-week vacation to Hawaii about a month after Nosenko arrived in the United States. When they returned to Washington, Nosenko, who had not been cooperating with his CIA interviewers, was incarcerated in a Washington, D. C. "safe house" at the direction of the head of CIA's Soviet Bloc Division, David Murphy, with input from Bagley.[26] [27]
Although Murphy and Bagley detained Nosenko for three years in that safe house and in a new, purpose-built building in another location, they were unable to get him to confess to being a false defector. Nosenko was eventually moved to a more comfortable safe house in 1967, released with supervision in 1969, "cleared" by controversial Security officer Bruce Solie, financially compensated, resettled as an American citizen under a different name (George M. Rosnek), and employed as a consultant and lecturer by the agency.[28]
During his incarceration, Nosenko had been subjected to polygraph exams, intense interrogation sessions, sleep deprivation, a minimal-but-adequate diet, and Spartan living conditions. Bagley claims in his book "Spy Wars" that during his three-year detainment, Nosenko often contradicted what he had said both in Geneva in 1962 and after his arrival in the U.S., and that when Nosenko was confronted with a particular contradiction which had a bearing on his "legend," he fell into a trance-like state and, while being secretly tape recorded, mumbled self-incriminatingly ...
If I admit that I wasn't watching [Moscow U.S. Embassy security officer John] Abidian [in 1960], then I'd have to admit that I'm not George [Yuri], that I wasn't born in Nikolayev, and that I'm not married.
... and nearly "broke."[29]
After Bagley was routinely posted to Brussels in late 1967 as the CIA's Chief of Station there, Nosenko was effectively cleared by a polygraph exam given by (and a report written by) a different case officer, the aforementioned Bruce Solie of the mole-hunting Office of Security.
In his 2022 book, Uncovering Popov's Mole, professor and former Army Intelligence analyst John M. Newman, who dedicated his book to Bagley, says Solie was not only probably a KGB mole, but had sent (or duped James Angleton into sending) Lee Harvey Oswald to Moscow in 1959 as an ostensible "dangle" in a planned-to-fail hunt for "Popov's Mole" (Solie) in the wrong part of the CIA—the Soviet Russia Division.[30]
The KITTY HAWK / Shadrin Case
In "Spy Wars," Bagley relates that KGB Colonel Igor Kochnov, codenamed KITTY HAWK, contacted Richard Helms in 1966 and offered to spy-in-place for the CIA on condition that he be allowed to ostensibly recruit a previous defector, Nicholas Shadrin, in order to bolster his own status with the KGB and thereby be promoted to a higher position.
Angleton and Helms believed Kochnov was a KGB provocation and decided to "play him back" against the Soviets without telling the FBI they were doing so. Deputy Director of CIA Stansfield Turner talked Shadrin into going along with the ruse.
Having been convinced by (probable "mole" -- according to John M. Newman) Bruce Solie in the Office of Security that the Soviet Bloc Division had been penetrated by the KGB, Angleton and Helms unwisely chose Solie and Elbert Turner of the FBI to handle Kochnov.
Six years later, Shadrin was kidnapped in Vienna by the KGB when his then-current handlers, Leonard V. McCoy and Cynthia Haussman, ignored Angleton's admonition to not let Shadrin travel outside the U.S., and failed to provide countersurveillance for Shadrin's meetings with Kochnov in the Austrian capitol.[31]
Rebuttal to John L. Hart's HSCA testimony
On September 11, 1978, CIA officer John L. Hart, who had written a pro-Nosenko / anti-Bagley report for the CIA regarding the bona fides of KGB defector Yuri Nosenko, testified to the HSCA. Nosenko, who had himself recently testified to the HSCA, claimed to have been in charge of Lee Harvey Oswald's KGB file before and after the assassination of President Kennedy, and said that the KGB had had absolutely nothing to do with "abnormal" Oswald in the USSR.
In his testimony, Hart claimed Nosenko was a true defector and said Nosenko had been misunderstood, mishandled, and/or mistreated by Bagley and Bagley's Soviet Bloc Division colleagues both before and during his three-year incarceration.
On October 11, 1978, Bagley sent a letter to G. Robert Blakey, chief counsel and staff director to the HSCA, in which he rebutted Hart and requested permission to testify. Bagley gave lengthy testimony to the HSCA on November 16, 1978.[32] In the transcript of Bagley's testimony, he is not identified by name, but is referred to instead as "Deputy Chief S.B. Division" and "Mr. D.C." because he had been the deputy chief of CIA's Soviet Bloc Division / Soviet Russia Division.
Reactions to his Spy Wars book
Several reviews and analyses, both positive and negative, have been published either online or in hard-copy about Bagley's conclusions in his book, "Spy Wars".
Some positive reviews are those by David Ignatius,[33] Ron Rosenbaum,[34] Evan Thomas,[35] and former CIA officer W. Alan Messer in his 27-page online article "In Pursuit of the Squared Circle".[36]
Examples of negative ones are those by former Soviet intelligence officers Boris Volodarsky and Oleg Gordievsky, [37] and former CIA officers Leonard V. McCoy,[38] Cleveland Cram,[39] and Richards Heuer in his 1987 essay, "Nosenko: Five Paths to Judgement".[40]
In popular culture
In the 1986 American–British television drama produced by the BBC, "Yuri Nosenko: Double Agent," Bagley's character is played by Tommy Lee Jones.
Since Bagley was Nosenko's case manager and chief interrogator, his character is hard to pick out (if he's there at all) in the scenes depicting the "tortuous interrogation" of the Nosenko character in the fictionalized film about James Angleton, The Good Shepherd. The character yelling at Nosenko and torturing him with water is someone who in reality didn't participate in the interrogations, counterintelligence chief James Angleton's right-hand-man, Raymond G. Rocca (whose son, Gordon Rocca, married Bagley's daughter, Christina).[41]
Bagley's 2007 book, "Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries and Deadly Games," is free-to-read on the Internet[12] as is his 2014 follow-up PDF, "Ghosts of the Spy Wars: A Personal Reminder to Interested Parties".[13]
Personal life
Bagley married a young Hungarian woman, Maria Lonyay in the early 1950s in Vienna. They moved from the U.S. to Brussels, Belgium, when Bagley was transferred there in 1972, and remained there after he retired from the CIA. They had three children, Andrew, Christina, and Patricia.[6] Bagley wrote or co-wrote three books on the CIA and the KGB. He was a student of the Battle of Waterloo and an avid bird watcher.[citation needed]
References
Langer 2014.
Klehr 2022.
Cornwell 2014.
Telegraph, London 2014.
Ancell 1981.
Martin 2014.
Bagley 2007, pp. 28–32.
Bagley 2007, pp. 35–40.
Hood 1982.
Newman 2022, pp. 15.
Epstein 1977.
Bagley 2007.
Bagley 2015.
Bagley 2007, pp. 198–200.
Central Intelligence Agency 2011.
Newman 2022, pp. 281–282.
Bagley 2007, p. xii.
Bagley 2007, pp. 71–75.
Bagley 2007, pp. 48–49; Tate 2021, pp. 1–3.
Wise 1992, pp. 234–236.
Bagley 2007, pp. 3–6.
Bagley 2007, pp. 11–12.
Bagley 2007, p. 15.
Bagley 2007, pp. 15–16, 150–155.
Bagley 2007, pp. 22–26.
Riebling 1994, pp. 217–218.
Blum 2022, pp. 123–132.
Robarge 2013.
Bagley 2007, p. 187.
Newman 2022.
Newman 2022, pp. 185–217.
Select Committee on Assassinations 1979, pp. 573–644.
Ignatius 2007.
Rosenbaum 2007.
Thomas 2007.
Messer 2013.
Volodarsky & Gordievsky 2007.
Ironbark Inc 2013.
Cram 1993.
Heuer 1987.
Blum 2022, p. 148.
Bibliography
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Ashley, Clarence (2004), CIA Spy Master, Pelican Publishing Company
Bagley, Tennent H. (1990), KGB: Masters of the Soviet Union (with coauthor Pyotr Deriabin), Hippocrene Books
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Bagley, Tennent H. (2015-01-02), "Ghosts of the Spy Wars: A Personal Reminder to Interested Parties", International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, 28 (1): 1–37, doi:10.1080/08850607.2014.962362, ISSN 0885-0607
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Duns, Jeremy (2013), Dead Drop: The True Story of Oleg Penkovsky and the Cold War's Most Dangerous Operation, Simon & Schuster
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9/11, False Flags and Black Ops (2012)
There are various conspiracy theories that attribute the preparation and execution of the September 11 attacks against the United States to parties other than, or in addition to, al-Qaeda.[1] These include the theory that high-level government officials had advance knowledge of the attacks. Government investigations and independent reviews have rejected these theories.[2][3] Proponents of these theories assert that there are inconsistencies in the commonly accepted version, or that there exists evidence that was ignored, concealed, or overlooked.[4]
The most prominent conspiracy theory is that the collapse of the Twin Towers and 7 World Trade Center were the result of controlled demolitions rather than structural failure due to impact and fire.[5][6] Another prominent belief is that the Pentagon was hit by a missile launched by elements from inside the U.S. government,[7][8][9] or that hijacked planes were remotely controlled, or that a commercial airliner was allowed to do so via an effective stand-down of the American military. Possible motives claimed by conspiracy theorists for such actions include justifying the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 (even though the U.S. government concluded Iraq was not involved in the attacks)[10] to advance their geostrategic interests, such as plans to construct a natural gas pipeline through Afghanistan.[11] Other conspiracy theories revolve around authorities having advance knowledge of the attacks and deliberately ignoring or assisting the attackers.[4][12][13]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the technology magazine Popular Mechanics have investigated and rejected the claims made by 9/11 conspiracy theorists.[14][15][16] The 9/11 Commission and most of the civil engineering community accept that the impacts of jet aircraft at high speeds in combination with subsequent fires, not controlled demolition, led to the collapse of the Twin Towers,[17][18] but some conspiracy theory groups, including Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, disagree with the arguments made by NIST and Popular Mechanics.[19][20]
Background
9/11 conspiracy theorists reject one or both of the following facts about the 9/11 attacks:
Al-Qaeda suicide operatives hijacked and crashed United Airlines Flight 175 and American Airlines Flight 11 into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, and crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon. The impact and resulting fires caused the collapse of the Twin Towers and the destruction and damage of other buildings in the World Trade Center complex. The Pentagon was severely damaged by the impact of the airliner and the resulting fire. The hijackers also crashed a fourth plane into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania after the passengers and flight crew attempted to regain control of the aircraft.[23]
Pre-attack warnings of varying detail of the planned attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda were ignored due to a lack of communication between various law enforcement and intelligence personnel. For the lack of interagency communication, the 9/11 report cited bureaucratic inertia and laws passed in the 1970s to prevent abuses that caused scandals during that era, most notably the Watergate scandal. The report faulted both the Clinton and the Bush administrations with "failure of imagination".[24]
This consensus view is backed by various sources, including:
The reports from government investigations – the 9/11 Commission Report (that incorporated intelligence information from the earlier FBI investigation (PENTTBOM) and the Joint Inquiry of 2002), and the studies into building performance carried out by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)[25] and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)[14]
Investigations by non-government organizations that support the accepted account – such as those by scientists at Purdue University.[3][26]
Articles supporting these facts and theories appearing in magazines such as Popular Mechanics, Scientific American, and Time.[16]
Similar articles in news media throughout the world, including The Times of India,[27] the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC),[28] the BBC,[29] Le Monde,[30] Deutsche Welle,[31] the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC),[32] and The Chosun Ilbo of South Korea.[33]
History
Since the attacks, a variety of conspiracy theories have been put forward in websites, books and films. Many groups and individuals advocating 9/11 conspiracy theories identify as part of the 9/11 Truth movement.[34][35][36] Within six hours of the attack, a suggestion appeared on an Internet chat room suggesting that the collapse of the towers looked like an act of controlled demolition. "If, in a few days, not one official has mentioned anything about the controlled demolition part," the author wrote, "I think we have a REALLY serious problem."[37] The first theories that emerged focused primarily on various perceived anomalies in the publicly available evidence, and proponents later developed more specific theories about an alleged plot.[11] One false allegation that was widely circulated by e-mail and on the Web is that not a single Jew had been killed in the attack and that therefore the attacks must have been the work of the Mossad, not Islamic terrorists.[11]
The first elaborated theories appeared in Europe. One week after the attacks, the "inside job" theory was the subject of a thesis by a researcher from the French National Centre for Scientific Research published in the newspaper Le Monde. Other theories sprang from the far corners of the globe within weeks.[38] Six months after the attacks, Thierry Meyssan's piece on 9/11, L'Effroyable Imposture, topped the French bestseller list. Its publication in English (as 9/11: The Big Lie) received little attention, but it remains one of the principal sources for "trutherism".[39] 2003 saw the publication of The CIA and September 11 by former German state minister Andreas von Bülow and Operation 9/11 by the German journalist Gerhard Wisnewski; both books are published by Mathias Bröckers, who was at the time an editor at the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung.[11]
While these theories were popular in Europe, they were treated by the U.S. media with either bafflement or amusement, and they were dismissed by the U.S. government as the product of anti-Americanism.[40][41] In an address to the United Nations on November 10, 2001, President George W. Bush denounced the emergence of "outrageous conspiracy theories [...] that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty."[42]
The 9/11 conspiracy theories started out mostly in the political left but have broadened into what New York magazine describes as "terra incognita where left and right meet, fusing sixties countercultural distrust with the don't-tread-on-me variety".[43]
By 2004, conspiracy theories about the September 11 attacks began to gain ground in the United States. One explanation is that the rise in popularity stemmed more from growing criticism of the Iraq War and the newly re-elected President George W. Bush than from any discovery of new or more compelling evidence or an improvement in the technical quality of the presentation of the theories.[11] Knight Ridder news theorized that revelations that weapons of mass destruction did not exist in Iraq, the belated release of the President's Daily Brief of August 6, 2001, and reports that NORAD had lied to the 9/11 Commission, may have fueled the conspiracy theories.[11]
Between 2004 and the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks in 2006, mainstream coverage of the conspiracy theories increased.[11] The U.S. government issued a formal analysis by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) of the collapse of the World Trade Center.[44] To address the growing publicity of the theories, the State Department revised a webpage in 2006 to debunk them.[45] A 2006 national security strategy paper declared that terrorism springs from "subcultures of conspiracy and misinformation," and that "terrorists recruit more effectively from populations whose information about the world is contaminated by falsehoods and corrupted by conspiracy theories. The distortions keep alive grievances and filter out facts that would challenge popular prejudices and self-serving propaganda."[46] Al-Qaeda has repeatedly claimed responsibility for the attacks, with chief deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri accusing Shia Iran and Hezbollah of denigrating Sunni successes in hurting America by intentionally starting rumors that Israel carried out the attacks.[47][48][49][50][51][52]
Some of the conspiracy theories about the September 11 attacks do not involve representational strategies typical of many conspiracy theories that establish a clear dichotomy between good and evil, or guilty and innocent; instead, they call up gradations of negligence and complicity. Matthias Bröckers, an early proponent of such theories, dismisses the commonly accepted account of the September 11 attacks as being itself a conspiracy theory that seeks "to reduce complexity, disentangle what is confusing," and "explain the inexplicable".[11]
Just before the fifth anniversary of the attacks, mainstream news outlets released a flurry of articles on the growth of 9/11 conspiracy theories,[53] with an article in Time stating that "[t]his is not a fringe phenomenon. It is a mainstream political reality."[12][54] Several surveys have included questions about beliefs related to the September 11 attacks. In 2008, 9/11 conspiracy theories topped a "greatest conspiracy theory" list compiled by The Daily Telegraph. The list was ranked by following and traction.[55][56]
In 2010, the "International Center for 9/11 Studies," a private organization that is said to be sympathetic to conspiracy theories,[57] successfully sued for the release of videos collected by NIST of the attacks and aftermath.[58][59] According to the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the videos that were published shortly before the ninth anniversary of the attacks provide "new food for conspiracy theorists." Many of the videos show images of 7 World Trade Center, a skyscraper in the vicinity of the WTC towers that also collapsed on September 11, 2001.[58]
9/11 truth figures Steven E. Jones and Mike Berger have further added that the death of Osama bin Laden[60] did not change their questions about the attacks, nor provide closure.[61]
According to writer Jeremy Stahl, since Bush left office, the overall number of believers in 9/11 conspiracy theories has dipped, while the number of people who believe in the most "radical" theories has held fairly steady.[62]
Types
The most prominent conspiracy theories can be broadly divided into three main forms:
LIHOP ("Let it happen on purpose") – suggests that key individuals within the government had at least some foreknowledge of the attacks and deliberately ignored it or actively weakened United States' defenses to ensure the hijacked flights were not intercepted.[4][12][13] Similar allegations were made about Pearl Harbor.
MIHOP ("Make/Made it happen on purpose") – that key individuals within the government planned the attacks and collaborated with, or framed, al-Qaeda in carrying them out. There is a range of opinions about how this might have been achieved.[4][12][13]
Others – who reject the accepted account of the September 11 attacks but are not proposing specific theories, but try to demonstrate that the U.S. government's account of the events is wrong. This, according to them, would lead to a general call for a new official investigation into the events of September 11, 2001. According to Jonathan Kay, managing editor for comment at the Canadian newspaper National Post[63] and author of Among the Truthers: A Journey Through America's Growing Conspiracist Underground,[64] "They feel their job is to show everybody that the official theory of 9/11 is wrong. And then, when everybody is convinced, then the population will rise up and demand a new investigation with government resources, and that investigation will tell us what actually happened."[65]
Theories
Foreknowledge
See also: September 11 attacks advance-knowledge conspiracy theories; U.S. military response during the September 11 attacks; and United States government operations and exercises on September 11, 2001
Conspiracy theorists claim that action or inaction by U.S. officials with foreknowledge was intended to ensure that the attacks took place successfully. For example, Michael Meacher, former British environment minister and member of Tony Blair's government, said that the United States knowingly failed to prevent the attacks.[66][67]
Suspected insider trading
Some conspiracy theorists maintain that just before 9/11, an "extraordinary" amount of put options were placed on United Airlines and American Airlines stocks and speculate that insiders may have known in advance of the coming events of 9/11 and placed their bets accordingly. An analysis into the possibility of insider trading on 9/11 concludes that:
A measure of abnormal long put volume was also examined and seen to be at abnormally high levels in the days leading up to the attacks. Consequently, the paper concludes that there is evidence of unusual option market activity in the days leading up to September 11 that is consistent with investors trading on advance knowledge of the attacks.[68] —Allen M. Poteshman, The Journal of Business
This study was intended to address the "great deal of speculation about whether option market activity indicated that the terrorists or their associates had traded in the days leading up to September 11 on advance knowledge of the impending attacks."[69]
In the days leading up to 9/11, analysis shows a rise in the put to call ratio for United Airlines and American Airlines, the two airlines from which planes were hijacked on 9/11. Between September 6 and 7, the Chicago Board Options Exchange recorded purchases of 4,744 "put" option contracts in UAL and 396 call options. On September 10, more trading in Chicago saw the purchase of 4,516 put options in American Airlines, the other airline involved in the hijackings, with a mere 748 call options in American purchased that day. No other airline companies had an unusual put to call ratio in the days leading up to the attacks.[70] The 9/11 Commission concluded that all these abnormal patterns in trading were coincidental.[71]
Insurance companies saw anomalous trading activities as well. Citigroup Inc., which estimated that its Travelers Insurance unit could pay $500 million in claims from the World Trade Center attack, had about 45 times the normal volume during three trading days before the attack for options that profit, if the stock falls below $40. Citigroup shares fell $1.25 in late trading to $38.09. Morgan Stanley, which occupied 22 floors at the World Trade Center, experienced bigger-than-normal pre-attack trading of options that profited when stock prices fell. Other companies directly affected by the tragedy had similar jumps.[72]
The initial options were bought through at least two brokerage firms, including NFS, a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments, and TD Waterhouse. It was estimated that the trader or traders would have realized a five million dollar profit. The Securities and Exchange Commission launched an insider trading investigation in which Osama bin Laden was a suspect after receiving information from at least one Wall Street Firm.[73]
The 9/11 Commission Report concluded that "Exhaustive investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, FBI, and other agencies have uncovered no evidence that anyone with advance knowledge of the attacks profited through securities transactions."[74] The report further stated:
Highly publicized allegations of insider trading in advance of 9/11 generally rest on reports of unusual pre-9/11 trading activity in companies whose stock plummeted after the attacks. Some unusual trading did in fact occur, but each such trade proved to have an innocuous explanation. For example, the volume of put options — investments that pay off only when a stock drops in price — surged in the parent companies of United Airlines on September 6 and American Airlines on September 10 — highly suspicious trading on its face. Yet, further investigation has revealed that the trading had no connection with 9/11. A single U.S.-based institutional investor with no conceivable ties to al Qaeda purchased 95 percent of the UAL puts on September 6 as part of a trading strategy that also included buying 115,000 shares of American on September 10. Similarly, much of the seemingly suspicious trading in American on September 10 was traced to a specific U.S.-based options trading newsletter, faxed to its subscribers on Sunday, September 9, which recommended these trades. These examples typify the evidence examined by the investigation. The SEC and the FBI, aided by other agencies and the securities industry, devoted enormous resources to investigating this issue, including securing the cooperation of many foreign governments. These investigators have found that the apparently suspicious consistently proved innocuous.[75]
Air-defense stand-down theory
A common claim among conspiracy theorists is that the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) issued a stand down order or deliberately scrambled fighters late to allow the hijacked airplanes to reach their targets without interference. According to this theory, NORAD had the capability of locating and intercepting planes on 9/11, and its failure to do so indicates a government conspiracy to allow the attacks to occur.[76] Conspiracy theorist Mark R. Elsis says: "There is only one explanation for this ... Our Air Force was ordered to Stand Down on 9/11."[2][77]
One of the first actions taken by the hijackers on 9/11 was to turn off or disable each of the four aircraft's on board transponders. Without these transponder signals to identify the airplane's tail number, altitude, and speed, the hijacked airplanes would have been only blips among 4,500 other blips on NORAD's radar screens, making them very difficult to track.[76][78]
On 9/11, only 14 fighter jets were on alert in the contiguous 48 states. There was no automated method for the civilian air traffic controllers to alert NORAD.[79] A passenger aircraft had not been hijacked in the U.S. since 1979.[80] "They had to pick up the phone and literally dial us," says Maj. Douglas Martin, public affairs officer for NORAD. Only one civilian plane—a chartered Learjet 35 with golfer Payne Stewart and five others on board—was intercepted by NORAD over North America in the decade prior to 9/11, which took one hour and 19 minutes.[81]
Rules in effect at that time, and on 9/11, barred supersonic flight on intercepts. Before 9/11, all other NORAD interceptions were limited to offshore Air Defense Identification Zones (ADIZ). "Until 9/11 there was no domestic ADIZ," says FAA spokesman Bill Schumann. After 9/11, the FAA and NORAD increased cooperation. They set up hotlines between command centers while NORAD increased its fighter coverage and installed radar to watch airspace over the continent.[2]
The longest warning NORAD received of the hijackings was some eight minutes for American Airlines Flight 11, the first flight hijacked. The FAA alerted NORAD to the hijacked Flight 175 at just about the same time it was crashing into the World Trade Center's South Tower. The FAA notified NORAD of the missing – not hijacked – Flight 77 three minutes before it struck the Pentagon. NORAD received no warning of the hijack of United Flight 93 until three minutes after it had crashed in Pennsylvania.[82]
Alleged Communications Leak
CAMERA and JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) criticized claims by Carl Cameron who stated, "certain suspects in the September 11th attacks may have managed to stay ahead of them by knowing who and when investigators are calling on the telephone," by using information from Amdocs Limited, an Israeli-based private communications company, and Comverse Infosys, another Israeli-run company that provides electronic eavesdropping technology for the U.S. government.[83][84]
Israeli agents
See also: September 11 attacks advance-knowledge conspiracy theories § Israel
It has been claimed that Israeli agents may have had foreknowledge of the attacks, and a persistent theory claimed Israeli and/or Jewish involvement.[85] Four hours after the attack, the FBI arrested five Israelis who had been filming the smoking skyline from the roof of a white van in the parking lot of an apartment building, for "puzzling behavior." The Israelis were videotaping the events, and one bystander said they acted in a suspicious manner: "They were like happy, you know ... They didn't look shocked to me. I thought it was very strange." The van was found to be owned by an Israeli-owned company called Urban Moving, which the FBI believed was providing cover for an Israeli intelligence operation. The case was then moved to the FBI's Foreign Counterintelligence Section. According to a former CIA operations chief, "many people in the U.S. intelligence community believed that some of the men arrested were working for Israeli intelligence." A spokesperson for the Israeli Embassy in the United States said the men had not been involved in any intelligence operation in the United States. The FBI eventually concluded that the five Israelis probably had no foreknowledge of the attacks.[86]
World Trade Center
See also: World Trade Center controlled demolition conspiracy theories
Criticism of the reports published by NIST on the destruction of the World Trade Center buildings plays a central role in theories about an alleged controlled demolition. The picture shows the simulated exterior buckling of 7 WTC during the collapse.
The plane crashes and resulting fires caused the collapse of the World Trade Center. Controlled demolition conspiracy theories say the collapse of the North Tower, South Tower, or of 7 World Trade Center was caused by explosives installed in the buildings in advance.
Demolition theory proponents, such as Brigham Young University physicist Steven E. Jones, architect Richard Gage, software engineer Jim Hoffman, and theologian David Ray Griffin, argue that the aircraft impacts and resulting fires could not have weakened the buildings sufficiently to initiate a catastrophic collapse, and that the buildings would not have collapsed completely, nor at the speeds that they did, without additional factors weakening the structures.
In the article "Active Thermotic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe", which appeared in the Open Chemical Physics Journal, authors Niels Harrit of the University of Copenhagen's Department of Chemistry, Jeffrey Farrer of Brigham Young University's Department of Physics and Astronomy, Steven E. Jones, and others state that thermite and nano-thermite composites in the dust and debris were found following the collapse of the three buildings. The article contained no scientific rebuttal and the editor in chief of the publication subsequently resigned.[87][88][89]
Jones has not explained how the amount of explosive needed to bring down the buildings could have been positioned in the two buildings without drawing attention, but mentioned efforts to research the buildings' maintenance activity in the weeks prior to the event. Federal investigators at the National Institute of Standards and Technology state that enormous quantities of thermite would have to be applied to the structural columns to damage them, but Jones disputed this, saying that he and others were investigating "superthermite".[87] Brent Blanchard, author of "A History of Explosive Demolition in America",[90] who corresponded with Jones, states that questions about the viability of Jones' theories remain unanswered, such as the fact that no demolition personnel noticed any telltale signs of thermite during the eight months of debris removal following the towers' collapse. Blanchard also said that a verifiable chain of possession needs to be established for the tested beams, which did not occur with the beams Jones tested, raising questions of whether the metal pieces tested could have been cut away from the debris pile with acetylene torches, shears, or other potentially contaminated equipment while on site, or exposed to trace amounts of thermite or other compounds while being handled, while in storage, or while being transferred from Ground Zero to memorial sites.
Excavating equipment was cooled by water spray due to concerns about melting from underground fires.
Jones also said that molten steel found in the rubble was evidence of explosives, as an ordinary airplane fire would not generate enough heat to produce this, citing photographs of red debris being removed by construction equipment, but Blanchard said that if there had been any molten steel in the rubble any excavation equipment encountering it would have been immediately damaged.[87] Other sampling of the pulverized dust by United States Geological Survey and RJ Lee did not report any evidence of thermite or explosives. It has been theorized the "thermite material" found was primer paint.[91] Dave Thomas of Skeptical Inquirer magazine, noting that the residue in question was claimed to be thermotic because of its iron oxide and aluminum composition, pointed out that these substances are found in many items common to the towers. Thomas said that in order to cut through a vertical steel beam, special high-temperature containment must be added to prevent the molten iron from dropping down, and that the thermite reaction is too slow for it to be practically used in building demolition. Thomas pointed out that when Jesse Ventura hired New Mexico Tech to conduct a demonstration showing nanothermite slicing through a large steel beam, the nanothermite produced copious flame and smoke but no damage to the beam, even though it was in a horizontal, and therefore optimal, position.[92]
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) concluded the accepted version was more than sufficient to explain the collapse of the buildings. NIST and many scientists have refused to debate conspiracy theorists because they feel it would give those theories unwarranted credibility.[93] Specialists in structural mechanics and structural engineering accept the model of a fire-induced, gravity-driven collapse of the World Trade Center buildings without the use of explosives.[94][95][96] As a result, NIST said that it did not perform any test for the residue of explosive compounds of any kind in the debris.[44]
Soon after the day of the attacks, major media sources published that the towers had collapsed due to heat melting the steel.[97][98] The erroneous claim that the combustion temperature of jet fuel could not melt steel contributed to the belief among skeptics that the towers would not have collapsed without external interference. The basic claim is false, because the combustion temperature of kerosene (jet fuel) is, in fact, more than 500 °C higher than the melting point of structural steel (2093 °C vs. less than 1539 °C).
Further, NIST did not claim that the steel melted, but rather that heat softened and weakened the steel, and that weakening, together with the damage caused by the planes' impacts, caused structural collapse.[44] NIST reported that a simulation model based on the simple assumption that combustible vapors burned immediately upon mixing with the incoming air showed that "at any given location, the duration of gas temperatures near 1,000 °C was about 15 to 20 minutes. The rest of the time, the calculated temperatures were 500 °C or below."[99]
Pentagon
Security camera footage of Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon (at 1:26 in the video)
The Pentagon, after collapse of the damaged section
Airplane debris scattered near the Pentagon on the day of the attack
Political activist Thierry Meyssan and filmmaker Dylan Avery claim that American Airlines Flight 77 did not crash into the Pentagon. Instead, they argue that the Pentagon was hit by a missile launched by elements from inside the U.S. government. Some claim that the holes in the Pentagon walls were far too small to have been made by a Boeing 757: "How does a plane 125 ft. wide and 155 ft. long fit into a hole which is only 60 ft. across?" Meyssan's book, L'Effroyable Imposture (published in English as 9/11: The Big Lie) became available in more than a dozen languages. When released, the book was heavily criticized by both the mainstream French and American press, and later, from within the 9/11 Truth movement. The French newspaper Liberation called the book "a tissue of wild and irresponsible allegations, entirely without foundation."[100][101][102]
In response to the conspiracy theorists' claim of a missile hitting the Pentagon, Mete Sozen, a professor of civil engineering at Purdue University argues that: "A crashing jet doesn't punch a cartoon-like outline of itself into a reinforced concrete building. When Flight 77 hit the Pentagon, one wing hit the ground and the other was sheared off by the Pentagon's load-bearing columns."[100][103] According to ArchitectureWeek, the reason the Pentagon took relatively little damage from the impact was because Wedge One had recently been renovated.[104] (This was part of a renovation program which had been begun in the 1980s, and Wedge One was the first of five to be renovated.[105])
Evidence contradicting some conspiracy theorists' claim of a missile hitting the Pentagon have been described by researchers within the 9/11 Truth Movement, such as Jim Hoffman, in his essay "The Pentagon Attack: What the Physical Evidence Shows", and by others broadly refuting the role of other conspiracies in the attacks. The evidence refuting missile claims includes airplane debris including Flight 77's black boxes,[106] the nose cone, landing gear,[107] an airplane tire,[108] and an intact cockpit seat[109] were observed at the crash site. The remains of passengers from Flight 77 were indeed found at the Pentagon crash site and their identities confirmed by DNA analysis.[110] Foreign governments, such as the Chinese Foreign Ministry (FMPRC), also confirms the death of their citizens onboard Flight 77.[111] Many eyewitnesses saw the plane strike the Pentagon. Further, Flight 77 passengers made phone calls reporting that their airplane had been hijacked. For example, passenger Renee May called her mother to tell her that the plane had been hijacked and that the passengers had been herded to the back of the plane. Another passenger named Barbara Olson called her husband (U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson) and said that the flight had been hijacked, and that the hijackers had knives and box cutters.[8][100][112][113] Some conspiracy theories say the phone calls the passengers made were fabricated by voice morphing, the passengers' bodies disposed of, and a missile fired at the Pentagon.[114][115][116]
The pressure group Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request on December 15, 2004, to force the government to release video recordings from the Sheraton National Hotel, the Nexcomm/Citgo gas station, Pentagon security cameras and the Virginia Department of Transportation. On May 16, 2006, the government released the Pentagon security camera videos to Judicial Watch.[117] The image of American Airlines Flight 77 which appears in the videos has been described as "[a] white blob" and "a white streak" (by the BBC),[118] "a thin white blur" (by The Associated Press),[119] and "a silver speck low to the ground" (in The Washington Post).[120] A sequence of five frames from one of the videos already appeared in the media in 2002.[121] Some conspiracy theorists believe the new video does not answer their questions.[122]
Flight 93
Flight 93 crash site
The fourth plane hijacked on 9/11, United Airlines Flight 93, crashed in an open field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, after the passengers revolted. Out of the four planes hijacked on that day, Flight 93 was the only one not to reach its target.[123]
One conspiracy theory surrounding this event is the claim that Flight 93 was shot down by a U.S. fighter jet. David Ray Griffin and Alex Jones have asserted that large parts of the plane, including the main body of the engine, landed miles away from the main wreckage site, too far away for an ordinary plane crash. Jones says that planes usually leave a small debris field when they crash, and that this is not compatible with reports of wreckage found farther away from the main crash site. One person claimed that the main body of the engine was found miles away from the main wreckage site with damage comparable to that which a heat-seeking missile would do to an airliner.[100][123]
According to some theories, the plane had to be shot down by the government because passengers had found out about the alleged plot.[77]
According to Phil Molé of Skeptic magazine, "[this] claim rests largely on unsupported assertions that the main body of the engine and other large parts of the plane turned up miles from the main wreckage site, too far away to have resulted from an ordinary crash. This claim is incorrect, because the engine was found only 300 yards from the main crash site, and its location was consistent with the direction in which the plane had been traveling."[76] Michael K. Hynes, an airline accident expert who investigated the crash of TWA Flight 800 in 1996, says that, at very high velocities of 500 mph or more, it would only take a few seconds to move or tumble across the ground for 300 yards.[76][100]
Reports of wreckage discovered at Indian Lake by local residents are accurate. CNN reported that investigators found debris from the crash at least eight miles away from the crash site, including in New Baltimore.[124] According to CNN, this debris was all very light material that the wind would have easily blown away, and a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article from September 14, 2001, describes the material as "mostly papers", "strands of charred insulation", and an "endorsed paycheck". The same article quotes FBI agent Bill Crowley that, "Lighter, smaller debris probably shot into the air on the heat of a fireball that witnesses said shot several hundred feet into the air after the jetliner crashed. Then, it probably rode a wind that was blowing southeast at about 9 m.p.h."[125] Also, the distance between the crash site and Indian Lake was misreported in some accounts. According to the BBC, "In a straight line, Indian Lake is just over a mile from the crash site. The road between the two locations takes a roundabout route of 6.9 miles—accounting for the erroneous reports."[123]
Some conspiracy theorists believe a small white jet seen flying over the crash area may have fired a missile to shoot down Flight 93.[126][dubious – discuss] Government agencies such as the FBI assert this small plane was a Dassault Falcon business jet asked to descend to an altitude of around 1,500 ft to survey the impact.[127] Ben Sliney, who was the FAA operation manager on September 11, 2001, says no military aircraft were near Flight 93.[128]
Some internet videos, such as Loose Change, speculate that Flight 93 safely landed in Ohio, and a substituted plane was involved in the crash in Pennsylvania. Often cited is a preliminary news report that Flight 93 landed at a Cleveland airport;[129] it was later learned that Delta Flight 1989 was the plane confused with Flight 93, and the report was retracted as inaccurate. Several websites within the 9/11 Truth Movement dispute this claim, citing the wreckage at the scene, eyewitness testimony, and the difficulty of secretly substituting one plane for another, and claim that such "hoax theories ... appear calculated to alienate victims' survivors and the larger public from the 9/11 truth movement". The editor of the article has since written a rebuttal to the claims.[130]
Valencia McClatchey, a local woman who took the only photograph of the mushroom cloud from the impact of Flight 93 seconds after it hit the ground, says she has been harassed over the telephone and in person by conspiracy theorists, who claim she faked the photo. The FBI, the Somerset County authorities, the Smithsonian, and the National Park Service's Flight 93 National Memorial staff have all individually examined the photograph as well as the film negatives and all four agencies consider the photo to be authentic.[131]
While some conspiracy theorists have claimed that passengers of Flight 93 and/or Flight 77 were murdered or that they were relocated, with the intent that they never be found,[77] others within the 9/11 Truth Movement, such as Jim Hoffman and Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice, repudiate such claims.
Hijackers
See also: Hijackers in the September 11 attacks and September 11 attacks advance-knowledge conspiracy theories
During the initial confusion surrounding the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the BBC published the names and identities of what they believed to be some of the hijackers.[132] Some of the people named were later discovered to be alive, a fact that was seized upon by 9/11 conspiracy theorists as proof that the hijackings were faked.[132][133][134] The BBC explained that the initial confusion may have arisen because the names they reported back in 2001 were common Arabic and Islamic names.[132] In response to a request from the BBC, the FBI said that it was confident to have identified all nineteen hijackers, and that none of the other inquiries had raised the issue of doubt about their identities.[132] The New York Times also acknowledged these as cases of mistaken identity.[135]
According to John Bradley, the former managing editor of Arab News in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the only public information about the hijackers was a list of names issued by the FBI on September 14, 2001. When the FBI released photographs four days after the cited reports on September 27, the mistaken identities were quickly resolved. According to Bradley, "all of this is attributable to the chaos that prevailed during the first few days following the attack. What we're dealing with are coincidentally identical names." In Saudi Arabia, says Bradley, the names of two of the allegedly surviving attackers, Said al-Ghamdi and Walid al-Shari, are "as common as John Smith in the United States or Great Britain."[133]
According to Thomas Kean, chair of the 9/11 Commission, "Sixteen of the nineteen shouldn't have gotten into the United States in any way at all because there was something wrong with their visas, something wrong with their passports. They should simply have been stopped at the border. That was sixteen of the nineteen. Obviously, if even half of those people had been stopped, there never would have been a plot."[136]
Khalid al Mihdhar and Nawaf al Hazmi had both been identified as al-Qaeda agents by the CIA, but that information was not shared with the FBI or U.S. Immigration, so both men were able to legally enter the U.S. to prepare for the 9/11 attacks.[137]
Foreign governments
See also: Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda link allegations and Foreign government foreknowledge
There are allegations that individuals within the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) may have played an important role in financing the attacks. There are also claims that other foreign intelligence agencies, such as the Israeli Mossad, had foreknowledge of the attacks, and that some Saudi officials may have played a role in financing the attacks. General Hamid Gul, a former head of ISI, believes the attacks were an "inside job" originating in the United States, perpetrated by Israel or neo-conservatives.[138] Francesco Cossiga, former President of Italy from 1985 until his 1992 resignation over Operation Gladio, said that it is common knowledge among the Italian center-left that the 9/11 attacks were a joint operation of the CIA and the Mossad.[139] Subsequent reports indicated that he did not actually believe this.[140][141]
Israel
See also: September 11 attacks advance-knowledge conspiracy theories: Israel
A conspiracy theory documented by the Anti-Defamation League, Thom Burnett and others is that the state of Israel was involved in the attacks, and may have planned them. A variety of motives are suggested, including: to cause the United States to attack enemies of Israel; to divert public attention away from Israel's treatment of Palestinians; to help Zionists take control of world affairs; and to persuade Americans to support Israel. Variants of the theory contend that the attack was organized by Ariel Sharon, Mossad, or the government of Israel.[142][143] Kevin Barrett, a former lecturer at the University of Wisconsin is, according to Slate website, a "leading advocate of theories that Israel's Mossad orchestrated the 9/11 attacks."[144]
Some proponents of this believe that Jewish employees were forewarned by Israeli intelligence to skip work on September 11, resulting in no Jewish deaths at the World Trade Center. According to Cinnamon Stillwell, some 9/11 conspiracy theorists put this number as high as 4,000 Jewish people skipping work.[145] This was first reported on September 17 by the Lebanese Hezbollah-owned satellite television channel Al-Manar and is believed to be based on the September 12 edition of The Jerusalem Post that said "The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem has so far received the names of 4,000 Israelis believed to have been in the areas of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon at the time of the attacks."[146]
The number of Jews who died in the attacks is variously estimated at between 270 and 400.[146][a][147][148] The lower figure tracks closely with the percentage of Jews living in the New York area and partial surveys of the victims' listed religion. The U.S. State Department has published a partial list of 76 in response to claims that fewer Jews/Israelis died in the WTC attacks than should have been present at the time.[146][149] Five Israeli citizens died in the attack.[150]
Antisemitism in conspiracy theories
In 2003, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) published a report attacking "hateful conspiracy theories" that the 9/11 attacks were carried about by Israelis and Jews, saying they had the potential to "rationalize and fuel global anti-Semitism." It found that such theories were widely accepted in the Arab and Muslim world, as well as in Europe and the United States.
The ADL's report found that "The Big Lie has united American far-right extremists and white supremacists and elements within the Arab and Muslim world". It asserted that many of the theories were modern manifestation of the 19th-century Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which purported to map out a Jewish conspiracy for world domination.[143][151] The ADL has characterized the Jeff Rense website as carrying anti-Semitic materials, such as "American Jews staged the 9/11 terrorist attacks for their own financial gain and to induce the American people to endorse wars of aggression and genocide on the nations of the Middle East and the theft of their resources for the benefit of Israel".[152]
Pedro A. Sanjuan, a former United Nations diplomat, alleged that antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories were quite common at high levels of the organization following the attacks.[153]
Saudi Arabia
See also: Alleged role of Saudi officials in the September 11 attacks and The 28 pages
British investigative journalists Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan claimed in their 2011 book The Eleventh Day that the Saudi Royal Family provided material and financial support to the hijackers and that the Bush Administration covered this up as well as their own alleged incompetence. The authors claim the 9/11 Truth movement helped this coverup by deflecting attention away from these actions.[154] In September 2011 a "Lloyd's insurance syndicate" began legal action against Saudi Arabia demanding the repayment of £136m it paid out to victims of the 9/11 attacks. A number of prominent Saudi charities and banks as well as a leading member of the al-Saud royal family were accused of being "agents and alter egos" for the Saudi state that "knowingly" provided funding to al-Qaeda and encouraged anti Western sentiment.[155]
Such theories have historically revolved around the putative content of the 28 pages of the 2002 report of the U.S. Congress Joint Inquiry[156][157] that were withheld from publication until July 15, 2016.[158]
Former Florida Senator Bob Graham, co-chairman of the Joint Inquiry, as well as other former officials who did read the entire version of the Joint Inquiry's report, claimed that there was a U.S. government coverup on the Saudi officials' assistance provided to the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks,[156] notably the role of Fahad al-Thumairy, a diplomat at the Saudi consulate in Los Angeles.[159]
No-planes theory
The "no-plane theory", promoted via Internet videos, claims that this shot of the second impact, taken from a news helicopter, depicts a video composite of a Boeing 767 accidentally appearing from behind a Layer Mask.
Former chief economist within the Labor Department under the Bush administration, Morgan Reynolds, argues that no planes were used in the attacks. Reynolds claims it is physically impossible that the Boeing planes of Flights 11 and 175 could have penetrated the steel frames of the Towers, and that digital compositing was used to depict the plane crashes in both news reports and subsequent amateur video. "There were no planes, there were no hijackers", Reynolds insists. "I know, I know, I'm out of the mainstream, but that's the way it is". According to David Shayler, "the only explanation is that they were missiles surrounded by holograms made to look like planes", he says, which would be well beyond the capabilities of contemporaneous hologram technology. "Watch footage frame by frame and you will see a cigar-shaped missile hitting the World Trade Center". Most no-planes adherents, including Thierry Meyssan and Reynolds, assert that either CGI of a passenger plane was overlaid onto a winged cruise missile or military aircraft, or that computer-generated images of a passenger plane were inserted into the video footage and plane-shaped explosive cut-outs were planted in the buildings in order to create the impression of plane impact.[160][161][162] Some truth movement veterans have repeatedly refuted the "no-plane" claims.[77][163] In fact, discussion of no-plane theories has been banned from certain conspiracy theory websites and advocates have sometimes been threatened with violence by posters at other conspiracy theory websites.[164]
Cover-up allegations
Cockpit recorders
The cockpit voice recorder from Flight 77 was heavily damaged from the impact and resulting fire.
According to the 9/11 Commission Report, both black boxes from Flight 77 and both black boxes from Flight 93 were recovered. Flight 77's CVR was said to be too damaged to yield any data. On April 18, 2002, the FBI allowed the families of victims from Flight 93 to listen to the voice recordings.[165] In April 2006, a transcript of the CVR was released as part of the Zacarias Moussaoui trial.[166]
Two men, Michael Bellone and Nicholas DeMasi, who worked extensively in the wreckage of the World Trade Center, said in the book Behind-The-Scenes: Ground Zero that they helped federal agents find three of the four "black boxes" from the jetliners:[167]
At one point, I was assigned to take Federal Agents around the site to search for the black boxes from the planes. We were getting ready to go out. My ATV was parked at the top of the stairs at the Brooks Brothers entrance area. We loaded up about a million dollars worth of equipment and strapped it into the ATV. There were a total of four black boxes. We found three.[168]
Bin Laden tapes
Main article: Videos of Osama bin Laden
A series of interviews, audio and videotapes were released in the years following the 9/11 attacks that were reported to be from Osama bin Laden. In the first of these the speaker denied responsibility for the attacks. On September 17, 2001, in a statement issued to Al Jazeera, Bin Laden is quoted as saying: "The U.S. government has consistently blamed me for being behind every occasion its enemies attack it. I would like to assure the world that I did not plan the recent attacks, which seems to have been planned by people for personal reasons."[169] Some observers, especially people in the Muslim world, doubted the authenticity of the tape.[170] On December 20, 2001, German TV channel "Das Erste" broadcast an analysis of the White House's translation of the videotape. On the program Monitor, two independent translators and an expert on Oriental Studies found the White House's translation to be both inaccurate and manipulative, stating, "At the most important places where it is held to prove the guilt of bin Laden, it is not identical with the Arabic", and that the words used that indicate foreknowledge can not be heard at all in the original. Prof. Gernot Rotter, professor of Islamic and Arabic Studies at the Asia-Africa Institute at the University of Hamburg, said "The American translators who listened to the tapes and transcribed them apparently wrote a lot of things in that they wanted to hear but that cannot be heard on the tape no matter how many times you listen to it."[171] Some members of Scholars for 9/11 Truth believe that the man in this videotape is not Osama bin Laden at all, citing differences in weight and facial features, along with his wearing of a gold ring, which is forbidden by Muslim law, and writing with his right hand although bin Laden was left-handed.[172]
In an audiotape released in November 2007, Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the attacks and denied the Taliban and the Afghan government or people had any prior knowledge of the attacks.[173][174][175] In an interview with al-Jazeera, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Ramzi bin al-Shibh, two of al-Qaeda's alleged masterminds of the attacks, also confessed their involvement in the attacks.[176]
CIA recruitment efforts
Richard Clarke, who headed the government's anti-terrorism efforts in 2001, theorized CIA director George Tenet ordered the agency to withhold information about Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar from the rest of the government in an effort to cover up the agency's recruitment of the two. George Tenet released a statement denying the agency deliberately withheld information about the pair and noted Clarke himself said he had no proof.[177]
Motives
Pax Americana
Main article: Pax Americana
In September 2000 the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) released a strategic treatise entitled Rebuilding America's Defences. The Defense Planning Guidance of 1992, was drafted by Paul Wolfowitz on behalf of then Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney. This was described as "a blueprint for permanent American global hegemony" by Andrew Bacevich in his book American Empire: The Realities and Consequences of U.S. Diplomacy.[178]
Matt Taibbi argued in his book The Great Derangement that conspiracy theorists have taken what is written in the paper "completely out of context", and that the "transformation" referenced in the paper is explicitly said to be a decades-long process to turn the Cold War-era military into a "new, modern military" which could deal with more localized conflicts.[179] He said that, for this to be evidence of motive, either those responsible would have decided to openly state their objectives, or would have read the paper in 2000 and quickly laid the groundwork for the 9/11 attacks using it as inspiration.[179]
Invasions
Conspiracy theorists have questioned whether The Oil Factor and 9/11 provided the United States and the United Kingdom with a reason to launch a war they had wanted for some time, and suggest that this gives them a strong motive for either carrying out the attacks, or allowing them to take place. For instance, Andreas von Bülow, a former research minister in the German government, has argued that 9/11 was staged to justify the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.[180] Former Malaysian prime minister Mahathir Mohamad was quoted as saying that there was "strong evidence" that the attacks were faked so that the United States could go to war against Muslims.[181] In spite of these allegations, the Bush administration specifically rejected proposals to immediately attack Iraq in response to 9/11,[182] and acknowledged that there was no evidence of Iraqi involvement in the attacks.[10]
New World Order
Main article: New World Order (conspiracy theory)
Alex Jones and other personalities hold that 9/11 was initiated by a disparate variety of banking, corporate, globalization, and military interests for the purpose of creating a globalist government. Such New World Order conspiracy theories predate 9/11.[62]
Suggested historical precedents
Conspiracy theorists often point to Operation Northwoods as a model for the 9/11 attacks, theorizing the attacks were carried out by the U.S. government as a false flag operation and then blamed on Islamic extremists.[11][183] Operation Northwoods was an unimplemented, apparently rejected, plan approved by the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1962. One proposal in the plan suggested that covert operatives commit multiple acts of terrorism in U.S. cities and blame Cuba, thus providing a pretext for invasion.[184]
Time magazine contrasted events which inspired past conspiracy theories with those that inspire 9/11 conspiracy theories such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Time called the public assassination of Kennedy a "private, intimate affair" when compared with the attack on the World Trade Center, which was witnessed by millions of people and documented by hundreds of videographers; and said, "there is no event so plain and clear that a determined human being can't find ambiguity in it."[54]
Proponents
Main article: 9/11 Truth movement
Many individuals and organizations that support or discuss 9/11 conspiracy theories consider themselves to be part of the 9/11 Truth movement.
Alex Jones at a 9/11 Truth Movement event in 2007
Prominent adherents of the movement include, among others, radio talk show host Alex Jones, theologian David Ray Griffin, physicist Steven E. Jones, software engineer Jim Hoffman, architect Richard Gage (of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth), film producer Dylan Avery, former Governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives Cynthia McKinney,[185][186] actors Daniel Sunjata, Ed Asner, and Charlie Sheen, political science professor Joseph Diaferia and journalist Thierry Meyssan.[187][188][189] Adherents of the 9/11 Truth movement come from diverse social backgrounds.[190][191][192] The movement draws adherents from people of diverse political beliefs including liberals, conservatives, and libertarians.[76][192][193] The Anti-Defamation League has named Alan Sabrosky as a key figure in anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories.[194][195]
Among the organizations that actively discuss and promote such theories are Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, a group that focuses on the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings; 9/11 Truth, founded in 2004; Scholars for 9/11 Truth, founded in 2005, and Scholars for 9/11 Truth & Justice, a group that split from Scholars for 9/11 Truth in 2007 and runs the online publication Journal of 9/11 Studies; 9/11 Citizens Watch, which was already formed in 2002; and the Hispanic Victims Group. Several of these groups have collected signatures on petitions asking for further investigation of the September 11 attacks.[196][197][198]
In 2004, John Buchanan ran for president on a "9/11 Truth" platform.[199]
9/11 Conspiracy theory critic Jonathan Kay asserts that for the most part proponents are not out for financial gain and in some cases have left lucrative careers to become activists.[200]
Dr Michael Wood and Dr Karen Douglas University of Kent psychologists who specialize in conspiracy theories[201] examined the comments sections of over 2000 news articles relating to the collapse of World Trade Center 7. They found that proponents of 9/11 conspiracy theories were more likely to try and debunk the mainstream account than promote their own theories and also were more likely to believe in other conspiracy theories. Proponents of the mainstream account tended to argue for that account and showed a greater hostility toward conspiracy theory proponents.[202]
Analysis
According to a 2011 analysis in a Skeptical Inquirer article, people involved in this movement, which seemingly is a disparate group with very diversified backgrounds, could be classified into three groups. They join the movement for different reasons, loosely self-assemble to fill different roles and are united by their shared mistrust in experts and the establishment (government and reputable sources of knowledge), and conspiratorial stance. Through their engagement, they each find their own fulfillment and satisfaction. Together, they contribute to the persistence, resilience and exaggerated claims of acceptance (in general public) of the movement. These three groups are:[203]
Hard core: The organizers and active members of the various 9/11 Truth Movement organizations. They produce the information, spot the anomalies and technical inconsistencies, provide the technical base and form the theories. While they claim to be only interested in facts and to use scientific method, they commit the logical fallacy of 'confirmation bias' by pre-determining the outcome, then searching for corroborating evidence while ignoring the vast body of peer-reviewed, independent, consensual research which contradict their theories. They supply the physical structure of the movement by organizing events, seminars, discussions, marches and distributing flyers and pamphlets. Their numbers are relatively small but they are tight-knit and highly connected. Their worldview favors 'super-conspiracy', a master plan that is behind conspiracies which they believe they are uncovering.[203]
Critically turned: They are the young students and political activists whose affiliation with the 9/11 Truth Movement often is rooted from their dissatisfaction and anger at the established political and social order. Their sense of justice and idealism propels them to activism against perceived oppression and social injustice. Their penchant to use Internet, especially social media, and tech savvy make them the propaganda machine for the movement. They produce YouTube videos and films with cool, countercultural content, make good use of pop culture parody and eye-catching graphics. The countercultural street cred of their productions buy them broad appeal and exposure to millions of people.[203]
Illiterati: They are the movement's mass membership backbone, a large, diffuse group which give the movement exaggerated claims of popularity and influence. Participation in the 9/11 Truth Movement, to this group of people, is as much a social and recreational pursuit as the quest for truth. Their partaking is mostly through web 2.0 social networking and YouTube. Their commentaries often are emotional and they make no pretense to be accurate, balanced or to show genuine intent to find truth. Involvement with the movement that fit their worldview gives them a sense of identity and belonging, which they find more appealing than the facts and evidences of the 9/11 terrorist attack itself.[203]
Media reaction
While discussion and coverage of these theories is mainly confined to Internet pages, books, documentary films, and conversation, a number of mainstream news outlets around the world have covered the issue.
The Norwegian version of the July 2006 Le Monde diplomatique sparked interest when they ran, on their own initiative, a three-page main story on the 9/11 attacks and summarized the various types of 9/11 conspiracy theories (which were not specifically endorsed by the newspaper, only recensed).[204] In December 2006, the French version published an article by Alexander Cockburn, co-editor of CounterPunch, which strongly criticized the alleged endorsement of conspiracy theories by the U.S. left-wing, alleging that it was a sign of "theoretical emptiness."[205]
Also, on the Canadian website for CBC News: The Fifth Estate, a program titled, "Conspiracy Theories: uncovering the facts behind the myths of Sept. 11, 2001" was broadcast on October 29, 2003, stating that what they found may be more surprising than any theories.[206] On November 27, 2009, The Fifth Estate aired a documentary entitled The Unofficial Story where several prominent members of the 9/11 Truth Movement made their case.[207][208]
An article in the September 11, 2006, edition of Time magazine comments that the major 9/11 conspiracy theories "depend on circumstantial evidence, facts without analysis or documentation, quotes taken out of context and the scattered testimony of traumatized eyewitnesses", and enjoy continued popularity because "the idea that there is a malevolent controlling force orchestrating global events is, in a perverse way, comforting". It concludes that "conspiracy theories are part of the process by which Americans deal with traumatic public events" and constitute "an American form of national mourning."[209]
Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph published an article titled "The CIA couldn't have organised this ..." which said "The same people who are making a mess of Iraq were never so clever or devious that they could stage a complex assault on two narrow towers of steel and glass" and "if there is a nefarious plot in all this bad planning, it is one improvised by a confederacy of dunces". This article mainly attacked a group of scientists led by Professor Steven E. Jones, now called Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice. They said "most of them aren't scientists but instructors ... at second-rate colleges".[210]
The Daily Telegraph also published an article in May 2007 that was highly critical of Loose Change 2, a movie which presents a 9/11 conspiracy theory.[211]
Doug MacEachern in a May 2008 column for The Arizona Republic wrote that while many "9/11 truthers" are not crackpots that espouse "crackpot conspiracy theories", supporters of the theories fail to take into account both human nature and that nobody has come forward claiming they were participants in the alleged conspiracies.[212] This view was seconded by Timothy Giannuzzi, a Calgary Herald op-ed columnist specializing in foreign policy.[213]
On June 7, 2008, the Financial Times published a lengthy article on the 9/11 Truth Movement and 9/11 conspiracy theories.[214]
Charlie Brooker, a British comedian and multimedia personality, in a July 2008 column published by The Guardian as part of its "Comment is free" series agreed that 9/11 conspiracy theorists fail to take in account human fallacies and added that believing in these theories gives theorists a sense of belonging to a community that shares privileged information thus giving the theorists a delusional sense of power.[215] The commentary generated over 1700 online responses, the largest in the history of the series.[216] In a September 2009 piece, The Guardian was more supportive of 9/11 conspiracy theories, asking, "when did it become uncool to ask questions? When did questioners become imbeciles?"[217]
On September 12, 2008, Russian State Television broadcast in prime time a documentary made by Member of the European Parliament Giulietto Chiesa entitled Zero, sympathetic to those who question the accepted account of the attacks according to Chiesa. According to Thierry Meyssan in conjunction with the documentary, Russian State Television aired a debate on the subject. The panel
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The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil (2007)
The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil is a 2007 book which includes professor Philip Zimbardo's first detailed, written account of the events surrounding the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) – a prison simulation study which had to be discontinued after only six days due to several distressing outcomes and mental breaks of the participants. The book includes over 30 years of subsequent research into the psychological and social factors which result in immoral acts being committed by otherwise moral people. It also examines the prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib in 2003, which has similarities to the Stanford experiment. The title takes its name from the biblical story of the favored angel of God, Lucifer, his fall from grace, and his assumption of the role of Satan, the embodiment of evil.[1][2] The book was briefly on The New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller[3] and won the American Psychological Association's 2008 William James Book Award.[4]
Overview
The first chapter is on the book's title theme of Lucifer and on the nature of moral transformation as an outcome of the interplay between individual disposition, situation, and systems of power.[5] The largest portion of the book, Chapters 2 through 9, is primarily a day-by-day account of the events which transpired during the Stanford experiment, largely written in literary present tense with dialogue taken from original experiment transcripts and includes several photographs taken at the time. Chapter 10 presents the data gathered in the SPE, and Chapter 11 is an examination of the ethical questions raised about the experiment. The remainder of the book covers a number of topics within the field of social psychology, such as similar studies like the Asch conformity experiments, Milgram experiment, Albert Bandura's research on moral disengagement, research on the bystander effect by John M. Darley and Bibb Latané, and Zimbardo's own later work on deindividuation.[6][7] There is also an examination of the Stanford experiment's relevance to events such as the Attica Prison riot and the torture and abuse of prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq in 2003, with a special focus on the story of Sergeant Ivan Frederick.[6] Zimbardo relates his experience as an expert witness for the defense at Frederick's military trial, and describes his view of what led to an "All-American poster soldier" becoming involved in the torture of prisoners. The final chapter describes the concept of heroism, the key roles of Joe Darby, the whistleblower of the Abu Ghraib events, and Christina Maslach, the graduate student who convinced Zimbardo to end the Stanford experiment early, and advice on how to resist negative situations.[1][6][2]
Reviews
Rose McDermott wrote that the book "deserves to be required reading for all those interested in the intersection of psychological processes and political reality" and suggests that several sections would make excellent assigned readings in psychology coursework, such the chapter on heroism and Chapter 12 "Investigating Social Dynamics" which she called "the single best, most insightful, and concise summary of the history of social psychology I have ever read".[1] Robert V. Levine said that "[t]his important book should be required reading not only for social scientists, but also for politicians, decision makers, educators" and that the "[Abu Ghraib] section alone is worth the price of the book".[2] Juan Manso-Pinto (University of Concepción, Chile) in a Spanish language review wrote that "The Lucifer Effect, more than a book, is a manual of social psychology about evil" and that though "written in English, its simple and colloquial language facilitates its reading".[7] Stuart Wheeler recommended the book, calling it "very readable".[8]
Ervin Staub describes it as "a highly personal book" and as one which "makes a valuable contribution", but about the Stanford Prison Experiment itself, calls it a case study rather than an experiment.[6] Joachim I. Krueger (Brown University) wrote that the book is "magnificent and timely", but offers a critical examination of the Stanford Prison Experiment, saying that if "judged against conventional standards, the SPE does not qualify as an experiment" and, bringing the interpretation back to one of disposition, said "[s]ituations do not 'overpower' people but rather reveal latent possibilities".[5]
Theologian Richard Holloway wrote that Zimbardo's day-by-day account of the experiment was "too bloated and detailed... his 250-page diary unbalances the book" and that "the book is better when it tries to apply the lesson of the experiment to other contexts".[9]
Reception
The Lucifer Effect was 11th on The New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller list for the week ending April 7, 2007.[3][10]
Adaptations
Philip Zimbardo presented his work in The Lucifer Effect at TED2008.[11]
The 2015 film The Stanford Prison Experiment drew on the dialogue presented in The Lucifer Effect, which was based on transcripts from the original experiment.[12]
References
McDermott, Rose (October 2007). "Reviewed Work: The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil by Philip Zimbardo". Book Reviews. Political Psychology. 28 (5). International Society of Political Psychology: 644–646. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9221.2007.00597.x. JSTOR 20447077.
Levine, Robert (September–October 2007). "The Evil That Men Do". Scientists' Bookshelf. American Scientist. 95 (5). Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society: 440–442. doi:10.1511/2007.67.440. ISSN 0003-0996. JSTOR 27859031.
"Best Sellers: April 22, 2007". The New York Times. April 22, 2007. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
"William James Book Award". Past Recipients. APA Div. 1: Society for General Psychology. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
Krueger, Joachim I. (Summer 2008). "Lucifer's Last Laugh: The Devil Is in the Details" (PDF). American Journal of Psychology. 121 (2). University of Illinois Press: 335–341. doi:10.2307/20445466. JSTOR 20445466. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
Staub, Ervin (August 8, 2007). "Evil: Understanding Bad Situations and Systems, But Also Personality and Group Dynamics" (PDF). PsycCRITIQUES. 52 (32). American Psychological Association. Article 1. doi:10.1037/a0008992. ISSN 1554-0138. Retrieved June 21, 2018 – via Center for the History of Psychology.
Manso-Pinto, Juan (Winter 2008). "Zimbardo, P. G. (2007). The Lucifer Effect. Understanding how good people turn evil". Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología (in Spanish). 40 (1). Fundación Universitaria Konrad Lorenz: 184+. "En suma, aún cuando El Efecto Lucifer está escrito en inglés, su lenguaje sencillo y coloquial facilita su lectura. Un aspecto notable del texto es la amplia y actualizada cantidad de citas y referencias que apoyan cada uno de sus capítulos. Podría decirse que el Efecto Lucifer más que un libro constituye todo un manual de psicología social sobre el mal. En este sentido, su lectura habrá de resultar útil tanto para académicos, estudiantes y profesionales de la psicología, como para profesionales de otras ciencias sociales. Esperamos El Efecto Lucifer sea prontamente traducido al español."
Wheeler, Stuart (May 5, 2007). "Only obeying orders". The Spectator. 304 (9325). London: 60–61. ISSN 0038-6952. Retrieved June 24, 2018.
Holloway, Richard (April 1, 2007). "Exploration of evil proves a punishing exercise for readers". Book review: The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil. Scotland on Sunday. Edinburgh, Scotland: Johnston Publishing Ltd.
"The New York Times Best Seller List" (PDF). Hawes Publications. April 22, 2007. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
"Philip Zimbardo: The Psychology of Evil – TED Talk". TED. February 2008. Retrieved June 24, 2018.
Cockrell, Cathy (July 8, 2015). "Professor Emerita Christina Maslach recalls famous prison study, now a movie". Berkeley – Department of Psychology. Retrieved June 21, 2018.
Further reading
Sunstein, Cass R. (May 21, 2007). "The Thin Line". The New Republic. Vol. 236, no. 16. pp. 51–55. ISSN 0028-6583. Retrieved June 24, 2018.
External links
The Lucifer Effect website
Stanford Prison Experiment – Book
Publisher's website
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2007 non-fiction booksRandom House booksMoral psychology books
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