(POSSIBLE) SECRET SERVICE PROPAGANDA by Vince Palamara

With the assistance of several well-placed Secret Service agents over the years,
many books and documents have been written that, on the face of it, have the
wring of authority...until you look alittle closer, as I have done in regard to
the following items, most of which should be well-known to most researchers:

1) 18H642: translation of CE993( Marina Oswald letter);translator- Secret
Service Agent Leon Gopadze:

" I am very, very grateful to the Secret Service agents who treated me so well
and took such good care of me. Although some of the letters which I received
accused these wonderful people of preventing me from seeing others, I am free to
do anything I want..." (emphasis added)

Give me a break! The New York Times of 12/8/63 reported that "Secret Service
agents suggested to her(Marina) that it might be safer and easier for her to
return to the Soviet Union than to try to live in the United States. This
distressed her...She is now  secluded from Oswald's relatives as well as from
the public"(emphasis added).

2) Gerald Posner's "Case Closed"-Posner contacted Agent Floyd M. Boring, who in
turn put him in touch with Percy Hamilton Brown, the Executive Secretary of the
Former Agents of the Secret Service (these are the only Secret Service sources
known to be used by Posner- although Brown is credited on page 503, it was only
through my interview with Boring that I learned of his contact with Posner, and
no other agents are credited in the entire text or footnotes of the book):

p. 210- "Sorrels recommended the Trade Mart be selected for the luncheon". He
did no such thing- he told SAIC  Jerry Behn that the Women's Building was a
better site, security-wise, and, in any event, he was acting on orders eminating
from Washington (specifically, the office of Behn and Boring)[see, among other
sources,  HSCA Vol. XI, pp. 504-521 and 4H337- Agent Winston Lawson's testi-
mony]


p. 220- "There was no change in the motorcade route, and there was no doubt
about the Elm Street crossing". Posner is dead wrong on both counts- through my
interviews with Agents Behn and Sam Kinney, I learned that a) the motorcade
route WAS changed and b) there were alternate routes(even Lawson told the Warren
Commission of alternate routes)!; p. 223- "As the President and his staff had
requested, the plastic bubbletop was off, leaving the car as an open
convertible, and no Secret Service men rode on the running boards attached to
the rear. The motorcycle escort was limited to four, and kept at a comfortable
distance from the limousine". Now, it's time for the truth: a) Agent Sam Kinney
admitted to me it was his sole responsibility for the removal of the bubbletop(
a decision he has lived with some regret for over thirty years now), and Richard
Greer told me of his father's guilt over this Secret Service decision(also,
although not bulletproof, three agents- Kinney, Bob Lilly, and Thomas Kelley-
stated that the bubbletop may have deflected a bullet or, at the very least,
hampered an assassin's view via the sun's glare off of it); b) Agents Behn,
Boring, Bouck, Kinney, Lilly, Maurice Martineau, Abe Bolden, John Norris, and
Rufus Youngblood, as well as aide Dave Powers and advance man Marty Underwood
told me, in no uncertain terms, that JFK never restricted the agents from doing
anything, nor interferred with their actions at all( the only thing he would do
was to wade into crowds so people could shake his hand)- there were never any
orders to have the men removed from the back steps of the limousine or to do
anything else when it came to SECURITY matters(also, Kinney told me that Ken
O'Donnell didn't interfere with them in this regard, either). For more details,
see my book "The Third Alternative"; simply put: these were Secret Service
decisions( as Chief Rowley told the Warren Commission, "No President will tell
the Secret Service what they can or cannot do"[5H470]); 3) In keeping with the
above statements, it was the Secret Service's decision to limit JFK to just four
non-flanking motorcycles (as opposed to the 18 flanking motorcycles he received
in the three prior Texas stops on 11/21 and 11/22/63), a matter the HSCA
succinctly labeled as "uniquely insecure"- Sam Kinney was adamant to me on this
specific issue that JFK did not make requests concerning anything having to do
with motorcycle placements!

p. 234- "The Secret Service agents were slow to react, although some had turned
to look at the source of the noise, the Book Depository...Incredibly, Greer,
sensing something was wrong in the back of the car, slowed the vehicle to almost
a standstill and turned in his seat to see what had happened. (Clint) Hill
...responded rapidly...At that moment Greer slammed on the accelerator..."
Again, there is much to dissect here: 1) Agent Paul Landis wrote in both of his
reports, located in Volume 18 of the WC Report, that the shots came from the
front, and, as the Altgen's photo makes vividly clear, only agents  Ready and
Hickey appeared to be looking to the rear( and perhaps at the TSBD); agents
Roberts, Kinney, and Hill appear to be looking directly at JFK! In fact, in the
Zapruder film, both agents Greer and Kellerman look back at JFK...; 2) In fact,
Greer turned around two different times to look at JFK during the shooting, a
crucial matter he denied to the WC, among other things; 3) Agent Clint Hill
actually did not respond that rapidly- the limousine was only going
approximately 11.2 mph and the distance between the cars was only about five
feet. Since he appears to be looking directly at JFK in the films and photos
available during the start of the assassination, he had plenty of time to mount
the limousine before he actually did( not to mention what actually being posted
there would have done to Hill's- and Ready's-reaction times).

p. 245- Like author William Manchester before him, Posner believes the "agent"
who spoke to Oswald at the front of the TSBD was  NBC reporter Robert MacNeil, a
matter in hot dispute by many, including myself, William Weston, Pierce Allman,
and, to a certain extent, MacNeil himself!; p. 256- A 'minor' point- Posner
incorrectly lists agent George Hickey as "Ed Hickey"; p. 299- "Certainly, the
President would have been taken to Parkland (the hospital listed as the primary
stop in case of emergency)..." I would love to know where Posner got that one
from- Agents Greer, Lawson, and Rowley made it clear to the Warren Commission
that this was not so: a) the Secret Service did not then follow the current
procedure of having hospitals on alert status- the situation literally developed
"on the spot"; b) Greer stated that there was no radio communication between the
limousine and  Parkland Hospital (as evidenced by the fact that there were no
waiting attendents or stretchers); c) Lawson made no mention of this when asked
by the WC( although he did strangely equivocate about his knowledge about
Parkland being the nearest hospital which, I believe, it was not- there was a
Methodist hospital that was closer).

p. 320-321- Posner says that Agent Glen Bennett was "mistaken" when he wrote in
his "contemporaneous" notes that "the President (was hit) about 4 inches down
from the right shoulder". Although Bennett's ability to have actually seen this
happen is a strong point not made by Posner, the body chart, the death
certificate, the autopsy photos, JFK's jacket, JFK's shirt, and the testimony of
agents Greer, Hill, and Kellerman place the wound about 4 to 6 inches down on
the back, not the neck. p.324- "None of the witnesses recall the sound of a
bullet striking metal"-wrong: Agent Clint Hill did! p. 348- Posner attributes
the "LHO-as-FBI Informant" story to Asst. Dallas D.A. Bill Alexander who, along
with two reporters( including Lonnie Hudkins) "printed the story, attributing it
to an unidentified source"- that actual 'source' appears strongly to have been
Agent Lane Bertram, the SAIC of the Houston office of the Secret Service  ("The
Third Alternative" by the author)!; p. 498- Posner writes off Joseph Milteer's
accurate prediction about the impending assassination of JFK as only a "boastful
claim", but this was a matter that the Secret Service was much aware of BEFORE
11/22/63 (among other sources, agent Robert Bouck told me of this)!

3) Michael Dorman's "Secret Service Story"(1967)- on page 4, Dorman dedicated
his book  "...to all the present and former members of the U.S. Secret Service,
with particular appreciation to retired Agent Lane Bertram, who took the trouble
to show a young reporter the ropes in days gone by": This Oswald-did-it book
stands out for its sickeningly sweet approach to the Secret Service's ultimate
failure evidenced on many pages, perhaps summed up here best- p.8- " In the
confusion, one group of men acted with a dispatch and precision born of hour
upon hour of drill, discipline and professional training. these men were the
agents of the Unites States Secret Service. "Within an instant of the time the
shots were fired, agents leaped into action. Pistols and automatic rifles
appeared in their hands. An agent in the President's limousine immediately
grabbed a radio-telephone. 'Let's go straight to the nearest hospital', he
shouted to nearby policemen"-! 4) "20 Years in the Secret Service- My Life with
five Presidents"  by Agent Rufus Youngblood (1973)- Youngblood admitted to me
this year that the book was largely ghost-written , but he did play a large role
in the genesis of the book, as far as the actual content is concerned. As with
Dorman's book, Youngblood's book is more than just another Oswald-did-it work-
it glosses over many of the agency's failures in regard to 11/22/63:
example-page 176:" Particularly caustic and unfair were the criticisms heaped
upon the two Secret Service agents in the President's car, Bill Greer and Roy
Kellerman, apparently for not having pulled some miracle out of a hat to save
the President"- if hitting the gas, obeying orders, and covering the President's
body are miracles, the agency must have been blessed with many prominent
religious figures ever since!

What do you think- Secret Service propaganda?

8/4/95 by VMP