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I too have seen and heard John Newman speak several times and have rarely been disappointed. The most startling aspect of this whole particular presentation to me was the growth in John Newman. What do I mean by that? Well, John Newman no longer shies away from the word conspiracy, in fact, he opened his remarks proudly proclaiming "I'm a conspiracy theorist." And it wasn't meant in jest or glibly either. He's changed.
He states that when he wrote his book, "Oswald and the CIA" in 1995, though to me it seems even longer ago than that, he didn't get into conspiracy or non-conspiracy, he deliberately shied away from that.
Not anymore. He said you cannot discuss the impersonation of Lee Harvey Oswald in Mexico City outside of the context of the plot to kill the President.
That's a big change in John Newman. And something John Kelin missed, one of many things John Kelin missed.
The documentary that aired shortly after the conference, on November 22, 1999 on the History channel included a filmed/videotaped interview of John Newman that was from a few years ago. This film clip should not be used in a review of John Newman's 1999 Lancer conference presentation because in doing so I think John Kelin fails to notice what I call the growth in John Newman.
As to the actual presentation itself I have made a transcript. I would like for it to have a hotlink for each document that I know of that was used in the presentation. John Newman's slides were just awful, in all practicality totally useless, and this really damaged his presentation. In the transcript I have prepared it will have in brackets [See RIF# whatever].
I have many documents that John used, but of course not all. I will be photocopying them, sending them off to Debra Conway and Debra will scan them in and put the whole thing up. I think this will greatly help people in understanding and appreciating the important work John Newman has done.
As to John Kelin's review, yes, John Newman's talks are dense with information, full of dates, facts, figures, names, etc. and if you have not read his book, or don't have a familiarity with the documents he's talking about, you will probably miss some of what John Newman is talking about, and/or the point he's making. But I really don't think it's that difficult to follow.
John Newman went through the story of the tapes made by CIA electronic surveillance of the Cuban and Soviet consulates in Mexico City that allegedly captured Lee Harvey Oswald's voice. This CIA operation was code named LI/ENVOY. John is of the opinion that the voice on those tapes is not Lee Harvey Oswald's voice. This is detailed in his book "Oswald and the CIA," especially why John thinks it's not Lee Harvey Oswald and that it is in fact an impostor. You had to take it as given that LHO was impersonated. I would refer people to previous talks by John Newman and of course his book on that subject.
During Newman's '99 Lancer presentation he explained how there are two competing stories, one, that tapes existed at the time of the assassination, were brought up to Dallas from Mexico City, were listened to in Dallas by FBI agents whilst Oswald was alive, why that's important as you can have LHO repeat lines and these agents could easily discover for themselves whether or not it's LHO, and that the Dallas agents listening to the tapes cannot include James Hosty; and two, the false story of erasure, and why it's false that all tapes were "routinely erased" well before the assassination, and how that story developed.
John Kelin seemed to miss this. While the overheads and slides were terrible, surely John heard what I heard. I know he did for John Kelin kindly gave me his copies of the audiotapes he made which helped me make my transcript as I had some audiotape difficulties, running low and eventually out of batteries in the middle of Newman's talk. It was quite clear to me that several people are listening to something in Dallas. And that the erasure story is totally false.
And, one thing I want to make clear is that the contents of the tapes are not "hotly debated," so much as their entire existence is, especially their existence after the assassination, that's what is "hotly debated." I don't think their content is debated at all, I mean outside of who is speaking, whether it's Oswald or not.
Of note is that LHO got to Russia just fine the first time, and through a legal route. John Newman mentioned that LHO's passport was still stamped okay for travel through the countries he went through the first time. So, he could go that way again. To go the way he seemed to want to go this time, through Mexico and Cuba was not only illogical but illegal. So the whole Mexico City adventure has this suspicious air about it well before LHO and impostor are actually there.
John Kelin does seem to grasp the idea that LHO was impersonated. But doesn't grasp that now John Newman understands that the whole impersonation of LHO in Mexico City is a part of the plot to kill JFK. John Kelin is just highly critical of John Newman's previous statements that he (Newman) did not really believe in a conspiracy, and not in a high level CIA conspiracy. Newman may yet not believe in a high level, or an institutional CIA plot, but I think he does, and did in fact state on the Warren Commission documentary that a plot involving low level, or some CIA personnel is a possibility. That's probably why John showed David Atlee Phillips CIA biography and that Phillips got a promotion to GS-15 in early October 1963.
Regardless, the "CIA did it" is not the solution to the crime of the century. To me it's a very Mickey Mouse mentality going round saying "the CIA did it," "the Mafia did it," etc. It's a lot more complicated than that.
John Kelin, in my opinion, missed the most important part of John Newman's presentation, and that is that the Mexico City story, which happens in late September-early October gets into nearly every American intelligence agencies' files when it occurs, or very shortly thereafter though in a diluted format. This was relatively easy to do as most of these agencies were sharing information on Oswald for four years by the time of the assassination because of Oswald's "defection" to Russia. However, exactly who Kostikov is is not detailed, and in many instances the very name Kostikov is missing from the documents the CIA shares with the FBI, Navy, and State Dept.
And all of this happens without any alarms bells going off. In fact, the FBI gets the Mexico City information the day after the flash is cancelled on Oswald. Previously, any information relating to LHO coming into the FBI, even an inquiry for information about Oswald set off alarms bells, a specific procedure was followed. Oswald's profile was lowered. Where? In Washington, D.C. It's essential to the plot.
Newman referred to this as dimming the switches, planting a virus, a dormant virus. It is this which neutralizes law enforcement, because it's in everybody's files, LHO meeting with this Kostikov guy, and nobody did anything. It appears that the Soviets and Castro just did the President. LBJ got McNamara to write a report on how many would die in a nuclear exchange, he came up with a figure of 40 million. So, the fear is if anyone discovers the information these agencies have, of LHO meeting with Kostikov, a Department 13 KGB guy in charge of assassinations in the Western hemisphere and that LHO was then trying to get to Russia via Mexico and Cuba, and that most American intelligence agenices knew this 6 to 7 weeks before the assassination of President Kennedy and didn't do anything the American public would be after their heads and demand we retaliate, and then it's WWIII.
WWIII and 40 million dead is a strong weapon to get people to shut up, stop investigating, in short to do anything, like burn an autopsy report. So, this left no alternative but to bless and give offical sanction to a lone nut assassin.
In addition Newman discovered an FBI operation code named TUMBLEWEED, which affects the whole LHO in Mexico City story, and which is also in nearly everyone's files. I won't go into it here as I want to save that for when folks read the transcript.
This most recent presentation by John Newman is way too important for the short, critical, and confusing review by someone who is confused himself asking in the review "What is the point of all this?" Hopefully, the transcript with links to scans of relevant documents will help increase the understanding and dispell confusion.
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