• •

• •

people in the CIA, including Helms Richard including CIA, the in people

and James Jesus Angleton, had signed on to to on signed had Angleton, Jesus James and

Intelligence," claimed in the article that top top that article the in claimed Intelligence,"

co-author of "The CIA and the Cult of of Cult the and CIA "The of co-author

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ulist" group, the . Marchetti, Marchetti, Lobby. Liberty the group, ulist"

of the right-wing and anti-Semitic "pop-, "pop-, anti-Semitic and right-wing the of

drama that began in August 1978 when ex- when 1978 August in began that drama

room drama spread out over seven years, a a years, seven over out spread drama room

nite handful of top CIA figures. It delivers the the delivers It figures. CIA top of handful nite

coup de grace to the CIA's claim of innocence innocence of claim CIA's the to grace de coup

The case against the CIA CIA the against case The of complicity in the Kennedy assassination. assassination. Kennedy the in complicity of for Spotlight, the obscure tabloid newspaper newspaper tabloid obscure , for

Judgment" raised significant questions about about questions significant raised Judgment"

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a variety.pf,Oritutions, this new book offers offers book new this variety.pf,Oritutions, a .1\4

to carefully crafted answers that indict a defi- defi- a indict that answers crafted carefully to analysis transformed him from a maverick maverick a from him transformed analysis

his topic with "." If "Rush to to "Rush If Denial." "Plausible with topic his

international popular hero. hero. popular international

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dent John F. Kennedy. The power of Lane's Lane's of power The Kennedy. F. John dent

official report on the assassination of Presi- of assassination the on report official

Weaknesses of the Warren Commission's Commission's Warren the of Weaknesses

By Cart Dayi4sok Dayi4sok Cart By

the opening salvo against the profound profound the against salvo opening the

By Lane Mark By

OF JFK?" JFK?" OF

393 pages, $22.95 $22.95 pages, 393

"PLAUSIBLE DENIAL: WAS THE CIA CIA THE WAS DENIAL: "PLAUSIBLE Thunder's Mouth Press, 1991, 1991, Press, Mouth Thunder's

INVOLVED IN THE ASSASSINATION ASSASSINATION THE IN INVOLVED

The heart of "Plausible Denial" is a court- a is Denial" "Plausible of heart The

Now, after 13 years, Lane has returned to to returned has Lane years, 13 after Now,

books of the 1960s. It delivered delivered It 1960s. the of books

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Mark Lane with with Lane Mark

a model model a of the Maley Plaza assassination scene. scene. assassination Plaza Maley the of Hunt, boxes of guns, wads of money and none other than Jack Ruby, all on the evening before the assassination and Hunt's lawyers could do nothing to shake her story. a plan to offer up Warerca..! ourgiar b. Howard Hunt (al• _ an ex-CIA agent) to The strategy paid off. On Feb. 6, 1985, a Congress as a sacrificial lamb on the altar of jury ruled against Hunt's claim and affirmed .the Kennedy assassination. By admitting,., that they believed Lane's case against the CIA. that Hunt was in Dallas in November 1963 "Mr. Lane was asking us to do something . as a participant in a renegade group of con- very difficult," Leslie Armstrong, jury fore- spiratprs against Kennedy, the CIA higher-. woman, told reporters after the trial. "He ups hoped to deflect a deeper inquiry. was asking us to believe that John Kennedy Hunt counterattacked with a lawsuit Ja.a4 by,pur own government. claiming that he had been defamed, and Yet when we examined the evidence closely, we were compelled to conclude that the that he could prove he was home in Wash- CIA ington, D.C., on Nov. 22, 1963. In Decem- bad indeed killed President Kennedy." ber 1981 a Miami jury sided with Hunt and Ar this point, anyone might ask, why didn't awarded him $650,000 in damages. The we know about the trial when it was going Liberty Lobby, dismayed, appealed for a on? Lane himself raises this question at the new trial and sought a new lawyer. start of the book and answers it with a vivid They got both. An appeals court found a description of the U.S. media's reluctance to serious error in the charge to the jury, and a handle the story. He shows us how he was new trial was scheduled. And Mark Lane blocked at every turn from getting his first sto- took the case, with the proviso that he ries out; only the Guardian, he says, stood by would not be constrained by the Liberty him in the early days, when even other pro- Lobby's politics or preconceptions. gressive publications felt uncomfortable with The Liberty Lobby wisely let Lane take the doubts and charges he was raising. (In an charge. In the first trial, the defense had been appendix to the book, Lane includes the full weak. It had agreed with Hunt's main asser- text of his Dec. 9, 1963, Guardian article tions and apologized for any misinforma- questioning the case against Oswald.) tion, insisting, however, that there had been no "intent" to defame, only honest error. ' Lane's unsavory ties In the second trial, Lane took the oppo- The main virtue of "Plausible Denial" is the site approach. He argued that Hunt was a inspiration generated by Lane's audacity and chronic liar, an extortionist and a forger, doggedness in seeking the truth in the JFK and that Marchetti's allegations were true. case. That virtue has been compromised, Moreover, he brought evidence that all the however, by Lane's decision to maintain an top CIA officials Hunt brought in to testify ongoing professional and political relationship on his behalf were also guilty of perjury and with the Liberty Lobby. He has stayed on as other crimes, and that the CIA had been one of their chief attorneys, and Spotlight has complicit in the killing of Kennedy. Accord- devoted considerable space to promoting ing to Lane, his strategy was to turn "a "Plausible Denial." Moreover, Lane has defamation case into the prosecution .of a appeared frequently on "Radio Free Ameri- murder case within a civil action." ca," the Liberty Lobby's short-wave radio program, and was co-editor—with none other Hunt's 'alibi' exposed than Victor Marchetti—of Zionist Watch, Two passages in the book are especially another of the organization's publications. spellbinding. One is when Lane has Hunt on Unfortunately, he appears to have become an the stand and exposes his "alibi" for his instrument of the far right's present-day tactic whereabouts during the Dallas events as of making use of progressive, anti-establish- totally unbelievable. The other is Lane's ment sentiment to promote its own agenda. questioning of . Lorenz was a That aspect of Lane's career is worthy of former lover of 's, who was deeper analysis than is possible in one book recruited to the CIA in 1959 by Frank Stur- re'iew. Still, the verdict he won in Miami gis (also of Watergate fame) at a time when against. Hunt remains as a small, but impor- Sturgis was still head of security for the tant, victory in a struggle that has been going Cuban air force. Lorenz claimed to have on against great odds for over 2_5 years. been in a Dallas motel room with Sturgis, What does it mean, after all, if the presi- dent of- the United States can be gunned down in broad daylight without any of his assassins being brought to justice? What does it mean if those conspirators who remain alive are still able to walk the streets freely? In all truth, those arc profoundly revolu- killers of the Kennedys, of Martin Luther tionary questions. They are the loose King, of Malcolm X, of Fred Hampton and threads that, if pulled persistently, could others, all got away with those murders. cause the entire fabric of the established Carl Davidson is director of Networking order to unravel. For Democracy, a Chicago-based cluster of The facts that Lane and many others have .projects promoting grass-roots access to unearthed with their persistence suggest that . computer and media skills.-He recently the United States may not be a democracy in worked 4.5 a writer any fundamental sense. However much we and researcher for Denis Mueller's new documentary, "The Assassi- treasure our liberties and strive to restrict nation of John F. Kennedy,' distributed by the abuse of power, it is possible that the MN Home Video.