Vol. 5, No. 6 September-October, 1998 Probe is published by CTKA Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy Assassination Magazine. The truth is in here. 1998 All Rights Reserved $5.00 Journalism's "VallEy of DEath" Telling the truth about covert operations By Lisa Pease by Charles Bowden in the cur- INSIDE THIS ISSUE rent issue of Esquire (9/98), The Big One was the reporter's holy "When the Big Dog gers off the grail—the tip that led you horn the daily porch, watch out." morass of press conferences and cop calls The Big One recently hit April on to the trail of The Biggest Story 1bu'd Oliver and Jack Smith in the form Ever Write. the one that would turn the The Sins of Robert Blakey of the Operation Tailwind epi- rest of your career into an anticlimax. Part I sode. And Big Dog got off the The Big One, I believed. would be like a porch. As with the others, Oliver bullet with your name on it. You'd never and Smith have truth on their hear it coming. Jim DlEugenio begins his side. And as with the others, Gary Webb wrote the above in two-part investigation of the truth is no defense against Big the opening pages of his new book Dog in the short term. Telling the Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, House Select Committee truth about covert operations all and the Crack Cocaine Explosion. His too often proves to be a journal- bullet came in the form of a phone istic "Valley of Death." call that led him to his three part On June 7 of this year, CNN series in the San Jose Mercury News, where he was crazy enough to actually believe in the aired a new show called Newsstand. The lead exposed the role of CIA assets in bringing reality was a real loser in Washington." Then story was a segment titled "Valley of Death," crack cocaine to Los Angeles. Similar bullets one of North's planes was shot out of the sky, produced by April Oliver, Jack Smith and have hit other journalists, and their careers and Parry's "crazy conspiracy theory" sud- Pamela Hill and anchored by Peter Arnett. The have never been the same. denly became an indisputable historical fact. same week, Time ran an article based on the Paul Allen left National Public Radio when Parry's final blow came when he, through Newsstand report. The segment and article his evaluations were being marked down af- Newsweek, reported how chronologies were described one of the biggest and blackest un- ter he told the truth about realities in Nicara- being altered to change the date of the arms dertakings during the secret war in Laos: gua in the early I 980s. Ray Bonner was sales to Iran in an effort to protect Ronald continued on page 22 shunted into the background at the New York Reagan: Parry's story made the cover of News- Times after having exposed the El Mozote mas- week. What happened next, related Parry, "was ,a11•1. sacre. Robert Parry met his bullet over the incredible. Many of my colleagues in the press Iran-Contra episode, and was hit again when attacked us. The Wall Street Journal, not just in In This Issue... approached by PBS Frontline to do a story on its editorial pages but its news columns at- Letter from the Chairman 2 the October Surprise scenario. tacked us ... Don Regan, who was one of the The Zapruder Film Parry and his partner Brian Barger had bro- people of course named here attacked us; and Comes to Home Video 3 ken the Contra-drug story while they worked Newsweek decided they wanted ro retract the ARAB Updates 5 at the AP in 1985. They followed the leads story" and dug up Oliver North's network in 1986. The common denominator in all cases was What is to be Done? 6 In Parry's case, his and Barger's twenty-four the accused party, the government, and more Oswald and the Rifle 10 sources were weighed against Oliver North's specifically the CIA. Former CIA director Ri- The Sins of Robert Blakey 12 self-serving denial and found wanting. "I was chard Helms once described a successful co- Thomas Downing's Plea for Justice .... 16 basically told, more or less, well, you know, vert operation as one that remained secret forever. Open Letter to Ted Turner 27 take your medicine like a man, you got it When a CIA operation is exposed, the pow- Action Alerts 29 wrong . So that's where we were. This ers that be seek to shut down the coverage by CCPA Notice 30 phony, dishonest, false reality had won out. attacking the journalists responsible. In the Notebook 31 And the reality had lost out, and anyone who words of DEA officer Mike Holm, recounted ArAMISMTM4M4.1.,741S,C,..-",,DOC"k",1. "IS'M.,''ao..-IMAIMPIOSWEBBIREZEI/kk5R7,,‘.41L 7 From the Chairman's Desk: CTKA CITIZENS FOR TRUTH The Assassination Records Review Board is approaching its sunset date. As of ABOUT THE this writing they actually have less than 25 working days until they close. According KENNEDY ASSASSINATION to new director Laura Denk, her main focus in the last few weeks will be on con- structing the Final Report which we look forward to reading. But even before that, www.webcom.com/ctka there are two achievements of the Board that are already available to the public and which we make note of in this issue. First, Abraham Zapruder's 26-second film of Chairman the JFK assassination is now at your local video store. We discuss some of the his- Jim DiEugenio tory of that film and mention the fact that, even in this much improved version there still seem to be some frames missing and/or out of place. Also, before he left and Denk took over, Jeremy Gunn did some extraordinary work on the medical Executive Board evidence in this case. On August 1st, the Review Board made this material public. It Jim DiEugenio, Chuck Marler. looks like some very interesting new evidence is now on the swam record. It's so Lisa Pease powerful that even the mainstream press could not ignore it. Now that the Review Board is winding down, one of the clear questions facing Board of Directors those people who are still interested in this case is: What do we do next? Probe Gary Aguilar. M.D . subscriber Dennis Bartholomew has also been thinking long and hard about this Doug Carlson particular subject. He articulates those thoughts and ideas in this issue and shares Kathleen Cunningham them with our readers. We do hope that at the fall conferences, this issue is thor- Gaeton F01121 oughly discussed. It does appear with Gunn's work we now have the material to blow apart the HSCA's conclusions on the medical evidence. Edwin Lopez Soto, J.D. Speaking of the House Select Committee, the time is long overdue for someone David Mantik, M.D., Ph.D. to rake a long and serious critical/historical overview of the work of that body. Jim Marrs There have been such looks at the Warren Commission and the Garrison investiga- Wayne Smith, Ph.D. tion, yet not the Sprague/Blakey inquiry. I make an attempt here to jump start the William Turner process. The preliminary picture is not pretty. Cyril Wecht, M.D., J.D. On other fronts, Lisa Pease looks at the most recent media meltdown over the Jack White Operation Tailwind controversy. The craven press gatekeepers appear to have taken another dive on this one, and, no surprise, after CNN's propaganda blitz, the work- PROBE STAFF ing press decided to sit it out. Remember Gary Webb? April Oliver now joins him. Lisa also informs our readers on how to help Sirhan's defense team regain access to the evidence in the RFK case. Let the California State Archives in Sacramento know Co-Editors you are outraged at the spectacle of Sirhan's lead investigator, Lynn Mangan being Jim DiEugenio 6' Lisa Pease denied access to the evidence. Finally, Raymond Gallagher, new to Probe, delves into the unique sales history of Oswald's Mannlicher-Carcano. How did the bank de- Layout posit Oswald's money order for the weapon before Oswald wrote it? Lisa Pease Photo and Document Scans David Stern, M.D. PROBE What is CTKA? Volume 6 6 Subscriptions Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy Assassination was organized as a result of the April (6 Issues ): 1993 Chicago Midwest Symposium an Assassinations. At the end of that conference, it was 630 USA, 635 Canada, generally decided that the time had come to create a political action group, which .7:39 Other International would urge the executive branch of our government to reopen the unsolved assassina- Back Issues: 54 each tions of the 1960s — i.e., the murders of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and Dr. Martin Luther King. CTKA endeavors to ensure that the Review send cheek or Money Order Board fulfill its mandate to release all the remaining records pertaining to the JFK assas- payable to "CT K A" at; sination; to amend the current Freedom of Information Act to render future covert actions more difficult to hide; and to urge the American people to discover the truth CTKA about their history. P.O. Box 3317 If you are not already a member of CTKA, please consider supporting our efforts Culver City, CA 90231 with a subscription to PROBE or a donation to help cover the hidden costs of running a not-for-profit organization.