SPOTLIGHT October 5, 19117'25 O'Neill Blows Lid Off JFK Coverup LTCLUSOI. TO Till sPOTLIGOT cover the truth about the death of the part is reconstruction—is that they came By Mark Lane president) the truth. Both were told to from the right rear." Almost 25 years ago John F. Ken- commit perjury by agents of the FBI. The "right rear" fit the FBI-CIA nedy, preSident of the United States, Now a quarter of a century after the preconceived cover story 'that Lee Har• was shOLI0 death in the presence Of fact, the inside story has emerged as vey Oswald, stationed to the right and his wift;?..his aides and his advars O'Neill, no longer in office, has decided rear of the president on the sixth Door of who -rode in various limousines in a' to reveal some of the details. The revela- a Texas School Book Depository, was tions make Watergate and the lone assassin. Dallas, motorcade. "The best, the the Iran- "contra" scandals appear far less im- brighteir. and the most devoted" silk TRUTH KNOWN portant. his head explode upon the impaFt The truth, that the fatal shot was fired of The crime covered up here was no from behind a wooden fence on the a high-verocity bullet. burglary, third rate or professional: it grassy knoll looming in front of the For almost a quarter of a century was the assassination of the president of president, was known by O'Donnell. those closest to Kennedy have conspired, the United States. Based upon FBI subornation O'Don- upon.ths, initiative of the FBI, to conceal. In O'Neill's newly published book he nell committed apparent perjury. Yet he from; (IA American- prole thi.'#h writes: obviously was concerned enough about about.litsideath. I on inner one of those people w ho had potential legal and historical compli- In his adtoblography "Man of the doubts or suepicions about the Warren cations to assert that his position was Con/mansion's report on the president's House: The Life and Political Memoirs based at least in part upon "reconstruc- of Speaker Tip O'Neill," Tip O'Neill death. But rise years after Jock died. I in tion." devoteilisilhan one page to the subject. hosing dinner with Kenny O'Donnell sod • few other people al Jimmy's HarbursIde Any lawyer seeking the facts would a few, 'words he devastates any Reeteurant In Boston. and we got in talking have been alarmed at the word "recon- notion that the. truth was told by the about the ase•ssination. struction" and would have probed the Warren Commission or that those clos- I was surprised lo hear O'Donnell soy hr was sure he had heard two shots 1541 ramifications of its application to the est to the late president cared to discover crucial testimony. However, the Warren who killed him or why. game from behind the fence. "That's not what you told the st, wren Commission lawyers quickly skipped to So much for loyalty and devotion to Commission," I meld. another subject. the truth. Now for conspiracy., "You're right," he replied. "I told the The lawyer questioning O'Donnell Fat mbar I had heard. but they said It Kenneth. P. O'Donnell had been the was a young liberal Democrat from the special assistant to Kennedy since the in- couldiel here happened that way' and that I must h." been imaglning things. So I HOT office of the Philadelphia district at- THOMAS '71P" O'NE11.1 auguration. His duties were to make de- • lied the way they wanted eat to. torney. His name was Arlen Specter. .. Reveals Important JFK information. cisions about the president's appoint- "I Just didn't want to ells up any more Specter's role in obfuscating the facts pain and !rouble lot the family." ments and itineraries. David Powers, about the assassination of Kennedy Kennedy's closest aide, traveled with "I can't belies, It," I old. "1 wouldn't truth "in a million years." bane done earned him sufficient fame so that upon O'Donnell and the president on "Air that la a million yearn. I would It is natural that O'Neill emerges un- het, told the truth." returning to Philadelphia he became a Force One on November 21. 1963 to scathed. He wrote the book. May I add a •'"Ilp, you Site to underst•nd. The 'KM- conservative Republican, ran for the of- Ily—ercrIbadyl-1.•nicd Oa thing behind footnote? Houston and Fort Worth, Texas. fice of district attorney, defeated his them." During 1975 I moved to Washington Together O'Donnell, Powers, the former boss and subsequently became a -president and the .first lady arrived at Dave Powers win with on it dinner that in an attempt to convince the U.S. Con• night. and bls revolketion of the 'hole • as member of the U.S. Senate: gress to investigate the assassination of Love Field, Dallas at about 11:30 am on the lame u O'Donnell''. Kenny O'Donnell Specter, whose rise to prominence was Kennedy, After considerable expendi- November 22. The president, Texas S no longer olive, but durlog Ott salting of over the body of the president and the ilia bunk I checked with Three Powen. As ture of energy, in which I personally Coy.' John Connally and their wives truth about his death, now plays a cen- were ushered into an open limousine for tarp may la the nests buslacts, he stands by briefed 100 members of Congress and Ms story. tral role in determining whether or not the trip.through Dallas. 1,800 congressional staff employees, And so there .111 always be some Acta- Judge Robert Bork has sufficient in- and in which our organization. the Kennedy's closest aides, O'Donnell Heim In my mind about the count of lack', tegrity to be a member of the U.S. Su- death. Citizen's Commission of Inquiry, se- and Powers, were seated alongside each preme Court. I used to think that the only people who cured 1 million letters, telegrams and other on the jump seats in the Secret Ser- Accompanying Specter to the White vice automobile directly behind the pres- doubled Ibe conclusions of Me Wanes names on petitions, our efforts were suc- Carraniuton wee. crackpots. Now. how- Elouse to listen to the suborned perjury idential limo. O'Donnell and Powers cessful. i•Ire, I'm not su turn. But I'd rather foci° was Norman Redlich. This young pro- were but a few feet from Kennedy when nn tick The major obstacle we faced, how- *, Me. fessor achieved sufficient fame in sup- he was killed at 12:30 pm in Dealy Plaza, ever. during the long struggle, was the On May 18, 1964 at 12:05 pm O'Don- pressing the facts about the death of the Dallas. They were among the most im- adamant ref usal of O'Neill, the leader of nell's testimony was taken by the War- president to secure promotion. portant witnesses the Democratic Party, to permit the to the murder. ren Commission lawyer who journeyed He became dean of the New York TOLD: 'COMMIT PERJURY' to the White House for the occasion. House to vote on the resolution estab- University School of Law—again prov- lishing the House Select Committee on Neither O'Donnell nor Powers told O'Donnell was asked where he ing the validity of the ancient Texas the Warren Commission (appointed by thought the shots came from. He an- Assassinations. political maxim that if you wish to get Now we learn Lyndon Li. Johnson, ostensibly to dis- swered, cryptically, "My reaction in that opposi• along you had better go along. lion to the investigation was not in- FISHY AFFIDAVIT nocently comprised Of ignorance. He Powers declined to testify and the knew that the Warren Commission in- Warren Commission declined to call him vestigation was flawed, that his friends as a witness. Instead. Powers offered an and associates had lied to the commis- affidavit in which he tentatively stated sion and that the FBI had suborned per- only that he had had "a fleeting impres- jury in the While Flouse. sion that the noise (gunfire) appeared to If FBI agents had sufficient temerity come from the front" but that his fleet- to advise two important While House ing impression may have resulted from aides to commit perjury in their ap- his "feeling" that lie "might have rid- pearance before the Warren Commis- den into an ambush," sion, one can only imagine how they in- Powers, less trusting than O'Donnell, fluenced the testimony of the hundreds apparently feared that any lawyer with of other witnesses, all of whom they in- modicum of intelligence or curiosity terviewed al length before they testilied about the facts might have probed his before the Warren Commission. • statement about fleeting impressions and feelings, Therefore he wrote a docu- ment which could not be questioned. His fears proved to be in vain: Specter and Redlich eagerly accepted without question the FBI-suborned perjury. O'Neill came off better than 0•Don• nett and Powers in "Man of the President John F. Kennedy fa plehared with Isla wife and 7e... Car. John Connally House." O'Neill is heard to assert that shortly before the laasasination is Dallas, Texas on November 1963. he never would have covered up the .