"Castro responsible for JFK's death?"
Barbara Lautenbach
Was Fidel Castro behind President John F. Kennedy's assassination?
The leading German public television network ARD produced a documentary
claiming that Fidel Castro was behind President John F. Kennedy's
assassination. Our leading newsweekly FOCUS magazine published the
following story:
__________________
TELEVISION
A Date with Deception
An ARD documentary claims that Castro was behind President Kennedy’s
assassination. The evidence is flimsy, the sources are dubious.
No one knows how sick Fidel Castro really is. There is even some
uncertainty as to whether he’s still alive. But for viewers who tuned in to
ARD on January 6, 2006 at 9:45 pm, they came away sure of one thing – Fidel
Castro has John F. Kennedy on his conscience.
The Westdeutscher Rundfunk promoted its documentary “A Date with Death” as
the ultimate answer to the most spectacular murder case of the 20th
century. They claimed that after the broadcast, “the history of the Cold
War will have to be rewritten”. The 850,000-euro production was worth 90
minutes of broadcast time to ARD, one of Germany’s major public
broadcasting companies.
The Cuban secret service paid Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate President
John F. Kennedy. This is basically the theory which the documentary
filmmaker Wilfried Huismann attempts to prove.
Perhaps the cliché-like depiction of shady characters and non-identifiable
secret files are responsible for the humdrum reactions to the film so far.
What is more significant, however, is that on closer scrutiny, Huismann’s
evidence turns out to be highly questionable. Other evidence is plainly
misleading. And many of those sensational claims which should force
historians to “rewrite history” have been around for decades.
Within hours following the fatal shots in Dallas, the authorities began to
investigate the “Cuban connection” in Kennedy’s murder case. The young
Oswald had, in fact, been involved in the “Fair Play for Cuba Committee”.
He had also lived in the Soviet Union for a long time, was married to a
Russian, and spoke Lenin’s language fluently – which made him “Castro’s
ideal Kennedy killer”.
The investigators were initially thrilled by the fact that Oswald had spent
several days in Mexico City shortly before the assassination where he had
contacted the Cuban embassy and the Soviet consulate to apply for a travel
visa to the USSR via Cuba. According to Huismann, the real reason Oswald
was at the Cuban embassy was to receive his orders to assassinate the
President of the United States.
In front of the camera, the former FBI agent Laurence Keenan describes how
he had been sent to Mexico to investigate further, but was called back home
after three days. He claims his investigations were hindered. The US
government had known about the Cuban connection but kept it under wraps for
fear of igniting a third world war.
Keenan attended the press preview of the film in Berlin last January.
Lothar Buchholz, the German Kennedy researcher and author of the book
Labyrinth der Wahrheiten - Todesschüsse auf Kennedy (Labyrinth of Truths –
The Fatal Shooting of Kennedy), asked him what happened to the report of
his investigations in Mexico. Both Keenan and the researcher Huismann had
to pass on that question.
Buchholz, however, had no difficulty locating Keenan’s six-page memorandum
in the US national archive, dated December 3, 1963. There is nothing in the
report to back up Keenan’s claims in the film (According to Keenan: “It’s
all in my report”). Just the opposite – testifying before the Church
Commission in 1976, which had also reviewed his memorandum, Keenan insisted
that his investigations were in no way manipulated by political influence.
Another sensational document turned out to be a hoax following Buchholz’s
investigation. According to the film, a small aircraft took off from
Redbird Airport in Dallas destined for Mexico City several hours following
Kennedy’s murder. On board was Fabian Escalante, a high-ranking official of
the Cuban secret service G-2. From Mexico, he slipped away to Havanna on a
commercial airliner. Huismann claims: “If Escalante [...] was at the scene
of the crime in Dallas [...], this would point to an absolutely new and
politically-charged link.”
Yes, if! The evidence Huismann presents is a “top-secret dossier, for
Johnson’s eyes only. Never before published.“ The document was allegedly
written for Lyndon B. Johnson by Kennedy’s advance man Martin Underwood. On
official White House stationery.
The only problem is that it could never have been meant for the President’s
eyes. Johnson had already been dead for over 20 years when Underwood wrote
the “dossier”. In fact, it was something he had sketched as an idea for a
book author in the 1990s, which Underwood openly admitted before the
Assassination Records Review Board in 1997. He had acquired the White House
stationery years ago. The book author was Gus Russo – who also happens to
be Huismann’s co-writer.
Another “sensation” in the film is new information disclosed by a certain
Antulio Ramirez who hijacked an airplane to Cuba from Miami in 1961. In
Cuba, he was celebrated as a hero. Later, after returning to the United
States, he was sent to prison. While at the headquarters of the Cuban
secret service, Ramirez claims he saw a file labeled “Osvaldo – Kennedy” at
a time when Oswald was living in the Soviet Union and Kennedy was in
office. Evidently, the file contained a recommendation by the KGB for their
Cuban comrades concerning an “individual named Lee Harvey Oswald”.
In reality, a congressional inquiry investigated Ramirez’s claims in 1978.
The transcript of the proceedings describes his testimony on this question
as “implausible”, and that he had “lied” to the committee” and “wasted its
time”. However, Huismann presents an anonymous “source” codenamed
“Nikolai”, a high-ranking officer of the Russian secret service FSB who had
access to the KGB archive and backed up Ramirez’s disclosures in the film.
The KGB sent a telegram to the Cubans, mutters “Nikolai”, which was dated
July 18, 1962 and signed by the deputy director of the KGB Vladimir
Kryuchkov. However, Kryuchkov didn’t start working for the KGB until 1967.
The tempting media scoop apparently led the editors at the broadcaster to
look the other way. When the veteran WDR journalist and “Monitor” writer
Ekkehard Sieker expressed his doubts concerning the film’s theories and
wrote a letter asking the broadcaster to check them systematically, he
received no reply.
The television director Ulrich Deppendorf has recently stated that the film
had undergone preliminary controlling and was “intensively discussed” at
the ARD. Huismann’s argumentation was “plausible”, his witnesses were
“valid”, and his journalistic performance was “excellent”.
Finally, the film introduces its “key informant”, a man named “Oscar
Marino”. When FOCUS asked Huismann for more information, he described
Marino as “a former official of the Cuban secret service whom I personally
know.” He didn’t reveal his real name. In the documentary, one can only see
the back of Marino’s head; his face is concealed. He is supposed to provide
the definitive proof that Fidel Castro’s agents masterminded Kennedy’s
murder. “We used Oswald,” he mumbles.
The television directors at WDR are relatively unimpressed by these doubts.
The broadcaster advertised the documentary with the slogan: “The history of
the Cold War will have to be rewritten”. Speaking to FOCUS, television
director Deppendorf reiterates, “there is no reason why we should retract
this claim.” This September, the Pendo Publishing Co. in Munich will be
releasing the book based on the movie. If it doesn’t have to be rewritten
first.
Author and work
Wilfried Huismann worked on the ARD documentary for three years. The
specialist in the field of investigative journalism is a three-time
recipient of the Grimme Prize. Formerly a sympathizer of the German
Communist Party (DKP), Huismann began as a foreign aid worker before
joining WDR’s television magazine “Monitor”.
Image: photo
On a rendezvous with death
DALLAS, November 22, 1963, shortly before 12:30 pm, John F. Kennedy, the
35th president of the United States, and his wife Jacqueline smile at the
crowds from the backseat of the dark Lincoln Continental that takes them
downtown from the airport. The governor of Texas John Connally and his wife
are seated in front of them. Their destination is the Trade Mart where
Kennedy is scheduled to hold a speech. This is an election year. Thousands
of supporters line the streets.
Image: photo
The assassination
At 12:30 pm, the motorcade halts at Dealey Plaza. Seconds later, shots ring
out. Kennedy is hit in the neck and head. His wife climbs onto the trunk of
the car in panic. A secret service agent moves in to help.
The perpetrator?
Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine infantryman, is officially recognized as
having acted alone. Two days after the assassination, nightclub owner Jack
Ruby shoots Oswald as he is being escorted by police from his jail cell to
the district prison.
Image: photo
Photo: John F. Kennedy – Son of a millionaire from Massachusetts who became
president at the age of 43 in 1961. During his term, the CIA supported
Cuban exiles who failed to topple Castro during the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Photo: Fidel Castro – The guerilla leader overthrew the corrupt regime of
President Batista in 1959 before ruling the Caribbean island as a communist
dictator.
Photo: Document of the century – The amateur film made by Abraham
Zapruder’s 8 mm camera captured the fatal seconds.
Photo: Filming – WDR journalist Huismann speaks with former FBI
investigator Laurence Keenan (2nd from right), whom he presented as a
source for his Cuban connection theory.
Photo: Informant Ramirez – The Cuban claims to have seen the ominous file
“Osvaldo – Kennedy” in 1961.
(c) Focus Verlag und Redaktion
___________________
With best regards,
Claus Preute
U.S. Bureau Chief
FOCUS Magazine
Hubert Burda Media Inc.
1270 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 2601
New York, NY 10020
Tel. 212-884-4811
Fax. 212-884-4816
claus....@burdamedia.com
Tony Szamboti
preposterous on it's face. The fact that Oswald had Cuban and Russian paint
on him is exactly the reason Castro would not choose him if he indeed had
tried to have JFK assassinated. The German show is silly.
However, the fact that oswald had Cuban and Russian paint on him is exactly
why a group of domestic conspirators would use him or frame him for the
assassination.
Tony Szamboti
"Barbara Lautenbach" <b.Laut...@burdamedia.com> wrote in message
news:eeshr8$jnb$1...@shell.core.com...
To whom it may concern:
Was Fidel Castro behind President John F. Kennedy's assassination?
The leading German public television network ARD produced a documentary
claiming that Fidel Castro was behind President John F. Kennedy's
assassination. Our leading newsweekly FOCUS magazine published the
following story:
__________________
TELEVISION
A Date with Deception
An ARD documentary claims that Castro was behind President Kennedy's
assassination. The evidence is flimsy, the sources are dubious.
No one knows how sick Fidel Castro really is. There is even some
uncertainty as to whether he's still alive. But for viewers who tuned in to
ARD on January 6, 2006 at 9:45 pm, they came away sure of one thing - Fidel
Castro has John F. Kennedy on his conscience.
The Westdeutscher Rundfunk promoted its documentary "A Date with Death" as
the ultimate answer to the most spectacular murder case of the 20th
century. They claimed that after the broadcast, "the history of the Cold
War will have to be rewritten". The 850,000-euro production was worth 90
minutes of broadcast time to ARD, one of Germany's major public
broadcasting companies.
The Cuban secret service paid Lee Harvey Oswald to assassinate President
John F. Kennedy. This is basically the theory which the documentary
filmmaker Wilfried Huismann attempts to prove.
Perhaps the cliché-like depiction of shady characters and non-identifiable
secret files are responsible for the humdrum reactions to the film so far.
What is more significant, however, is that on closer scrutiny, Huismann's
evidence turns out to be highly questionable. Other evidence is plainly
misleading. And many of those sensational claims which should force
historians to "rewrite history" have been around for decades.
Within hours following the fatal shots in Dallas, the authorities began to
investigate the "Cuban connection" in Kennedy's murder case. The young
Oswald had, in fact, been involved in the "Fair Play for Cuba Committee".
He had also lived in the Soviet Union for a long time, was married to a
Russian, and spoke Lenin's language fluently - which made him "Castro's
ideal Kennedy killer".
The investigators were initially thrilled by the fact that Oswald had spent
several days in Mexico City shortly before the assassination where he had
contacted the Cuban embassy and the Soviet consulate to apply for a travel
visa to the USSR via Cuba. According to Huismann, the real reason Oswald
was at the Cuban embassy was to receive his orders to assassinate the
President of the United States.
In front of the camera, the former FBI agent Laurence Keenan describes how
he had been sent to Mexico to investigate further, but was called back home
after three days. He claims his investigations were hindered. The US
government had known about the Cuban connection but kept it under wraps for
fear of igniting a third world war.
Keenan attended the press preview of the film in Berlin last January.
Lothar Buchholz, the German Kennedy researcher and author of the book
Labyrinth der Wahrheiten - Todesschüsse auf Kennedy (Labyrinth of Truths -
The Fatal Shooting of Kennedy), asked him what happened to the report of
his investigations in Mexico. Both Keenan and the researcher Huismann had
to pass on that question.
Buchholz, however, had no difficulty locating Keenan's six-page memorandum
in the US national archive, dated December 3, 1963. There is nothing in the
report to back up Keenan's claims in the film (According to Keenan: "It's
all in my report"). Just the opposite - testifying before the Church
Commission in 1976, which had also reviewed his memorandum, Keenan insisted
that his investigations were in no way manipulated by political influence.
Another sensational document turned out to be a hoax following Buchholz's
investigation. According to the film, a small aircraft took off from
Redbird Airport in Dallas destined for Mexico City several hours following
Kennedy's murder. On board was Fabian Escalante, a high-ranking official of
the Cuban secret service G-2. From Mexico, he slipped away to Havanna on a
commercial airliner. Huismann claims: "If Escalante [...] was at the scene
of the crime in Dallas [...], this would point to an absolutely new and
politically-charged link."
Yes, if! The evidence Huismann presents is a "top-secret dossier, for
Johnson's eyes only. Never before published." The document was allegedly
written for Lyndon B. Johnson by Kennedy's advance man Martin Underwood. On
official White House stationery.
The only problem is that it could never have been meant for the President's
eyes. Johnson had already been dead for over 20 years when Underwood wrote
the "dossier". In fact, it was something he had sketched as an idea for a
book author in the 1990s, which Underwood openly admitted before the
Assassination Records Review Board in 1997. He had acquired the White House
stationery years ago. The book author was Gus Russo - who also happens to
be Huismann's co-writer.
Another "sensation" in the film is new information disclosed by a certain
Antulio Ramirez who hijacked an airplane to Cuba from Miami in 1961. In
Cuba, he was celebrated as a hero. Later, after returning to the United
States, he was sent to prison. While at the headquarters of the Cuban
secret service, Ramirez claims he saw a file labeled "Osvaldo - Kennedy" at
Author and work
Image: photo
Image: photo
The assassination
The perpetrator?
Image: photo
Photo: John F. Kennedy - Son of a millionaire from Massachusetts who became
president at the age of 43 in 1961. During his term, the CIA supported
Cuban exiles who failed to topple Castro during the Bay of Pigs invasion.
Photo: Fidel Castro - The guerilla leader overthrew the corrupt regime of
President Batista in 1959 before ruling the Caribbean island as a communist
dictator.
Photo: Document of the century - The amateur film made by Abraham
Zapruder's 8 mm camera captured the fatal seconds.
Photo: Filming - WDR journalist Huismann speaks with former FBI
investigator Laurence Keenan (2nd from right), whom he presented as a
source for his Cuban connection theory.
Photo: Informant Ramirez - The Cuban claims to have seen the ominous file
"Osvaldo - Kennedy" in 1961.
Canuck
Barbara Lautenbach wrote:
> To whom it may concern:
>
> Was Fidel Castro behind President John F. Kennedy's assassination?
You might find my article "The Cubana Airlines Flight of November 22,
1963" worthwhile reading. It is available at
http://www.kenrahn.com/JFK/JFK.html (or possibly "htm"). Click on "recent
additions" on the sidebar or scroll down to "the critics" and my name.
-Peter R. Whitmey
Marty
I really enjoy your research. Your articles address some of the very things
I often think about. I asked Hosty about the flight from Redbird and he told
me pretty much the same thing - timing; holding the plane in Mexico City;
i.e I presumed he read the CIA files that you obtained.
Great stuff - your efforts are appreciated.
Martha
"Canuck" <prwh...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1159395414.1...@h48g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...