Harold Weisberg - Oswald in New Orleans: A Case for Conspiracy with the CIA

A CASE FOR CONSPIRACY
WITH THE CIA

Harold Weisberg

Foreword by Jim Garrison

Skyhorse Publishing

Copyright 1967 by Harold Weisberg Foreword Copyright 1967 by Jim Garrison

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

Skyhorse Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Skyhorse Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or info@skyhorsepublishing.com.

Skyhorse and Skyhorse Publishing are registered trademarks of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

Visit our website at www.skyhorsepublishing.com.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

ISBN: 978-1-62636-058-7

Printed in the United States of America

Harold Weisberg began investigating the assassination of President Kennedy almost from the moment it happened. His dogged research in the National Archives led Weisberg to use the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to pry withheld documents from the federal government. One of Weisbergs cases was instrumental in having the FOIA law itself revitalized in 1974. Harold published many books on the assassination, including the Whitewash series, Oswald in New Orleans, Post Mortem, Never Again, Case Open, and several unpublished manuscripts. He is also the author of Frame-Up, about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Harold Weisberg died in 2002 at the age of 88. His passionate writing about the murder of President Kennedy lives on.

A special thank-you to Hood College in Frederick, Maryland, owner of the copyright to this work, for granting permission to have it re-published. The Foundation would also like to thank Clay Ogilvie for his help on this project.

Rex Bradford

Mary Ferrell Foundation

Editors note:

Oswald in New Orleans is a faithful reproduction of a work originally published in 1967. So as not to disrupt the index pagination, some unusual formatting was required. As a result, the Foreword starts on page 7 and there is no page 15 or 16. These are intentional omissions.

An identifying characteristic of the super-state is its readiness to conceal from the people facts which might make them restless. In order to maintain power its officials must keep the populace believing that it is living in the best of all possible worlds.

Consequently, those in control of the governmental machinery sometimes find it necessary to re-write history as fast as it happens. The truth becomes not what occurred but what they announce has occurred. Reality becomes just another government-controlled commodity.

If the official myth to be presented is particularly unbelievable it may be necessary to have honorable men study it and anounce that they have found it to be true.1 This is not really as difficult as it sounds because there is nothing to which honorable men joined in an honorable cause will not stoop in the name of duty. As a general rule of thumb, the more unbelievable the story the more honorable should be the men assigned to prove its veracity.

1. In 1939, after having invaded and conquered western Poland because of alleged Polish atrocities committed against German individuals, the German government appointed a committee to make a careful study to determine the facts with regard to the claimed Polish misconduct. The final printed report of the study contained much documentary evidence, including not only photographs, affidavits and countless medical certificates but an authenticated quotation from the year 1598 to the effect that barbarous cruelty was one of the vices of the Polish people. The report confirmed that the Poles indeed had committed atrocities against Germans and it indicated that things would have been even worse were it not for the timely arrival on Polish territory of the German rescuers. The conclusions of this painstaking study by a government-appointed committee meant that Adolf Hitler would not have to withdraw his armies and apologize to Poland. See: "Polish Acts of Atrocity Against the German Minority in Poland, German Library of Information, New York, 1940.

To date, George Orwells 1984 provided the best fictional portrait of the correction of history to suit current political needs. In Oceania, that dismal land presided over by Big Brother, the power of the government had become Gargantuan and the rights of individuals virtually had vanished. In order to maintain this balance, the Ministry of Truth continually was engaged in improving history to make it reflect government pronouncements. This was justified on the ground of national security, a reasonably honest rationale inasmuch as the government could not have survived without such wholesale concealment of facts.

If, for example, Big Brother made an error which was exposed by statistics, the offensive statistics were destroyed and more satisfactory statistics were published. If books or newspapers described facts which were embarrassing to the government, they were merely re-written so as to conform with official legend. The original troublesome material was simply filed in the memory hole, a chute leading down to the incinerator. The governments policy of vaporizing into nothingness unpleasant facts contributed in great measure to the calm of the populace of Oceania. This was helped by the fact that individuals who interfered with the public calm also tended to disappear.

Who controls the past, said the official slogan of the super-state, controls the future.

It now appears that, twenty years ahead of Orwells schedule, the United States has succeeded in producing the classic model of re-writing history to conform to official needs. It is hard to assay this accomplishment when we are still so close to it, but when our contributions to civilization are added up this well may rank ahead of our invention of napalm.

When the President of our country was executed on a public street, one would have thought that there would have been a general uncomplicated desire to catch the assassins and to bring them all to justice. After all, there was sufficient information available concerning the strange movements of cars behind the grassy knoll immediately prior to the assassination, the fusilade of rifle fire coming from there and the rapid departure of men on foot and by car from that sector following the shooting. Apparently, however, it was not as simple as all that. It appears that when a Presidents heart stops beating considerations of power and policy take over.

Instead of running down the men who killed John Kennedy, the U.S. government simply ratified his execution and moved on to more important matters. With regard to the men who actually killed him, because of their displeasure with his foreign policy, the assassination has been treated not as an offense but as a mandate for change.