HERE'S BERTRAND RUSSELL'S criticism of the Warren Commission from 1964... sounds like some things never change.
<
http://karws.gso.uri.edu/JFK/The_critics/Russell/Sixteen_questions_Russell.html>16 Questions on the Assassination
By Bertrand Russell
The Minority of One, 6 September 1964, pp. 6-8.
The official version of the assassination of President Kennedy has been
so riddled with contradictions that it is been abandoned and rewritten no
less than three times. Blatant fabrications have received very widespread
coverage by the mass media, but denials of these same lies have gone
unpublished. Photographs, evidence and affidavits have been doctored out of
recognition. Some of the most important aspects of the case against Lee
Harvey Oswald have been completely blacked out. Meanwhile, the F.B.I., the
police and the Secret Service have tried to silence key witnesses or
instruct them what evidence to give. Others involved have disappeared or
died in extraordinary circumstances.
...
The Warren Commission has been utterly unrepresentative of the American
people. It consisted of two Democrats, Senator Russell of Georgia and
Congressman Boggs of Louisiana, both of whose racist views have brought
shame on the United States; two Republicans, Senator Cooper of Kentucky and
Congressman Gerald R. Ford of Michigan, the latter of whom is a leader of
his local Goldwater movement and an associate of the F.B.I.; Allen Dulles,
former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Mr. McCloy, who has
been referred to as the spokesman for the business community. Leadership of
the filibuster in the Senate against the Civil Rights Bill prevented Senator
Russell from attending hearings during the period. The Chief Justice of the
United States Supreme Court, Earl Warren, who rightly commands respect, was
finally persuaded, much against his will, to preside over the Commission,
and it was his involvement above all else that helped lend the Commission an
aura of legality and authority. Yet many of its members were also members of
those very groups which have done so much to distort and suppress the facts
about the assassination. Because of their connection with the Government,
not one member would have been permitted under U.S. law to serve on a jury
had Oswald faced trial. It is small wonder that the Chief Justice himself
remarked that the release of some of the Commission's information "might not
be in your lifetime" Here, then, is my first question:
Why were all the members of the Warren Commission closely connected with the U.S. Government? If the composition of the Commission was suspect, its conduct confirmed
one's worst fears. No counsel was permitted to act for Oswald, so that
cross-examination was barred. Later, under pressure, the Commission
appointed the President of the American Bar Association, Walter Craig, one
of the supporters of the Goldwater movement in Arizona, to represent Oswald.
To my knowledge, he did not attend hearings, but satisfied himself with
representation by observers.
In the name of national security, the Commission's hearings were held
in secret, thereby continuing the policy which has marked the entire course
of the case. This prompts my second question:
If, as we are told, Oswald was the lone assassin, where is the issue of national security? Indeed,
precisely the same question must be put here as was posed in France during
the Dreyfus case: If the Government is so certain of its case, why has it
conducted all its inquiries in the strictest secrecy?
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