Right now I'm reading Robert Baer's The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins and it's fascinating. The book centers on his time in Lebanon as a CIA officer, and the hunt for Hajj Radwan, Hezbollah's master strategist and assassin. The book also covers Laos, Spain, and other historic assassination plots.
I'm only a few chapters in but it is obvious why Baer sees Cuba behind Oswald. I think he's just paranoid, but its a paranoia based on history.
What is most interesting is the discussion of assassination from a practical view point of the people tasked with planning and execution. I've never seen a discussion of the mechanics involved to pull an assassination off written so cold and clear-headed. The book gives the reader a glimpse into a CIA operation to kill Radwan, and compares and contrasts it with other assassinations in history.
Baer is an admitted JFK Assassination CTist from well before he joined the CIA, and it colors his perceptions of Oswald. The problem is that Dallas doesn't look anything like the successful operations he describes in his book. Oswald certainly would never be the guy you'd put all of your chips on.
As for multiple gunmen? Hell no.
Dealey Plaza is a lousy place to put a bunch of guys with rifles, especially when the target is part of a parade where hundreds of eye-witnesses will be on ALL of the sidewalks. The county courthouse is there meaning extra police at all hours, and because JFK was a huge draw the traffic was going to be a nightmare making escape problematic.
Any idiot can see this.
The only thing that makes sense is Oswald. Oswald had the parade route handed to him, and he had the best seat in the house to make the shots. Elm Street acted as a kill-funnel; the limo rode the center yellow line, and combined with perspective from the 6th floor window wherein the the street acted as an automatic aiming system for him to line up each shot. This is evident in that each shot was more accurate the FARTHER AWAY FROM THE BUILDING the got from the building.
I like to say that Oswald got lucky, and mostly he did, but combined with his USMC training he was handed a perfect place to make history.
A couple of things about this as it relates to the JFK conspiracy.
First off, there doesn't have to be a full on military style operation with multiple shooters and support personnel to carry out an assassination; RFK, MLK Jr, John Lennon, Ronald Reagan (attempt) and Archduke Ferdinand of Austria all tell us this.
There also does not have to be a truckload of support personnel in order to make a conspiracy. In United States law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more people to commit a crime, or to accomplish a legal end through illegal actions. A conspiracy does not need to have been planned in secret to meet the definition of the crime. If LHO discussed with one other person his plan to try to kill JFK, and that person agreed to it, then that is a conspiracy. Even more so if that person arranged to help in any way, e.g. planning, helping to plan, or assisting in providing a means of escape.
For mine, that corner window of the sixth floor was the perfect place for the sniper's nest.
- LHO knew the route the motorcade would take. It was published in both the Dallas Morning News and the Times-Herald on November 19th, including the turn onto Elm St, and was therefore available at least 72 hours before LHO was due to arrive at work on the Friday morning. Three days is a lifetime in planning to do what was essentially no more than shooting out of a window at slowly moving car.
- The sixth floor was essentially empty, only being used for storage so it was isolated... his chances of being caught in the attempt were minimal
- A lower floor might have meant increased chance of the shots being obstructed by trees
- Elm Street slopes down from the corner of Houston towards the triple underpass, minimizing the amount of vertical altitude change in the moving target.
- Left to right tracking of the target was minimal, and getting to almost zero as the presidential limo passed the apex of the slight left hand curve in Elm.
- Escape was as simple going down five flights of stairs. Others in the building would be doing the same thing to see what had happened so it was the perfect cover - he would not have appeared to be doing anything out of the ordinary.
One of the things that, at least to me, makes Bob Baer more palatable than other conspiracy theorists, is that he does not, to me at least, appear to ignore or handwave away evidence. With his CIA experience, he fully understands that ALL of the physical, forensic, medical and documentary evidence support only one conclusion; that LHO was the only shooter in Dealey Plaza, and that he acted alone in the actual shooting of JFK. While watching
Tracking Oswald, I noticed that time and again, if something didn't seem to work, he would drop that line of reasoning rather than indulging in the standard CT practice we see manifesto and micahjava exhibiting here on a regular basis; twisting and contorting the evidence to make it fit their theory.
I also think he might possibly be onto something with the Cuban connection. Both sides in Cuba had the motive to go after JFK; Castro's Government side because of the 13 days of the missile crisis, and the Cuban anti-Castro group Alpha66 because of the perceived betrayal at the Bay of Pigs.
Police have a saying when they deal with crimes, that there are three basic elements required before you can argue that a person has committed a crime... means, motive and opportunity. Oswald had all three in spades
Means: The Mannlicher-Carcano
Motive: He hated JFK and had previously talked about killing him
Opportunity: He worked in the very building with the snipers nest
Also, both Oswald and the Cuban rebels had all three with regard to a conspiracy. However, this is just conjecture on my part, nothing is proven. There are hints and suspicions, but IMO, they fall short of hard evidence. If the Cubans and Oswald really did conspire to kill JFK, we will probably never know one way or the other.
