“In the President’s Secret Service”
Threats against President Obama are 400 percent higher than for his predecessors—and the secret service may not have the money to handle them all. Author Ron Kessler takes us behind the scenes and tells some of the secrets about the presidential protection force.
Crown Books
Threats against President Obama are 400 percent higher than for his predecessors—and the secret service may not have the money to handle them all. Author Ron Kessler takes us behind the scenes and tells some of the secrets about the presidential protection force.
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Guest:
Ronald Kessler, New York Times bestselling author of eighteen nonfiction books, including “The Terrorist Watch” and “Inside the White House”; he’s also a former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal reporter
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Eric Johnson
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Tender Greens is like your favorite rock band where you want to keep it a secret but also hope for tremendous success. And successful it is. Healthy and tasty salads and veggies, lean cuts of steak, chicken and tuna all served up in a 'fast food' style and price tag - but in a much better environment and quality. The flatiron angus steak with Yukon Gold potatoes top out my list. I also love to get the line caught ahi tuna with a baby spinach and goat cheese salad - quite tasty when I'm shooting for lighter fare. Makes for a nice and not-too-expensive dinner, and an excellent lunch as well.
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2 weeks, 3 days ago
A part of Mr. Kessler's response to my question about potential threats to the President or other leaders run, coup-style, from within the Secret Service is both incorrect and deeply concerning. I pointed out that throughout history, most high profile assassinations appear to be accomplished through a standing down of the guard. I also indicated that anyone can go see President Kennedy's Secret Service contingent being stood down right before he was murdered. ( an extended video of that taking place is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0anq6YL6wQ )
After decrying the lack of diligence around tested loyalty internally in the Secret Service, Mr. Kessler spun the standing down of Kennedy's SS contingent in Dallas on 11/22/63 as the President's decision. And Ms. Morrison had already followed up my question by quickly inserting a question about cases when a leader chooses to refuse security at some point. Considering the obvious fact, as Kessler points out, that Secret Service on the back of the presidential limo could have saved the President's life, the origin and nature of that specific and historic Secret Service standdown must be interrogated and clarified.
Both Mr. Kessler and Ms. Morrison's responses to my question were misleading and epistemologically in concert with those seeking to continue to cover for those treasonous elements within the government which helped kill a beloved and transformative president. Now I am not saying either one of them intended to do so. It is not my judgement to make about whether someone is misinformed or is disinforming. But history needs to be clarified for the sake of the present and the future if not for the sake of posterity itself. And a clarification from Ms Morrison would be greatly appreciated.
So, in line with that sentiment, here is a good article that involves good investigative journalism and first hand primary Secret Service accounts of John F. Kennedy and the day he was assassinated.
"HISTORY" CORRECTED 35 YEARS LATER BY PRIMARY SOURCES
by Vincent M. Palamara
http://www.jfklancer.com/LNE/limo.html
2 weeks, 3 days ago
"HISTORY" CORRECTED 35 YEARS LATER BY PRIMARY SOURCES
by Vincent M. Palamara
http://www.jfklancer.com/LNE/limo.html
.......
The following former Secret Service agents told me in on-the-record interviews, and in no uncertain terms, that JFK never ordered the agents off the rear of his car, was not difficult to protect and was in fact extremely cooperative with the Secret Service:
Gerald A. Behn (chief of JFK's detail),
Floyd M. Boring (#2 JFK detail agent),
Arthur L. Godfrey (one of three shift leaders on the Texas trip),
Donald J. Lawton (on the Dallas JFK detail),
Rufus W. Youngblood (#2 agent on Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson's detail),
Samuel A. Kinney (driver of the Secret Service follow-up car in Dallas),
Robert I. Bouck (head of the Protective Research Section),
Robert Lilley (a member of JFK's detail from election night until one month before Dallas),
Maurice G. Martineau (agent in charge of the Chicago office) and
John Norris (a member of the Uniformed Division)
Agents off the rear of limo
Representative responses by former Secret Service agents and others to my question, "Did JFK ever 'order agents around', including having them dismount the rear area of the limousine?" were as follows:
Kinney (interviewed on 10/19/92, 3/5/94, 4/15/94) -- "Absolutely, positively no. He (JFK) had nothing to do with that, no, never ... President Kennedy was one of the easiest presidents to protect ... ninety nine percent of the agents would agree."
Lilley (interviewed 9/27/92, 9/21/93, 6/7/96) -- "I'm sure he did not. He was very cooperative with us once he became president. Basically, (his attitude was) 'whatever you guys want is the way it will be.'"
Godfrey (interviewed 5/30/96, 6/7/96; correspondence 11/24/97) -- (JFK) never ordered us to do anything. He was a very nice man ... cooperative. He never asked me to have my shift leave the limo when we were working it."
Behn (interviewed three times on 9/27/92) -- "I don't remember Kennedy ever saying that he didn't want anybody on the back of his car. I think if you watch the newsreel pictures and whatnot, you'll find agents on there from time to time."
A photo from the Tampa Tribune of November 19, 1963 -- three days before the assassination -- clearly supports Behn's contention. It depicts agents Donald Lawton and Charles Zboril on the rear of JFK's limousine in both urban and suburban areas, during a politically significant, high-visibility presidential visit to Florida.
2 weeks, 3 days ago
"HISTORY" CORRECTED 35 YEARS LATER BY PRIMARY SOURCES
by Vincent M. Palamara
http://www.jfklancer.com/LNE/limo.html
.
One of the earliest and arguably most influential (to this day) misrepresentation of JFK's relationship to the Secret Service, and in particular to agents on his various details, can be found in "Death of a President," by William Manchester. One passage in particular exemplifies the lengths to which "respected" historians such as Manchester have gone, knowingly or otherwise, to falsify the record.
"Kennedy grew weary of seeing bodyguards roosting behind him every time he turned around, and in Tampa on November 18 (1963), just four days before his death, he dryly asked Agent Floyd Boring to 'keep those Ivy League charlatans off the back of the car.' Boring wasn't offended. There had been no animosity in the remark." (1988 Harper & Row/Perennial Library edition, pp. 37-38)
When asked to comment on the record about that portion of "Death of a President," Boring said that the statement attributed to him by Manchester is, to say the least, inaccurate. "He quotes me?" Boring asked incredulously. "I never told him (that JFK ordered agents off the limousine). (JFK) was a very nice man, never interfered with us at all." Indeed, Boring stated that he was not interviewed by Manchester-- a fact that is confirmed by the book's source notes.
Until publication of this article and its correction of the record by first-person sources, the Manchester-originating falsehoods, among others relating to the assassination in general and Secret Service in Dallas in particular, have been accepted and repeated as fact by a mainstream media bereft of alternative testimony.