Chapter Eighteen
The Heir to the Throne
The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy
Israel, Iran, Lansky & the CIA
The murder of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, younger brother
of the slain president, was vital to the continuing cover-up
of the truth about the JFK assassination.
If RFK had made it to the White House he would finally
have had the power to bring his brother's killers to justice.
The slaying of Robert F. Kennedy links not only Israel
and its allies in the CIA and the Meyer Lansky Organized
Crime Syndicate, but also SAVAK, the secret police of the
Shah of Iran.
Michael Collins Piper
On its face, the "official" explanation of the circumstances surrounding
the death of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy is as simple as the
Warren Commission Report on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In
both instances, so the story goes, "one lone nut" was responsible for the
crime. There was no conspiracy.
Robert F. Kennedy's assassination in Los Angeles in 1968 came just after
RFK (elected to the Senate from New York in 1964) had won the critical
California Democratic presidential primary. This put the younger Kennedy in
the lead for his party's presidential nomination and thus potentially in line to
move into the White House following the general election.
It was in the ballroom of the Ambassador Hotel where RFK delivered
his California victory speech to an assembled crowd of supporters. After
concluding his speech, the triumphant Kennedy wanted to work his way
through the crowd in the ballroom to make his exit from the hotel.
However, according to one campaign volunteer who was on the scene,
one of Kennedy's handlers repeatedly insisted that Kennedy exit through the
hotel kitchen behind the ballroom. The handler who was so insistent that
RFK exit through the kitchen was Frank Mankiewicz, who had started his
career in the public relations business at the Los Angeles office of the Anti Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai B'rith, and who, as we saw in Chapter
17, handled publicity for Oliver Stone's JFK extravaganza. 766
It was there in that kitchen where Mankiewicz steered Senator Kennedy
that a young Arab-American named Sirhan Sirhan was waiting. According
to the late William Sullivan, longtime assistant FBI director, "We could
never account for Sirhan's presence in the kitchen of the Ambassador
Hotel."767 However, we now know why Bobby Kennedy left through the
hotel kitchen, rather than the way he himself wanted to leave, although
Mankiewicz has said that it was RFK's decision to go through the kitchen—
against the former ADL man's wishes.
`AN ARAB DID IT'
What really happened in those few short seconds is still the subject of
controversy, although the bottom line was this: shots were fired at Robert
F. Kennedy. The presidential hopeful was critically wounded. He died
shortly thereafter. The Arab-American assailant was pummeled to the floor,
arrested, convicted and sentenced to prison.
The public was somberly told that Sirhan was dissatisfied with
Kennedy's strong pro-Israel stand and that this was one of the driving
motivations that led him to commit the crime. So it was that an Arab American was held up to the world as the killer of a martyred American
president's younger brother, himself a popular public figure.
What an irony that it was an Arab-American who would happen to be
the assassin of the Kennedy brother who was perceived by "insiders" to be,
at least in private, an anti-Semite in the mold of his father.
That Kennedy did indeed take a strident pro-Israel stand during his years
in the U.S. Senate is not in doubt. As a senator from New York State
(which, of course, has a heavily Jewish voting population), that was a
political necessity for Robert Kennedy, who was, if nothing else, a
pragmatist, at least.
(However, as we saw in Chapter 5, it was RFK himself who believed
that the loyalties of his own brother's top advisor on Jewish affairs, Myer
Feldman, were suspect. "[Feldman's] major interest," said RFK, "was Israel
rather than the United States.)"768
If anybody knew of President John F. Kennedy's secret war with Israel
(which we examined in detail in Chapter 5) it was his brother and confidant,
Robert F. Kennedy. Thus it was that an Arab patsy took the fall for RFK's
murder—a crime that had evolved from a conspiracy that was decidedly not
Arabic in its origins.
THE RFK CONSPIRACY
In this chapter we shall explore the source of the conspiracy that
removed Robert Kennedy from the political arena and thereby preclude him
from ever having the power to investigate the conspiracy that ended his
brother's presidency.
And as we shall see, the RFK assassination conspiracy comes full circle
with the conspiracy that killed JFK: the same powerful, close-knit sources
were connected, but in a uniquely different way.
Unlike Lee Harvey Oswald who proclaimed himself a "patsy," Sirhan
Sirhan responded almost without protest, with a certain passivity. This,
among other things, led some to suspect that Sirhan, in fact, was a patsy,
too, that he had been programmed—perhaps through drugs, or by hypnosis,
for example—to kill RFK.
Yet, in the weeks and months of investigation—official and unofficial—
that followed, it soon became apparent that there was evidence that more than one gun had been fired in the kitchen of the Ambassador
Hotel. Yet, perhaps precisely because of the continuing doubts over the first
Kennedy assassination, public awareness of the serious questions arising
from the second Kennedy assassination did not reach the same level.
What's more, the turmoil of the year 1968 was such that there were
many other things capturing the public's attention: the Vietnam War, racial
violence and rioting, and the heated three-way presidential campaign between
Richard Nixon, Hubert Humphrey and George C. Wallace.
Although many believed that the murder of Bobby Kennedy was directly
linked to the murder of his brother five years earlier, no one seemed able to
fit the pieces of the puzzle together.
ENTER SAVAK
In fact, as former CIA contract agent, Robert Morrow, has demonstrated
in his little-noticed (but very important) book, The Senator Must Die, there
are connections between the two events—deeper than one might have
imagined.
Simply put, Morrow's thesis is this: that the murder of Robert F. Kennedy
was a CIA contract hit, carried out through the CIA's long-standing ally in
international intrigue, the SAVAK, the secret police of the Shah of Iran—an
intelligence agency created, in part, by Israel's Mossad itself and tied closely
to the Mossad.
(And as we noted in Chapter 15, information uncovered by Morrow ties
the Meyer Lansky Organized Crime Syndicate and its Swiss-based Israeli
connection to the conspiracy that snuffed out the life of John F. Kennedy.)
According to Morrow's own extensive investigation, during the final
weeks of Robert F. Kennedy's ill-fated presidential campaign in 1968, one
Khyber Khan, a high-ranking member of the Shah's SAVAK, had infiltrated
RFK's California campaign headquarters.
Khan additionally brought in other SAVAK agents to work on the
campaign. This infiltration was part of the assassination conspiracy. Khan
was in charge of coordinating the hit on RFK.
RFK allowed Khan into his inner circle because he believed Khan to be
an opponent of the Shah of Iran. This conclusion was based upon his
previous dealings with Khan.
In the early 1960's Khan had become embroiled in a feud with the Shah
over a business deal gone sour and in revenge had come to Washington
where he provided then-Attorney General Robert Kennedy with evidence of
the Shah's misappropriation of U.S. foreign aid to Iran. The resulting bad
blood further strained relations between the Kennedy administration and the
Shah which had never been stable.
However, Khan and the Shah had made amends shortly thereafter and an
alliance had been cemented. Khan, in fact, set up SAVAK operations on the
West Coast in 1963—all of this, of course, unbeknownst to Robert F.
Kennedy.
THE SECOND 'GUN'
As part of Khan's scheme, the decision was made to have the actual
assassination carried out by Sirhan Sirhan, a Jordanian-American, and
another participant.
According to Morrow's account, both Sirhan and the other gunmen
were on the scene when RFK was assassinated. Both men fired weapons.
Sirhan was using the .22 caliber pistol that was taken from him after the
assassination. The other gunman, however, was carrying a CIA manufactured .22 caliber gun disguised as a camera.
After Kennedy gave his final address and made his way into the kitchen
of the Ambassador Hotel, Sirhan, of course, thrust his own weapon out and
began firing toward the senator. This resulted in Sirhan being the focus of
attention, although one witness said that he had told the authorities that
Sirhan never got close enough for a point-blank shot.
The other gunman, meanwhile, was also firing his weapon and
probably delivered the fatal shot. In the midst of the melee, according to
Morrow, the second gunman escaped with his "camera." Obviously, it
would not have done the assassination conspiracy good to have the other
gunman captured with a CIA-manufactured weapon.
OTHER POSSIBLE GUNMEN
Many RFK assassination conspiracy theorists have pointed in the
direction of a character named Thane Caesar who was on the scene at the
time of the senator's murder, employed at the last minute by the
Ambassador Hotel as a replacement for another security guard. There are
those who suggest, without much real evidence, that Caesar was the "second
gun." Although Caesar has been popularly described as a "bodyguard for
Howard Hughes" (the reclusive billionaire), his real connections are far more
interesting. Caesar, evidently, had more firm ties to the Meyer Lansky
Organized Crime Syndicate through his Las Vegas connections. But this
doesn't implicate Caesar one way or the other. In the end, the Thane Caesar
story is just another one of those distractions that really don't point
anywhere.
Meanwhile, in her new book, The Assassinations (Los Angeles, Feral
House, 2003), Lisa Pease has come forth with evidence that a British
national of Jewish origin, Michael Wien, who went by the name of
"Michael Wayne," was in the Ambassador Hotel ballroom before the
shooting of RFK and seemed to have had advance knowledge of the
impending events. After the shooting there were allegations that Wien (or
"Wayne") was carrying what appeared to some to be a cardboard tube or
some similar item and some people thought he had a gun concealed inside.
Although the police apparently took Wien into custody for a brief period,
Pease suggests that there are many more questions about Wien—and other
suspicious individuals who were there that day-that remain unanswered. But
Ms. Pease is one in the "research" community who dares not say "Mossad."
THE INVESTIGATION IS SCUTTLED
In any event, as Robert Morrow notes, later attempts to investigate the
conspiracy further were frustrated by two CIA operatives on the Los
Angeles Police Department's "Special Unit Senator" set up to "inquire" into the
assassination. Morrow says that the operatives were officers Manny Pena
and Enrique Hernandez, both of whom were known to have worked for the
CIA, along with their work for the police department.
This, in essence, is the reconstruction of the RFK assassination
conspiracy which Morrow documents so convincingly in his book The
Senator Must Die.
Much of Morrow's research was supported by information he gleaned in an
interview with one Alexis Goodaryi of Washington, D.C. Although in his
public persona he was the popular maitre de of the exclusive Rotunda
Restaurant on Capitol Hill, Goodaryi was also the immediate SAVAK
superior of Khyber Khan, the West Coast SAVAK operative who
coordinated the RFK murder.
Goodaryi himself was murdered in early 1977—just one month after he
spoke with Morrow. However, although the media described Goodaryi's
murder as a "mob hit," Morrow's sources told him otherwise: it was a
SAVAK operation. 769
THE LANSKY CONNECTION
All of this is quite interesting, particularly in that Morrow notes that
Goodyari told him that during their association, he (Goodyari) introduced
Khyber Khan to a number of his Washington associates in organized crime:
in particular, one C. H. "Jim" Poller. Mr. Poller, according to Morrow,
was the "Washington mob liaison man for [Meyer] Lansky and Santo
Trafficante."770 Thus, we once again see the specter of Meyer Lansky in the
murky background in the assassination of a Kennedy.
We might even take one further step. During the time that Sirhan
Sirhan was being groomed for his role in the slaying of Robert F. Kennedy,
the young Arab-American worked in the stables of the Santa Anita racetrack.
Santa Anita, in fact, was one of the primary profit-centers for Lansky's
West Coast henchman, Mickey Cohen, rackets boss of Southern California.
We can only speculate that Cohen and his underlings may have had a hand
in some aspect of the RFK assassination.
However, it is not speculation that Iran's SAVAK (which handled the
killing of Robert F. Kennedy) was closely allied with the American CIA.
The record on this is all too clear. The CIA's role in toppling a nationalist
Iranian ruler, Mohammed Mossadegh, and restoring the Shah of Iran to his
throne in 1953 is well-known and widely documented.
What is less-known, however, is the close working relationship
between Iran's SAVAK and the Israeli Mossad. Although Iran, a Persian nation, and Israel might be perceived to be hostile to one another, this was
not the case at all.
ISRAEL AND IRAN
In 1958 Israeli Prime Minister Ben-Gurion proposed to American
President Dwight D. Eisenhower a united front against Egyptian leader
Gamal Abdel Nasser. According to Ben-Gurion, "With the purpose of
erecting a high dam against the Nasserist-Soviet tidal wave, we have begun
tightening our links with several states on the outside perimeter of the
Middle East. Our goal is to organize a group of countries, not necessarily an
official alliance, that will be able to stand strong against Soviet expansion
by proxy through Nasser."
771
Iran was one of those countries that Ben-Gurion proposed be part of this new
alliance. Ben-Gurion had it in mind that Iran could be utilized to keep the
Arab countries of Iraq and Syria under control. 772
In fact, Israel had been actively engaged in attempting to interfere in Iran's
domestic affairs for some time. According to Andrew and Leslie Cockburn,
writing in Dangerous Liaison: The Inside Story of the U.S.- Israeli Covert
Relationship, "Israeli agents had been at work encouraging friendly forces in
Iran since the early days of the state." 773
The results paid off: in June 1950, for example, Iran had given Israel 'de
facto' diplomatic recognition—(a designation just short of full diplomatic
recognition).
Although, according to the Cockburns, the relationship between Iran
and Israel was uneasy and involved much international intrigue "the
connection between the Shah's Iran and Israel rested on firm foundations.
The two countries shared a strong suspicion and dislike of the Arab nations
on their borders. Both had strong connections to the United States, in
particular the CIA." 774
IRAN AND THE ISRAELI LOBBY
Additionally, note the Cockburns, "Each [country] had something to offer
that the other needed. In Iran's case it was oil, which it began to ship to
Israel in 1954. Israel, for its part, could offer valuable expertise in the
fields of intelligence, and domestic security. In the eyes of the Shah, Israel
had something even more valuable to bestow on its friends: the pervasive
influence of the Jews in the United States and indeed the world over.
"[Israeli official] David Kimche recalls with amusement how 'if there'd
be any anti-Iranian article in any newspaper in the United States or even in
Europe, the Shah would call us and say, 'Why did you allow this to
happen?' We would in vain plead innocent [reported Kimche] 'saying that
we don't control the whole of world media [and] we don't control the banks
as some people think we do.'
"Chaim Herzog [president of Israel] who had many dealings with the
Iranian monarch while head of [Israel's] Military Intelligence, later said that
[the Shah of Iran] saw every Israeli as a link to Washington." 775
SAVAK'S ISRAELI ORIGINS
Mansur Rafizadeh, the former SAVAK chief, who later broke with the
Shah, has also provided us additional light on the close relationship between
SAVAK, the CIA and the Mossad. Writing in his memoirs, Rafizadeh
reveals that SAVAK was set up at the joint urging of Israel, the United
States and Britain. 776
The initial contacts between SAVAK and Mossad appear to have been
established in the fall of 1957 at a meeting between General Taimour
Bakhtiar and Mossad chief Isser Harel in Rome. They agreed upon mutual
interests. 777
ISRAEL TRAINS SAVAK
Not only did Israel provide training for the new SAVAK recruits, but so did
the CIA. In charge of the CIA's training of SAVAK operatives was an
operation known as the International Police Academy in Washington. This
academy also played a major part in training operatives of Israel's Mossad.
The academy was run by one Joseph Shimon, a man with additional
interesting connections. 778
Shimon counted among his close friends Chicago Mafia boss Sam
Giancana and the Mafia's roving ambassador, Johnny Rosselli, whose own
roles in the JFK assassination conspiracy we reviewed in detail in Chapter
11.
Shimon, in fact, also testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee in
1975 that he participated in meetings between Giancana, Rosselli and CIA
operatives in Miami in preparation for CIA-Organized Crime assassination
plots against Fidel Castro. 779
A DELIGHTED SHAH
That the Shah of Iran was pleased by the murder of John F. Kennedy (and
certainly that of Robert Kennedy to be sure) is undoubted. According to former
SAVAK chief Rafizadeh: "The assassination of President Kennedy on
November 22, 1963 made the Shah jubilant. Kennedy had put pressure on
him for social reforms. I learned later . . . that the Shah had had a kind of
celebration. When he received the news of Kennedy's death, he asked for a
drink to celebrate. 780
"The Shah had despised Kennedy, who constantly advised him to restore
human rights to his subjects and insisted that such a course of action was
necessary and unavoidable. The Shah viewed that course as a derided threat
to his power and so had refused.
"Now the threat posed by Kennedy was gone; the Shah's relationship
with President Johnson was comfortable and he felt no fear of the United
States despite the huge demonstrations mounted against him in New York,
Washington, and indeed throughout the country [when he came to America
on state visits]." 781
(It should be noted, significantly, that Robert Morrow flatly states in
his account of the RFK murder that Rafizadeh was, in fact, the SAVAK
official in Iran who directed the aforementioned Khyber Khan to orchestrate
the RFK assassination plot. Morrow contends that Rafizadeh was promoted
to his post as SAVAK chief as a reward for the successful assault on RFK. 782
Thus it is interesting, to say the least, that we find Rafizadeh
commenting on the Shah's reaction to JFK's assassination.
In his own book, of course, Rafizadeh does not discuss the
circumstances surrounding RFK's murder at the hands of the CIA-Mossad backed SAVAK.)
PERPETUATING THE COVER-UP
The murder of Robert F. Kennedy by the Shah's SAVAK was a reaffirmation of a long-standing hostility between the Kennedy brothers and
the Shah. RFK's murder helped perpetuate the cover-up of the role that
SAVAK's allies in the CIA and the Mossad had played in the previous
Kennedy assassination. It was again—as in the JFK assassination—a case of
mutual interests coming into play.
RICHARD HELMS AND THE SHAH
There is yet another interesting personal connection between the Shah
of Iran and the CIA worth noting.
In fact, in the early 1930's Richard Helms (who later became director of
the CIA in 1966) and the Shah had been best friends and schoolmates
together as children at boarding school in Switzerland. 783 It was Helms
who was later the CIA coordinator of the very coup that installed the Shah
on the throne in 1953. 784 It was a lifelong relationship which culminated
with Helms later becoming U.S. Ambassador to Iran.
Thus it was that through his relationship with Iran and SAVAK, as
Robert Morrow notes, that Helms "suddenly would have at his beck and call
a worldwide, covert strike-force of dedicated, trained, professional agents and
assassins."785
It was during his tenure at the CIA, as we have seen in Chapter 8, that
Helms was the "chief patron" of the CIA's Mossad liaison, and devoted
supporter of Israel, James Jesus Angleton.
And it was after Helms became director that he and Angleton became
entangled in a little-noticed controversy involving a CIA memorandum that
ostensibly fingered CIA operative E. Howard Hunt as having been in Dallas
the day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated.
(In Chapter 16, we analyzed
that memorandum in detail.)
SOME CONCLUDING REMARKS
That there was a role by Israel's allies in the CIA and SAVAK in the
assassination of Robert F. Kennedy seems clear, based on the information
brought forth by Robert Morrow, coupled with our knowledge of the close
relationship between SAVAK and its sponsors in the CIA and the Mossad.
With Robert Kennedy eliminated from the presidential race in 1968 those
who were responsible for the assassination of his brother would have no fear
of retribution in the event that RFK assumed the presidency.
If Morrow is correct—that SAVAK coordinated the assassination on
behalf of the CIA—then JFK assassination researchers should begin looking
at SAVAK's origins. But to do so, of course, would point in the direction
of the Mossad—an area where JFK assassination researchers fear to tread.
It should be noted that The Globe supermarket tabloid was hit with a
major libel judgment after a Pakistani-American filed suit against the tabloid
for publishing Robert Morrow's allegations that this person was the "second
gun" in the assassination of Robert Kennedy. Morrow himself died
(apparently of natural causes) shortly after the judgment was reached, and
which judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court on May 17, 1999. 786
In The Senator Must Die, Morrow reproduced a photograph of this
man, then a student, with a camera on a strap around his neck, standing
beside Senator Kennedy shortly before the fatal shots were fired. Morrow
alleged that he was the second gunman, although it is now clear he was not.
That this individual was innocent does not mean, however, that there
was not a "second gun" or that Morrow's basic theory is off base.
Yet, for the record, as I have noted elsewhere in the pages of Final
Judgment, I have long had reservations about many of Morrow's allegations
regarding other matters.
However, if my thesis about Israel's role in the JFK assassination is
correct (and I believe it is), it is logical that RFK's assassination was indeed
orchestrated by forces within Israel's sphere of influence.
In short, I tend to believe that, on the whole, Morrow's overall thesis
regarding RFK's assassination is correct.
SUMMING UP . . .
In the "conclusion" which follows we tie together the basic parameters
of the JFK assassination conspiracy that have been outlined in the pages of
Final Judgment. It has been a complex web, in a certain sense, but when
one considers the fact that the Israeli connection is ever present, the
assassination conspiracy that has been outlined is rather simple indeed.
However, in the appendices which follow, we will see that there are
many other facets of the conspiracy and cover-up that have been otherwise
ignored, suppressed, un-recognized or forgotten. In those appendices we will
see, again and again, the Israeli connection to the JFK assassination that
was never before documented until the publication of Final Judgment.
19
CONCLUSION:
Operation Haman?
The Theory That Works.
A Summary
"Conspired All of Them Together." Nehemiah 4:8
The State of Israel had integral links with all of the
major power groups that wanted John F. Kennedy removed
from the American presidency.
Israel's global network had the power to orchestrate not
only the assassination of Kennedy, but also the subsequent
cover-up. Israel was indeed a key player in the JFK
assassination conspiracy and, the evidence suggests, a
primary instigator of the crime.
All of Israel's co-conspirators—and those who had an
interest in seeing Kennedy dead—had good reason to assist in
the cover-up. They were protecting their own interests.
By 1963, John F. Kennedy had made many enemies. His brother
Attorney General Robert Kennedy's prosecutions of Mafia and Meyer
Lansky-bossed Organized Crime figures had many in the crime syndicate
very angry, to say the least. The early stages for the prosecution of Meyer
Lansky himself were already underway. A case had already been made
against Lansky's New Orleans front man Carlos Marcello. Lansky's West
Coast henchman Mickey Cohen had been targeted as well.
THE ISRAELI-CONNECTED
LANSKY SYNDICATE
Lansky was the ultimate target: the enmity between the Kennedy family
and Meyer Lansky went back decades. Not only was the President's father,
Joseph P. Kennedy considered an enemy of the Jewish people, but he was
also believed by Lansky to hold a grudge against him (Lansky) because of a
Lansky-orchestrated hijacking of one of Kennedy Sr.'s illicit whiskey running deals. Considering John F. Kennedy's secret alliance with the mob
during the 1960 campaign, his war against Lansky's underworld syndicate
was a double-cross that could not be tolerated.
LYNDON JOHNSON
The president was also planning to drop his Vice President, Lyndon
Johnson, from the 1964 ticket. It was possible that Johnson—long
financed politically by Lansky and his New Orleans Mafia henchman,
Carlos Marcello—could end up spending the remainder of his years in
prison. The Kennedy brothers were interested in Johnson's deals conducted through his front man, Bobby Baker, who later did end up in prison. Baker,
of course, conducted several of his major deals with Lansky associates,
including Ed Levinson, a director of the Mossad-linked Banque de Credit
International, founded by former Mossad official Tibor Rosenbaum.
THE ANTI-CASTRO CUBANS
What's more, Kennedy was preparing for a rapprochement with Castro's
Cuba and therefore the Lansky syndicate would not be able to re-invigorate
its massive gambling interests there as a consequence. The change in Cuban
policy was also distressing to the anti-Castro Cuban community in Miami,
New Orleans and elsewhere. The anti-Castro Cubans had, of course, been
cooperating closely with the Lansky syndicate in anti-Castro activities.
Likewise, the new Cuban policy enraged the CIA which was the primary
sponsor of the anti-Castro forces. As we have also seen, the Mossad played a
major (although little-known) part in the intrigue involving the anti-Castro
Cubans through its base in Miami.
THE CIA
JFK had other problems with the CIA. He was making moves to
dismantle the CIA and was engaged in a secret war with that agency
stemming from his clear intent to withdraw U.S. forces from Vietnam. This
would have been a major blow to the so-called "military-industrial complex"
(of which the Israeli lobby was a major component) that stood to make
immense profits from a continuing U.S. presence in Southeast Asia.
HOOVER
Ultimately, Kennedy planned to merge all of the American intelligence
agencies—the FBI included—into a single entity under his brother Robert's
direction. This plan, of course, was not greeted enthusiastically by FBI
Director J. Edgar Hoover whom Kennedy also planned to dethrone following
the 1964 election. Hoover, as we have seen, had his own secret
arrangements with Lansky, individually, and with organized crime in
general. Hoover also had a foundation established in his name with funding
from Lansky-linked liquor industries and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
of B'nai B'rith, which functions as a de facto U.S. propaganda and
intelligence arm of Israel's Mossad. If Hoover himself did not actively
conspire against the life of John F. Kennedy, he certainly looked the other
way if he knew a conspiracy to assassinate JFK had been hatched.
VIETNAM & DRUGS
Kennedy's intended change in Vietnam policy—his plan to unilaterally
withdraw from the imbroglio—infuriated not only the CIA but elements in
the Pentagon and their allies in the military-industrial complex. By this time, of course, the Lansky syndicate had already set up international heroin running from Southeast Asia through the CIA-linked Corsican Mafia in the
Mediterranean. The joint Lansky-CIA operations in the international drug
racket were a lucrative venture that thrived as a consequence of deep U.S.
involvement in Southeast Asia as cover for the drug smuggling activities. We
know today that the Mossad has emerged as a major player as a
"middleman" in much of this drug-smuggling activity.
ISRAEL, THE CIA & THE
LANSKY SYNDICATE
John F. Kennedy's bitter behind-the-scenes conflict with Israel brought
him into combat with an ally of not only the CIA but also the Lansky
syndicate, both of which entities also maintained intimate connections to
the anti-Castro Cubans. Vice President Lyndon Johnson's Lansky-Mafia and
defense industry ties, coupled with his close relationship to the Israeli
lobby, and his long-standing friendly dealings with both the CIA and
Hoover's FBI made Johnson an acceptable alternative (among these diverse
special interests) to a Kennedy dynasty. Kennedy himself had long been
suspect in the eyes of Israel and its allies as we saw in Chapter 4.
We also now know that even the famed "Chicago Mafia" under Sam
Giancana was heavily immersed in wide-ranging international dealings with
Israel's Mossad—largely through the good offices of the real boss of the
Chicago syndicate, Meyer Lansky's partner-in-crime, Hyman Lamer. So the
theory that even "the Chicago Mafia killed JFK"—we find—has a very
distinct "Mossad connection" beyond any doubt.
MICKEY COHEN
As early as 1960 (as we documented in Chapter 13), Meyer Lansky's
West Coast henchman, Mickey Cohen, was using Kennedy's filmland bedpartner, actress Marilyn Monroe, as a conduit for attempting to learn
Kennedy's intentions toward Israel. Kennedy's introduction to Miss Monroe
by one of Cohen's associates, we have learned, was for this very purpose,
and also, perhaps, for ultimately blackmailing JFK.
Although "official" history acknowledges the president's stormy affair
with Miss Monroe, its real origins—and the intent for which it was
orchestrated—have been covered up and forgotten. ("Official" history would
have us remember—instead—Kennedy's other widely-publicized illicit
relationship with Judith Campbell, mistress of Chicago Mafia boss Sam
Giancana.)
Cohen, a long-standing disciple of Israel and one of its earliest
adherents, had more than a passing interest in the Middle East state.
According to one account, we have discovered, Cohen was less than happy
with Kennedy's stance toward Israel.
BEN-GURION AND THE
ISRAELI NUCLEAR BOMB
By April 1963, Kennedy's relationship with Israeli Prime Minister
David Ben-Gurion and the state of Israel was at a dangerous impasse,
particularly over Israel's determination to develop a nuclear bomb.
At Kennedy's last official press conference, he bemoaned the Israeli
lobby's deliberate sabotage of his own efforts to build bridges to the Arab
world. Little did JFK know that the seeds of his own destruction had been
sown as a consequence of his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East.
Israeli leader David Ben-Gurion had developed an intense personal
distrust—even hatred and contempt—for Kennedy. He believed that
Kennedy's presidency was a danger to the very survival of the state of
Israel—the nation that Ben-Gurion had helped create.
Ben-Gurion, by this time, was consumed with paranoia. He believed
that Israel might be destroyed. It was because of his contempt for Kennedy
and the American president's stance toward Israel that Ben-Gurion left his
post as prime minister. It is likely that his last act as prime minister was to
order Mossad orchestration of a hit on John F. Kennedy.
We have learned that it was then-Mossad assassination team chief
Yitzhak Shamir who took care of the arrangements necessary to set the
conspiracy in motion. Shamir knew, of course, that a diverse array of
interests—domestic and international—would like to see Kennedy removed
from the White House. There were a variety of components that could be
put together to ensure a successful assassination conspiracy: specifically the
Mossad-linked Meyer Lansky Organized Crime Syndicate as well as the
CIA, and the elements in their spheres of influence.
Was there a code name for the conspiracy against President Kennedy?
More than likely. But we, of course, will surely never know its name. Did
the Mossad, perhaps, call it "Operation Haman"—naming the conspiracy to
kill the American president after Haman, the ancient Amalekite conspirator
who desired the destruction of the Jewish people? That code name would be
as reasonable as any, considering Ben-Gurion's hatred for Kennedy—a
modern-day Haman in his eyes.
THE CONSPIRACY IS SET IN MOTION
A network of assassin recruitment and planning was set in motion
through the aegis of the Mossad-CIA-Lansky combine, with the shadowy
Permindex entity at the very center of the operation. All stood to benefit
from John F. Kennedy's removal from office. Many people on the
periphery of the conspiracy—indeed, perhaps even many of those at the
center—did not know how or why they were being directed to undertake
many of the actions that they did that advanced the ultimate aim of
removing JFK from the White House.
KEY CIA PLAYERS ALL TIED TO MOSSAD
The evidence suggests that it was powerful CIA man, James Jesus
Angleton—head of the CIA's Israel desk—who played the primary role in manipulating the CIA's involvement in the assassination. Throughout his
career, Angleton's activities had intersected with those of the Lansky
Organized Crime Syndicate, particularly in the CIA's dealings with the
Corsican Mafia. It was Angleton's Israeli desk at the CIA that coordinated
the agency's strange alliance with the Corsican crime figures.
As we have seen, anti-Castro elements in the CIA were involved in
setting up the patsy, Lee Harvey Oswald. In New Orleans, the CIA's assets
including Permindex board member Clay Shaw, Anti-Defamation League linked Guy Banister and David Ferrie were coordinating anti-Castro activities
among the Cuban exiles. They were critical to the plot: they were
manipulating Lee Harvey Oswald, making him appear as a "pro-Castro
agitator." Banister and Ferrie were also involved in the machinations outside
New Orleans at Lake Pontchartrain of CIA operative (and Mossad asset)
Frank Sturgis. Oswald is said to have trained at this camp.
The WDSU media empire of the Stern family—major backers of
Israel's Anti-Defamation League and close friends of Permindex board
member Shaw—contributed to the conspiracy by publicizing Oswald's
activities and making them available to the FBI, further laying the
groundwork for Oswald's identification as a Castro agent.
THE FRENCH CONNECTION
And as we saw in Chapter 15, there are further indications that CIA linked French OAS operatives were also utilizing Guy Banister's
headquarters in New Orleans. Many of these same OAS operatives also had
ties to the Lansky drug racket. They were also hostile to John F. Kennedy
who had supported Algerian independence from France.
What's more, it was the CIA's chief liaison to the anti-Castro Cubans,
E. Howard Hunt, who was also liaison to one of the leading longtime OAS
operatives, Jean Souetre, whose own alleged presence in Dallas—like that of
Hunt—is the subject of some controversy.
As we noted in Chapter 16, a former French intelligence officer
contends that a French assassin was involved in the events in Dealey Plaza
on contract for the Mossad, his presence in Dallas arranged through a faction
in the French secret service, the SDECE, under the direction of Col.
Georges deLannurien.
THE 'DUMMY ASSASSINATION'
Evidence suggests that the CIA's E. Howard Hunt may have had his
own anti-Castro operation (in the guise of a faked assassination attempt on
the president) underway. Oswald was likely being used in some way in this
operation. However, it appears that this "faked assassination attempt" was
manipulated and/or infiltrated by elements who intended, in fact, to kill the
president. Perhaps Hunt himself was as surprised as anybody when those
fatal shots were fired in Dallas. Maybe Hunt was, in fact, set up.
As we have seen it was the Mossad's CIA asset and willing
collaborator, James Jesus Angleton, who sent Hunt to Dallas in November
of 1963. Only Hunt can tell us just what he was doing in Dallas—or what
he thought he was doing. Was Hunt—like Oswald—a patsy?
Hunt himself admitted, under oath, that he believed it possible that his
former colleagues at the CIA would consider framing him for the Kennedy
assassination. However, Hunt has never explained—at least publicly—what
he was doing in Dallas on November 21, 1963, the day before John F.
Kennedy's assassination. Instead, Hunt says he was not there.
Longtime Mossad asset Frank Sturgis—who also doubled as a CIA
contract agent—met with Hunt (and with Jack Ruby) in Dallas the day
before the assassination. Later Sturgis told Marita Lorenz, that he had been
involved in the assassination itself. Looking at Sturgis alone, we can thus
say, without qualification, that a known Mossad asset has thus confessed to
have played a direct part in the president's murder.
In addition, as we have seen, various sources have suggested that there
were at least several people operating in Dealey Plaza on November 22 who
believed that they were there as part of a "Mafia" hit aimed not at Kennedy,
but instead at Texas Governor John B. Connally
The use of "false flags," has been a classic Mossad tactic, a standard
practice of Israel's spy agency. And as we saw in Chapter 16, according to
former Mossad operative, Victor Ostrovsky, he and his fellow Mossad
trainees were told by their superiors that Kennedy's assassination was, in
fact, an accident. The real target, or so the Mossad claimed, was Connally
who had been targeted by "the Mafia."
JACK RUBY, MICKEY COHEN
AND THE MOSSAD
As we saw in Chapter 13, Lansky's West Coast lieutenant Mickey
Cohen—who maintained intimate ties to Israeli arms smuggling—played a
bizarre role in intrigue against JFK. Cohen also had a longstanding link to
Jack Ruby who was, himself, involved in smuggling arms to Israel. In fact,
as we have seen, Ruby (who also trafficked in U.S. intelligence circles) was
definitively "more Mossad than Mafia," quite in contrast to the old legends
swirling about Ruby and his alleged "Mafia connections."
Just shortly before the JFK assassination, Al Gruber—a henchman of
Mickey Cohen and a longtime Ruby friend (who hadn't seen Ruby in
years)—showed up in Dallas to visit Ruby. Then, just about an hour after
Lee Harvey Oswald's arrest was made public, Ruby called Gruber. It may
be speculated that Ruby called Gruber to advise him that the chosen patsy
had not been killed before his arrest, as planned, and that Ruby was then
told it was his responsibility to finish the job.
Mickey Cohen's friend and lawyer, Melvin Belli, promptly stepped in as
Jack Ruby's defense counsel, further tying Ruby to the Israeli-linked Lansky Cohen apparatus that few JFK researchers care to address, preferring
instead to focus on Ruby's mythical "ties to the Mafia."
It was James Jesus Angleton of the CIA who attempted to perpetrate
the fraud that the Soviet KGB was behind the Kennedy assassination.
Angleton vehemently disputed the reliability of Soviet defector Yuri
Nosenko who insisted that he had been Oswald's KGB handler in the Soviet
Union and who said that Oswald had not been a KGB agent.
As we have seen, Angleton was—at his own insistence—the CIA's key
"point man" in the agency's relationship with the Warren Commission.
What's more, Angleton's close friend, William Sullivan, number three man
at the FBI, was the FBI's liaison with the commission.
It was, perhaps not coincidentally, Angleton (through a strange inhouse CIA memo) who fingered CIA man E. Howard Hunt for possible
involvement in the Kennedy assassination, presumably as a "renegade"
agent, acting on his own. This frame-up took place at precisely the time
when public suspicion of the CIA's institutional involvement was being
widely discussed. In Chapter 16 we analyzed that memorandum in detail.
EARL WARREN
Chief Justice Earl Warren, apprised by the CIA of possible Soviet
Communist involvement in the president's murder was pressured into
covering up what he mistakenly believed to be the truth about the
assassination. The CIA's "Mexico City scenario"—handled by Angleton's
desk at the CIA and coordinated by David Atlee Phillips, who was the CIA's
Mexico City station chief at the time—was presented to Warren as proof
the Soviets were implicated in the president’s murder.
Pinning the assassination on "one lone nut" was Warren's way of
protecting America's national security. A war with Soviet Russia, Warren
believed, had been prevented. Warren himself probably never had any idea as
to the real truth—or even part of the truth—as to what really happened or
where the assassination conspiracy originated.
Any effort by Warren to probe deeper would no doubt have been scuttled
immediately: after all, one of his fellow commission members was former
CIA Director Allen Dulles who had, in fact, been fired by JFK.
What's more, as we shall see in Appendix Four, there were immense
and multiple Israeli (and Jewish) influences on the Warren Commission staff
itself—a factor never considered until the release of Final Judgment.
Additionally, Warren was also under the influence of his close friend,
syndicated columnist Drew Pearson, himself an asset and longtime
collaborator of Israel's propaganda and intelligence arm in this country, the
Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. It was Pearson who floated the
blatantly fraudulent story that Fidel Castro had been the prime mover behind
the JFK assassination.
FALSE LEADS
False trails and false leads were set in place throughout the chain of
events that led up to the assassination—and afterward—a standard Mossad tactic. "False flags" were positioned to point the finger of blame elsewhere.
Even Lyndon Johnson himself may not have known from where the order to
kill Kennedy emerged, although there have been allegations (never
documented) that Johnson himself was in on the assassination planning.
Johnson certainly had no reason himself to intervene or to attempt to stop
the assassination from being carried out.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY
The assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy—with an Arab as the
"false flag"—the fall guy—was a part of the continuing cover-up of the
murder of President Kennedy. In the RFK assassination, as we have seen,
the Iranian SAVAK—a joint creature of the CIA and the Israeli
Mossad—was responsible for coordinating the hit on the senator. Robert
Kennedy's death prevented the younger Kennedy from ever bringing his
brother's killers to justice.
ISRAEL & THE MEDIA
Researchers into the JFK assassination over the past 28 years have
not, until just recently, had access to the evidence of Kennedy's secret war
with Israel over the nuclear bomb. As a consequence, there has never been
any suspicion that Israel—like other often-named suspects in the crime—
may have had a reason to collaborate in a conspiracy against John F. Kennedy.
The controlled media with its devotion to Israel, of course, has never
pointed in this direction. The media has been content with promoting the
theory that "The Mafia Killed JFK"—but the media ignores the Lansky
connection. And those who go so far as to suggest that the CIA somehow
had a part in the killing and the cover-up are presented as "kooks" and
"conspiracy theorists."
Obviously, the full truth—all of the sordid details—will never be
known. As a consequence, we must rely upon the information that we do
have—information that enables us to make a final judgment.
THE IMPACT OF THE ASSASSINATION
The assassination of John F. Kennedy had a major political impact, far
more profound than the simple elevation of Lyndon Johnson to the
presidency. There were several direct consequences of JFK's death—both in
the U.S. and abroad:
Preservation of the CIA's autonomy;
Protection of J. Edgar Hoover's FBI empire;
A change in Vietnam policy, resulting in
(a) a profitable war for Lyndon Johnson's (and Israel's) allies in the
military-industrial complex; and
(b) a continuing cover for ever-expanding joint CIA-Lansky drug smuggling operations out of Southeast Asia.
An end to the burgeoning crackdown on the Lansky Organized Crime
Syndicate; and
A drastic reversal in U.S. policy toward Israel.
It is, beyond question, the final result that is the most
striking of all, and it is not subject to debate.
While there are those who contend that John F. Kennedy would, in fact, have
continued American involvement in Vietnam, one cannot dispute the
clear and now widely-documented fact that JFK was engaged in
a fierce battle with Israel and that upon Kennedy's demise, U.S.
Middle East policy took an immediate 180-degree turnabout.
In the pages of Final Judgment we have outlined, for the first time,
the entirety of the conspiracy that led to the assassination of John F.
Kennedy and the cover-up that followed. We do not pretend to have all of the
answers, but we believe that the missing link has now been supplied. Never
before has the evidence been assembled as it has been in these pages.
A SMALL CIRCLE OF CONSPIRATORS
The close connections between a relatively small circle of people and those
in their immediate spheres of influence is no coincidence. That all of them, in
some fashion, were part of the circumstances surrounding the assassination of
John F. Kennedy is also no coincidence.
Critics of JFK assassination conspiracy theories contend that a
conspiracy so immense would require a vast number of people involved. In fact,
the mechanics of initiating the conspiracy described in Final Judgment involved
perhaps no more than 20 people. Most of those ultimately involved in the
conspiracy were probably not even aware of the activities of the others who
were involved. So then, let us name, for the record, those whom we
believe had advance knowledge that John F. Kennedy was going to
be killed on November 22, 1963. They are:
Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion;
Israeli Mossad assassinations chief Yitzhak Shamir;
Permindex chief executive officer Louis M. Bloomfield;
Mossad officer and Permindex banker Rabbi Tibor Rosenbaum;
CIA Counterintelligence chief James J. Angleton;
French intelligence officer Georges deLannurien;
Crime Syndicate boss Meyer Lansky;
The actual shooters in Dealey Plaza. Evidence strongly points toward
French mercenary Michael Mertz as one of those gunmen. In any case, as we
have seen, at least one assassin was contracted by the Mossad through disloyal
elements in French intelligence, although it is probable that there were several
assassination teams in place.
CIA contract agent and longtime Mossad asset Frank Sturgis claimed to
have played a part in the events in Dealey Plaza. His Cuban exile henchmen,
Guillermo and Ignacio Novo, who were with Sturgis in Dallasalso played some role, although whether they were actual gunmen has yet to be
determined.
Although it is likely (although not certain) that Meyer Lansky's Mafia
lieutenants—Santo Trafficante, Jr. of Tampa and Carlos Marcello of New
Orleans—had advance knowledge of the impending assassination itself, it is
not clear that they, or, for that matter, Chicago Mafia boss Sam Giancana or the
Mafia's "roving ambassador," Johnny Rosselli, were actually involved in the
planning of the assassination itself. However, we do know today that both
Giancana and Rosselli were under the thumb of Mossad-connected crime
boss Hyman Lamer—and that opens up a whole new can of worms.
The role of the Italian-American organized crime figures in the JFK
assassination is more media-generated myth than reality. At best, they were
secondary players in the bigger scheme of things.
In Appendix Nine we will also consider the likely role—at least as an
intermediary—that top-ranking Mossad figure Shaul Eisenberg played in the
events surrounding the assassination, suggesting that Eisenberg did, in fact,
have advance knowledge of the impending assassination.
PEOPLE ON THE PERIPHERY
. . .
Here are those persons who were engaged in some form of activity
that tied them to the assassination conspiracy (whether or not
they were aware that an actual assassination would indeed take place):
Lee Harvey Oswald;
CIA operative E. Howard Hunt;
CIA station chief for Mexico City, David Atlee Phillips;
CIA contract agent and Permindex board member Clay Shaw;
CIA contract agent Guy Banister;
CIA contract agent David Ferrie;
Maurice Brooks Gatlin; Permindex courier;
CIA contract agent Robert Morrow;
Dallas mob associate Jack Ruby;
CIA associate, U.S. Senator John Tower and
Assorted anti-Castro Cuban exiles and others, including CIA
contract operative Marita Lorenz.
Meyer Lansky's West Coast henchman, Mickey Cohen, and Israeli
diplomat (later Prime Minister) Menachem Begin, had been involved in
Israeli-related intelligence intrigue against President Kennedy, but it cannot
be said definitively that they were cognizant of an assassination conspiracy
before the fact, although it is likely that Cohen's associate Al Gruber may
have given Jack Ruby the order to kill Lee Harvey Oswald.
Various members of the CIA, figures in the Mafia and the Lansky
Syndicate, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and some investigators for the
Warren Commission and the subsequent House Assassinations Committee
may have gleaned some information over the years as to portions of what
had happened, but few would be aware of the entirety of the conspiracy.
Those on the periphery participated in various aspects of the cover-up
(for their own reasons) as did certain figures in the media such as Drew
Pearson and Jack Anderson, among others.
There is also a final person who learned at least a part of how the
conspiracy was implemented: French President Charles DeGaulle, whose
own intelligence service was compromised by the Mossad.
A FINAL JUDGMENT
. . .
The evidence we have put forth demonstrates that there is a very strong
foundation for the thesis presented in this volume. It is a scenario that does
make sense, much to the dismay of those who would say that the
conclusions reached in Final Judgment are somehow "ridiculous" or
"outrageous" or "preposterous."
This is our final judgment: Israel's Mossad was a primary
(and critical) behind the scenes player in the conspiracy that
ended the life of John F. Kennedy. Through its own vast
resources and through its international contacts in the
intelligence community and in organized crime, Israel had the
means, it had the opportunity, and it had the motive to play
a major frontline role in the crime of the century—and it did.
Next
APPENDIX ONE
Where Was George?
George Bush, the CIA
and the Assassination of John F. Kennedy
Did GHWB Have a Hand in the Murder of JFK?
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