Trump Alleges Rafael Cruz Tie To JFK Murder Suspect Oswald


Donald Trump's explosive claim May 3 that Rafael Cruz may have known Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans before JFK's assassination in Dallas has since provided a case study in news coverage of sensitive issues.

Regardless of what one thinks of Trump, the reaction to his comments illustrate how he threatens the Washington establishment, including reporters and pundits who slant important news regarding the presidency. Trump showed also that he is careless at best in his commentary. He initially said the man in the photo below was Cruz, father of Texas senator Ted Cruz. Later, Trump falsely told CNN that he had merely wondered whether the man was Rafael Cruz.

Lee Harvey Oswald, Aug. 16, 2016 Johann Rush/WSDU-TVPerhaps even more important, Washington insiders are beginning to share a view that candidates risk unprecedented exposure of their darkest secrets in a campaign that will be far more ruthless, unpredictable and momentous than the public can expect from controlled media. This is indicated by, among other things, a report May 5 by the experienced commentator Pepe Escobar, accessible via his Facebook account: How Trump Did It; The Outside The Box Gambit.

Update: Ted Cruz suspended his campaign after Trump trounced him in Indiana's primary by a 53-37 percent margin. Trump was winning also the vast majority of the 57 delegates at stake. In the Democratic race, Bernie Sanders upset Hillary Clinton 52-48 percent with most votes tabulated.

Escobar asserted that a major reason Cruz suspended his campaign was to stop criticism of his family's past. "Of course," added political commentator Joe Lauria, "Cruz also realized that after losing Indiana he would not be able to force a contested convention."

Let's start decoding this situation. In response to campaign efforts by Cruz on behalf of his son before the crucial GOP Indiana primary May 3, Trump said Cruz helped Oswald distribute pro-Castro leaflets in New Orleans three months before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas in 1963.

“His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald's being — you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous,” Trump said during a phone interview with Fox News, referring to the man in the necktie at center in the photo. “What is this, right prior to his [JFK] being shot, and nobody even brings it up? They don't even talk about that. That was reported, and nobody talks about it.”

"This is nuts," Ted Cruz responded in defending his father from Trump's charges as voting began during Indiana's crucial primary May 3. "This man [Trump] is a pathological liar....The man is utterly amoral. Morality does not exist for him."

With the stakes so high both in the JFK probe and the current election, the facts and reporting are worth exploring here in a report updated May 5 from our original coverage two days previous:

Federal authorities and the major media have always argued in essence that Oswald acted alone to kill JFK on Nov. 22, 1963. True, the establishment occasionally floats also oddball theories attributed to cranks and "conspiracy theorists."

Ted Cruz Father Linked To JFK Assasination (National Enquirer)But their core conclusion, right from the start, has been that Oswald killed JFK alone, as we reported in Major Media Stick With Oswald 'Lone Gunman' JFK Theory. Yet many serious researchers, law enforcement and scientific whistle blowers, and other suppressed voices have long argued that Oswald was a scapegoat who acted with others at a minimum, and may even have been innocent of killing either JFK or a Dallas policeman that day.

Critics of the 1964 Warren Commission draw on a vast array of evidence to show involvement, often compartmentalized by those who did not know the ultimate result of their actions, by rogue elements of government, business, the mob, and Cuban refugee community, with the result that Kennedy was replaced.

To hint at such a monstrous concept means career oblivion even now for prominent officials, pundits and academics. That has long been the case. Declassified 1960s documents show that the CIA orchestrated a campaign to discredit as "conspiracy theorists" those who suggested government misconduct in the JFK case and subsequent mysterious events extending to the present. We summarized the evidence in a 2014 column: Don't Be Fooled By 'Conspiracy Theory' Smears.

That pattern helps explain the instant attacks on Trump May 3 and absence of virtually any commentator willing to explore whether his comments might have a basis in fact worth exploring.

In contrast, investigative reporter Wayne Madsen first reported April 7 evidence strongly suggesting that Rafael Cruz was the mystery man photographed handing out literature on Aug. 16, 1963 in New Orleans. This as outside the International Trade Mart, a significant gateway to Caribbean and Latin America business.

New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison later unsuccessfully prosecuted the trade mart's leader, Clay Shaw, on claims that he was an intelligence asset who conspired to murder the president in a plot involving the president's opponents, including rogue elements of intelligence agencies, other federal authorities, and police.

Nonetheless, Madsen was careful not to conclude definitively that the mystery man in the photo was the elder Cruz. After Madsen's story was published he appeared on a New Orleans radio station that week to ask listeners for help in an ongoing investigation on the mystery man's identity. Similarly, Trump supporter Scottie Nell Hughes aptly told a CNN audience that Trump was raising questions about the photo and related research, and not accusing Ted Cruz's father of plotting murder.

By contrast, dishonest commentators are fudging all distinctions to ridicule and thereby suppress any further inquiry.

In the photo above by the late Johann Rush of WSDU-TV in New Orleans, Oswald is at front left in a white shirt and necktie. He stands next to man never publicly identified by the Warren Commission, center, and also in white shirt. They were handing out leaflets for the Fair Play for Cuba Committee outside the trade mart. The National Enquirer reported that it determined through photo analysis by experts that the man is Rafael B. Cruz, father of GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz.

The mainstream media -- major newspapers, wire services and broadcast networks -- have always been virtually unified in denunciations of Garrison and his team. Their message remains largely in place until today. Why? The reasons relate to a hidden history encompassing the CIA's empire-building and anti-Communist goals. These serve the agency's Wall Street and other elite controllers. Willing allies with the agency include the major media (whose ownership is, of course, part of "Wall Street"), the Cuban exile community, organized crime, and military contractors, all of whom are occasional allies, as we know know from declassified documents and books.

Thus Madsen's reporting represented a remarkable challenge to the government and media establishment and all who hope for career success within those career paths. He has not been alone in this, of course. More than two thousand books have been written about the JFK death building on the revelations of many whistleblowers, including from the CIA and law enforcement community. More recently, those amplifying questions about a possible Cruz connection to Oswald have included Indiana blogger and attorney Gary Welsh (found dead earlier this month, ruled suicide at age 53). The National Enquirer raised the profile in a cover story last week, and the McClatchy News Service published a balanced news story, and then came Trump's interview on Fox May 3.

We still do not know whether Rafael Cruz was passing out literature in New Orleans with Oswald. The circumstances suggest that Oswald and his fellow leaflet distributors were government assets, including natives of Cuba. Rafael Cruz has lived his life in largely mysterious fashion, despite publishing a memoir this year and many public appearances both on the campaign trail and as a pastor.

Our own Justice Integrity Project reporting through the years and more intensively since Madsen's scoop suggest compelling evidence that the elder Cruz was indeed part of Oswald's effort in New Orleans. Yet major media are now nearly unanimous in continuing the cover up of any thorough inquiry, which could readily be accomplished with in-depth interviews of surviving participants, release of suppressed documents or even a grand jury investigation.

Instead, Madsen (shown in a file photo) and the National Enquirer are now the targets of venom by both the mainstream media and those on alternative website whose chose tool is snark, not any demonstrable knowledge of the JFK or other political assassinations or sex scandals.

By contrast, Madsen with a three-part series in 2006 broke the story that House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) was a gay pedophile hiding his past as a lecherous high school wrestling coach. The mainstream ignore the series and now never gives him credit despite Hastert's guilty plea and sentencing. Similarly, the Enquirer has broken many major scandals covered up elsewhere and yet is automatically ridiculed even though it has almost never had to pay a verdict for defamation for wrong reporting.

Trump Comments Help Expose Controlled Media

Trump is shown in a file photo by Gage Skidmore taken at a Conservative Political Action Committee conference.

Donald Trump Gage Skidmore photo CPAC conventionOur view is that media coverage of the primary day fracas exemplifies yet again the controlled and shallow news coverage of our nation's most important events. This encompasses current elections and notable past events, such as Kennedy's history-changing murder.

One illustration is a USA Today news report May 3Trump bizarrely links Cruz’s father to JFK assassin; Cruz goes ballistic by Donovan Slack. He focused on personalities not substance by beginning: "The feud between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz hit epic proportions Tuesday as Republican primary voters headed to the polls in Indiana. Trump was asked on Fox News to respond to remarks by the Texas senator's father on the campaign trail. Rafael Cruz had said electing “the alternative” to his son “could be the destruction of America.”

Donovan then wrote:

Then he [Trump] insinuated that Cruz’s father may have played some role in the assassination of John F. Kennedy Jr. [Sic!!] No really. He brought up a questionable National Enquirer story claiming Rafael Cruz appeared in a photo with Oswald shortly before the murder.

As indicated by our notation "Sic" above, the USA Today writer mixes up JFK (the president) and his son, JFK Jr. Editors presumably will correct the story at some point in the future But the error shows the utter historical cluelessness of those journalists involved at one of the nation's most widely circulated dailies and the social media site MSN that redistributed the story. Even worse, the story shows willingness despite their ignorance of history nonetheless to insert their opinion, and adherence to conventional wisdom of their bosses and authorities, by ridiculing Trump for raising the question. 

Another illustration is the venom that CNN news reader Kate Bolduan unleashed on Trump senior campaign advisor Barry Bennett for Trump's remarks Tuesday morning. She demonstrated no knowledge or interest in the facts of historical allegations regarding New Orleans in 1963. Instead, like her colleagues, she focused on armchair psychology regarding personal feuds between the candidates, and the "horse race" of who might win the primary and election.

CNN's Ashley Banfield, who "reports" the official pronouncements about legal, defense and political sources, then opined that Trump's supposedly disgraceful comments threatened his credibility. She and the panelists the network convened spent no time whatsoever discussing whether the Madsen/Enquirer/Trump questions about Rafael Cruz might be true. Virtually all of the focus was on Cruz's attack on Trump, not the underlying truth of the allegations.

CNN further embarrassed itself by publishing a column by Money writer and Sunday "Reliable Sources" host Brian Stetler that misquoted Trump in order to thereby characterize him as a fool and "conspiracy" nut. The column's slant (including an unwillingness to quote Trump accurately) speaks for itself in Donald Trump's latest conspiracy theory involves Ted Cruz's father.

Biased Pundits Continue Rush To Judgment

"What this indicates," Madsen told us in an exclusive interview the morning of May 3 as the situation unfolded, "is that sometimes the real news is in the National Enquirer and Wayne Madsen Report, not in the rancid, controlled media, including many of the sycophants who parade as 'alternative' media."

To be clear, Madsen originally raised his reporting as a question and then amplified it with in-depth reporting about the scope of activities before JFK's killing.

Clay ShawAbsolutely vital to understanding this story -- but ignored by Cruz and other commentaries populating the airwaves May 3 -- is that neither Madsen, the Enquirer, Trump (nor our Justice Integrity Project for that matter) have ever claimed that that Rafael Cruz was part of a plot to kill JFK. Instead, their allegation is that Cruz was one of a vast number of others who were involved in various subplots to overthrow Castro, some which coincided with efforts by a tiny inner circle (not necessarily involving Cruz) who wanted Kennedy dead for various reasons.

Get involved and think for yourself. That's our advice to readers.

How many commentators do you see or read who point out the remarkable fact that International Trade Mart chief Clay Shaw, shown at left, is the only man in American history ever indicted for murder conspiracy in Kennedy's death?

Shaw won an acquittal at trial but only after many prosecution witnesses died suddenly at early ages, including Oswald and his own killer Jack Ruby, plus many of their New Orleans associates. Also, Shaw apparently testified falsely that he had not been a CIA asset when the historical record (much of it unavailable to Garrison) shows a vast and closely connected network in New Orleans of CIA, Cuban, mob and business allies.

These are relatively simple concepts. But they are almost totally ignored by supposed experts opining on television or in print, as of today, May 3.

In fact, the late Chauncey Holt confessed in his memoir Self Portrait of a Scoundrel that he was handing out pro-Castro literature also with Oswald outside the Trade Mart and did not know that later events would lead to Kennedy's assassination. Holt said that Oswald and almost every one else in the photo (aside from the mystery man, whom Holt did not identify) was an undercover government agent recruited to help keep Cuba in the news to facilitate a U.S. overthrow that Holt and his  mob and CIA employers wanted to occur.

Also, Holt claimed that he traveled to Dallas also to deliver government credentials he forged to others convening at Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22s as part of his longstanding work as a operative employed in illegal Chauncey Holtmob and CIA operations, often in tandem with work as an accountant for seemingly legitimate businesses.

Holt (shown in a portrait) said he used so many aliases in his work with mob leaders like Meyer Lansky, Warren Commission staff attorney Joseph Ball, and various movie stars that even federal prison authorities did not know which of his many names was real when he was imprisoned in 1970 for 25 months for one of his many swindles.

To be sure, some have challenged (and others have vouched for) Holt's credibility. But the important point for current purposes is that there is an extensive research background on these points -- and no one, not the Warren Commission or any other known authority -- has yet conclusively identified the man in the necktie standing next to Oswald.

Again, investigative reporters, Enquirer and Trump are asking simply whether Rafael Cruz was in the 1963 photo. They are not alleging, as Ted Cruz kept alleging to a gullible and incurious national media, that Rafael Cruz killed or plotted to kill Kennedy. That is a debater's trick, not a defense.

Who Dares Raise Question the Warren Commission and Media?

Wayne Madsen is the author of 14 books and a former Navy Intelligence officer and NSA analyst. He is a former defense contractor who worked for, among others, RCA, the parent company of NBC in the 1960s. His opeds have appeared many times in mainstream newspapers during recent years and he has appeared as an expert commentator on eight of the top nine broadcast television stations and cable news networks before his reporting on sensitive covert activities dried up his invitations to the networks. Since then, he is repeatedly smeared by intelligence-connected trolls, including those who concocted a disparaging and demonstrably misleading smear as a Wikipedia biography.

More recently, he wrote the first columns alleging that GOP presidential contender Marco Rubio had been involved in a secret life as a bisexual. Madsen reports that the the first tip came from Indiana lawyer and Gary R. Welshblogger Gary Welsh, who was reported as a suicide shot to death over the weekend.

Welsh, a conservative former state legislative staffer who published the online commentary site Advance Indiana, was also the first to re-report Madsen's questions about Rafael Cruz. Welsh, shown at left, cooperated also in courageous ways with our Justice Integrity Project, including a favorable report on this author's 2013 book, Presidential Puppetry: Obama, Romney and Their Masters, which reported on the deep influence of Wall Street and the intelligence services over ostensibly independent politicians and news media outlets

Promptly after Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's death at a remote Texas ranch in February, Madsen traveled there with a team from the Alex Jones radio show to report on the circumstances of the mysterious death and locale.

He wrote this week that the immediate verdict of "suicide" for Welsh on the eve of the May 3 elections is not credible and follows many other suspicious deaths of journalists and sources pursuing sensitive matters, such as Gary Webb, Deborah Jeane "The DC Madam" Palfrey, Philip Marshall, and Michael Hastings.

Madsen cooperated with the Enquirer's cover story portrayed above. The tabloid's unusually large four-page treatment dated May 2 and on newstands carries the bylines of six Enquirer reporters and involved extensive independent investigation.

The response by Cruz and his defenders relies heavily on the accurate factoid that the Enquirer Publisher David Pecker is a friend of Trump and that Trump sometimes exaggerates and indeed tells demonstrable falsehoods.  

However, the broadcast networks, major newspapers and their hand-picked commentators — including those from online and other "alternative" and often controlled media — have scant incentive or training in actually investigating the JFK death and those like Oswald demonstrably involved, even if many scholars believe that Oswald himself was a patsy directed by his government handlers to undertake his most suspicious activities in New Orleans and Dallas.

The Big Picture

Exploring those concepts in any depth would lead to career-ending ruin for today's most prominent "journalists," just as it threatened their predecessors and government sources in the 1960s. JFK research James Eugenio wrote on this topic April 22 How CBS News Aided the JFK Cover-up.

Jim GarrisonA definitive treatment is Jim Garrison's 1967 video response to a smear job orchestrated by NBC News, a key part of the CIA's Operation Mockingbird to coordinate pro-CIA coverage among the nation's major news media. That response is available

. The 27 minutes of that profile in courage are well worth watching for anyone who wants to understand the news of that day -- or May 3, 2016.

Worth reading also are the innumerable books that document the central role of New Orleans in the CIA-led efforts to overthrow Fidel Castro in Cuba, and related efforts leading to the assassination in Dallas. To be sure, neither Garrison nor other Warren Commission critics knew all facts revealed by the more than three million pages of declassified documents and two thousand books about the JFK assassination.

Even now, there has been no one associated with the Warren Commission or subsequent studies who can definitively say who was passing out pro-Castro literature in New Orleans. What's most important is that only a few reporters in the alternative media — one now dead — and presidential candidate Donald Trump dare even ask a question, even when most in the general public have told decades of pollsters that they do not believe the Warren Commission findings of Oswald's sole guilt that are continually touted by those who hope to succeed in media.

There is much more to say about this. For that reason, our project has published a 30-part Readers Guide To JFK Assassination that evaluates major books, TV shows, films and research institutions of all points of view.I have lectured repeatedly on the topic, including a talk aired on C-SPAN in 2014 on why the JFK assassination still matters, and a conference last week at the National Press Club sponsored by the McClendon speaker group that convened intelligence experts, including Madsen, describing major news stories that are currently being suppressed because of the timidity of the mainstream media and wannabes in the alternative media.

For now, the last word goes to the accomplished debater Ted Cruz, who with his media allies hoped to turn Trump's remark May 3 into a positive for a desperate Cruz campaign that was fighting the public's contempt for Washington media and corrupt politicians:

"Today is voting day in Indiana," the Texas senator said. "I ask the people of Indiana: Think about the next five years if this man becomes president."

 
 
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Justice Integrity Project Readers Guide To JFK Assassination

* Denotes major articles in this Readers Guide series

Dealey Plaza Panorama (Andrew Kreig Photo)At right is a photo by this editor in Dallas showing Dealey Plaza. The Texas Book Depository Building where Oswald worked is behind the row of trees. The car in the center lane is near the location of President Kennedy's limo at the time of his fatal shooting.

  1. Project Launches JFK Assassination Readers' Guide, Oct. 16, 2013.
  2. Project Provides JFK Readers Guide To New Books, Videos, Oct. 26, 2013. This is a list of new books and films in 2013.
  3. Disputes Erupt Over NY Times, New Yorker, Washington Post Reviews of JFK Murder, Nov. 7, 2013. *
  4. Self-Censorship In JFK TV Treatments Duplicates Corporate Print Media's Apathy, Cowardice, Nov. 7, 2013.
  5. 'Puppetry' Hardback Launched Nov. 19 at DC Author Forum on ‘White House Mysteries & Media,'  Nov. 19, 2013.
  6. Major Media Stick With Oswald 'Lone Gunman' JFK Theory, Nov. 27, 2013.
  7. JFK Murder Scene Trapped Its Victim In Kill Zone, Nov. 30, 2013.
  8. Project Lists JFK Assassination Reports, Archives, Videos, Events, Nov. 2, 2013. Leading video, events and archives from the last 50 years. *
  9. JFK Murder, The CIA, and 8 Things Every American Should Know, Dec. 9, 2013. The CIA implicated itself in the cover-up, according to experts who have spoken out. *
  10. JFK Murder Prompts Expert Reader Reactions, Dec. 19, 2013. Reactions to our Dec. 9 column. 
  11. Have Spy Agencies Co-Opted Presidents and the Press? Dec. 23, 2013. *
  12. Don't Be Fooled By 'Conspiracy Theory' Smears, May 26, 2014. *
  13. Experts To Reveal Secrets of JFK Murder, Cover-up at Sept. 26-28 DC Forum , Sept. 5, 2014. 
  14. Washington Post Still Selling Warren Report 50 Years Later, Sept. 22, 2014. *
  15. JFK Experts To Explode Myths, Sign Books In DC Sept. 26-28, Sept. 24, 2014.
  16. Former Cuban Militant Leader Claims CIA Meeting With Oswald Before JFK Killing, Sept. 27, 2014. *
  17. JFK Readers Guide: Assassination Books, Reports, Oct. 15, 2014. *
  18. Former House JFK Murder Prober Alleges CIA ‘Lied,’ Seeks Hidden Records, Oct. 18, 2014. *
  19. The JFK Murder 'Cover-up' Still Matters -- As Does C-SPAN's Coverage, Nov. 11, 2014. *
  20. JFK, Nov. 22 and the Continuing Cover-Up, Nov. 24, 2014. *
  21. JFK Assassination Readers Guide To 2013-14 Events, Nov. 28, 2014. *
  22. CIA, Empowered by JFK Murder Cover-up, Blocks Senate Torture Report, Dec. 1, 2014. *
  23. Nearly Too Late, Public Learns of Bill Moyers’ Conflicts Over PBS, LBJ, Jan. 2, 2014.
  24. Why Bill O'Reilly's Lie About JFK's Murder Might Matter To You, March 17, 2015.
  25. Free Videos Show Shocking Claims About CIA, JFK Murder Probes, June 29, 2015.
  26. Pioneering Black Secret Service JFK Guard Abraham Bolden Warns Of Current Lessons, July 22, 2015.
  27. Understanding Hollywood-Style Presidential Propaganda From JFK To Trump, Aug. 18, 2015.
  28. Beware Of Wrong Conclusions From New CIA Disclosure On Oswald, Sept. 28, 2015.
  29. The JFK Murder Cover-Up: Your Rosetta Stone To Today’s News, Nov. 29, 2015.
  30. Austin Kiplinger, David Skorton: Two Civic Giants Going And Coming, Dec. 15, 2015.

 

Related News Coverage (Reverse Chronological Order)

Updates:

JFK Facts.org, Who was that with Oswald (since it wasn’t Ted Cruz’s dad)? Jefferson Morley, June 13, 2016. In an incisive piece in Washington Decoded, Tim Brennan contributes some useful details to understanding the photograph that Donald Trump used to falsely and absurdly accuse Ted Cruz’s father of involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy.

Forget about the Trumpian BS, says Brennan, and focus on the known facts. What Donald Trump didn’t know about this photo. He was “a Cuban-looking fellow” accompanied by a taller man, according to the testimony of Michael Steele, a young man whom Oswald recruited at a local employment office. Brennan assumes that the “Cuban looking fellow” was, like Steele, recruited at the employment office. Citing a notation in Oswald’s address book, he thinks his name might have been “North.” Another possibility, admittedly more speculative, is that “taller friend” who seemed into on keeping his back to the camera, was John Martino, a former Havana casino employee and anti-Castro author, who later told Newsday reporter John Cummings that he was present that day when Oswald handed out pamphlets. Martino said that he had helped “put together” Oswald as a patsy for JFK’s assassination.

Washington Decoded, In Search of the Third Man, Tim Brennan, June 11, 2016. A false allegation, given prominence by the National Enquirer, was recycled by Donald Trump, the presumed GOP nominee, during an appearance on “Fox & Friends.” Per the article, Trump accused Rafael Cruz, father of candidate Ted, of consorting with the accused assassin of President Kennedy before November 1963: “You know, [Cruz’s] father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald’s being, you know,  shot . . . . I mean, what was  he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death, before the shooting? It’s horrible.” 

The kerfuffle did focus attention on a long-forgotten minor mystery: who was the “unidentified man” who distributed Fair Play for Cuba Committee (FPCC) handbills with Lee Harvey Oswald on the streets of New Orleans scarcely three months before John F. Kennedy’s assassination on 22 November 1963?

Flagpole, Lee Harvey Oswald and Ted Cruz's Father, Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., May 11, 2016. Donald E. Wilkes, Jr. (shown in a file photo) is a professor emeritus at the University of George where he taught in the iaw school for 40 years. Recently, stunning accusations have been made against Rafael Cruz, father of recent presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz. It is alleged that in New Orleans in 1963 the elder Cruz accompanied Lee Harvey Oswald while Oswald was Donald Wilkeshanding out pro-Fidel Castro “HANDS OFF CUBA!” leaflets. 

A majority of the researchers who have studied Lee Harvey Oswald’s short but enigmatic life—LBJ famously described Oswald as “quite a mysterious fellow”—believe it is likely that Oswald was both a CIA operative and an FBI informant. Under this approach, Oswald really was an undercover government agent, not a leftist or a Marxist. When he did such things as hand out pro-Castro leaflets or claim membership in the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, he was engaged in sheepdeeping, a term used in the intelligence community to refer to manipulated behavior designed to create a desired image.

It is not improbable that Rafael Cruz, a vocal, militant, activist opponent of Fidel Castro, might have been involved in the CIA’s massive secret anti-Castro activities in New Orleans. Wayne Madsen may well be right in saying that “there is strong reason to believe that Cruz was associated with [the] Central Intelligence Agency’s anti-Castro operations.” If this was the case, Cruz may very well have known that both he and Oswald were undercover American intelligence assets. If so, this would explain why, if he was the man in the photos, he did not, despite his near-fanatical anti-Castroism, loudly remonstrate with a man distributing pro-Castro literature right in front of him.

At any rate, the story of the alleged connection between Lee Harvey Oswald and Rafael Cruz as told and popularized by the National Enquirer is flawed because it rests upon three fundamental factual errors. Contrary to what the Enquirer breathlessly asserts, Cruz was not a “commie;” Oswald was not pro-communist; and Oswald did not assassinate President Kennedy.

Washington Post, Trump’s victory is leading to lunacy in high places, Michael Gerson, May 9, 2016. With the billionaire all but coronated, the GOP is cracking up. This is not even to mention Trump’s pledge to limit press freedom, or his malicious birtherism, or his dangerous vaccine skepticism, or his economic plans that would bring global recession, or his lack of relevant qualifications, or his temperament of brooding and bragging, egotism and self-pity, or his promise to emancipate the world from American leadership, or his accusation that Ted Cruz’s father was somehow involved with Lee Harvey Freaking Oswald.

Mediaite,

.be" target="_blank">CNN’s Stelter Calls Out Trump’s Penchant for ‘Reciting Conspiracy Theories,’ Staff report, May 8, 2016. CNN’s Brian Stelter devoted an entire segment of Reliable Sources today to calling out Donald Trump for pushing conspiracy theories like nobody’s business throughout the entire campaign. “I cringe when I hear Donald Trump reciting conspiracy theories,” Stelter said. “This is harmful no matter how well journalists debunk what he says.” He explained just what a gigantic problem this is for the press when Trump throws stuff out there and hopes it’ll stick. In Trump’s world, Stelter said, there’s no difference between Meet the Press and the National Enquirer.

CTKA (Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy Assassination), Donald Trump, JFK, Oswald and the 2016 Presidential Election, James DiEugenio, Undated, May, 2016. Unexpectedly, the JFK case has been injected into the presidential race this year. The question being posed by Republican candidate Donald Trump is about the father of GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz, Rafael Cruz.

Although the National Enquirer did carry an article on the Cruz/Trump controversy, the original story did not actually begin there. It actually started with Wayne Madsen. Madsen published a story in the April 7th issue of his online journal called the Wayne Madsen Report....From what I could see in this story, Madsen had two pieces of evidence to make the claim with. Cruz was in New Orleans that summer, and he produced a photo of Rafael for comparison purposes. Neither of which comes close to proving the charge.

PaulCraigRoberts.org, When They Killed JFK They Killed America, Paul Craig Roberts (shown in a file photo), May 7, 2016. In the JFK administration I was a White House Fellow. President Kennedy’s intention was Paul Craig Robertsto involve many young Americans in government in order to keep idealism alive as a counter to the material interests of lobby groups.

In my lifetime there has not been another like him. Indeed, today he would be impossible. Conservatives and Republicans did not like him, because he was thoughtful. Their favorite weapon against him was their account of his love life, which according to them involved Mafia molls and Marilyn Monroe. Unlike most presidents, Kennedy was able to break with the conventional thinking of the time. For those of you too young to have experienced John Kennedy and those of you who have forgot his greatness, do yourselves a favor and listen to this 5 minute, 23 second

.

The CIA, the Joint Chiefs, and the Secret Service concluded that JFK was “soft on communism.” So did the Bill Buckley conservatives.

JFK was assassinated because of anti-communist hysteria in the military and security agencies. The Warren Commission was well aware of this. The coverup was necessary because America was locked into a Cold War with the Soviet Union. To put US military, CIA, and Secret Service personnel on trial for murdering the President of the United States would have shaken the confidence of the American people in their own government. Oswald had nothing whatsoever to do with JFK’s assassination. That is why Oswald was himself assassinated inside the Dallas jail before he could be questioned. The evil that resides in Washington does not only kill foreign leaders who try to do the right thing, but also its own.

Facebook, How Trump Did It; The Outside The Box Gambit, Pepe Escobar, May 5, 2016. Pepe Escobar (shown in a file photo) is an experienced reporter on global issues. So why did Ted Cruz simply vanish? From one of my top Beltway sources:

Pepe Escobar“Think outside the box – and beyond the dramatic cable news headlines. The fact that Cruz Sr. never once mentioned suing Nat’l Enquirer over the Oswald claim tells me that there was some element or possibility of truth. The story may have been a shot across the bow or even a kill shot by Trump's campaign letting the Cruzes know there is more where that came from. Checkmate.

There may be a CIA connection too. The story originally broke weeks ago, and Trump saying, “Not too many evangelicals come out of Cuba?”

The Lee Harvey Oswald story is the SOLE reason for Lyin’ Ted’s departure decision. He was campaigning hard in California. He is so stubborn and defiant that he wasn’t ever dropping out, unless something was about to destroy him or his family – something exactly like this story.”

Wayne Madsen Report (WMR), "Lone nutter" JFK conspiracy theorist attacks WMR editor, May 5, 2016. (Subscription required. Excerpted with permission.) Noted JFK "lone nutter" conspiracy theorist Gus Russo, who has written two books on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, penned a venal screed against WMR's editor on the website "JFK Files." The current importance is that shills like Russo, whom this author has known for years, prosper by standing ready at all times to help the establishment pooh-pooh reporting that undermines the official narrative that Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK with no official U.S. government cooperation.

JFK Plot Allegations Against Ted Cruz's Father Rafael

The Blaze, Trump Says He Never Believed JFK-Rafael Cruz Conspiracy Theory, Only Wantd People to Read It, Oliver Darcy, May 4, 2016 ((1:36 min. video). Donald Trump said Wednesday that he never believed Ted Cruz’s father was connected to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, just one day after floating a conspiracy theory which suggested exactly that during an interview on national television.Speaking with CNN host Wolf Blitzer, Trump repeatedly said he never thought the theory he cited held water: “Of course I don’t believe it. I wouldn’t believe it. But I did say, let people read it.”

Just one day prior, Trump floated an unsubstantiated National Enquirer report on “Fox & Friends” that suggested Rafael Cruz was with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the assassination of Kennedy. “What was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the shooting?” Trump asked at the time. Pressed on the subject after Cruz ended his bid for the White House, the presumptive Republican nominee insisted he never believed the theory he floated. “Of course I don’t think that,” he told Blitzer.   

Gawker, Why That Actually Could Be Rafael Cruz With Lee Harvey Oswald, Ashley Feinberg, May 4, 2016. While we do know that Rafael was definitely living in New Orleans by 1967, there’s no definitive record of his location in 1963—so he may very well have been living in New Orleans just months before JFK’s assassination in November of 1963. JIP Editor's note: This column contains astonishing biased claims in keeping with the site's reputation for snark, slander and other shabby reporting, which is why Madsen declined repeated invitations from Gawker to cooperate with its reporter.

Wayne Madsen Report (WMR), Cruz suspends campaign after shellacking in Indiana, Wayne Madsen, May 3, 2016 (Subscription required0. WMR has been told by GOP insiders that there were two main reasons for Cruz's sudden reversal.

Wayne Madsen Report (WMR), Trump refers to Rafael Cruz being with Oswald in New Orleans, Wayne Madsen, May 3, 2016. On the morning of the Indiana primary, GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, appearing on Fox News's "Fox & Friends" morning program, cited Senator Ted Cruz's father, Rafael, being seen and photographed with accused President John F. Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald in New Orleans in August 1963. Trump was referring to a story first broken by WMR and further advanced by the National Enquirer, the popular supermarket tabloid known for scooping the mainstream media on the Gennifer Flowers/Bill Clinton, Donna Rice/Gary Hart, and Rielle Hunter/John Edwards scandals.

Politico, Trump accuses Cruz's father of helping JFK's assassin, Nolan D. McCaskill, May 3, 2016. Donald Trump on Tuesday alleged that Ted Cruz’s father was with John F. Kennedy’s assassin shortly before he murdered the president, parroting a National Enquirer story claiming that Rafael Cruz was pictured with Lee Harvey Oswald handing out pro-Fidel Castro pamphlets in New Orleans in 1963. A Cruz campaign spokesperson told the Miami Herald, which pointed out numerous flaws in the Enquirer story, that it was “another garbage story in a tabloid full of garbage.”

Trump’s tangent followed his rebuke of Rafael Cruz using the pulpit to court evangelicals for his son.

“I implore, I exhort every member of the body of Christ to vote according to the word of God and vote for the candidate that stands on the word of God and on the Constitution of the United States of America,” Rafael Cruz said in a video clip aired by Fox News. “And I am convinced that man is my son, Ted Cruz. The alternative could be the destruction of America.”

Asked to respond, Trump called it a disgrace. “I think it’s a disgrace that he’s allowed to do it. I think it’s a disgrace that he’s allowed to say it,” he said, before touting his support from Jerry Falwell Jr. and other evangelical leaders.

“You look at so many of the ministers that are backing me, and they’re backing me more so than they’re backing Cruz, and I’m winning the evangelical vote,” Trump continued. “It's disgraceful that his father can go out and do that. And just — and so many people are angry about it. And the evangelicals are angry about it, the way he does that.”

“But I think it's horrible,” he added. “I think it's absolutely horrible that a man can go and do that, what he's saying there.”

Sean Hannity Show, Trump Doubles Down on Cruz-Oswald Connection, Sean Hannity, May 3, 2016.