Project Launches JFK Assassination Readers' Guide

The Justice Integrity Project will provide a consumer guide this fall to the many books and events surrounding the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas on Nov. 22, 1963.

One publisher alone, New York-based Skyhorse, is marketing 42 new books disputing the 1964 Warren Commission Report that assigned blame to Lee Harvey Oswald, age 24, acting alone.

Yet the New York Times recently affirmed the official report, in effect, by publishing a review of multiple new books by a regular reviewer who flatly stated (without addressing new evidence) that Oswald was the killer, acting alone.

A list of this year's new books is below, to be augmented with analysis of explosive new evidence. We'll feature also those books, some with major marketing behind them, defending the Warren Commission.

New research continues to cascade forth that is relevant also to the themes of my own new book, Presidential Puppetry: Obama, Romney and Their Masters. The president and his late wife, Jacqueline, are shown at right in a file photo via Creative Commons landing in Dallas before the fatal motorcade.

On Oct. 17, I attended the Passing the Torch conference on the topic organized by famed forensic pathologist Cyril H. Wecht at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

The longtime coroner and medical school professor Wecht, left, author or co-author of 46 books and 575 professional articles on medical and legal topics, is one of the nation's leading critics of the Warren Commission Report. He has convened other scholars for the multiday conference on the unique occasion of such an important anniversary. I'm attending also similar gatherings in Dallas that begin on Nov. 22.

On Oct. 14, author and University of Virginia professor Larry Sabato illustrated the more conventional view of the tragedy by launching a new book at the Newseum in Washington, DC. Sabato shared the platform with former local police officer James C. Bowles, who managed police communication at the time of the assassination. Bowles and Sabato sought to debunk what they described as a prominent theory regarding voice recording of multiple shots supposedly captured on a device called the "dictabell."

“People still can't believe the murder of a great man could be carried out so simply by an idiot,” Bowles said as Sabato agreed, according to a WJLA-TV news report of the conference. “The House Select Committee (came to) a conclusion that this dictabell recordings prove a conspiracy -- they do nothing of the sort,” Sabato said.

Yet a major poll this year by the Associated Press found, Belief in JFK assassination conspiracy still strong. 

According to the AP-Roper survey conducted in mid-April, 59 percent of Americans think multiple people were involved in a conspiracy to kill the president, while 24 percent think Oswald acted alone, and 16 percent are unsure. A 2003 Gallup poll found that 75 percent of Americans felt there was a conspiracy.  The Oswald-acted-alone results, meanwhile, are the highest since the period three years after the assassination, when 36 percent said one man was responsible for Kennedy’s death.

Events

Passing the Torch, Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA, Oct. 17-19. Following up on its world-renowned 40th anniversary conference, the Wecht Institute hosted many of the leading scientific, legal and investigative experts on the murder case that has fascinated and perplexed us for decades. As the JFK assassination and many of its witnesses, investigators and researchers begin to recede into history, this symposium is intended to educate students, professionals and the general public alike about one of the seminal events of 20th century American history, and why it still matters today.

First day speakers include:

Welcome, Benjamin E. Wecht, M.A., Frederick W. Fochtman, Ph.D., Cyril H. Wecht, M.D., J.D., Andrew E. Masich, President and CEO, Senator John Heinz History Center.

Why the Study of the JFK Assassination Continues … and Should, Larry J. Sabato, Ph.D.

Last Second in Dallas: A Micro-Study of the Assassination, Josiah Thompson, Ph.D., and Keith Fitzgerald

Absolute Proof: A Photographic Analysis of the JFK Assassination, Robert J. Groden

An Acoustic Analysis of Witness Reports in the JFK Assassination (A Gunman Near JFK?) and Tim Nicholson

Double Talk: Synchronization of the Acoustical Evidence and the JFK Assassination

Imaging Properties of the Bell & Howell 414PD Camera, Donald Thomas, Ph.D.

Implications for Authenticity of the Zapruder Film, Jeffrey Sundberg, MSEE, M.S.

The President's Autopsy: A Forensic Pathological and Medical-Legal Critique; The Harper Fragment Redux: A Panel Discussion, Cyril H. Wecht, M.D., J.D., David W. Mantik, M.D., Ph.D., Pat Speer.

The View From Trauma Room One, Robert N. McClelland, M.D. (by videoconference)

PBS Screening of "JFK" and Panel Discussion, National Press Club, Washington, DC, Oct. 30, 2013. A panel discussed John F. Kennedy’s life and presidency by showing clips from an upcoming film JFK, premiering in November 2013 on PBS in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the president’s death. The panel will also examine how the press treated Kennedy and how the media’s treatment of presidents has changed throughout the years. Participants will include: Susan Bellows, right, the film's producer and director; Evan Thomas, journalist and best-selling author of Robert Kennedy: His Life; and Sally Bedell Smith, journalist and best-selling author of Grace and Power: The Private World of the Kennedy White House.

National Press Club, Where were you when Kennedy was shot? NPC retrospective on assassination anniversary Nov. 4, Gil Klein, Four journalists who went on to prominent careers will share their experiences in Dallas on Nov. 22 1963 when Lee Harvey Oswald’s shots changed their lives – and the life of the nation – at a retrospective panel 6:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at the National Press Club. CBS News Senior Correspondent Bob Schieffer was a cub reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram when he answered a phone call from Lee Harvey Oswald’s mother, asking for a ride to Dallas to see her son. PBS NewsHour anchor Jim Lehrer covered the arrival of Air Force One for the Dallas Times Herald before being plunged into the day’s events that took him to Parkland Hospital and the Dallas police headquarters. Retired Hearst columnist Marianne Means was the only female reporter in the motorcade when the shots rang out. Sid Davis, a radio correspondent for Westinghouse, recalls counting those shots as they were fired, and ended the day as the radio pool reporter witnessing Lyndon Johnson being sworn in aboard Air Force One on the way back to Washington. Davis went on to be a vice president and Washington bureau chief for NBC News. The event is sponsored by the Club’s History and Heritage Committee and will be moderated by its chairman, Gil Klein, a Club past president and a journalism professor at American University’s Washington Semester Program.

JFK Lancer, Dallas, TX, Nov. 21-24, 2013. LANCER was John F. Kennedy's Secret Service Code name. Use of this formerly secret name represents our efforts to make John F. Kennedy's assassination information available to everyone.  For the last 19 years, JFK Lancer has gathered people together in Dallas to commemorate John F. Kennedy's life and assassination. The encouragement, camaraderie, and sharing of exciting new research gives us momentum and motivation, keeping us on the cutting edge of historical research. This is a special invitation to join us for our 19th annual conference, to continue our work and plan for the observance of the 50th anniversary of the assassination. JFK Lancer Productions & Publications is a historical research company specializing in the administration and assassination of President John F. Kennedy, founded in 1995 by Thomas A. Jones and Debra J. Conway. JFK Lancer subscribes to the values of patriotism, excellence, integrity and dedication to the revealing of truth surrounding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The goal of JFK Lancer is to make research materials concerning President John F. Kennedy's assassination easily available to everyone. Our prime concern is the accuracy of history and the true story of the turbulent 1960s. We believe these basic facts in the assassination of President Kennedy and the wounding of Governor John Connally:

•         There was more than one shooter
•         There has not been a true or complete investigation of this crime by our government
•         Intelligence Agencies did not give those investigatory bodies the information they should have the assassination case is still open and research should be ongoing.

Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA), Dallas, TX, Nov. 22-24, 2013. COPA is currently planning the 20th annual conference in Dallas which will mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy and the 45th anniversaries of the murders of Robert F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King. The theme is: “50 Years is Enough! Free the Files – Find the Truth.” Featured are the leading researchers, authors, ballistics, forensic and medical experts who have worked on these cases over the last five decades and the best documentary films. We plan to hold our Moment of Silence on the Grassy Knoll at 12:30 pm on November 22 as we have for the past 49 years. Among the confirmed speakers are Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, JD, MD (our founding president), Walt Brown, Peter Dale Scott, Jesse Ventura, Dr. Gary Aguilar, Robert Groden, David Talbot, Dick Russell, Russ Baker, Joan Mellen, Dr. Ernst Titovets (Oswald’s best friend), Jefferson Morley, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Baba Zak Kondo, Bill Kelly, Bill Simpich, Andrew Kiel, Chris Pike, Kenn Thomas, Stan Weeber, Wayne Smith, Ben Rogers, Edward Curtin, Michael Calder, Bill Holiday, Mel Barney and many others. Organizers include John Judge and Rob Morrow.

Oswald Innocence Campaign, Santa Barbara, CA, Nov. 22, 2013. Members' Statement: We, the members of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, maintain that at the time of President Kennedy's assassination, Lee Harvey Oswald was standing in the doorway of the Texas School Book Depository, where he was photographed by James "Ike" Altgens, which is clearly evident upon close examination of the photograph. This discovery categorically exonerates Oswald from having shot the President. We call upon the media to renounce the official story that impugns him -- including the "Magic Bullet" theory, which is a conspiratorial fabrication -- and we demand that the American government cease obstructing justice by promoting a gross falsehood, based on lies, which has allowed the true killers to remain free, unindicted, and unpunished.

Silent Vigil for JFK Records Release, Washington Monument, Washington, DC, Nov. 22, 2013.

Selected New JFK Assassination Videos, Films, DVDs

The Untold History of the United States, Director: Oliver Stone. Writers: Oliver Stone, Peter Kuznick, Matt Graham. Producers: Oliver Stone, Tara Tremaine, Rob Wilson, Carlos Guillermo, Chris Hanley.
 

Selected Past JFK Assassination Videos, Films, DVDs

Evidence of Revision. Terrence Redmond. Etymon Productions, 2011.

Executive Action. Starring Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan and Will Geer. Written by Dalton Trumbo, Donald Freed and Mark Lane, and directed by David Miller. 1973. As described in Wikipedia: The film opened to a storm of controversy over the depiction of the assassination: in some places in the U.S., the film ran only 1 to 2 weeks in movie theaters or got pulled from them altogether. The movie was part fiction, but it would contest other reports of the assassination, including the controversial Warren Commission report of 1964, which led to attacks against the film. The trailers for the film never ran on certain television stations, including WNBC-TV in New York City. The criticism of the film and its suggestion of a Military-industrial complex conspiracy led to the film being removed totally from the movie theaters by early December 1973 and getting no TV/Video runs until the 1980s and mid-1990s, when it got legal release and distribution for TV and video. The film was originally released on November 7, 1973, almost two weeks before the tenth anniversary of the JFK Assassination. Donald Sutherland has been credited as having the idea for the film and for hiring Freed and Lane to write the screenplay.

Into EVIDENCE: Truth, Lies and Unresolved Mysteries in the Murder of JFK November 22, 1963: A Reference Guide to the JFK Assassination. From the National Symposium to Commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the JFK Assassination at the Cyril H.Wecht Institute of Forensic Science and Law, Forensic Sciences and Law Education Group, Duquesne University, a Corton Production, 2004.

JFK. Producer and Director Susan Bellows. JFK premieres on American Experience on Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 11-12, 2013, 9:00-11:00 p.m. ET on PBS.

JFK, Directed by Oliver Stone, 1991.

Jim Garrison Tapes, The. John Barbour, Blue Ridge/Film Trust, 1992.

Mysterious Death of Number 35, The. Directed by Braddon Mendelson. Noisevision Productions, 2008.

Untold History of the United States, The, Director: Oliver Stone. Writers: Oliver Stone, Peter Kuznick, Matt Graham. Producers: Oliver Stone, Tara Tremaine, Rob Wilson, Carlos Guillermo, Chris Hanley.

Related News Coverage

Washington Post, Five myths about John F. Kennedy, Larry J. Sabato, Nov. 13, 2013. Larry J. Sabato is director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics. His latest book is “The Kennedy Half-Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy.”  Myth: Fifty years later, we know everything we’ll ever know about Kennedy’s assassination. Even a half-century later, we don’t have the complete story. This is because many government documents remain classified and hidden. Reputable groups and individuals have estimated that there are 1,171 unreleased CIA documents concerning Nov. 22, 1963. The Center for Effective Government has even claimed that there may be more than 1 million unseen CIA records related to Kennedy’s assassination. No one can close the book on this subject without examining them. The Assassination Records Collection Act, signed by President George H.W. Bush in 1992, requires that all remaining documents about the Kennedy assassination be released by Oct. 26, 2017. The next president will rule on any requests from the CIA and other agencies that materials be withheld or redacted after 2017. Under the law, the president can do so only if there is “identifiable harm to military, defense, intelligence operations, or conduct of foreign relations, and the identifiable harm is of such gravity that it outweighs the public interest in disclosure.”

Esquire, The Flight from Dallas, Chris Jones, Sept. 16, 2013 (October Issue). From noon to dusk on November 22, 1963, history went dark, locked inside the closed and crowded cabin of Air Force One. Fifty years later, what happened after JFK died has fully come to light. Colonel James Swindal, a handsome forty-six-year-old carpenter's son from Alabama and the pilot of Air Force One, sits in the communications shack behind his cockpit, pushing back a roast-beef sandwich. Two million dollars' worth of the latest technology buzzes around him, teletype machines and radios and three separate phone patches.

AP, New poll finds that belief in JFK assassination conspiracy still strong, but slipping slightly, AP staff, including AP Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta and News Survey Specialist Dennis Junius, May 18, 2013. A clear majority of Americans still suspect there was a conspiracy behind President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, but the percentage who believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone is at its highest level since the mid-1960s, according to a new Associated Press-GfK poll. Cheryl Casati, 62, who retired from the Air Force after 20 years, watched it all unfold on television back in November 1963. She said she’s “extremely sure” there was a conspiracy. The killing of Oswald, the accused shooter, just days after the assassination is part of the reason why. ”There’s too many holes in explanations,” the Phoenix-area woman said. “That just could not have happened easily in that time and place. And (Jack) Ruby shooting (Oswald) could not have happened as easily as it did.”  Pat Sicinski sees it differently. She and her husband recently visited the Texas School Book Depository in Dallas. Looking out the sixth-floor window from which Oswald allegedly fired on Kennedy’s motorcade helped reaffirm the retired school employee’s faith in the Warren Commission conclusion that Oswald was the lone gunman. ”Some skepticism is always justified,” the 68-year-old Houston-area woman said. “I just think when people take it to extremes, they lose me.” According to the AP-GfK Roper survey, conducted in mid-April, 59 percent of Americans think multiple people were involved in a conspiracy to kill the president, while 24 percent think Oswald acted alone, and 16 percent are unsure. A 2003 Gallup poll found that 75 percent of Americans felt there was a conspiracy.  The Oswald-acted-alone results, meanwhile, are the highest since the period three years after the assassination, when 36 percent said one man was responsible for Kennedy’s death.

Wall Street Journal, For JFK Authors, the Truth Is, Conspiracy Theories Sell Lots of Books; 50th Anniversary of Assassination Prompts Torrent of Words, Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, June 2, 2013. When it comes to President John F. Kennedy's assassination, no word has been left unturned. As the 50th anniversary draws near, some might think there is little left to say. That turns out not to be the case. Skyhorse Publishing is issuing eight new titles, flanked by 17 reprints. The publisher started the year with 12 JFK-related titles, which means it will have 37 by year's end. Bowker's Books In Print says nearly 1,400 titles related to President Kennedy, including his assassination, conspiracy works, biographies and speeches, have been published in the U.S. over the past five decades. By comparison, the company says there were more than 3,300 titles related to Abraham Lincoln published during the same period, and nearly 800 about the Titanic. Many of the Skyhorse works have vivid titles, among them Mark North's "Act of Treason: The Role of J. Edgar Hoover in the Assassination of President Kennedy" and Patrick Nolan's "CIA Rogues and the Killing of the Kennedys."

WJLA-TV (Washington, DC), Larry Sabato unveils new revelations on JFK assassination, Oct. 15, 2013. University of Virginia professor and political pundit Larry Sabato shared his revelations at the Newseum a detailed timeline of events in Dallas almost fifty years ago. It includes actual correspondence from local police such as former officer James C. Bowles, who managed police communication at the time of the assassination. He accompanied Sabato as he shared some of his discoveries. First up was debunking a prominent theory. “People still can't believe the murder of a great man could be carried out so simply by an idiot,” Bowles says. Sabato agreed. “The House Select Committee (came to) a conclusion that this dictabell recordings prove a conspiracy -- they do nothing of the sort,” Sabato says. Sabato believes other sounds are not shots but possibly a train or a motorcycle engine. After scouring police reports from the assassination Sabato found references to individuals on the grassy knoll with Secret Service ID's. But he says he discovered they were not government agents. “There were several Dallas policemen who reported seeing these people with credentials and this was immediately after the assassination and they were on the grassy knoll,” he says. To find out more about these and other mysteries Sabato urges people to read his book. At a local seller, none of the recent Kennedy books appeared to be flying off the shelves.

JFK Facts, JFK Book Takes Aim at Acoustics Evidence, Jefferson Morley, Oct. 10, 2013. As reported in Politico, pundit Larry Sabato’s new JFK book discounts the idea that the sound of the gunfire that killed JFK was recorded. II’ll be speaking in a panel discussion of the book, “The Kennedy Half Century” at the Newseum in Washington.  If you want to know more about this complex subject, here’s a good primer on the “acoustics evidence,” courtesy of MaryFerrell.org.

AL.com, JFK assassination researcher says conspiracy theory doesn't hold water, Debbie M. Lord, Oct. 14, 2013. A political scientist from the University of Virginia is disputing the theory that suggests Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, saying audio evidence purportedly of a fourth gunshot from somewhere in Dealey Plaza is flawed. Sabato has written a new book on the assassination, The Kennedy Half Century: The Presidency, Assassination, and Lasting Legacy of John F. Kennedy.

USA Today, Wolff: JFK and 50 years of conspiracy, Michael Wolff, Oct. 13, 2013. Edward Jay Epstein is the journalist who opened the Pandora's Box of conspiracy theories in 1966. Edward Jay Epstein is the first journalist to have investigated the official accounts of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He remains the only one to have interviewed all the members of the Warren Commission — the ad hoc group of political heavies impaneled by then-president Lyndon Johnson to lay to rest all questions in the case — save for Chief Justice Earl Warren himself. Epstein's book, Inquest, published in 1966, arguably began the modern conspiracy business. The JFK Assassination Diary: My Search for Answers to the Mystery of the Century, his contemporaneous account of his byplay with the commission's members and staff — and later efforts to see the trees though the conspiracy theories — has just been published in time for next month's 50th anniversary of the great crime.

Hollywood Reporter, JFK Docs Draw on New Footage, Staff report, August, 2013. The picture they [PBS filmmakers] paint avoids the assassination and pop culture moments.

JFK Facts, Top 5 JFK files Brennan should make public, Jefferson Morley, Feb. 5, 2013. As confirmation hearings for John Brennan as the new director of the CIA get underway this week, the Senate and the public face basic issues of trust and transparency. How does the director of a necessarily secretive multi-billion-dollar agency retain public trust and maintain accountability within the democratically elected government? One way is to come clean on the JFK story, especially the role of top CIA officials in the JFK story. The assassination of President John F. Kennedy is an important symbolic test of the CIA’s credibility. A poll taken in 2003 found 34 percent of respondents held the agency responsible for JFK’s death. There’s no “smoking gun” proof of a JFK conspiracy, but there is a pattern of suspicious activity on the part of some senior CIA operatives that has never been clarified. As Robert F. Kennedy Jr, recently said in Dallas, even his father Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy privately feared “rogue CIA” operatives were involved in his brother’s assassination. In the face of such widespread doubts, the CIA’s best option in 2013 — its only politically realistic option — is to be transparent, especially about one of Brennan’s most controversial predecessors, the late Richard Helms, the director of the CIA from 1967 to 1973.

JFKFacts.org, Morley v. CIA: Why I sued for JFK assassination records, Jefferson Morley, Feb. 23, 2013. In reporting on my Feb. 25 federal court date with the CIA, I explained the goals of my Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking certain ancient JFK assassination records. But a friend noted that I hadn’t really explained my theory of the case. I get these questions a lot. What the hell is Morley v. CIA all about? What are you saying happened in Dealey Plaza? What do you think was really going on? And, inevitably, what’s your theory? I usually shy away from answering such questions because the lawsuit seeks to answer them. Until I have all the evidence, it is not really my job as a journalist to speculate or guess. And it is the CIA’s obligation under the law to release the records, if they are related to JFK’s assassination. But with U.S. government officials impugning my professionalism, I realize I should explain in more detail why — and how — the documents I seek are related to JFK’s assassination. My contention is that at least some of the files I seek are related to JFK’s assassination. If this claim is correct, then certain CIA officials are violating the law in 2013....I have sought to clarify the issue through official channels without success. The staff of the National Archives is responsible for enforcing the JFK Records Act. At my request, interested Archives staffers asked the CIA for permission to review the Joannides files. The CIA refused, saying the matter is under litigation, referring to my case. The audacity of the CIA is impressive, or appalling, depending on your politics. The agency cites my lawsuit seeking release of certain ancient JFK files as a way of preventing the National Archives from enforcing the JFK Records Act, which requires release of such documents.

Huffington Post, JFK at 49: What We Know for Sure, Jefferson Morley, Nov. 22, 2012. Nov. 22 marks the 49th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. The memory of the tragedy in Dallas seems to be fading in America's collective consciousness. Few people younger than myself (I'm 54) have any memory of the day it actually happened. 9/11 has certainly replaced 11/22 as the time stamp of American catastrophic angst. Yet the JFK story still acts as a gravitational vortex in America's pop culture galaxy.

Conservative Intelligence Briefing, Kennedy Assassination, Staff report, Jan. 25, 2013. Conservative Intelligence Briefing is proud to announce a partnership with Harper Polling. Starting with a poll this week that covers everything from Obama to the Kennedy Assassination, Harper Polling will be providing several polls through Conservative Intelligence Briefing a month. Last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized the findings of the Warren Commission’s official account of his uncle’s assassination. He claimed his father, the President’s brother, called the Commission a “shoddy piece of craftsmanship” and was himself convinced others were involved beyond Lee Harvey Oswald. Since every voting-age American has written a school report on President Kennedy’s assassination, we thought we’d survey an educated audience. 

Catching Our Attention on other Justice, Media & Integrity Issues

Huffington Post, Government Shutdown: Congress Votes To End Funding, Debt Standoff, Michael McAuliff and Sabrina Siddiqui, Oct. 16, 2013. The government shutdown is dead. Obamacare is alive. The Senate voted 81 to 18 Wednesday night to reopen the federal government and raise the nation's borrowing limit, hours before the Treasury Department faced the possibility of being unable to pay all of America's bills for the first time in modern history. The House followed suit, voting 285-144, to end the latest damaging battle of divided government in a polarized Congress. President Barack Obama said he would reopen the government immediately to "lift this cloud of uncertainty and unease" that settled on the nation and start fixing the damage.

OpEd News, Coleen Rowley-- Just Back from Meeting With Ed Snowden in Moscow, Rob Kall, Oct. 15, 2013. Coleen Rowley is a retired FBI agent and former chief division counsel in Minneapolis. She's now a dedicated peace and justice activist and board member of the Women Against Military Madness. Rob Kall: My rough interview notes -- mostly my questions. RK: You recently traveled to Moscow to present an award to Edward Snowden. Can you tell us about the award?" Sam Adam Associates for Integrity in Intelligence. RK: What was the setting? Ray McGovern, Tom Drake, Jessalyn Radick presented the award with Coleen Rowley. What did you learn from Snowden? Snowden would like to see the Patriot Act and the FISA amendments repealed (portions) It's interesting that the legislation was by Justin Amash, a tea party member. 

OpEd News, Edward Snowden's Brave Integrity, Ray McGovern, Oct. 15, 2013. Ray McGovern, left, is a peace activist and former career CIA officer whose agency duties included assisting in the daily briefings for two presidents. President Obama says he welcomes the debate on post-9/11 surveillance of Americans and the world, but that debate was only made meaningful by the disclosures of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, who was then indicted and sought asylum in Russia, where he just met with some ex-U.S. intelligence officials, including Ray McGovern.

BBC, Ex-Halliburton manager admits destroying oil spill data, Staff report, Oct. 15, 2013. The Deepwater Horizon rig blast led to a massive oil spill. An ex-manager of US energy services giant Halliburton has admitted destroying evidence linked to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Anthony Badalamenti, 62, pleaded guilty in a US district court, and faces a maximum sentence of a year in prison. The disaster -- the biggest offshore oil spill in US history -- was caused by an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig, which killed 11 people.

Washington Post, As Hillary Clinton rakes in awards, is this her pre-campaign campaign? Philip Rucker, Oct. 15, 2013. While she weighs a presidential run, the former secretary of state has picked up at least 15 awards.

OpEdNews, Stand Up Americans! Paul Craig Roberts, left, Oct. 15, 2013. In less than 2 days, if the Treasury secretary can be believed, the Treasury will not have enough money to pay all its bills and will have to prioritize. This doesn't mean default, as interest on Treasury bonds, notes, and bills will be right up there with the military and NSA. If Washington defaults on its bonds, Washington's power will be gone with the wind regardless of whether the Treasury pays the military. Whatever the outcome, Washington has already cooked its goose. Washington's prestige and credibility have been hammered. China, Washington's largest foreign creditor, has responded to Washington's inability to govern itself with a call for a de-Americanized world. The state news agency, speaking for the Chinese government, said that the "days when the destinies of others are in the hands of a hypocritical nation have to be terminated, and a new world order should be put in place."

Truthdig via OpEd News, The Folly of Empire, Chris Hedges, left, Oct. 14, 2013. A nation that was still rooted in reality would never glorify charlatans such as Sen. Ted Cruz, House Speaker John Boehner and former Speaker Newt Gingrich as they pollute the airwaves. If we had any idea what was really happening to us we would have turned in fury against Barack Obama, right, whose signature legacy will be utter capitulation to the demands of Wall Street, the fossil fuel industry, the military-industrial complex and the security and surveillance state. We would have rallied behind those few, such as Ralph Nader, who denounced a monetary system based on gambling and the endless printing of money and condemned the willful wrecking of the ecosystem. We would have mutinied. We would have turned the ship back. The populations of dying empires are passive because they are lotus-eaters. There is a narcotic-like reverie among those barreling toward oblivion. They retreat into the sexual, the tawdry and the inane, retreats that are momentarily pleasurable but ensure self-destruction. They naively trust it will all work out. It is collective self-delusion, a retreat into magical thinking.

Washington Post, NSA collects millions of e-mail address books globally, Barton Gellman and Ashkan Soltani, Oct. 14, 2013. The National Security Agency is harvesting hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts around the world, many of them belonging to Americans, according to senior intelligence officials and top secret documents provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The collection program, which has not been disclosed before, intercepts e-mail address books and “buddy lists” from instant messaging services as they move across global data links. Online services often transmit those contacts when a user logs on, composes a message, or synchronizes a computer or mobile device with information stored on remote servers. During a single day last year, the NSA’s Special Source Operations branch collected 444,743 e-mail address books from Yahoo, 105,068 from Hotmail, 82,857 from Facebook, 33,697 from Gmail and 22,881 from unspecified other providers, according to an internal NSA PowerPoint presentation. Those figures, described as a typical daily intake in the document, correspond to a rate of more than 250 million per year.

Guardian via OpEdNews, The Perfect Epitaph For Establishment Journalism, Glenn Greenwald, Oct. 14, 2013. Like many people, I've spent years writing and speaking about the lethal power-subservient pathologies plaguing establishment journalism in the west. But this morning, I feel a bit like all of that was wasted time and energy, because this new column by career British journalist Chris Blackhurst -- an executive with and, until a few months ago, the editor of the UK daily calling itself "The Independent" -- contains a headline that says everything that needs to be said about the sickly state of establishment journalism: "If MI5 warns that this is not in the public interest who am I to disbelieve them?" says the former editor of The Independent. In other words, if the government tells me I shouldn't publish something, who am I as a journalist to disobey? Put that on the tombstone of western establishment journalism. It perfectly encapsulates the death spiral of large journalistic outlets.

Huffington Post, Glenn Greenwald Leaving The Guardian For 'Momentous' New Venture, Jack Mirkinson, Oct. 14, 2013. Glenn Greenwald is leaving the Guardian for a new, as-yet-undescribed website, BuzzFeed reported Tuesday.  Greenwald did not specify what his new project would look like, describing it only as a "momentous new venture" and a "once-in-a-career-dream journalistic opportunity that no journalist could possibly decline." He said that the site would be a general-interest outlet, that he would be responsible for its journalism output, and that it had substantial money behind it.