JOHN F. KENNEDY APRIL 27, 1961 SPEECH

The President and the Press: American Newspaper Publishers Association

Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen:

I appreciate very much your generous invitation to be here tonight.

You bear heavy responsibilities these days and an article I read some time ago reminded me of how particularly heavily the burdens of present day events bear upon your profession.

You may remember that in 1851 the New York Herald Tribune under the sponsorship and publishing of Horace Greeley, employed as its London correspondent an obscure journalist by the name of Karl Marx.

We are told that foreign correspondent Marx, stone broke, and with a family ill and undernourished, constantly appealed to Greeley and managing editor Charles Dana for an increase in his munificent salary of $5 per installment, a salary which he and Engels ungratefully labeled as the “lousiest petty bourgeois cheating.”

But when all his financial appeals were refused, Marx looked around for other means of livelihood and fame, eventually terminating his relationship with the Tribune and devoting his talents full time to the cause that would bequeath to the world the seeds of Leninism, Stalinism, revolution and the cold war.

If only this capitalistic New York newspaper had treated him more kindly; if only Marx had remained a foreign correspondent, history might have been different. And I hope all publishers will bear this lesson in mind the next time they receive a poverty-stricken appeal for a small increase in the expense account from an obscure newspaper man.

I have selected as the title of my remarks tonight “The President and the Press.” Some may suggest that this would be more naturally worded “The President Versus the Press.” But those are not my sentiments tonight.

It is true, however, that when a well-known diplomat from another country demanded recently that our State Department repudiate certain newspaper attacks on his colleague it was unnecessary for us to reply that this Administration was not responsible for the press, for the press had already made it clear that it was not responsible for this Administration.

Nevertheless, my purpose here tonight is not to deliver the usual assault on the so-called one party press. On the contrary, in recent months I have rarely heard any complaints about political bias in the press except from a few Republicans. Nor is it my purpose tonight to discuss or defend the televising of Presidential press conferences. I think it is highly beneficial to have some 20,000,000 Americans regularly sit in on these conferences to observe, if I may say so, the incisive, the intelligent and the courteous qualities displayed by your Washington correspondents.

Nor, finally, are these remarks intended to examine the proper degree of privacy which the press should allow to any President and his family.

If in the last few months your White House reporters and photographers have been attending church services with regularity, that has surely done them no harm.

On the other hand, I realize that your staff and wire service photographers may be complaining that they do not enjoy the same green privileges at the local golf courses which they once did.

It is true that my predecessor did not object as I do to pictures of one’s golfing skill in action. But neither on the other hand did he ever bean a Secret Service man.

My topic tonight is a more sober one of concern to publishers as well as editors.

I want to talk about our common responsibilities in the face of a common danger. The events of recent weeks may have helped to illuminate that challenge for some; but the dimensions of its threat have loomed large on the horizon for many years. Whatever our hopes may be for the future–for reducing this threat or living with it–there is no escaping either the gravity or the totality of its challenge to our survival and to our security–a challenge that confronts us in unaccustomed ways in every sphere of human activity.

This deadly challenge imposes upon our society two requirements of direct concern both to the press and to the President–two requirements that may seem almost contradictory in tone, but which must be reconciled and fulfilled if we are to meet this national peril. I refer, first, to the need for far greater public information; and, second, to the need for far greater official secrecy.

The very word “secrecy” is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. Even today, there is little value in opposing the threat of a closed society by imitating its arbitrary restrictions. Even today, there is little value in insuring the survival of our nation if our traditions do not survive with it. And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning to the very limits of official censorship and concealment. That I do not intend to permit to the extent that it’s in my control. And no official of my Administration, whether his rank is high or low, civilian or military, should interpret my words here tonight as an excuse to censor the news, to stifle dissent, to cover up our mistakes or to withhold from the press and the public the facts they deserve to know.

But I do ask every publisher, every editor, and every newsman in the nation to reexamine his own standards, and to recognize the nature of our country’s peril. In time of war, the government and the press have customarily joined in an effort based largely on self-discipline, to prevent unauthorized disclosures to the enemy. In times of “clear and present danger,” the courts have held that even the privileged rights of the First Amendment must yield to the public’s need for national security.

Today no war has been declared and however fierce the struggle may be, it may never be declared in the traditional fashion. Our way of life is under attack. Those who make themselves our enemy are advancing around the globe. The survival of our friends is in danger. And yet no war has been declared, no borders have been crossed by marching troops, no missiles have been fired.

If the press is awaiting a declaration of war before it imposes the self-discipline of combat conditions, then I can only say that no war ever posed a greater threat to our security. If you are awaiting a finding of “clear and present danger,” then I can only say that the danger has never been more clear and its presence has never been more imminent.

It requires a change in outlook, a change in tactics, a change in missions–by the government, by the people, by every businessman or labor leader, and by every newspaper. For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies primarily on covert means for expanding its sphere of influence–on infiltration instead of invasion, on subversion instead of elections, on intimidation instead of free choice, on guerrillas by night instead of armies by day. It is a system which has conscripted vast human and material resources into the building of a tightly knit, highly efficient machine that combines military, diplomatic, intelligence, economic, scientific and political operations.

Its preparations are concealed, not published. Its mistakes are buried, not headlined. Its dissenters are silenced, not praised. No expenditure is questioned, no rumor is printed, no secret is revealed. It conducts the Cold War, in short, with a war-time discipline no democracy would ever hope or wish to match.

Nevertheless, every democracy recognizes the necessary restraints of national security–and the question remains whether those restraints need to be more strictly observed if we are to oppose this kind of attack as well as outright invasion.

For the facts of the matter are that this nation’s foes have openly boasted of acquiring through our newspapers information they would otherwise hire agents to acquire through theft, bribery or espionage; that details of this nation’s covert preparations to counter the enemy’s covert operations have been available to every newspaper reader, friend and foe alike; that the size, the strength, the location and the nature of our forces and weapons, and our plans and strategy for their use, have all been pinpointed in the press and other news media to a degree sufficient to satisfy any foreign power; and that, in at least in one case, the publication of details concerning a secret mechanism whereby satellites were followed required its alteration at the expense of considerable time and money.

The newspapers which printed these stories were loyal, patriotic, responsible and well-meaning. Had we been engaged in open warfare, they undoubtedly would not have published such items. But in the absence of open warfare, they recognized only the tests of journalism and not the tests of national security. And my question tonight is whether additional tests should not now be adopted.

That question is for you alone to answer. No public official should answer it for you. No governmental plan should impose its restraints against your will. But I would be failing in my duty to the nation, in considering all of the responsibilities that we now bear and all of the means at hand to meet those responsibilities, if I did not commend this problem to your attention, and urge its thoughtful consideration.

On many earlier occasions, I have said–and your newspapers have constantly said–that these are times that appeal to every citizen’s sense of sacrifice and self-discipline. They call out to every citizen to weigh his rights and comforts against his obligations to the common good. I cannot now believe that those citizens who serve in the newspaper business consider themselves exempt from that appeal.

I have no intention of establishing a new Office of War Information to govern the flow of news. I am not suggesting any new forms of censorship or new types of security classifications. I have no easy answer to the dilemma that I have posed, and would not seek to impose it if I had one. But I am asking the members of the newspaper profession and the industry in this country to reexamine their own responsibilities, to consider the degree and the nature of the present danger, and to heed the duty of self-restraint which that danger imposes upon us all.

Every newspaper now asks itself, with respect to every story: “Is it news?” All I suggest is that you add the question: “Is it in the interest of the national security?” And I hope that every group in America–unions and businessmen and public officials at every level will ask the same question of their endeavors, and subject their actions to the same exacting tests.

And should the press of America consider and recommend the voluntary assumption of specific new steps or machinery, I can assure you that we will cooperate whole-heartedly with those recommendations.

Perhaps there will be no recommendations. Perhaps there is no answer to the dilemma faced by a free and open society in a cold and secret war. In times of peace, any discussion of this subject, and any action that results, are both painful and without precedent. But this is a time of peace and peril which knows no precedent in history.

It is the unprecedented nature of this challenge that also gives rise to your second obligation–an obligation which I share and that is our obligation to inform and alert the American people to make certain that they possess all the facts that they need, and understand them as well–the perils, the prospects, the purposes of our program and the choices that we face.

No President should fear public scrutiny of his program. For from that scrutiny comes understanding; and from that understanding comes support or opposition and both are necessary. I am not asking your newspapers to support the Administration, but I am asking your help in the tremendous task of informing and alerting the American people. For I have complete confidence in the response and dedication of our citizens whenever they are fully informed.

I not only could not stifle controversy among your readers–I welcome it. This Administration intends to be candid about its errors; for as a wise man once said: “An error does not become a mistake until you refuse to correct it.” We intend to accept full responsibility for our errors and we expect you to point them out when we miss them.

Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. And that is why our press was protected by the First Amendment– the only business in America specifically protected by the Constitution–not primarily to amuse and entertain, not to emphasize the trivial and the sentimental, not to simply “give the public what it wants”–but to inform, to arouse, to reflect, to state our dangers and our opportunities, to indicate our crises and our choices, to lead, mold, educate and sometimes even anger public opinion.

This means greater coverage and analysis of international news–for it is no longer far away and foreign but close at hand and local. It means greater attention to improved understanding of the news as well as improved transmission. And it means, finally, that government at all levels, must meet its obligation to provide you with the fullest possible information outside the narrowest limits of national security–and we intend to do it.

It was early in the Seventeenth Century that Francis Bacon remarked on three recent inventions already transforming the world: the compass, gunpowder and the printing press. Now the links between the nations first forged by the compass have made us all citizens of the world, the hopes and threats of one becoming the hopes and threats of us all. In that one world’s efforts to live together, the evolution of gunpowder to its ultimate limit has warned mankind of the terrible consequences of failure.

And so it is to the printing press–to the recorder of man’s deeds, the keeper of his conscience, the courier of his news–that we look for strength and assistance, confident that with your help man will be what he was born to be: free and independent.

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Alan: So there you are. Telling the truth can be extremely hazardous to your health. Not just in this age but in all ages. It’s interesting to note that in Dallas near Dealey Plaza where all this took place with the three intersections of the bypass forming a form of a triad – the trident, a pyramid you might say. Right near there the local freemasons have erected a monument to Kennedy’s death really and it’s up to you to decide if that was in memory of him or a boast to the high capstone boys you see to their total dominance because they built an obelisk inside a Rotunda and on top of the obelisk they have a stone form of the fire coming out of the end of the obelisk the fire and down below it there’s a pool just like at Washington’s Memorial there’s always the fire symbol–the phallic symbol. You see it’s fire, spirit, energy the driving force and it’s reflected in the water the female the feminine and so they put the pool there to at Dallas to commemorate their victory I suppose showing their total domination of heaven and earth and that’s quite a boast for them to make but that is the meaning behind the phallic symbol towering over its reflection in the water. The spirit and the earth you see heaven and earth.

It’s up to you to decide whether you can continue pretending to live under an elected government that’s suppose to serve you or if you demand total openness as Kennedy was stating there from the news publishers association because if you cannot have openness you’ll be run by secrecy and secrecy never changes its direction. It never changes it grasp for power. It’s totalitarian instinct. We cannot live under secrecy any longer. If we think we can go along to get along we’re goners.

We’ve got to come out now and demand to know all those officials who belong to societies with secrets as they will phrase it themselves and to know what they’ve sworn oaths to and we’ve got to find out whose being tapped out of those lower associations brought into the side lodges and brought up to the higher groups because those that join the club to run the whole world for their own offspring forever as far as they’re concerned they have to be exposed.

We have no choice in this matter. You can see how the world is going. We’re going into a scientific dictatorship and the science departments. All these huge international organizations are part of the control system. They’re not separate. They’re all one and we don’t have long to do this. We have to get it all out and demand openness now.

WE CANNOT LIVE UNDER SECRECY.

Secrecy by its very nature bodes ill to those who are out of the know.

Thank you for listening. Bye.
(C) Allan Watts
http://www.cuttingthroughthematrix.com

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Why JFK Was Assassinated

by “wbales”
May 19, 2005
On JFK:

About the assassination:

The Zapruder film contains all the evidence one needs. Kennedy is first hit while the limo is behind the large street sign–around Zapruder frames 216-220. As Kennedy comes into view front behind the street sign his arms are in motion to grasp at his throat. By the time he comes into view from behind the sign, this bullet is LONG gone. This bullet hit Kennedy in his back and exited out his throat and hit no one else.

As the frames continue and at 230, Connally has turned back to his right and towards Kennedy who is, by then, clutching his throat in reaction to being hit during frames 216-220. In frame 230, Connally’s RIGHT wrist can be clearly seen HOLDING his Stetson at chin level. Connally HAS NOT been hit in frame 230. From 230 to when Connolly is hit in frame 238, Connally swings back towards the front of the car; his right wrist makes a sweeping motion down to the front and towards his left thigh; his torso becomes more perpendicular with the front of the limo. It is then, at frame 238, that Connally is hit. His cheeks puff out at frame 238 and the trajectory is set for a shot from top, back right going down through his chest (shattering ribs), hitting his right wrist (which, by that time, is atop his LEFT leg), with the bullet coming to rest at Connally’s left femur near his knee.

The Zapruder film runs at 18 frames per second. Kennedy and Connally were hit by different bullets from different weapons from different angles one second apart. About 4.1 seconds after Connally was hit and at frame 313, Kennedy’s death shot came from level front right.

Even a steel jacket round would exhibit deformity subsequent to inflicting bone damage as seen in Connally. The weight of the magic bullet and the bullet fragments left in Connally add up to more than the round under consideration, anyway. On this alone, the magic bullet theory is 100% bullshit. The magic bullet may well be the one that initially hit Kennedy and no one else.

About who and why:

Let’s review what President Kennedy was doing/did leading up to his murder.

1) In a fight with Israel over Israel obtaining and possessing nuclear weapons.

2) Wanted to take power away from the “Federal Reserve.”

3) a double cross in the Bay of Pigs…

4) Cut a backroom deal with Khruschev during the Cuban missile crisis and made, in the eyes of some, too many concessions to Russia.

5) wanted to and WAS going get US out of Vietnam

6) was a northern catholic Yankee; charismatic and didn’t take shit from no one.

7) was going to divest the CIA of a lot of power

8) didn’t like or get along with Hoover/FBI

9) was a womanizer and shared Mafia women while brother Bobby declared war on the Mafia (condoned by JFK and which was seen as reneging on Mafia support for JFK‘s election).

10) would have been re-elected.

Needless to say, JFK had a plethora of ‘enemies’ both within and without the government.

Whether or not LBJ actively participated in the actual assassination, his administration damn well covered it up.

In my opinion a cabal of divergent interests came together to kill JFK and then cover it up. In November 1963, there was a coup d’etat .

In my opinion, the orders came from the Zionists, American Big Business Elite (including the military-industrial complex [which, interestingly, Eisenhower had warned us all about]), and elements of the CIA. It was a confluence of interests and they employed underworld and untraceable actors to do the deed. I cannot say which of these interests led the cabal but am always partial to the saying ‘follow the money’–so I guess I would lean towards the Federal Reserve Power Masters as being the main driving force. Because of what transpired during the USS Liberty incident [see below], I tend to lean away from Israel/Mosaad as MAJOR players in JFK’s murder–I bet they were ‘pushing’ the plan . (As an aside, there was no doubt that Bobby Kennedy was going to be elected. We see what happened to him. Teddy started drinking and just shut up.)

The events following the assassination were nothing less than astounding: the Warren Commission; the magic bullet theory; Ruby killing Oswald then conveniently dying; the autopsy and lost evidence fiascos; the dead witnesses; on and on and on–all of it just surreal.

In closing and addressing what I think may have prompted your query, Fred, was that I made a connection between LBJ, the USS Liberty and Israel.

When the USS Liberty was attacked and despite the IDF immediately targeting the Liberty’s communications systems, the Liberty crew did get off a message to the Sixth Fleet. The Sixth Fleet (Admiral Larry Geis) then knew it was Israel perpetrating the attack. Geis dispatched fighters from his two carriers. That Americans other than those on the Liberty knew it was them, the IDF, attacking the Liberty AND that Americans who could actually shoot back were on the way, Israel backed off–but there were some behind the scenes activities rapidly occurring.

Israel did not want Washington, DC to know that Israel was about to lay a sneak attack on and major escalation of the hostilities on its neighbors to the north and south. Some Israeli nationals have freely and openly opined that Israel thought that the Liberty/U.S. was either intentionally or unintentionally providing information on Israel’s military movements to Israel’s enemies and that, therefore, Israel justifiably did what it had to do to take the Liberty out AND/OR the Israeli military was going to sink the Liberty and blame Egypt. Had the IDF sent the Liberty and all hands to the bottom and thanks to the inordinate amount of control and influence Zionists and liberal Jews have over the American news and entertainment industries, most Americans would now think that Egypt did it.

On to the connection: LBJ and McNamara RECALLED the fighters while the attack on ON!!! Un-f-ing believable!! The decision by Washington, DC to recall the fighter cover was abetting the IDF’s act of premeditated murder. This was treasonous. It was the Commander in Chief turning on his own troops.

WHY, OH, WHY?? Why would Johnson recall fighter protection from an American ship under fire?? What could explain that? And, further, what could possibly explain the federal government’s subsequent handling of the entire Liberty affair–its treatment of the crew–its COVER UP?

Israel. That’s what.

Here is what I think is extremely probable and this all happened in an extremely short period of time. Israel said we’ll back off; you stop the fighters and we won’t go public about your [LBJ‘s] involvement with and/or in JFK’s murder. We’ll both say and maintain forever that it was all just a tragic case of mistaken identity. The deal was done.

It is, therefore, that I make the connection between JFK, LBJ, the USS Liberty, and Israel.

Now, could you, and completing our ‘deal’, specifically and exactly explain how and why, in your opinion, President Bush would say that Israel’s security and defense is vital to America and Americans–a true national interest of the United States including detailing the specific and exact benefits to America and Americans from the American-Israeli relationship.

http://www.friendsofliberty.com/modules.php?name=Stories_Archive&sa=show_month&year=2005&month=05&month_l=May

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Christopher Bollyn:
“According to Michael Collins Piper, author of Final Judgment, Shamir is also suspected of having played a key role in the assassination of U.S. president John F. Kennedy by arranging a French-based hit squad of assassins that killed the president, a foe of Israel’s Ben Gurion and strong opponent of Israel’s nuclear ambitions. ”

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=1120]http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=1120