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From: copa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2001 15:29:46 -0500
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [Fwd: Article from The Nation]
Lou,
Gus Russo appeared in the late 80's claiming to be a JFK assassination
researcher, and tapped many unsuspecting folks for information (I was
always wary of him), then showed his true colors at a symposium in
Chicago where he openly became an apologist for the Warren Commission
version. Others in the research community kept dealing with him though.
At the inception of COPA in 1994, we got word from some of them that Gus
was lunching with the likes of Helms, Colby, etc. and that they were
probing him about the first COPA national conference and whether we were
going to blame their friend David Atlee Phillips for the murder. He was
flattered to be among them, and clearly bought their line. "They call me
Gus" he happily told one researcher. We had other names for him, of
course.
He was hired as a consultant for a History Channel series about Oswald,
and he does keep exhaustive files. Of course the program came to the
same conclusion, Oswald was a skill-less malcontent who shot the
President.
Russo wrote a book based on what the intelligence boys fed him (look
again at the Nation piece sources for the interpretation that this is an
assassination plot, even an unnamed CIA source - who needs the fucking
New York Times, now the Nation can use the same smarmy "journalism"
instead). It was originally titled Reap the Whirlwind. This is the
thesis:
There was no rogue element in the CIA or Mongoose, they were just
following orders from JFK to kill Castro.
The old hands at the CIA were not comfortable with these assassination
plots, but they were forced to go along by the Kennedy brothers, who
were "out of control".
The plots to kill Castro, though unsuccessful, caused the "Commie"
malcontent Oswald to kill JFK in retaliation.
The Kennedy brothers "reaped the whirlwind" of their killing plots and
were killed themselves instead. (i.e. Had it coming).
David Corn, like Max Holland and Russo, are self-conceited intellectual
arbiters from the circles around IPS (note they quote Halpern too) who
despise the left and the counter-cultural movement. (Well, hell, all you
need to do is think about your previous CAQ editor to know the fucking
mentality, Lou.) Corn slammed me in print way back when I started the
Mae Brussell Center, linking me to the paranoid right wing militia.
Holland used to sleaze into the COPA meetings with Ben Franklin of
Washington Spectator for no other purpose than to do hit pieces. No
wonder they liked him at the Nation! Holland has a book coming that
defends the Warren Commission.
They fall in line behind I.F. Stone, Alexander Cockburn, Howard Zinn,
Noam Chomsky and whatever else passes for left intellectuals in this
culture, going beyond saying that it doesn't matter if there was a
conspiracy to actually attacking those who say there was.
The Nation has suppressed this information from inception, and one has
to wonder about the money behind it, especially the proto-fascist
Hamilton Fish, Sr. They hate the counter-culture and the grassroots
left. Look at their defense of Gore and slamming of Nader during the
last election for an example.
I suggest the new book False Mystery by Vincent Salandria, a brilliant
early critic, and also History Will Not Absolve Us by Martin Schotz for
clear left analysis of the case and early indictments of The Nation.
Russo is slick, full of "facts", and hard at work performing the second
assassination of the Kennedy's, along with the CIA's old wonder boy,
Seymour Hersh. Yes, there is a "dark side" to the Kennedy saga, all you
have to do is look at the old man for that, but it was when the boys
broke free that the trouble really started. They responded to the civil
rights and anti-nuclear movements in a way no one before or after them
ever did. Not because they were saints, but because they were clear
headed politicians. Whatever "dark side" they had it has to be compared
to the "black hole" of the forces that killed them first. Once we name
the killers, then we can talk about the crimes of the victims. These
"writers" will only address the latter. It's a lot safer, and they get
to lunch with the CIA and be told the "inside story" that no one has
ever heard before (yeah, right!).
John Judge
ps - The Nation piece was part of the email, hope you got it.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> John -
>
> I haven't read the Nation piece, but I did receive an inquiry last week
> from a reader as follows: "Who is Gus Russo?"
> So John, who is he? I've never heard of him previously. Is he a COPA
> hanger-on, a conspiracy freak (in the worser sense), or an apologist for
> those who want to continue the JFK coverup?
>
> Lou
