Posted on 07/25/2004 7:06:08 PM PDT by wagglebee
Freed Israeli nuclear spy Mordechai Vanunu said in an interview published today that Israel was behind the 1963 assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, prompting some Israeli officials to hope aloud the far-fetched comments will hurt Vanunu's credibility.
Vanunu, a former nuclear technician who was recently released from Israeli prison after serving an 18-year sentence for exposing Israel's nuclear program at Dimona to Britain's Sunday Times, has been barred from leaving the country, talking to the media or meeting with foreigners.
But the London-based al-Hayat newspaper published an interview yesterday it claims is the first Vanunu has given, in which the spy said that according to "near-certain indications," Kennedy was assassinated due to "pressure he exerted on then head of government, David Ben-Gurion, to shed light on Dimona's nuclear reactor."
"We do not know which irresponsible Israeli prime minister will take office and decide to use nuclear weapons in the struggle against neighboring Arab countries," Vanunu was quoted as saying. "What has already been exposed about the weapons Israel is holding can destroy the region and kill millions."
Vanunu, who would not be in a position to know the current security apparatus of Israel's nuclear plant, also claims the Middle East is at risk of a "second Chernobyl" in the event of an accident at the Dimona plant. He said an earthquake could cause fissures to the core that would create a massive radiation leak "threatening millions."
Jordan should test residents in the border regions with Israel to be sure that they have not already been exposed to any radiation and administer the necessary medicine, Venunu said. He also criticized the visit to Israel early this month by the head of the Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed el-Baradei.
"He (Baradei) should have refused to have visited Israel (because) he was not allowed to inspect the nuclear reactor," Vanunu said.
According to al-Hayat, Vanunu now lives "with his Palestinian friends" in east Jerusalem.
Israeli officials would not comment on what actions they would take against Vanunu, who had agreed as part of the terms of his release, that he would not grant media interviews.
"The opinions on Vanunu are divided," Ra'anan Gissin, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, told reporters. "Some say let him speak and it adds to the ambiguity policy, while others say the more he speaks the more he raises tensions, particularly in the current atmosphere."
Gissin said Vanunu's comments regarding JFK work to discredit the former spy. "This is something you would expect from [Yasser] Arafat," Gissin said.
Separately, an Israeli source told WorldNetDaily that after the Kennedy assassination, Israeli intelligence carried out an exercise to see how shooter Lee Harvey Oswald, who used a mail-order, clip-fed 6.5mm rifle, was able to kill Kennedy from his angle on the sixth floor of a nearby building.
The simulation exercise reportedly featured expert marksmen using more powerful equipment set up on tripods and utilized a laser direction-finder to show where the people in Kennedy's car would have been hit after the marksmen fired. The source said the exercise showed it was "nearly impossible for Oswald to have done what he did."
Well, Dimona is quite an old nuclear-power plant, built during the late 1950s when France and Israel closely cooperated on nuclear physics. But I suppose the older parts have long been dismantled and gave way to newer systems. Plus, what happened at Chernobyl is that the operators willingly shut down the security systems in an attempt to develop a new way of using the plant (IIRC).
If you'd like to be on this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.
T.F.T.P
This is the kind of loony crap you read at Stormfront, etc. Israel should have executed this nutcake.
That's not how I saw it in the film. After Kennedy is already reaching for his throat and Connelly was turning around toward him he briefly began to turn back and then you can see his face begin to show expression of pain from the hit he just received.
There's too much time elapsing in Connelly's reaction for it to have been the single bullet causing all those injuries in my opinion. The film clearly demonstrates what Mrs. Connelly had said occurred that day. And she wasn't the only who made the claims of separate hits, Governor Connelly did too. He was adamant about it from the very beginning.
The discredited two separate bullets theory suggested that Oswald would not have time to reload in that time (ignoring the zero timegap possibilty).
Exactly, that's why in all likelihood there were at least two gunman and may explain to me anyway what appears to be Mrs. Connelly staring briefly in the direction of the grassy knoll just prior to Kennedy's fatal hit. It was almost as if she had seen or heard something coming from there.
But even setting aside the single or two bullet theories you haven't addressed Kennedy's head movement, which was violently to the back and left. In a press conference immediately following the assassination a government spokesman (his name escapes me at the moment) pointed to his right temple in explaining where Kennedy was hit. Was that a coincidence given what we see on the film and what strongly appears to be a frontal hit?
I will be fascinated how the Oswald got the job becasue he was selected as a patsy crowd reconciles that.
The Tom Dillard photo taken seconds after the fatal hit shows Oswald in the window next to the open one looking out. It's him so claims he was a patsy ring hollow, he was up on the sixth floor and was firing shots or was with someone else who was.
Vanunu knew!
Why Castro wasn't just bumped off in kind is a mystery to me, perhaps because it was too embarassing to admit Castro succeeded, who knows...
His book on the subject convinced me that Oswald was used.
Sure Oswald may have been used by those with an agenda. Whether it was the New Orleans mafia or the Cubans I'm not sure we'll ever know. But he was up on the sixth floor that day and his claims of being a patsy were bogus.
Tinfoil ping...
Come on! Everyone knows that DiMaggio whacked JFK ... and why ... |
Agreed
his claims of being a patsy were bogus.
Disagree.
If your interested in learning a bit more on the subject, read Jim Garrison's book and take a closer look at Clay Shaw and why he was not convicted.
If you mean by patsy that Oswald did not know he was being used then I could agree if that were proven but only in a limited sense. Even giving him the benefit of the doubt, for example he was on the sixth floor, as we both agree he was but with someone else doing the shooting that would still make him an accomplice whether he was aware of the higher agenda or not. Before the shots rang out he had to know what was going down yet made no attempt to stop it.
What explains the fact Connelly continues to normally hold on to his hat following the first hit? It would seem to me that if a bullet passed through his wrist that would not have been the case and reinforces my belief in separate hits.
As for the infamous head shot, you can see Kennedy's head snap violently foward at the moment of impact (this occurs very quickly within one or two frames) then back, which clearly shows the bullet impacted on the BACK of Kennedy's head, not the front.
There was some slight head movement forward suggesting a back head hit which I'm not necessarily disputing. But the violent back and left motion indicates a frontal hit, so it's very possible two gunmen hit him at the same time. The "jet effect" theory is too unbelievable for me.
Throwing the rifle at JFK would have been about as effective as using it to shoot at him. It was a piece of junk and hadn't been fired in months if ever. There is no record or even hint that Ozzie even bought ammo for it nor any excess found.
Clay Shaw, who was a CIA contract agent, was acting independent of the CIA in a plot to kill JFK. Who hired Shaw for this is not known and subject to speculation.
Oswald was working for Shaw in New Orleans, believing the work he was doing was really for the CIA. Shaw convinced him to go to Dallas, ostensibly on a CIA assignment.
The 'CIA' (Shaw) wanted to expose the weakness of the security around the President by 'staging' an attempt on JFK. This was Oswald's assignment: fire the shots at JFK, but not hit him.
As Oswald did this, the real killer(s) also opened fire, killing JFK.
Now, imagine for a second that you are Oswald and you fire toward the president, but then see his head get blown off. At that point Oswald knew he had been had.
Is the above scenario true? Jim Garrison believed it was and only because of a technicality was he not able to convict Clay Shaw of conspiracy to kill JFK.
This scenario also explains why the CIA did a lot of things to protect themselves. They were not directly involved, but plenty of people associated with them were, so it was CYA time, big time. This scenario also puts the gun in Oswald's hands but allows him to say "I didn't shoot anybody." As was caught on tape and analyzed to be a truthful statement.
Correction:
but then see his head get blown off apart
There are conspiracy theorists who contend that separate bullets hitting Connelly and Kennedy came from different directions. Many of them I agree are not plausible. If there were separate shots both came from behind, most likely the Depository and the Dal-Tex building. The shot that damaged the curb appears to be more directly in line with the Dal-Tex building.
I disagree completely with your statement. To learn more about the JFK asassination, I suggest you read the book Case Closed by Gerald Posner, which is generally available at Barnes & Noble bookstores.
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