CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000300460001-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 2000
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: August 9, 1967
• Content Type: OPEN

21?lqutit
9, 1967
- CONGRFSSIOL~Idt 121[7)[~i1 .-.~`i ~L1'T----rev nLfl>s- - - C t ~on~
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or rove We found i~t.fiefto undiscovered evidence In ration of the Prer?Ident's death, a study that
1~4m of the murder Itself, that the killer had produced first the best selling attack on the
more time than the minimal 5.0 seconds in- Warren Commission, "Push To Judgment,"
dtented In the Warren Report to get the shots and now a movie of the same name.
off. And we concluded that beyond reason- Mark Lane has lectured all over the world
able doubt, Oswald was indeed at least one on his own theories of the assassination,
of the killers. theories which he spelled out for 13111 Stout.
But was there more than one? On Monday MARK LANE. There was one conclusion, one
night, we Interviewed eyewitnesses who said basic conclusion that the Commission
all the show came from the School Book De- reached, I think, which can he supported
poaitory. And others equally insistent that by the facts, and that was the Cont-
there were shots from the grassy knoll over- mission's conclusion that Ruby killed Os-
looking the motnrcnde Itself, Wald. But, of course, that took place on
We tested more exhaustively than did the television. It would have been very difficult
Warren Commission the extremely contro- to deny that. But. outside of that, there's
verstal single bullet theory, found that one not an Important conclusion which can be
bullet could, Indeed, have wounded both the supported by the facts find-- and this Is the
President And Governor Connally. We heard problem.
Autopsy surgeon, James Humes, break three And what the Commission was thinking
and a half years of silence to report that he and what they were doing is Still hidden
has re-examined the X-rays and photographs from us, of course. The minutes of the Corn-
of the President's body, rind still has no mission meetings core locked rip In the Na,
doubt that all the shots struck from behind. tlonal Archives sari no one can see them.
We concluded that In the absence of solid A vast Amount of the evidence. F.B.I. reports,
evidence that there were other assassins, and C.I.A. reports, which may he directly re.
With the Indications that one killer could r to the Informst.in s we should have,
Account for fill the shots, there was no sec- Are also locked tip In the Archives. No one
and gunman. But, even as the only gunman, can See that.
was Oswald, as the Warren Report suggests, The photogrnplia and X-rays of the Presi-
a lone madman? Or was he the trigger-man dent's body, taken at the Autopsy In
for a conspiracy to kill the President? Bethesda, Maryland, taken just before the
On Tuesday, we considered such frequently autopsy was begun, token by Naval tech-
mentioned indications of conspiracy as the nicians, which In and of themselves might
murder of Officer J. D. Tippit, found that resolve the whole question na to whether or
he was legitimately ordered from his normal not there was a Conspiracy, chnnot, h^ Seen
patrol area as part of a redeployment of po- by anyone today and. in fact, not one m'un-
lice forces to cope with the Assassination. her of the Warren Commission ever saw the
Found too, that a partial description of the most Important documents In the ease, the
nssassln, broadcast on police radio, could photographs And the X-rays. And not one
account for Tippit's stopping Oswald. lawyer for the Commission ever saw-was
We found the nightclub owner, Jnck Ruby, curious enough to examine the most Im-
the man who killed Oswald, was a strange. portant evidence.
mercurial creature given to hitting first and I think the villain was the desire of gov-
asking questions afterward. And none of his ernment officials to be nice. to see to it that
closest associates would credit Ruby with nothing would upset the American people,
the ability to keep a secret very long, that the apathy Which has seized us for all
We presented the conspiracy theories of of these years be permitted to remain tin-
New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison, interrupted by a factual presentation of
theories which Garrison says he will present What happened. The American people would
in a court of law, but which today remain a have been upset surely if they were told
series of largely unsupported statements, there was a conspiracy which took the life
And we concluded that, for now at least, no of your President.
conspiracy theory of the assassination has CRONKXTE. But Mr. Lane, who Accuses the
been proved. Commission of playing fast and loose with
Tonight, we turn from the assassination the evidence, does not always allow facts to
to the Warren Commission Itself. Having get In the way of his own theories. In "Rush
found that the Commission's conclusions, in To Judgment," for example, he writes: "The
the main, still stand up almost three year statements of eyewitnesses close to the Presi-
nfirr published, we now ask our fourth an~? dent tended to confirm the likelihood that
last fundamental question: Why doesn't the shot came front the right and not from
America believe the Warren Report? the rear." Lane then quotes Associated Press
Tonight, as In our preceding reports, my photographer James Altgens, and another
Colleague Dori Rather And I are going to eyewitness, Charles Brehm, as giving testl-
brenk this fundamental question into sub- mony that would support the idea of a killer
S1r11nry (lUesttona. For the first part of the on the grassy knoll. Yet Mr. Altgens, as we
broadcast, we will ask: Should America be. saw Monday night, to entirely cartaic that
lleve the Warren Report? We will explore all of the shots came from bt!hind, a fact that
just ]low well and honestly the Warren Com- Mr. Lane does not mention.
mission operated, to what extent it deserves As for Mr. Brehm, Eddie Barker discovered
belief. that he holds no brief either for the grassy
. The second question will be, Could Amer- knoll theory or for the use of his words by
Mark Lane.
Ica believe the Warren R
t?
'
epor
And we
ll try
to determine whether there are elements In
the way people, and particularly Americans,
think About great events, which would pre-
vent their accepting the Warren Report,
however trustworthy it might be.
But this final broadcast will be different.
The questions we will ask tonight, we can
only Ask. Tonight's Answers will be not ours,
but yours.
RATHER. As we take tip whether or not
America should believe the Warren Report,
we'll hear first from the man who perhaps
more than any other is responsible for the
question being asked. Mark Lane, lawyer
and former New York State Assemblyman,
was the gadfly of the Warren Commission.
He demanded the right to appear before It
as a defense counsel for the dead Lee Harvey
Oswald. Refused, he began his own Investi-
CROxrcrrx. Nor Are these ti=e only examples
of Mr. Lone lifting remarks out of context
to Support his theorlen. Perhaps the most
charitable explanation is that Mnrk Lane
still considers himself a defense attorney for
Lee Harvey Oawnld-and a dt?fense attorney 'a
primary ditty Is not to nhs+xnct truth. but
to his client.
There exists, however. it less partisan. And
therefore perhaps more disturbing critique
of the Warren Commission Report.
RATHER. One of the most Influential at-
tacks on the work of the Contrnlssion is the
book, "Inquest," by n yount_ scholar named
Edward J. Epstein. It began na a thesis, In
political science, Mr. F.psi'in deciding to find
out just how the Warren t'ornmission had
gone about solving this crhm? of the century.
He studied the 20 volumes of henrings,
then interviewed five of the seven Comhnis-
sion members, General Counsel J. Lee R.nnkin
and some of the Commission's top investi-
gators. And the pattern that liegnn to emerge
disturbed him.
EcereiN. Well, there were three, I think,
levels of complaint. The first one was the
Institutional, you might sny: the general
problem that a government, has when it
searches for truth. The prob'icm of trying to
have an autonomous investigation, free from
political interference And at the same time,
It's denting by Its very nature with a poll-
tical problem.
The second level might b? called the or-
gantzatioual level of-- was the Warren Coin-
mission organized in a way that prevented
It from finding facts. And h?re my findings
were that by using a part tune Staff And by
the Conlin lesioil's detaching thernseives from
the investigation. iii other words, not, ac-
tively partaking In the Invest.lgnt.lon--It
raised Some problems nS to whether the
Warren Commission's investigation went deep
enough, So that if there wan evidence of a
conspiracy. they would have in fact found it.
The third.level of my criticism concerned
the evidence Itself. And this concerned the
problem of when the Warren c'onmlsslon was
come---confronted with a very complex prob-
lem. For example, the contrttlictlon between
the F.B.I. summary report on the autopsy
and tile autopsy report they had In hand-
how they Solved this problem, whether they
Simply glossed over It or whether they celled
witnesses and-and thin---this, of course,
brought tip the questions Of--of a second
Assassins.
RATHER. One of the men Mr. Epstein in-
terviewed for his "Inquest" Is Arlen Specter,
now District Attorney of Philadelphia, but
In 1964, one of the principal investigators
for the Warren Commission, charged with
establishing the basic facts of the nssnsslnn-
tion. Mr. Specter thinks the (loin i nisslon dirt
Its job well and Caine nip with the rigbt
answers.
SPECTER. I would say after having prose-
cuted a great many cases than, seldom would
you ever find A case Which wens an persuasive
that Oswald was the assassin And, in fact. the
lone Assassin, And we convict people in the
EDDIE BARKER. Well now, some critics of the criminal courts every day right here in City
Warren Report have taken your testimony, Hall, Philadelphia. And the times the death
or Interviews with you, to Indicate that you penalties are imposed or life Imprisonneent-
thought the shots came from behind the so that---so that the case does fit together.
fence over there. What About that? RATHER. In separate interviews We asked
CHARLES BREHnr, Well, as I say, it was not critic Epstein and Investigator Spector to dis-
a number of critics. it was one critic, Mark cuss some of the central Ignites that must
Lane, who takes very great liberties with determine how well or how badly the Warren
adding to my quotation. I never said that Commission did its work.
the-any shot came from here like I was- EPSTEIN. Part of the job c?f the Warren
quoted by Mr. Lane. Mr. Lane would like me Commission Was restoring cortndence In the
to have positively identified the-what I saw American government. And for this he had
fly over here-his skull-although I told him to pick seven very respectable 3nen. men who
I could not-I did not-I thought it was but would lend their name and lend probity to
I could not. So, he has added his interpreta- the report. And so that the pi-oblem was, in
tions to what I said, and consequently that's any seven men he picked of this sort, they
Where the story comes from that:-that I said Would have very little time for the investlga.
that the shots come from up there. No shot tion.
came from up there at any time during the They would also have two purposes. One
whole flasoo that afternoon, purpose would be to find the truth, all the
Approved For Release 2000/08 ~P8k9RQ44)50001-1