SHAME ON BOTH OF YOU, CLINT HILL AND CHRIS MATTHEWS [info]insidethearrb May 4th, 20:45 By Douglas P. Horne, author of "Inside the Assassination Records Review Board"

I watched a very sorry display on Chris Matthews' MSNBC show "Hardball" tonight: Chris Matthews conducted a short, stage-managed, cream-puff interview with retired Secret Service Agent Clint Hill, and the game was rigged "from the get-go." That was obvious. But it was also completely unacceptable, and forever tarnishes the reputations of both of these men.

The occasion was a brief discussion of Clint Hill's short new memoir, "Mrs. Kennedy and Me." I picked the book up in the store about three weeks ago and read the three or so pages that everyone naturally turns to: Clint Hill's description of what happened during the shots in Dallas, on Elm Street, on November 22, 1963, when he ran from the left running board of the Queen Mary (the Secret Service follow-up car that day), to President Kennedy's limousine, only to arrive at, and mount the limousine, after all of the shots had been fired. I was particularly interested to see whether Clint Hill's description of President Kennedy's head wound had changed from what he wrote in 1963, or from what he testified to in 1964 while under oath before the Warren Commission, or from the words attributed to him in the recent book "The Kennedy Detail."

The words hadn't changed. In his new memoir, Clint Hill (again) described a large, gaping wound in the right rear of President Kennedy's head, and made explicitly clear that a large amount of debris had been blown to the rear after the fatal shot, and that Jacqueline Kennedy had emerged from her seat to retrieve a part of President Kennedy's skull that had gone to the rear, and lay on the trunk lid, after the fatal shot. He described all of that again today on television with Chris Matthews. Anyone familiar with his 1963 written report, and with his 1964 sworn testimony, also knows that in this 1964 testimony before Assistant Warren Commission Counsel Arlen Specter, he said that a large portion of the rear of President Kennedy's head was lying in the back seat of the car, and that the trunk lid was covered with bloody water and brain issue. All of this---the biological debris from her husband's head retrieved by Jacqueline Kennedy from the trunk lid; the large, gaping wound in the right rear of the head of the 35th President of the United States; and the blood and brain tissue sprayed over the trunk lid---all of this, of course, speaks graphically and plainly of a fatal shot from the front, or right front (not a fatal shot from the rear, where the Book Depository was).

Clint Hill knows it, and Chris Matthews knows it. But they pretended otherwise, presumably for all the "low information voters" in the TV audience. The problem for these two guys is, there aren't that many low information (i.e., uneducated or stupid) voters watching this show. The show has a very highly educated audience. So what they did was not only grossly dishonest---it was blatantly offensive, as well as just plain dumb.

Now, anyone who has read about the JFK assassination knows that every doctor who treated JFK at the the side of his gurney in Trauma Room One at Parkland Hospital, in Dallas, described the same head wound that Clint Hill did in 1963 and 1964: a wound that could only have been an EXIT WOUND, which meant that the fatal shot had to come from the front, or right front, not from behind. Not one doctor at Parkland who wrote a treatment report the day of the assassination mentioned anything in those reports but a wound in the right rear of the skull. (And no one mentioned any damage to the top of his head or the right side of his head above the ear.) If you don't believe me, read the treatment reports (they were published in the Warren Report, after all). The wound described by these Parkland treating physicians and nurses that day was an avulsed wound (exploded outward from within), and the right rear of JFK's head was devoid of scalp and skull, in an exploded area about the size of a baseball. The head wound observed at Parkland Hospital during the 40 minutes that President Kennedy was treated (that duration was given by Dr. Clark in a press conference that day) had none of the characteristics of an entry wound whatsoever. It had all of the classic characteristics of an exit wound. A large amount of cerebral brain tissue was missing---blown out---and part of the badly damaged cerebellum, the part of the brain very low in the rear of the skull, was extruding from the head wound onto the treatment cart, as the Parkland physicians treated President Kennedy and tried to save his life.

Even Chris Matthews knows that bullets make small holes when entering the body, and large holes when exiting the body. (Especially head wounds.)

And yet Chris Matthews asked Clint Hill today if he had come to any conclusions about the shooting, and Clint Hill, obviously prepared for the question, said, "Sure: one shooter, three shots, from behind," or words almost identical to that. Now, Clint Hill knows that cannot be true. He always has. In fact, he knows it is such utter bull@!$%# that he didn't say that in his new book---he merely described the wound he observed (an obvious exit wound), without commenting on where the shots came from or who did the shooting.

I knew what game Clint Hill was playing when he described JFK's head wound in "The Kennedy Detail" and in "Mrs. Kennedy and Me"---the game was: I will describe exactly what I saw and will not lie about it, but neither will I openly challenge the Warren Commission's or the HSCA's "government line" that Lee Harvey Oswald killed President Kennedy all on his own. The rules of the game Clint Hill was obviously engaging in when these two books were published were, "I will tell the truth about what I saw, but I will not comment on what it means." In playing by those unwritten rules, Hill managed to sit on the fence, and tell the truth about the head wound, and at the same time avoided directly refuting the Warren Commission and HSCA conclusions that Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK from the Texas School Book Depository, firing from above and behind.

But today Clint Hill crossed the line, and said JFK was killed by a Communist sympathizer, Lee Harvey Oswald, firing all the shots from behind. Shame on you, Clint Hill. You crossed a line today that you did not cross in either of the two recent books that quote you. What you did was unforgivable.

And then Chris Matthews (who served in the Peace Corps, not in the military), gave us all his best benefit as a "firearms expert" by saying that when he stood on Elm Street in Dallas in the 1990s ("when I was down there with CBS," he said), he had concluded that killing JFK from the TSBD was "an easy shot." Gee, thank you, Chris, for this profound wisdom based on all your years as a trained marksman in the Peace Corps. Of course, Chris Matthews never mentioned today that the scope on the rifle was a cheap piece of crap that was misaligned; that the rifle found in the Depository was an unreliable piece of junk; or that it had a defective firing pin which the FBI had to replace before even test firing it. And Chris Matthews never discussed the last marksmanship test score noted in Oswald's USMC Service Record before being discharged from the Marine Corps, which was only one point above failure. (Oswald received average marksmanship scores in boot camp, achieving the middle of three shooter designations, but obviously received a "pass" in 1959---when he most likely failed his test that year. It is obvious to me that after his skills had atrophied through disuse, he was given the official score that was only one point above failure, as a gift. As fellow Marine Nelson Delgado explained to Mark Lane in 1966 (in the film "Rush to Judgment"), Oswald was such a poor shot he was always getting flagged with "Maggie's Drawers" at the El Toro shooting range; his poor marksmanship was a standing joke in his own unit.) Chris Matthews will not discuss evidence, because he knows he will lose the argument---he only wants to discuss the politically correct conclusions endorsed by the National Security State.

Chris Matthews has much to be ashamed of here. He used to be the principal aide to Speaker of the House Tip O'Neill. It was Tip O'Neill who published in his own memoir, "Man of the House," on page 211 (paperback edition, St. Martin's Press, 1987), that the two aides closest to President Kennedy on a personal basis---Kenneth O'Donnell, and Dave Powers---told him at dinner in 1968, five years after JFK's assassination, that at least two shots came from behind the fence on the grassy knoll, to the right front of the limousine. O'Donnell also told Tip O'Neill at that dinner meeting that he had lied to the Warren Commission about the origin of the shots, at the request of the FBI. Surely Chris, you cannot pretend to be unfamiliar with this recollection of Tip O'Neill's??? If he did not tell you himself over a beer one night, surely you read it in his memoirs? Don't tell me you have not read the memoirs of your former boss, Chris...that won't fly.

Clint Hill crossed the line tonight from telling just part of the truth, to telling a lie that I am sure he does not believe in, and that cannot be true. And he knows it. Chris Matthews, an otherwise intelligent person, repeatedly promotes the falsehood of the Lone Assassin Myth as if it were certified fact, when it cannot be true. And he knows he is promoting a Big Lie. Is this the price for keeping your job with the Mainstream Corporate Media, Chris? Or do you really believe that by lying about JFK's assassination, and pretending there was NOT a coup in this country in 1963, that you are somehow "protecting America's institutions?" I hope not, because there is nothing more corrosive to a democracy than lies perpetuated by big media and the government.

How do you sleep with yourself at night, Chris? How do you look at yourself in the mirror when you shave every day?

This is the last night I will ever watch Chris Matthews or "Hardball" again. I am boycotting that show, and any show he appears on, as long as he remains alive on this mortal coil, for Chris Matthews has proven himself---once again---to be a man without honor whenever he discusses the assassination of the man he professes to be his greatest hero, Jack Kennedy. The Intelligence Community (read: CIA) has a stranglehold on the national TV media and the national print media, when it comes to the JFK assassination. You are not allowed to speak about it anymore, unless you support the Warren Commission, or unless you disparage JFK's character and misrepresent the historical record of his presidency. The major executives of these outlets and their producers are in the government's pocket, when it comes to the taboo subject of the Kennedy assassination. The truth gets out on local and regional radio stations, and the government has not quite yet figured out how to shut down free speech on the internet, but Cass Sunstein, President Obama's Information Czar, would like to---he said so in a prestigious law school paper just about 4 years ago. Google his name, and you can read the outrageous paper, yourself. Sunstein actually advocated fining people on the internet who engage in "conspiracy" speech that he defines as irresponsible (including about JFK's death), and also advocated infiltrating such groups, and combating their messages, with government-sponsored third party surrogates. And this man was appointed America's Information Chief by President Obama. Unsettling, isn't it?

The response to this stranglehold on the mainstream media by the American people (80% of whom have consistently concluded over the decades that JFK was killed by a conspiracy, and that there was a massive coverup) should be to openly and vociferously protest the Big Lie whenever it is trotted out as it was tonight, and to aggressively boycott those shows that promote the Big Lie. President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy that involved many in the National Security Establishment at the time, as well as former members of the National Security Establishment; and a massive medical coverup was implemented immediately after his death in an attempt to hide all evidence that he was shot from the front (as well as from behind). That coverup has now failed. If you are not familiar with how it was carried out, you can read my five volume book, "Inside the Assassination Records Review Board." The ten depositions taken by the ARRB General Counsel and me, of JFK autopsy witnesses, in 1996 and 1997, undeniably prove that a medical coverup occurred. Anyone not afraid of the truth, and of evaluating facts and what they really mean, should read my book. It will take you to a place where you are less secure, less proud, and less confident about your own country, but if you are someone who believes that truth can be cleansing, and have a powerful, positive, and redemptive force, than my book may just be the perfect antidote to the propaganda about the JFK assassination that will rule the mainstream media airwaves and the national print media between now and the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination.

Meanwhile, boycott MSNBC's "Hardball." If you truly believe that JFK was killed by a conspiracy and that the U.S. government covered it up, then turn off the tube every time Chris Matthews' face appears on the air. Chris used to only talk like this every November 22nd, on the anniversary of JFK's assassination; now he is going out of his way to do it as often as possible. Make MSNBC pay a price for promoting the Big Lie in America. We all deserve better journalism than that. END

The Secret Service lost President Kennedy. It was their fault and they were never held accountable. Chris, you know NOTHING about the Kennedy Assassination except what the Warren Commission said. Everything you said about Oswald tonight was WRONG!

You have done NO RESEARCH. Think of yourself as the person who heard Colin Powell's charges about WMD at the UN -- and then we found nothing. You are an idiot on this subject because you refuse to even look below the surface.

Why hasn't Oswald's 200 page CIA file ever been released? Did you know the Texas School Book Depository was sold to an ardent right-winger two months before or that Oswald just got the job a few weeks before AFTER the parade route was announced . There are a thousand facts you know nothing about. You buy into the cover-up despite the fact that the House Assassination Colmmittee in 1978 concluded it was a conspiracy and referred the case to the JD, who did nothing. Why don't you read ONE book, try JFK AND THE UNSPEAKABLE by James Douglass.

I loved your book! But you know nothing about the greatest unsolved crime in history.

Clint Hill would not have been hit by brain matter if the shot came from behind, the matter came out the back because the shot was from the front!

If you want to learn more facts about the Kennedy assassination---facts that Chris Matthews will not discuss on his show---go to my blogsite: insidethearrb.livejournal.com

Look at the Nix Film of the assassination! When the Nix film is "enlarged" to observe the occupants of the Presidential limo during the fatal head shot to President Kennedy; the Secret Service Agent's left arm driving the limo ( Bill Greer) can be seen RAISED up off the steering wheel -something not seen in the famous Zapruder film of the assassination. One of these films had to be altered. Bill Greer's left arm cannot be raised up off the steering wheel to his shoulder and going backwards in the Nix film and be on the steering wheel and low in the Zapruder film . Extremely suspicious.

The blow-up of the Nix Film can be observed @ 1:07 min mark on this video

For all of you who want to really learn the truth about the Kennedy Assassination, I recommend watching the legendary Peter Jennings' video program on the subject that reruns periodically, usually on A&E.

Three shots were fired in Dealey plaza that afternoon. No more. Arguing with these sorts is like arguing with Erich Von Dâniken about ancient spaceships. The last time I discussed this subject (there are several archived clips from about a year ago that can easily be reviewed), I began by Googling up one claimant and was surprised to see he was also a UFO "expert." Indeed right here he insisted aliens had taken over the government... I forget whether he also insisted 9-11 was an "inside job," but several others were certainly of that persuasion.

Another chimed in and described how "frangible" bullets were used to cover up the presence of the "second" shooter. Frangible bullets are used by police departments today because they break up on impact, minimizing possible damage to bystanders. The problem is that the only cartridges with this sort of slug available in 1963 were very rare 30-06 military surplus rounds that had been used for gunnery practice. They were made of Bakelite plastic filled with powdered lead, and their possible accuracy would be questioned by any reputable ballistics experts. They would never be the choice of a "professional assassin."

That didn't stop the the tinfoil hat crowd, however. They have learned "bunk sells, and de-bunking doesn't," and as Chris has pointed out repeatedly, they simply refuse to believe that a zero like Oswald could have such an impact on the course of history.

I recommend both of the following: Case Closed, by Gerald Posner, and Reclaiming History: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy by Vincent Bugliosi. They'll be worthwhile investments because after reading both of them, you'll likely never be tempted to spend money on the latest "conspiracy" volume again. Here's a nice review of Posner's work:

http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,308115,00.html

Case Closed does more than buttress the much beleaguered Warren Commission's conclusion that Lee Harvey Oswald-pitiful, grandiose lone demento and would-be Communist defector- bore full and solitary responsibility for the murder of President Kennedy. It also indicts and pretty much convicts the entire JFK-conspiracy industry of sloppy research, shoddy thinking, special pleading, hysterical speculation, and downright dishonesty.

That has been my experience with the conspiracy crowd as well. And Cabdriver Confession: I "bit" when I first read an interview with Jim Garrison (the protagonist in the Oliver Stone film) in a Playboy magazine interview around 1968. Yet Garrison had his "day in court," and it took a jury only 54 minutes to acquit New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw of the charges Garrison brought up against him. More Posner...

The chapter on New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison, the heroic lone-wolf prosecutor of Oliver Stone's JFK-who before his mad quest ended had placed 16 assassins at five locations in Dealey Plaza-is by itself a masterpiece of expository journalism. Case Closed is a work of genuine patriotism and a monument to the astringent power of reason.

Assassination conspiracy cranks don't want to address these issues, and every time clear-thinking individuals refute their histrionics, they morph them into something else.

One of the first individuals to review the Zapruder Film was the late Nobel laureate physicist Luis Alvarez. Alvarez, who contributed mightily to Allied development of radar in World War II, was also an expert in optics and photoanalysis. He proved conclusively that the backward jerk of President Kennedy's head following the third shot was entirely consistent with being shot from behind (per Wiki).

I reviewed Alvarez's science mentally for a few weeks (and looked at the autopsy pictures), and I came to the conclusion he had the physics right (given that he'd earned a Nobel Prize, it would've been shocking if it had been otherwise). The high speed exit of the bullet out the forehead essentially created a "rocket nozzle" for blood and brain matter, resulting in a gruesome application of Newton's Law of Motion about "equal and opposite reactions." Anyone who's watched authentic films of executions (such as those from the Holocaust) has seen that bodies struck by bullets are not "thrown" in Hollywood style in the direction the bullet travels, but rather slump down as the result of gravity.

Spend your money on Clint Hill's book rather than any of the nonsense (where most of the "authorities" don't agree with one another anyway, strong "cuckoo clock" evidence itself). It offers a very human picture of some very real powerful and amazing people who walked on the world stage. The evidence of their power is that we're still discussing them today.

The above discussions are useless.I have read Clint Hill's heartwarming memoir of his entire 4 years with Jackie. I did not go immediately to the description of the assassination but rather read the entire book and was impressed by his professionalism, his sense of responsibility for her. Clint Hill is an example of what we should expect of the Secret Service. Another excellent picture of what is involved in protecting the President can be found in Dan Emmet's "Within Arms Length". Enough of this useless conspiracy discussion, get a life!

I believe Chris Matthews praise for the limo driver was misplaced - I'm sure Chris meant to praise Secret Service Agent Timothy J. McCarthy for saving President Reagan's life back in 1981 - it was McCarthy who leapt in front of Reagan and took a bullet for him - a fete only four men in history have ever done. In the 1950 Truman assassination attempt, White House Police Force officers Donald Birdzell and Joseph Downs were wounded, and Officer Leslie Coffelt was killed in the line of duty. Tim is a class act - to this day.

The story was, as I saw it, it was not about secret service agent paying to get laid, it was about dumb sh** agent whom try to stiff call-girl. He not only over a few bucks got himself fired, but a bunch of other agents too!

Why agents got into so much trouble was, (besides poor judgement) they affect readiness status of agents, those agents would have to be vetted and background investigating again, temp. losing security clearance, leaving shortage making other agents work more to fill in! This was the worst thing, affecting readiness status, making sure they were not compromised!