This Is My Rifle: 50 Years Later, The Death of JFK & The Birth of American Conspiracy Posted by Jason James on 11/22/13 | Filed under Opinion, This is My Rifle

Exactly 50 years ago today President John F. Kennedy was fatally shot twice - once through his upper back and once through his head - as his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, and the mother of all conspiracies was born. In the decades since, there has been no other event more debated, discussed and investigated than the assassination of the 35th president of the United States of America.

As I began to reexamine the circumstances of November 22nd, 1963, two thoughts immediately came to mind. First, every blog and website in the known universe will be revisiting this day in American history to some degree or another. And second, to go back through all of the information available in search of fresh ideas would take weeks or even months. There are literally millions of articles, documentaries, government documents and books that have exhausted every bit of evidence and challenged the narrative presented by both the Warren Commission and the resulting conspiracy theories thousands of times over.

While modern day culture has painted the image of JFK as the patron saint of popular folklore, the truth is he was a polarizing figure who emerged during a turbulent time in American politics. He was often accused of being both a traitor and communist as well as a heartless warmonger. He had a long list of enemies within the United States government, banking elite, CIA, FBI and military, as well as in Cuba and the Soviet Union. Throughout his 1,036 days as president, John F. Kennedy oversaw a rapid expansion of the US military while at the same time working tirelessly to diffuse tensions between the United States, Soviet Union and Cuba. He was everything that Barack Obama would later claim to be: a young, idealistic politician determined to bring forth change. But where Barack Obama would falter, John F. Kennedy succeeded. He fought back against the power hungry generals of the American military, fired corrupt CIA chiefs and even went as far as to begin the process of dismantling the Federal Reserve to pull America out of the control of the bankers and put it back in the hands of the people. Since a teenager he had been groomed by his father and political colleagues to be president - but not one who would bring radical change. Rather, he was molded to be a leader who would follow along and be directed by the inner power structure that had taken shape earlier in the century.

In retrospect, we now know that there were many contributing factors that may have led to JFK's assassination, and all of them align perfectly. But what made the murder of John F. Kennedy so significant was that this was the first time that the overwhelming majority of the American public did not fall in line with the official narrative, and instead decided to search for truth independently. Upon closer examination, they found many inconsistencies in the Warren Commission's handling of the investigation, and subsequently began to tug on the loose ends hanging from the final report. There were virtually hundreds of discrepancies- witnesses who had been threatened by the CIA and FBI and/or died suspiciously, alleged tampering of the Zapruder film and other evidence, a sudden change in the make and model of the murder weapon, a second shooter from behind a fence on a grassy knoll and a magic bullet that seemed to stop in mid-air, turn sharply and bounce around inside of Governor Connally's body like a ping pong ball. Additionally, the only suspect in the killing- Lee Harvey Oswald- and the only person who could confirm what groups and how many shooters were involved in the assassination was assassinated himself two days later by local bar owner, Jack Ruby.

As the conspiracy theories developed, no stone was left unturned and many links were drawn between various groups including the FBI, CIA, Mafia, Soviet Union and Cuba in connection with JFK’s murder. To this day, half a century later, we are still digging through the layers of misinformation and struggling to piece together the big picture. But one thing we know for sure- the truth remains hidden.

What John F. Kennedy, and to a lesser extent his brother Robert, taught us is that we must question everything and be untrusting of our governments. This message will always be central to his legacy and JFK in death will have a larger impact than he ever did alive. He showed us that conspiracy theories are important. No matter how crazy the idea, we must explore every possible avenue until we arrive at truth. As we look back in time we now see conspiracies lying beneath every major event in our history- the formation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the attack in the Gulf of Tonkin, the Iran Contra scandal, the Oklahoma City bombing, the 9/11 terrorist attack, false claims of WMD’s that led to the Iraq war and occupation of Afghanistan, the financial collapse of 2008 and more recently the Boston Marathon bombing and exposure of NSA spying. These are just a few highlights amongst over 100 years of earthshaking moments that have rocked the western hemisphere to its core.

Because of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, we now have a frame of reference when searching for truth. We can look back at the conspiracies surrounding his murder and be confident that we are on the correct path. On September 11th, 2001, it seemed like the conspirators behind the attack on the World Trade Center had taken a page out of the same playbook that gave us the attack on Pearl Harbor, Gulf of Tonkin, and, a strategy that was coincidentally rejected by JFK himself, Operation Northwoods. But this time we had the Internet and the people ushered in a new era of skepticism. We opened our minds to conspiracy theories and for the first time ever; we now explore possibility before we accept any official stories from our governments.

In conclusion, I would like to leave you with an excerpt from a speech given John F. Kennedy in 1961. A speech that would predict the cause of his demise and still rings true to this day:

 

"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 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 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 is 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….

For we are opposed around the world by a monolithic and ruthless conspiracy that relies 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”.

(Jason James is an artist, freelance columnist and writer for RefinedHype.com. You can read/download his free eBook, "This Is My Rifle" and listen/download his most recent album, "Pyramids in Stereo". You can also contact him here and here.