Oswald in the doorway: the blog of the Oswald Innocence Campaign, by Ralph Cinque

 I am starting now on my in depth analysis of the Secret Service during the JFK assassination. I started by reading the lengthy testimony of the Director of the Secret Service, James Rowley.

It was a difficult and tedious read, as are many WC testimonies. But, the bottom line is that they didn't ask him anything about what the Secret Service agents did on Elm Street. There was absolutely nothing said about their response.

About half his testimony was devoted to how he dealt with the agents staying up late and drinking the night before. He was asked repeatedly whether he thought it contributed to the outcome, and he said definitely not. He said that it didn't affect it because nothing could have prevented what happened. Oh really?

That is ridiculous, in the context of what they presumed happened. In other words, that Lee Harvey Oswald, who spent 3 years working at a radio factory, a factory that made cheap, junky, transister radios, and then he came back here and worked various odd jobs for very low pay, that he was an unstoppable force, an immovable object, that the whole thing was a fait accompli.

He was asked if he punished the agents for their infractions, and he said no because he felt it had no bearing on the outcome, and if he punished them, people might think they were being held responsible for what happened, and that wouldn't be fair to them or their families.

But, wouldn't you think that they would talk about the fact that the Secret Service slowed the limo to admittedly 11 mph? That's what they admitted to, but it slowed more than that and reportedly stopped completely. And what about the fact that the driver didn't get the impulse to step on the gas and flight out of there until AFTER the fatal head shot? Did that not warrant at least some discussion? And what about the fact that Kellerman, the head of the Presidential detail, sat there in the limo and did nothing, even after he knew the President was under attack? How could they not go into that?

He did admit that the Secret Service didn't check for open windows or rooftops at all. He said that they did that in Washington when JFK was inaugurated, but in this case, since the motorcade route was only published a few days before, they didn't think it was necessary. He also said that it just wasn't practical.

I am disgusted by his testimony. Not just his answers, but even the questions, and the lack thereof. How could they not discuss what happened on Elm Street, second by second? It's not that they didn't discuss it much. They didn't discuss it at all. Not one word.

It's ironic that one of his questioners was Allen Dulles, and Dulles was grilling him about the men drinking. What a joke. What an act. Here, Dulles killed Kennedy, and he had the nerve to get high and mighty about the SS men carousing the night before? And again, Rowley, although admitting that they broke the rules, tread on it as lightly as he could and brushed it off. I have a feeling he enjoyed a few belts himself.