Lars Schall talked with James DiEugenio, the author of the new book, “JFK Revisited – Through the Looking Glass.“

By Lars Schall

James DiEugenio, who had been born in Erie, Pennsylvania, is author of, inter alia, Destiny Betrayed – JFK, Cuba, and the Garrison Case, and he co-edited for years PROBE Magazine, the journal of the Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy Assassination (CTKA). For his new book, JFK Revisited – Through the Looking Glass, see here. Moreover, he is the editor of the website “Kennedys and King“ (https://www.kennedysandking.com/).

LS: Since when do you undertake research in a active manner on the Kennedy assassination?

JDE: I had been interested in the case since the mid-seventies when I belatedly picked up the Jim Garrison interview in Playboy magazine.  But I did not really make it the major focus of my life until the nineties. That is when I started to write books and essays on the subject.  I have written hundreds of essays which the reader can find at Kennedys and King.com, and now I have written or co-edited four books: Destiny Betrayed, The JFK Assassination: The Evidence Today, The Assassinations, and this current one JFK Revisited: Through the Looking Glass.

LS: How did the collaboration with Oliver Stone come about, which resulted in a documentary, „JFK Revisited“, and now the accompanying book?

JDE: Back in 2013, I gave a speech on Kennedy’s foreign policy at a conference in Pittsburgh.  Oliver was there but he did not see it. But his producer, Rob Wilson did see it. Year later when Olvier was writing an intro to one of my books, that speech came up and I said how effective and impactful it was and Rob was there and he agreed.  About two weeks later, Rob Wilson called me and said to bring the Powerpoint on the speech down to Oliver’s office.  Which I did and that is how the project got started.

LS: Talking about Kennedy‘s foreign policy, this topic is one of the pillars of both the documentary and the book. In that area, Kennedy broke with the policies of his predecessors in the White House and began a „Quest for Peace.“  Can you talk about this a bit? And also, if he was killed precisely because of his “Quest for Peace,“ does this make JFK a martyr?

JDE: Yes, I do think that the main factor in his murder was his reformist foreign policy ventures, which as we show in the film, and the book, were a distinct break with Eisenhower in places like Indonesia, Congo and the Middle East.  I don’t know if that is being a martyr.  I just think that what happened is that Kennedy got vetoed by the Power Elite who did not like his program.

LS: The other pillar of “JFK Revisited“ are the forensic aspects of the crime.  You think what you present justifies a reopening of the case. Please explain. And moreover, has there ever been a proper investigation of the murder?

JDE: Yes, I do think the evidence we presented would provide a reopening of the JFK case. Especially the material where we prove that the pictures of Kennedy’s brain in the Archives are not and cannot be his brain.  We proved this on more than one plane of physical evidence. And we go into more detail on this in the book JFK Revisited. There has never been a full and honest inquiry into JFK’s death.  Jim Garrison tried, but he did not have the necessary means to do so.

LS: If you would have to explain who Lee Harvey Oswald really was, how would you do it?

JDE: In my view, and the evidence indicates this: Oswald was an informant for the FBI and an agent provocateur for the CIA.  In the book and the film, we go into this through two experts, Jeff Morley and John Newman.  At the time the CIA and FBI were both running anti-Fair Play for Cuba Committee campaigns. What Oswald did in New Orleans clearly indicates that he was a part of this, e.g. placing Guy Banister’s office number on his flyers, 544 Camp Street.  Banister was an extreme rightwinger who was tied to both the FBI and CIA.  We also discovered that someone at CIA rigged Oswald’s file and stopped it from going to where it should have gone so that no one in the CIA would know about his special status.  And this was done, before Oswald defected to Moscow and then Minsk.This indicates that Oswald was part of the CIA/Pentagon fake defector program.

LS: Did Oswald fire a shot on November 22, 1963 from the Texas School Book Depository?

JDE: The evidence we present in the film, and more strongly in the book, is that Oswald did not fire in Dealey Plaza that day. We present the testimony of Sebastain LaTona of the FBI, who could not find any prints of value on the alleged rifle used in the assassination when he got it that night. He was the number one expert in the field.  We also present evidence that Oswald was not on the sixth floor at the time of the shooting, which he had to have been in order to commit the crime. We also present evidence, especially in the book, that the fatal shot came from the front, as did the anterior neck shot. And that could not have been Oswald.

LS: You deal in “JFK Revisited“ with records that were declassified by the Assassination Records Review Board. One question that comes to mind in this regard is: what kind of documents related to the JFK assassination have been destroyed for sure?

JDE: We likely will never know what documents were destroyed for sure. But the record indicates certain military documents on Oswald were destroyed which were housed at a San Antonio base.  There were also reliable reports that the FBI was incinerating documents about Oswald shortly after the assassination. We have that from two sources, an employee and also a journalistic informant named James Phelan.  There are also indications that the HSCA report on whether or not Oswald was a CIA agent is not available today. 

LS: We hear a lot about the CIA and the FBI when it comes to JFK records, but wouldn’t it be interesting to see records from the Pentagon, too?

JDE: As per the Pentagon, there are clear indications that they decided to just wait out the Board. In fact, one officer who tried to comply was very rudely treated and was eventually shipped out.

LS: Talking about the military, can you tell us where General Curtis LeMay was during the autopsy of JFK?

JDE: In the film, and in the book, we deal with the puzzle of Curtis LeMay on the day Kennedy was killed.  First, LeMay lied about where he was originally that day. He was not in the USA, but in Canada. Second, he broke orders and did not land at Andrews AFB as instructed.  He landed at National where there were no cameras to record him. Third, he would not reply to his assistant, Mr. Dorman, on the Air Force One Tapes as to what his location was. Fourth, we had a witness who identified him as being at the autopsy. I think these are difficult questions to reply to in a benign way. Of course, the general was never asked them.

LS: The autopsy of JFK itself has been a complete mess, right?

JDE: The autopsy for JFK was almost beyond description. Two fundamental functions were not done. First, Kennedy’s back wound was not tracked.  Therefore, we will never know if the wound in the back connected with the anterior neck wound, or even if that track went all the way through the body. And that was not done because the military brass requested it not be done. And we know that from the testimony of autopsist Pierrre Finck at the trial of CLay Shaw.  Second, as we show in the book and film, the brain does not appear to have been sectioned. Which means:  it was not sliced into separate sections so one can see the track of the bullet, and if there was more than one bullet. Without those two processes, one can come to no definite conclusions about precisely how Kennedy was killed: that is from which direction, and how many people were firing at him. As I said above, there are also indications of fraud. The man who was supposed to have taken the photos of the brain denied under oath to the ARRB that he had done so.

LS: When it comes to the cover-up of the crime, the U.S. media played a crucial role. Was this noticeable in a way related to the reception of “JFK Revisited“ in U.S. media?

JDE: As we shown the book and film, places like CBS and the NY TImes cooperated in the Warren Commission cover up. In 2021, I thought that the MSM would just ignore us in the USA.  But what happened was that we were well reviewed in Europe by a count of about 15-5.  We know this because our distributor hired a clipping service. Then Oliver Stone began doing all of these alternative media outlets.  The interview he did with RT for example got a million views.  So when that happened, the MSM decided to jump in and counter us.  So, Tim Weiner at Rolling Stone did a hatchet job on us and that was followed by Max Boot at the Washington Post and James Kirchick at AIr Mail.  I replied to all of them at my web site Kennedys and King.com. I actually challenged Kirchick to a debate.  He cut me off his email server. So when it came time to defend his position, Kirchick ran.

LS: Do you think President Biden will release the final documents related to the JFK case in December 2022? 

JDE: I was very disappointed that President Biden did not declassify everything when he had the chance last year.  He was only slightly better than President Trump, who did nothing.  Biden declassified about a tenth of what he could have.  In my opinion this is in violation of the law.  But that is how powerful the CIA and FBI are on the JFK case. And this is 59 years later.  It does not speak well of the state of the republic, does it?

LS: Thank you very much for this interview!