DOUBTS STILL REMAIN IN OSWALD CASE
The report of the Warren Commission, released to the public September 27, declares that Lee Harvey Oswald, and he alone, was guilty of assassinating President Kennedy, The Commission also de~ clared that Jack Ruby, and he alone, was guilty of murdering Oswald, Thus the Commission added nothing essentially new to the claims made by the Dallas police who began with these two assumptions in both instances and set about fitting whatever “evidence” was at hand to prove their two theses.
Mark Lane, who was retained by Oswald's mother to represent the interests of her dead son, branded the case as "a new Dreyfus affair,
He declared that the report of the Commission would go down in history alongside the condemnation of Dreyfus and "the trial of the Trotskyists in the Soviet Union,"
It is significant that the Warren Commission denied Mark Lane
the right to appear as legal representative for Oswald in its hearings. The accused Oswald, who proclaimed his innocence even after torture by the Dallas police, was denied a fair trial, a fair hearing and even his most elementary right of legal-aid pefore being shot down in front of the television screens of the American public, - The "blue ribbon" Commission continued in -the same way to deny him any Tegal voice during the whole period of its highly publicized investigation of the case,
Hurope Remains Skeptical
‘ In Western Europe, diplomatic circles offered lavish ‘praise ~ of the report of the Warren Commission; and some newspapers, particularly in West Germany and England, followed their lead. In other areas, the reaction was much more reserved,
The conservative Gazette de Lausanne said that “far from clearing up all the obscure points in this lamentable affair, the report adds some confusion,"
The Vienna Die Presse ran a headline: “The Warren report fails to answer many questions." And the paper added: "It is an enthralling description of the events, but it..does not offer convineing reasoning."
The Belgian liberal La Meuse wrote: “It is improbable that the report will put an end to the debate" since “it is not well to tell the whole truth and many question marks remain,"
Léo Sauvage of the conservative Paris Le Eigare nad the folilowing to say:
"Without doubt the American authorities, highly concerned over the criticism and sarcasm aroused abroad by their previous affirmations, hope that the abundant _documentation assembled by the Warren Comnission in support of his [Oswald's] guilt will succeed. in overcoming the skeptics and reducing them to silence, I am very much afraid that this hope will prove to be unfounded. It is not simply that certain adversaries of the United States are never in any way inclined to give. up their sarcasm, Unfortunately it is primarily because the abundant documentation of the Commission offers no decisive refutation of the serious criticisms made up to now of the official theory,
"In some respects, ‘it can even pe said that the Warren report is of such nature as to increase the incredulity aroused by the Dallas inquiry, whether by presenting still less credible interpretations, or by offering in turn affirmations lacking any proofs, or finally by supporting key elements in the accusation on too fragile a base,
"Tt was essential, fcr example, to prove that Lee Oswald had
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brought the gun used in the murder that fatal Friday morning on com~ ing to work, The only two witnesses who saw Oswald's package described it as too short to contain a rifle. Returning themselves to a hypothesis which was advanced -- and as quickly dropped -~ last winter, the Warren report now affirms that the rifle was disassembled, Many readers of the report will have difficulty visualizing Oswald in process of assembling the parts of his rifle before he could. use it in the few minutes he remained alone and while he still had to set up the pile of boxes of books found in front of the window,
"Few readers of the report, in addition, will be inclined to ~ believe on her own word, as the Commission does, all the affirmations of Marina Oswald, Because the report is not content with considering as valid the identification of the rifle by the enigmatic widow, They. will also decline to accept her affirmation, in face of its lack of plausibility, that Lee Oswald was the man who Tired a shot at General. Walker on April 9, 1963,"
Sauvage calls attention to even more glaring faults in rela~ tion to proof of Oswaldts alleged connection with the murder ‘of the policeman Tippit, Be
New Doubts Raised
Two examples will indicate the reaction of the Conmunist press: 7
"The report of the Warren Commission," declared Paese Sera of Rome, "raises more doubts than it dissipates, In fact, study of the document reveals a whole series of omissions, contradictions, 'guppression of testimony and arbitrary interpretation of facts," .
Tass, the official Moscow press agency, wrote: "Everything that was tiysterious has simply not been cleared up. Moreover, when the Commission began its work, Chairman Warren declared that Certain facts relating to the assassination of President Kennedy would probably not be. discovered during the present generation.
"The Long report of the Commission has not dissipated all the doubts and suspicions surrounding what the American press has called the 'tcrime of the century.! .
, ">. . The American press sought to present Oswald, this former Tmarine,! as a Marxist. But the Commission did not find any | link between Oswald and the American Communist party or any other organization of the left in the United States, any. more than with any official American. organism whatsoever."
The circumstances under which: the Warren report. was released were not without interest, C.L.Sulzberger, the foreign policy expert of the New York Times, while not calling into question the findings of the Cormission, abressos how they meet certain needs of the John-
: one 4,
son administration abroad:
"By exonerating all foreigners as well as American extremists. from responsibility for murdering either President Kennedy or his -assassin, the Warren Commission helps reduce potential world tensions and erases a serious tarnish on the United States international image.
Sulzberger admits that "deep-seated sociological blemishes emerge in this fateful document." "Nevertheless," he continues, "it should destroy in the foreign mind any pictures of a United States threatened by extremists and conspirators, a picture enhanced after Senator Goldwater's famous San Francisco speech.
"This is a matter of singular diplomatic “dimportance. wee TO
Sulzberger stresses insistently that "it was necessary to reassure our allies that ours is a stable, reliable, democracy." [New York Times, International edition, September 28, ]
Political Effect Favors Johnson
The report was not without its domestic political advantages, too, as is rather eloquently shown by the timing of its release in relation to the presidential electoral campaign,
In the same issue of the New York Times, correspondent Anthony Lewis writes from Washington, D.C.:
"The opinion of political observers here is that the greater political. effect -- if any -- of the Warren report will be in favor of the Democrats, particularly Mr, Johnson and former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who is now running for the United States Senate in New York,
"rhat opinion is based: on the supposition that the report, with its thorough reconstruction of the events of Nov. 22, and the vast newspaper, book, television, radio and motion picture coverage of it, would tend to evoke even greater interest in President Kennedy, * sympathy for him, his family and associates, and reverence for his memory.
"Already, the 'Kennedy legacy! is considered one of the Demo~ crats! major assets in this election year, u
. Johnsonts appointment of the Warren Commission could thus be viewed as a very well calculated political move, Or was it just by coincidence in its dispassionate search for truth that the Commission provided Johnson at this strategic moment with his ma JOP cam paign document?
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GUBA'S