"ULTIMATE SACRIFICE" - THE SUNDAY COMMENTARY

This weeks Sunday contribution is going to take on a little different thought as it is actually a book review, but not just any book. This review covers a subject that I have been a student of most of my life and finally discovers the answers to the questions about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. When I first found this book at Books - A - Million I was somewhat skeptical. Afterall I have read dozens of books about the assassination and have actually through the Freedom of Information Act acquired volumes of unclassified FBI information, which I might add had the expected censured black out portions. So my first thought when I saw this book was, " great another book on the assassination that rehashes the same story." The title still sparked my interest enough to take a moment and sit down and read the introduction and I was hooked because of the new information revealed for the first time in this book. The book title is: "Ultimate Sacrifice - John and Robert Kennedy, the plan for a coup in Cuba and the murder of JFK" by Lamar Waldron with Thom Hartman. My skepticism was first disarmed when I read the original purpose behind the book and then what it became. The authors had originally sought to gather all of the vast information about the assassination and compile it under one cover in a concise form so that all of the different ideas could be read as a complete story. They estimated that it would take two or three years to achieve this goal. The more that they found the deeper their investigation went and seventeen years later, "Ultimate Sacrifice, " was the result. During their investigation the authors discovered new information that has never before been revealed in a book and because of their discovery for the first time a cohesive component ties all of the information and the conspiracies together to reveal the truth behind who assassinated President Kennedy, why and how it was covered up and the necessity to keep this information secret for so long.

Since November 22, 1963 there have been dozens of theories and speculation about JFK's assassination. Most of the ideas that have floated around have followed four different angles. CIA involvement , Mafia involvement, Cuba and Castro and the many dissident groups who were in the United States at the time and of course the lone gunman idea, Lee Harvey Oswald. The problem in all of the research that has taken place over the past forty four years is that not one idea or conspiracy could definitely link any one of the above mentioned possibilities directly to the assassination without leaving several open ended questions and not answering details that could also prove that any of the conspiracies could not have actually performed the murder of the President. "Ultimate Sacrifice, " answers the questions and found the one component missing that not only answered the question as to who was behind the assassination but why all of the conspiracies which all have factual basis have lingered in the public eye for so long. The component that ties everything together is a never before revealed plan that was put together by John and Robert Kennedy in 1963 to stage a coup in Cuba with the assistance of one of the highest ranking members of the Castro regime at the time. This coup ties the Oswald factor, the Mafia, Cuba and the US dissidents together in a staged assassination that is shocking in the fact that it could have happened in this manner in the United States. This book proves in great detail and with a considerable number of sources both through interviews and recently released government files and declassified material how the Mafia, specifically mob bosses, Santo Trafficante boss of Texas, Louisiana and Alabama, Carlos Marcello, boss of Florida, and Johnny Roselli, lieutenant to Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana and head of Las Vegas mob operations infiltrated the coup through their involvement with the CIA and plans to assassinate Castro and used many of the Cuba coup plans and personnel to assassinate President Kennedy. The book reveals little known and long buried assassination attempts that theses mob figures attempted in Chicago, Illinois and Tampa, Florida in the three weeks before they succeeded in Dallas on November 22, 1963 . Finally the question as to Oswald being a lone gunman and killing a President is answered and proven to be false. Oswald was the ultimate patsy who through his involvement with the Cuba coup was manipulated by the mob and their various contacts who were being used by the CIA for the coup to become the fall guy for the assassination and the beginning of the cover up. Oswald was then killed by Jack Ruby to prevent him from revealing his Cuba involvement and his total uninvolvement in killing JFK. Robert Kennedy who was in charge of the entire Cuba coup put together a plan whose full aspect was only known by a few but involved the military, the CIA and the Cuban dissidents. None of the three aspects knew that a coup was definitely in the making and was scheduled for December 1, 1963 but were instructed to put together a contingency plan, "in case a coup were to happen." This secrecy in itself enabled the Mafia to infiltrate the coup plan, create a misinformation program through their various CIA contacts and essentially reverse the coup plan to kill President Kennedy in order to stop the very successful prosecution of the mob that was being conducted by Attorney General Robert Kennedy. The assassination then was forced into a cover up because the mob through their disinformation program threatened to reveal the Cuba coup and the US involvement which would have provoked and most likely started a war with the Soviet Union who had threatened that any US action against Cuba would be considered an act of war against the Soviet Union. Thus the cover up and the many conspiracies that all had a basis in truth concerning the assassination of President Kennedy.

My brief description of the book, "Ultimate Sacrifice," just scratches the surface of this highly detailed and revealing account of the truth behind the Kennedy assassination and the cover up that has lasted for more than forty years. For those of you who remember that day and the chilling effect that it had on this nation and the further ramifications that the few seconds that it took to assassinate a President changed the course of history then this book is a must read. For those of you who are not old enough to remember that tragic day but wish to learn how a rogue agency, which is what the CIA was in the late fifties and early sixties and how an out of control government agency can unwittingly be compromised and used by criminal elements to change the course of history then this book is also a must read. For those who just want answers to one of the most disturbing questions of the Twentieth Century, "who killed JFK ?" Then read this book. "Ultimate Sacrifice," by Lamar Waldron and Thom Hartman. I highly recommend it!

Ken Taylor