Editor's note: the PDF source for this extended hypertext version is at:
which
also highlights the film of John Judge speaking on April 11, 2012 at the
University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law
(UDC-DCSL) on "Political Assassinations & Their Relevance Today" (1:42:44).
Following the essay are excerpts of Ms. McKinney speaking in her introduction
of John on April 11 and her description of her decision to write this case
study as part of her PhD studies at Antioch University PhD Program in
Leadership and Change, resulting in her 2015 Dissertation, "El No Murio, El Se
Multiplico!" Hugo Chavez: The Leadership and the Legacy on Race". Following
this is copy written About Cynthia McKinney by Eva Seidelman, Juris Doctor
Candidate - 2013 at UDC-DCSL.
John Judge died on April 15, 2014 due to complications from a stroke. A
Celebration of John's life was held at the National Press Club on May 31. In
the following, reference is made to what was, in 2012, the beginning of his
next project, The Museum of Hidden History, established as a 501(c)(3)
non-profit registered in Washington D.C. With John's passing, work involving
the Museum has shifted to developing The Hidden History Center that is now
housed in York, PA.
______________________________________________________________________________
John Judge, Leading Change:
A Transformational, Quiet Servant Leader
Case Study by Cynthia McKinney
April 2012
Contents
Introduction
Case Study Methodology
Researcher Positionality
What is the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA)?
Who is John Judge?
Why is John Judge a Transformational, Quiet Servant Leader?
Deep Events, Unpunished, Create New Leaders in the Search for Truth
A Tough Row to Hoe
Conclusion
McKinney Case Study Interview Questions
The Paradoxical Commandments
Endnotes
Bibliography
[FILM]
Political Assassinations & Their Relevance Today
John Judge and Cynthia McKinney
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012; 12-2pm (Room LL105)
UDC-DCSL, 4340 Connecticut Ave., NW WDC 20008
mp3 file (98+ MB) of film (1:42:44)
Introduction
This is a case study of an individual by the name of John Judge. John lives in
Washington, D.C. and devotes his life to truth and transparency in government.
John is worthy of such in-depth investigation because of what he does, who he
does it with, why he does it, and the vision that motivates his actions. You
see, John Judge is a researcher: inside John's brain is a compendium of
government policies, programs, and actions that have profoundly affected the
way our government works. Ignorance of what John researches impedes the
fullest exercise possible of citizenship in this country. Every U.S. citizen
should be aware of what John researches. But because John is not a Member of
the academy, and does not publish in academic journals, John Judge is perhaps
one of the most important unknown historians of our generation.
Mindful inquiry into why a John Judge exists as he does will inform us of the
practice and role of effective civil society when a government and its
governed are in distress. Mindful inquiry into what John researches will
extend the body of knowledge on how governments become corrupt as well as how
civil society can protect itself from the acts of a rogue government and/or
restore the government to the values of the governed. Mindful inquiry into how
John does what he does could shed light on the publicly hidden limits to
government transparency currently being erected. Mindful inquiry could tell us
what John has accomplished and the vision that guides the conduct and content
of John's research. However, in this Case Study, we will only touch briefly on
these matters. Honestly, an entire book could be written on John Judge and
what someone like him means to society. Perhaps my next project could utilize
the biographical research methodology to explore, even more, the impact John
Judge's activities on government and civil society.
I say, because of his vision that guides the content of his research, John
Judge is a change agent. In this Case Study, John Judge will speak for
himself--eloquently, I might add--of the vision that moves him to do what he
does. But every encounter with John is saturated with "disorienting dilemmas:"
everything you thought you knew about something just flies out the window--if
what you "know" is based on information provided by the popular press and the
topic is a "deep event" about which governmental authorities want the public
to know little, nothing, or only its unenlightening, but tailor-made
explanation. John Judge seeks and follows only the evidence of the matter in
question. So he seeks out those individuals who have first-hand evidence
because they were at the scene or did scientific analyses of the particular
issue under investigation.
I say that John Judge is a leader, not only because of what he does, but how
he does it and with whom he does it. John Judge wants government to be open,
transparent. and responsive to the needs and values of the governed. John
shares his research product openly and tries to make the information available
widely and affordably. John is respected by researchers inside and outside of
the academy and some of the most important researchers in his field were
pleased to participate in this Case Study, when asked, feeling that John Judge
deserves the attention and recognition of his work and its contribution to
knowledge. And the very leaders interviewed for this Case Study, including
this author, are also followers of John Judge. John Judge is a leader who,
most importantly, has followers.
John Judge is also a servant. What John does is not for personal gain, not
even for personal "knowledge." What John Judge does, he does for you. He asks
nothing in return for what he does except that to those whom the knowledge is
shared, that they do something meaningful, for the common good, with it. What
John Judge does, he does with much conviction and very little fanfare.
John Judge is transformational because he not only changes individuals, he
seeks to change society. And the change he seeks is second-order change. John
Judge is honest, committed to a world without poverty, racism, and
militarism--the vision that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spelled out in his now
renowned yet rarely quoted 1967 speech against the Vietnam War, "Beyond
Vietnam."
I have now shared with you some of the reasons that I think John Judge is
worthy of being the headliner in this Case Study about someone or an entity
Leading Change. I hope you agree and look forward to the following chapters,
mere representations in what I consider a remarkable and giving life.
Case Study Methodology
I have adopted Mindful Inquiry as my preferred research method. According to
the proponents of this research philosophy, Valerie Bentz and Jeremy Shapiro,
mindful inquiry is "a new context and a new approach" to research. "[M]indful
inquiry is a synthesis of four intellectual traditions: phenomenology,
hermeneutics, critical social science, and Buddhism." Phenomenology, a
qualitative research methodology used when a particular lived experience is
being investigated, because the context of the researcher should be at the
core of research; hermeneutics involves text analysis in context where the
interpretation is not just of a text but also of the culture that produced it
and examination of oneself as interpreter of that text and its context;
critical social science "often involves the critique of existing values,
social and personal illusions, and harmful practices and institutions; and
Buddhism because the goal of the inquiry, as is the case with both the
teachings of Buddha and the religion of Buddhism, is to contribute to or be a
part of positive social action.[1]
Therefore, in this Case Study I will place John Judge in context--the context
of his times, his culture, his way of being both before he began his current
journey; the trigger that started this part of his life journey; and what he
does now as tribute to his journey. I will position myself within this
particular context as a part of my mindfulness on the subject matter. Making
this "positionality" of the researcher known is called "bracketing" and is one
way to deal "with bias in qualitative research."[2]
Because this Case Study involves human participants, two requirements must be
met, one institutional, the other "mindful:" approval by the Institutional
Review Board of Antioch University and an approach to the research
participants that is "decolonized." Linda Tahiwai Smith proposes "disrupting
the rules of the research game toward practices that are more respectful,
ethical, sympathetic and useful vs racist practices and attitudes,
ethnocentric assumptions and exploitative research." Tahiwai Smith asks a
searing question in her book, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and
Indigenous Peoples: "What happens to research when the researched become the
researchers?"[3] She answers her own question when she writes, "the activity
of research is transformed. Questions are framed differently, priorities are
ranked differently, problems are defined differently, people participate on
different terms."[4] Certainly, not only the work that John Judge does has the
effect of turning the tables as it were on those accustomed to researching
others, but this Case Study on John's work should have the same effect and
could certainly be classified as "decolonized" inquiry.
This Case Study is about the life story of John Judge. And it, as is the case
with successful case studies, is at its heart, just a story. Therefore, to be
successful, this case story seeks "to provide the reader with a vicarious
experience, that is a strong sense of being there."[5] I hope you will feel
John's angst at certain moments in this story, and that you will feel the
thrill of victory when a small victory has been achieved. I note "small"
because we are yet to achieve the goal and that is of a more just and peaceful
society. Jerome Bruner proffers that writing a compelling case story is like
writing a piece of literature. Literary fiction, he says, "offers alternative
worlds that put the actual one in a new light" and case stories (in this
instance he is talking about legal cases, but the analogy holds) should "honor
the devices of great fiction if they are to get their full measure from judge
and jury."[6] (In our case study, the judge and jury is Professor Wergin, and
in the academic world, the judge and jury are the academy and our peers.) My
intention is to write a story that is engaging, compelling, dramatic, and
true. Hopefully, when the reading is done, one will also be compelled to act.
Finally, this Case Study is about serious research. It will be judged on its
credibility and its transferability. "Credibility is the extent to which the
design is rigorous, the researcher's positioning clear, the analysis of data
transparent and open to cross-examination, and the results accurate and
trustworthy." Transferability is the usefulness of this Study in other
contexts and settings.[7] Although this is an intrinsic case study, that is,
because the interest in the case is John Judge, himself, the hope is that the
information is transferable to other situations. In fact, I believe, as a
result of the interviews, that this Case Study will be transferable to other
contexts and situations. This Case Study is built on the results of structured
interviews. Participants were selected based on their knowledge of John and
their membership in the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA). Each of
the participants was interviewed at least once; some interviews were by
telephone and recorded (19, 22, and 29 December 2011 and 7 February 2012),
others were questioned and answers were received by e-mail (12, 14, 15
December 2011). Interviewees were given questions in advance and interviews
were based around those questions. However, interviewees were not limited to
those questions and additional questions that were prompted by the flow of the
conversation were asked and answered. Member checking for quote and context
accuracy will be completed before final submission. All quotes of the
individuals listed below in this case study are from these interviews.
Questions asked of the interviewees are included at the end of the Case Study
findings. Interviewees were:
John Judge
Cyril Wecht, M.D., J.D.
Peter Dale Scott, Ph.D.
Tamara Carter
Joe Green
Michael Nurko
Researcher Positionality
I chose to research the story of John Judge because he startled me into not
one, not two, but many, disorienting dilemmas. I became so fascinated with
John that I wanted to pierce deep down inside his world. John is a
60-something year-old White male who is anti-racist, anti-militarist, and
anti-imperialist. He recognizes the genocide of Native Americans on which the
United States was built. He understands the creation of wealth in the United
States for individual families, institutions, and as a country built on the
backs of stolen, imported, enslaved Africans. And his insights have impelled
him to spend his life and to do his best to ensure that his country never
participates in such activities again. Unfortunately, in order to stop racist
or imperialist or genocidal behavior, one must be able to recognize it when it
is present. Even under the cloak of "perception management" (the official term
used by the Pentagon for its activities in the area of leading public
opinion),[8] John has developed a keen eye for the "invisible" and the mostly
unseen and a brain quick enough to tabulate and categorize seemingly innocuous
policies and actions against the appropriate unseen backdrop. Amazingly, out
of something so ordinary came someone so extraordinary. What gives me hope is
that John is so normal in so many ways. There is a piece of each one of us,
including me, inside this very special man. Imagine if we could flip the
switch and have a little of John inside each and every one of us. And while I
might not agree with John on every issue, I say that if we had even just a few
more John Judges in this country, not only our country, but also our world,
would be a vastly different and much-improved place. I want that different
place and I hope John can succeed in helping more people understand and work
to create it.
In this paper, I give the floor to John and the other participants. I give
them the opportunity to be heard in full context. The opinions stated herein
represent their own assessments, based on their experiences, and based on
their relationship with evidence not often openly admitted to even existing in
public either by the media or by state authorities. I do not filter their
statements in any way, but leave the fullness of their presentations to the
reader. The official government explanation of events is amply heard in public
spaces; as noted radio personality Paul Harvey used to say to open his shows:
and now, the rest of the story. I present to you, John Judge and the men and
women of COPA.
"What makes me dissatisfied, and what should make any body that has two neurons,
a synapse, and a cerebral cortex reject these things--if you just stop for one
moment [and think about the kind of `nonsense' we are asked to believe]."
--Cyril Wecht, M.D., J.D.
What is the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA)?
Dr. Cyril Wecht, forensic pathologist who investigated the medical aspects of
the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert F.
Kennedy, and accused killer of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., James Earl Ray,
served as the first President of the Coalition on Political Assassinations
(COPA). COPA brought together three organizations that were dedicated to
investigating the truth about assassinations in the United States: the
Assassination Archives and Research Center (AARC), the Committee for an Open
Archives (COA) and Citizens for Truth in the Kennedy Assassinations (CTKA).
COPA's first Governing Board consisted of Gary Aguilar, MD; Daniel S. Alcorn,
Esq.; Walter Brown, Ph.D.; Jim DiEugenio; James Lesar, Esq.; Phil Melanson,
Ph.D.; John Judge; Janette Rainwater, Ph.D.; Josiah Thompson, Ph.D.; Professor
Peter Dale Scott; and Cyril Wecht, M.D., J.D. COPA's Advisory Board included
Gaeton Fonzi; Patrick Fourmy; Robert Groden; Ed Lopez Soto; David Mantik,
M.D., Ph.D.; Sarah McClendon; Wallace Milan; John Newman, Ph.D.; Michael
Parenti, Ph.D.; Dick Russell; Wayne Smith, Ph.D.; Oliver Stone; Robert
Tanenbaum, Esq.; William Turner; and, Jack White. COPA was an assortment of
Freedom of Information Act experts, academicians, lawyers, medical doctors,
and researchers willing to stop--freeze--and use their neurons, synapses, and
cerebral cortexes, to search for truth when their own government refused to
provide it. John Judge was one of the researchers present at the very first
meeting that spawned COPA and he was selected to serve as the group's
Executive Director. That was in 1994.
COPA was viewed as the necessary next step by one segment of assassination
researchers after:
1. the Warren Commission, which had been charged with investigating the
assassination of President Kennedy, came back with its finding that Lee
Harvey Oswald acted alone in the murder of the President despite
compelling evidence to the contrary,
2. the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), impaneled to
reexamine the assassination of President Kennedy and to examine the murder
of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. failed to overturn the conventional
theories of the guilt of Lee Harvey Oswald and James Earl Ray but did
conclude that they were protagonists in a conspiracy that justified
further investigation, and
3. the papers of both investigations were sealed for 75 years in the case of
the Warren Commission and the HSCA files were buried for 50 years.
To these assassination researchers gathered in Washington, D.C., 1994, if the
truth were going to be known about the most important assassinations in at
least two generations, it would have to come from them because it was now
clear to them that it would not come from the U.S. government. They also
supported release of the government files as the logical next step in
re-opening the JFK case and worked to implement the law passed in 1992 to
effect their release.
As Executive Director, John Judge stepped forward to lead an organization that
was long on expertise, enthusiasm, and earnest dedication. And from that
moment in 1994 until this day, John Judge, for political assassinations, has
been the constant, the staple, in the search for truth after U.S. national
leaders decided to lie.[9]
Who is John Judge?
Squirreled away in the stacks of the Yellow Springs, Ohio library of Antioch
College, John Judge fed his voracious appetite for the truth about the murder
of President John F. Kennedy. But John didn't start there or stop there. He
started at his own undergraduate institution of the University of Dayton and
didn't stop until he was at the Library of Congress! And even then, he didn't
stop. Like everyone in my generation, and before September 11, 2001, just
about everyone could tell you where they were on the afternoon of November 22,
1963 when snipers' bullets stole a President from the United States of
America.
John was no different. But what makes John Judge different from the rest of us
now is that he was determined to get to the truth, even if it would take the
rest of his life to do it. So, as a full-time pursuit, John Judge has pursued
the truth of the Kennedy assassination and most other political assassinations
since November 1963. As a result, John Judge knows more about political
assassinations that have occurred for the convenience of powers inside the
United States than any other person not directly involved in the acts. As a
result of this single-minded pursuit, John has become a walking encyclopedia
of every U.S. government covert operation that threatened the Republic or its
Constitution.
The only child in a middle class family where both his father and mother
worked at the United States Department of Defense, the Pentagon, John was a
precocious child. And sometimes, rebellious. During civil defense drills, he
refused to get underneath his student desk as a way to protect himself from
nuclear attacks deeming such a solution from those entrusted to protect him as
"not rational" for an event as horrific as the launching of an atomic weapon
against the United States. John got sent to the Principal's Office for that
one, but he made his point.
John also remembers the Cuban Missile Crisis. And remembers President Kennedy
as the President who pulled us back from the brink of disaster. John could
compare that to how he felt as he watched President Eisenhower's
Administration lie before the world and to U.S. citizens, insisting that the
United States had not lost a U2 spy plane and pilot when in fact it had, that
the United States was not spying on the Soviet Union when in fact it was. What
stands out in John's memory, even today, was the stinging sensation he felt as
he watched with embarrassment as the Soviet Union unveiled the pilot and the
wrecked plane after the strongest denials had been publicly made on order from
President Eisenhower.
This was the same sinking feeling that John had as he read Mark Lane's book
about the Kennedy assassination, Rush to Judgment. According to John, "It
raised so many questions about the validity of the case against Oswald and the
conclusions of the Warren Commission. I felt that if even half of what he said
was accurate, the government had seriously failed to get the truth or had
intentionally lied to us."
Something in John's world had drastically changed after reading that book.
Perhaps it was the innocence of childhood that was lost. For President Kennedy
represented Hope and Change. And to John, "the whole mood of the country
shifted from optimism to despair." So, John decided to go directly to the
evidence: at that time, 26 volumes of the Warren Commission Report; he
compared the evidence to the footnotes and the conclusions of the Report. His
conclusion: little matched.
At the Antioch College Library, and the Library of Congress, John found
authors who were critical of the Warren Commission Report. It was through this
effort that he "came to know Penn Jones, Jr., Griscom Morgan, Bud Fensterwald
and Jim Lesar at the Committee to Investigate Assassinations, and corresponded
with Jim Garrison in New Orleans."
In the mid-1960s, the United States was engaged in a controversial war that
was broadcast on the nightly news into millions of U.S. homes. Anti-war fervor
was at a fever pitch, particularly among the young people. John was also
anti-war. He wanted to register at Selective Service (the draft board) as a
conscientious objector, but did not know how to do so. So, he investigated for
himself and then became a draft counselor for others. He opposed mandatory
ROTC at his college, and began to study and "table"[10] and take part in a
weekly vigil against the war in Vietnam. So John Judge, the child of Pentagon
employees, began to question everything about his life and his country,
including its wars, its "enemies," its "way of life," and its presumptions. In
his own life, he saw racism, he saw sexism, he saw white privilege, and he saw
what President Eisenhower warned against, the Military Industrial Intelligence
Complex. And most importantly, he saw a President murdered, and along with
him, something of the democratic institutions that elected him died, too.
Precocious. Rebellious. Serious. Patriotic. Heroic. I see these attributes in
John Judge today. Imagine how it must have been for John to grow up with
Pentagon parents in a Pentagon, Defense Intelligence Agency (D.I.A.), National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (N.A.S.A.), and Central Intelligence
Agency (C.I.A.) neighborhood. A "fly on the wall" could just as easily have
been a mini-drone equipped with camera and listening device. On second
thought, maybe it was!
It was in this environment that John developed his "meta-sense" about the true
nature of his country and the world. John was able to discern two systems--or
maybe one big system with two components--at work. He says he came to see
"that there were two governments operating in America, one visible if not
honest, and one invisible and unaccountable." Sadly, as covert operations both
domestic and foreign were publicized, John began to realize that the rise of
the Military Industrial Intelligence Complex and the National Security State
were intertwined. And the assassinations he was studying were an important
part of this rise. According to John, "Those who stood up to this emerging
form of government, which was not democratic in nature, became the targets and
the victims of its operations and agents." John's own words are more eloquent
and poignant on this point:
Thus, the importance of the assassinations of President Kennedy, Robert
Kennedy, Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King went beyond the tragedy of
their personal lives and contributions, since it led to structural change
that would never allow such leadership to arise again. These were not
merely political assassinations but coups d'etat carried out by factions
within the ruling elites and agencies, and against leaders in movements
for real democracy and social change. Killing these leaders amounted to
killing the hope they represented for millions of people who aspired to
rise out of poverty, racism and militarism to create a democracy and a
distribution of wealth that would build a better world for all. These
murders protected the privileged elite and their political and social
agendas.
On another level, these events are recognizable points of consciousness
and memory, so packed with emotional connections, that most people alive
at the time remember them vividly. Just as later generations remember 9/11
or the Vietnam War. We know where we were when we heard the news. These
leaders and their murders are a constant subtext in the media and in our
national history. They command far more interest than other aspects of
history at the National Archives and in the literature about the
historical period. Thus, they are a foot in the door, a recognizable point
that allows the insertion of other facts, perspectives, evidence and
paradigms that go beyond the official story and the media spin.
Indeed, Dr. Cyril Wecht adds, "I believe that there have been conspiracies to
kill three great men who could not be dealt with any other way ... The only
way to deal with them was to eliminate them."
Nurko says that the assassination of President Kennedy was "a public execution
for people to see" and is convinced by the evidence that the 1968 Democratic
Party ticket for President and Vice President would have been Robert F.
Kennedy, President Kennedy's brother, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Nurko
does not stand alone in holding that belief.
Another COPA co-founder. University of California at Berkeley Professor
Emeritus and author of several books, is Dr. Peter Dale Scott, who has given
us the appropriate language to describe these and similar "Deep Events"
arising from "Deep Politics." Initially characterizing these events as
"para-politics," that is, covert politics. Dr. Peter Dale Scott refined the
characterizations of these types of actions into a field of study called "Deep
Politics."
Deep Politics, according to Dr. Scott, describes the way the United States is
managed "as part of a systemic right-wing campaign to maintain the 1% in power
and to limit the possibility" of democratic resistance. Deep Politics is the
part of government policy and practice that intentionally suppressed or that
contains deceptive information about government activities. Perception
management techniques are used by the State alongside its practice of Deep
Politics.
Dr. Scott has been interested in the Deep Politics of the drug traffic for
many years because of his interest in the origins of the Vietnam War. Dr.
Scott is convinced that "the origins of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War
and C.I.A. actions with drug traffickers in South East Asia constitute the
beginnings of a concerted anti-communist effort in that part of the world
which grew into a war in Laos instigated by a CIA-funded, CIA-created army in
Thailand that had drug support." And for the same reason, he has been
interested in the Kennedy assassination "because a significant escalation of
the US presence in Indo-China occurred on November 24, 1963--only two days
after President Kennedy was assassinated." Dr. Peter Dale Scott links these
two issues--the drug trade and the murder of President Kennedy--and looks at
these events in the context of an entire field of inquiry called "Deep
Politics." Therefore, he looks at the origins of the Vietnam War as beginning
with the assassination of President Kennedy.
Tamara Carter, known in the COPA family as just "T," is a loyal friend and
follower of John and is a founding member of COPA. She is a self-described
"lifelong independent researcher" of the JFK and MLK assassinations and the
author of A Memoir of Injustice by the Younger Brother of James Earl Ray,
Alleged Assassin of Martin Luther King, Jr., as told to Tamara Carter. The
central importance of the book revolves around one aspect of reality that few
would recognize as true today. She writes, "It is at once a plea for
correction of a long-standing injustice -- the failure of the U.S. government
to this day to rigorously test the alleged murder weapon; a counter-narrative
that indicts the mainstream media for its uncritical coverage of the official
story; and an absorbing oral history." She maintains that the perpetrators of
the murders of JFK and MLK "are intentionally veiled in secrecy" as one would
expect with such "deep events." She concludes that those "poisonous power
structure" perpetrators continue to exist and operate today.
Michael Nurko has read by his estimate about one thousand books on the subject
of political assassination. He makes presentations and learns from the
presentations of others at COPA meetings and serves as one of the dedicated
"housekeepers" for COPA, keeping the books. He notes that "John is pretty good
at figuring things out" and feels a sense of responsibility to "his fellow
citizens" to get the information out and to add to the existing body of
knowledge in this area.
Joe Green is perhaps the newest member of COPA among those interviewed. He
says:
Almost everything that people learn in schools is a lie. The lie is
necessary to keep people mindlessly consuming without regard for their own
long-term self-interest. While these lies and distractions are
perpetuated, the state goes on to do horrific things in their name that
involve the widespread murder and destruction of other human lives, mostly
in faraway countries whose cultures are not well-understood. If people
understood that every time they fail to get involved their hands are
bloodied with innocent lives, they might do something about it. At the
very least, they would be presented with a stark moral choice: Fight this
system or be damned.
Green is the author of. Dissenting Views: Investigations in History. Culture.
Cinema. & Conspiracy [I and II], and is active in COPA because, as he says,
"Our history is not as it is presented in official academic texts, but is much
darker, and filled with `deep events,' as friend Peter Dale Scott puts it." In
his book. Green covers the Patriot Act, the murder of Fred Hampton, the Alger
Hiss episode, and most particularly a piece called "`The JFK 10-Point Program'
which seeks to unite researchers in an effort to find ten points we can agree
on." Green participated in the November 2011 COPA Conference in Dallas, Texas
by focusing on the murder of 21-year-old Black Panther Party Chicago Chapter
Chairman Fred Hampton, murdered in his bedroom, shot by the Chicago Police
Department, while sleeping and after having been drugged by a paid FBI
informant.
Indeed, Dr. Scott says, "If you're interested in the politics of
assassination, then COPA is the place to be."
Thus are the comments of the people who are a part of John's extended family.
This is his capable COPA coterie consisting of among the brightest people in
this country who also had the courage to ask the tough questions and go
wherever their intellect, the evidence, and the facts would take them. They
all landed in Deep Politics, USA.
A little bit of each of these remarkable individuals is inside John Judge and
a bit of John Judge is inside each of them. Thus, in answering the question,
"Who is John Judge?" I have given a small profile of each of the people most
important to his work in COPA and who consider themselves to be John's
friends. In the end, however, it is John who best speaks for himself, and here
is what John has to say about what motivates him to do what he does every day
for the last 50 or so years: and what I know he will do tomorrow and each day
that the sun awakens him until the truth is reached:
In Zen, the master teaches the students to focus on the activities and
ideas conveyed and to take them seriously. Able to discern the matrix of
assumptions that control the consciousness of students, they ask a
question and pose a puzzle, a koan, that cannot be answered without
breaking out of those assumptions. But since the master has asked it,
neither can the question be ignored or dismissed. This is done because,
when one breaks out of one paradigm, one matrix, they may just jump into
another, or they may transcend them and reach satori or realized
consciousness that goes beyond the tunnels of perception and assumption to
hold several paradigms at once.
For me, from a perspective of political analysis and social change, the
contradictions raised by the best evidence in these historical events are
the koan that can be thrown in to disrupt the assumptions and distortions
of the official deceptions and allow not only a counter-narrative of
events and causes, but possibly open the minds of others to the point that
they can pose their own puzzles against the realities they have been
taught or accepted blindly.
Finally, these assassinations are profoundly anti-democratic acts. We
cannot act responsibly if we cannot know our own history and its
implications. The past is prologue.
I found these assassinations to be Rosetta stones whose close inspection
and study revealed the whole and made history comprehensible instead of
confusing and disempowering.
If we want to live in a democracy we must be informed. Uninformed citizens
making decisions is farce, Madison said. Jefferson knew that information
flow is more central to democracy than the mechanisms by which popular
will is carried out. He said he would always choose a newspaper without a
government rather than the opposite. If we want to understand our present
or envision our future, we must be able to be clear about our past. The
burial of our history since WWII by the National Security State makes this
difficult if not impossible.
For all these reasons, I work for transparency, the accurate
reconstruction of historical events and assassinations, and the engaged
involvement in citizens to work for the claims of justice and of history
itself in understanding the truth about these events.
John Judge, indeed, employs his neurons, synapses, and cerebral cortex for the
common good--for all of us, including for the people who don't even know he
exists.
Why is John Judge a Transformational, Quiet Servant Leader?
According to Amir Levy, transformational leadership is "capable of providing
new vision, aligning members with this vision, and mobilizing energy and
commitment to the realization of this vision."[11] John has done that through
his selfless work with COPA. In addition, the kind of change that John is
working toward could be called a paradigm shift that changes the rules of the
system. This is what is called paradigmatic change and is known in the
leadership literature as "second-order change." According to Levy, the content
of second order change involves change in all four identified elements:
1. core processes,
2. organizational culture,
3. the organizational mission and purpose, and
4. the organizational worldview or paradigm.
Now, what is important about this kind of change, according to Levy, is that
change in only one (or more, but not all four) of these elements constitutes
"first-order" change. First-order changes in organizations can be seen all the
time. Second-order change is far more difficult. And most importantly for our
purposes, according to Levy, "the less visible the dimension, the deeper the
change and the greater the possibility that the change will be irreversible."
Hence, the importance of Dr. Scott's interest and development of theory in the
field of Deep Politics. Nurko describes these Deep Events that COPA deals with
as "a power grab." It is impossible to return power to the people if the
people do not know who actually has the power or where the power currently
resides. It is only through an understanding of Deep Politics that the "power
grab" can be reversed and deep change made possible.
At this point, I would add that John Judge, in my opinion, is an authentic
leader, too. Not only does John exhibit the necessary traits of authentic
leaders, that is, self-acceptance, self-awareness, authentic actions, and
development of authentic relationships, John Judge develops authentic
followers.
"Among the desirable follower outcomes posited to arise from authentic
leadership and followership are heightened levels of trust (Dirks &
Ferrin, 2002; Jones & George, 1998), engagement, which is defined as
`involvement and satisfaction with as well as enthusiasm for work'
(Harter, Schmidt, & Keyes, 2003, p.269), and well being (Kahneman, Diener,
& Schwartz, 1999; Ryan & Deci, 2000). Again, this followership process is
intended to be both an important part of and product of authentic
leadership development."[12]
In my opinion, John Judge is first-and-foremost a practitioner-researcher. He
is engaged in action research. However, as is the case with many
action-researchers or practitioner-researchers, his knowledge has not made it
into "officialdom" as "knowledge" and therefore, what John does and who John
is, remains in the realm of information for only the few lucky enough to know
of him. John's research is not "defined as research by the research
community."[13] His vast menu of information is, at this stage, unable to be
drawn upon as widely as deserved, by students or scholars. It is my hope that
this small case study will serve as the beginning of a change in that
circumstance and will add to the scholarship of doing.[14]
For some, meeting John is a life-changing event. Joe Green puts it this way:
I feel an enormous responsibility to John. I first found out about him in
an article published in a book by Steamshovel Press. The article was
called "The Black Hole of Guyana" and reading it remains one of the
singularly mind-blowing experiences of my life. I resolved right there to
try and meet him and came to a Dallas conference. I remember our first
meeting vividly; early on a Friday morning, I walked into the breakfast
room in the Hotel Lawrence. He was sitting with Mike Nurko (I didn't know
him at the time) and I sat down at the table and introduced myself. I
spent the next two or three hours mesmerized as John proceeded to turn my
world upside down. Anyone who has spent any time with John knows what I'm
talking about.
"T" Carter puts it this way:
I consider John my mentor, role model, hero, confidant and dear friend.
Therefore, I strive to be an honest, devoted and loyal friend. Moreover, I
have his back! I feel it is my responsibility to learn as much from him as
possible, so others may continue and promote his important life work. His
library is very important to him, therefore, I promise to preserve his
valuable collection of books. In addition, I feel a strong responsibility
to honor John's remarkable genius and legacy--a legacy of selfless
service. I know this for sure--as a direct result of John's quest for
social justice, political activism, devotion to stopping the
militarization of our schools, generous heart, soaring spirit and
wonderful wit--the world in which we live is a far, far better place.
Michael Nurko lists the "devastating" foreign policy changes that occurred as
a result of the Kennedy Assassination and is convinced that the President's
American University speech made his murder a matter of urgency for those so
interested. Those devastating changes included the prolongation of the Cold
War, usurping the idealism of the Peace Corps, and ending the Alliance for
Progress. According to Nurko, domestically, President Kennedy was about to
tackle the problem of the Federal Reserve by issuing U.S. currency instead. He
exclaims, "We're killing the planet."
Dr. Peter Dale Scott says that "we all have a responsibility to the truth and
we must have vehicles through which the truth can be disseminated and that is
what John is doing." Dr. Cyril Wecht agrees that John has served COPA in a
wonderful and unselfish, basically unpaid way in all these years. Dr. Wecht
states further that he considers John a great friend and, in his opinion,
without John, it would have been difficult to hold COPA together. Dr. Wecht
goes further and admonishes the community at large:
Don't let sycophants and self-appointed defenders of the official
governmental agencies involved in these cases and the Commissions that are
set up to look into them issuing their whitewash reports, don't let them
off the hook.... You have a sole assassin or you don't have a sole
assassin. The moment that a second person becomes involved in whatever
fashion, in whatever point in time,... that means legally, technically, in
the federal laws and the laws of every state, that you're dealing with a
criminal conspiracy. That's why the government has to swallow all this
business with these people who have no business and no skills and
knowledge ... that would lead you to believe they would go out of their
way to effectuate these killings: Oswald (JFK), Sirhan (RFK), and James
Earl Ray (MLK).
The bottom line, according to these experts, is as Joe Green put it: "if we
get down to specifics, we can see with just a few hours of digging that Sirhan
Sirhan did not shoot Bobby Kennedy, or that James Earl Ray did not shoot Dr.
King, or that Malcolm X was not killed solely by the Nation of Islam."
Add to that the tragedy of September 11, 2001 and the "official" explanation
of its cause and culprits.
These Deep Events can be viewed as malignant tumors on the "body politic" of
the United States of America. These are the Deep Events that have turned the
world upside down; they have hollowed out whatever value system the United
States once had such that even the Constitution could be referred to by U.S.
President George W. Bush as "just a gosh darn piece of paper." These Deep
Events constitute the Deep Politics that currently shape U.S. economic,
social, and political life. A failure to understand the role of Deep Politics
in the U.S. polity will allow the cancers to grow and eventually overtake and
kill the U.S. body politic. Understanding these deep events is the key to
unlocking the true power of the people, the power of civil society to turn the
United States and the world right side up again. This is the work that
consumes John Judge: to expose what is wrong and then transform it into good.
John's next project is a Museum of Hidden History to house all of the volumes
of government documents, books, manuscripts, and historical collections that
the researchers have compiled over these last 40 years. He envisions the
Museum would act as a library, a tourist attraction, a place for students to
intern and learn about an alternative historical analysis, and a place for the
community to gather to discuss strategies for policy change. He is currently
working with other libraries and archives to digitize COPA's holdings so that
information can be more easily disseminated. Once again, John's future plans
involve giving truth to the interested community--service in the truest sense
of the word.
I have characterized John Judge as a servant leader and am reminded of the
Preface of the book by Kent M. Keith (author of The Paradoxical Commandments
appended below) entitled, The Case for Servant Leadership. In it, Keith
writes:
This book is about creating a better world. There does not have to be so
much pain and suffering, so much war and violence, so much starvation and
disease, so many crushed dreams and untapped talents, so many problems
unsolved and so many opportunities ignored. The world does not have to be
like this.
One reason the world is like this is that people are using the power model
of leadership. The purpose of this book is to make the case for the
service model of leadership. It is the most ethical, relevant, practical,
and effective model of leadership that I know. It is also the model of
leadership that is the healthiest and most meaningful for those who lead.
Keith gives us some attributes of servant leaders, from his own observations
and as written by others:
"Servant-leaders have a way of attracting other servant-leaders."
"The highest type of ruler is one of whose existence the people are barely
aware."
"The best leaders are almost invisible."
"A servant-leader is simply a leader who is focused on serving others."
And finally, "A transforming leader may be a servant-leader, a `servant-first'
because he or she satisfies higher needs, and converts followers into leaders
and leaders into moral agents."[15]
John Judge is one of the most important historians of a U.S. history that even
many members of the interested public never heard of. John is a leader for
leaders and a servant to both leaders and followers. John is servant also to
the idea that the United States can be a better country for its residents, the
global community, and the planet. John Judge is a transformational leader
seeking second order change. John Judge is a quiet servant leader, leading
change.
"The tragedy of it is that I can't do a damn thing about it. The only thing we
can do is to keep hammering and pounding at the door. It's not going to happen
in my lifetime."
--Cyril Wecht, M.D., J.D.
Deep Events, Unpunished, Create New Leaders in the Search for Truth
Michael Nurko says that people in other parts of the world think that the
average U.S. citizen is "stupid because we're accepting all of this." He goes
on to say that others with potential have also been killed. (Anyone who doubts
this should read The COINTELPRO Papers available online or the book by the
same name written by Ward Churchill.) Knowing about it is one thing, but the
main question is or at least should be, "What can we do about it?"
The assassination of President Kennedy was one of those Deep Events that
triggered second-order change in the United States of America. This affected
both its domestic and foreign policies. However, even as momentous as the act
was, it was the cover-up that spawned COPA. It was the government's refusal to
conduct a real investigation, to tell the people the whole unvarnished truth,
that led the founders of COPA and other groups that were formed to become a
community of citizen-researchers. Nurko points out that in the matter of the
murder of President Kennedy, "no evidence was released, just conclusions." He
goes further to state that he read all 26 volumes of the government's report
and that the government told "outright lies." He concludes by saying that
nowhere does the Warren Commission Report technically say that Lee Harvey
Oswald killed President Kennedy.[16]
Each Deep Event of the government, accompanied by the government's refusal to
tell the truth, produces manna that feeds a population starved for truth from
their officials. And according to John, political assassination takes many
forms and the future is growing more ominous. He says:
In my definition, political assassination includes not only the murders of
elected officials, heads of states or leading candidates for office, but
also any citizen who is killed for a political purpose, or as a witness to
the murder of another who threatens to reveal the truth about the events.
Political assassination, for instance, would include the murder of Marilyn
Monroe by injected chemicals because she was threatening to reveal to the
Kennedy brothers that her bedroom was being bugged by the Mafia. Or the
murder of news columnist Dorothy Kilgallen because she had an exclusive
interview with Jack Ruby and told friends she had information that would
blow the JFK case open in a few days. Or the murder of John Lennon, when
he got off heroin and began to do political activism at a time when Ronald
Reagan was about to massively increase the defense budget. Lennon had the
potential to bring millions of people into the streets, and was already
targeted for deportation.
The rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany was preceded by a series
of 400 political assassinations, murders of prominent labor organizers,
anti-war activists, musicians, academics and other voices that would have
opposed the rise of fascism in Germany. Many current day police murders of
activists and organizers are dismissed as accidental, despite the clear
intent of programs like COINTELPRO, CHAOS and Operation Garden Plot [I,
II] to eliminate leadership in certain communities or political areas.
Mass murders, terrorist acts and pogroms or genocidal attacks on specific
populations or political groups would also qualify as political
assassinations in my view, whether carried out by the state or by
non-state actors, or even covert operatives. Violent murders of
individuals or groups aimed at changing state leadership or policies, or
organized to disrupt and overthrow an existing government in a state or in
other states, such as the murders of Saddam Hussein or Muammar Ghaddafi
are political assassinations.
Current U.S. policy condones and is institutionalizing the capability and
legality of political assassinations of declared political enemies, with
or without trial or appeal to innocence, here or abroad, and done remotely
by drones or more directly by covert operations based on intelligence
rather than criminal evidence, and including American citizens. New laws
are being proposed and enacted that will create a Battle Zone inside
NORTHCOM, making the US a military operations zone, and empowering the
military to override state National Guard units, local police and others
to make arrests without warrant, and to imprison without trial or habeas
corpus rights of appeal, for indefinite periods those suspected of
harboring or aiding Al Qaeda, and to conduct military tribunals rather
than civilian trials in considering their conviction and execution. These
laws would end the long established principle of Posse Comitatus, and the
separation of military and police function in a democratic society, as
well as overriding habeas corpus rights that date back to the Magna Carta.
Political assassination can take different or mixed forms, including
propaganda, lies and rumors meant to assassinate the character of the
individual, cause distrust and lethal encounters inside organizations, or
distort historical actions taken by the targets of assassination and their
significance. This can be done in place of physical murder or afterwards
to justify it. Another method involves setting up a situation meant to
compromise a political election or career, as in the incident at
Chappaquiddick and the murder of Mary Joe Kopechne designed to force Ted
Kennedy to falsely take the blame and be eliminated as a presidential
candidate that year. Or it can be done by innuendo of sexual scandal or
worse crimes to discredit the victims after they are dead.
Another indicator of political assassinations is the modus operandi used,
the false or destroyed ballistic evidence, the use of patsies to conceal
other gunmen and sponsors, and the official cover story and cover-up that
follows, despite specially appointed investigations.
And finally, another indicator is a power shift, whether it is regicide,
overthrow of an elected leader, manipulation of an election, declaration
of emergency powers or continuity of government and martial law, a rise of
one segment of a ruling class over another, a destabilization leading to
new opportunities for those seeking power and control, a coup d'etat,
decapitation of a political movement or party, or a geopolitical shift.
Political assassinations were sometimes attempted as a method of
"attentat" by anarchists or nihilists, to get the attention of the masses
and show them the monarchs are not invincible so they might rise, or
arranged by those seeking power from inside to lay the blame falsely on an
innocent or compromised individual. The use of political assassinations
for power and social control date back to early human history and there
are parallels between the assassinations of Julius Caesar and John F.
Kennedy. The Borgias and other ruling and wealthy families were infamous
for murder plots among themselves to secure power.
The anarchist plots of the early 19th century led to the creation of
police provocateurs who sometimes assisted in setting up such attempts in
order to catch and imprison the enemies of the regime.
In the 20th century, assassinations have served to allow the rise of
political factions or economic groups, to control governments abroad led
by popular leaders, assisted the plans of those hoping to overthrow
tyranny or install it, to destroy the leadership and cohesion of grass
roots movements for social change, and to frighten and disorient societies
moving toward real democracy. Hundreds, if not thousands of political
assassinations of elected officials, political organizers, witnesses to
crimes and activists have marked and changed the direction of our national
and global history in the decades leading up to and since WWII.
John was deeply affected by the events of 1963, 1965 (the assassination of
Malcolm X), and 1968 (the murders of both Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and
Presidential Candidate Robert F. "Bobby" Kennedy). But unlike most who worked
to hold back tears, John worked to find the truth--work that would become his
life. He says:
In 1968, the double assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and
Robert Kennedy shattered hope and exposed the violent underpinnings of the
corruption in American military and police organizations. I held a sign in
front of the Kennedy Student Union at the University of Dayton the day
after King was killed, "The King of Love Is Dead". I actually felt
strongly that Robert Kennedy would be shot that night in Los Angeles and
tried unsuccessfully many times to reach the Ambassador Hotel to warn
someone. Ironically, it was the hired security surrounding him that
participated in his murder.
I began to collect a body of literature and government reports on these
murders and others, like the assassination of Malcolm X and other
activists and civil rights members. It led me back to the history of WWII
and the role played by Nazi war criminals in establishing the post-war
intelligence networks in Europe and the United States and the beginnings
of the Cold War and the rise of the permanent war economy.
In 1972, the day after the Watergate break-in, I saw the five names of
those arrested on site and they all were known to me because they had been
part of the Bay of Pigs and the history of the assassination of President
Kennedy.
One of them had testified to the Warren Commission. I asked my mother,
still living in DC, to clip the Washington Post and Evening Star if she
saw any articles about the arrest. A few weeks later, the Realist magazine
carried the first issue of Mae Brussell's Conspiracy Newsletter with an
article titled `Why Was Martha Mitchell Kidnapped?', breaking down the
entire structure of the Watergate break-in, going all the way up to the
White House, and another on the ties of Nazis to the rise of Richard
Nixon. I contacted Mae immediately because I had been working on some of
the same leads and history.
Yes, even transformational, quiet servant leaders have heroes and role models.
And for John, Mae Brussell is pivotal:
She was a mentor to me. I never saw such energy in a human being. In
addition to raising five children, she had gotten a copy of the Warren
Report and volumes of evidence the year they were printed, 1964, and had
started cross-reference indexing the un-indexed data, leading to 1,800
pages of research connections. She began to clip 15 newspapers a day, 150
periodicals a month, and to read 3-500 books a year and to break down the
information into an alternative history of America since WWII. The
daughter of the leading reform Rabbi in Los Angeles, and heir to the I.
Magnin Department Store family, Mae was educated at Stanford and she was
an ardent anti-fascist who had not forgiven the Nazi criminals who were
concealed and invited to develop the infrastructure of intelligence
operations, aerospace and munitions, exploration of space, and other
technological and political developments that have defined the modern era
we live in, as well as endangered us with constant war and the end of
democracy. Mae and I were close friends and fellow researchers for years,
until her death in 1988.
Mae Brussell studied the murders of political activists, rock stars,
witnesses to crimes, journalists about to reveal state secrets, and other
members of the Kennedy family and the civil rights leadership who were
targeted for political reasons. She had information on hundreds of
murders. I followed her lead, being as thorough and as careful as I could
with the evidence. Mae and I attended many national conferences on the
assassinations, including those hosted by Jim Lesar and Carl Oglesby, and
became familiar with the excellent work of Peter Dale Scott and others.
Mae wanted me to continue her work at a Research Center in Santa Cruz, but
others prevented me from realizing that wish and forced me to abandon her
collection of 6,000 books, 42 clip filing cabinets and hundreds of folders
and tapes. Her weekly radio show, World Watchers, had lasted for 18 years.
John credits his mother for his brains and his antipathy toward violence. And
because she worked at the Pentagon, he was able to learn more about its inner
workings than most children his age, or for that matter, most U.S. citizens.
Of course, one doesn't have to have such access to understand when one is
being mislead or lied to or when a huge crime is being covered up. Of John's
mother and his formative years he says:
Whatever intelligence I have I credit to my mother, who rose to a position
as the highest paid woman employee at the Pentagon over the 30 years she
worked there, and who had a security clearance five levels above Top
Secret.
I began to question political pronouncements from an early age, and social
norms as well. I remember a bitter fight at age 10 or so with my parents
who wanted me to dress up for a party because people would not like me
otherwise. I said that if people liked me for my clothes I did not want
those people to like me. As I mentioned, I refused to get under my desk
for an atomic air raid drill and was sent to the principal's office. I was
horrified that adults could have such a weapon or use it, and then even
more frightened when they offered me no protection at all against it in
the drill.
My parents were frightened by Senator Joe McCarthy and his anti-communist
crusade, fearing that innuendo or rumor would get them fired. President
Eisenhower's lies about the U-2 and spying shocked me into realizing that
not only our enemies did bad things or lied to cover them up.
I was always curious about the world and loved to read. I made my parents
take me to public libraries or drop me at the Pentagon library for the day
if they took me in to work with them. Fascinated by stories of UFOs and
alien beings, I studied the government reports like Bluebook, Grudge and
Twinkle at that library, and the UFO World Report, a summary of all the
sightings worldwide put out annually. I came away understanding these were
terrestrial craft coming in and out of military bases, not from other
planets, though it was a disappointment. I eventually discovered that much
of the talk about aliens and flying saucers was being generated by
military intelligence groups seeking either public cohesion against a new
enemy or public confusion about a covert technology that we controlled.
Deep Events and their cover-ups or flaccid cover stories create truth
researchers like John and the COPA community. Dr. Peter Dale Scott laments the
"ignorance of the highly educated" and Dr. Cyril Wecht maintains that the
government's "evidence" on the President Kennedy assassination just doesn't
fit "from a forensic standpoint." Dr. Wecht insists:
It's important to me, as it should be to every thinking, mature, American
citizen ... whatever you may be, you should be concerned and interested in
these matters. You should wonder `How come these great leaders have been
assassinated? Is it always the work of a sole nut?' Which is of course
what the American government would have you believe.
John continues:
There is no perfect crime or impunity possible without a compromised
investigation. Thus an open and fair system of investigation by police or
other state agencies would lead to convictions of guilty parties based on
untainted and real evidence and good forensic work.
Having a real system of justice in place and a media that used
investigative journalism and real free speech would discourage such
assassinations. So would transparency and the inability to hide the truth
of historical events under the cover of `national security.'
Even better, education about history and an open media exchange of ideas
and information would create a healthy skepticism about certain
`authorities' and create a momentum for real discovery and research into
political murders.
John Judge represents a tremendous body of untapped knowledge. His dedication
to truth makes him remarkable. He has read all of the government documents,
relevant books, and knows all of the experts on the subject. He readily shares
his information with anyone willing to learn. Of his experience, John goes on
to say:
The scandal of Watergate and the Church Committee investigation into the
abuses of the intelligence agencies was followed by the creation of the
House Select Committee on Assassinations [HSCA] created to re-examine the
murders of both President Kennedy and Martin Luther King. I tracked the
work of the Assassination Information Bureau headed by Carl Oglesby that
pushed to get the hearings. I read all those volumes as well and some
5[00] - 600 books on the assassinations.
The HSCA records were locked up for 50 years on Congressional orders.
By the 1990s interest in the JFK case was waning until Oliver Stone's film
by that name was released, introducing a whole new generation to the
evidence that led New Orleans DA Jim Garrison to go after David Ferrie and
Clay Shaw. Vilified at the time, his case and suspicions have been proven
right by the release of classified government files.
Prior to the release of his film in 1991, I co-founded the Committee for
an Open Archives to effect release of the Warren Commission files locked
up by Lyndon Johnson in 1964 for 75 years. We got legislation proposed by
several members of Congress for full release of the files, but they did
not move in Congress. Once the Stone film came out and ended with a note
about the records still being classified, a huge wave of letters and calls
came into Congress calling for full release. This led to the JFK
Assassination Records Act of 1992, finally implemented between 1994 and
1998 by the Assassination Records Review Board.
In 1994, I co-founded the Coalition on Political Assassinations to
facilitate the search for and release of Warren Report, HSCA and other
records, combining the efforts of hundreds of independent researchers,
medical and forensic experts, historians and academics and the
Assassination Archives and Research Center and the Citizens for Truth
About the Kennedy Assassination. I still direct that organization today,
working toward a major conference in Dallas in 2013, the 50th anniversary
of the Kennedy assassination.
While the JFK Records Act implemented the release of over 6.5 million
classified pages of records, not all the files are yet released, including
many CIA and DIA records. The HSCA files on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
were never released by Congress. In 1999, I helped to draft a Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. Records Act to release files on his life and death,
introduced by Rep. Cynthia McKinney before she left office. On her return
to Congress, she hired me as a special projects assistant in 2005 and the
King records bill was readied for introduction when the death of Coretta
Scott King led to a pause, in respect to wishes of the children of Dr.
King.
The events of September 11, 2001 also constitute a Deep Event that led to
second-order change and an intensification of the national security state.
Many people, who were not yet born during the series of assassinations during
the 1960s, felt the same kind of sense of urgency after September 11th. Many
of them know exactly what they were doing at the time the planes hit the World
Trade Center Towers. And again, the visible power grab and evidence of a
cover-up have given birth to an entirely new generation of Truth Seekers like
John Judge and the members of COPA. I will let John have the last words before
I present my conclusion:
The idea and need for the Coalition on Political Assassinations came from
my experience with a series of conferences on the JFK assassination in
Dallas in the 1960s put on by a rock music promotion outfit, South by
Southwest. These conferences were titled JFK Assassination Symposium
(JFKASK) and they made money for the promotion group but did not benefit
the researchers who spoke, or the community as a whole.
I had co-founded the Committee for an Open Archives in the 1980s to push
for release of classified records in the JFK case. At the final JFKASK
conference in 1993, I organized a panel to call for creation of a national
coalition of groups and researchers who wanted to work for a solution to
the case and to combine our efforts to push for both media and government
responses.
The JFK Assassination Records Act was passed in 1992, but not implemented
until 1994, so part of the reason to found COPA was also to interact with
the Assassination Records Review Board and to implement full disclosure of
the records.
COPA originally included the most active groups, including the Committee
for an Open Archives, the Assassination Archives and Research Center and
the new Citizens for Truth About the Kennedy Assassination. Initial
organizing meetings were held, and a board was created, chaired by a
leading expert in forensic pathology. Dr. Cyril Wecht, a former president
of both the American Academy of Forensic Sciences and the American College
of Legal Medicine.
Our initial conference, held in Washington, DC in 1994, was attended by
over 450 people and included workshops and presentations by medical,
ballistics, forensic experts, historians and academicians, well known
authors and independent researchers. We used a peer review system for the
presentations, asking for abstracts from the potential speakers, and
strived to present the best evidence and historical framework based in
fact not speculation.
We also presented new information annually on other assassinations,
including Robert Kennedy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and
others.
We had a positive impact on the progress of the Assassination Records
Review Board and helped to get over 4.5 million classified pages released
by the time they folded operations, and over 6.5 million pages to date. We
continue to push for release of all related files in that case and in the
case of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. through Congressional oversight, new
legislation, court cases and National Archives reviews. We have identified
files that were never sent to the Review Board for review and release and
we are working for their release under more difficult standards.
COPA held annual conferences in Washington, DC from 1993-1998, as well as
annual regional meetings in Dallas, and every five years a meeting in
Memphis, Tennessee and in Los Angeles, California. More recently we have
held three regional meetings in New York City concerning the life and
death of Malcolm X.
We hold annual commemorative events at American University on June 10,
marking the speech given by President Kennedy in 1963 calling for an end
to the Cold War and the nuclear arms race and nuclear tests, and at the
Grassy Knoll in Dallas, Texas every November 22 where we have a Moment of
Silence at 12:30 pm, marking the moment of JFK's murder.
We have recorded, distributed and archived videotapes and booklets of
abstracts from our conferences over the years. COPA is a 501 (c) (4)
non-profit, which allows us to lobby and endorse candidates, but does not
allow tax-deductible donations.
Political assassination has a long history, but it is not a universal one
in all cultures and societies. Without concentration of power into an
elite or an executive or monarchial leadership, and the political
organizations and movements that rise in opposition to that, such
assassinations would serve little purpose.
Many cultures shun murder on an individual much less a political level,
and many political assassinations are driven by covert operations from
other nations or factional fights within an elite group. In a less
militarized and centralized society, or in an open democracy, political
assassinations would be much less likely to happen or have the desired
effects.
Even in political movements that do not or are not forced to rely on a
small group for leadership but are more diverse and decentralized, the
state response is much less effective. For example, who would the state
execute in order to end the Occupy movement?
On the other hand the fear of rising leadership or a "Black Messiah" in
the African-American population here was strong enough to lead to
elimination of both national and local leaders fighting for civil and
human rights.
If a society wants to end political assassinations they must strive to
become diverse, decentralized, democratic, just, and transparent
I have always tried to see the world from more than my own perspective and
been compassionate and empathetic toward others. I have a natural
revulsion for dogma and violence and refuse to live by either. Also, most
of my skepticism has been borne out by revelations and investigations over
the years. Once, in my college years, a student said to me, "John Judge,
you're the guy who gives everybody nightmares." "No," I corrected him,
"I'm the guy who wakes you up so you know you are in one."
"The truth will be uncovered."
--Cyril Wecht, M.D., J.D.
"Can you mount a popular resistance, a movement in civil society that can be
more powerful still? I think the answer is, `Yes, it's possible.'"
--Peter Dale Scott, Ph.D.
A Tough Row to Hoe
According to the February 2, 2012 Huntington, West Virginia Herald Dispatch,
high school English teacher, Colleen Sexton still thinks the Kennedy
Assassination is worth debating. She "assigned 25 college prep English
students to read a book about the assassination, research the question on the
Internet, and then debate the issue before a jury comprised of high school
juniors."[17] The bottom line for the students: "we all believe there was a
conspiracy."[18]
Sexton, and her team for these students, History teacher Tyler Markum, and
Assistant Principal Chris Smith are doing what Judge calls "transcending the
paradigm" by helping others to become more critical in their thinking. Judge
believes that merely providing people with information is not enough to evoke
change; what is necessary is to change their consciousness and only through a
change of consciousness can there be a change of action. We understand that
"disorienting dilemmas" are situations that force an individual "into a
different place than where [they] are through critical reflection or an
external trigger."[19] According to Wergin, the Disorienting Dilemma is where
it begins. He recommends that one "follow the disorientation to find true
transformation; it requires dialogue and trying on the way others see
things."[20] This is exactly what the students at Chesapeake High School did,
and with very little additional information, arrived at one conclusion similar
to that held by COPA co-founders. Will these students now see things
differently than before their yearlong English/History lesson? Judge surely
thinks they will. And with their critical thinking skills enhanced, he hopes
that they will also become better, more active and informed citizens. Judge
laments that so little is known about these activities that transformed the
United States and the world. The magic that happens in Sexton's English class
is truly one in a million.
Given the media treatment of Judge, COPA, and the topic of these
assassinations, it is a wonder that anyone still cares or rather, dares to
care.
Judge gives as an example of media negligence an account of an encounter in
Dallas on the Grassy Knoll at one COPA event. Judge recounts:
[W]e were usually completely ignored by the media until the '90s. One
Dallas Morning News [DMN] reporter came out during that decade and said
his editor had sent him to ask why we were still coming there every year,
so long after Kennedy had been killed. My response was that I was there
for the same reason his editor had sent him to ask, it matters who killed
the President in 1963 and why. No story was printed.
Judge continues:
Another year, a DMN reporter put our Moment of Silence in an article
without interviewing me or others on scene, calling us a "morbid,
necrophilic circus" and my talk a "rant" because it tied the assassination
to current events. Not a word of my content, of course. She said we were
besmirching the sacredness of the place and moment of Kennedy's death by
talking about conspiracy.
Interestingly, Judge notes that there is free access to the Book Depository,
but that COPA has experienced restricted access to the Grassy Knoll:
On the 30th anniversary, we were pushed out of the area by police and a
well-covered Dallas event replete with hundreds of police, a podium across
three streets by the Triple Underpass, and political speakers
commemorating Dealey Plaza as a historical site, or perhaps more
accurately as an a-historical site since no mention was made of the issues
it involves. At the same time, the Sixth Floor Museum, which promotes the
official story and memorializes the false "sniper's nest" in the Book
Depository, gets all the press it wants.
Judge notes that there has been more press attention lately, but the group
still faces obstruction in communicating to the public:
[I]n the last few years, there have been more reporters present from DMN
[Dallas Morning News], UPI and other national press. They are still
careful to interview the crowds for the most part, not the researchers.
Plans are already being made to deny us a permit for the 50th anniversary
on the Grassy Knoll, letting the city and the Sixth Floor Museum control
the whole area to rid it of the "carnival atmosphere" and the "conspiracy
theorists". Asked what they planned to do instead, the Museum director
said "maybe a moment of silence." What a novel idea. However, if they hold
a 50th anniversary event without discussion of the historical realities
behind the assassination of President Kennedy, then it will be an eternity
of silence event instead.
Of the special interest, corporate media, Judge says:
It is now almost completely a corporate entity, under the ownership of six
large companies, most of whom are also defense or government contractors.
Modern "journalism" has been stripped of most content. Reportage relies on
controlled wire stories not investigative reportage. The twenty-four hour
news cycle makes even the most explosive revelation last only a few hours
before coverage moves on to the next scandal or personal gaffe.
When two COPA speakers. Dr. Robert Joling, a former president of the
American Academy of Forensic Sciences, and Phillip van Praag, a renowned
audio expert came out with their groundbreaking book, An Open and Shut
Case, using a newly discovered and totally authenticated audio recording
of the shooting of Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel to reveal a
total of 13 shots from two guns, and even identifying the make and caliber
of the guns involved from the audio spikes, there was a brief item on the
evening news in Los Angeles.
Two female television anchors tried to sum up the points the `scientists'
had discovered, including the fact that the head wound was fired from 2-3
inches away according to Coroner Dr. Noguchi's autopsy report, a distance
too far to have been the gun Sirhan was firing, and that all the bullets
came from behind Robert Kennedy that wounded him or tore his clothes, and
the sound evidence of too many bullets to have been from Sirhan's gun
alone, their concluding remark was, `it's all so confusing.'
So much for news reportage on the mainstream media. Presented with hard
evidence of a conspiracy they are simply befuddled. No follow up stories,
of course.
Further, Judge relates a little-known fact of intelligence infiltration into
what average citizens innocently regard as their "mainstream" news outlets
and, moreover, disregard for news that truly informs and empowers the public.
Speaking specifically of the instances of the "Pentagon Papers" and of Rolling
Stone, Judge says this:
Most mainstream or mass media is corporate owned and controlled.
Especially the "paper of record," the New York Times, which has long been
penetrated by and cooperated with the CIA and the Pentagon, and willing to
print or censor the news and information for their benefit. Many other
revealing records have been given to the New York Times by other whistle
blowers over the years that have never seen print. By the time the
Pentagon Papers came out, a large portion of the establishment and the
rich were fed up with the Vietnam War as costly and non-productive. It was
causing a great deal of social unrest and limited investment return for
most industries. The study focused only on the decisions made during the
presidency of Lyndon Johnson, and while damning they did not reveal
anything about the Nixon administration's plans for the war.
Similarly, the Rolling Stone, which has wide distribution but is only
culturally `mainstream' has published pieces critical of government
wrongdoing over the years, including Carl Bernstein's expose of CIA
control of the press and compromise of hundreds of journalists. The
ownership of the paper in more recent years has been corporate. The
assassination stories have appeared in mass form in alternative magazines
and journals since the 60s, and certainly even more widely on the internet
and in online news formats.
"Mainstream" press and media still keep the story alive, and it is a
context that does not disappear from the news. Public interest is still
high, clearly, in the history of the Kennedy family and his murder. Just
this week a story broke about Dr. Robert McClelland, a Dallas physician
who had been present at Parkland Hospital's emergency room when they tried
to save the life of President Kennedy. After decades of silence he spoke
to a Rotary Club in McKenzie, Texas and revealed that he has always
disagreed with the Warren Commission's conclusions about a single gunman
firing from one direction based on the wounds he observed that day. It
made local news in an online paper, but it did not make the national wire
story it deserves.
While Judge observes of the lack of coverage of real news stories, especially
surrounding Deep Events like these assassinations, that "it doesn't matter how
explosive it is if they don't want it to explode," Nurko states succinctly
that the "mainstream" media cooperate and collaborate with the enemy.
Judge recalls the Sonoma State University's media project, Project Censored
and his efforts in general with the press:
Many news stories about explosive revelations never see the light of day.
Annually there is a whole volume of the top censored stories printed by
the Censorship Project from California, collected by journalism students,
some of the few who still read newspapers and research facts.
Also, note the many cases of journalists who tried to expose the truth in
sensitive political or corporate scandals who were fired or ruined in
Kristina Borjesson's Into the Buzzsaw or Mark Hertsgaard's analysis of the
compliance of the press to official versions of reality, On Bended Knee.
In the JFK assassination case, not only have reporters lost their jobs or
ruined their reputations by pursuing the conspiracy evidence, not a few of
them have been brutally murdered at a moment when they were about to
reveal new information.
I have had research into these areas rejected for print by alternative and
left publications as well. In the 60s only the pornography magazines would
publish most of the researchers, giving them a wide male audience. In fact
there is a whole structural analysis on the left that denies any
conspiracy in the murder of JFK based on their left critique of his
policies, denying any motive to kill him on the part of the government in
their view. Of course, he was not killed by the left, and the more
pertinent analysis would be the right wing and Pentagon/CIA critique of
his actions and initiatives from their perspective, even if distorted.
I encourage and assist other researchers in their efforts at new books and
films and promote those at the conferences and to the press.
There are clearly well publicized and published defenses of the official
version which become best selling books with the help of the same agencies
and media outlets, despite their distortions and shortcomings in the
realms of actual evidence. On the other hand, the film JFK broke box
office records and still sells well in DVD form. The National Archives JFK
Assassination records collection is still the most visited part of all
their holdings, even the genealogy section, despite being moved out to
Archives II in Maryland. And many books critical of the Commission have
gotten record sales responses, most recently the excellent work of Jim
Douglass, JFK and the Unspeakable, which got national television exposure
when guest Oliver Stone handed a copy and recommended it to Bill Maher on
his show.
I have contacted both alternative and mainstream press as well about all
our events, with minimal response. Jeff Morley, a well known Washington
Post reporter, who has been suing for some years now to release files on
CIA operative George Joannides who oversaw the anti-Castro Cuban DRE group
that was linked to David Phillips, spoke at our last COPA conference on
the reasons he felt obstructed media coverage of our issues and evidence
from his own experience inside the system. These telling comments are at
our website, politicalassassinations.com.
Even when journalists and historians should know better, but choose instead to
tread on safer ground, because of the internet. Judge and COPA have been able
to take them to task, thereby creating space for another view. Judge and COPA
would count this as a success, but they would surely much rather have
journalists and other opinion makers just follow the evidence that is
available in the public domain. Judge adds: "Or take, for instance, this
recent item from the mainstream media, combining both media and academia with
a historian's commentary on the assassination and my posted response from the
evidence:
Douglas Brinkley convicts Oswald on TV
Reporting LIVE from our headquarters, Charlie Rose: "giving you a sense
of history..."
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/12123
31 January 2012
Douglas Brinkley, historian:
"So far I've bought into the Posner, Case Closed" ... "The big question
still remaining: `Why did Oswald do it?'" ... "I believe Oswald could have
made the shot."
[JUDGE] NOTE: Oswald could have "made the shot" if he'd owned the rifle,
had been on the sixth floor of the Book Depository, had gotten graphite on
his hands or cheeks by doing so, had bullets that matched those found in
the bodies and limousine, had enough competence to aim the gun and correct
for the scope, and could do better than all the Army weapons experts who
tried with a repaired gun at an easier target who failed to hit it.
Reality is such a hard taskmaster.
Then again, what shot could he have made from there? Maybe the one that
went through Governor Connally's chest or the one that missed and hit
James Tague near the overpass.
He could not have made either shot the Warren Commission credits him with.
The fatal head shot clearly comes from the front. The "single bullet"
shot, if it had actually happened, would have caused a wound from JFK's
back through to his throat. Robert Cutler took the Warren Commissioners at
their word and traced that wound at the angle they described and the other
required angles that the wound information would allow. He took it
backwards instead. It goes well below the sixth floor and well to the
south of the Book Depository.
Oswald could not have made a shot through both Kennedy and Connally since
there was not time to shoot twice and the interval between those wounds is
too long for one bullet, unless it suspended in mid-air. The angles are
all wrong for one bullet as well, as are the angles and timing of the
wounds to Connally's wrist and thighs. Then there's the problem of the
windshield, but never mind.
Anyone COULD have made any number of shots. NOBODY could have fired three
bullets from one location and killed Kennedy and caused the other damage
and wounds that day in the limousine on Elm Street.
So is the historian's standard of evidence and conviction not proof
positive, proof logical or much less proof without reasonable doubt, but
only proof of possibility ignoring all other evidence? Only if the one
book you read is by Gerald Posner, who distorts all the evidence.
Who knows, maybe an ambivalent Oswald COULD have fired from two different
and distant locations at almost the same instant (3.2 second intervals
max). Maybe Oswald had help. Maybe two lone gunmen showed up at the same
time and location with the intent to kill Kennedy as the Washington Post
suggested long ago when acoustical evidence of a fourth shot that day
convinced the House Select Committee on Assassinations that there was a
"probable conspiracy" involved. After all, they noted, there is no proof
the gunmen knew each other.
Then again, maybe Oswald didn't fire a gun that day at either Kennedy or
Tippit Maybe Oswald was a patsy, just as he said he was, with no stress
level in his voice. In fact, Oswald COULD have been framed for a crime he
did not commit to protect a conspiracy of people who did all the shots and
got away with it. I'm an historian too, so I'll pick this one. At least
there's evidence for all of it.
Clearly, despite the push away from considerations of the evidence by the
popular media, the effort to obscure the truth is working less and less. The
February 7, 2012 Government Computer News (GCN), a magazine for government IT
(information technology) professionals, reports that the "Government Printing
Office's online site for official government documents received a record
number of visitors after the January 30, [2012] release of recordings of radio
traffic aboard Air Force One in the wake of President Kennedy's
assassination." The GCN goes on to report:
"The Federal Digital System (FDsys) received more than 140,000 visits from
Jan. 30 through Feb. 3, including a one-day record of 55,856 on Jan. 31.
The site usually receives about 16,000 visits a day."[21]
In line with the writings of Michel Foucault and Paolo Freire, Judge observes
that in the end, cultural forces make it very difficult to work for any kind
of change and skills developed in academia are designed to fit the graduate
into the existing machinery not to fulfill his or her potential.
Unlike teachers Sexton, Markum, and Smith, Judge notes that by and large
Academia treats these assassinations in the same manner as the corporate
media. Judge writes:
A few academics have tackled the issue of political assassination and
critical analysis of history. Not a few have been kept from tenure or even
fired from their positions due to that. If it were an open society, it
would not rely on my effectiveness at promoting the ideas. Instead there
is a demonstrated reluctance on the part of most academic historians to
deeply question or critique the accepted premises of most events in the
modern era. Especially those that involve politics, national security or
war.
Judge goes on to chronicle his experience operating a COPA booth at an
academic conference:
One COPA participant had been a history professor and used the Warren
Commission volumes as examples of primary documents to teach his students
analysis skills. A handful of professors still teach the assassination as
a special course, if their departments allow it. But that same history
teacher encouraged us to attend and set up a literature booth on the JFK
assassination at a huge annual conference of the Association of American
Historians in the 90s in Chicago. Hardly anyone stopped at the booth. Most
who did, all professors of American history, saw it as a curiosity and
commented that they did not know there were so many books on the subject.
But, they didn't buy any either. Is this indifference, hostility or
reticence knowing the consequences? Or does it reflect a general cultural
reality in most of academia that they stay away from controversial topics?
As [U.S. author and satirist] Dorothy Parker once quipped, "You can lead a
horticulture, but you can't make her think."
Challenging the United States government explanation of a Deep Event is not
going to win many friends, and so it has been with COPA. From known COINTELPRO
tactics of bad jacketing to media smears, COPA has also had to deal with
infiltration, threats, intimidation, as well as a lack of resources.
This behavior indicates to Judge that COPA was and remains on the government
radar. According to Judge, this is borne out by documents in the Mary Ferrell
Library, a digital archive of thousands of government assassination files also
disclose government efforts to "go after" specific "critics" in specific ways.
Judge says he raises the kinds of questions about issues that are fairly well
known so that COPA doesn't have to start from scratch. "Humor doesn't work if
the joke has to be explained." However, as Judge puts it, his approach is to
"get the door open, throw the dirt on the carpet and then show the people how
a magnifier works." Although both Judge and Nurko admit that COPA has not been
able to get the government to reopen these cases and investigate them, they
reject the idea that COPA has not been effective. And, for a small, poorly
financed organization, COPA has racked up some remarkable successes.
Judge and Nurko list some COPA successes:
* One year C-SPAN covered a DC JFK Assassination COPA conference on the 40th
anniversary;
* Following the Oliver Stone film, JFK, a whole new generation took a
revived interest in the assassination;
* There were 5,000 people on the Grassy Knoll on the 40th;
* The internet has made it possible for people to educate themselves by
visiting COPA's website;
* Many COPA researchers were advisors to Oliver Stone's movie, JFK;
* The Review Board was formed and COPA was able to help guide the Review
Board in its release of documents;
* The King Family caused the House Select Committee on Assassinations to be
formed;
* There have been more books written in the last 30 years than there were in
the first 20 years;
* Thousands of visitors visit the COPA website from all over the world;
* COPA researchers were responsible for the largest release of documents in
U.S. history-approximately 6.5 million pages;
* COPA has kept the issue alive and has expanded its interest to the
assassinations of Malcolm X, MLK, RFK, Fred Hampton, Tupac Shakur, and
others;
* Judge and COPA were responsible for both the Martin Luther King Jr.
Records Collection Act and the Tupac Shakur Records Release Act being
introduced into Congress.
John Judge and COPA have been able to accomplish a lot with precious little.
They continue to demonstrate courage in the face of contempt from government
authorities, but are developing a growing following because of their work
product.
In another overlooked, but incredibly important news story, carried online
without exploration by CNN.com on February 4, 2012, the California Attorney
General, in a trial introducing new evidence of Sirhan's innocence in killing
Robert Kennedy first unveiled to the public at a COPA Conference in Los
Angeles, admits that the evidence might point to the presence a second
shooter. CNN reports: Harris, who is asking a federal court in Los Angeles to
dismiss Sirhan's request, conceded in court papers filed Wednesday that his
lawyers may be able to show two guns were involved in Kennedy's assassination.
The case is going on right now with silence from the media, but a bombshell
admission from the California Attorney General that completely negates the
government theory of a lone gunman. Dr. Cyril Wecht was present at the autopsy
and witnesses confirm that Sirhan Sirhan was never at any point fewer than two
to three feet from Kennedy who was shot, according to the coroner's report,
from two to three inches away.
It is a pity that John Judge and the COPA researchers remain unknown to the
vast U.S. public. That does not in any way imply that they are at fault; it
is, however, an indictment on every U.S. institution dedicated to information,
education, and democratic values. Despite the clear successes and the record
of effectiveness, John Judge and COPA are mining for truth one document and
one author at a time. Their effort is to deliver truth to us now because it is
their conviction that so much of what is happening in the world today started
with these acts of murder for which the real perpetrators remain shielded from
prosecution. However, to Judge's and COPA's great satisfaction, new
generations of researchers are being born every day to continue the work that
COPA has started. To which COPA and Judge would say, "No Truth, No Justice; No
Justice, No Peace."
The greatest lesson to be learned from the story of John Judge and the COPA
researchers is that 50 years later, they are still searching for that elusive
truth without which there can be no justice.
"I don't want to perpetuate a system that has racism, sexism. Instead, I try
to be self-aware. I try to practice a different leadership style. Traditional
leadership styles promote and protect privilege. I choose to live a life of
principle."
--John Judge
Conclusion
In this Case Study, we have covered transformative leadership, authentic
leadership, servant leadership, second-order change, critical social science,
and more. New concepts that have been introduced center around "Deep
Politics," a theoretical formulation of Dr. Peter Dale Scott. In terms of
leadership, we can say that the "Deep Events" that are the result of Deep
Politics generate intense interest on the part of a select few as evidence of
a government cover-up or of government lies is revealed. It is clear that the
direct result of the Deep Event of the assassination of President Kennedy in
1963, coupled with the government's explanation that ignored crucial evidence
that contradicted its explanation, and the compromised investigation of the
actual murder, was the founding of an organization by truth seekers who would
put the evidence together and let the evidence point to the explanation. What
is more, it can be theorized that for as long as Deep Events continue to be
committed, there will arise Truth Seekers who will challenge the government's
explanation and mount their own investigations to find the truth.
This is exactly the set of circumstances that led to the founding of COPA,
which has become a hardened corps of truth seekers and truth tellers. Put
another way, when leaders decide to kill and lie about it, people like John
Judge will emerge.
The most dedicated of these Truth Seekers will become leaders in their circle.
Michael Nurko reported that his friends even ask him about candidates for whom
to vote. And among the Truth Seekers, new leaders will emerge. John Judge is
one such leader. I would suggest that the next phase of this leadership
development as an attack on the Deep State should include pursuit of
policymaking positions for this new breed of leader. While this Case Study was
an intrinsic one, focused solely on John Judge, it is clear that the issues
that arose here could be cause for further study to help us understand other
phenomena, such as the nature of Deep Politics and Deep Events and their
development of transformative, authentic, servant type leadership seeking
second-order change--or any of the sub-components.
Additional issues that might arise include:
1. How is it that "successful" leaders are the ones who kill with impunity?
2. If there is a deficit in what is perceived as authentic leadership, will
authentic followers step up and become authentic leaders?
3. What would happen to leader accountability if there were more people like
John Judge?
Dr. Wecht is clear that, while it might not be in his lifetime, the truth will
be told. In a conversation with a prominent former Republican economist. Dr.
Peter Dale Scott remarked about the resilience of U.S. civil society, even
with its faults, and states that it is still his belief that U.S. civil
society can overcome the Deep State. The Republican noted that the great
income and wealth disparities that exist in the U.S. now could very well
propel a popular movement.
In this Case Study, I hoped to convey the "ordinariness" of John Judge. As a
source of inspiration for others, it should be clear that John could be you
and John could be me. Yet, John has been able to accomplish quite an
extraordinary feat! I hope that by telling John's story, that every one who
reads it will be able to find a part of him- or herself in it. Imagine if
others could find in John's quiet leadership, a bit of their own, and in so
doing, become the change agents for truth and dignity that humankind needs now
more than ever.
Some people engage in research merely "to satisfy their own curiosity."[22] I
must admit that the antecedents of this Case Study find their roots in just
such an ambition. However, the more I understand the true depth of John Judge
and the people around him, it is clear that a non-traditional, but real
contribution to the field of Leadership Studies and Political Science can be
made with this Case Study.
Case Study Interview Questions
Questions for the John Judge Servant Leadership Case Study
Questions for John Judge:
* What is political assassination?
* Why do you think leaders kill?
* What started your interest in political assassination?
* Why is it important to you?
* Your interest has gone well beyond merely reading about it and becoming
knowledgeable about it. What do you intend to do with your information?
* What is it about you that made you unsatisfied with official responses,
answers, explanations, or conclusions?
* Why did you found COPA?
* What is the typical profile of its members and followers?
* What do you think you provide to COPA followers?
* What is your responsibility to COPA members/followers?
* Is that different from your sense of responsibility to the community at
large?
* Is it possible to eliminate political assassination?
* If so, what will it take? If not, why not?
* What is/are your goal(s) in life?
* How would you rate yourself as making progress toward that/those goals?
* What help do you need to accomplish those goals?
* Is there anything that you consciously do that inhibits your attainment of
those goals? If so, what and why do you do it?
* Tell me your thoughts on the events of 11 September 2001.
* What is your vision of the ideal United States domestic and foreign policy?
* Is there anything that I failed to ask that you feel is important to your
story?
Questions for COPA members:
* What started your interest in political assassination?
* Why is it important to you?
* Your interest has gone well beyond merely reading about it and becoming
knowledgeable about it. What do you intend to do with your information?
* What is it about you that made you unsatisfied with official responses,
answers, explanations, or conclusions?
* What do you get from your participation in COPA?
* What do you give to COPA by your participation?
* What does your participation in COPA give to John?
* Do you feel that you have a responsibility to John? If so, what is it?
* What is your vision of the ideal United States domestic and foreign policy?
* Is there anything you would like to add?
* Tell me your thoughts on the events of 11 September 2001.
Second Set of Questions for John Judge
* Why do you think more people have not heard of you?
* Why haven't you been able to break through to mainstream academics and the
mainstream media?
* What do you think about Rolling Stone publishing the theft of the
Presidential election in Ohio and the New York Times publishing the
Pentagon Papers?
* Do you believe that you are reticent; that there is a problem with your
advocacy?
* In what ways do you believe you could have been more effective?
* What do you believe are the key lessons to be learned about your
leadership model?
* Do you feel that you have been ineffective?
* What do you count as some of your successes?
* Is there anything more that you would like to add that I didn't cover?
Second Set of Questions for COPA Members
* Why do you think more people have not heard of COPA?
* Do you think that is a reflection on John's leadership?
* Why hasn't COPA been able to break through to mainstream academics and the
mainstream media?
* What do you think about Rolling Stone publishing the theft of the
Presidential election in Ohio and the New York Times publishing the
Pentagon Papers?
* Do you believe that John is reticent; that there is a problem with COPA's
or John's advocacy?
* In what ways do you believe COPA could have been more effective?
* Has COPA been ineffective?
* What do you count as some of COPA's successes?
* Is there anything more that I didn't ask that you feel should be covered?
The Paradoxical Commandments
People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down
by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds. Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.[23]
Endnotes
1. V. M. Bentz, and J. J. Shapiro, Mindful Inquiry in Social Research
(Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1998), 6-7, emphasis in original.
2. J. H. McMillan and J. F. Wergin, Understanding and Evaluating Educational
Research, 4th ed. (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2010), 91.
3. L. T. Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples
[PDF format, or in libraries] (London: Zed Books, 1999), 183.
4. Ibid., 193.
5. McMillan, 92.
6. J. S. Bruner, Making Stories: Law, Literature, Life (Cambridge, London:
Harvard University Press, 2003), 10-13.
7. McMillan, 91.
8. "Perception management" includes actions to convey and/or deny selected
information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their
emotions, motives, and objective reasoning; and to intelligence systems
and leaders at all levels to influence official estimates, ultimately
resulting in foreign behaviors and official actions favorable to the
originator's objectives. In various ways, perception management combines
truth projection, operations security, cover and deception, and
psychological operations.
9. For more information on the ignored evidence that contradicts the official
government explanation in each of these assassinations, please visit the
COPA website and the links to archives of government documents contained
thereon: . Other websites with such
evidence include: , ;
;
; and numerous books.
10. To "table" an event is an activist activity consisting of sitting at a
table at a designated area inside or outside of an event with information
to be given away or sold to event participants. John's information table
was in the Student Union.
11. Amir Levy, "Second-order planned change: Definition and
conceptualization," Organizational Dynamics 15, no. 1, (1986): 12.
12. W. L. Gardner, B. J. Avolio, F. Luthans, D. R. May, and F. Walumbwa, "Can
you see the real me? A self-based model of authentic leader and follower
development," The Leadership Quarterly 16, no. 3 (2005): 346.
13. P. Jarvis, The Practitioner-Researcher: Developing Theory from Practice
(San Francisco, Calif: Jossey-Bass, 1999), xi.
14. D. A. Schon, "The New Scholarship Requires A New Epistemology," Change 27,
no. 6 (1995J: 26-34.
15. K. M. Keith, The Case for Servant Leadership, (Westfield, IN: Greenleaf
Center for Servant Leadership, 2008), passim, emphasis in original.
16. In post-interview comments, Nurko clarifies, "The actual Warren Commission
Report is only one volume of approximately 800+ pages in hard cover and
some 700+ pages in paperback, which was released in September, 1964. Two
months later the unindexed 26 volumes of the testimony and documents were
released. In fact, this was the first time in the history of the US
Government Printing Office that you could not purchase any of the
individual volumes of any set of books. You had to purchase the entire 26
volume set. I, for one, could not afford to do that, and I wound up
studying the 26 volumes at the New York City Public Library over the next
2 years. I worked in the city and spent many of my lunch hours in the
library."
17. David E. Malloy, "Chesapeake Students Researching Kennedy Assassination,"
The Herald-Dispatch, February 2, 2012.
18. Ibid.
19. Wergin, Antioch University Yellow Springs Cohort 11 lecture.
20. Ibid.
21. William Jackson, "Kennedy assassination tapes a hit on FDsys site,"
GCN.com, Feb 07, 2012,
22. Jarvis, 7.
23. Keith, 59.
Bibliography
About.com. U.S. Military. From Department of Defense.
http://usmilitary.about.eom/od/glossaiytermsp/g/p4712.htm
Bentz, V. M. and J. J. Shapiro. Mindful Inquiry in Social Research Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage. 1998.
Bruner, J. S. Making Stories: Law, Literature, Life. Cambridge, London:
Harvard University Press. 2003.
Gardner, W. L., B. J. Avolio, F. Luthans, D. R. May, and F. Walumbwa. "Can you
see the real me? A self-based model of authentic leader and follower
development." The Leadership Quarterly 16, no. 3, 2005.
Jackson, William. "Kennedy assassination tapes a hit on FDsys site." GCN.com.
Feb 07, 2012.
Jarvis, P. The practitioner-researcher: Developing theory from practice. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 1999.
Judge, John (Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Coalition on Political
Assassination, COPA) in discussion with the author. December 2011 - January
2012.
Keith, K. M. Case for servant leadership, Westfield, IN: Greenleaf Center for
Servant Leadership. 2008.
Levy, Amir. "Second-order planned change: Definition and conceptualization,"
Organizational Dynamics 15, no. 1. 1986.
Malloy, David E. "Chesapeake Students Researching Kennedy Assassination," The
Herald-Dispatch, February 02, 2012,
McMillan, J. H. and J. F. Wergin. Understanding and Evaluating Educational
Research, 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education. 2010.
Nurko, Michael (COPA member) in discussion with the author, December 2011 -
January 2012.
Schon, D.A. "The New Scholarship Requires A New Epistemology." Change 27, no.
6. 1995.
Scott, Peter Dale (Co-Founder of COPA) in discussion with the author, December
2011.
Smith,L. T. Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples. [PDF
format, or in libraries] London: Zed Books. 1999.
Wecht, Cyril (Co-Founder of COPA) in discussion with the author, December
2011.
Wergin, J. F. Antioch University Cohort 11 Lecture (Yellow Springs, August
2011).
Cynthia McKinney on Writing this Case Study
The following is an excerpt from the film at the beginning of this file,
"Political Assassinations & Their Relevance Today -- John Judge and Cynthia
McKinney". Cynthia McKinney begins at 01:41 and John Judge begins at 26:35.
Her remarks here begin at 18:24.
[F]or some reason, the people of this country don't want to accept the facts
that will be presented here to you in this short time today. Part of the
reason that there's a lack of acceptance is because there's a lack of the will
to teach. And if there's a lack of a will to teach, why is that and whose
interest does it serve?
I decided that because of the brilliance and the dedication of this gentleman,
that in my own PhD leadership studies I would write a paper on him and the
type of leadership that he demonstrates. It's called Servant Leadership. I
will end up probably writing my dissertation, which I always thought I would
write on targeted assassination and I will write it on a targeted
assassination but I think I'm going to write it on, probably a whole lot more
than just that.
What happens, what kind of leadership takes place, when the government--when
authorities that we rely on--lie to us? The pushback that came from my
professor, from the content of my case study, was unimaginable. Particularly
at an institution that prides itself on allowing freedom of thought and
critical analysis. So I was stunned myself at the attitude that I received
from my professor which was not really substantive in terms of, `Well, you did
this incorrectly, you did this incorrectly, this doesn't conform to academic
standards.' It wasn't that. It was, `Boy these people, they don't believe
anything. I sure would like to see the evidence for that.' These were the
comments that were on the side of the paper and that I was supposed to somehow
change the whole tone of the paper based on the lack of information that my
professor was demonstrating.
Well, of course, it didn't happen. And the paper was made better by his
critique. So the paper will be published once it becomes a little bit more
full-bodied with more biographical information on John and the other people
who were interviewed....
I'll end with this. These assassinations that have taken place have cost every
one of us. These are not just instances of a government gone rogue. This is in
its essence a theft of our future. A theft of our values. A theft of the
spirit of our country, of what our country could be today in the world. When
you think about the fact that Bobby Kennedy was including MLK on his potential
running list then you imagine that we could have been referring to President
Kennedy and Vice President King. Imagine the kind of coming together as a
country that we could have had. And it was stolen from us. And it was stolen
at a time when young people were facing incredible odds. They did not want you
to take a stand. But high school students, elementary school students,
university students, they were turning this country upside down because they
wanted more for the United States of America and they wanted more for their
fellow citizens of the world.
They didn't just kill Bobby Kennedy. They didn't just kill Martin Luther King
Jr. They killed something of our spirit because we're not doing the things
that we did in the 1960s and the 1970s when we almost won.
The last thing I'll say is this: in my paper I interviewed Dr. Peter Dale
Scott, professor emeritus of University of California at Berkeley. He is one
of the founders of COPA. I asked him: Is it possible for civil society, now to
win? Can we win, can we replicate the near-victory that we had back in my
youth? His response was, that the people of this country show a remarkable
resilience and he still believes that it is possible for us to win.
We will not even begin the battle that is necessary, or we will not even know
how to fight, unless we understand the full array of policies and forces that
are there against us. And with that, I will introduce John Judge who will tell
you the rest of the story on targeted assassinations, political
assassinations, what this country almost was, and what you can help make it to
be.
About Cynthia McKinney
"In the fight against bigotry, we stand together, and we must. In the fight
against injustice, we stand together, and we must. In the fight against
intimidation, we stand together, and we must. After all, a regime that would
steal an election right before our very eyes will do anything to all of us."
Cynthia McKinney has made a career of speaking her mind and challenging
authority. Her political career began unofficially in 1986 when her father,
Billy McKinney, a Representative on the Georgia State House, put her name on
the ballot as a write-in. She garnered a large percentage of votes without
even trying. Cynthia immediately began making her own mark, defying House
dress codes for women by wearing trousers instead of dresses. She spoke out
against the Persian Gulf War, and despite being in the House with her father,
she often disagreed and voted against him.
In 1992, McKinney won a Democratic seat in the US House of Representatives in
the newly created 11th district, drawn from Atlanta to Savannah. She was the
first African-American woman to represent Georgia in the US Congress. During
her second term, her district was re-drawn and re-numbered the 4th district.
McKinney protested the new boundaries, but was still re-elected to the seat.
She earned even more distinctive assignments with the National Security
Committee and the International Relations Committee's International Operations
and Human Rights Subcommittee. She was a supporter of a Palestinian State in
Israel-occupied territory, and sparked controversy by criticizing American
policy in the Middle East, including President Bush's policy regarding Iraq
before 9/11. After the attacks, McKinney suggested the President perhaps had
prior knowledge of 9/11. The criticism she received from these ideas may have
contributed to her defeat in the 2002 election; however, she ran for the seat
again and was re-elected in 2004. McKinney was also very active in the
aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and a vocal critic of the government's
response.
Cynthia McKinney has never been afraid to speak her mind, and stand up for
what she believes in. Late in 2007, she left the Democratic Party to bring her
energy and ideas to the whole country by becoming a Green Party Presidential
Candidate.
For information:
Eva Seidelman
Juris Doctor Candidate - 2013
University of the District of Columbia
David A. Clarke School of Law
evaseidelman@gmail.com
(914) 316-7901
https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/JohnJudge/JJ-Leading-Change.html (hypertext)
https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/JohnJudge/JJ-Leading-Change.txt (text only)
https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/JohnJudge/JJ-Leading-Change.pdf (print ready)