TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29,1964 THE MICHIGAN DAILY PA[IF T ,'P.g TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1964 THE MICHIGAN DAILY S £2l7 . l a. RRA5J7i a6 Warren Commission Gives Suggestions, Criticism WASHINGTON (,A'-The War- ren Commission's report on Presi- dent John F. Kennedy's assassina- tion has sparked a demand that Congress act at once to improve presidential security. And, while the commission's findings-and criticisms of the FBI and Secret Service-were be- ing relayed to the world, Presi- dent Lyndon B. Johnson swiftly appointed a four-man committee to advise him "on the execution" of the commission's recommenda- tions. The primary conclusion by the seven-man presidential commis- sion is that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone and not as part of any foreign or domestic conspiracy, murdered Kennedy. And it said Jack Ruby acted as a loner in gunning down Oswald two days later. ' Main Recommendation The main recommendation of the commission in its 888-page report, made public Sunday, is legislation-to tighten protection of presidents and to make the killing of a president or a vice- president a federal crime. Senate Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield of Montana said Con- gress should stay on the job to act on such recommendations even though it is soon to adjourn. But proposals along these lines apparently will await the advice of the President's four-man com- mittee-Secretary of the Treas- ury Douglas Dillon, Acting Atty. Gen. Nicholas Katzenbach, Direc- tor John A. McCone of the Cen- tral Intelligence Agency and Mc- George Bundy, special assistant to the President. for national se- curity affairs. Guilt Certain The Warren Report pinned down Oswald's guilt, to the commission's own unqualified certainty, such1 a weight of eyewitness testimony and other evidence far more mas- sive than was believed to exist. time rifle shot that just missed nothing anybody could do to de- former Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walk- fend against such an attempt." er. Cabinet Committee The report by Chief Justice Earl Warren and six distinguished colleagues urged creation of a' cabinet committee to assume top responsibility for presidential' safety. This new body might consider,j the report suggested, "suggestions"! made to the commission-but not specifically endorsed by it-that the duty of protecting Presidents' be removed from the Secret Serv- ice. The report praised the swift ac- tion of individual agents in the November tragedy. The response of some "was in the highest tra- dition of government service." More Funds But the report called for more funds and personnel for presi- dential protection immediately, better lines of coordination be- tween agencies and a "complete overhaul" of advance detection practices. It noted Kennedy's own com- ment to an aide, on the day he died-that: "If anybody really wanted -to shoot the President of the United States, it was not a very difficult job--all one had to do was get on a high building someday with a telescopic rifle, and there was PRESIDENT KENNEDY It revealed muddled testimony from Oswald's pretty Russian- speaking widow, Marina, that her unstable husband seven months earlier had threatened to kill for- mer Vice-President Richard M. Nixon with a pistol. But Oswald might actually have been threatening Johnson, not Nixon, the commission said. It was Johnson, then vice-president, who was in Dallas at the time. His visit, April 23, 1963, was just 13 days after Oswald fired a night- European Press Shows Mixed Reaction to Report LONDON 0P)-Most European newspapers agreed yesterday that the Warren Commission effectively spiked rumors of a conspiracy in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Others however, including all Communist and leftist papers, said the report left a great many questions unanswered. Le Monde of Paris began publishing the massive text of the re- port-so great was French interest. West Berlin's largest tabloid, "BZ," " said the report has killed the stor- ies about "an alleged conspiracy of oil billionaires, of the race fanat- Official Failures But the report critically re- cited a chain of what it called official failures, omissions and er- rors, including: 1) The Secret Service "as a matter of practice did not investi- gate, or cause to be checked, any building along the motorcade route" to be used by Kennedy, Johnson and Texas Gov. John B Connally. 2) The Federal Bureau of In- vestigation failed to alert the Secret Service to the presence in Dallas of Oswald, the lonely, brooding onetime defector to Rus- sia and pro-Castro agitator. Telephone Threats 3) The Dallas police failed to heed adequately two telephoned threats againstk Oswald's life, as well as a personal warning from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to provide "utmost security" for the prisoner. Jack Ruby, a pistol- carrying nightclub owner, walked unchallenged into a disorderly jail corridor jammed with police and newsmen. He shot Oswald dead and destroyed all hope of a con- fession. 4) With the help of "a running commentary by the police" which included unchecked and erroneous reports, "a great deal of mis- information was disseminated to a worldwide audience" by the press, radio and television. The commission criticized police and press alike. "The publicizing of unchecked information provided much of the basis for the myths and rumors that came into being soon after the President's death," said the com Distorted Interpretations "Theerroneous disclosures be- came the basis for distorted re- constructions and interpretations of the assassination." The report called on representa- tives of the bar, the news media and law enforcement groups to work out together ethical stan-1 dards for collecting and present- ing news "so that there will be no interference with pending criminal investigations, court proceedings or the right of individuals to a fair trial." Aware that millions in Europe and some in America suspect that 3 a foreign left-wing conspiracy--i or a U.S. right-wing plot-killed the President, the commission de- voted an entire 32-page appendix to "speculations and rumors," re- butting them item by item. Mountainous Evidence I It piled up mountainous evi- dence, each scrap of it footnoted; to the documentation in more1 than 20 volumes of testimony still to be published, to support its findings that: -The lonely, tormented, 24- year-old self-confessed Marxist- a "better than average" marksman as a Marine and "an excellent shot" as civilians go-killed Ken- nedy from an ideally situated sniper's nest in the building where he worked. -The first, nonfatal bullet which hit Kennedy pierced his throat and "probably" was the one that wounded Connally. Another bullet crashed through Kennedy's head as he slumped. Wild Bullet -A third bullet-which could have been the first, middle or last of three shots fired-went wild. It missed even the slow-moving car. It may have been the last, fired at the greatest distance. -The time lapse from first to last shots was from 4.8 to more than 7 seconds. Marine marks- manship experts said Oswald was capable of firing three shots with two hits in that time. It was a "very easy target," moving in di- rect line of fire. -The President was alive, in the medical sense, but in "hope- less" condition upon arrival at the hospital five minutes later. In 25 more minutes life was gone. Desperate Lunge -Except for a desperate lunge by a Secret Service agent, Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy p r o b a b 1y would have fallen from the rear deck of the auto and been killed by the following car. She cannot remember climbing onto the back of the car. -One almost complete bullet and two good-sized fragments of another were found. They were fired from Oswald's rifle and no other, according to positive bal- listic identification. -The rifle found in the sniper's nest was the Italian-made carbine with a telescopic sight bought by Oswald by mail in March 1963. It was identified by his wife Marian, by the serial number and seller's stock number, by Oswald's palm print and by threads from the shirt he wore that day. Oswald's Handwriting -Oswald's handwriting was on the mail order. It also was on the order for the pistol which ap- parently killed Dallas policeman J. D. Tippit during Oswald's flight a half hour later. He used the alias he had used as a pro-Castro demonstrator in New Orleans, "A. J. Hidell," an alteration of "Fidel." -One eyewitness, Howard L. Brennan, a steamfitter, saw the rifleman "taking positive aim" and firing the last shot from the sixth- floor corner window of the Texas school book depository. He picked Oswald from a police lineup as the man most resembling the sniper. "He drew the gun back ... and maybe paused for another second as though to assure himself that he hit his mark, and then he dis- appeared," Brennan said. Witnesses Saw Rifle -Six other witnesses saw the protruding rifle, or saw it fired, or saw it being withdrawn slowly. Some saw the moving figure in the area where book cartons, some bearing Oswald's palm and finger- prints, were later found to have been piled to form a seat and marksman's parapet. -"No direct or indirect rela- tionship'. . . has been discovered" between the ex-Marine and his slayer, Ruby. Nor could the com- mission find any trace of evidence that Ruby, since convicted of mur- der, had help from police or any- one else in getting at Oswald. The commission accepts Ruby's story- LEE HARVEY OSWALD that he simply entered by a ramp from the street, unnoticed. The credentials of some reporters were not checked either. -The commission found no evi- dence that neither Oswald or Ruby "was part of any conspiracy, do- mestic or foreign, to assassinate Kennedy." Ruby's reaction to the assassination "appears to have been one of genuine shock and grief," the commission said. His activities revealed no sign of con- spiratorial conduct. Not Employed -It could find no evidence to show that Oswald was "employed, persuaded or encouraged by any foreign government . . . or that he was an agent of any foreign government." -It cited Secretary of State Dean Rusk's testimony, before the commission, that he knew of no "scrap of evidence indicating that the Soviet Union" wanted to elim- inate Kennedy. Rusk went on: ". ..It would be an act of rashness and madness .. . It has not been our impression that mad- ness has characterized the actions of the Soviet leadership in recent years." Solid Evidence It found what it considered solid evidence, confirmed by "confi- dential sources of extremely high reliability available to the United States in Mexico," that Oswald's mysterious trip to Mexico City was a futile effort to get an "in- transit visa" through Cuba to Russia, not a tryst with Cuban plotters. He- came home "dis- appointed and discouraged" six weeks before ,the assassination. And since all its evidence com- pelled a conclusion that Oswald acted alone, the commission said, "therefore, to determine the mo- tives for the assassination of Ken- nedy, one must look to the assas- sin himself." Mrs. Oswald's revelation of a threat to Nixon was a surprise. She testified her husband put on a good suit, took a pistol and told her, "Nixon is coming. I want to go' and have a look." He said he would use the pistol if he had a chance. 'I l World News Come in and see our new e/ I OU a 7Ie: GERMANY " Of its political atmosphere? Discussion: Dr. Gerard Weinburg Tuesday, Sept. 29, 7:30 P.M. Multi-Purpose Room at UGLI * Of its modern culture? Discussion: Dr. Jorchin Birks Wednesday, Sept. 30, 7:30 P.M. Multi-Purpose Room at UGLI " Of its people on campus? German Party-7 :00 P.M. October 2-International Center Sponsored by ics and of the poor white trash." "The Warren report has given us us a feeling of relief," it added. "America remains what it is .. . the Warren report has destroyed the legend of the 'bad America,' This is the report's great achieve- ment." In London, following a morn- ing press largely endorsing the re- port, the conservative Evening Standard said that one big ques- tion remained: "Why did the security forces of the United States, and the police force of Dallas fail, when Kennedy went to the city trust- ing them to protect him?" In Moscow the Communist Par- ty newspaper Pravda said the re- port fails to dissipate all doubts and suspicions about the assassi- nation. Stockholm's leftist Aftonbladet said, "The Warren report has wip- ed out all obscurity about the as- sassination of the President." NATIONAL GUARDIAN, a newsweekly that reports and analyzes the issues of concern to students: DANGER ON THE RIGHT " THE ELECTIONS AND THEN? "-U.S. ABROAD: GIANT IN TROUBLE " AT HOME: RIGHTS AND RIOTS . DISSENT AND PRO- TEST-HOW Y O UN G AMERICANS T H I N K AND ACT subscribe today to National Guardian 1 197 E. 4 St., N.Y. 10009 $1 for 10 weeks $3.50 for 1 full year (SDecil student rate) enclose name, address with remittance Roundup - By The Associated Press NEW ENGLAND - President Lyndon B. Johnson drew the biggest crowds of his campaign yesterday, contending that "ex- treme and reckless men" in the nation would shatter its prosper- ity. NEW YORK-A Soviet couple went on trial yesterday accused of a cold war espionage conspiracy involving Russians at the United Nations. A mysterious double- agent apparently played a key role in breaking the ring. * * * VATICAN CITY--Seven cardi- nals, including three from the! 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