Where is the joke? And Collins...Cut the crap.
First of all, as you’ve just seen, on December 16 the Warren Commission came to the conclusion that it could not rely exclusively on the reports of the FBI and other federal agencies to reach its conclusions. In fact, even before this, on December 13 the Commission obtained the necessary powers to conduct its own independent investigation with the enactment of Senate Joint Resolution 137,55 which empowered the Commission to issue subpoenas requiring the testimony of witnesses and the production of documentary evidence. The resolution also gave the Commission the power to grant immunity and thereby force the testimony of witnesses who invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.56 The Commission never had occasion to grant immunity. Pursuant to these powers, the Warren Commission, by itself and independent of the FBI, took the sworn testimony of 489 witnesses, many in great depth. (This hardly constitutes relying exclusively on the FBI.) Of these 489 witnesses, 94 testified before one or more members of the Commission itself, and 395 were questioned in depositions by members of the Commission’s staff, with the Commission members not being present. In addition, 61 witnesses gave sworn affidavits and 2 gave statements, for a total of 552 witnesses. More than 3,100 exhibits were received into evidence.57* Although Commission member John McCloy complained early on, and before the taking of any testimony, that the Commission was “so dependent on them [FBI] for the facts,”58 if examining 489 witnesses under oath is not conducting an independent investigation, then what is? Vincent Bugliosi - Reclaiming History
If you are interested in learning what was said by the WC in their December 16th meeting, here is another quote from Reclaiming History:
At its next meeting, on December 16, after Supreme Court justice Stanley F. Reed administered an oath to all its members, the Commission set about to determine the scope of the investigation. The first order of business was to consider the FBI’s summary report. “Well, gentlemen,” the chief justice said to his fellow Commission members, “I have read that report two or three times and I have not seen anything in there yet that has not been in the press.” “I couldn’t agree with that more,” Senator Richard Russell said. “Practically everything in there has come out in the press at one time or another, a bit here and a bit there.” But that wasn’t the biggest problem. It was the obvious deficiency of the report, mostly attributable, John McCloy said, to the fact that “they [FBI] put this thing together very fast.” Representative Hale Boggs pointed out that, remarkably, “There’s nothing in [the report] about Governor Connally.” Senator John Cooper: “And whether or not they found any bullets in him.” After reading the report, McCloy said that “this bullet business leaves me confused.” “It’s totally inconclusive,” opined Chief Justice Warren. Representative Gerald Ford: “[The report] was interesting to read but it did not have the depth that it ought to have.” There were so many unanswered questions. For instance, Representative Boggs observed, “There is still little on this fellow Ruby, including his movements, what he was doing, how he got in there [City Hall basement garage].” Warren: “His relations with the police department.” Boggs: “Exactly.” Talking about the issue of precisely what took place among the occupants of the presidential limousine at the time of the shooting, Warren said, “I wonder if the report we get from the Secret Service wouldn’t pretty much clear that up…They were there, right at the car, and know exactly what happened.” Representative Boggs: “Well, this FBI report doesn’t clear it up.” Warren: “It doesn’t do anything.” Boggs: “It raises a lot of new questions in my mind.” General Counsel Rankin summed up the feelings of practically all of the Commission members when he noted that “the report has so many holes in it. Anybody can look at it and see that it just doesn’t seem like they’re looking for things that this Commission has to look for in order to get the answers that it wants and it’s entitled to.”49 Very momentously, it was during this December 16 session that the Commission decided it could not rely solely on the FBI report or reports from any of the other federal agencies either. “After studying this [FBI] report,” Chief Justice Warren said, “unless we have the raw materials [i.e., interviews, affidavits, recordings, photographs, etc.] that went into the making of the report and have an opportunity to examine those raw materials and make our own appraisal, any appraisal of this report would be [worth] little or nothing.” Warren went on to move “that the Commission request at once from all investigative agencies and departments of the Government the raw materials on which their reports to the Commission are based,” and his motion was seconded and adopted. Vincent Bugliosi - Reclaiming History
