Chief Justice Warren:
"Now I think our job here is essentially one for the evaluation of evidence as distinguished from being one of gathering evidence, and I believe at the outset at least we can start with the premise that we can rely upon the reports of the various agencies that have been engaged in investigation of the matter, the FBI, the Secret Service, and others that I may know about at the present time
Gerald Ford:
"The FBI, and I use them as an example, undertook a very extensive investigation. I don't recall how many agents, but they had a massive operation to investigate everything. The commission with this group of lawyers and some additional staff people, then drew upon this information which was available, and we, if my memory serves me accurately, insisted that the FBI give us everything they had. Now that is a comprehensive order from the Commission to the Director and to the FBI. I assume and I think the Commission assumed that that order was so broad that if they had anything it was their obligation to submit it. Now if they didn't, that is a failure on the part of the agencies, not on the part of the Commission."
Good. So, all I have to do to become a CTer is to believe that the FBI, the Secret Service and other various agencies were in it together as part of a conspiracy. Once I can make myself believe in Large-Secret-Enduring Conspiracies I am over the hurdle.
Richard Schweiker, Senator and former Church Committee member:
"I think the [Warren] report, to those who have studied it closely, has collapsed like a house of cards.....the fatal mistake the Warren Commission made was not to use its own investigators, but instead to rely on the CIA and FBI personnel, which played directly into the hands of senior intelligence officials who directed the cover-up."
- speaking on Face the Nation on 27 Jun 1976. Schweiker was with Gary Hart the co-chairman of the JFK subcommittee.
This is patent nonsense because if the Warren Commission had used its own investigators,
in whatever numbers, Schweiker would have just concluded that they were part of the conspiracy.
Indeed, wouldn?t it be easier to run a cover-up with people you appoint yourself than to have to use already existing FBI agents, Secret Service agents and other government employees who might or might not want to go along with a large conspiracy?
So, in what way did Schweiker think having the Warren Commission select its own investigators would be superior to using FBI agents? I don?t follow his logic.