| New York City, NY USA April 1, 2015 |
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Mort Sahl is hailed as the first stand up comedian, and once graced the cover of Time Magazine. He was chosen by Joseph Kennedy to write the comedy inserted into President Kennedy's campaign speeches, and kept up the barbs after JFK was elected. Sahl is obviously not one to limit those he is willing to alienate, be it friend or foe. Speaking to Mort Sahl is akin to an Old Testament prophet suddenly appearing on the scene being deeply versed on current issues. He speaks on them like a voice without restraint, but filled with seasoned wisdom. “We went to the wall. When I got to New Orleans, I was about 32 years old. I stuck with Jim (Garrison), and I never bent on him”, related Mort.
As detailed in his autobiography 'Heartland' (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, 1976), Sahl went to New Orleans and worked with Jim Garrison to bring the only trial in the murder of President Kennedy into an American Courtroom. 'We lost”, lamented Sahl. I had to interject that the American people lost, as we did not follow up their trial with a demand for answers. Much of the information we know today regarding JFK's murder stems from the work and sacrifice that Garrison, Sahl, and their team found at great personal risk. As witnesses died mysteriously and were outright murdered, the case became increasingly difficult, rather, impossible to win. Clay LaVerne Shaw was charged with conspiring to assassinate President John F. Kennedy by Garrison. Clay was a businessman in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was the only person prosecuted in connection with the assassination and was acquitted. Suspect and witness David Ferrie died leaving two typed unsigned suicide notes. He was found dead on February 22, 1967, less than a week after news of Garrison's investigation broke in the media. Within 24 hours, another witness, Cuban exile Eladio del Valle was found murdered, shot in the heart, and his head split open with a machete. Some would have you believe that these witness deaths were run of the mill. Possibly this would be so in a Lewis Carroll work, or in an episode of the Twilight Zone. (Hit List by Richard Belzer & David Wayne is a fine study of the mysterious deaths of witnesses involved in the overall case of JFK's murder for readers to follow up).
Today Sahl feels that America is in trouble, and that his priority is to inform us. “News is like a parody now, and there is no investigative reporting. They do not even mention this kid Snowden. And we are run by CFR guys like Zbiginew Brzezinski and Harold Brown.” Since the day Kennedy's killers escaped justice, we are being run by an illegitimate government.” Sahl points out that unless that case is re-opened and solved, we cannot begin to heal as a nation.
Even the 'fair and balanced' Bill O'Reilly once reported truly regarding the infiltration of Jim Garrison's office when building a case against Clay Shaw. O'Reilly reported for Inside Edition in the 1970's that Garrisons office was infiltrated by at least nine agents to feed him false information, and to report on his case to Langley. O'Reilly also stated that there was a crucial link between Lee Harvey Oswald and the CIA. This is the same Oswald was was cleared from having fired a rifle the day of Kennedy's murder. Now today, O'Reilly says that Oswald did it, with no basis on fact or evidence. It is this very media that draws the wrath of Mort Sahl, a media that obfuscates and confuses rather than digs deeply and shines light on the truth.
Following suit, Sahl adds that today's films are sub-par. “We do not have the quality of actors that we had in the day. We had Gregory Peck, Steve McQueen, and William Holden.” As for comedians today, Sahl states that “comedians are vulgar because they are not clever.” As for the current president, Mort wonders who he really is with the murky background of his parents that seems to leave a trail back to the agency.
“The killers of Kennedy are not interested in co-existing. I knew Bobby Kennedy well, and he was afraid that we were going to open the case on JFK prematurely. Bobby was surrounded by many agency people, such as Walter Sheridan. We could have saved Bobby's life. Garrison warned that the killers would not allow RFK to be elected. We certainly tried to warn him.”
If you want to go back and understand the case, L. Fletcher Prouty's book, and Jim Garrison's are the two you should read first. “When we first spoke to Prouty, it was me who was sent to go to him. Prouty was a fascinating guy to say the least.” People interested in learning about what happened should start there. And James Douglass' book was incredible”, added Sahl.
As for his career taking a shot as he served as a deputy for Garrison, Mort views this simply as duty. Jim Garrison warned that “based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security.” Their careers suffered somewhat at times for their efforts, but they put up a noble fight. The people were left with many vital, unanswered questions from the House Select Committee on Assassinations, some demanded answers but their voices have not been heard in any meaningful way. The flow became Watergate, Iran-Contra, the Reagan shooting, the Patriot Act and it's invasion into privacy and individual rights, and a looting of our funds through the derivatives crisis worldwide. The total monies lost is estimated at 4 quadrillion dollars. It makes one wonder if we can recover from such a debt, merely by printing excess paper money based on nothing to pay the bills. At what point will that system crash far louder? The too big to fail banks are steadied by a Federal Reserve System that is a mixture of private and public ownership and pays billions to the US Goverment each year from it's profits. The structure seems to have numerous conflict of interest problems but it's supposed to keep us from having another 'Great Depression'. It relies on the cash printed by the US Treasury Department. This is a conundrum of such proportions that it's impossible to find anyone that really knows for sure what's going on. When you get down to details you find none of the so-called experts agree and the financial collapses were surprises to all of them. One thing we know that it does allow is for the richest of us to keep getting richer on the backs of all the rest of us.
Mort Sahl, Jim Garrison and their team worked to bring justice to convict the murderers of John Kennedy in an open court Their efforts were followed by the debacle of the continuation of the Vietnam War. And as time has slid by, we are left with more wars wrapped in lies, less privacy, a bankrupt economy, and a neutered media. The Garrison Team's work gave the people the chance to pick up the gauntlet. Collectively, we reached out our arms, and yawned in resignation. As we slide down the slope into endless war and erosion of rights, we must know it is time to wake up.
Mort Sahl plays shows regularly at the Throckmorton Theatre, in Mill Valley, California, and plans on playing New York next year. Mort is working on his second autobiography, and appears on various TV, radio, and Internet programs for interviews.
|Page 2|Page 3|Page 4|Page 5|Page 6Gary Revel found links to those responsible for the assassinations of JFK, MLK, RFK, John Lennon and the attempted killing of President Ronald Reagan.
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