Acronyms
It was brought to my attention that not everyone studying the assassination of John F. Kennedy is a seasoned researcher, and that many of the acronyms on this website will be new or strange to them.
Although I've tried to steer away from the use of acronyms as much as possible, it's not entirely impossible that in the course of making this website some acronyms have slipped through, mainly during transfer from my previous website and the MS Office worksheets I use.
Below is a list of the most commonly used acronyms on this website, along with a brief description of what they stand for.
For a more in-depth understanding of what some of them are about, I've included links to Wikipedia pages describing them in full detail.
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ARRB Assassination Records Review Board
The Assassination Records Review Board was formed in 1992, partially as a result of the success of Oliver Stone’s movie JFK, to establish an official act to release documents and evidence from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) pertaining to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The ARRB then hoped the released files would help clear up questions with regards to the JFK assassination, and to undermine the public view that was now brewing as a result of the movie, that the CIA, the FBI, the military, and government officials were involved in the assassination.
https://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/report
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CAP Civil Air Patrol
The Civil Air Patrol is a congressionally chartered, federally supported non-profit corporation that serves as the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force (USAF). CAP is a volunteer organization with an aviation-minded membership that includes people from all backgrounds, lifestyles, and occupations. It performs three congressionally assigned key missions: emergency services, which includes search and rescue (by air and ground) and disaster relief operations; aerospace education for youth and the general public; and cadet programs for teenage youth. In addition, CAP has recently been tasked with homeland security and courier service missions.
CAP also performs non-auxiliary missions for various governmental and private agencies, such as local law enforcement and the American Red Cross.
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CIA Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the United States federal government, tasked with gathering, processing and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT). As one of the principal members of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and is primarily focused on providing intelligence for the President and Cabinet. The CIA was preceded by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was a wartime intelligence agency of the United States during World War II.
The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces. Other OSS functions included the use of propaganda, subversion, and post-war planning.
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DCI Director of Central Intelligence
The Office of United States Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) was the head of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1946 to 2005, acting as the principal intelligence advisor to the President of the United States and the United States National Security Council (NSC), as well as the coordinator of intelligence activities among and between the various U.S. intelligence agencies (collectively known as the Intelligence Community from 1981 onwards). The office existed from January 1946 to April 21, 2005, and was replaced on that day by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) as head of the Intelligence Community and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA) as head of the CIA.
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DPD Dallas Police Department
The Dallas Police Department, established in 1881, is the principal law enforcement agency serving the city of Dallas, Texas.
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FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States, which simultaneously serves as the nation's prime federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of Justice, the FBI is concurrently a member of the U.S. Intelligence Community and reports to both the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence.
A leading U.S. counterterrorism, counterintelligence, and criminal investigative organization, the FBI has jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes.
When President Kennedy was in office, the Director of the FBI was J. Edgar Hoover, and the Attorney General was Robert Francis “Bobby” Kennedy (The President’s brother who himself was assssinated in 1968).
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HSCA House Select Committee on Assassinations
The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. The HSCA completed its investigation in 1978 and issued its final report the following year, concluding that Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. Acoustic analysis of a police channel dictabelt recording became the basis for the HSCA investigation into JFK's assassination, but the HSCA also commissioned numerous other scientific studies of assassination-related evidence that corroborate the Warren Commission's findings.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_Select_Committee_on_Assassinations
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JFK
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was a Senator from Massachusetts, and became the 35th President of the United States in January of 1961.
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LBJ
Lyndon Baines Johnson was vice President to John F. Kennedy, and became the 36th President of the United States after his death in 1963. Johnson was a born Texan.
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ONI Office of Naval Intelligence
The Office of Naval Intelligenc is the military intelligence agency of the United States Navy. Established in 1882 primarily to advance the Navy's modernization efforts, the ONI is the oldest member of the United States Intelligence Community and serves as the nation's premier source of maritime intelligence. Since the First World War, its mission has broadened to include real-time reporting on the developments and activities of foreign navies; protecting maritime resources and interests; monitoring and countering transnational maritime threats; providing technical, operational, and tactical support to the U.S. Navy and its partners; and surveying the global maritime environment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Naval_Intelligence
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TSBD Texas School Book Depository
The Texas School Book Depository is a red brick building located on the corner of Elm and Houston Streets in downtown Dallas, Texas.
This area is known as Dealey Plaza. The TSBD is officially located at 411 Elm Street.
It was from this building some witnessess to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy claim shots were fired. The number of shots fired from this building, according to these witnesses, vary, but most are certain the shots came from the south-east corner of the 6th floor.
This was also the building where the alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald worked as an order filler.
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WC Warren Commission
The Warren Commission, officially known as The President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, was established by President Lyndon B. Johnson on November 29, 1963 to investigate the assassination of United States President John F. Kennedy that had taken place in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963.
The members of the Warren Commission were:
Chief Justice Earl Warren
Senator Richard Russell
Senator John Sherman Cooper
U.S Representative Hale Boggs
U.S Representative Gerald Ford
former CIA Director Allen Dulles
former President of the World Bank John J. McCloy
General Counsel J. Lee Rankin
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Assistant Counsel members who feature in testimonies on this website:
Joseph A. Ball
David. W. Belin
Wesley J. Liebeler
Arlen Specter
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Nicholas Katzenbach has been credited with providing advice after the assassination of John F. Kennedy that led to the creation of the Warren Commission. On November 25, 1963, he sent a memo to Johnson's White House aide Bill Moyers recommending the formation of a Presidential Commission to investigate the assassination. To combat speculation of a conspiracy, Katzenbach said that the results of the FBI's investigation should be made public. He wrote, in part: "The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who are still at large". Four days after Katzenbach's memo, Johnson appointed some of the nation's most prominent figures, including the Chief Justice of the United States, to the Commission. Katzenbach's above statement became the standard to which Warren Commission investigators seemed to adhere, since it's obvious the investigation was not carried out with an open mind, and left no possibility of a conspiracy which might have included Lee Harvey Oswald. Even LBJ and Richard Russell weren't conviced of the lone gunman theory.
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And 50+ years later we're still not convinced of the official government conclusions.
I wonder why.
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