6

Last-Minute change of Motorcycle Formation

One of the acts which clearly enabled the assassination of President Kennedy was the removal of the motorcycle police escorts around his limousine for the parade that day in Dallas. Typically—just as there had been on the previous motorcades of President Kennedy—the President is flanked on each side by two motorcycles in what is known as the standard wedge formation. For some reason—and one that I will explain—that standard wedge formation was removed in Dallas, and instead, a wide open formation placing those four motorcycles at the rear of the President’s car left him completely vulnerable.⁷⁴ That’s what made President Kennedy a sitting duck in Dallas. This is such an important fact that, first off, I want to show you exactly what I’m talking about.

Al Carrier is an expert in dignitary protection, which includes security protocols like protection for presidents in parades. He studied all the photographs from Dallas and other motorcades, including all the films and records. Pay attention to what he noticed:

Charts by Al Carrier⁷⁵

The first chart is the Standard Wedge Formation. Note the full protection it provides the President, who is in the middle car.

The second chart is the actual motorcycle formation on November 22, 1963, in Dallas. Notice how needlessly exposed it left the President.

With five of the motorcycle units placed in front of the lead car, they are in a totally ineffective position. With no units at the sides and no Secret Service Follow-Up car tucked in close behind, the President is left wide open to snipers from the front, back, and sides.

When it comes to security, the Standard Wedge Formation is the known and accepted “Gold Standard” for motorcade protocol. It was in use in 1963; in fact, security expert Al Carrier noted that it was “the motorcycle positioning in the 1962 Berlin Kennedy motorcade and the November 14, 1963, Tampa, Florida, motorcade” which was only a few days prior to the trip to Dallas.⁷⁶ Why was it changed in Dallas? Now that’s a very important question.

So, the government once again had some answering to do on that point. And what did they do? They blamed the victim. They came up with the angle that, lo and behold, it was actually President Kennedy himself who ordered the reductions in security because it was basically a campaign trip for publicity and he didn’t want his protectors interfering with him and his ability to interact with the crowd.⁷⁷ How’s that for adding insult to injury and placing the blame on the victim who, especially in this case, is completely incapable of defending himself? And on top of that, guess what? It was utter hogwash—it was completely invented, totally untrue.

The above point in particular and the Secret Service decisions in general are covered in greater detail than ever before in a new book by Vince Palamara, titled Survivor’s Guilt: The Secret Service and the Failure to Protect the President. Palamara interviewed dozens of Secret Service agents who remembered the details of protecting Kennedy, and they told him the same thing over and over again:

President Kennedy was very understanding about his protection and never ever interfered with Secret Service protection protocols. That was their job and he knew that and let them do it. He never told agents how to do their job and never ordered changes in motorcade formations or any other protection protocols. Period.⁷⁸

Furthermore, as both the Secret Service and the President of the United States are acutely aware, no one, not even the President can overrule the Secret Service on matters related to security. As the Chief of the Secret Service testified to the Warren Commission:

No President will tell the Secret Service what they can or cannot do.⁷⁹

That’s simply how it is. The Secret Service can and has countermanded the orders of the President of the United States.⁸⁰ They decide when it comes to security. So, especially in this case, blaming JFK for reductions in his protection is blatantly misplaced.

So that’s one thing that needs to be stated clearly. It was most adamantly not President Kennedy who was responsible for the change in the motorcycle formation. It was the United States Secret Service which was responsible for the change.⁸¹

Again, the point of note here is that the motorcycle formation was apparently only changed in Dallas. The United States Congress thought the matter was pretty important, too, as an internal memorandum on the matter during the investigation by the House Select Committee on Assassinations revealed the following gem:

But in comparison with what the SS’s [Secret Service’s] own documents suggest were the security precautions used in prior motorcades during the same Texas visit, the motorcade alteration in Dallas by the SS may have been a unique occurrence.⁸²

So there’s a huge smoking gun. Why was it only different in Dallas? Like a true government organization, that House Select Committee on Assassinations played it safe, not making the matter a big public issue. But observe their official conclusion:

The Secret Service’s alteration of the original Dallas Police Department motorcycle deployment plan prevented the use of maximum possible security precautions.. .Surprisingly, the security measure used in the prior motorcades during the same Texas visit [11/21/63] shows that the deployment of motorcycles in Dallas by the Secret Service may have been uniquely insecure. . .⁸³

So, as I said, folks—There’s your smoking gun.

Let me choose my words very carefully here. I’m not saying that the Secret Service, as an agency, conspired to kill President Kennedy by intentionally reducing his protection that day in Dallas. I have a great deal of respect for the men and women of the U. S. Secret Service and particularly for the hard work done by the individual agents on the ground. But I am saying this: One of the things that enabled the Kennedy assassination was his security reductions that day in Dallas. Those reductions did not come from President Kennedy or his staff. Those security reductions are traceable to certain individuals in the Secret Service who ordered several things that made President Kennedy a sitting duck as that limo took him through Dealey Plaza, and I am going to tell you exactly what they were:

•  Changing the standard motorcycle protection from the wedge formation to an insecure formation;

•  Ordering Secret Service agents off the riding ports of the President’s limo, which were designed specifically for them to ride on the back of the car and provide him with cover;

•  Changing the already scheduled parade route from its original route to the new path—a path which took the President very slowly through Dealey Plaza and along a dangerous route that was virtually unprotected.

Those last two are so important that they will be covered in the following entries. But if you’ve read above, you’re beginning to get the big picture of what really happened and why these decisions are what enabled the assassination in the first place.

⁷⁴ Al Carrier, 2003 “The United States Secret Service: Conspiracy to Assassinate a President,” Dealey Plaza Echo, Volume 7, Issue 1, March 2003, 36—48: maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/ viewer/showDoc.do?absPageId=389290

⁷⁵ Carrier, “The United States Secret Service: Conspiracy to Assassinate a President.”

⁷⁶ Ibid.

⁷⁷ Palamara, Survivor’s Guilt

⁷⁸ Ibid.

⁷⁹ Ibid.

⁸⁰ Carrier, “The United States Secret Service: Conspiracy to Assassinate a President”; Palamara, Survivor’s Guilt

⁸¹ Ibid.

⁸² Vince Palamara, “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly: A Review of The Kennedy Detail, A Compelling but Dangerous Mix of Fact, Faction, and Fiction,” CTKA (Citizens for Truth about the Kennedy Assassination), retrieved 16 April 2013: kennedydetailkennedydetailkennedy.blogspot.com/2012/08/updated-jfk-did-not-order- agents-off.html

⁸³ Ibid.