JFK Assassination Plus General Discussion & Debate > JFK Assassination Plus General Discussion And Debate

Asking AI" Was J Kenneth McDonald a Well-Regarded Historian?

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Fred Litwin:
Benjamin:  His staff erred and they erred twice in that document. Paul Hoch found the other error. We know there is an error because there is no such thing as a "contract source."

Find me one CIA document that uses that terminology.

The segregated collection is online and there are no underlying documents that support MacDonald. Just the opposite -- there are many documents
that say Shaw was NOT paid.

fred

Tom Graves:

--- Quote from: Benjamin Cole on February 22, 2026, 01:15:23 PM ---Tom Graves suggests McDonald's work was "cobbled together."

--- End quote ---

Would you prefer "fabricated"?

Benjamin Cole:
FL--

Of course there is such a thing as a CIA  "contract source." It is the same as a "contract agent."

McDonald was free to use nomenclature as he saw fit, and did not have to subscribe to certain specific bureaucratic definitions.

As it stands, do you verify you never looked through the 64 physical boxes of HSCA materials that McDonald and his staff did?

BTW, McDonald and his staff looked at other materials in addition to the 64 boxes.



Have you also reviewed all the records that McDonald reviewed at CIA headquarters and the Warrenton Records Center?

Are you confident those records, in the CIA HQ and the Warrenton Records Center are also online? Are you saw each one in your online searches?

I gather you are shooting in the dark.

You are doing the CT-thing...leaping to conclusions with partial information, following your biases.

Well, it is JFKA research, so have had it. A rather low bar to participate.

Tom Graves:

--- Quote from: Benjamin Cole on February 23, 2026, 01:02:38 AM ---Of course there is such a thing as a CIA "contract source." It is the same as a "contract agent."
--- End quote ---

LOL!


--- Quote ---McDonald was free to use nomenclature as he saw fit and did not have to subscribe to certain specific bureaucratic definitions.
--- End quote ---


Yes! And if he'd wanted to, J. Kenneth could have called his cobbled-together report the product of a "hysterical review" and everyone would have known exactly what he meant!


--- Quote ---As it stands, do you verify you never looked through the 64 physical boxes of HSCA materials that McDonald and his staff did?
--- End quote ---

Are you saying that J. Kenneth and at least one member of his staff read every document in the 64 boxes, or that various and sundry staff members collectively read all of them and kinda told him what they were about?


--- Quote ---BTW, McDonald and his staff looked at other materials in addition to the 64 boxes.

[...]


--- End quote ---

BFD.

Pardon my German.


--- Quote --- Have you also reviewed all the records that McDonald reviewed at CIA headquarters and the Warrenton Records Center? Are you confident those records, [sic; why put a comma here?] in the CIA HQ and the Warrenton Records Center [sic; given that you put a comma earlier in the sentence, why didn't you put one here?] are also online? Are [sic] you saw each one in your online searches?
--- End quote ---

Don't feel bad, "BC."

To err is human.


--- Quote ---I gather you are shooting in the dark.

You are doing the CT-thing...leaping to conclusions with partial information, following your biases.

Well, it is JFKA research, so have had it. A rather low bar to participate.

--- End quote ---

Why are you putting the burden of trying to "prove a negative" on my widdle buddy, Freddy, "BC"?

It seems to me that the burden's on you to prove "the positive," i.e., that the CIA used (and maybe still uses!) the expression "contract source" to mean "contract agent."

Ball's in your court, "BC."

Benjamin Cole:
TG-

Almost certainly CIA historian McDonald, in a study commissioned by the CIA, personally reviewed materials that led to his conclusion that Shaw was a "highly paid contract source."

McDonald was not a rude-monkey internet know-it-all, posting inline in JFKA forums, not can I detect an ideological or partisan bias in his writings.

I would lay odds 10-to-1 that Shaw was accurately defined by McDonald. Probably higher, but JFKA research sometimes has some surprises.

FL can only say he has not seen the documents that verify McDonald's statement regarding Shaw, and that in the entire McDonald report, there were some lesser errors.

To which you add insubstantial disparaging comments about McDonald.

Well, caveat emptor, and draw your own conclusions.

I conclude McDonald called a spade a spade.

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