Dallas DPD'er Joe Smith and D. Sheriff Seymour Weitzman...Saw What?

[Tim Nickerson]

One of the unexplained curiosities of the JFKA is that not one but two law enforcement officers separately encountered a man in the GK area, in the immediate aftermath of the JFKA, who flashed a Secret Service credential at each of them. 

Sure, one can assume anyone can mistake, even a law enforcement officer looking at and noting ID 11.22.

But two law enforcement officers, men in good-standing?

AFAIK, the Weitzman and Smith were in no meaningful way connected to each other, had no agendas or axes to grind, and were not CT-addled lefties.

I conclude someone flashed a Secret Service credential at Weitzman and Hill, in separate incidents, on 11.22.

There were no Secret Service agents in the GK area on 11.22, by the records and statement of the Secret Service itself.

Moreover, no one from the Secret Service ever came forward and said, "Oh, that was me on the GK. It was my day off, but I came down to watch the motorcade."

Similarly, no one from another agency, such as the federal ATF, came forward and said, "Oh, that was me. The ATF badge resembles the SS badge." 

Of course, the location of the ersatz Secret Service-badge flasher, near the GK, is where credible witnesses saw a puff of smoke (Sam Holland and others) and where from many ear-witnesses thought they heard gunshots.

The HSCA, and Tink Thompson, say there are anomalies on photographs indicating a person was in the GK area, during the gunshots, and then left.

There is the unsettling movement of JFK's head post Z-312.

Add it up, and I have reasonable doubts about LNT's (and most CT's, but that is another topic).

Joe Smith, DV Harkness, and County Constable Seymour Weitzman believed that they encountered a Secret Service agent in Dealey Plaza. They were being honest but they were wrong. The individual that they encountered was likely James Powell, who was one of the members of the 112th military intelligence group that was in Dallas that day to "augment" the Secret Service protection of the President. 

WRAY: Okay. Let me ask you this question. Were you carrying your special agent ID?
POWELL: Yes, yes.
WRAY: Do you recall whether you showed that to anyone at the time you were walking around behind the School Book Depository in the vicinity
of the railroad yard? I mean, to stop and ask people anything, did you show them that identification?
POWELL: I recall that I, I basically recall that I did, because the officers were curious as to why I was joining them and I just flashed my credentials to show them. -- James W. Powell, April 12, 1996, to the ARRB.

[Benjamin Cole]

Powell's somewhat opaque account does not square with DPD'er Joe Smith's, or Weitzman's.

Smith said he approached the Secret Service-badge flasher in the GK area, who looked a little grimy, and then was shown the ID. 

Powell also said he would have said, "I’m a special agent with military intelligence. And show my credentials."

Additionally, Powell's ID did not looked like Secret Service ID.

AI:

Identification cards issued to the U.S. Army's 112th Military Intelligence Group in 1963 did not look like U.S. Secret Service credentials.

Standard Military

Design: Personnel from the 112th Military Intelligence Group carried standard Department of Defense or U.S. Army identification cards (such as Armed Forces identification or Geneva Conventions cards), which featured distinct military branch markings, serial numbers, and service insignia. [1]

Secret Service Credentials: Secret Service credentials utilized a completely different layout, seal, and departmental identification specific to the Treasury Department (under which the Secret Service operated at the time), frequently accompanied by a specific metal badge rather than a standard military card layout.

Both Weitzman and Smith said they saw Secret Service ID, not another ID. Neither said the man they approached ID'ed himself as "Powell," or said he was from military intelligence, and neither saw the man holding a camera.

I put low odds that both Weitzman and Smith approached Powell, and both mis-read the ID they were shown, and then both failed to note Powell was holding a camera.

[Tim Nickerson]

Powell's somewhat opaque account does not square with DPD'er Joe Smith's, or Weitzman's.

Smith said he approached the Secret Service-badge flasher in the GK area, who looked a little grimy, and then was shown the ID. 

Powell also said he would have said, "I’m a special agent with military intelligence. And show my credentials."

Additionally, Powell's ID did not looked like Secret Service ID.

AI:

Identification cards issued to the U.S. Army's 112th Military Intelligence Group in 1963 did not look like U.S. Secret Service credentials.

Standard Military

Design: Personnel from the 112th Military Intelligence Group carried standard Department of Defense or U.S. Army identification cards (such as Armed Forces identification or Geneva Conventions cards), which featured distinct military branch markings, serial numbers, and service insignia. [1]

Secret Service Credentials: Secret Service credentials utilized a completely different layout, seal, and departmental identification specific to the Treasury Department (under which the Secret Service operated at the time), frequently accompanied by a specific metal badge rather than a standard military card layout.

Both Weitzman and Smith said they saw Secret Service ID, not another ID. Neither said the man they approached ID'ed himself as "Powell," or said he was from military intelligence, and neither saw the man holding a camera.

I put low odds that both Weitzman and Smith approached Powell, and both mis-read the ID they were shown, and then both failed to note Powell was holding a camera.

You just edited it. Good for you. I still have to ask you where you get that Weitzman said that he viewed the guy's Secret Service ID card. Where?

[Benjamin Cole]

TN-

If Weitzman did not see an ID, I stand corrected. I will have to check his testimony.

Still, the odds of Powell being the man who flashed Secret Service credentials on the GK are rather low. Powell was carrying a camera too, in those days usually rather bulky affairs.

Powell's ID looked nothing like Secret Service ID.