The Glare Of Papua's Golden Mountain In Kennedy's Death

Kennedy shooting in Dallas (Commons Wikimedia)

DALLAS - Today, 56 years ago, the 35th President of the United States (US) John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot dead. The November 22, 1963 murder was shrouded in many conspiracy theories. Including news about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who was behind the murders. It's not just Kennedy. The CIA is also said to have planned to kill the Indonesian proclaimer Sukarno. The mountain of gold in Papua is said to have underpinned everything.

Kennedy is in a presidential motorcade. From the open limousine in which Kennedy was waving to his people. As the procession passed the Texas School Book Depository, a shot was heard from the sixth floor window. A bullet hit Kennedy in the back. The shot was followed by another shot that hit the back of Kennedy's head.

The shooting made the atmosphere turn chaotic. The motorcade broke out. According to information, at least three shots were heard at that time. The third shot was one that hit Texas Governor Brill Connally. Kennedy and Connally were rushed to Parkland Hospital. At 1:00 p.m. or 30 minutes from the shooting, Kennedy was pronounced dead.

The doctor admitted that he could not do much, because Kennedy arrived at the hospital in a critical condition. Very close to death. Kennedy waving in Dallas that day became the president's last greeting to his people. Kennedy is also listed as the fourth US president who was killed in the middle of his tenure.

At 7:23 a.m., hours before Kennedy's death, Lee Harvey Oswald left for his workplace: Texas School Book Depository. There, Oswald worked with someone named Buell Wesley Frazier. His colleague had asked Oswald about the long package wrapped in paper he was carrying. Of course Oswald was lying. "Oh, only the curtains," answered Oswald.

According to the investigation, Kennedy was killed by a 6.5 millimeter bullet fired by an Italian rifle, the Mannlicher-Carcano M91. The rifle that Oswald said was a 'curtain'. The rifle was purchased by Oswald for 19.95 USD or Rp.281 thousand in the prevailing exchange rate at that time.

At 13:15 or 45 minutes after the shooting, the rifle was found in a pile of books on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository. Oswald was later arrested behind a cinema building, one hour after his rifle was found. Before being arrested, Oswald fought back by shooting the police.

The motive for Oswald's murder is unclear. He was never even tried for the murders against which he was accused. In fact, two days after being arrested, Oswald was shot dead on live television by a nightclub owner named Jack Ruby. The shooting of Oswald occurred while he was being transferred from police headquarters to a Dallas County prison.

The shooting caused tremendous chaos in the process of moving Oswald. Police and journalists, as well as residents who gathered in confusion. Oswald shot at close range and hit the stomach. Oswald was rushed to Parkland Hospital. Oswald was helpless and breathed his last in the same place as Kennedy.

In October 2017, the US State Archives released 2,891 documents describing a number of other facts regarding the Kennedy assassination. The release is an order from President Donald Trump. About Oswald, for example. A memo from the CIA said Oswald spoke with a Russian intelligence agency official, Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti (KGB) at the Russian Embassy in Mexico.

This fact was obtained from the results of telephone wiretaps by the CIA. The memo states that on September 28, 1963, Oswald spoke with a man named Vaery Vladimirovich Kostikov. He was identified as a KGB official working for a department responsible for sabotage and murder.

Oswald is said to have phoned the Russian Embassy and spoke in broken Russian. Not many details were revealed. However, it was clear that Oswald was asking about "something new about the telegram to Washington," written in the memo.

Sukarno's assassination plan

Apart from the 'plot' of the Kennedy assassination and Oswald's alleged involvement in the KGB operation, the document released by the US State Archives also reveals the CIA's assassination of a number of state leaders at that time, including Sukarno.

In the archive entitled Investigating the Involvement of the CIA in Planned Assassination of Foreign Leaders, the results of the CIA Commission Executive Director's investigation were revealed until 1975. On the fifth page of the document, the commission of inquiry describes the results of the interrogation with the then Deputy Director of CIA Planning, Richard Bissell.

"Bissell was also interrogated about discussions within the agency regarding the possible assassination of President Sukarno of Indonesia, whose process has reached the point of identifying who could be recruited for this effort," the document states.

However, the document also makes it clear that the plan was never achieved. The 83-page document also explained Bissel's statement which confirmed that the CIA had nothing to do with Sukarno's death on June 21, 1970.

"The plan was never achieved, never completed to the point where it seemed possible," the document dated May 30, 1975 said.

Mount of gold in Papua

Another conspiracy theory links the Kennedy assassination, the plot to assassinate Sukarno, and the mountain of gold in Ertsberg, Papua. The name Allen Dulles, the director of the CIA at that time, was associated with this conspiracy theory.

The connection stems from the discovery of the gold mountain by three Dutch geologists: Jean Jacques Dozy, AH Colijn, and Franz Wissel. The three of them work for the Netherland New Guinea Petroleum Company based in Babo, West Papua. Based on political considerations, the findings were kept secret until 1959.

The Netherlands is aware that the discovery of the golden mountain will have a major impact on the political situation and have the potential to change Papua's future. However, Allen Dulles also knew about the findings. Allen is the younger brother of the then US Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles.

That said, the Dulles family had close ties to the big US oil tycoon, Rockefeller. Allen, who also works as a lawyer, is known to have often helped US and Dutch oil companies with problems investing in Indonesian territory.

Operations to control a gold mine in Papua began. Greg Poulgrain, author of the book Shadows of Intervention, John F Kennedy and Allen Dulles' Strategy War on Sukarno explained that Kennedy and Allen indirectly played a role in the process of joining West Papua to Indonesia.

This was revealed by Greg when dissecting his book at LIPI Headquarters, 2017. As Detikcom wrote, Poulgrain explained how Kennedy and Allen both wanted to make West Papua part of Indonesia's territory.

However, the two are contradicting strategies. Kennedy wanted to run poverty alleviation and community empowerment programs in West Papua with Sukarno. Meanwhile, Allen did not agree. Allen made various strategies to stop Kennedy's plans. One of them is by blocking the provision of aid to Indonesia.

The provision of this aid was planned to be discussed during Kennedy's visit to Indonesia in 1964. "However, Kennedy never arrived in Papua because he was killed," said Greg.