General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy believed President Kennedy was killed by a conspiracy. [View all]stopbush
(24,396 posts)1. There were copies made of the Zapruder film. At one point AFTER the copies had been made, one copy was slightly damaged by the news source holding it. No problem, as other copies existed. This fact is perhaps responsible for a belief that there are copies of the Zapruder film that are substantially different from each other. There aren't.
2. As far as the reliability of NAA tests, Wiki has this:
From the early 1980s through 2004 the US Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted about 2,500 analyses on cases submitted by law-enforcement groups. The results of these analyses had often been questioned by defense lawyers and the press, so the FBI finally asked the United States National Academy of Science's Board on Science, Technology, and Economic Policy to research the scientific merit of the process.
In 2004 the Board's study was summarized in "Forensic Analysis: Weighing Bullet Lead Evidence." The Board determined that the chemical analyses were being performed correctly and were probably sufficient to determine correlation between two bullets from separate sources (the analysis used plasma-optical emission spectroscopy to identify trace elements in the bullets). The report also concluded that the seven trace elements selected for the analyses (arsenic, antimony, tin, copper, bismuth, silver and cadmium) are acceptable for sample correlation. The report finally concluded that the procedure is the best available method for such correlations.
The greatest caveat in the report was that the statistical tests as applied by the FBI could cause confusion and misinterpretation when transmitted to prosecutors or when explained to a trial jury. Because of the significance of this weakness, the report concluded that the analysis should be used with caution. This report helped the FBI decide in 2004 to voluntarily cease offering the analysis to law-enforcement entities. The National Academy of Sciences never required that the FBI stop using the test.
You might also wish to check out this from the FBI site:
"During the manufacturing processes, thousands of lead specimens (bullets and bullet cores) are produced with analytically indistinguishable compositions. However, those lead specimens that share the same composition are generally packaged within the same box of cartridges, or in boxes of cartridges of the same caliber and type at the same manufacturing plant, on or about the same date. When the differences in element concentrations are small but analytically significant, a comparative examination can be used to differentiate among bullets made of different alloys or to exclude a single source for bullets of the same alloy."
http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/lab/forensic-science-communications/fsc/july2002/index.htm/peters.htm
4. Why on earth would one believe Gov Connally over the scientists and experts? The man was shot from the rear by a gunman he never saw. Believing his take on events is like accepting the view of events of a driver who has been rear-ended in an accident they never saw coming. They were the victim of the accident, but they probably know less about what actually happened than the most-casual observer standing on the curb.
Why do you think forensic evidence tops eye-witness evidence in our courts? It's because it's dispassionate and based on science, not on emotion and opinion.
3. Hoover was a shit. Why tar every FBI agent with the same brush? Why imagine that even if Hoover wanted JFK killed, he would find willing accomplices in the FBI?