For years, the Umbrella Man remained unidentified, but then, in 1978, Louis Steven Witt told the House Select Committee investigation into the assassination of President Kennedy that he was the umbrella man and that the umbrella opening was a political sign of protest against JFK. A very creative story, but there is a problem with Witt's testimony. The photographic evidence plainly contradicts Witt's description of his actions during the moments when the shots were fired. He testified that he was walking toward the street and opening his umbrella as the motorcade approached, and while "other people I understand saw the President shot and his movements," Witt did not see this because of the umbrella he was opening in front of him. "My view of the car during that length of time," Witt claimed, "was blocked by the umbrella's being open." But the photographic evidence indicates that the umbrella man was standing still with the umbrella open over his head, his view unobstructed, as the limo approached.

Louis Steven Witt destroyed his own credibility. Clearly, his story should have been investigated in 1963, not 15 years later, when the resources applied to the zeal to coneal the truth, dictated false disclosure.

Moreover, it is quite clear that William F. Buckley Jr. was in fact the Umbrella man on November 22nd 1963, because his calm actions, after the shots were fired, are his precision trademark.

Clearly, it takes the discipline and the calm of the Umbrella man, to be the Umbrella man, and Louis Steven Witt was clearly no William F. Buckley Jr.

You recognize the heart and soul of a man by the words he or she uses, and there is nothing but "Ugly" written over the legacy of William F. Buckley Jr. Indeed, he exposed absolutely everything about his obsessions, his life and his career, when he said, "Nothing that Mr. Kennedy did in the way of public policy was either singular or enduring in effect." In actual fact, everything that President Kennedy did and said endures forever because nobody is more often quoted and admired as he was, and if that ever changes, pity the world.

There is no doubt that the assassination of President John F. Kenendy sharply reversed policy, that is in fact why he was murdered.

Whether you believe that or not, it doesn't really matter, but let me remind you that even Oliver Stone got that part right, even though he got so much else wrong -that's how clear and obvious it is that Kennedy was in fact an early casualty of the Vietnam war. He was essentially murdered because his withdrawl plans were deemed to be unacceptable by Dean Rusk and other war hawks in his administration, and enemies like Nixon and Buckley exploited this internal division.

Clearly, there is no question about the fact that William F. Buckley's views placed him in the camp of those who worked hard to reverse Kennedy's foreign policy agenda, his remarks about Kennedy policy betray his motivation, and that's what makes him the umbrella man.

The pictures of William F. Buckley's role as the umbrella man are murky, and that is understandable. In every case where the obsession to cover up is so extreme, the best evidence is always destroyed.

In 1945, William F. Buckley Jr. enrolled in Yale University, where he became a member of the secret Skull and Bones society. In 1951, like some of his classmates in the Ivy League, Buckley was recruited into the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) where he served for two years including one year in Mexico City working as a political action specialist in the elite Special Activities Division for E. Howard Hunt -which obviously paved the roadmap to the grassy knoll, on November 22nd, 1963.

Despite the fact that Buckley is one of America's most prolific writers, he has said next to nothing about this part of his life. The best evidence is never publicly exposed. While with the CIA he published "God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of Academic Freedom." He also worked with Eudocio Ravines on "The Road to Yenan", a book about the communist conspiracy to obtain world domination. According to Buckley, he left the CIA after a few months, but many believe it was decided that he would be more useful to the agency as an "independent" journalist. In other words, he was to become a key figure in covert operations Operation Mockingbird: CIA Media Manipulation.

In September, 1960, Buckley, Douglas Caddy and Marvin Liebman established the far right group, Young Americans for Freedom (YAF). The first meeting was held at Buckley's home in Sharon, Connecticut. Caddy became YAF's first president. Its first national council included eleven members of the John Birch Society. The main mission of the YAF was to “prepare young people for the struggle ahead with Liberalism, Socialism and Communism”. Tom Hayden and other leaders of the Students for a Democratic Society compared the YAF to the Hitler Youth.

The YAF failed in its task to get Goldwater the presidency, and in the early 1970s carrying out dirty tricks against the Democrats.

Needless to say, given everything we know about William F. Buckley Jr., and about the Kennedy assassination, it would be naive to suggest that if he was in fact the umbrella man, it is our responsibility to produce the photographic evidence to prove it. Under the circumstances, the absence of that kind of evidence is to be expected. It is therefore not the photographic evidence, but the combination of his activism and his hatred of the Kennedy family which ultimately betrays the fact that William F. Buckley Jr., used an umbrella to signal the beginning of the revolution he always sponsored.