* Kent State Author Responds

Mr. Gordon Clarifies

I am posting here the part of  Mr. Bill Gordon's post which pertains to my entry  Order to Fire Certified in Kent State Slayings 40 Years Later (Thursday, June 17, 20l0).

I used to be informed first-hand on these issues. Now I just go by what the Press and other researchers tell me.

Perhaps Mr. Gordon is correct. My point was,  and is, that it was THE YALE KENT STATE COLLECTION which contained the tape which was unearthed. It matters little who unearthed it.

Had I known Mr. Gordon's email address, I would have courtesy copied him also, for he is certainly one of the most informed people alive on the Kent State issue.

Alas, I am out of touch with many from the past.

PK



Mr. GORDON'S POST (IN PART)

. . . For the record (in case anyone else reads this), Canfora did not "discover" anything. He made a copy of a tape in his attorney Dave Engdahl's files--a tape that had been previously commissioned by the Justice Department and introduced into evidence at both the criminal and civil trials. Canfora claimed he had the tape enhanced by his rock and roll buddies and heard an order to "get ready, point, set, and fire"--a claim that was actually disproven by the analysis of the audio experts commissioned by the Plain Dealer. That these experts unexpectedly concluded they heard something else--a "prepare to fire" order--was nothing more than a fluke that no one had anticipated. Contrary to Keane's headline, their findings do not "certify" anything. There still has not been an analysis of the original tape recording made by Terry Strubbe. The audio experts' test was conducted on a copy of a tape that the New York Times reported was a fifth generation copy. Moreover, no Guardsman has come forward to confirm this report, and there is the pesky fact that the audio experts' analysis is in complete contradiction to the analysis of the tape commissioned by the Justice Department, raising a host of other questions. John Mangels performed a great public service by have[having] the tape analyzed, and he came up with a real coup, but the fact remains that the next set of experts might come up with completely different conclusions. After all, the first set described the tape as muddy and very difficult to work with. At this point, we have more supporting evidence suggesting our suspicions might be right: that there was an order to fire. But the findings still have to be confirmed by experts working with the original tape. We do not know anything definitive yet. Six weeks after this headline, the state of Ohio and the U.S. Justice Department are not returning calls to say whether or not they will conduct any additional studies. The story is not over.