DICTABELT UPDATE

Article 11 of 413 in alt.conspiracy.jfk
An Imminent Arrest, Again
Don Roberdeau <droberdeau@aol.com>
Organization: http://groups.google.com
Friday 6:32 AM

Good Day All.... FYI, followed by some previous articles.... Does

anyone have any recent updates with respect to the dictabelt work by

Dr. Carl Haber and Dr. Vitaliy Fadeyev?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/federal-eye/post/retired-national-archives-official-charged-with-stealing-sound-recordings/2011/03/23/gIQAZ0ts7K_blog.html

(QUOTE)

Retired National Archives official charged with stealing sound

recordings

By Lisa Rein

The former chief of the National Archives' audio-visual holdings has

been charged with stealing nearly a 1,000 sound recordings over a

decade.

Tuesday's charges against Leslie Charles Waffen come a year after

federal agents raided his home, seizing dozens of boxes from his

Rockville basement.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Greenbelt charged the 40-year Archives

official with theft of federal property, which carries a sentence of

up to 10 years in prison and a possible fine. Waffen had retired from

the Archives shortly before last year's raid.

Charging documents say agents seized 955 "sound recording items"during

the raid, although the items are not specified.

Waffen's attorney, Michael Fayad, said he was "not in a position" to

comment on the charges.

The audiovisual holdings contain more than 90,000 film, sound and

video recordings made by government agencies and private sources. Many

are presidential recordings, kept at presidential libraries and

museums. Many more are kept at the Archives' facility in College Park.

(END QUOTE)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/09/AR2011010904061.html

(QUOTE)

Federal agents raid home of recently retired National Archives

official

By Lisa Rein and Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writers

Friday, October 29, 2010; 8:16 PM

Federal agents raided the home of a former official at the National

Archives this week and seized up to 20 boxes from his Rockville

basement, weeks after his retirement from the government's record-

keeping agency.

Leslie Waffen, 65, was chief of the Archives' audiovisual holdings,

which contain more than 90,000 film, sound and video recordings made

by government agencies and private sources. Agents with the U.S.

Marshals Service and the Archives' inspector general executed search

warrants a day before government watchdogs criticized the agency in

two reports Wednesday for failing to properly safeguard sensitive

information.

U.S. Marshals spokesman David Ablondi said his agency, Montgomery

County police and Archives investigators arrived in the 500 block of

Saddle Ridge Lane at 7:45 a.m. They appeared to wake Waffen and his

wife, said a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.

The Archives agents arrived with a moving truck and a list of items

they were searching for. Warren directed them to his basement, where

they identified and removed "10 to 20 boxes," a law enforcement

official said. The agents loaded the truck and left after about 45

minutes.

Ablondi and Archives officials declined to say what was in the boxes.

David S. Ferriero, who took over as chief archivist at the National

Archives and Records Administration last year, acknowledged the raid

in a statement to employees Thursday and commended the inspector

general's office for "their commitment to ensuring the restoration of

stolen property back to the National Archives.

"I will not tolerate any violation of the law that protects both

records and property that belongs to the U.S. government and the

American people," Ferriero wrote. He noted that his staff is improving

training, requiring new policies and buying new equipment "to ensure

that our holdings are safe."

The government's sound archives date to 1896. A 2004 New York Times

article described the efforts of Waffen's team to preserve the only

known audio recording of the John F. Kennedy assassination. His

department also had custody of the Zapruder film, the famous 8mm color

home video of the assassination.

Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who has tracked Archives security

concerns for years, said in a statement: "There's a lot of work to be

done because these problems have needed correction for years. I hope

there will be a plan to get the organization back on track quickly."

Auditors with the Government Accountability Office said the agency is

leaving itself open to hackers as it preserves records electronically.

Auditors found the agency did not protect its computer networks with

strong firewalls, used weak passwords and failed to encrypt sensitive

information.

The report also highlighted a "large and persistent" backlog of paper

and media records that need to be preserved.

Sen. Thomas E. Carper (D-Del.), who also follows security issues at

the Archives, said the findings alarmed him.

"The items in jeopardy are more than just pieces of paper,

collectibles or electronic files - they are priceless links that

connect us to our nation's history and help tell the story of

America," Carper said in a statement. "So I am sure it is unsettling

to the American people - as it is to me - that the monumental task of

preserving these valuable artifacts is not always being performed to

the standards we all should expect."

Lawmakers criticized the agency last year after the disappearance of a

hard drive with sensitive data from the Clinton administration. The

drive contained national security information, more than 100,000

Social Security numbers, contact information for Clinton

administration officials, Secret Service and White House operating

procedures, event logs, social gathering logs and political records.

reinl@washpost.com hsus@washpost.com

Staff writers Ed O'Keefe and Dan Morse and staff researcher Alice

Crites contributed to this report.

(END QUOTE)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.democratherald.com/articles/2008/06/29/news/top_story/1aaa01_dictaphone.txt

The remastermind: Dictaphone expert helps refine JFK recording

By Steve Lathrop

Albany Democrat-Herald

It has been 45 years since Bill McWilliams first became immersed in

the continuing investigation of the assassination of President John F.

Kennedy.

"I was right in the middle of it all," he says.

He still is, in his own way.

From his home in North Albany, McWilliams works with engineers at the

Lawrence Livermore National Loboratory in California, trying to

determine the exact number of shots fired in Dallas, Texas on Nov. 22,

1963.

Widely considered an expert Dictaphone technician, McWilliams was

recruited by researchers who are using advanced techniques in sound

reproduction to provide them with first-hand information on the

machine and the assassination as they search for additional evidence.

It was McWilliams who serviced the now-famous Dictabelt #10 at the

Dallas police station the day of the assassination. It is the machine

that recorded events as they crackled forth from a motorcycle

policeman's open microphone.

"I heard it all as it happened," McWilliams says.

The research, which has been going on since 2005, was authorized by

Leslie Waffin of the National Archives, who released the machine to

the lab to apply the latest techniques in sound reproduction.

Dr. Carl Haber and Dr. Vitaliy Fadeyev have led the research using a

digital optical camera called a Smartscope to scan the grooves of the

belt and create a digital image of sound patterns.

It is fed into computers programmed to clean up the sound removing

excess noise, static and voices.

"The sound is reproduced without the stylus riding on the grooves,"

said McWilliams. "And the computer can eliminate any unnecessary

noise."

Already involved for more than a year, McWilliams supplies equipment,

specifications and mechanical data for the dictabelt recordings.

"It's a slow process. They are still working on it," he said.

"Ultimately they are trying to find out if there were more shots

fired."

The day of the assassination, McWilliams not only heard the event, he

witnessed the transfer of the mortally wounded president from the

ambulance to the hospital, which was located directly behind the

Dallas Police Station.

"I believe there were more shots fired," he says. "Maybe this will

answer that question."

In addition to his work on the assassination investigation, McWilliams

never is far from a Dictaphone, which were in wide use between the

late 19th- and early 20th century. Dictabelts that had grooves cut

into a plastic belt, rather than onto a wax cylinder, were introduced

in 1947. Then the tape recorder gained popularity, and Dictaphones

fell out of favor.

McWilliams may be the world's largest provider and repairer of vintage

machines. His shelves are lined with wax cylinders, vacuum tubes,

cassettes and magnetic tape analog recording and dictating equipment —

technological relics that predated tape recorders and cell phones.

"He's known all over the country," said his wife Dorothy.

Working from a large shop behind his home, McWilliams and his son Doak

have created a website and also sell parts on eBay.

"I don't deal much with the computers," he admits. "I don't really

trust them." He doesn't ignore them, either; he simply prefers being

able to use his hands. His entire inventory has been indexed by hand

to back up the computer log.

McWilliams spent 33 years with Dictaphone after his graduation from

Texas Institute of Technology. He eventually becoming a regional

service director.

The Korean War veteran retired in 1989 and moved to Albany in 2000.

He now owns about 200 machines dating back to 1889, a year after

Dictaphone — then Columbia Graphophone — was created.

"I've always collected," he says. "Some are pretty unique."

His largest is 6 feet tall, and 300 pounds and the smallest is a hand-

held device that fits into a shirt pocket. Also included is a 1953

model that was the world's first audio machine to announce the time.

"There are probably no more than two or three of them in the world,"

he said.

The collection evolved into repair work, parts sales and consultation.

It also has star quality.

"I get a lot of calls to rent or loan machines to movie prop

companies," he said.

The Kevin Costner movie "Thirteen Days" and the PBS series "Meaning of

Grace" both used vintage Dictaphones from McWilliams' inventory.

(END QUOTE)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/washington/stories/080104dnwashjfk.38352.html

The sound of 40-year-old gunfire in Dealey Plaza Applying today's

technology to fragile recording of JFK assassination

12:10 PM CDT on Saturday, July 31, 2004

By KATHARINE GOODLOE / The Dallas Morning News

WASHINGTON – It could be the ultimate artifact for historians and

conspiracy theorists alike: the only sound recording from the moment

of John F. Kennedy's assassination, made by a Dallas police motorcycle

radio.

Many scholars believe it can answer a mystery from Nov. 22, 1963:

three shots or four?

Spurred last year by the 40th anniversary of the assassination,

researchers at the National Archives are trying to preserve and copy

the recording, which is too fragile to be played again and has never

been authentically copied. It could, they say, offer the only hard

evidence of how many bullets were fired that day.

Researchers have long studied inferior copies of the recording. Some

say it shows three shots were fired at Kennedy's motorcade and

concluded Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone; others say it shows four

shots were fired and concluded Oswald was aided by a second gunman.

So as the Archives aims to copy the recording, they're also reviving

the debate surrounding it.

"There is not closure on this issue," said Gary Mack, curator of the

Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza. An authentic copy of the

recordings, he said, "might be able to resolve part of the Kennedy

assassination, one way or the other."

The controversy surrounding the assassination, though, has also

surrounded the recording. The Dallas Police Department created the

original recordings inadvertently. A radio stuck in the "on" position

relayed sounds of the killing to headquarters, where they were etched

onto dictation belts. But they are alternately noisy and inaudible, so

years passed before anyone examined them for echoes of gunfire.

They lay untapped during the Warren Commission investigation, the

first government inquiry into Kennedy's assassination. That panel

concluded Oswald was the lone gunman, firing three shots at the

motorcade.

Controversy about the dictation belts' contents was revived during the

House Select Committee on Assassinations investigation, and the belts

became the linchpin of their 1979 report. The recording, the committee

said, indicates four shots were fired – including one from the grassy

knoll. Their conclusion that Oswald likely did not act alone set

conspiracy circles ablaze.

But some scholars point to the delay in finding the tapes as reason to

question their authenticity. Others conducted studies on the

recording's sound waves that both rejected and reaffirmed the House

committee's findings. Even now, the debate continues.

"The evidence remains controversial and probably inconclusive from the

standpoint of history," said John Tunheim, a federal judge in

Minneapolis who chaired the Assassination Records Review Board. "It

really has gone back and forth."

One step toward reconciling the debate, experts said, is producing an

authentic copy of the recordings for use in future research.

That's the goal of the National Archives, which received the set of

five dictation belts from the Justice Department in 1990, as many of

the assassination records were made public. But the keynote belt,

which recorded the actual killing, was worn and split from use by

Dallas police, the FBI, the Secret Service and other government

inquiries.

Too fragile to be played again, but too important to be ignored, the

Archives simply stored the belt without copying it in the hopes future

technology would enable them to reproduce the recording without

harming the original. More than a decade later, that day is almost

here.

Although many of copies of the dictation belt exist – some are even

available online – most are not well documented, and none is deemed

authentic by the Archives. That designation matters because a bona

fide copy would validate further research.

"The question of what is authentic and what is not is debated every

day by researchers," Mr. Tunheim said. "So when you make a copy, it's

important to be done under perfect circumstances."

The Archives revived a push for an authentic copy of the belt after a

spate of calls from researchers near the 40th anniversary of the

assassination in November. Most wanted an authentic copy of the main

dictation belt, said Leslie Waffen, who oversees custody of the belt

for the Archives.

"We couldn't say to them that we had a true and actual copy of the

belt," Mr. Waffen said. "We said we really ought to look into this

further and see if there's anything available, technology-wise, for

us."

What they found is optical scanning, which digitally charts the

grooves in the dictation belts and reproduces them on a data map. The

end product would be a visual display, which Mr. Waffen said is likely

to be more useful to researchers than an audio one.

"You have to get beneath the noise to pick something out of there," he

said. "We're hoping the optical scanning method will allow people to

do that."

The technique would also avoid further wear on the original belt – a

key factor in the Archives mission to preserve its authenticity. The

Archives hosted a forum this summer to discuss the method, but decided

the technology is a year away from being feasible, Mr. Waffen said. No

official estimate is available, but Mr. Waffen expects the procedure

will cost less than $1,000.

But will such a copy further research or merely fan existing

conspiracy theories?

Mr. Mack, who was one of the first people to believe the recordings

included echoes of gunfire, said their continued study could yield

three outcomes. It could confirm the Warren Commission's report,

uphold the House committee's report, or do neither, he said.

"Many people have tried to resolve which group of scientists is

correct," he said. "The Dictabelt itself is a starting place."

Whatever the research generates, scholars said it's unlikely to snuff

out the conspiracy theories that have gripped Americans for the past

four decades.

"There's always been a swirling controversy with the Kennedy

assassination, and there always will be," Mr. Waffen said. "But at

least in this case we can provide a solid piece of material

researchers can turn to."

E-mail: kgoodloe at dallasnews.com

(END QUOTE)

Best Regards in Research,

Don

Donald Roberdeau

U.S.S. John F. Kennedy, CV-67, plank walker

Sooner, or later, The Truth emerges Clearly

For your considerations....

Homepage: President JOHN F. KENNEDY "Men of Courage" speech, and

Assassination Website Homepages Detailing Evidence, Witnesses,

Suspects + Outstanding Researchers Discoveries and Considerations....

http://droberdeau.blogspot.com/2009/08/1-men-of-courage-jfk-assassination_09.html

Dealey Plaza Map: Detailing 11-22-63 Victims precise kill zone

locations,

Witnesses, Films & Photos, Evidence, Suspects & suspected bullet

trajectories, & Important

information & Considerations in One Convenient Resource....

http:////img690.imageshack.us/img690/2192/dpupdated110110.gif

Visual Report: "The First Bullet Impact Into President Kennedy: While

JFK Hidden Under the 'magic-limbed-ricochet-tree'"....

http://img504.imageshack.us/img504/2446/206cropjfk1102308ms8.gif

Visual Report: Reality versus C.A.D. : the Real World, versus, Garbage-

In, Garbage-Out.... http://img814.imageshack.us/img814/5500/realityvscadmyersh.gif

Discovery: Very Close JFK Assassination Witness ROSEMARY WILLIS

Zapruder Film Documented 2nd Headsnap:

West, Ultrafast, and Directly Towards the Grassy Knoll....

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=2394

Visual File: JFK Assassination Research, Maps, & Discoveries for Your

Considerations.... http://profile.imageshack.us/user/droberdeau

T ogether

E veryone

A chieves

M ore

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