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Gerald Posner

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Gerald Posner and his wife Trisha.

Gerald Posner is an investigative journalist and author of several books, including Case Closed (1993) which explores the John F. Kennedy assassination, and Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Biography

Posner was born in San Francisco, in 1954, the only child of native San Franciscans, Gloria, a homemaker, and Jerry, a labor union official. Posner was educated at St. Ignatius College Prep (1972), the University of California, Berkeley (1975) and Hastings Law School (1978). He worked for the Wall Street law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore until 1980, at which point he went into private practice with a partner. John Martin of ABC News says "Gerald Posner is one of the most resourceful investigators I have encountered in thirty years of journalism." Garry Wills calls Posner "a superb investigative reporter," while the Los Angeles Times dubs him "a classic-style investigative journalist." "His work is painstakingly honest journalism" concluded The Washington Post. The New York Times lauded his "exhaustive research techniques" and The Boston Globe determined Posner is "an investigative journalist whose work is marked by his thorough and meticulous research." "A resourceful investigator and skillful writer," says The Dallas Morning News.

When Posner was hired at Cravath, he was one of the youngest attorneys (23) ever hired there. A Phi Beta Kappa and Summa Cum Laude graduate of the University of California at Berkeley (1975), he was an Honors Graduate of Hastings Law School (1978), where he served as the Associate Executive Editor for the Law Review. He left the law in 1986, when his first book, about Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele's life on the run was published by McGraw HIll.

Writings

Case Closed

In his book Case Closed, Posner contends that both Lee Harvey Oswald, the widely suspected assassin of John F. Kennedy, and Oswald's assailant, Jack Ruby, acted alone and without the aid of a conspiracy. Case Closed was a nominated finalist for the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for History. Case Closed was also the subject of a double issue of U.S. News and World Report, and featured on programs such as ABC's 20/20, CBS Special Reports, and PBS's Frontline. Posner testified before Congress about the findings in his book, that Oswald had, indeed, acted alone in killing JFK. The book has been optioned for a television miniseries. "After Case Closed, everyone thinks Oswald did it" - Newsweek. But it also drew widespread criticism from assassination researchers and conspiracy theorists who claimed it contained factual innacuracies,[1][2] pointing in particular to its complete avoidance of any mention of documents released under the 1992 JFK act, although that would have been impossible as Ponser's August 1993 publication coincided with the relase of the first documents under that act. Historians who have reviewed the documents since their release have found no credible evidence to rebut Posner's thesis, or to support a conspiracy to kill JFK.

Some of the bluntest of critiques came from some of those directly involved in previous open investigations of the assassination, or with first-hand knowledge of key events and persons related to the events in question. HSCA chief investigator Gaeton Fonzi called it "a dishonest book".[3] Of course, Posner attacked the competene or those earlier investigations, so their countetattack was no unexpected.

Secrets of the Kingdom

In his 2003 book Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Secret Saudi-U.S. Connection, Posner provides an account of the "close" business and personal relationship between the House of Saud and the U.S. government, including discussions of "dirty bomb" technology and the financial and political maneuvering surrounding 9/11. He also discloses, for the first time, an elaborate doomsday scenario the Saudis have built around their oil fields, something the Saudis have vehemently denied. Posner, and his wife, Trisha, have been banned from entering Saudi Arabia as as result of this book.

Why America Slept

Another 2003 book by Posner, Why America Slept, discusses the conspiracy of the Arab al-Qaeda terrorists who were responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks. In the book Posner claims that Prince Ahmed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud had ties to al-Qaeda and advance knowledge of the 9/11 attacks. The story was strongly denied by his family pointing out that he in fact loved America, spent time at his home there, and invested heavily in the American horse racing industry. His friends in American racing stated their knowledge of him and his attitudes made it impossible to believe the allegations.[citation needed] Prince Salman, two other Saudi Princes named by Posner, and the chief of the Pakastani Air Force, all died, often within days of each other, either from a blood clot after a simple operation, a car wreck invovling only one vehicle, dehydration in the dessert, or a sabotaged heliopter explosion. Three of the men were in their forties, and one in his twenties. In Why America Slept, Posner is the first journalist to reveal the details of an American interrogation against one of the highest ranking Al Qaeda suspects caught to date. Why America Slept reached #2 on the New York Times bestseller list.

Editorial writings

Posner, who was at one time a strong supporter of Al Gore for the 2000 presidential election, wrote a Wall Street Journal editorial on September 25, 2001 reversing his opinion of George W. Bush in light of the September 11th attacks. [1] But then he changed his opinion again, in October, 2006, in "An Open Letter to the President," published on The Huffington Post, reverting to his original position that Bush was wrong on Iraq and a bad president stiffled by his sutbborness (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gerald-posner/an-open-letter-to-the-pre_b_30865.html) He has also written about investigative issues for the New York Times The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Talk, Newsweek, Time, The Miami Herald, and the London Telegraph. He is a regular contributor to NBC's TODAY Show as well as other national shows on the History Channel, CNN, FOX News, and CBS. He is a frequent guest on Keith Obermann. A member of the National Advisory Board of the National Writers Union, Posner is also a member of the Authors Guild, PEN, The Committee to Protect Journalists, and Phi Beta Kappa.

Bibliography

  • Mengele: The Complete Story (1986)
  • Warlords of Crime: Chinese Secret Societies - The New Mafia (1988)
  • Bio-Assassins (1989)
  • Hitler's Children: Sons and Daughters of Leaders of the Third Reich Talk About Their Fathers and Themselves (1991)
  • Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK (1993)
  • Citizen Perot: His Life and Times (1996)
  • Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1998)
  • Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11 (2003)
  • Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power (Music of the Great Lakes) (2003)
  • Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Saudi-U.S. Connection (2005)

References

  1. ^ "Massive numbers of factual errors suffuse the book, which make it a veritable minefield", wrote Gerald R. Wrone, who has personally attacked Posner in numerous occasions, in the Southern Journal of History (February, 1995)
  2. ^ Wallace Milam, the Posner Follies
  3. ^ Interview with Gaeton Fonzi, October 8, 1994
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