On the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F Kennedy, the airwaves are awash with coverage which is contradictory, confusing and dishonest. It is clear that President Kennedy was killed by the National Security State (CIA and Pentagon). The assassination marked the rise of the military industrial complex, the American Empire and the permanent warfare state. This fact is highly troubling for Americans who have not studied the political assassinations of the 1960s nor the many subsequent crimes perpetuated by the National Security State since 1963. People want to trust their government. Understanding the evil underbelly is highly uncomfortable. Political assassinations and events such as the attacks on 9/11 can be described as a “state crime against democracy,” a term coined by Lance deHaven-Smith in his book “Conspiracy Theory in America.” The cover story does not quite fit, but the result is increased funding or power for the National Security State. These events are used to justify another war, another conflict, another enemy. There will be no peace dividend. People do not want to believe that the Kennedy assassination, and subsequent similar events, are orchestrated in order to expand the American Empire. It is only after serious study that one is confronted with an undeniable truth. James Douglas compiles the evidence in the murder of President Kennedy in his watershed book, “JFK and the Unspeakable.” The short version is that Kennedy was betrayed at the Bay of Pigs, when his military attempted to maneuver Kennedy into an attack on Cuba. But Kennedy refused to supply the requested air cover, refused to be drawn into war thus betraying his own military. After the Bay of Pigs fiasco, Kennedy told an adviser that he wanted to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds." After the Bay of Pigs, the Joint Chiefs of Staff presented Kennedy with Operation Northwoods. General Lyman Lemnitzer said “The Joint Chiefs believe that the Cuban crisis must be solved in the near future.” This was a plan to use false flag operations, including terrorist bombings and an attack on the military base at Guantanamo Bay, to be blamed on Castro and used to justify war. In retrospect this plan defies rational thought, but was approved by the Pentagon, just as it was summarily rejected by Kennedy. The Cuban Missile Crisis brought the world to the brink of an unthinkable nuclear war. Kennedy had already lost faith with his military advisers. But the Joint Chiefs of Staff, lead by General Curtis LeMay were now lobbying for a first-strike nuclear attack on the Soviet Union. Instead, Kennedy opened back channel negotiations with both Khrushchev and Castro. Kennedy's June 1963 American University speech entitled “A Strategy of Peace” would have sent shivers throughout the Pentagon and the CIA. Kennedy announced his agreement for negotiations "toward early agreement on a comprehensive test ban treaty" and announced, for the purpose of showing "good faith and solemn convictions," his decision to unilaterally suspend all US atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons as long as all other nations would do the same. The speech was groundbreaking in its peaceful outreach to the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War. Despite heavy pressure from the military, Kennedy refused to commit troops in Laos and refused to increase troop levels in Vietnam. One month before his murder, Kennedy ordered the withdrawal of 1000 troops from Vietnam by signing National Security Action Memorandum 263. This informed his generals that he had no intention of fighting a ground war in Vietnam, but NSAM 263 was reversed within days of Kennedy's assassination. The CIA was created by President Harry Truman and it's covert activities expanded by President Eisenhower. Under Presidents Truman and Eisenhower, the CIA advanced the Cold War. Senator Joseph McCarthy's witch hunts against real or imagined American leftists who were branded Communists in the mind of the the Cold Warriors reflects the attitudes of the time. As Eisenhower left office, he belatedly warned the American public of the dangers of the Military Industrial Complex, saying "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist." Thanks, Ike, but too little, too late. Kennedy's move towards peace was tantamount to treason in the mind of the cold warriors. As a result his enemies where many, including the top echelon of the CIA, Gen Lemnitzer, Vice President Johnson, FBI director J Edgar Hoover, wealthy Texas oilmen, individuals within the Secret Service, corporate chieftains and some members of his inner circle. Top CIA enemies who undoubtedly organized the coup included David Atlee Phillips, William Harvey, Richard Helms, Des Fitzgerald, James Jesus Angleton, E Howard Hunt and David Morales. Two cold warriors stood above the others in their hatred of Kennedy. Alan Dulles, the first director of the CIA,, had been fired after the Bay of Pigs. Despite having no official duties on November 22, 1963, Dulles interacted regularly with members of the CIA who most likely orchestrated his death. When President Lyndon Johnson succeeded Kennedy as a result of the assassination, LBJ conveniently appointed Alan Dulles to serve on the Warren Commission coverup, where he was the most active member. It appears today likely that Dulles organized both the assassination and the coverup. General Curtis LeMay, Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force, was responsible for firebombing many Japanese cities during WWII as well as destroying Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear weapons. LeMay argued strenuously for a nuclear first strike against the Soviet Union during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Blasting Kennedy's cautious approach, the Air Force chief, Gen. LeMay, told the president at a White House meeting on Oct. 19, 1962, "This is almost as bad as the appeasement at Munich," and declared that Kennedy's refusal to invade Cuba would certainly embolden the Soviets to take Berlin. Many believe that it was LeMay who controlled the fraudulent Kennedy autopsy, which included “pre-autopsy surgery” (as reported by the FBI) as well as photographs and X-rays that are now proven to be forgeries. Most American believed their government when it pronounced Oswald as the lone nut assassin. But early researchers such as Mark Lane, Harold Weisberg, Mae Brussell, Syliva Meagher, Vince Salandria and Penn Jones asked questions, requested documents and read the evidence. They informed the public despite ridicule and resistance. By 1967, 67 percent of the population believed that Kennedy was killed as a result of conspiracy, a number that persists to this day, despite the official pronouncements and unrelenting media coverage to the contrary. With the continuing release of evidence, it became clear that Oswald could not be a lone assassin. The National Security State was able to keep the film shot by Abraham Zapruder out of the public domain for 12 years, but when revealed in 1975, the lone nut solution became completely untenable. The kill shot came from the front as everyone could plainly see. It was exactly as the medical personal in Dallas had described. The witnesses of the assassination ran to the grassy knoll, and now everyone could see that the shot most certainly came from the front. The CIA then turned its propaganda assets, called Operation Mockingbird towards distortion and confusion. They successfully turned America's gaze to the mafia, anti-Castro Cubans, Castro himself, and/or the Russians. For good measure, ridiculous stories are still circulated that a Secret Service agent killed Kennedy by accident, or the limo driver turned and fired. None of these idiotic theories explain the perpetual, continuing coverup. The evidence points back to the National Security State, not at Lee Harvey Oswald or the mafia. The importance of understanding the Kennedy assassination is that it informs us on other political assassinations and state crimes against democracy. Often conspiracy realists are accused of believing in all other conspiracy theories, when it is simply a matter of pattern recognition. We do not believe in conspiracy theories, instead we research factual evidence of conspiracy in unsolved crimes. We notice the long list of antiwar and liberal leaders who have died violent deaths, compared to the non existent list of pro war conservatives who have suffered similar deaths. We notice when the 28 pages in the 9/11 commission report on Saudi Arabia is withheld. We notice when the FAA destroys the recorded testimony of air traffic controllers made on 9/11. We notice state crimes against democracy. Most importantly, we notice when a state crime against democracy is used to expand the Empire. The attack on Sept 11th was used to justify American boots on the ground throughout the Middle East. It also created a new enemy (terrorism), an enemy without uniforms that can never be defeated, one that cannot surrender. The National Security State has no interest in creating a peaceful world. President John F Kennedy turned towards peace when he refused to fight in Vietnam and attempted to end the Cold War. And for that he was killed by the National Security State.