(from the Pittsburgh Tribune - August 25, 2006)

Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory studying the assassination of President John F. Kennedy have done what many thought impossible -- their research suggests that the single-bullet theory is even less credible than it seems.

And by extension, it further casts doubt on the credibility of Arlen Specter, the U.S. senator who, in another career, invented the magic bullet scenario -- a tumbling, direction-changing projectile that long has defied the laws of physics and common sense.

The Pennsylvania Republicrat, who at the time was an assistant district attorney in Philadelphia, was an assistant counsel for the Warren Commission, charged by President Lyndon Johnson with investigating the crime.

Pat Grant, director of Livermore's Forensic Science Center, and metallurgist Erik Randich say that key evidence such as the crime scene bullet fragments might have been misinterpreted. They contend the so-called chemical fingerprints that supposedly identified which bullets the fragments came from are anything but conclusive. Those "chemical fingerprints" are not the equivalent to the one-of-a-kind human fingerprints; they're more like generic tire tracks.

And because of that, the scientists say there could have been one to five bullets instead of the three supposedly fired by alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald. Mr. Specter's lone-gunman theory is that much closer to being disproved.

Librarians always should be prepared to move "Passion for Truth," Specter's ironically titled book about finding JFK's single bullet, to where many believe it always should have been:

The fiction section.