Kennedy and King Family Members and Advisors Call for Congress to Reopen
Assassination Probes
Kennedy and King Family Members and
Advisors Call for Congress to Reopen Assassination Probes
Mark Crispin Miller writes: I’m
proud to be among the signatories calling for a new investigation—a real
investigation—of the four assassinations that created the America we’re living
in today: a rogue state hooked on war, its people either crushed by poverty or
struggling to get by, ripped off and poisoned by the same cartels, yet
bitterly divided.
We’re on the brink today because
we’ve all been living this Big Lie for over half a century: that the United
States is a democratic republic, where government is chosen by the people
in their own best interests, guided by great movements of dissent, and always
well-informed by a free press.
This lie was traumatically exploded
by those four assassinations, which made all too clear that the United
States was to be governed not by We the People, through their duly educated
votes, but by hidden interests using violence to wipe out any candidate or
activist who might dare thwart their plans.
Although it’s long been crystal-clear
to everyone who’s bothered to look into it, and even clear enough to
most Americans, this fact has been perversely obfuscated both by “our free
press” and in the nation’s schools at every level, through endless
iteration of the state’s “lone gunman” narrative, with all contrary
evidence ignored and/or derided as “conspiracy theory.”
Enough is enough. Please join us in
demanding that this lethal cover-up now cease—because the truth will set us
free, but only if we face it at long last.
Call for a real investigation:
On the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a group of over 60 prominent
American citizens is calling upon Congress to reopen the investigations into
the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King
Jr., and Senator Robert F. Kennedy. Signers of the joint statement include
Isaac Newton Farris Jr., nephew of Reverend King and past president of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Reverend James M. Lawson Jr., a close
collaborator of Reverend King; and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Kathleen Kennedy
Townsend, children of the late senator.
Other signatories include G. Robert
Blakey, the chief counsel of the House Select Committee on Assassinations,
which determined in 1979 that President Kennedy was the victim of a probable
conspiracy; Dr. Robert McClelland, one of the surgeons at Parkland Memorial
Hospital in Dallas who tried to save President Kennedy’s life and saw clear
evidence he had been struck by bullets from the front and the rear; Daniel
Ellsberg, the Pentagon Papers whistleblower who served as a national security
advisor to the Kennedy White House; Richard Falk, professor emeritus of
international law at Princeton University and a leading global authority on
human rights; Hollywood artists Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Rob Reiner and
Oliver Stone; political satirist Mort Sahl; and musician David Crosby.
The declaration is also signed by
numerous historians, journalists, lawyers and other experts on the four major
assassinations.
The joint statement calls for
Congress to establish firm oversight on the release of all government documents
related to the Kennedy presidency and assassination, as mandated by the JFK
Records Collection Act of 1992. This public transparency law has been routinely
defied by the CIA and other federal agencies. The Trump White House has allowed
the CIA to continue its defiance of the law, even though the JFK Records Act
called for the full release of relevant documents in 2017.
The group statement also calls for a
public inquest into “the four major assassinations of the 1960s that
together had a disastrous impact on the course of American history.” This
tribunal — which would hear testimony from living witnesses, legal experts,
investigative journalists, historians and family members of the victims — would
be modeled on the Truth and Reconciliation hearings held in South Africa after
the fall of apartheid. This American Truth and Reconciliation process is
intended to encourage Congress or the Justice Department to reopen
investigations into all four organized acts of political violence.
Signers of the joint statement, who
call themselves the Truth and Reconciliation Committee, are also seeking to
reopen the Robert F. Kennedy assassination case, stating that Sirhan Sirhan’s
conviction was based on “a mockery of a trial.” The forensic evidence alone,
observes the statement, demonstrates that Sirhan did not fire the fatal shot
that killed Senator Kennedy — a conclusion reached by, among others, Dr. Thomas
Noguchi, the Los Angeles County Coroner who performed the official autopsy on
RFK.
The joint statement — which was
co-written by Adam Walinsky, a speechwriter and top aide of Senator Kennedy —
declares that these “four major political murders traumatized American
life in the 1960s and cast a shadow over the country for decades
thereafter. John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert
F. Kennedy were each in his own unique way attempting to turn the United States
away from war toward disarmament and peace, away from domestic violence
and division toward civil amity and justice. Their killings were
together a savage, concerted assault on American democracy and the tragic
consequences of these assassinations still haunt our nation.”
The Truth and Reconciliation
Committee views its joint statement as the opening of a long campaign aimed at
shining a light on dark national secrets. As the public transparency campaign
proceeds, citizens across the country will be encouraged to add their names to
the petition. The national effort seeks to confront the forces behind America’s
democratic decline, a reign of secretive power that long precedes the recent
rise of authoritarianism. “The organized killing of JFK, Malcolm, Martin, and RFK
was a mortal attack on our democracy,” said historian James Douglass,
author of JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters. “We’ve been
walking in the valley of the dead ever since. Our campaign is all about
recovering the truth embodied in the movement they led. Yes, the
transforming, reconciling power of truth will indeed set us free.”
The Truth and Reconciliation
Committee’s Calls for Action:
1. We call upon Congress to establish continuing oversight on the release of
government documents related to the presidency and assassination of President
John F. Kennedy, to ensure public transparency as mandated by the JFK Records
Collection Act of 1992. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
should hold hearings on the Trump administration’s failure to enforce the JFK
Records Act.
2. We call for a major public inquest on the four major assassinations of the
1960s that together had a disastrous impact on the course of American history:
the murders of John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F.
Kennedy. This public tribunal, shining a light on this dark chapter of our
history, will be modeled on the Truth and Reconciliation process in
post-apartheid South Africa. The inquest — which will hear testimony from living
witnesses, legal experts, investigative journalists, historians and family
members of the victims — is intended to show the need for Congress or the
Justice Department to reopen investigations into all four assassinations.
3. On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we
call for a full investigation of Reverend King’s assassination. The conviction
of James Earl Ray for the crime has steadily lost credibility over the years,
with a 1999 civil trial brought by Reverend King’s family placing blame on
government agencies and organized crime elements. Following the verdict,
Coretta Scott King, the slain leader’s widow, stated: “There is abundant
evidence of a major, high-level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband.”
The jury in the Memphis trial determined that various federal, state and local
agencies “were deeply involved in the assassination … Mr. Ray was set up to
take the blame.” Reverend King’s assassination was the culmination of years of
mounting surveillance and harassment directed at the human rights leader by J.
Edgar Hoover’s FBI and other agencies.
4. We call for a full investigation
of the Robert F. Kennedy assassination case, the prosecution of which was a
mockery of a trial that has been demolished by numerous eyewitnesses,
investigators and experts — including former Los Angeles County Coroner Dr.
Thomas Noguchi, who performed the official autopsy on Senator Kennedy. The
forensic evidence alone establishes that the shots fired by Sirhan Sirhan from
in front of Senator Kennedy did not kill him; the fatal shot that struck RFK in
the head was fired at point–blank range from the rear. Consequently, the case
should be reopened for a new comprehensive investigation while there are still
living witnesses — as there are in all four assassination cases.
Note the long list of distinguished
Americans that the idiot American media calls “conspiracy theorists”
Joint statement and list of signers:
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.