- Shortly after midnight on June 5, 1968, Robert Kennedy
was shot, The New York Times headlining:
-
- "Kennedy is Dead, Victim of Assassin; Suspect, Arab
Immigrant, Arraigned; Johnson Appoints Panel on Violence"
-
- Sirhan Sirhan was the alleged assassin, convicted, and
serving a life sentence at (no pun intended) Pleasant Valley State Prison,
CA, despite convincing evidence of his innocence.
-
- In his October 17, 2008 article "The Assassinations
of the 1960s as 'Deep Events,' " Peter Dale Scott discussed the killings
of both Kennedy brothers and Martin Luther King, saying:
-
- "The more that I look at these deep events comparatively,
ranging over the past five decades, the more similarities I see between
them, and the more I understand them in the light of each other."
-
- With respect to both Kennedys and King, official accounts
obscured the events, suppressed key facts, enough to question the guilt
of the alleged suspects, concealing the real culprits and why men of this
stature were assassinated - what Scott called "some continuing and
hostile force within our society..."
-
- In his June 13, 2010 article titled, "JFK and RFK:
The Plots that Killed Them, The Patsies that Didn't," James Fetzer
debunked the official accounts, saying:
-
- "we are looking at staged events that fit into a
recurrent pattern in US and world history where innocent individuals (or
'patsies') are baited and framed for cover-up purposes," RFK's killing
"in part intended to prevent a reinvestigation into his brother's
death....The assassinations of RFK and JFK were both conspiracies. Both
involved the destruction of evidence. Both involved the fabrication of
evidence. Both involved framing their patsies. Both involved complicity
by local officials. Both involved planning by the CIA. Both were used to
deny the American people (their) right to be governed by leaders of their
own choosing." Both put a myth to the rule of law, judicial fairness,
and democratic freedoms.
-
- Both crimes and MLK's assassination eliminated figures
dark American forces wanted silenced, blaming innocent "patsies"
for the killings, Sirhan Sirhan for RFK's. Fetzer's article explains numerous
important facts:
-
- -- multiple shots targeted him, more "than could
have come from Sirhan Sirhan's gun" that was also the wrong caliber;
-
- -- "RFK was shot behind the right ear from about
1.5 inches, but Sirhan was never that close and always in front of him;"
-
- -- the coroner and LAPD reports were contradictory;
- -- LAPD "engaged in massive destruction of evidence
from the pantry of the hotel because 'it would not fit into a card file,'
" as part of an official cover-up to blame Sirhan for a state-sponsored
assassination, evidence suggesting CIA involvement in both Kennedy brothers
and MLK killings;
-
- -- Sirhan's gun was a ".22 caliber, eight-round
revolver (serial number H-53725);"
-
- -- he "emptied his weapon from a location in front
of Bobby Kennedy;"
-
- -- Dr. Thomas Hoguchi's autopsy "showed RFK was
hit by four bullets, all of which were fired from behind at upward angles;
-
- -- five others were wounded by separate shots;"
-
- -- as many as 13 shots were fired;
-
- -- Dr. Noguchi's autopsy "did not point to Sirhan
as the killer;"
-
- -- an eyewitness, DeWayne Wofler, "testified that
the bullets fired at RFK had come from an entirely different gun,"
not Sirhan's;
-
- -- a security guard, Eugene Cesar, standing right behind
RFK, had a drawn gun of the same caliber as the murder weapon; it was never
examined nor was he charged; and
- -- "a woman in a polka dot dress" left the
scene hurriedly, "shouting, "We shot him! We shot him! We shot
Kennedy!"
-
- In their book, "The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy,"
Jonn Christian and William Turner made a convincing case "indicting
Cesar for the crime," concluding "that Sirhan may have been firing
blanks."
-
- Fetzer's article has detailed information on both JFK
and RFK assassinations, accessed through the following link:
-
- http://jamesfetzer.blogspot.com/2010/06/jfk-and-rfk-plots-that-killed-them.html
-
- Below, Sirhan gives his own account of what happened
that night and why he was at the Ambassador Hotel.
-
- "My Morning with Sirhan"
-
- On January 21, 2010, Academic Prison Teacher, Gerald
B. Reynolds, spent time with Sirhan and wrote it up in detail. An account
below follows.
-
- At the Delta Facility library, a prison guard let him
in. His ID said Sirhan Sirhan. "He looked at me in a calm way with
a half-smile. I looked at him....There was an eerie, prolonged silence."
He's now 66 years old, 42 of them in prison for a crime he didn't commit.
-
- After another "calm silence....I swiveled in my
chair to face Sirhan Sirhan and asked, 'Did you do it?' "
-
- "Did I do what," he responded.
-
- Reynolds: "You know."
-
- Sirhan: "What do you want to know?"
-
- Reynolds: "Did you kill Robert F. Kennedy?"
-
- Sirhan: "No, I did NOT kill Robert F. Kennedy!"
-
- Reynolds: "I know you didn't."
-
- Sirhan: "How do you know?"
-
- Reynolds explained that he studied the details of his
case, learned that RFK was killed at point blank range by a bullet to the
back of his head.
-
- "The real assassin appears to be Kennedy's 26 year
old Ace Security Company bodyguard....Thane Eugene Cesar. At least one
eye witness claims to have seen Cesar with a smoking gun in his hand immediately
after Kennedy fell to the floor. An audio recording made during the assassination
indicates that there were at least 11 shots fired (perhaps more) from possibly
three different guns."
-
- "The conclusion is that Kennedy was shot three times
from behind with a fourth bullet passing through his suit coat. The fact
that you (Sirhan) were standing in front of Kennedy is undisputed and yet
according to the coroner's report not one bullet entered Robert F. Kennedy
from the front of his body."
-
- Sirhan: "Oh my! I knew this morning when I woke
up that God was telling me he had something great in store for me today
and this is it! God has sent you to me!....I was beginning to lose hope
so you were sent to lift my spirits. Now I can be hopeful again. Thank
goodness somebody else knows."
-
- Reynolds: "Have you ever talked to anybody else
in prison that knows the truth of your case?"
-
- Sirhan: "Yes. One person, that's all....He was one
who drives a truck around and empties the dumpsters....I had a job where
I had to take the garbage out of the kitchen....to the dumpster....once
in a while he would talk to me. He told me he believed I was innocent."
-
- Reynolds: "Did you talk to this guy often?"
-
- Sirhan: "Actually no. He and I only talked maybe
about three times and each time it was only for about five minutes or so."
-
- He explained that he never met anyone in prison, besides
him, who knows. He said friends on the outside set up a web site for him
- rfkmustdie.com, with information about him, RFK, and whether CIA operatives
killed him, framing Sirhan for the crime.
-
- Reynolds: "Do you have an appeal on file right now?"
-
- Sirhan: "Not now. Everything has run its course.
I had a great attorney named Lawrence Teeter....He was a wonderful man
and a great attorney. He tried several times to win me an appeal and even
just to get a new evidentiary hearing but the courts seemed biased against
me. The judges wouldn't budge....Teeter died in 2005, and I haven't really
tried to work on any appeal since then."
-
- Yet he feels, one day, he can be cleared and set free.
"The truth will win out," he believes. Earlier he was on San
Quentin's death row for three years. "They thought they were rid of
me but then something happened they didn't plan on."
-
- Led by Chief Justice Rose Bird, "the California
Supreme Court intervened and ruled that the death penalty was unconstitutional.
The ruling was retroactive and my sentence was commuted to life in prison.
They thought I was dead and yet after 41 and a half years I'm still alive!"
Now it's over 42.
-
- But "they stole my life!....I've been rotting in
that stinking prison for (over four decades) for nothing!....The bastards
stole my life....I have been denied parole 13 times. I am scheduled for
another parole hearing in 2011. (Against long odds), Maybe if there was
a grassroots movement, like perhaps millions of people finding out how
the authorities have buried me unjustly, and coming together in demonstrations
all over the country they would have to reconsider and let me go."
-
- Saying to Reynolds, "You do it for me. Become a
guest speaker at colleges and universities and speak on my behalf....I
hereby give you my permission....I will notify the press of your name and
mission."
-
- Reynolds: "Ah, no, not my name. My name can't be
attached to this. I could get in big trouble. You know the monsters that
run this place."
-
- Sirhan: "OK, I understand. We will keep you anonymous."
-
- Reynolds offered to make this conversation available
to anyone "responsible enough to appreciate it." Sirhan suggested
sending to magazines and newspapers. Reynolds said he'd try, sent it to
one on the progressive left that wouldn't publish it, one reason for discussing
it here.
-
- Sirhan also explained he's Palestinian, born in Jerusalem
in 1944, "alive during the turmoil that erupted when the United Nations
stole our country and gave it to the Jews."
-
- In fact, its 1947 Partition Plan (General Assembly Resolution
181) gave them 56% of historic Palestine, placing Jerusalem (declared a
corpus separatum, a separate body) under UN trusteeship as an international
city, binding to this day. At the time, Palestinians comprised two-thirds
of the population, owning 93% of the land, most of it now stolen. All of
it occupied illegally.
-
- Ever since, Israelis treated "my people....like
dogs. (They) shoot rockets and tank fire into the West Bank (and Gaza)
killing everyone, including women and children. They drop bombs and spray
machine gun fire into crowded marketplaces. They are treating my people
the same way they were treated by the Nazis....It breaks my heart to see
how my people are suffering."
-
- Reynolds: "So, then, you're a Muslim?"
-
- Sirhan: "No....I am a Christian. My whole family
is Christian....We have been Christians for at least 800 years. We are
Palestinian Christians."
-
- He came to America at age 11, moved to Los Angeles, and
settled in Pasadena, attending Altadena's Eliot Junior High School, graduating
from John Muir High School, then completing two years of junior college..."
-
- Reynolds asked if he had any connections to Middle East
or organized terrorists?
-
- Sirhan: "No. No way! I am alone. I am by myself.
I do have a few people in the West Bank that I correspond with but they
are just regular people. I have a brother in Los Angeles. But I definitely
do not have any terrorist connections and I am not a member of any groups,
any groups at all."
-
- Spurious prison information circulated that on 9/11,
he "gleefully clapped (his) hands and (was) delighted" to see
the twin towers collapse, adding that he had confidential information of
the impending attack "by a Middle Eastern terrorist organization whose
members revere you as an icon and a hero and do everything they can to
honor you."
-
- Sirhan: "Oh my God, that's ridiculous. I've never
had anything to do with any terrorist groups. Who said this about me?"
-
- Reynolds: "It was Chief Deputy Warden James Mattingly."
-
- Sirhan said he'll sue him for libel and slander, adding
he wants to see his evidence. Reynolds asked what he thought of the incident,
Sirhan explaining that he cried because his country was attacked and "felt
sadness and anger and wanted to punish the people responsible...."
-
- Reynolds: "Sirhan, what were the events that led
up to you being in the pantry of the Ambassador Hotel on the night"
JFK was shot there?
-
- Sirhan: "In the evening, I had something to eat
at Bob's Big Boy. Then later in the evening, I decided to drive downtown....The
Jews were going to be having a big party to celebrate the one-year anniversary
of Israel's" Six Day War victory."
-
- Reynolds: "What did you intend to do once your got
there?"
-
- Sirhan: " I don't know exactly but I wanted to protest.
The Jews should not have been allowed to fill the streets in celebration
of stealing more of our land. I can remember driving down Highway 5 with
my 22 caliber hand gun lying next to me on the passenger seat."
-
- Reynolds: "Why did you have a gun with you in the
car?"
-
- Sirhan: "I had been shooting at the range earlier
that day."
-
- Reynolds: "Was the gun....out in the open?"
-
- Sirhan: "No, it was in the plastic box it came in,
you know, with the cloth, the cleaning rod, and oil."
-
- Reynolds: "and what did you do when you got downtown?"
-
- Sirhan: "I realized that I was a day early and that
the event was to take place the next night. So I just drove back up the
freeway."
-
- Reynolds: "Why did you stop at the Ambassador Hotel?"
-
- Sirhan: "I don't know. I can't remember parking
and going in there but I must have because I was there."
-
- Reynolds: "What did you do when you got there?"
-
- Sirhan: "It was hot that night and I was very thirsty.
I remember that....I went to the bar and had four drinks within about 15
minutes. I couldn't seem to get enough to drink....They were Tom Collins's....(but)
I wasn't drunk. I felt drugged. I think somebody slipped something into
my drinks. My legs and arms became rubbery. I remember standing by my car
but I couldn't drive so I went back inside and got some coffee."
-
- Reynolds: "How did you get downstairs to the pantry?"
-
- Sirhan: "Somebody guided me. I don't know who."
-
- Reynolds: "Did you have your gun with you?"
-
- Sirhan: "Yes. When I was in the pantry, the gun
was in my hand."
-
- Reynolds: "Did you know Robert Kennedy was going
to be walking toward you?"
-
- Sirhan: "No. I didn't know where I was and I don't
know how I got there. I was in a state of blackout."
-
- Reynolds: "You were a Manchurian candidate....It's
something the CIA uses. They assassinate a president, or senator, or anyone
they wish, and make it look like some crazed, lone-nut assassin did it.
But he has been heavily drugged, possibly with LSD, and undergone intense
brainwashing followed by reprogramming. Everything you're saying about
yourself follows the established pattern of the drugged, duped, CIA patsy."
-
- Sirhan: "They used me, framed me, and they set me
up to die."
-
- Reynolds: "Do you remember firing the gun that was
in your hand?"
-
- Sirhan: "I can't remember. I was blacked out. I
remember feeling woozy and it felt like I was falling down....I don't remember
the things that happened that night."
-
- Reynolds: "Do you remember being led in handcuffs
out of the Ambassador Hotel and made to sit in the back seat of a police
car?"
-
- Sirhan: "I remember being led away but I didn't
know why they were doing this to me. Nobody told me anything."
-
- He was interrogated by the police for about 24 hours,
detectives telling him he murdered JFK. "They yelled at me. They kept
shoving papers at me demanding that I sign...They were documents saying
I killed Kennedy. Confession. They insisted I had murdered Robert F. Kennedy
and they demanded I confess and sign the papers....At first I resisted,
but later I confessed and signed the papers. They broke me down and I told
them I would do anything they wanted me to do. I just wanted it to stop."
-
- After he confessed, he was taken to a cell and allowed
to sleep. A court trial followed where his "interrogators convinced
me to plead guilty and ask for the death penalty....I told the judge I
was guilty and wanted the death penalty," explaining he was ashamed.
-
- "They made me believe I had murdered Robert Kennedy
in cold blood and I was remorseful and ashamed. Everyone said I was guilty.
They said I would get the death penalty....no matter what I said or did.
They said it was an open and shut case and that I might as well give up.
I just wanted to get the whole thing over with and if it meant me being
dead, so be it. I didn't have anything left to live for anyway."
-
- A trial followed, Sirhan represented by attorney Grant
Cooper, a man he called "crooked. He had mafia and CIA connections,"
Sirhan explaining what he knew and his mob involvement. "He was (picked)
to make sure I was convicted and sent to my death, and Cooper complied
because they were planning to kill him" otherwise.
-
- Reynolds asked him to portray what he remembered doing
at the Ambassador Hotel. Sirhan stood up, swayed, his arms gently rising,
looked straight ahead, then made a gun shape with his right hand, his arm
parallel to the ground pretending to shoot, saying:
-
- "At a specific moment, and I can't remember when
or why, I shot my 22 caliber pistol three times. My arms were unsteady
but level with the ground. Two of the shots missed. I saw them miss. One
of the shots may have bounced off him like a BB. All of a sudden people
were grabbing me. They were forcing me down....Did anybody say I reached
around behind and shot Robert Kennedy in the back of the head?"
-
- Reynolds: "Nobody."
-
- Sirhan: "But that's what I would've had to do"
to kill him....So, what do you think of me now? Do you think I am crazy
like they say?"
-
- Not at all, said Reynolds, Sirhan adding "I am just
a man. I am a man just like you. I am trained never to allow an inmate
to touch me."
-
- In parting, he embraced Reynolds, both of them now "secret
friends in a desolate place."
-
- A Final Comment
-
- Evidence strongly suggests that Lee Harvey Oswald, James
Earl Ray, and Sirhan Sirhan were patsies, blamed for state-sponsored assassinations,
likely carried out by CIA operatives or hired guns they enlisted.
-
- Jack Ruby, with known mob and police connections, fatally
shot Oswald on November 22, 1963. Incarcerated without trial, James Earl
Ray died in prison on April 23, 1998, proclaiming his innocence. Sirhan
Sirhan has been imprisoned since 1968, despite no evidence proving his
guilt.
-
- In these and hundreds more cases in US courts, justice
was denied, revealing the myth of the rule of law, under a system absolving
high-level crime, getting patsies punished for offenses they didn't commit,
the major media always going along, supporting official accounts without
question.
-
- Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the
Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays
at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs
are archived for easy listening.
-
- http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
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