May 30, 2001
Army "photographers" present at King assassination
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"Everything in the U.S. is the trial of the century.
O.J. Simpson's trial was the trial of the century.
Clinton's trial was the trial of the century. But
this is the trial of the century, and who's here?"
- Barbara Reis, U.S. correspondent for Publico (Lisbon)
commenting on the lack of US media interest in a 1999
trial that revealed the close surveillance of Martin Luther
King by US military intelligence units the day he was
assassinated in Memphis
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In my last bulletin, I pointed out that
the My Lai massacre, the cold blooded murder
of over 400 civilians - mainly women,
children and elderly men - was documented
from start to finish by an Army photographer,
Sgt. Ronald L. Haeberle, who was assigned to
cover the four hour operation.
His photos are here:
http://www.pathfinder.com/photo/essay/mylai/mylaihp.htm
In spite of Haeberle's photos, the atrocity was first
covered up and then denied.
Less than a month after My Lai, Army photographers
apparently had a ringside seat at another dark event
in American history: April 4, 1968, overlooking the
Lorraine Hotel at the very moment Martin Luther King,
an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War, was murdered
by sniper fire.
It's a story that almost defies belief, but unless
Carthel Weeden, former Chief of Fire Station Number
Two in Memphis, lied under oath during a trial held
November 29, 1999 in Memphis, that's exactly what
happened.
Full transcript of Weeden's testimony here:
http://www.thekingcenter.org/transcripts/volume8.html
Here are the testimony highlights (The questioner is
William Pepper, attorney, King colleague and author
of "Orders to Kill"):
Q. On April 4th, 1968, the day of the
assassination, were you on duty?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And on April 4, 1968, were you
approached by two Army officers?
A. That's what they indicated, they were
two Army officers.
Q. And what did they ask you to do?
A. They wanted a look-out vantage for
the Lorraine Hotel...
Q. You put these Army officers on the
roof of the number two fire station on the
4th of April, 1968?
... Did you go up there on the roof with
them?
A. I did.
Q. And were they carrying anything?
A. They had some briefcases or some
items with them, yes.
Q. Did you come to learn what was in
those briefcases?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did they tell you what was in the
briefcases?
A. They said they wanted a vantage point
for doing some photo -- photograph --
Q. Photographic work.
A. Right, right.
Q. Did they at the time show you any
military identification?
A. Well, I'm sure they did or I wouldn't
have carried them up there but I -- you know,
we had a lot of people coming in and out at
that time, you know...
Q. Mr. Weeden, has any law enforcement officers
ever asked you about that day and what you did?
A. No, sir.
Q. Nobody has ever spoken to you?
A. No, sir...
Q. Did any member of the House Select
Committee on Assassinations, any investigator
for the House Select Committee ever speak to
you about this incident?
A. Not at all.
Q. Any researchers or book writers ever
speak to you about this incident?
A. No, sir.
Q. My, my. Thank you very much.
More information about the 1999 trial including harassment
of witnesses by government agents and the media blackout:
http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/MLKconExp.html
Two weeks ago - and 33 years after the assassination -
a judge rejected an appeal by the Coalition on Political
Assassinations (COPA) to make available for public review
the photographs taken from that vantage point and
the complete records of US military intelligence
activity in Memphis that day.
More about the rejected appeal:
> Friends,
>
> What follows is the basic text of the ruling in our court
appeal of a
> D.C. District Court ruling that the U.S. Army had
performed an
> exhaustive search for records of surveillance on Dr.
Martin Luther King.
> Jr. in the period leading up to his assassination. We
based our Freedom
> of Information Act request in 1998 on published reports
that such
> surveillance by military intelligence had taken place up
to the day of
> his murder, and that it included photographic
surveillance of the events
> of the assassination, and even of the assassin
responsible.
>
> After initial denials, and the filing of this suit at the
district court
> level, the Army claimed that it had "purged" most of
those records in
> the 1970's, and had sent records of any historical, legal
or research
> significance to the Archives, as required by law. The
Archives then
> informed us that they had located one pertinent document,
an
> after-action summary of Operation Lantern Spike,
performed in Memphis in
> the days surrounding Dr. King's assassination by members
of the 112th
> Military Intelligence Group out of Atlanta, Georgia.
>
> The exepedited declassification and release of this
report was very
> significant, proving for the first time that, despite
earlier denials,
> the Pentagon was spying on Dr. King directly. However,
this 30 page
> document could not be, in our view, the only record that
met the
> conditions for preservation under the law. If the summary
of records was
> significant, then were not the original reports on which
it was based?
> Yet, we were told all other records had been destroyed...
>
> In addition, we discovered testimony, in the civil suit
brought in
> Memphis by Dr. King's family against Lloyd Jower and
unknown
> co-conspirators, from the Memphis Fire Chief that he led
two individuals
> who identified themselves as Army Intelligence onto the
roof of the
> firehouse, directly across the alley from the Lorraine
Hotel balcony
> where Dr. King was shot, to set up photographic
surveillance on the
> afternoon of April 4. Yet no record of their presence or
the photographs
> they took was released to us by the Army...
>
> John Judge
Thanks to http://www.douglasvalentine.com for providing
information for this report.
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Help stop the NEXT US atrocity BEFORE
it happens.
Take a moment to read this important message
from Gary Webb about the next civilian
slaughter disguised as a drug war:
http://www.counterpunch.org/narconews.html
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"...if only the press were to do its duty, or
but a tenth of its duty, this hellish system
could not go on."
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"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in
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a whole nation of arms, as the blackest."
- Mahatma Gandhi, "Gandhi, An Autobiography"
"It does not require a majority to prevail, but
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brush fires in people's minds.
- Samuel Adams
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