{"article":{"id":7113,"heading":"Army \"photographers\" present at King assassination","author":"\t\tBrass Check - http:\/\/www.brasscheck.com","created":"2001-05-31 21:12:17","modified":"2005-08-15 00:34:29","last_modified":"Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:34:29","article":"

May 30, 2001

Army \"photographers\" present at King assassination

=========================================================

\"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

=========================================================

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.

=============================================

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

=============================================




\t==============================================


\tBrass Check - http:\/\/www.brasscheck.com

\t\t\"...if only the press were to do its duty, or


\tbut a tenth of its duty, this hellish system


\tcould not go on.\"

\t\t- William Cobbett, \"Rural Rides\", 1830

\t\t\"Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in


\tIndia, history will look upon the act of depriving


\ta whole nation of arms, as the blackest.\"


\t- Mahatma Gandhi, \"Gandhi, An Autobiography\"

\t\t\"It does not require a majority to prevail, but


\trather an irate, tireless minority keen to set


\tbrush fires in people's minds.


\t- Samuel Adams


\t============================================

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