Monday, April 04, 2005

Early morning, April 4

Shots ring out, in the Memphis sky...


A measure of America's trauma is that it is no longer even possible to imagine how it could raise up a Dr King. It's like a fairy tale liberals tell themselves, of a golden age of activism and raised consciousness. William Pepper, who represented the King family in the civil trial which found for conspiracy, writes in Orders to Kill that "For one bright moment back there in the late 1960s we actually believe that we could change our country. We had identified the enemy. We saw it up close and we had its measure - and we were very hopeful that we would prevail."

Imagine today, hoping such a thing.

A constriction of hope is the legacy of three headshots two generations ago. A ceiling for what is possible is now acknowledged (Darn, they stole another one. Oh well - Hillary in '08!) even as the ceiling grinds down until simply standing upright becomes an act of defiance. Like a dog whose spirit has been broken, Americans have had rebellion beaten out them. They know what happens to those who bite, as well as bark. The bed is made and the little yappy dog is lying in it, head tucked under its paw.

That's the price of letting them get away with it.



See the men pointing? They're not pointing to the bathroom of Jim's Grill, where James Earl Ray allegedly stood on his tippy toes to fire a single kill shot. The bathroom is level with the balcony. The men are pointing instead to the rooftop.

See the man kneeling? He was first to Dr King's side. He checked him for vital signs. He is Marrell McCollough, an undercover agent of the Memphis Police Department, Intelligence Division, who had infiltrated a local civil rights organization. On June 11, 1967, McCollough had been recalled to military service and assigned to the Memphis PD from the 111th Military Intelligence Group. After the assassination, he acted as an agent provocateur, resulting in the conviction of a number of black activists. Soon after that, he joined the CIA.

Pepper writes in An Act of State, his account of the King trial which, it must be said again, found for conspiracy, that Lloyd Jowers claimed "there was at least one, and probably up to three meetings in Jim's Grill to prepare for the assassination":

While he maintained that he did not sit in on all these planning sessions, he remembered them taking place and recalled most of the participants. They included his old, now deceased friend John Barger - by then an MPD inspector - and undercover police officer Marrell McCollough, whose military intelligence role was unknown to Jowers. At an earlier time, Barger had brought McCollough to the grill and introduced him as his new sidekick. In his 1977 testimony to the HSCA McCollough had denied any intelligence role at the time of the assassination. Now with the CIA, McCollough was interviewed in April 1997 by an ABC Prime Time Live producer. He confirmed that he knew Lloyd Jowers. When asked about Jowers implicating him in the King assassination he said he had no comment and put the phone down.




See the man smirking? From the White House transcript of January 21, 2002, ironically titled "President Honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.":

THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you all very much for coming. Mrs. King, thanks for this beautiful portrait. I can't wait to hang it. (Laughter.)

Does the man know what he's saying? The video is here. Watch the pregnant pause and the glint in his eye. The laughter is anticipated. He knows what he's saying. And he knows he's gotten away with it again.

The radio preacher asks a good question in Bob Dylan's film, Masked and Anonymous: "What did Martin Luther King get out of the whole thing? A boulevard?"

Keep pointing to the rooftops.

18 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

"God help this country when somebody sits at this desk that doesn't know as much about the military as I do"

God help it, indeed. Those are the words of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Ike was, of course, a general, and he saw what was coming better than most people. He was terrified of the nuclear bomb, and strongly against Truman's decision to use it in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He anticipated Stone's warping of the fabric of society. When I heard his farewell speech in the BBC documentary "Why We Fight" recently, it struck me just how much American society has been warped in the 45 years since, and that nobody can say they weren't warned: their president warned them, in no uncertain terms, as he left the office in 1961. Could you imagine the Bushes, or Clinton for that matter, say the following:

"This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

7:28 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

BTW, that video was fucking creepy. "I can't wait to hang it"...

7:43 p.m.  
Blogger George said...

Good catch on the "can't wait to hang it" remark... and the crackers laughed at the joke.

11:20 p.m.  
Blogger Real History Lisa said...

I had to stop by and see what you were saying about King today. I knew you would, dear kindred soul. Keep up the great work, Jeff. I always appreciate your concern for the patterns of history, and your desire to help us all stop repeating them. Take care.

2:39 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

.

It can be illuminating to keep in mind the true foundations of this country, to wit:
genocide, addiction, slavery, & religious intolerance all threaded together w/ an authoritarian patriarchy.This & little else other than wanton drunkenness & criminality is embedded in the national psyche.To confront 'society/culture'as the other is only to pass the buck. A true measure of freedom is first to balance 'the other' within ourselves.
And in no measure did the framers of the Republic & the authors of the Constitution/Bill of Rights have
in mind a direct democracy.There was always to be an aristocratic buffer/directorial class, to wit,
a governing class.What today is referenced as the 'elite'. Well, we daresay venture to posit that few actually know who that elite is & wherein they reside.The concept of melting pot is an actuality.However it may just be a cauldron.

Given the historical origins of America it's not too surprising that we've become a warrior culture, & it goes without saying that personal liberties/freedoms will be & are correspondingly curtailed. If there is a keynote in Ike's farewell it would be this:

"The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
"Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together."

In an hedonistic culture with the media/info apparatus in the hands of a few that will surely 'not' be the case.Alert? Informed? Where's
Gurdjieff when we need him?

timely, as ever, Jeff. Kudos

..

12:47 p.m.  
Blogger spooked said...

Thank you for remembering this. I hadn't seen it in any other media site or blog for that matter.


Great post and great comments.

1:48 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow. I've heard about Bush's comments on that day but never watched the video clip before. That is just fucking cruel. He smirks and the crowd of crackers giggle.

As for King's assassination, I suspect the CIA. King was being closely watched by the CIA and the FBI's COINTELPRO program. He was murdered less than a year after he began speaking out against the Vietnam War. Coincidence?

I dig your blog by the way. You've got a great variety of subjects too. Keep up the good fight.

Peace.

4:53 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

re gurp13
busholini jr is hardly stupid, he is merely grotesquely evil. (See April 6 entry "What's up is down. What isn't, is."). He knew what he was saying, and couldn't wait to say it. The punk is a spoiled bourgeoise brat who cynically revels in his post as traiterous overlord of the ignorant sheeple.

2:00 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dropped by your site to get some ideas for a blog I'm putting up about Viet Nam. I was there in 1968, in and around DaNang with the 1st Marine Division. You might find it interesting ! ---Jack--- vietnam war facts

4:00 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

King was an asset of the same governmental organizations that eventually "took him out" when he was no longer necessary. Whether or not he fully understood his role in the eventual destruction of the Black Nationalist movement -is the real question.

1:41 p.m.  
Blogger Unknown said...

Kutil pada alat kelamin luar bisa diangkat melalui laser, krioterapi (pembekuan) atau pembedahan dengan bius lokal. Pengobatan kimiawi, seperti podofilum resin atau racun yang dimurnikan atau asam trikloroasetat, bisa dioleskan langsung pada kutil. Tetapi pengobatan ini memerlukan waktu beberapa minggu sampai beberapa bulan, bisa melukai kulit di sekelilingnya dan sering gatal.

12:35 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

wasir ambeien bisa sembuh tanpa harus di operasi maupun injeksi cukup dengan obat wasir ambeien herbal ambeclear herbal de nature dari daun ungu serta mahkotadewa aman untuk ibu hamil

11:59 a.m.  
Blogger Unknown said...

Bagi anda yang sedang mencari obat herbal buat kencing nanah atau gonore, kami sarankan untuk memilih obat herba dari De Nature dengan nama Gang jie dan Gho Siah sebagai pengobatan alternatif tradisional alami untuk kencing nanah atau gonore.

1:01 p.m.  
Blogger Unknown said...

Bukan hanya pengobatan medis saja tapi ada juga pengobatan rumah alami yang dapat digunakan untuk menyingkirkan penyakit kutil kelamin ini. Intinya, karena kutil ini muncul di daerah yang sensitif, maka anda harus mencari pengobatan yang terbaik pada kulit Anda dan jika diperlukan juga dibantu dengan tenaga medis yang professional. Sebab dokter akan menjadi sumber informasi yang baik untuk mengobati penyakit ini.

1:51 p.m.  
Blogger kLINIK oBAT mANJUR said...

Bismillaahirrohmaanirrokhiim ???????????????????????????????????

4:27 p.m.  
Blogger obar herbal manjur alami said...

111111111111111111111111111111

3:25 p.m.  
Blogger Obat Keputihan Herbal Alami said...

1111111111111111111111111111111111111111

5:39 p.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wasir atau dikenal juga dengan ambeien merupakan salah satu jenis penyakit

9:52 a.m.  

Post a Comment

<< Home

Google