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New FBI Files Released on MLK Assassination


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http://www.mmdnewswire.com/martin-luther-king-4864.html

(MMD Newswire) April 3, 2009 -- As the 41st anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., approaches on April 4, newly discovered FBI files say that a small group of white supremacists paid for James Earl Ray to kill Dr. King. This vindicates the 1979 conclusion of a Congressional investigation headed by Rep. Louis Stokes--the House Select Committee on Assassinations--which found that Ray acted for money. There is no evidence that the newly-released FBI files from 1968 were given to Rep. Stokes' committee. The 1968 King plot also has similarities to several recent white supremacist assassination plots against President Obama that have resulted in arrests.

The recently-uncovered 1968 FBI files support new evidence showing that the late Joseph Milteer was one of four Georgia white supremacists who funded the assassination of Dr. King. Rep. Stokes's committee had actually investigated Milteer for the murder of President John F. Kennedy, because of a Miami Police undercover recording of Milteer made two weeks before Kennedy's death. On that November 9, 1963 tape, Milteer discussed a plan to "assassinate the President with a high-powered rifle from a tall building." On the same tape, Milteer also discussed an unsuccessful attempt to kill Dr. King. The FBI did not provide any information to Stokes's committee indicating they had looked at Milteer for the assassination of Dr. King. As a result, the Congressional committee didn't investigate Milteer for King's murder.

FBI files, along with other new information, indicate that Milteer and his white supremacist associates in Atlanta turned to the Mafia to "broker" the contract to kill Dr. King. The mobster involved was Louisiana/Texas godfather Carlos Marcello, who died in 1993. Congressional investigators uncovered statements and evidence indicating that in the months prior to Dr. King's murder, James Earl Ray was a low-level heroin runner for Marcello's drug network.

James Earl Ray's backing by Milteer and several associates in Atlanta explains for the first time why Ray--after shooting Dr. King in Memphis and fleeing to Canada--first made a 450-mile detour south to Atlanta, where Ray abandoned his getaway car only blocks from Dr. King's office and church. Ray then called one of Milteer's associates, and Milteer himself admitted in a letter that he was in the area when Ray abandoned his car. Authorities have long known that after killing King in Memphis, Ray was somehow able to flee to Canada, then to England, to Portugal, and back to England, where Ray was finally apprehended.

The declassified FBI files about King are detailed for the first time in "Legacy of Secrecy," written by Lamar Waldron, with Thom Hartmann. Liz Smith in "Variety" called Waldron "the ultimate JFK historian" and "Talkers" magazine recently ranked Hartmann as the most important progressive talk show host in America. The authors used files from the National Archives and exclusive sources--from former government investigators to two dozen associates of John and Robert Kennedy--to explain why agencies like the FBI withheld key files from Congressional investigators.

Key FBI and Justice Department files quoted for the first time in Legacy of Secrecy were not cited in a June 2000 Justice Department report about Dr. King's assassination, prepared at the request of the King family. That June 2000 report failed to mention important 1968 Justice Department and FBI files linking Marcello and the white supremacists to Dr. King's murder.

The new information about King's assassination uncovered by Waldron and Hartmann bears striking similarities to several white supremacist plots against President Obama which have resulted in arrests in recent months. Arrests related to the Obama plots have taken place in Tennessee, Arkansas, California, Florida, North Carolina, Colorado, and Maine, and some of the charges are still pending. The Associated Press noted that "One of the most popular white supremacist Web sites got more than 2,000 new members the day after [Obama's] election."

The new FBI files described for the first time in "Legacy of Secrecy" indicate that more records remain to be released about Dr. King's murder. Attempts in Congress to pass a Martin Luther King Assassination Records Act, to release all the relevant files, has so far been unsuccessful, even though it was co-sponsored in the past by Senator John Kerry and former Senator Hillary Clinton.

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WE PETITION THE OBAMAADMINISTRATION TO:

Release all federal, state, local and international government files onthe life and death of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr

The JFK Assassination Records Act overcame theobstacles of government secrecy and FOIA weaknesses to effect the release ofover 6.5 million pages of classified records. In 1978, Congress sealed hundredsof thousands of pages relating to the assassinations of JFK and Dr. MartinLuther King, Jr. Federal, state and local governments spied on Dr. King and hisfamily from WWI forward, violating his civil rights and obstructing hismovements for peace and justice. Legislation has been pending in Congress since2001 to release these files, all of them over the 25 year secrecy limitproposed by President Obama, but the bill has not been passed. We need to knowabout our government's response to the life and possible role in the death ofDr. King. The president should promote this release of files

Created: Oct 13, 2011

Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement, Regulatory Reform

SIGNATURESNEEDED BY NOVEMBER 13, 2011 TO REACH GOAL OF 25,000

24,995

TOTALSIGNATURES ON THIS PETITION

To sign this petition go to the White House Petition site, register, then sign it. And please spread it around to those who you know would like to sign it as 25,000 signatures are necessary before the White House will pay attention and respond to it.

http://wh.gov/2fh

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  • 4 months later...

From WUSA9.com

John Judge of Coalition On Political Assassinations, in Washington,D.C., believes gov't records hide details surrounding King assassination

http://www.wusa9.com/news/article/200358/158/Govt-Documents-About-Martin-Luther-King-Jr-Remain-Secret

WE PETITION THE OBAMAADMINISTRATION TO:

Release all federal, state, local and international government files onthe life and death of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr

The JFK Assassination Records Act overcame theobstacles of government secrecy and FOIA weaknesses to effect the release ofover 6.5 million pages of classified records. In 1978, Congress sealed hundredsof thousands of pages relating to the assassinations of JFK and Dr. MartinLuther King, Jr. Federal, state and local governments spied on Dr. King and hisfamily from WWI forward, violating his civil rights and obstructing hismovements for peace and justice. Legislation has been pending in Congress since2001 to release these files, all of them over the 25 year secrecy limitproposed by President Obama, but the bill has not been passed. We need to knowabout our government's response to the life and possible role in the death ofDr. King. The president should promote this release of files

Created: Oct 13, 2011

Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement, Regulatory Reform

SIGNATURESNEEDED BY NOVEMBER 13, 2011 TO REACH GOAL OF 25,000

24,995

TOTALSIGNATURES ON THIS PETITION

To sign this petition go to the White House Petition site, register, then sign it. And please spread it around to those who you know would like to sign it as 25,000 signatures are necessary before the White House will pay attention and respond to it.

http://wh.gov/2fh

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Share on other sites

From WUSA9.com

John Judge of Coalition On Political Assassinations, in Washington,D.C., believes gov't records hide details surrounding King assassination

http://www.wusa9.com...r-Remain-Secret

WE PETITION THE OBAMAADMINISTRATION TO:

Release all federal, state, local and international government files onthe life and death of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr

The JFK Assassination Records Act overcame theobstacles of government secrecy and FOIA weaknesses to effect the release ofover 6.5 million pages of classified records. In 1978, Congress sealed hundredsof thousands of pages relating to the assassinations of JFK and Dr. MartinLuther King, Jr. Federal, state and local governments spied on Dr. King and hisfamily from WWI forward, violating his civil rights and obstructing hismovements for peace and justice. Legislation has been pending in Congress since2001 to release these files, all of them over the 25 year secrecy limitproposed by President Obama, but the bill has not been passed. We need to knowabout our government's response to the life and possible role in the death ofDr. King. The president should promote this release of files

Created: Oct 13, 2011

Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement, Regulatory Reform

SIGNATURESNEEDED BY NOVEMBER 13, 2011 TO REACH GOAL OF 25,000

24,995

TOTALSIGNATURES ON THIS PETITION

To sign this petition go to the White House Petition site, register, then sign it. And please spread it around to those who you know would like to sign it as 25,000 signatures are necessary before the White House will pay attention and respond to it.

http://wh.gov/2fh

John Judge of Coalition On Political Assassinations, in Washington,D.C.,believes gov't records hide details surrounding King assassination

http://www.wusa9.com...r-Remain-Secret

WASHINGTON, D.C.( WUSA ) - On the 44th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis, a small group of demonstrators gathered near his memorial on the National Mall to argue it is time for the government to release sealed records about both his death and his life.

The records were ordered sealed in the 1970s by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, which explored political assassinations.

"There are also federal agency files, state and local files, and police files, and court-sealed files, and even some international files that we think it would be important to be released on the life and death of Dr. King," said John Judge, who runs the Coalition On Political Assassinations.

Judge believes the government has things to hide, and believes James Earl Ray, the man convicted of the assassination did not fire the fatal shot.

"I think, no question, the government played a role in it and, also, the House Select Committee said there was a probable conspiracy, and a civil trial as well as an appeal trial that followed exonerated James Earl Ray and the civil trial pointed to the complicity of the U.S. Government," Judge said.

"I think that it's important to know that the family of Martin Luther King decided that James Earl Ray was not responsible for the death, and that the testing of the rifle in the 90s showed that the fatal bullet did not come from that gun that was supposedly the one used by Ray in the case, and that Ray was exonerated in a civil trial with all the evidence put forward to a jury, and that we need to look further than James Earl Ray to find out what happened to Dr. King.

Members of both the House and the Senate have said they will introduce legislation to expedite the release of the sealed records.

At the King Memorial on Wednesday, some visitors agreed on the need to release the records.

"I believe all full records should be released because it's time for the American People, for generations past, forerunners before Ieven was here, have been looking for this for over 40-something years because we've always believed there has been some kind of conspiracy that contributed to his death, and it's time for a full record of all things pertaining to his life," said Larry Williams.

"I think all records should be opened. It's the public's stuff, we should be able to see it. If there is nothing in there, let's see it...let's see what it is and let us make up our own mind. We're intelligent people," said John Winecker who was visiting from his North Carolina home.

"I think that it's something that the public should be aware of. I mean, for the longest time now we've all been interested in knowing exactly what happened when the assassination happened to Martin Luther King, sofor us to be in the know would be a great thing," said Frank McDuffie ofWashington, DC.

Judge says the release of similar records concerning President Kennedy had a big impact on public understanding.

"When the records were released they rewrote thehistory of the Bay of Pigs.

They rewrote the history of the Cuban Missile Crisis. They rewrote the history of the assassination, itself.

"And, I think, even if they ( the King documents ) show us no smoking gun, we should own our own history. And, I think, it's important for us to take that history back from the national security state and know what the government was doing and what it was thinking about Dr. King," Judge said.

Edited by William Kelly
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Michael, Stu has been trying to get some attention to the following but not with much luck yet. In our quest for FBI and

HSCA files, he had lots of conversations with NARA and was told that the files are simply there as the property of Congress.

If the Clerk of the House were to direct their release, it would be a done deal. No legislation required. We are not

certain of what that would take but it might be as simple as an individual Congress persons request to the clerk, or a caucus

request, etc.

The other good news is that in his digging, Stu determined that the FBI had lost track of the prints from the original

investigation but he did manage to track them down - one of our major calls for action now is for Justice to obtain

those and run them through the computerized matching system used by the FBI. There were a number of unidentified prints

and that exercise could be very informative. The process would be inexpensive and not all that time consuming.

-- Larry

From WUSA9.com

John Judge of Coalition On Political Assassinations, in Washington,D.C., believes gov't records hide details surrounding King assassination

http://www.wusa9.com/news/article/200358/158/Govt-Documents-About-Martin-Luther-King-Jr-Remain-Secret

WE PETITION THE OBAMAADMINISTRATION TO:

Release all federal, state, local and international government files onthe life and death of Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr

The JFK Assassination Records Act overcame theobstacles of government secrecy and FOIA weaknesses to effect the release ofover 6.5 million pages of classified records. In 1978, Congress sealed hundredsof thousands of pages relating to the assassinations of JFK and Dr. MartinLuther King, Jr. Federal, state and local governments spied on Dr. King and hisfamily from WWI forward, violating his civil rights and obstructing hismovements for peace and justice. Legislation has been pending in Congress since2001 to release these files, all of them over the 25 year secrecy limitproposed by President Obama, but the bill has not been passed. We need to knowabout our government's response to the life and possible role in the death ofDr. King. The president should promote this release of files

Created: Oct 13, 2011

Issues: Civil Rights and Liberties, Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement, Regulatory Reform

SIGNATURESNEEDED BY NOVEMBER 13, 2011 TO REACH GOAL OF 25,000

24,995

TOTALSIGNATURES ON THIS PETITION

To sign this petition go to the White House Petition site, register, then sign it. And please spread it around to those who you know would like to sign it as 25,000 signatures are necessary before the White House will pay attention and respond to it.

http://wh.gov/2fh

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